Continuing to pay down debt

Long process, but it's happening.  Eight months away from being car-debt free, and then I'll attack the other small obligations.  If I can ever get those done, I can start throwing a bit more money at the mortgage.  Will be cool to see that debt get down to 5 figures.

New investments have been at a standstill recently.  Mutual funds and the kids' college savings accounts still are taking on money, but I haven't been dabbling in individual stocks.  Maybe once we get our spending under control, I can look to invest in a few companies.

I actually have been investing,  but in coins!  Silver and individual coins and coin sets have been fun to learn about and collect, and I doubt they will go down in value as they get older.  I am a couple coins away from a full Silver Eagle set, and have proof sets as far back as the late '50s.  I have been acquiring dozens of other silver coins for nothing more than face value, and also trying to pick up cheap junk silver on the secondary market (ebay, Craigslist).  I do go to some coin shops and shows, spending a bit more to complete some coin folder sets.

The only thing I regret about this hobby is that I wish I picked it up sooner.  I wonder how many wheat cents, buffalo nickels, and silver coinage has literally slipped through my fingers since I was young!  Better late than never I guess.

I just passed the big 4-0, don't feel much different.  Bought a used car last year, '11 Ford Escape, a bit too many miles but was a good price.  I'm paying it down at $250/mo right now, which makes the last payment in August 2016.  I'm likely to put a little money into it between now and then, but hopefully I can make it last another couple years after that point.

Putting an additional $75/mo towards mortgage payments and just finished year 2 of 15 year refinance.  With additional money being paid throughout, maybe a year or two can be shaved off the end, which still puts me in line to be mortgage-free by 52.  I would hope as our combined income increases steadily that I can pay down the principle more aggressively.  To be mortgage-free by the time the kids begin their college (me at age 49 or 50) would be a great goal.

Investments are going steady, have made a couple adjustments.  Wife is putting more towards her Roth but not maxing out yet, but neither am I.  Max contributions are $5500 for each of us (roughly $450 per month) and between the two of us, we are about two-thirds of the way there each year, though we have both increased over the past year.  I've also continued purchasing stocks that offer DRIPS (dividend reinvestment plans).  There are a number of no-fee ones to choose from and I typically try to get 25 shares of a stock and then move on to the next investment.

Older, a bit wiser, still want more money

Just refinanced again, less than two years later, on a 15-year fixed rate loan for 3.25%. Ran the numbers, very likely to be in this house for the whole term, and came out ahead, even with all the fees. Payment now is roughly the same as before, with no more HELOC, and with a little added to each month, I can get the whole thing done in about 14 years when I'm 52. Both kids will be in college, and I'm sure the extra monthly payments will be going to something else.

Family is earning more, thanks to two full-time jobs in a public school district. Thankfully, wife now even has a contract, something that hasn't happened before, which bodes well for her stress level at the end of each summer, and may make what happened last year unlikely to happen again - working for a private school which doesn't pay. The two incomes, spread now throughout the year, should help us pay down our 0% debt faster and hopefully give us a bit more cash throughout the year. We'll still use our tax refund ($3000 less this year) money for our summer trip, but having steady paychecks next summer will allow me to skip summer school (thank God).

Happy to see some investments tick upwards, but since I'm still 15 years away from even thinking about cashing some out, they can do whatever they want while I'm dollar-cost averaging. I've begun putting a good chunk away each month for the wife's Roth to go along with almost maximizing mine. If after several paychecks we're working with a surplus of cash, I'll consider putting more in to hers each month and topping out mine. To maximize the Roth, we'll need $5000 each by next April 15, but at the current rate, I'll have just over $4000 and the wife will have about $2200. Still quite a ways to go. In addition to this investment, both my wife and I are putting just a $50 each paycheck towards our 403bs, just for kicks. I'd rather max out the Roths then put any more in those accounts. I-bonds ($50), 529s for both girls ($150), and $50 towards a stock round out our monthly investments. That's about $1000 per month, which is about 17% of our take-home pay.

My Jeep is 10 years old now, and losing its reliability. Just trying to hang on another 1-2 years so my father will sell me his 2011 Jeep at a nice price. Wife's Jeep is not driven as much or as hard, and should last for a while. It's nice not making payments on either vehicle. Marriage is just as old as my car, which has gotten me thinking of another investment, trading up the diamond. On that note, I now time to think.

Tax Refund is Way Too Big....and I Don't Care

Had my tax return done last weekend and the refund turned out to be $13,100 between federal and state. Refund was buoyed by some window installations and a lot of child care expenses. With the rates the way they've been the last year or two, I don't feel bad about letting the government hold onto my money for awhile.

It is fun to get a large number like this though. It gets spent so quickly. Set aside $7K for summer expenses like always leaves a bit over $6K to spend. And spend it I will...$1500 towards the windows mentioned earlier, $1500 towards a cruise this summer, $1500 towards the HELOC, and $1500 towards the girls' private school tuition. There, all gone.

Past my mid-30's. Life sucks.

Moving on. I'm happy to see my 0% CC money continuing to drop down. Between the $250 I put to my wife's car, $100 minimum on the Discover 0%, and the $200 minimum on the Citibank 0%, that's $550 a month going right to that debt. Looking back over the past year it's depressing when you see the tiny dent put into the mortgage and the student loan. Not much can be done.

Well something is being done, at least for the mortgage. Took advantage of the really low rates and scored a 4.625% 20-year fixed interest rate with Citizens Bank. I'm pretty encouraged by the nearly 1 point rate drop and the shaving of 4 full years of the loan without increasing my payment each month. Additionally, I no longer have to pay PMI, which is worth it just by itself!

Continuing to Pay Things Down (with a bit more income)

Over a year?! Jeesh! What's happened? Let me see...

My wife bought an '09 Jeep Compass. For about $9000 (including trade-in) we got a brand new car with more room for the girls and her stuff, and I've been paying it down $250/month ever since. $6500 left to go on that item...(I should be updating it in my Expenses list).

My wife got a new job. I won't go into it, but it was a tough situation and unexpected losing her initial gig. She now has a less secure position in a tougher environment, but she is making more money and working another half-day during the week. It's not all bad, but the situation could be better. The extra money in our paycheck hasn't caught up to our monthly bills yet, since for awhile we were making it a mission to jumpstart the economy with our spending. Hopefully by the holidays, the extra $500/month will enable us to divert some cash to some of our long and short term goals (Roth accounts, trip to Cape Cod next summer).

I have a few other financial changes and decisions, but I will first see if I have the time to keep this up to date. It has been over a year since my last entry...

Another Jeep Liberty?

I've told myself ever since that New Year's Eve day in 2002 when I purchased an '03 Liberty brand new that I would run that puppy into the ground. The original terms of the SUV were 66 months at 5.9%. I got out of that pretty quick, switching it to a CC with 3.9% BT for life terms, then 0% for life, which is what it's been at for a few years now. Well, I continued making original payment amounts for a long time even though with the reduced rate, I didn't need to. Lo and behold, 66 months have just flown by and the Jeep is technically and financially all mine, even though the 0% card has other large purchases on it mixed in with the two car payments. One thing I regret doing about a year ago was losing the actual payoff figure on the two cars. I'm paying about $400 a month since that is the minimum payment, but the cards are 0% for Life and I'm not in any rush to lose that cushion by paying more than I have to. One day I am going to have to figure that out, but the cars are in good shape and not going anywhere.

Well, the other day I was talking to my father, another Liberty owner, who trades in his Jeeps every other year, pays it off completely, and then uses the barely two year old, great condition Liberty Limited to offset the new Jeep's price. I got to thinking that maybe this next time around, in February, I can get in on this somehow and come out with a two year old Limited with 30K miles. I know he takes care of his cars (oil change, washes, drives easy) too. Something to think about - he could take my car and trade it in, and whatever the difference between the two trade-in values I would owe him. I'm mulling it over.

Another Day, Another Deal...

I got my first bit of income in August today. PNC Bank was running a promotion that gave you $100 for opening up a checking account, and it finally paid today, one day after my direct deposit went through. One of the fastest payoffs I've seen, although it did take awhile for the account to open and to get the paperwork. The hundred went to the Summer Savings, which stands at $3938, not bad for August 2.

Another opportunity I took advantage of today was a Discover Card promotion with Fandango. Any movie ticket you buy at Fandango with a Discover Card is buy one, get one free. I used it a couple weeks ago to see the IMAX Dark Knight with a friend. I got two tickets for $12. Pretty sweet, and I got the popcorn free too. Anyway, that deal ended pretty quickly, but I got word on Fatwallet that the promotion was back up and running. Today my daughter and I went to see Wall-E for $7. Again, can't beat that.

Just started contributing to my Roth again. Took some time off because I was getting behind in some bills. So far in 2008, I'm at $800 and putting in $300 a month. I'm planning on putting a grand in from the Countrywide CD maturing this month. Keeping up $300/month, that will put me at $4200 for tax year 2008 of the limit of $5000. Hopefully, another $800 will make its way in there to max out the contribution, and I can work out a plan for my wife's as well.

Summer Lovin'

Yes, I know. February to August is like half a year. So what? We've been living just like everybody else. Time passes.

With our summer vacation half gone and the year more than halfway through, I figured a financial update was due. My summer savings goal of 7K was almost reached; I squirreled away roughly $6200, of which $3800 is left. I have a mortgage payment and big credit card bill due in the next two weeks, which will eat up all but $1000 of that so the belt tightening has begun.

I'm not quite as worried this summer as in year's past, which is curious because I'm not even working! Usually, I would have gotten my first summer school paycheck today and that cash would help get me through to our first paychecks in September. This year, however, I didn't get the summer school gig and didn't care all that much. My aces in the hole were two CDs maturing in mid-late August, earning me roughly $4000. Knowing I have that money to fall back on has really eased the annual financial pressure as school just starts. Next year, though, I'm going to try a bit harder for that summer school job.

The summer started pretty well financially. I keep forgetting my wife gets an extra paycheck at the end of the year, which was pleasant like always. Also, I earned some extra professional development hours through a special opportunity at work and the $800 stipend I was expecting turned into $1400. Some financial deals happened to work out right at that time as well like a BOA Keep the Change award ($250), two Chase rebate checks ($200), Chase checking account promotion ($125), Discover Card promotion ($100), and an AMEX error in my favor ($200)*. This all happened over a 10-14 day period of time - made me feel like we were rolling in iti for awhile. I have regularly been getting about $200 a month in interest from a couple accounts as well, which I have been putting to unexpected bills like tires for my wife's car and expected ones like the next 6 months car insurance.

The AMEX error thing was pretty cool. Late last year I got an offer from AMEX stating that if I opened up one of their Business Gold Rewards Cards and spent a thousand, I would receive $200 back as a statement credit. Sweet deal, too good to pass up. Technically, I didn't apply for it quickly enough though in my conversation with the CSR, he assured me the timeframe wouldn't come into play. Fast forward a couple months. It took me awhile to put the grand on it. I was right in the middle of using the Citi CashReturns cards that gave 5% rebate on everything, and it bothered me that I would waste $50 of rebate money to do this deal. So I waited until those 5% deals ended.

My spending was still within the allotted time so I felt pretty good. But when statements kept going by with no credit, I started getting antsy. The paperwork (which I kept thankfully) did say the credit would take 6-8 weeks, but when 8 weeks came and went I started contacting them. It took a couple phone calls and they brought up my late application time. I argued a bit, sounded upset. They took pity on me and credited me the $200 as a "courtesy". Happy day. Well, guess what? A couple weeks ago, I just happened to look at this account, which I don't use, and I see a $200 negative balance. Seems like the promotion got fulfilled anyway. Should I give the other $200 back? What would you do?

Updates on AOR, Taxes, and Debts

I have been more than pleasantly surprised at how well my AOR went. At final tally, the totals look like this:
Citibank - $27,000 for me, $22,000 for my wife
Chase - $35,000 for me, $35,000 for my wife, $40,000 for my father (thanks Dad!)
Bank of America - $40,000 for me, $60,000 for my wife

Above money, except for my Chase's $35,000 which ends in July, is all at 0% for 12 months. That's a total of $260,000! I never would have expected it, especially since I only paid off the last of my previous AOR a couple months ago. I figured my credit score would have to recover for awhile, but I grew impatient and some attractive offers presented themselves.

I've already purchased a CD at Countrywide for 6 months at 4.75%, which will earn $2375 when it matures in August. I have $25,000 in a 6% Rewards Checking account at Northern Federal Credit Union in Watertown. I have the rest earning 4.5% in an online savings account at Countrywide, but with rates falling fast, I am shopping for another 6-9 month CD approaching 5%. I don't know if I'll find anything.

I completed my taxes a couple weeks ago, and our refund this year will be $7,500. A little less than last year and a little less than we thought for a couple reasons: first, our interest income was $8800 and, combined with our increased salary, just made a larger refund difficult. Another issue was a $200 credit I thought we qualified for (energy efficient windows) and it turns out we didn't because we took the credit in '06. One thing that did help us was what we paid in child care since September. We plan on putting $4000 to our Summer Savings goal, $3000 to our year's debt, and $500 into my Roth. For the next few months, I've decided to put any interest income directly into our Roths as well with the hopes of maxing out our contributions for 2007.

The month starts well...

February, my only 3-paycheck month this year, has begun and already it feels good. If only every month had 3 paychecks...? Or that I made significantly more money?

Anyway, our finances had been eased a little from the numerous times in January we didn't send our kids to the nanny. Those days added up because after our first payday on 2/1 we had a good amount of money left over, something that doesn't happen often. We immediately put it to Summer Savings (up to $700) and our CC debt account (up to $1200). With 5 months left to go before the summer, we've saved 10% of our goal. And with around $10,000 being our year long goal ending on 12/31/08, $1200 is a great first month start.

Our tax return is done for the most part. I've been told to expect around an $8000 refund this year, and I will post when I know for certain and how we will earmark that money. With that post, I'll go into some of the issues surrounding our return this year.

I've also had a chance to put $250 towards each of our Roths, pushing our totals for 2007 up to around $2000 each with two and a half months to go to keep funding.

Another approval...

Today we received our new Bank of America card. I wasn't sure if we had been approved, but it turns out we received another 5K in credit. This account has a great promotional balance transfer offer - 0% for 12 months with BT fee capped at $30. Within 15 minutes we had activated the card and brought over $62,000 in credit from another card, and began the process of transfering $60,000 into our checking account. It couldn't have been easier.

To date, we have taken advantage of $162,000 in 0% BT offers, with one more possibly on the way for $30K. Almost $200,000 earning 5% interest is over $800 a month. I may not earn $800 every month because of balances shifting around and having to pay the minimums on each credit card, but my plan is to put a third of this money to paying down debt, a third to saving for the summer, and a third to our Roths.

My employer's W2 came today as well. I'll get my wife's this week directly from her work, and I can get this return done. Refund by mid-March would be great!

And I decided to go with Countrywide. The accounts already being linked was a huge plus for me...

Who wants my cash?

With interest rates falling like prospective presidential candidates, I've been in a quandary about what to do with my 0% money. Since early in the summer I've had it parked at FNBO Savings, where a long 6% promotion got me in the door. They've kept my business with a competitive 5% rate even when other banks like Emigrant, GMAC, and HSBC were falling. Well, FNBO sent me an email yesterday notifying me that they too were following the trend, all the way down to 4.3%. That can't be the best I can do.

I spent most of last night rate hunting, and I've found some candidates: OneUnited Bank, the country's first black-owned internet bank, is still offering a 5.3% rate for accounts greater thatn $1,000 and a $50 bonus for making a couple months worth of direct deposits. I'd like to see if they hold onto this rate before I jump, although they have held steady since May.

Another option is Countrywide Savings, holding firm at 5%. I know all the negative issues surrounding this company, but it's FDIC insured and I already have an account with them. I even have FNBO already linked so an account transfer initiated today can be earning 5% in 2-3 business days. Hard to pass this up.

Interest Income for 2007

Lately I have been getting a bunch of tax statements from banks notifying me of how much I made in interest with their company this year. It's a double-edged sword in a way to see these statements - I'm happily reminded of how much money I made with other people's money, and I'm also sadly reminded that this will cut into my tax refund in a couple weeks.

Tallying up all the statements I've received so far (and I'm fairly certain I've gotten them all), I have $8585 in interest income for 2007. Not as much as some who play the game a little more seriously, but still pretty impressive. I have to double check, but I'm pretty sure I made more than last year in this category. Remember, this money is the result of taking out 0% loans from credit cards, socking the cash into an interest bearing account, and paying back the minimum each month until the whole amount is due.

The banks I used were a combination of high interest accounts and those that offered a bonus to open an or maintain an account. I'll give a list of each bank and the corresponding interest or bonus money (which still is considered interest) my wife and I earned. Some of these are individual accounts and others we opened two separate accounts:

Apple Bank (2 accounts, $50 total)
Citibank (2 accounts, $75)
Capital One (1 account, $25)
Affinity Bank (1, $26)
Amboy National (1, $29)
Sovereign Bank (1, $100)
GMAC (1, $38)
HSBC (2, $1000) - Remember the 6% promotion earlier this year? - cool!
Bank of America (2, $1350) - I took advantage of a great NEA Money Market rate for 90days in the middle of the year.
ING Direct (1, $100)
E*Trade (2, $100)
Heartland Bank Direct (1, $200)
Chase Bank (1, $600) - This primarily includes bonus money from opening personal and
business accounts
GCF Bank (1, $218)
Emigrant Direct (1, $440)
FNBO Savings (1, $4386) - The bulk of my money is still in this bank because it's currently offering 5%, but a lot of money was made with its extended 6% promotion.

There may be other banks, but I don't think any big ones. This year I am trying to be better organized so I can document when I receive any interest, rebate or award money. I want to have a clearer idea of how much money the time spent on this stuff
really pays off.

Two more approvals...

I just received two emails from Citi regarding the two applications I sent in earlier in the weekend, and both were approved. That's cool. Both will be quite lucrative. The first was the Citi CashReturns card, which means another 3 months of 5% cash back on all purchases. I place my parents as authorized users of this card, and between the two households putting all purchases on this card for 90 days, I'll make $150-200 per month. After that, I'll sock drawer it since there are no BT offers associated with the card and it is only 1% cash back after the first 3 months.

The second approval was for the Citi Professional card with Thank You points. 15,000 points after the first purchase means $150 in gift cards which I can sell or use. The real money maker, though, is the 0% BT offer with no fee. I only got a credit line for 1K, but I'll pull over around 25K from another card and get some good cash flow for the next 12 months.

This weekend we applied for eight credit cards and so far have been approved for both Citi Professionals, Orchard Bank, Discover, SonyCard, and the Citi CashReturns. We're still waiting to hear about the AMEX Business Gold Rewards and the Bank of America cards, but 6 out of 8 so far is better than expected.

The Elusive Orchard Bank Credit Card

As part of our mini-AOR this weekend, we applied for the Orchard Bank Credit Card put out by HSBC. If you haven't heard about this card, check out Fatwallet's thread about the curious issues surrounding it - . To make a long story short, this card offers 2% cash back on all purchases without a cap throughout the year. Sounds good, don't it? Well, the problems then begin. The application process begins with you filling out a regular online form, , and then they give you a couple options of cards you have qualified for. Some of the options are insulting - annual fees, no rewards, high rates, garbage cards. If you get the golden goose option (2% cash back, 0% BT rate for 6 months with no fee), then you feel good and apply. At this point you can check your application status pretty much right away if you didn't get instant approval, but many people report getting credit lines on the wrong side of $1000, with some on the wrong side of $500! Pretty much worthless if you want to take advantage of the 2% cash back option. They will allow you to increase your credit line after 6 months of use, however. Yay.

Well, we've applied before for this card and got turned down (I think twice over the past 2-3 years.) We applied again last night and got instant approval with $1,500 credit line. So we're pretty happy, although it will probably grace the sock drawer for a couple months since we're taking advantage of better options (5%) for the time being. I'll keep it active with occasional purchases (they've been known to close it on you!) and then it may enter my regular rotation by the middle of the year. It does come with a 0% BT offer with no fee, but that is pretty much worthless because of the amount.

Bonus updates and other stuff...

Several bonuses I've mentioned earlier have come through finally. The final gift of $125 from Chase has already been transferred to my checking account and on to our debt pay off account and Summer Savings. Two Sharebuilder $50 bonuses also posted and they are sitting in the girls' accounts. I have taken a bath on Citigroup lately, but I'll keep buying shares as it spirals down. I don't see Citigroup going anywhere and I'm in it for the long haul with those two accounts.

With a bunch of 0% debt being paid off over the last couple months, I have been getting itchy to take advantage of some pretty nice offers out there. I know I should let our FICO scores get a chance to max out first, but I've already missed out on a juicy Bank of America credit card offer ($100) for delaying. Why would I take on additional debt when I am trying so hard to pay it down? Well, there are both short and long term benefits which I've discussed before.

In the past couple weeks, I've gotten a SonyCard ($100 bonus and 12 month o% balance transfer offer with $75 fee), two CitiProfessional Cards ($150 gift card bonus each and 12 month 0% BTs with no fee), Discover ($100 bonus), American Express Business Gold Rewards Card ($200 statement credit when spending $1K), and Bank of America (no bonus but 12 month 0% BT with max $30 fee). I also applied for another Citi CashReturns Card (5% cash back on all purchases for 3 months which I've discussed earlier).

As of today, we've gotten approved for the SonyCard, one CitiProfessional Card, and the Discover Card. That's $200 in bonus cash and another $150 in gift cards which can be spent or sold for ~90% of their value. But what is more valuable is the BT offers which are already being taken advantage of. The SonyCard's credit limit was raised by bringing over the credit limits from two of my other Chase Cards for a total of $40,000. This amount, which requires 2% to be paid back each month, will generate over $150 in interest income each month over the next year (assuming 5%). The CitiProfessional Card just today provided me with $27,000 into my bank account with no fee. That's another $100 each month. Hopefully the others come through; I'll post when I know.

So I look at the total take so far as almost $3500 by the end of 2008. Not bad for using something that we all have access to - your credit.

Starting to save for the summer too!

Being teachers, summers are outstanding. The problem with all that freedom, however, is that we become poor pretty quickly. I usually teach summer school, but the amount I receive is barely more than two regular paychecks and it never seems to be enough. Over the last few years, we begin saving for the summer with our tax refund and try to add to it over the next several months.

This year I am trying to get a head start on preparing for the summer since I also have this additional debt to pay off, and I don't want to add to it in late August when we are looking around the house thinking what we could sell. I have set a goal of $7,000, which seems like a lot considering that it's not all that far off and we have additional debt goals to worry about.

I've mentioned earlier, though, that we get back a significant refund from the government, and a pretty big chunk will go to Summer Savings, with a little left over for our debt and investments. Also, I receive a stipend of about $900 right at the end of the school year for completing some professional development classes throughout the year and the wife gets around the same amount for opting out of her health care, and those checks go right into our savings.

As an added bonus this year, we've just found out, the government is contemplating jump-starting the economy with tax rebates around June or July, with individuals receiving along the lines of $500-$800, married couples twice as much, and families with kids some additional money. If this passes (and it looks like its getting bipartisan support), it would come at the perfect time as we start our summer.

Citi CashReturns Card

I may or may not have mentioned it before, but I'm a big fan of the credit card. I know numerous studies have been done that people tend to spend more with plastic than with cash because it's so easy, and I agree, it certainly is. But I'd like to think that if I'm buying something, it's because I needed to or want to, and not because it's easy to do with a credit card.

One thing cash can't give me, however, is an automatic rebate every time I use it. Over the past 5-10 years credit cards have been shelling out gifts, perks, and cash to its customers, and the more you use their product, the more they give you. Cash Back credit cards are nothing new, but they have been getting more stingy. The days of 5% rebate are dwindling, so much so that it's difficult sometimes to get 5% even on Everyday Purchases like shopping and gas.

Back in August or September, Citi came out with a new product - Citi CashReturns card. In a nutshell, it offers 5% cash back on everything for 3 months from account opening. It kind of sucks that by the time they send it to you, 10 days have already passed from what they consider "account opening". Anyway, this very generous rebate gets tallied up when the statement generates, and if you have accumulated at least $50, they send the check to you automatically. Pretty nice feature, although I wouldn't mind still having the ability to decide for myself when I want the check mailed. One huge additional feature, though, is that they don't place a cap on how much you can earn in rebates once the account is opened. Previously, $300 has been the standard cap. Checking out Fatwallet.com and this credit card's thread there, you can read about people earning thousands of dollars in rebates because they are paying for their tuition, cars, taxes - all with this card. The card reverts back to 1% on all purchases after 3 months.

I am on my second card - I opened it a week or two before the other one's 3 month window was about to close, and I'm considering trying for a third in my wife's name. Total amount of rebates over the last 5 months - $850, averaging out to $170 per month. Not bad for spending money I'd like to think I would have been spending anyway...

Beginning to payoff debt!

This morning I made my first debt transfer - $300 into my EmigrantDirect Savings Account. $200 came from a bonus I mentioned in an earlier post from a Chase Business Savings Account. I transferred the $200 immediately to my local checking account and then to Emigrant. Why am I putting $300 into Emigrant instead of paying the debt directly?

Since I have the roof and other bills sitting in a 0% credit card for the next 12 months, I figured why make unnecessary payments early? Instead, my Emigrant account will remain untouched throughout the year, receiving transfers from me hopefully several times a month, and accumulate interest as well (right now 4.65%).

The other $100 was from Friday's payday. A little more cash should be freed up over the next month since our daycare provider is ill and we've had family members watching the kids (bonus - free daycare!) Also, February is a three paycheck month for us - usually the bulk of one payday goes to the mortgage, the bulk of the other goes to our Citi CashReturns Card (more on this later). With the extra payday in February, it gives us an opportunity to catch up on some other expenses or make a purchase we have been putting off. I think this year, most of that third payday will go to our debt, with a little set aside for our Summer Savings Account.

So $300 paid, much more to go.