News

The Numbers Have Been Updated

There you have it folks, over there on the right sidebar you’ll see my new Current Debt ticker. It now shows the one-and-only debt that I currently have, my consolidation loan. Yippee! You might also notice that the number is almost $9,000 more than my previous current debt, and that’s because we paid out my car lease at the same time. In order to get the consolidation loan the bank said I had to get rid of absolutely every credit vehicle I had, which included the car lease, so we paid that off and rolled it into the consolidation loan. Not bad as that essentially reduces the number of bills I pay to one, my combo cable/internet/cell phone. Isn’t that crazy? Oh, and rent too, but that’s not really a bill now, is it?

I am so excited that:

• I am only paying one creditor right now.
• My loan payment is manageable enough that I’ll be able to save for both my retirement and regular savings.
• I’ll be saving for my retirement
• I’ll be saving for both an emergency and to pay off the car when the lease is up next year.

Gotta love it when things come together and life gets a bit easier. Me and my FA are going to meet again in 3 months to see how things are going, and to tweak any of the numbers. If my life isn’t impacted too much by the current RRSP and savings withdrawals, we might increase those to maximize things. By increasing the savings, I’d be able to pay off the car next year in cash. I could actually do that by dumping all of my current extra money into the savings account, but then I wouldn’t have anything left over for RRSP contributions, so by splitting it I’ll have both. And the RRSP contribution also gets me a refund from the government on this year’s income when I file next year, which I could then use for the car as well. It won’t make up the difference by any stretch of the imagination, but it’ll bring me a little closer, that’s for sure.

Success, huzzah!

Do Christmas Bonuses Still Exist?

Apparently they do! My current employer gives out year-end bonuses, which I’m always happy to receive, since extra money is extra money. I’m always surprised by a bonus because I don’t work in sales, so I never figure that I should get one, but I have gotten one from several of my employers over the years, now including this one.

Today I got my official letter, and I must say, I am absolutely floored by the amount I’m getting. Floored, I tells ya! It’s a cah-ray-zee amount (IMO), but of course I’m more than willing to take it. It’s based on a number of factors, such as company performance, department performance and personal performance. My boss told me I maxed out the personal performance part as he absolutely loves me (*pats self on back*), and then also the department performance part because our department was recently restructured to be “leaner”, so that saved the bank some money. (I have mentioned in the past that I work at a bank, right?) Needless to say this bonus will certainly be welcomed as it will let me make a serious dent on one of my credit cards. Yippie!

Now before you start writing in to tell me I shouldn’t be bragging about getting a bonus when some people don’t even have a job, let me stop you right now. I’m NOT going to apologize, because I work hard at my job, and I’m good at it, so a little “thank you” from my employer in the form of a bonus is fine and dandy for me. I realize not all companies give out bonuses, but mine does, so thank you to them for giving it to me.

New Carnival Reading – Budgets are Sexy

Right on, but your intrepid spender/debtor/work-in-progress is featured in this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance being hosted by Budgets Are Sexy. I submitted my post about micro-payments, but check out the post at the Carnival, as there are a ton of great posts.

Go and get reading! (I’m in the General Finance section of the post, in case you’re wondering).

Another Friend Takes the Plunge

I found out on Facebook this week that another friend of mine has bought a house. I will say that she was smart and bought herself as much house as she both needed and could afford, rather than bought as much house as the bank was willing to lend her in a mortgage. It’s a cute little thing with all the space she could need. I’m quite happy for her, because I know she wanted to buy a house, to set down some roots in her new city (she recently moved back to Canada after several years abroad). I was still thinking about her news when I read in the paper that housing sales in Canada were up almost 18% from last year. Wow, that’s impressive! I don’t know if it’s because people are downsizing, or simply taking advantage of lower interest rates on mortgages, but I was surprised to hear the numbers. And it appears that it’s not just in Canada either. The housing prices in the UK are starting to creep up as well, which bodes well for the housing  marked there too. While either sets of news don’t affect me personally, as I’m not in the market for a new house, it’s nice to see because I’ve got a few friends who are realtors. This means that they can continue to work in the jobs that they love. And hopefully it means that people who are buying and selling these houses have realized that they only need to buy as much house as they need and can afford. Don’t buy it just because it’s on sale, don’t buy it just because you think the bank’s helping you out by offering you a half million dollar mortgage. Figure out what you need, and go from there. That’s what my friend did. She took a look at her situation, figured out how much space she needed, how much she needed to spend to get that space, and went from there. She told me the bank offered her almost $100K more than she actually ended up needing to buy her house. One hundred thousand more! How crazy is that? Has her bank not learned anything? At any rate, I’m very happy for my friend, as she now gets to enjoy home ownership in her own little house. Brava honey, brava!