Monday, February 23, 2009

Forward March

I received two reminders in the mail this morning for items on my long nagging to do list. They are enroll in business school and re-invest my previous employers retirement into the current employers retirement fund. I moved to this state 2.5 years ago. I have dragged my feet in filling out the paperwork to transfer the funds. It is not worth much but the paperwork is so bad I have yet to have completed the process. UGH. Why do I procrastinate? It serves no purpose but to hurt myself.

Today is my work from home day. It is a great way for me to accomplish work. The baby is at daycare and I am able to focus as long as I need to on any given project. As I am working I also scan in the documents for my records. It takes soooo much time! but I feel more secure in having my documents backed up if I need to . I was so behind on my desk after having my baby that I emptied the shredder three times! how long do you keep healthcare information??? 1 year. 30 days?

So the dilemma - Go back to school for masters or get a job weekends to pay off the debt sooner. Dave ramsey would say job. the payoff long term is the MBA. What if we could pay off the debt in 2 years AND I could be half done with my MBA?

Undecided I am going to just leave this post with an open question. Feel free to comment.

Friday, February 20, 2009

I have clarity once again

Cents:
I have managed to regain focus. It only took filling up the shredder three times! I have eliminated all the Credit card Fodder. I have sorted all my documents into a Scan pile, a Take Action pile and a Tax pile. I have written up my todo list and prioritized it. I can see the surface of my desk for the first time in two months. And it is the first time in 4 months I feel organized. Phew what a difference having a work from home day makes. It is amazing!I feel so much better.

For right now I am scanning. I need to focus on high priority items but I have less then perfect focus so I am doing the low priority and waiting until the caffeine kicks in.

I have received letters from one Card that increases my limit. It is also changing my terms. Mostly it will not effect me as I took advantage to transfer balance with an offer of 4.9% for the life of the balance. Now if they change that rate with a different rate I will be transferring the balance to a new card. But for now I am keeping an eye on it. Thats why you have to look at all of your cards each month. Those silly banks like to play games. There are no additional fees and they do not seem to have changed the grace period. As I am just paying off existing balances the grace period is not really an issue either. No new charges on any card. Period.

Stitches:
I have started working on the CUTEST bib ever for my son. I love this pattern. I am sure I will want to stitch it again as a gift for someone else. I love it! Here is a pic of the progress. The design is called "Snips & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails" by Stoney Creek Collection. I bought the pre-made bib to go along with it. Oh I love it! It can be found here if you are interested.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Finance update

It takes me longer then previous life before baby to stay on top of the finances. However DH watched the little guy for a while this morning and I am sitting in the cold basement typing up the results. Good news. I have paid down $13,859.19 in debt in one year. Yahoo! The debt snowball plan works. It really works.