Comments on: Net Worth Update: $315,258.43

By: J. Money

J. Money — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:13:38 +0000

Ask away any time! Love talking about this stuff :)

By: mga

mga — Thu, 10 May 2012 06:06:02 +0000

J – Yes it does. I was just curious about how you maintained it at 10k even for so long. Thanks for the explanation!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:33:14 +0000

Great questions :) Yes, it earns a little in its account, but not much (and it’s also mixed with a bunch of my other money too – not separated out like I used to have it). Currently we have the E. Fund in a Money Market Account… which is usually a tad higher than normal savings accounts, but still not much in the economy. I know others like to put this money somewhere else to make more, but I like keeping it pretty liquid so I can pull from it at any point w/out worries. Hope this helps!

By: mga

mga — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:55:50 +0000

J Money,

Besides this month your Emergency Savings was at a stable 10k. Do you earn interest on it? Where does that go?

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:36:50 +0000

@SB @ One Cent At A Time – Agreed! And to think that 5.5% was the rate we DID refinance at last year! Haha… unfortunately our house is too underwater to do much better right now though, so we’re stuck with it until I can pay off more of those mortgages in order to get back on a level playing field. My goal is to actually pay off the 2nd one completely and THEN refinance and get to cracking on knocking off the 1st one… just gonna take a handful of years :(
@Jacob @ iHeartBudgets – Yikes, sorry to you too! Your pictures look almost exactly what ours did too, haha… well done on swapping it out MUCH cheaper though than I did ;) Let’s hope we got a loooooong time until we have to do it again! Thanks for stopping by, bro – love the site name.

By: Jacob @ iHeartBudgets

Jacob @ iHeartBudgets — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:31:25 +0000

Bummer on having to replace the water heater. It must be water heater death week. We had the same thing happen last weekend! I was actually a little bit excited to use the EF since it just sits there :) I posted about it here: http://wp.me/p2p0FF-1b.

Great work on your net worth! You’ll be at a million in no time! I can only hope I get in the positive sometime soon!

By: SB @ One Cent At A Time

SB @ One Cent At A Time — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:20:49 +0000

I am sure you have written it but I haven’t read. that 5.5% 1st mortgage is too high. What’s preventing you from refi?

By: J. Money

J. Money — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:21:48 +0000

Yup, I actually think that’s a great idea too :) Which is why I max out my retirement account every year too, and THEN do mortgage on top of it. Only I don’t have a 401(k) anymore now that I’m solo so I don’t get those free matches (boooooo), but at least I can still put away a lot. I think everyone’s different in what they prefer though, and some would rather have a paid off house w/ less money in the bank than the opposite. But either way it’s a smart move!

Thanks for sharing :)

By: Devan

Devan — Thu, 03 May 2012 18:48:41 +0000

J have you thought about this idea in regards to paying your house off early. From an article I read on Oprah website.

Paying off your house early sounds like a financially smart move. And it’s hard to put a price on peace of mind. But a study by two University of Texas professors and a Federal Reserve banker found that diverting that money instead to a 401(k) was a better move. It’s a long academic study, but the key is this: You pay off your mortgage with after-tax dollars, which means that for every $1 you make, only 70 cents or so goes to the bank.

Solution: Contribute pre-tax dollars to your 401(k), so the full buck goes in. Make that $1.50 if you get a company match. As that money compounds over the years, you come out far ahead.

Just a thought…Best Regards

By: J. Money

J. Money — Thu, 03 May 2012 18:09:42 +0000

All great comments guys, thanks for stopping by! :)

@C The Writer – That’s not fun :( Why is that though? You don’t think tracking it and tweaking would help it go up over time? Or at least level out?
@Joe @ Retire By 40 – I now! I totally want to! I’ve started it but just havne’t gone back and spent the time playing with it… on my list though! :)
@Kacie – Oh yeah, for sure – got a post coming out soon on it too ;) I’ve heard great things about that Honda minivan as well, but still not sold!
@DebtsnTaxes – Cool!!! But unfort. I’m in the DC area :( But I do visit Wisconsin a lot to meet up w/ my biz partner, so ya never know! :)
@Devan – Yeah, that’s the main part I’m afraid of right now – day care. BUT, since I work from home and the Mrs. is out of Grad School now and at home, I’m thinking we’ll be good for at least 3-6 months until we need to get back to work life again and all that. And then we’ll prob. do day care like 2-3 times a week or something, but not sure yet. Haven’t put *too* much time into it thus far… the 529 is more interesting to me at the moment ;) Congrats on your soon to show up baby!!
@Lance @ Money Life and More – Thanks man, it is what it is, eh?
@FB – Well, it’s more of a psychological thing than anything. You’re right in that we have a huge “e fund” if we combine all savings accounts/etc, but we like to keep it divided up for stuff when things happen. So when major unexpected things come up like the water heater, we use our real, separated out, E fund for this. Anything else in life hits the cash fund. Not sure if it’s the total best way to do things, but it works for us at the moment :)
@Jen2 – Huh. That’s not a bad idea actually… if you EXPECT to pay for unexpected stuff, you don’t get pissed off as much! Haha… I kinda like that :) I think it’ll still upset me, but you’re right – setting $ aside for it particularly would probably make things a lot easier to handle. Good thinkin’!
@Jenna, Adaptu Community Manager – Haha really??? I haven’t even seen that yet. Not sure I want to either, haha…
@Kris – Awww good! I’m glad you like them :) Sometimes I wonder if I should continue doing them (don’t want them to come off all “Look at me! look at me! I have money!!!”) so it’s nice to hear they still inspire :) that’s my goal!!
@fifi – Oh wow! Cool!!! Looking forward to learning about it :) AND knowing you’re “real” name and all, haha… that’s def. scary indeed. Good for you on just going for it though :) I still can’t talk about mine, but hopefully one day I’ll be able to. I don’t think anyone really goes to it anyways, so it’s not all that exciting ;)
@Jen @ Master the Art of Saving – Haha yeah, but we’re all in different situations so you’re always allowed to complain! Even if just to yourself ;) Congrats on the positive bump this round.
@Long – Heck yeah I did ;) And can you believe I was one of the only ones taking advantage of it?? Crazyyyyy… no one else thought it was that important, but I’m freakin’ glad I did!
@SavvyFinancialLatina – Good!! Glad to hear that :) Just trying to let poeple know it’s *possible!*
@BusyExecutiveMoneyBlog – Haha no doubt my friend. I don’t mind negative cash flow every now and then – esp when I’m buying up projects or investing back into them (which will allow for a LOT more cash flow later) – but yeah, for the most part I agree with you. And I need to make sure I don’t have too many down months either unless the up ones are killer ones ;)
@Jeremy – Oh cool!! Unfortunately neither link works for me though :( Says I need permission? Maybe you can edit settings to allow it to be public? Excited to see :)
@maria@moneyprinciple – Haha, roger that. Excited to watch it move into positive territory!