Zaphod for President

Today is my 27th birthday. So why the hell am I doing the bills? Believe it or not, I want to. Mrs. Zaphod and Twitch are currently napping, and I’ve already helped myself to a piece of carrot cake dripping with cream cheese frosting. I feel good. Paying the bills makes me feel even better; mature, responsible, secure.

This year I have received the best gift I could possibly imagine. For the first time I can remember, I feel secure. My gut tells me that things are going to be ok. Since leaving home at age 16, I have bounced from apartment to apartment, never lingering in any one place for more than two years. Although I have only lived here about 10 months, I can visualize myself at age 50, still sitting here, still enjoying the sweet ocean breeze as I glance out over the pool.

Enough blather; how do the numbers look?

The Good:
We saved our target $380. I also added an additional $333 to savings this month, as I explained here. The IRS issue remains unresolved. Cash assets are finally five-digits strong. If something bad happens, our safety fund is waiting for us.

The Bad:
We exceeded our target debt payment of $1,525, and reduced our bad debt by 6.75%.

AMEX: paid $1,100, owe $14,435.34
VISA: paid $1,000, owe $8,637.29
Car: paid $215, owe $5,702.15

Total Bad Debt: $28,774, down $2,082 from last month.

The Ugly:
Student Loans: paid minimums, owe $27,541.03
The Mortgage: paid $892 towards principal, owe $272,528.03

According to Zillow, my house is up to $277k this month. We are back to being “right side up”, and actually have $5k of equity again. LTV (loan-to-value) sits at a Serin-esque 98.15% (down from 102.60% last month).

Almost final thought: if you had $88,800 in an ING account, earning 4.50% per year, this account would pay a monthly Roth IRA contribution automatically. $88,800 @ 4.5% = $333 / mo * 12 = $3,996. You would be $4 short of a max annual contribution of $4,000.

Final thought: if you had $79,150 in an HSBC account earning 5.05%, you could do the same thing and save $9,650.

Hungry for more?

• Finance