F*** the CC's

I have had it with fretting about these stupid things. S is going to be starting the police academy in January. So I need to save as much $$$ as possible so that we are not living on Ramen for 5 months until he finishes in May and gets a good job. So F*** the CC's. They'll get paid minimally and that's FINE. Dave Ramsey, as well-intentioned as he is, has brainwashed me a little to the extreme, so much so that I can't even enjoy life at all sometimes. The CC's will get paid in good time and I don't give a shit b/c fortunately the interest rates are low and the custody battle needs to get fought and won! And meanwhile, I need to stop being so damn neurotic about it all b/c my life is truly suffering sometimes. I've got good retirement contributions and low CC interest rates. So there.

When, not if, We Have The Dough

A miscellaneous "I'd like to..." wants list:

1. Buy some jewelry. A ruby ring, an emerald ring, pearl sets. Nothing offensive, just some nice new tasteful jewelry.
2. Replace the blue carpeting in our entire upstairs. Since S hates bare floors in bedrooms, replace it with a nice Berber.
3. Re-surface the floor in the upstairs bathroom with ? Some kind of nice tile.
4. Re-paint the master bedroom. That olive green has got to go!
   
5. Install a hot tub out on the patio. (S's idea.)
   
6. Get a new gun for patrol duty. Not that Esteban isn't a good reliable one, but he's so used and looks it. I want a newer, nicer, pretty version of Esteban.
7. Tint the windows of my car, Blue Lou.
8. Go on a nice vacation or possibly a cruise with S.
9. Buy a laptop w/Internet.
10. Get us each an IPOD (I guess, is that still the near-future of listening to music?)
11. Get a new queen-size bed and mattress. (Right now we sleep on just a double which can be a little tight for 6'3" S, but I think King's are too big. Queen size is just right!)
12. 
    

Budget Redo

I sent in the paperwork to have my retirement contribution upped another .02%. But I'm not starting it until the end of this month so I can have 2 good higher paychecks now that we got our annual .03% raise to put towards CC's and savings. So I spent a good amount of the day redoing the budget.

Also, I have decided that somehow we are going to have to send S to get some schooling. I just don't think he'll get a decent career without some college hours. He can't even join a local police dept. as a cadet in the academy until he has at least 60 college hours. And he probably won't get any financial aid other than loans b/c of my salary, so I opened up an Emigrant.com account today that will serve as the S education fund. In order to fund this I have cut in half the payments to one of our CC's--but it's a CC that has 0% interest until Sept. 2008. I figure by that time S will be out of school and employed with a higher salary so we can tackle that CC by then with full gusto!

So the savings accounts we have now are:

1. Regular savings account for the EF
2. My credit union savings account for property taxes
3. S's credit union savings account for his car fund
4. Emigrant savings account for DH's education fund

I hope to be able to send him to school in January. That would be kick-ass!

COLA Raise yesterday

Every Sept. 1 we get a .03% cost of living raise at Job #1 (I doubt I'll get such a perk at Job #2!). Last year I took advantage of the extra $ to raise my retirement contribution. Now I will raise it again, but I'm not quite sure when exactly to do it or how many more percentage points to raise it up to. Basically I'm trying to decide if I should raise it another .02% or .03%. Also, I'm debating raising it next week, or waiting 1 pay period to do it.

I like the idea of raising it another .03% for lots of good reasons.

1. More retirement $ for me!
   
2. Lower taxes paid to Uncle Sam!
   
3. repeat the above ad nauseum as it is a wonderful, win-win situation for me.
   

However, lord knows if I only raised it another .02% I'd have some extra $ to apply towards our court case debts. Although, would I really have that much more $ b/c my tax bill would also not be as low? Plus, if my paycheck changes significantly lower I'll have to redo my entire budget.

What I will probably do is raise it another .02% and wait to do it until the middle of the month. That is b/c I would enjoy 1 big paycheck which I will use to make a big payment to one of my CC's. Psychologically, it will be good for me.