June 2009 Budget Update & Mid-year Analysis

In general, I did well keeping to my budgeted amounts in June. It was a rough month health-wise so between office visits, prescriptions, and my massage, my expenses there went over. I also bought a GPS system for my bike, which I categorized as auto but should probably go in misc or bike. Auto is more for maintenance and gas. My spending money came in under budget, primarily because I was sick for a week and a half and didn't leave the house for much of anything and didn't go to the cafeteria at work.

Now, on to the 6-month check-up since I began budgeting/tracking expenditures. My spending money category is good - my average is slightly over my intended $15/day. My medical allotment is low - I've budgeted $2/day and it has been more like $3/day (chiropractic and massages figured separately - those are very controllable). The "miscellaneous" category is interesting. I've bought a fair number of medium-to-big-ticket items:

• Microwave
• Projector bulb
• Car seat re-upholstery
• Timing belt repair
• Motorcycle
• Motorcycle safety gear
• Mattress
• Motorcycle GPS

I have no regrets about any of the above and can certainly justify each of them to some degree (ok, so the GPS is more of a frivolity than any of the rest of it) but they are also all items that need purchased once every blue moon. I was able to pay for them out of savings or budget surplus (which would otherwise have gone to savings) with the exception of the motorcycle, which I feel I got a fair financing deal on through the BMW dealership. I really don't see myself having a several-hundred dollar unexpected expense every month so I'm going to leave my misc category where it is right now and just see what happens the rest of the year.

Since I have the motorcycle now, I'm very motivated to get it paid off quickly. This should help with frivolous expenditures (mostly buying breakfast and lunch at the cafeteria instead of taking it from home). I'd also like to automate as much as possible. I already have a few things automated but want to explore the capabilities of my ING Direct accounts. I'd also like to go through my stuff and sell or pass on the extraneous junk, as much for de-cluttering sake as anything else. Proceeds will go to the motorcycle loan.

Amortization Calculators and Aggressive Debt Reduction

Lately, I've been thinking about the debt that I have. I have an American Express credit card that I pay off every month - I don't think I've ever paid interest. I also have a sizable privately funded student loan from my undergraduate days (2000-2004) that has been in deferment to this point. Starting this summer, its term is ten years. Finally, I have my motorcycle loan from BMW, which has a five year term.

After all is said and done, I have a fixed amount "above and beyond" what I need for my usual budgeted living expenses (housing, groceries, medical, etc.) that is pretty much discretionary. Currently, I split that evenly between my Roth IRA and the BMW loan. Six weeks from now, my Roth IRA will be 50% funded for 2009. I have decided to shift gears at that point and apply all the "above and beyond" to the motorcycle. When 2010 rolls around, I will re-allocate these discretionary funds so that by the end of the year my Roth will be once again funded 50% and the rest will go toward the motorcycle. On top of this, "extra" paychecks (I get paid every Thursday and budget monthly so every 3 months there is a surplus) will be contributed 50% toward loan repayment. When the motorcycle is paid off, I'll simply apply the payments to my student loan.

Using a loan amortization schedule I found here, I calculated that this tactic will pay my bike off on May 14, 2010 (one year minus one day after I bought it) and my student loan will be paid off in June of 2012. At that point, I will step my Roth IRA back up to 100% annually. I'll probably increase my 403(b) contribution at work as well.

I don't feel like I will be missing out on anything huge by reducing my Roth IRA contributions - I will still be contributing and I have been contributing 8% of my pre-tax income (I don't remember exactly why I chose this number but I'm sure there was some logic to it) to my 403(b) since I started working full-time in January of 2005. In addition, my employer contributes 8% to a 401(a) in addition to my paycheck. To me, the peace of mind of having the loans paid off is worth the opportunity cost.

May 2009 Budget

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, this month saw a few large expenditures that indeed deviated from budgeted expenses. The big one was, of course, my new motorcycle. Associated with that purchase was the requisite safety gear - my old stuff had served its purpose. I also bought a new mattress as more of an investment in getting better sleep and thereby better health. I shopped around quite a bit and got a nice one with a 10-year warranty for a good price. The timing belt on my car broke the day before I got my motorcycle (uncanny!) but it was relatively inexpensive for a timing belt replacement since my engine is non-interference, meaning it doesn't eat the valves when it fails.

The one area where I really let it get out of hand was grocery/eating out/entertainment. I've found that with an appropriate balance, I can enjoy life and get by on my $15/day with little problem. The idea is that groceries are cheaper than eating out, so it's a balancing act. Well, I ate out way too much this month. I also spent a lot at the cafeteria at work - instead of bringing healthful inexpensive food from home, I'd eat less healthy overpriced food there. I ended up $125 over - an average of $4 a day!

My major financial goal for June is to get that category reigned in and brought back to a more reasonable level.

I have already developed a payment plan for my bike - I'm going to divert everything from my student loan principle to that through the end of the year. At the end of the year, I'll re-adjust my Roth IRA contribution for 2010 and increase my motorcycle payments accordingly. Although my loan term is 5 years, I am on track to pay it back in less than half that if all goes well. Then it's on to the student loan...

Memorial Day Weekend and an Apology

First of all, an apology to my readers: I have fallen behind lately and have been posting a couple days late and backdating. The backdating is not to be deceptive, but so that posts in the archive will fall in the proper order on the proper weekday. I'm going to try to work up a few posts in advance so I have a little buffer in the future.

Since this post was actually written on Tuesday (5/26), I'll cover all of Memorial Day weekend.

Friday was my day off work, so it was actually a 4-day weekend. I started off going to breakfast with Stevo on Friday at Creme de la Crepe in Redondo Beach. This place rules. It's authentic French food, French press coffee, and French waitresses. I got a custom crepe with Raclette cheese, turkey, tomatoes, and chardonnay creme sauce.

Saturday I got a haircut, took a motorcycle ride (on the BMW) with Stevo (on Daniel's scooter) around Palos Verdes peninsula with a pit stop for a snack at Malaga Cove Market. Later that night, I picked up Mom and Dad from LAX (which was insane) upon their return from St. Louis visiting Dad's mom. They brought back sandwiches from Amighetti's. St. Louis has some of the best food in the US.

Sunday involved church in the morning, Rudy's for brunch, and an afternoon of cleaning the garage. We got rid of a lot of stuff and did some reorganizing to make the available space and stuff more useful. Sunday night we watched The Day the Earth Stood Still - the new one with Keanu Reeves. I am a big fan of the original and was impressed with the new one. It's more of a re-imagining but they capture the essence and fear of the original while translating it into a modern setting.

Monday was taking stuff to Goodwill and another motorcycle ride around the peninsula - this time with Daniel and me on the BMW and dad on Daniel's scooter. We stopped at the yellow taco truck at Vermont and PCH - which has the best tacos around. Later in the evening we watched Ronin, a DeNiro film from 1998 with the best car chase scene in a movie that I have seen to date.

All in all it was a good weekend with lots of quality time with family and even some productivity.

Health Update 5/19/09

Note: This post has been date-adjusted to fall on schedule. It was actually composed on 5/21/09.

Not a whole lot to report from last week. My lungs still seem compromised - I cough up a lot of stuff in the morning but it calms down after a couple hours. Since I've been on this round of antibiotics for 2 weeks (and other stuff for quite a while before then) and nothing should have survived this long, I'm wondering if this might not be one of a few things:

• My body is confused and the mucus production is an erratic immune response
• The Oxymatrine is starting to have some effect and my body is attempting to rid itself of the virus that my infectious disease doctor believes I am harboring (and have been for some time)
• The copious amount of goat/sheep dairy that I am consuming is actually more mucus-producing than I have been led to believe
• Some combination of the above

I am not getting better by leaps and bounds but I am definitely not getting worse so there is some hope. I have been very busy the last week and haven't been to the gym since last Monday.

Riding my motorcycle is doing me some good. The psychological boost alone from doing something I had missed for the last year has been great. It gives me a time of tranquility and reflection every morning and afternoon. Also, my back and neck feel a bit more limber than usual.

A slight change of financial plans...

After a year of the Silverwing being non-operable and a week of consideration and logistics, I purchased a new motorcycle - a 2008 BMW F800ST (slightly used with only 2300 miles):

Although this will set back the repayment of my student loan by a couple years, I feel it was a good purchase - especially for my emotional health (which certainly impacts other health). I am still maxing my Roth IRA and contributing a healthy amount to my 403(b) at work. The bike will also reduce the amount I am paying for gas since it gets awesome mileage and will prolong the useful life of the Corolla since I'll only be using it occasionally. In addition, I was able to get full-coverage insurance on the BMW along with liability for the Silverwing and the scooter for only about $100 more annually than I had been paying for liability for the other two.

I'm very excited since I've missed motorcycling quite a lot - I didn't realize how much until I got back on this weekend. I'm already planning to take some weekend trips and will be sure to take the camera with.

Tidings from my corner of existence

This is going to be a stream-of-consciousness post. Be warned.

Work is going well, albeit a bit slow. I am enjoying what I am working on but it seems all those in charge of doling out work don't want to dole out too much. This can get frustrating but considering the position many are in, I feel fortunate with the relative job security I do have. At this point, it does not seem that Aerospace is going to have any layoffs in the near future. I must say, I do like my job and the people I work with.

I have kept up with my expense tracking and budgeting but got lazy and didn't do a February summary post. I kept within my bounds with two exceptions. I didn't budget for clothing and went shopping for a few more nice shirts. I ended up buying a really nice (alas, also expensive) tie as well sort of impulsively but I had been intending to get a nice tie that wasn't dated for a while. I also spent a good portion of the month fighting a nasty case of pseudomonas and had a fair number of doctor visits and medicines for which to make co-payments. My grocery/entertainment/etc. budget came out something crazy like 7 cents under if I remember right. I started an ING Direct high-yield (1.65% APY, which is arguably not very high) savings account and funded it with my upcoming due student loan interest. I got a $25 bonus for opening the account.

When I bought my car about a year ago, there were several upgrades that I intended to make so I bought a bunch of parts. Then they sat in my garage for several months. A couple weekends ago I decided to start installing this stuff (power windows, power locks, keyless entry). Naturally, some of the parts I bought were wrong since I have a coupe and most Corollas of that era were sedans. I am now awaiting official Toyota parts ordered with official Toyota part numbers from an official Toyota parts counter. I also decided I don't need remote start and paging so I got a simpler system that will be easier to install and meet my needs better. Getting all this stuff installed will serve a dual purpose - I will not only be improving my car and making my driving experience more enjoyable, I will be clearing clutter from my garage.

I also ordered the last two o-rings for my motorcycle. Now I can drop the engine, Loctite and tighten the two bolts, install the two o-rings, and put it all back together. I'm hoping to do this in two weekends (coinciding with my next Friday off) which means I have to get the garage cleaned to a certain point before then. This will be good because the weather is finally starting to get nicer and riding season is getting close.

My health has been mostly lousy for a couple months. More on that in the next couple days on my health blog.

I've been watching Twin Peaks episodes to occupy the time while I'm on the exercise bike. Twin Peaks was a David Lynch TV show from the early 1990s about a logging town in Washington state. It's a great show and I am bummed it only lasted 2 seasons.

I'm teaching Bible Chewing and Beyond (basically how to get the most out of scripture and how to get the most of it in you) lesson 1 to the Christian Education committee in about an hour. This is my first solo teaching outing so I'm a little bit nervous but mostly excited - Sanctify has been working on the curriculum for a couple months now and I like the direction the church leadership is pointing the congregation.

I started Moby Dick at my infusion last Friday. I think this is the third time I've started reading it. I read about 150 pages in around 3 hours, which is about half the rate that I generally read Harry Potter. Moby Dick does have smaller print, and the English is definitely more refined and ornate.

That's about it for now, I'm considering taking a different approach to blogging and just pop on and write a paragraph every couple days instead of writing tomes every couple months. We'll see.

Out with the old

Update on stuff from last week:

• Health is going OK. Exercising helps quite a lot. Although the staff at the pulmonary rehab program I participated in recommend a minimum of 45 minutes a day 4 days a week, I have been doing 20 minutes a day as often as I can. I figure it's better than not doing it because 45 minutes seems insurmountable and I plan to work my way up again.
• I'm going to a Navigators prayer retreat in mid-January. I think this will be a great opportunity to meet other like-minded people and examine myself spiritually.
• I outlined a monthly zero-based budget for January through April. Every cent is allocated to a category, even if it's something like "splurge." I'm going to do an estimated budget at the beginning of the month and an actual at the end. This will also help me keep track of occasional stuff that tends to catch me off guard, like dental work and car insurance. I've decided to take a more balanced approach between investment (Roth IRA primarily) and loan repayment. The loan term is 10 years and is a low rate. The numbers say that one is better off paying a low interest rate loan as it comes due and investing surplus. The human psyche, however, says it feels better not to have debt. I think I can realistically shoot for 5 years and still have a comfortable cushion to invest.
• I've been a little better about not wasting as much time on the computer but just last night Spider Solitaire found me for about 40 minutes whilst I should have been in bed. Oh well.

My aunt got in yesterday afternoon and I'm picking up one of my cousins at the airport within an hour or so. It should be a fun weekend.

Oh right, I forgot to mention my motorcycle. It sprang a slow oil leak in the spring and I took it out of commission in May right after finals were over. I finally got it back running in early November (almost 6 months to the day later) but it started making a funny noise later that week. I have a sinking feeling that it's a couple loose bolts inside the engine, which means I have to drop it for the third time. Ick. The garage has been occupied and badly cluttered related to our kitchen remodel which has also taken up "tinkering" time. Oh well, it has been pretty dang cold in the mornings anyway and I really do like driving my car - there's something appealing about heat and a stereo.