| 07/02/10
As mentioned last month, we're in the midst of taking a major hit on our net worth.
An update on where things stand:
1) Refinancing - Still in limbo on this. The paperwork is done, just waiting to close. Closing costs are expected to come in around $4k.
On a side note, it was nice to see the appraisal on our house come in at $247k. I'm not sure I really believe our house is worth that much, but it's nice to know somebody does...
2) College Savings - Locked in one year's worth of tuition to UMass for our little girl via the UPlan. Sweet! I think if we can get one more year in the bank for her our college savings is done.
3) Real Estate Value - Just as predicted, our home's value dropped about 3% according to Zillow. I'm thinking a 4% drop is in the cards come our next update in October.
4) 401k Max Out - One more check cycle and this is done. After that the 401k gets turned off and we double up on the mortgage. I wonder if we can get our balance under $160k by the end of the year. Pretty aggressive, but a good goal.
07/04/10
Happy Independence Day!!!
07/14/10
The money is flowing out at an alarming rate. Come August we will start to pick up the pieces.
Some updates...
1) Refinancing - We closed on the new mortgage this morning. I requested to pay the closing costs up front, but the broker took it upon themselves to bump up the loan a little to cover some of the costs. So our mortgage will be rising instead falling. Argh! The new loan is listed at $178,000, and closing costs are coming in at $4,860. (partially covered by money from the loan)
2) Home Improvements - We pulled the trigger on a few more repairs to our house. We are having the basement windows and doors replaced, as well as replacing part of our roof. The windows and doors were very old - perhaps original? Our roof, while fairly new, was installed without the proper weather sealing. This lead to ice dams and water damage one winter. Total cost for the job - $6,200.
After this, we have only three or four projects left.
- Seal the driveway - $200
- Masonry work on our stairs - $300 - $2000 (depending on what we do)
- Masonry work on our foundation - $500
3) "Merit Increase": I got a raise! I now make six figures! My increase was 2.4%
4) Markets on the Rise: Bob Brinker put out a buy signal on the market the first of July. Just around that time I started shifting some of our cash reserves into the market - about $30k in total. Brinker feels that we are in a Cyclical Bull Market, and that we are headed new highs. This would put us over 1200 in the S&P. Let's hope Brinker is correct on this...
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