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...