double dipping

Our last house was 180k.
With the interest on the mortgage, it would have more than double the total amount we paid over the life of the mortgage.

Add to that that the taxes were 4k a year and we would have paid yet another 120k over the life of the loan.

Currently the house is on the market for 135k for short sale.

180x2+120 = $480 and the (135k) house is yours! (for only 4K additional each year)

Never again...

Puzzles

In the cupboard next to the guest room at my grand father's house was a little game. It was one of those puzzles made of little plastic tabs that slid past each other vertically or horizontally in a single plane and they had numbers on them. There was one tab missing and the object was to mix the numbers up and then by sliding the tabs, put them back in numerical order.

Zelda and I are now playing a variation of that same game. Now it's not with numbers, but with moving boxes, and they playing grid is now the rooms of our house. Unfortunately, the missing tab is the space in our house, and we seem to have too many tabs for the board.

We have offers of help from friends to come slide those boxes.
That and help us purge.

Life has been stressful, but it is still good.
***
In Nov. the bank sent us the Foreclosure letter, scheduled for Dec. 1.
We moved.
A week later the bank sent a "we have moved your foreclosure out one more month".
(Along with a "I have been trying to reach you" letter. No name or signature attached to the letter. Just " I have been trying to reach you".)
This week we received a letter from the bank telling us that the cancellation of our insurance on the other house is a breach of contract. (Like our not paying since April wasn't?)

The bank bailout should have been thru the government paying off all the mortgages in America. We'd then have all that extra money to buy things with, some security, and the banks would have not profited.

Anyway...

Granddad's puzzle was much easier...

Christmas Bonus

Call me jaded.

I was fortunate enough to get a very generous bonus this year.
After taking out 10% for savings/investment and another 20% to pay towards our bad debt, the balance will all go to Uncle Sam in taxes.

How'd that happen?
***
That would be because I WORK for someone else for my living instead of having my money work for me. Nor do I have a business anymore to bring in passive income.
***
One day the politicians are going to wake up one morning to find their heads on pikes.

Until that day happens, I'm going to sock away 10% to savings and investment.
***
Time to write my thank you note to my current employer for the job and timely bonus check.

Back in the old house

Boxes everywhere, can't find stuff.

The job interviews that Zelda had, were promising, but at the last moment a woman with experience on the software the position required was hired instead.

It has been quite the psychologically downer.
Being back in the old house with two income streams, and with the ability to car pool to boot, we were dreaming about all the things we could do. Pay down our bad debt, put a way savings, pay our house taxes, and now we have to try something different.

Turns out the bank decided to give us one more month on the old house, but they never contacted us. We received a letter three days after the original dead line for foreclosure informing us that the bank had tried to contact us by phone, but could not get thru. We never received the messages, and none were received on my cell.

What number did they call?

optimism... and a plan to resolve...

I'm not sure how this happened...

but the two singles who live on both sides of us don't have their homes up for foreclosure.

How'd that happen?

We have till the first of December to get moved.

Zelda is stressing over it.

We can do it.
We will do it.

We'll get thru it with a little help from our friends.

Ironically, the move won't help us much with the financials, even though the monthly house payments at the old house are a fraction of this place.

Oh, and Hope Now, the program to help distressed home owners keep their homes...

is a joke. (and it's on US.

Tesla Motors New Toy

Tesla Motors is releasing their first production car in 2011.
Very sweet car.
(click the link above)

0-60 in 5.6
No oil changes.
No emissions.
All electric.

And that's their slower car.

Hook up some solar panels and you can fire the oil companies and save the lives of those in the middle east.

That's my goal...

wtf?!

Stopped by to catch the latest Foamy the Squirrel.

It's now got pop ads (that cover the bottom of the video) and it takes you to YouTube.

Foamy has sold out!

Real Money 9/18/09

Spot price 9/18/09
gold = $1,006.10
Silver = $16.95

date night

Last week we visited the in laws for September birthdays. We have three of us so we have started a tradition of group celebrations.

From my portion of the birthday loot was two gift cards.

Last night I used one of those for date night.

I miss date night and Friday lunches with my beautiful wife.

Coffee turned into a light dinner and desserts at a local bakery.
Good to get out of the day to day rut.

From there we walked the outside (read that "pretend" old down town like) mall. We were surprised to find a store dedicated to selling take out Mac and cheese. At first we thought it was a cheese shop, but nope, not in our part of the world.

Another shop was dedicated to gourmet popcorn.

We finally made our way to the bookstore to relax a little.
After a scare with baby c almost falling backwards out of my arms to the concrete 3 feet below, be still my beating heart, we settled into the big comfy chairs and began to read. We ended up in conversations with two separate women about baby c.

Interesting really.
I have visited these book stores for years and never ended up interacting with others as a single man.

Now that I am married, and even more so, have a small child, I have become a part of the bigger world of common experiences. The world has reached into my small universe and "adopted" me thru my child.

We listened as one "older mom" (we are probably the same age, but her son has graduated college) shared how fast time flies. How she worried about "scaring" her son with her reactions to his bringing her a frog. (He's fine and so is she).

Baby C is quite the flirt, smiling at everyone. People love babys.

The second mom shared with us her experience of home schooling.
Z and I have talked about home schooling. This woman brought home the value of it, and what is involved.

With home school, everyday becomes a learning oportunity. School becomes a vehicle for giving back to the community. Her children learned a second language. Every Wednesday they participated in charity work, giving and helping others. Something the school system doesn't promote.

Her childern also developed their own special gifts and because they were not taught in the public system, they didn't have their spirits beaten out of them thru year after year of group think.

I want that for baby c, for Z, and for me.

Septmber 2009

We are working to get ourselves moving again.
Our lives have stalled along with the economy.

Zelda has been out of full time work since before the new year.
She has enough billable hours to cover her business expenses (so far), but she has paid her self only one paycheck all year.

She's been on two interviews in the last month. One position is pending. (They have to figure out what it will be) and the other position she was over qualified.

There is one more that a former coworker of mine turned her on to and just posted with a major university in the area.

It would be ideal and she has the experience needed. The benifits are incredible.

We are still waiting to see if they will ask her in for an interview.

It means daycare for baby c. Zelda has found a place she really likes with a local hospital group.

The notion of having that second income and paying off our debts is nice.
So how do we continue to live below our means, save $$, pay off debts, and build up our assests...
***
We met with our attorney last week to start proceedings against our former tenant for damages.
The former tenant didn't clean, one of the contractual requirements for renting and early termination.

Some how he feels (yes, he used the word "feel", to describe what he should be required to pay and what we should pay) that cleaning is not part of his responsibility.
Neither is paying for damages caused by his children.

He was in the military for crying out loud! Neat and clean is part of their mantra!

Anyway, we will get everything together, make our case, and the judge will decide.
***
We have not had anyone come see our new house so we informed our broker and he has reduced the price.

Hopefully that will garner some activity.
I was ready to just give the house back after the 90 days, but Z has reminded me that the wise thing is to hold out for the short sale. It impacts our credit less harshly.
***
Baby C has gotten to the point where she recognises the bottle, will open her mouth, and reach out for it. She also will push it away, pull it back, push it away...

We are trying vanilla extract to help her with teething. Being a foodie and former 4H type, Z knows that alcohol is used in making the extract. It's in small enough amounts that it numbs the gums (we tried it), but isn't harmful.

It sweetens the breath as well.

forward motion

Our former tenant backed out on his verbal agreement to pay the repair bill.
I had revised a contract agreement for him to sign, but he decided we should speak to our attorney.

We have paid the retainer and our attorney will schedule the court date in JP court.

JP court is for damages less than $10,000.00.
It is also the quick down and dirty court. 15 minutes max in and out.

So instead of paying us 3,000.00 a month ago with us eating some of the expense, he'll be paying close to 3,600.00 plus court costs, plus attorney's fees plus additional damages. 3,000 becomes more like 7,000.00 to 8,000.00.

The judge will make that decision.

We just want to get it back into rentable condition.
And in the end we will have still lost 4,000 dollars.

bed time!