Financial

Yesterday was the boys 1 year checkups. They are growing as they should, got their shots, and the biggest news of all, no more formula. That is right, as of 3:00 yesterday the boys were switched from formula to milk.

And since I love saving money, here is a quick break down of the savings:
Formula – $40 a week for 2 containers.
Milk – $3.50 for a gallon.

We are estimating that we will need 4 gallons a week, which will be $15 (with tax), which is a $25 a week savings. Saving $25 a week is not huge, but that is $100 a month that can go to pay down debt. Every little bit helps, so bring on the milk. And thus far, the boys seem to love it.

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This morning on the drive in to work I was listening to Sqwak Box, as I do most mornings.  At the 8:30am the jobless claims numbers were released for the previous week.  But something happened this morning that was not expected, the jobless claims was higher than expected, by several thousand (read the story from Marketwatch).  For the record, I am not an economist, I am just an average person that takes interest in what is going on in our economy, because it has a tremendous impact on everything that we do. The jobless claims numbers were released and the pre-market stock numbers dropped. Why, because the stock traders were not expecting the increase in jobless claims and maybe it caused a sense of fear or uncertainty?

The biggest problem with reading these numbers, in my opinion are two things:
1) Two weeks ago the jobless claims were revised from 380,000 to 388,000.
2) The weekly jobless claims that was released today came in at 386,000, up about 7,000 higher than expected, but these numbers factor in seasonal employees.

The problem that I have with the seasonal employees is just that, they are seasonal. It is like factoring into the equation construction employees that file when the weather is bad. The jobless claims is always going to fluctuate, but I think until we change the way that the unemployment numbers are being reported, i.e. only the people that are currently receiving unemployment are factored into the number, not those that have given up on looking for jobs and/or those whose benefits have run out, will we ever have a true gauge on our workforce.

I have seen friends recently that have been included in the jobless claims numbers week after week and it just makes me feel very blessed to be in a situation where I am able to provide for my family. And I can only speak for myself, but those friends of mine that have been out of work, would have given anything for a job, but they just aren’t there. Employers are not hiring right now because of the uncertainty of our economy. Many were told time and time again, wait until after the election and we see what happens. Wait? People can not wait for 7 months without a job. People need to work now. Our country needs to take the necessary steps to get our workforce back employed. The “shovel ready projects” that President Obama promoted and I think that he put it best, were not “shovel ready” after all.  The Keystone Pipeline would have employed 20,000 people, but that was shut down.  And this isn’t an attack against the President. But our country needs leaders that can help get our workforce employed again.  We need to create tax incentives for small businesses to hire more workers. We need to give big companies tax breaks to bring their manufacturing jobs back over to the US and hire Americans that want to work, that need to work.  President Obama inherited problems from President Bush, no question about it. And I think that both are equally to blame. I think that it is time to put politics and political gain to the side and let’s do what is right for our country.

Look at it from a real and practical view: the more people that are out of work, means that there is less discretionary income being spent by people. That means that there are less family vacations being taken. There are fewer people going out to eat. Fewer cars being purchased. Fewer homes being purchased. According to an article that I recently read, schools are sending home at record numbers, food for children to eat over the weekend, OVER THE WEEKEND, because their families can not afford for them to eat.  It is all tightly woven together. No job = No money!

So tonight, when I go home and hug my kids and I will be grateful that I am not part of the jobless claims numbers this week. And I am sure that at some point in time, we will face a similar economic crisis in this country again and I will have to sit my boys down and explain all of this to them. Explain why their friends families are losing their homes. Explain why we are not going out to eat as much or going on vacation.

If you are out of work this week, I hope that you are able to find work soon. And if you are like me, who has a good job, feel blessed and don’t take it for granted, because it could be you tomorrow explaining to your children about the economy and why you can not go out to eat tonight, because you recently lost your job.

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I am tired of coming home at night and taking 5 minutes to go through the mail and half of it is just junk mail. At least daily I get offers from credit card companies offering me a new card. Here is the problem, I don’t want anymore credit cards. In fact, I’m trying to cut down my credit cards from 3 to 2. I was told about OptOutPrescreen.com , which will allow you to either Opt Out of pre-approved credit cards for either 5 years or permanently.

I filled out the form today for the 5 year opt out, I did not however provide my social security number. Hopefully this will not only reduce the number of offers that I get, but also help save me a few minutes everyday throwing away junk mail.

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I keep reading all of these posts online about Happy Tax Day! What exactly is so happy about it? Granted, this year, we are getting a refund, so it will be a good day, once we get the money. But there again, we filed our paperwork weeks before the deadline and we have to wait 8 – 10 weeks at a minimum before the money is sent to us. Meaning that the Government gets to keep earning interest on it for that period of time.

So Happy Tax Day to you and yours and as you raise your children, help them understand the importance of how they file their taxes, what they should declare for what they are claiming, etc. Because, I for one would like to make sure that I am close to breaking even every year, instead of getting a big refund 3 months after I file my taxes.

And if you do get a refund back this year, if you have debt, pay that down first, but put some away for a rainy day.

Happy Tax Day

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I got an expectant call this past week from my CPA, informing me of the nice tax refund that we are getting back this year. So the question that my wife discussed, was how to do we use this money?

So, here were the categories that we ultimately agreed upon:

1) Take 2/3s of the money and put towards credit cards – this will close out 2 credit cards, 2 store accounts, and reduces the balance of the remaining credit cards as well.
2) Take the rest of the money and split it the following way:
A. Church
B. Savings
C. Put money in the boys savings accounts
D. Use what is left for vacation and have a little fun

We made the decision together as to how we were going to use the tax refund, which is something that we had not done before. But, I have found it important to involve my wife more in the money decisions so that she can see where the money is going and where we are at financially.  Our financially goals have changed as we have gotten older and our priorities have changed.

We were fortunate that this year we are getting a nice tax refund that will help pay down our bills and more importantly, give us a cushion for our future.

So what are you doing with your tax refund this year?

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How long does it take for your identity to be stolen? Most would think that it would take a while, but in reality, it takes seconds. Now, if it takes only a few seconds for someone to steal your identity, how long would you think that it would take to regain control and fix your credit? The reality, is that it takes a long time and in most cases, years.  So, today I made the decision to protect my families identity by purchasing a year of Equifax to safe guard my families identity and credit.

Years ago, I had my identity stolen, well, they made a good attempt, but I was able to stop it before too many accounts were opened. And this past week, we received both a state and Federal tax return from someone that was not either my wife or myself. For $29.95 a month, it was worth the peace and mind of not having to worry about watching our credit every month.  And the great thing with this new Equifax family plan, is that I am not only able to watch my credit, but also my wifes and my two sons.

$29.95 is well worth the peace and mind.

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When it comes to taxes, I like to leave it up to the professionals. But, he sent me an email the other night with two links to look at as it pertains to Child and Dependent Care Credit and these both are from the IRS website:

With twins, we need all the help that we can get and since we have two kids, we can claim $6,000 for the Child and Dependent Care Credit. But make sure that you talk with your CPA or a tax specialist if you have any questions about using this deduction.

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Now that February is over, I have a chance to look back at our financial statements for January. A few quick highlights:

1) My Jeep is paid off now, so that will save us close to $400 a month.  I am deferring $250 of this savings into our Money Market and taking $150 a month and putting it towards my wife’s SUV. By making the extra $150 a month, this will cut 6 months off of the loan and that is if I add nothing else to principal.
2) We have 3 credit cards that have a $1,000 balance, so those are being attacked first. We are currently putting $100 a month towards these, but will increase that to $150 a month to reduce the monthly fees.
3) It also looks like one of my wife’s student loans will be paid for, which will free up another $50 a month that will be put towards credit cards.
4) There were a few unexpected bills that popped up, but I think that for the first time, that we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It is a long crawl to get closer to the light, but at least we see the light.

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While doing some research on Alltop on Twins blogs, I came across this blog post that will help you save money today! Some of these ideas we have already started implementing. Here is the article: 10 Ways to Make Ends Meet on a Constricted Family Budget

Based off of their list, here is what we have done:

4. Restructure your debts –

We are actually following the Dave Ramsey approach and have listed our debts from lowest to least and have started making extra payments just to get them down the quickest.

9. Cancel subscriptions that you no longer use –

We just canceled 3 magazine subscriptions that we have no longer been reading as much. And since there is so much free content available and most of the magazines have their content free anyway. Saves money and saves space, because I often collect all of my magazines and read them all in one day.

10. Watch free movies and television through legal online sites –

Even though I have to say that I haven’t really gotten into the free movies, I do need to call Comcast now that our contract is up.  We don’t need all 5 of the movie channels now that we have the kids and honestly, we can save the extra money to use toward paying down additional debt.

We are probably more focused now than ever before to save money today. In order for us to reach our financial goals, we have cut out a lot, but still need to do better to have everything paid off sooner than later. And then we can put more money in our 401k and our boys college funds.

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Have you seen the news lately? Analysts are predicting $4.15 – $5.00 a gallon gas prices. So how does this affect you? Well, it is a chain of events.

1) Gas Prices rise.
2) Businesses pass along the higher charges to the consumer because the are losing money on their higher gas prices.
3) Food prices will rise.
4) People will not travel as much, thus the number of people taking vacations will decrease.
5) Because less people travel, the need for seasonal jobs will decrease because the demand is not there. Or companies can not afford to pay as much because of the higher gas prices and lay people off.
6) And unemployment rises again.

To give real numbers, here is what it will cost my family based on the following early projected gas prices for a fill-up.  And my wife and I each fill-up at least one time a week, sometimes twice a week. Because of these projected numbers, we will have to sit down as a family and make decisions on future trips and really look at the cost benefit of traveling out of state and maybe even out of town.

Gallons
Gas Prices at $4.15
Gas Prices at $5.00
My SUV 16 gallons
$66.40
$80.00
My wife’s SUV 15 gallons
$62.25
$75.00

See the trend here? Gas prices rising will only hurt our economy, plain and simple. And normally, I wouldn’t get on a soap box about gas prices, except for 1 primary reason and that is, there isn’t a logical reason as to why the prices are that high. And no, I am not one of those that believe that we should cut off our oil dependency immediately and go to electric cars. And I don’t because the technology in my opinion is not refined to the point that the number of cars can be put out on the roads and maintained if there are problems.

Do we need to look at alternatives to oil, absolutely. But, we also need to drill and harvest the oil that we can control and not be so sufficient on overseas oil. Until then, our gas prices will continue to rise, as the demand is greater than the supply. Though I did hear that the demand for oil has sifted from the US to India and China, which I thought was pretty interesting.

From what I have read, the Keystone Pipeline would have increased jobs by 20,000,and  increased oil so that we never have to import another drop of oil and the current administration rejected the project.  Sometimes I wonder if politicians forget why they were elected and allow the political game to become the focal point and not the voters that elected them to office.

Here is a crazy idea, let’s do what is best for the residents of the US and not what is best politically.  $5.00 a gallon for gas, is not and will not help this struggling economy.

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