April Monthly Update
Posted by moonimus on May 7, 2008
I know the April update is a week late but I did track all the changes as of May 1.
Our overall wealth increased 4%. We did see an increase in our investment accounts which was a nice change in direction from the past few months and our debts also decreased. We used some of our tax refund to pay off debts and we consciously kept the credit cards down to a minimum.
Even though my weight increased, my body fat % decreased which is a good trend. Everyone in my family is trying to lose weight so we are having contest that will last until July. My goal is to lose 30 lbs which is extremely aggressive. This will require a lot of planning and execution. Stay tuned.
How I Save For College
Posted by moonimus on Apr 28, 2008
I routinely think about saving for Baby Moonimus’ college education. She will be celebrating her first birthday soon and I hope some of our guests will give us cash gifts so we can fund her 529. We aren’t making regular contributions to Baby’s 529 but once her birthday passes and we clear our credit card and personal debts, we’ll be contributing monthly.
A couple of weeks ago, Morningstar rated the Best and Worst 529 College Savings Plan. Unfortunately, the NY 529 plan was rated as one of the worst. New York does not offer many investment options which was one of the reasons for its poor rating. When I signed up, I was frustrated that there wasn’t an international investment option. I will be writing a letter to ask the administrators of the plan to add more investment options. If New York did not offer the tax break for resident investors, I would have chosen another state’s plan.
We also enrolled in Upromise which is a service that helps you earn rewards by shopping at Upromise vendors. If you shop online through the Upromise portal, then you usually receive 1% of what you paid in your Upromise account. If you register all your credit cards online you can earn 1% - 8% of what you spend at participating restaurants. Once you’ve accumulated $25, Upromise will make a contribution to your 529 plan quarterly. We’ve earned about $70 in our first year. Not big money but every little bit helps.
I received an email from Upromise asking us to switch our energy supplier and receive 3% of our electricity charges and a $25 bonus. I need to research this but it seems like an interesting idea. We would earn an additional $36/year through this offer.
Annual inflation for college costs is about 4%. If a 4 year public school costs $60,000 and 4 year private school costs $120,000 today, then a public school 18 years from now would be about $117,000 and a private school would be about $234,000! Hopefully, we’ll have smart, accomplished kids who win some big time scholarships.
How do the readers save for college?
Taxes Part 5: The End of the Line
Posted by moonimus on Apr 18, 2008
We recently eceived our state tax refund. I was pleasantly surprised to see that New York increased our refund by $100! It was electronically deposited into our savings account and won’t be used until Baby Moonimus’ birthday. Now we’re just waiting for our $1,500 tax rebate that should arrive in early May.
I’ve been thinking about how the refund will be treated on our 2008 returns. So I did some snooping and ran into this.
Essentially, the rebate will have no effect on your Federal taxes but you may have to report income on your state return. Since we live in New York, we will not have to pay any taxes on our rebate for our 2008 returns. Hopefully, you won’t have to pay any taxes on your rebate either.
March Monthly Update
Posted by moonimus on Apr 2, 2008
As promised, I am including our change in wealth in the monthly updates. There is one major assumption that I’m making in terms of our apartment. I’m keeping the value of our place at our purchase price though I’m certain the value has increased 35% even in this awful housing market. Other than that, most of the numbers will be coming off statements. I’m using Excel to keep track of all the numbers and to make the tracking easier, I’ve used hyperlinks in the cells to direct me to each respective login page. I’ll probably show how I did that in a future post.
So our wealth increased .91% mostly due to the receipt of our federal tax refund. We’re still waiting for our state tax refund. I’ll set a goal of a .4% increase for next month though with Baby Moonimus’ first birthday approaching, I don’t think we’ll get there.
Our credit card balance increased again this month and a big reason is due to timing. Since I’m collecting information on the first of the month, there will always be a balance for the credit cards. I’m going to make a big push to see if we can decrease the use of the card just to see if I’m not kidding myself.
As far as my weight and body fat % is concerned, I’m back to where I started. I don’t know what’s happening to me this year but I got hurt last week because of a cough. It wasn’t a particularly violent cough but it was strong enough to tweak my back left shoulder. I went to the doctor and he prescribed me steroids to take for a week. So I’ll be blasting some home runs at a ballpark near you.
Once I’m off the medication and everything feels tip top, I will yet again slowly establish an exercise routine. Also, I’m going to weigh myself every month. I won’t step on a scale until May 1. I’m thinking that I’m putting too much stress on myself during the weekly weigh ins and the informal daily weigh ins. We’ll see if this works out better.
The setbacks are getting frustrating.
Taxes Part 4: Return of the Refund
Posted by moonimus on Mar 26, 2008
I sent in our amended federal tax return and state tax return about two weeks ago. The process was very painful as I had to prepare additional schedules and forms. So we should be getting our state refund in about four weeks. Then about two months after that, we’ll get our tax rebate from the Federal government. Sweet!
Because of that late 1099 we received, our refund was reduced by about $500. I don’t think I’m quite over my frustration.
If you haven’t started your taxes yet, Clever Dude is giving away a TaxCut Premium keycode. I have mixed reviews on TaxCut that you can read about here but all the bugs should be fixed by now. Not much time left to file!
A Book Clutter Solution
Posted by moonimus on Mar 6, 2008
Before I lived in New York City, it seemed like I was buying a book about every other week or so gathering an impressive personal library. It wasn’t until I started living in a cramped apartment that I realized how managing a sizable personal library could be such a burden. Plus, I didn’t even read every book! Well I performed a huge purge not too long ago and made some money in the process.
I got rid of those books that no longer had any appeal or books that would never be read again. I was going to donate them all to the library but then I ran across this post at the Dollar Stretcher (scroll down to Cash For Old Books). I then entered the isbn numbers for each book into Cash4books and Book Emporium and sold to the one offering a higher price. They even picked up the shipping. However, I noticed that some of my books were fetching between $10 and $18 per book.
For the higher priced books I set up a half.com account and listed them using half’s recommended price ranges. Some of those books I listed at more than double the highest price I was offered. I know my buyers are getting solid deals as I’ve priced the books to move and all the books have been maintained well. I’ve sold about 20 books so far and have received about $90. It’s definitely better than nothing.
I’d like to continue to get rid of the clutter in our apartment and if we can make money doing it, all the better.
February Monthly Update
Posted by moonimus on Mar 4, 2008
Now that my birthday is behind me, it will be another four years until I can proudly say that my birthday is on February 29th. I wonder where we will be financially…
As you can see in February, our Personal Loans have decreased significantly while our credit cards have ticked up again. Credit cards have increased as baby Moonimus is in need of some new stuff. She’s growing out of clothes and I’ve promised Mrs. Moonimus a stroller for months. Also, some of these charges will be reimbursed and we returned some items for refunds that haven’t hit the bank yet so the increase is again attributable to timing. At the rate of our payoff coupled with our tax refund windfall (not including the tax rebate in the summer), we will be out of credit card debt in no time.
I’ve also finally set up a spreadsheet to track our wealth and will report on changes in wealth next month.
As far as weight loss is concerned, I know this isn’t what you call progress. I still can’t shake the cold from two months ago but I just purchased some Mucinex so hopefully my cough and phlegm in my throat will be history. I’ll take any progress I can get, even if it’s .05% body fat reduction!
Chasing the Commuter Card Deal
Posted by moonimus on Mar 3, 2008
Today on my commute home, I saw an advertisement on the walls of the subway for the Chase Commuter Card. Initially, I thought only subway costs applied but apparently it also includes any charges for NYC yellow taxis. Essentially for every $150 you charge, you will receive $10 back. There’s only about a month left to take advantage of this deal.
At a cursory glance, this may seem like a good deal but if we look deeper, it’s not so great. Most New Yorkers that would anticipate a $150 in commuter expenses are most likely enrolled in their company’s pre-tax commuter benefit. Even if your marginal tax rate is 10%, you would save $15 on your taxes without using Chase’s promotion. Marginal tax rate is the rate of tax for any change (addition or deduction) in income usually referred to as your tax bracket. Of course, tax savings is not an immediate benefit.
For me, a monthly pass before March was $76. It would have taken two months for me to get the benefit. But then my marginal tax rate is 25% so it really makes no sense to participate.
But had I known that it would have applied to NYC yellow cabs, I may have tried it. I really doubt I could have taken $150 worth of taxi rides in 3 months though.
Moral of the story, when making choices that may impact your taxes, you have to know your marginal tax rate.
Taxes Part 3: Revenge of the CPA
Posted by moonimus on Feb 28, 2008
So Taxcut finally fixed the 529 issue and my refund is very close to what I thought it should be. As soon as I corrected the error, I filed our returns with a mix of relief and joy that the waiting was over and we would get our refund. Later that same day, Mrs. Moonimus called me and said that a 1099 had arrived. (insert nerd walking into hip party record scratch here) I was furious. It was the same 1099 that I had mentioned before. I couldn’t believe the incompetence of the person who had our 1099 sent to the wrong address and then receiving it on February 25th. February 25th!!
OK, I’m over it but it I was seriously irritated at the time. This means I have to file a 1040x which amends the previous 1040 filed. Luckily, New York rejected Taxcut’s filing so I will have to prepare the state return as soon as I run the new numbers on the 1040x. Just on initial glance, I think we will give back $500 of our original refund. I’m not sure if I will use Taxcut next year…
I made a decision to crack open a recent Federal Taxation textbook and I’m going to relearn Individual Taxation. My first time through Individual Taxation in college didn’t go so smoothly as it was my toughest semester. I did however rock Corporate Taxation though I don’t remember much of it. I’m hoping to share what I learn on here from time to time. First thing I did learn was calculating your FICA portion of self employment wages. There’s a lot that goes into the calculation though the math isn’t difficult.
So 2007 taxes are nearly behind us. I just have to spend a half day over the weekend preparing a 1040x and redoing my state return. Let the good times roll!
Bank Laundering
Posted by moonimus on Feb 16, 2008
Even though I’ve been watching the last season of the Wire religiously in the last month, I’m not talking about cleaning dirty money. Clever Dude has inspired me to start cleaning up my bank accounts so I’ve closed my FNBO Direct savings account and my igobanking savings account. Both relatively painless process though I think FNBO was easier. I left very little money in each account and kept them open in case rates at those banks became favorable again. But in the current climate, rates for savings account continue to fall near inflation levels so I won’t be chasing rates any time soon. One United continues to offer an APY of 5.15% but I’ve read from other sources that their rate cuts will be more gradual as they only pay interest quarterly.
This leaves me with the One United savings account, 3 brick and mortar accounts with Chase, an Electric Orange checking account at ING and a rewards checking account with Toledo State Bank. I previously posted about my banking situation here. I’m still looking for suggestions…
