Moving to a new host

I am moving my blog to a new host.  The new address is http://myfinanciallife-atlantagirl.blogspot.com/

Still not done with Wachovia

Last month I thought I had completely washed my hands of Wachovia and their ridiculous charges for downloading Quicken. In my haste to rid myself of Wachovia I inadvertently forgotten to change the bank account that my car insurance is debited from so apparently according to the Wachovia customer service representative they did not close the account due to an upcoming scheduled debit.  I was charged a $22 overdraft fee for this.  I wish they would have just closed the account and I could have dealt with State Farm for the consequences.  I have transferred funds from Wamu to Wachovia to cover the charge and hopefully it will go through later today.  I just checked the Wachovia balance online and saw that I was hit with yet another $5.95 Quicken download fee because the account is still open.   This has been so frustrating for me.  I will NEVER do business with Wachovia again.

Estimated 2007 Tax Refunds

I have purchased Tax Cut and input the initial information that shows that my federal tax refund will be approximately $5,300.  The state forms are not updated in Tax Cut yet but I went on the Georgia Department of revenue website and was able to determine that my state refund will be approximately $1,200.  Both amounts are larger than last year’s refunds.  I plan to use the entire amount to pay down debt.  Most will go to the 0% balance on my Discover card but some will go to pay down my Amex. I loaded the Amex up to try to get the Medallion awards from Delta so my balance is $4,000. 

I am disappointed about the possible delays in refunds this year due to the last minute changes to the AMT tax.  I am really looking forward to paying down the credit card debt.  I have written about tis before but I still considering changing my withholding so that I don’t give the free loan to Uncle Sam.  I am going to run some numbers to see what my tax situation for 2008 looks like.  It is nice to get those nice refunds but from a monthly budgeting perspective I could use the money in my paychecks.  Having less withhold would let me save more each month in my emergency fund.  My goal is to increase it to $15,000 by the end of 2008. 

If I had only bought these stocks…

Hindsight is always 20/20 but USA Today has listed 25 Stocks You Should Have Bought which shows that “A $100 investment in each of these in their infancy would have turned $2,500 into $650,000. Of course that would have meant being wise enough to recognize the vision of Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Oracle’s Larry Ellison; the promise of products such as motorcycles and pork; and the big profits in money management.” 

I wonder what I am missing out on today that will be worth a gold mine in 25 years.

Gym Membership

I have decided to cancel my gym membership.  My company subsidizes the monthly fee so it only cost me $17.50 per month but I haven’t used it in a few months and it is a waste of money right now.  I wonder what portion of gym memberships go unused?  I prefer to exercise outside to being on a treadmill anyway. 

Recap of 2007 Goals and new 2008 Goals

I started this blog during summer 2007 and my goals for the end of the year were as follows:

• Max out 401k contributions
• $5,000 in emergency fund
• $100,000 of net worth

The only goal I reached was my net worth goal.  My December 31, 2007 net worth was $101,286.  The downturn in the stock market even put reaching that goal in jeopardy.  My emergency fund only has $4,022 in it but that is an improvement over the prior year when I only had an emergency fund of $410.  I did try to max out my 401k contributions but my spending habits got in the way.  I only contributed $6,934 to my 401k and $1,200 to my Roth IRA.  Those numbers are improvements over the prior year though. 

My 2008 goals are:

• Max out 401k contributions
• Pay off all credit card debt
• $135,000 in net worth
• $15,000 in my emergency fund
• Contribute $1,200 to my Roth IRA

Some of these goals are stretch goals but I am going to do my best to reach them.

Finalized 2008 Budget

Here it is…I am going to do my best to try to adhere to this budget next year.

Tax Cut Wins!

I decided to purchase Tax Cut again this year.  I did try out Turbo Tax by downloading the software they sent me in the mail…unfortunately it caused an error in trying to tell me that I did not itemize last year which is not correct.  Somehow it found my saved tax return on my computer.  That error which would have made my 2007 income wrong by mischaracterizing my state income tax refund along with the difference in price was enough to send me back into the arms of Tax Cut.  I purchased it at Best Buy for $69.99 which included the federal and state versions plus e-filing for both.  The Tax Cut version that did not include e-file was $39.99.  Turbo Tax does not have a version that includes e-filing (they charge an additional $17.95 per tax form) and the cost was $44.99.  Once the e-file is included then Turbo Tax would have cost me $80.  I have a $10 mail-in rebate for both Tax Cut and Turbo Tax.  I know that price is not everything but my taxes are not complicated and the Turbo Tax version created an error so I am happy with my choice.  Next year is another story.

Delta Skymiles American Express Medallion Bonus

I realized yesterday that I was about $2,000 shy of earning the 10,000 Skymiles bonus for spending $25,000 on my American Express card in 2007.  I put almost everything I can on the card and pay it off every month.  Like the commercials say…double skymiles for groceries, gasoline, drug stores, etc.  I made a strategic decision to accelerate my final cruise payment which was not due until February 1, 2008 for my April cruise and to also go ahead and buy the plane tickets.  That leaves me just $437 shy of the spending threshold.  For those of you not familiar with the Delta Skymiles program, Medallion miles help you earn silver, gold, or platinum status.  Usually the only way to earn Medallion miles is to fly with a few exceptions and one of them being the $25,000 per year spent on a Delta Skymiles Amex card.    I earned the 10,000 for 2006 but in retrospect I only got to silver status as I am less than 5,000 miles frm the coveted gold status which would allow me to use the shorter security line.  Anyway I am currently trying to think of anything that I know that I would spend money on anyway so I can spend it before December 31st.  I don’t want to spend money just to spend it.  That is not the point.  I don’t want to waste money and go into debt for things I don’t need.  I know that I am going to purchase tax software for about $60, groceries for $60, a heating pad for $35.  I know this just sounds crazy but the Medallion miles are valuable. 

Final Christmas Tally

I ended up exceeding my original Christmas budget of $500 and spent a total of $635.  The additional spending related to a trip to Harry & David for two gift baskets.  In retrospect I need to only buy one of them.  I will know better next year.  All in all I am not too disappointed with my Christmas spending because it was less than the most recent prior years.  I did spend money on myself that I did not expect to spend, primarily the new TV for the bedroom.  I guess I spent my tax refund a little early.  I am still i the process of finalizing my 2008 budget and will post it later this week.  I originally did not even budget for Christmas which is silly because I will spend money.  Those are the type of spending categories that  I need to be careful of in my budget. Here is the breakdown of where I spent my Christmas budget:

• Wine Country Gift Baskets   $50
• Harry & David                        $123
• Amazon.com                            $285
• BestBuy                                    $25
• Barnes & Noble                        $32
• Target                                        $50
• Pottery Barn                             $10
• Cash                                            $20
• Nail World                                  $40