Credit Card Shakeup November 19, 2009
Posted by mordtechin in FinancialZ.add a comment
A couple of months ago, I changed my credit card payment schedule. Instead of paying off my credit card balance after the 30 day grace period, I just pay it off at the beginning of the month without utilizing the 30 day grace period (or utilizing a few grace days since my payment day is the 24th of every month).
I find this not only makes it easier to budget and but frees up my utilized credit line as well.
Example
Say in month #1 I had a balance of $1000. In month #2, I had a balance of $600, I technically have used my credit line for $1600 which I would like to keep as minimal as I can since credit line/limit utilization is calculated as part of your credit score.
It was beginning to annoy me that I was in fact paying the current months balance from the previous month while still racking up current months credit which in reality meant that I always had about 2 months worth of credit card usage at any given time.
By paying it off at the beginning of the month, I find it that it makes it simpler at a quick glance what was spent in the current month on my credit card, instead of having to go in and detract the previous months credit usage.
Primarily I am doing it to be more financially conscious of current months spending and for financial security. If something were to happen financially (loss of job, emergency), I only need to deal with 1 month of credit usage instead of 2!!!
The one thing I am unsure of is how/if this will affect my credit score in any way. I always pay off my balance in full every month, so by not utilizing the grace period, I am pondering if it could somehow lower my credit score (~780) since as far as the credit lender is concerned, I don’t actually utilize and show credit history since I pay off every month, let alone now paying it off without the grace period. Credit history is exactly what it states, history of credit. By paying off my balance in full every month, I am not actually generating credit history (well sort of since I am still borrowing the money) so I have debated on and read upon many sides of whether or not to carry balances over monthly. It’s amazing how credit scores are soooo complicated and obscure
-Clayton
Duct Work November 19, 2009
Posted by mordtechin in House.2 comments
This past weekend I had some home repair work done that came out to $685 (free estimate was between $500-700). Apparently when the people who bought my home to renovate, decided to completely cover up the return air duct work in the flooring. While having nice wooden floors is nice 
, it would have been nicer still if they had taken the time to have properly installed it and not covered up the previous return air vents (all this would have required would have been some return air vents in the floor). That being said, the air being circulated in my house, whether it was air conditioning or heat, the air sucked into the house was just air from the basement (just some holes left in the return vents in the basement). Not only did this give the rest of the house a “base-minty” (hehe), damp moldy smell, it is a most inefficient way of cooling/heating. This repair should really help with my utility bills.
So after about a month of trying to get someone to work on my house(another long story :-\ ) finally found someone to do it and took them only about 6 hours, with about 4 people at one time then soon left with only one service person as he finished up the rest of the duct work. They added a total of 3 return air vents in 3 different rooms and added another heat run since I only had 1 vent for my family/living room which is a huge room so I had another one installed as well as replacing my gas valve for my furnace. The value was really old and stuck on the “on” position making it difficult to quickly just turn off the gas going to my furnace.
I was pleased with the service (free accurate estimate), friendly, very informative, receptive to my needs, and were very quick to accommodate my scheduling needs. Completed just in time when I had guests staying over this weekend.
All in all, I suppose I am happy with the work but still sucked that it cost me money. That money was planned to go into my savings this month but so goes to owning a home.
*It’s one of those things I should have put into my home purchasing contract for the sellers to repair but it was missed.
Side note: This duct work repair still did not really resolve the issue with the air duct in the master bedroom (my ultimate goal). Of all the vents, this one barely has any flow and after talking with several people, not much can be done now, since the walls are up. This was something the sellers should have taken better care of while the drywall was not up….so the master bedroom barely has air flow. For now this is not a huge deal since I have a small electric heater in the room which I can use, but in the summer it does get very hot, so in the summer I may just use the 1st bedroom which kept very cool this summer without any A/C but with A/C would be a nice cooler! The 1st floor bedroom is the coolest room in the house as well as probably one of the warmer rooms as well. However it’s much smaller than the master bedroom so currently using the master bedroom. I still have to figure out the layout of where I want things and debating where my bedroom should be. I may just end up using different rooms at different points of the season.
-Clayton
“Free Bed” October 6, 2009
Posted by mordtechin in FinancialZ.1 comment so far
It’s been awhile since I’ve last posted.
Things have really gotten super busy and stressful so I have been neglecting the site, but hoping that I can be more active again.
I got a free bed. My girlfriend’s grandmother got rid of hers and gave me an option to pick it up.
However I put quotes around free since I had to drive to pick it up 2 hours away in my parents Ford F150…that only gets about 15 miles per gallon so in all I spent about $70 in gas (I refilled it after I used it to be nice and thoughtful) so really the amount I actually used probably came out to around $35 plus the $10 I spend on the some plastic sheeting that I bought since it was raining that day.
Overall I think it was not a bad deal for a decent queen size mattress and box spring. It will be a nice guest bed. I have also contemplated having 2 bedrooms, one upstairs and one downstairs that accommodates the seasonal changes. The downstairs is much cooler during the summer but warmer upstairs during the winter. I have yet to figure out the layout of my house with 4 bedrooms.
-Clayton
Interest is a … killer September 2, 2009
Posted by mordtechin in FinancialZ, House.add a comment
My mortgage payment comes out to $720.71 but I have my account to actually draft $820.71 every month.
Here is the breakdown
$159.74 Escrow (property taxes, P.M.I, hazard/home insurance)
*one to note which I didn’t realize, is that I don’t ever have to write out a separate check for my hazard/home insurance,taxes, p.m.i since the payment is held is escrow every month until it is due). Positive note is that you don’t have to worry about saving to pay for it later, but the downside is that the money sitting in escrow could be accruing interest for my accounts instead.
$430.63 INTEREST!!! How depressing it that…
$130.34 Principle (but actually is $230.34 with my additional $100 per month) * paying the additional $100 almost doubles the amount of principle payoff.
I learned my lesson with my car payment that paying off as much principle as you AS EARLY as possible will save you boatloads of interest.
-Clayton
Air Conditioner Broke Again. August 15, 2009
Posted by mordtechin in House.2 comments
Last night went to turn on the AC to rid of some humidity in the house and surprise, surprise. No cold air 
.
I went to check the unit and no condensation was building up which was the main sign that something was wrong.
What this means is that there is a leak somewhere, where the refrigerant is leaking out of since an AC unit should never require a recharge unless there happens to be a leak and apparently the guy didn’t look for one since the AC unit is a closed system.
The upside is that since I have home warranty and already paid the $60 service fee the first time around, this additional service won’t cost me a cent so hopefully the weekend is not going to be that bad since I won’t have any air like last weekend with the heat advisory alert.
-Clayton
