Alright, what else?

We were playing outside. Frisbee and hula hoops. We were having a lot of fun.

Hubby noticed that the fan on the A/C was spinning more slowly than usual and it started to make an odd noise.

A little later we went back outside to check on it. It made a terrible sounding noise (we both stepped back from the unit) and the fan slowed to a halt.

I was due to be somewhere, so I left him instructions of who to call and what to do. I took my leave and throughout the evening found out:

- Companies can come out immediately, day or night, as advertised, but the service charge is VERY inflated for them to do so.
- It was very likely the capacitor.

The next morning we awaited a call from the company whose number was on our unit. Turns out they did not contact us "first thing the morning" and hubby called them to find out what was going on. Apparently this was not the company that serviced us after we purchased the house; they had the old owner's name in the system. They'd be out "sometime in the afternoon".

We found our company's number. They had a tech there within a few hours. Turns out the compressor shorted out and took the capacitor with it. We'd known that if this happened we'd be SOL. The unit is 10 years old, a 10 SEER system, not supported anymore, and very hard to find parts for. We'd learned this from our home inspector as well as the A/C checkup/maintainer guys last summer.

We had figured we had a few years. The unit was doing okay, though the air handler inside was clogged with mold and dust and rust (which hubby cleaned up as best he could, not having the $800 to pay for them to do it). It ran. It cooled. Our average electric bill was about $160.00. One of the goals we had after filing was to save up money towards the A/C.

Nope. Caput. Done. He showed hubby a few things that made sense to him as far as it being truly broken and not just a sales technique. A new part, should they even be able to find it, would cost about $2000. It made sense to get a new system.

And, best party, they could install a new one that afternoon.

We called the office manager who checked with their financing company. Hubby was turned down. (I, of course, could not apply.) I was shocked. He has really good credit, even great. It was good enough to get a good rate on the house, we've made every payment, he has no other debt except for student loans. They couldn't tell us why. She offered to try their secondary company, and I agreed.

I also ran upstairs to log into his BOA account (with his permission). He has a credit card that we don't use. In fact, when he got the new card in the mail after the old one expired, we snipped it right up. No more CCs for us, no siree. Well, we might need it, and I had no idea even what kind of credit limit he has.

$5500 at 16.9%

For those who haven't bought a new A/C lately, they are rated by SEER. Higher SEER levels indicate higher efficiency, and there are tax credits from FPL as well as the government. 13 SEER is the least expensive unit and the least efficient currently available. (This is all based on very limited research and may not be entirely accurate.)

A 13 SEER system (a huge improvement over our old system) for our house was $3918.00. That includes installation, removal of the old system, a 10 year warranty, and one year of service.

We could have gotten a larger system; we certainly have enough room on the BOA card to do so. However, we decided to get the most basic system.

Was that a mistake? Ask me in a few years. We only knew that we have a senior citizen with a bad heart living downstairs and a 2 year old living upstairs. For us we could do a few days without A/C to price shop. For the other family members, there's no way. We got what we could "afford".

Yeah, yeah, we don't have income right now, so we can't "afford". I should say, instead, that it was the most affordable option.

I called the office manager back after getting the card number off the statement (hubby called and begged for the expiration date). Turns out we qualified for the financing.

At 5 years the payments were just over $100/month at 17.9% financing. This was a percent over the credit card, so we didn't go with that.

4 years had an APR at 14.9%.

3 years had an APR at 13.9%.

If hubby gets a source of income, we can swing the $133.00/month payments over the next three years. It's not an ideal solution, but it works.

If he does not get a job, it's still covered, though it gives us less for food.

By 4:45 we had a brand new A/C system and $4000.00 more in debt.

I have a Feeling that something's going to happen to/break down in the older car in the next few weeks. You know how "when it rains, it pours"? Yeah. I have a Feeling.

Priorities

This post is more personal and has more details about decisions I need to make. It's not really relevant to bankruptcy or filing bankruptcy, but it is relevant to making choices that will affect our finances in the future.

Hubby cleaned out the A/C handler as best he could. The evaporator coils are free of dust and mildew, which is a huge improvement. It wasn't nearly as efficient or effective as the $350 cleaning would have been, but it's made a huge difference. The a/c actually sucks in air now and seems to work better.

There are still a few things that are demanding money right now, though.

One is that we've been putting off getting our teeth cleaned and cavities filled. We both have three or four cavities that, while small, do need to be taken care of. I estimate about $400 each. (We don't have dental insurance.)

The other is that I've been having horrible back and neck pain and finally decided to do something about it. I've had great success at the chiropractor. Each visit is $40. My insurance covers chiro, but the copay is $45.

I need to see the doctor soon as well. I'm due for my yearly well-woman check up. I also want to visit my husband's rheumatologist. The more I learn about fibromyalgia, the more I think it's a strong contender as an explanation for the symptoms I've been fighting with for half my life.

My GYN says that she thinks I have endometriosis but cannot diagnose me without laproscopic surgery. That's $2500 (the amount of my deductible). I think fibro explains my symptoms better.

I'm tired of being sick and tired. You know?

I need to be healthful. I need a healthy body, a healthy financial summary, and a healthy home.

Which is the priority? How do my goals need to change to fit this?

New Goals: Part 4

I think it's important to brainstorm and then finalize goals for after our bankruptcy discharge and for the future. This small series will be devoted to outlining some of the ones I've been thinking about.

Long Term Goals

Now that we've (in theory) saved up some money, paid off my hubby's student loans, and paid off my student loans (they'll be gone after 10 years as well) it's probably about 2021. I'll be 41 and my daughter will be 14. My husband will be 50.

At this point we'll spend the next ten years paying off our mortgage.

I used BOA's amortization calculator and found out we'd be able to do this easily.

Now, assuming that I'm working a full time job (worst case scenario, let's say $20k a year) without daycare expenses (she'll be in school) and my hubby is working full time still (probably $45k by then) we'll be able to do this even faster.

OR

We can also save for our retirement.

I'm debating on how much to help our daughter for college. Before I always said she can take out loans and work like I did, but now that I realize the impact non-dis chargeable student loans can have, I'm seriously considering doing the Florida Pre-Paid Plan. I'll look into that and maybe adjust our goals accordingly.

Review

- Save enough for an emergency fund that will cover vehicle replacement, a/c replacement, water heater replacement, etc.
- Pay off student loans in 10 years.
- Pay off mortgage in next 10 years.
- Save for retirement and possibly Fl-prepaid college fund.

What are YOUR goals?

If you're in the process of filing bankruptcy, what are you going to change afterward? Where are your extra payments (the ones you've been making on your dischargeable debt) going to go? Leave a comment and let me know!

New Goals: Part 3

I think it's important to brainstorm and then finalize goals for after our bankruptcy discharge and for the future. This small series will be devoted to outlining some of the ones I've been thinking about.

Goals for the Next 11 Years (10 years after our year of savings)

I did a rather elaborate spreadsheet to figure out how our finances could go over the next 10 years. This is assuming one income, plus hubby's disability, plus mom's gift (or whatever funds replace that gift), so it's not fool proof.

(In fact, chances are that once our child is in 2nd or 3rd grade, I'll be working a full time job. I might choose to go back to school myself, and I'd really love to do that, but it's not certain.)

Once our year of savings has passed we're going to pour all our extra money into paying off hubby's student loans.

He owes $60,000 at a reasonable interest rate.

Paying his payment of $325/month he'd take roughly 15 years to pay it off.

If we make payments of $500/month plus whatever else we can spare we'd be able to pay it off in about ten years.

Again, it's not exact as I didn't calculate interest which will be about $2250 a year.

We should be able to pay that as my student loans will be $100/month, roughly, and his will be $325/month. That's still less than the $600/month we're currently paying (and just getting by on if we ignore other essentials) for credit card debt.

New Goals: Part 2

I think it's important to brainstorm and then finalize goals for after our bankruptcy discharge and for the future. This small series will be devoted to outlining some of the ones I've been thinking about.

Goals for Savings

As a review we'll have about $8500 (we hope) in savings by June 2011. This money is to serve as our emergency fund. We know we're going to have to replace our water heater within the next few years and our A/C within the next five, probably sooner. We'll also need to replace my car (13 years old currently, with almost 200,000 miles on it) sometime soon and likely have some repairs to keep it running as long as possible. We hope all of that will be covered and we can pay cash as much as possible.

Goals for Mom

I would like to be in a position where if mom decides to move out or something happens to her we'll be able to pay all our bills and still save some money. Right now she gifts us $500/month. If she changed her mind or needed her money for something else, we'd be screwed. Completely and totally. So being financially secure without her gift is a big goal.

Goals for Rebuilding Credit

- Start repaying my student loans in October 2010. I've never been late on a payment, and I'm going to be even more vigilant in the future.

- Get a secured credit card that reports to the credit agencies without labeling it as "secured". Use it to pay for gas only and pay it off monthly. Convert this to an unsecured card as soon as I can.

OR

- I have several cards that have no balance on them. Assuming they don't cancel my account I intend to use them as mentioned above and pay them off each month.

Since I will not be purchasing a house (hubby already did that) or financing a new car (we intend to get a reliable older car and pay cash for it) I think that will be my plan for the next 24 months.

Hubby agreed that if we get divorced before I rebuild my credit that he will help me out as much as possible. We don't plan on ever separating, but we usually discuss "worst case" scenarios with big decisions and make fair and logical choices before the situation has a change to come up. Deciding it then would be too emotional.

If he should, God forbid, die in the next few years, I would be able to collect his life insurance and would have time to reestablish credit.

Based on those things I think a less stressed approach will work over the next 2 years and then we'll see where we're at.

New Goals: Part 1

I think it's important to brainstorm and then finalize goals for after our bankruptcy discharge and for the future. This small series will be devoted to outlining some of the ones I've been thinking about.

Goals for After Discharge

- Open up a savings account with Landmark Bank

- Have hubby's work direct deposit part of his income directly into the savings account.

- Close the multiple Ingdirect accounts we've opened, keeping one Orange Checking and one savings account for our emergency fund. It was helpful to be able to categorize our savings into specific named accounts (Ie: car repair fund, house downpayment fund) but it's become complicated and we've got Quickbooks, so there's no reason to do it that way anymore.

- Setup our accounting in Quickbooks (which we bought a few years ago when I had my own business) instead of using a spreadsheet (I love Open Office, by the way, and highly recommend it).

- Reduce our spending. Hopefully our garden will help with this in a few months.

- If we don't get them done before filing, get our teeth cleaned, examined, and cavities filled in April.

- See a dermatologist for a cancer screening. We've been putting this off, but it's terribly important in Florida and our insurance covers it.

Between filing and June 2011

Hubby's student loans come due June 2010. We're going to put them off one more year and save as much as possible. When mine come due in October 2010 I'm going to start paying on them again. Ideally we'll have about $8500 saved by June 2011.