Honestly, I haven’t been following the economic stimulus payment schedule that closely. I knew I was going to get one pretty soon but never really figured out exactly when I was going to get it.

Well, I checked my accounts through Yodlee this morning (like I do just about every morning) and noticed the following entry on my recent transactions:

05/09/2008 US TREASURY 220 TAX REFUND 050908 $ 1,200.00 Charles Schwab - Banking

I don’t really have any plans to go out and splurge with this. It probably will just end up being absorbed into regular bills and debt payoff. Still, its always nice to get a little extra cash in your pocket.

Taxable Accounts:

$796.20 - Liquid Savings - 3.55% APY HSBC Savings Account
$15,412.98 - Savings - 4.25% APY Countrywide Savings Account
$8,279.05 - Checking - 3.01% APY Schwabb Investor Checking Account
$15,466.10 - Stocks - Misc. Direct Investments
$4,959.67 - Stocks - Ameritrade Izone
$3,663.04 - Stocks - Zecco
$2,700.12 - Bonds - TreasuryDirect

$51,250.16 TOTAL

Retirement Savings:

$17,462.75 - ROTH IRA - Vanguard
$1,145.31 - ROTH IRA - Scottrade
$58,513.16 - 401K - T. Rowe Price

$77,121.22 TOTAL

Debts

$2,892.08 - Student Loan - AES (3.625%)
$3,896.00 - Credit Card BT - Chase (0%)
$16,945.28 - Credit Card BT - BOA NEA (0%)
$6,986.18 - Credit Card BT - Juniper (0%)
$4,683.65 - Credit Card BT - Bank Atlantic (0%)
$19,114.00 - Credit Card BT - Upromise (0%)

$54,517.19 TOTAL

Housing / Automobiles

$263,590.10 - Mortgage - Countrywide
$339,500.00 - Approximate Home Value
$8,829.00 - Approximate Car Value - Edmunds.com

$84,738.90 - TOTAL (Approximate Equity)

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I think I am ready to officially declare it spring here in New York. With that, it means its time to do all the summer outdoor maintenance that comes with owning a house. For me, this means:

• Changing the oil and sharpening the blades on my lawnmowers.
• Fertilizing the lawn.
• Repainting areas needing attention.
• Pest control around the house

Pilgrimage to Home Depot

Of course, all this costs money. I went to Home Depot this weekend to purchase all the various things I needed to accomplish my tasks since its close to my house and I had a 10% coupon. Even with that the cost still added up to over $100.

And that’s not the end of the outdoor activities. We will purchase some flowers around Memorial Day for the yard, possibly sealcoat the driveway, and since we have a pool that is another big expense. The joys of home ownership I guess.

Well, finally at the update for the fifth and final of my 5 financial goals for 2008. So far there are some goals I have done well with, and other that certainly need work. Here is a recap of this final goal:

5.) Put 15% Of Our Income Into 401ks
I have been doing this for quite a few years now, however my wife has not. So I would like to get both of us to save this much in our 401k accounts this year.

Status

Well, this has been another difficult goal to meet this year. I have been putting away 20% since the start of the year which has been fantastic. I think I will have no problem continuing this through the rest of the year.

On the other hand, my wife was unhappy at her job so she dropped down to part time status there. She then was working part time as well at another office… so full time hours with part time status at both places. Unfortunately since she was part time this means she no longer had access to a 401k. She was actively looking for a full time position though, so we decided against opening a traditional IRA for a few months.

She has since found a new job which she starts next week and will offer a 401k plan. So once that starts up we should be on track to get at least close to our goal for the year.

Here is an update on my fourth of 5 financial goals for 2008. Here is a recap of this goal:

4.) Earn $5,000 In Income From Side Businesses
2007 was also a bad year for side income. My friend and I have a business but we were both too busy most of the year to do much with it and our profit suffered immensely. I would like to increase my side business income to $5,000 which includes that business and other side ventures I pursue.

Progress

Well so far this year I have only made $451.10 from side income. This is only 9.02% towards my goal for the year.

I knew it wasn’t going to be good. I haven’t done as much work on my side ventures as I had hoped to at the start of the year and the numbers definitely show it. Unfortunately the next few months are going to be rather busy for me as well so I don’t think I will have time to finish up any of the side projects that have been lingering for some time.

Taking some more time to review our 5 financial goals for 2008 a quarter into the year. Our third goal for the year was:

3.) Fund at least $4,000 in our ROTH IRA’s
I have to admit, before purchasing our new home I was doing a lot better with the ROTH savings. I slacked in 2007 and even in 2008 $4,000 is less than I would like to commit but seems like realistically possible. That however means savings of about $333/mo which has not happened in January so we are already behind.

Overview

My wife and I currently have 2 separate ROTH IRA funds. My ROTH is through Vanguard and I have a direct deposit setup from my paycheck to deposit $75 there (biweekly). My wifes ROTH is through T. Rowe Price and she currently contributes $50 per month.

Goal Progress

So far this year we have contributed $630 to our ROTH IRA’s. This represents progress of only 15.75% towards the goal for the year when we should be 25% there.

In order to meet our goal we will now have to contribute $374.44 per month for the rest of the year. Unfortunately this goal has kind of taken second fiddle to our debt reduction goals which I think will continue. That seems like a more important priority right now.

Hard to admit defeat for a goal already this soon into the year though so I will continue to track it.

Here is an update on our second of 5 financial goals for 2008. The following is a recap of this goal:

2.) Pay Down 20% Of Our Non-Mortgage Debt
This is a pretty ambitious goal but I think we can do it. After the wedding and home purchase though we have quite a few assets our debt has been steadily increasing. I would like to get this completely eliminated within 3 years, and 20% will be a great start. Most of this debt is at 0% or other reasonable rates so that is why I am not overly worried about paying it all off before all else.

Starting Point

We started this year at a rather staggering sounding $148,240.40. The majority of this debt however is my wife’s student loan debt which is at a fairly low interest rate (3.85%) as well as on some 0% credit cards that have been lingering for a while.

Progress

So far this year the debt has been reduced to $133,463.69, which is a 9.97% decrease. The chart below illustrates the decrease so far:

Needless to say I am pretty pleased with the progress on this goal. I thought it was going to be ambitious when we started the year, but we were able to buckle down and cut a lot of extraneous items out of our budget. We were also helped by a rather sizable tax return which mostly went towards this.

I’m not expecting to be able to continue at this pace the rest of the year, but 20% is definitely in sight and I am thinking the goal should be upped to 25%.

Earlier this year I had set 5 financial goals for 2008. I thought I would take some time this month to reflect and check in on our progress on these goals. I’ll start today with out first goal:

1.) Better Merge Our Finances
Since getting married last year, my wife and I still haven’t fully merged our finances. Part laziness, complexity and fear has kept us from doing so. I have been working so far this year on fixing this but it is still not done yet. It probably will take a few more months to get everything fully integrated.

Checking Account

We have made quite a bit of progress on this so far. We’ve been working to switch to a joint Charles Schwab Investor Checking account. So far I have switched over most of my finances and direct deposits to this account. My wife has been paying some of her bills from this account and some from her other checking account while we are still making the transition. I’m hoping by the end of next month to have this fully converted. Checklist for this is as follows:

• Pay all utility and house related bills from checking account.
• Stop using our individual checking accounts and just use our joint one.
• Convert all credit cards to new checking account
• Get both us more involved with expenses out of this account so we do not overdraft.

Credit Cards

We have not begun merging our credit cards yet. You’ll notice I still called some expenses “her” bills. This is something that definitely needs to be worked on before the end of the year in order to meet our goals.

• Phase out my wifes American Express and merge her account into mine (since I have had mine longer and we both have the same card). This will be our primary credit card.
• Stop using our other individual credit cards and settle on some joint ones.

Taxable Accounts:

$942.13 - Liquid Savings - 3.55% APY HSBC Savings Account
$15,363.16 - Savings - 4.25% APY Countrywide Savings Account
$8,197.60 - Checking - 3.01% APY Schwabb Investor Checking Account
$15,616.64 - Stocks - Misc. Direct Investments
$5,060.36 - Stocks - Ameritrade Izone
$3,589.11 - Stocks - Zecco
$2,677.38 - Bonds - TreasuryDirect

$51,446.38 TOTAL

Retirement Savings:

$16,547.68 - ROTH IRA - Vanguard
$1,088.86 - ROTH IRA - Scottrade
$55,088.74 - 401K - T. Rowe Price

$72,725.28 TOTAL

Debts

$2,925.53 - Student Loan - AES (3.625%)
$3,975.00 - Credit Card BT - Chase(0%)
$17,116.28 - Credit Card BT - BOA NEA (0%)
$7,057.18 - Credit Card BT - Juniper (0%)
$4,730.95 - Credit Card BT - Bank Atlantic (0%)
$19,405.00 - Credit Card BT - Upromise (0%)

$55,209.94 TOTAL

Housing / Automobiles

$264,066.14 - Mortgage - Countrywide
$339,500.00 - Approximate Home Value
$8,765.00 - Approximate Car Value - Edmunds.com

$84,198.86 - TOTAL (Approximate Equity)

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There are a few “Friends and Family” sales coming up some stores that I thought may be of interest. Typically these sales involve a % off or sales on certain items if you have a printout of the invitation.

Sears
Sunday March 30th, 6-9pm

10% off almost everything in the store. All Kenmore Appliances will be 20% off along with an extra 10% vip savings so 28% off total.

For more information just visit www.sears.com/vip and click on the link that says “View all specials”.

Staples
April 20-26, 2008

Save 12% on almost everything. Offer valid on in-store purchases only. Excludes personal computers, laptops, gift cards, phone cards and
postage stamps.

You can check this Slickdeals thread for the 12% customer appreciation PDF and more thoughts on the sale.

The time at my company has finally come to give out our yearly reviews and salary actions. Working remote often makes this a bit difficult as its kind of informal to do it over the phone, but luckily my manager was able to combine it with some other meetings he was flying into town for so we could meet face to face at their hotel.

It went pretty much exactly the same as last year. I was in the “above expectations” category (5/6) and received a 6% raise.

I will also be bumped up in title from “analyst” to “lead analyst” which will put me into the next pay band> Unfortunately it has not officially gone through so my manager was not sure if it was going to mean a pay bump when it does or not until next year.

So I am pretty happy with that, 6% should be enough to keep up with rising costs around town and give us a little extra money to play with at the same time.

I have changed the layout here on The Finance Journey. Its been a while in the making, and it still has some flaws (mostly in Internet Explorer 6) but nothing that should take away from the usability of the site.

I figured I would put it in since if I didn’t, I probably would let it sit around for another 6 months before actually putting the finishing touches on it. So this should give me some motivation.

If you see any problems or have any feedback, please feel free to comment or Contact Me.

I had posted before about the Windows Feedback Program where you could sign up with Microsoft to install tracking software on your computer. Unfortunately the offer is not open to new participants but I was able to get in as hopefully were a few other people who read us.

Well, I received an email from Microsoft today with some good news:

"This message is to notify you that your 3 months participation term has completed, and we are getting ready to ship your product. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. You will receive another email from us when shipments have gone out."

Microsoft is typically very generous with their products and does give out a lot of freebies if you keep an eye out. There have been rumors they are giving out free copies at the Microsoft Windows 2008 Launch Events if you missed out on this deal and want to give it a shot.

For all you coffee loving folks out there, Starbucks is set once again to offer free coffee to customers on Saturday March 15th 2008 from 10am to 12pm. A great way to cut down on your latte factor (for a day at least).

Here is the breakdown from past events:

Starbucks will host its Starbucks Coffee Break, inviting customers across the country to enjoy a complimentary cup of freshly brewed coffee. In stores and on street corners, from insulated brewing equipment and giant coffee backpacks, partners (employees) will pour tall (12-ounce) cups of coffee to surprise customers and delight commuters.

The 142nd edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance is up over at The Baglady. It has many great personal finance articles in one spot, including my post on Startups Offering Credit Scores / Reports.

Carnival of Personal Finance #142