It’s important to remember that today is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. Please take a moment to remember our fallen soldiers.
My wife and I pay most of our monthly bills using our Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard cash back credit card. We pay for our groceries, gas, cable/internet, gifts, etc. using the card. We have also arranged to have my Wife’s medical insurance bill, my cell phone bill, and our Blockbuster Total Access bill automatically charged to the card each month. There are only a few things that we can’t charge to the cash back card such as our mortgages, HOA dues, and auto loans.
We have been averaging a $50 cash back reward every two months since we started paying our bills with the card 4 months ago. It’s important to note that there is a $300/year maximum to the cash back rewards. If we reach the maximum, we will then begin using our HSBC Platinum MasterCard cash back credit card. I am currently using the HSBC cash back card for my business trips, to help keep work expenses separate from our monthly bills. I average $25-$50 cash back every three months, just for charging business trips to the card.
It’s not a ton of money, but since we’re paying the bills anyways, we might as well get a percent or two of our money back. Besides, charging the bills to our cash back card helps with our month-to-month cash flow. And, of course, we always pay the credit card bill in full each month so that no interest is accrued.
If you’re not taking advantage of cash back credit cards, you may want to consider it.
My bill total came to $7.42, for which I paid with a ten dollar bill and two pennies. I received a funny look for handing over the two pennies. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to received $2.56 as my change.
Go figure.
Down the street from my office I noticed a number of police offices standing at a stop sign. I fastened my seatbelt before reaching them, but was still flagged to the side of the road by one of the officers. He said I was a little too late with the seatbelt and that I was receiving a seatbelt ticket.
I tried to get some sympathy, but the officer said they were out there on their day off giving out seatbelt tickets because of a government grant. He said they are taking a no tolerance position and that it had been announced on the news. I deserved the ticket so I wasn’t going to push it, however, while I was waiting for my ticket, another car was pulled over near me and the driver was irate. So much so that the officer writing my ticket was called over as back-up. After dealing with the upset driver, the officer came back to my car, gave me my ticket, and sent me on my way.
I checked online and it appears that the ticket will only cost me $20.00. Not too bad for a good reminder of the importance of buckling-up.
We have made good, consistent progress on our net worth and should reach a net worth milestone of $10,000 next month. In fact, if all goes as planned, our net worth in June will be roughly $11,000, half way to our 2007 goal of $22,000.
As we pay off debt and increase our investments, I’m beginning to feel how getting your money to work for you is a powerful thing. I’m sure there will be hiccups along the way but so far, we’re right on track.
My wife and I get paid every two weeks, therefore, there are two months of the year that we both receive three checks. Next month is one of those months for my wife.
We have decided to use her extra check, $1,161.67, to pay off our Chase credit card. Mathematically, this is not the right move since the card is 0% interest until March 2009. We’d be better off depositing the money into our Emigrant Direct account earning 5.05% APY and stretching the Chase credit card payments out to take advantage of the interest free period. However, the catch with the credit card is that if we are late with a payment, Chase can back-charge us interest. I hate having that hang over our heads, so from a piece-of-mind standpoint, paying off the card is the way to go for us.
It will be nice to have one less debt to worry about.
One of the first things I do each morning is to check the status of our investments. Not to react to the ups and downs of the market, just because I enjoy seeing how things are going.
While my wife has been very interested and active with our investments, she hasn’t been as OCD as am I in terms of checking them daily. At least, not until recently. . .
She just opened a Roth IRA account with Vanguard over the weekend and funded it with $3,000.00. Since then, she has been getting a kick out of checking the progress each day. I’m convinced that this peaked interest has something to do with setting-up the account herself and having it in her name. There’s definitely something to be said for pride of ownership.
We met up with our group of friends at 2:00pm and stayed out until 11:00pm. We got an early start because it was Cinco de Mayo, and we knew the bars would be packed. Sure enough, there was already a good crowd on hand at 2:00pm. I originally thought we’d be going home around 7:00pm, but we were having such great time that we didn’t want to leave.
I can see how people who go out multiple nights a week can have a hard time getting ahead financially. Heck, that’s part of the reason I had so much credit card debit.
The fund has an initial minimum investment of $3,000; additional investments are $100. We plan to fully fund her Roth IRA ($4,000 in 2007) , as well as open and fully fund a Roth IRA for me.
As a follow-up to my Good Prospective Car Buyer post, the lady ended up calling me to cancel the appointment because she bought a Mercedes.
I was very disappointed at first, since she seemed so interested and needed a new car (her’s was totaled in an accident). I even began looking for a possible replacement vehicle online.
My car runs and looks great, so this really isn’t a bit deal. I was just disappointed because I was already planning how we should invest the extra $150-$200 that we would be saving in car payments each month.