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About Me:

Patrick

Single male in Ohio born in 1963. I'm "the toyguy" because I work in the toy dept. of a large retail store.

2011 Goals:

- Pay myself back into my savings account the money that I used to pay off my mortgage.
- Put $3000 into a Traditional IRA again.
- Put $1000 into a Roth IRA.
- Add at least $2000 to my Antarctica fund.
- Add $400 to Emergency Fund (At end of 2010 I have $2526 in this fund)
- Put at least some money into my car fund. I have a car fund created at ING with about $25 in it but need to start saving for a future car purchase.
- Go to Scotland for a week in May for a ghost tour and stay a few days in New York city.
- Might have to have another expensive roof repair. Last year or so I had to have half the roof done and was very satisfied. But I think I have to have the rest of the roof done now.
- Take a short trip to New Orleans for Halloween.

2010 Goals:

X- Pay myself back for latest car repair (rear breaks)
X- Add $400 to my E-Fund
(Added $410)
X- Continue putting whatever money I can into IRA fund for 2010 and 2011.
X- Put $3000 into IRA for 2010
X- Have income taxes done before end of March
X- Continue paying at least $100 extra on Principal of my mortgage each month
X- Continue putting whatever extra I can afford into my Travel Fund
X- Have to call Tours of Terror to make arrangements for Ghost Tour in Scotland for next year.
X- Try to take a trip to west Virginia in Spring or early summer.
- Take a short trip to Phoenix Arizona if I can get very low cost tickets. (FAILED. Couldn't get cheap enough airfare)
X- Figure out exactly when I can pay off the rest of my mortgage. It might be this year or the end of next year.

"Lofty" 2010 Goals:

X- Pay off my house completely by November. This one is not so lofty cause I will be paying it off sometime regardless. November will be the absolute earliest though.
(Paid off end of October)
X- Start an Antarctica Fund and save at least $1000 in it. I want to go there someday but its very expensive and my Travel Fund alone will never be able to handle it. (Put in $1200)
- Put at least an extra $1000 into my 2010 IRA than stated above but put it into a Roth instead of a Traditional.
(Failed. Never got around to this one)

2009 Goals:
X- Pay myself back $344 for muffler repairs on my car from December of 08.
X- Add $400 to my E-Fund.
X- Continue saving for a total of $4000 for 2009 IRA.
X- Start saving for total of $3000 for 2010 IRA. (Saved $690)
X- Have my first ever yard sale when the weather starts getting nice this spring.
X- Try to take a real vacation around July or August possibly to Costa Rica.
X- Pay at least $100 extra per month to Mortgage principal. I plan to pay off my mortgage completely before the 20 year mark which is about 3 years from now.

2008 Goals:
- Continue using Quicken to keep my checking and other accounts in order.
- Save at least an additional $400 into my
E-Fund (DONE) which currently has $1,200 in it. My overall goal for E-Fund is $12,000.
- Slowly work on building up a car fund. (VERY SLOWLY)
- Save enough into Travel Fund to take a good vacation in October. (Saved enough money but cannot travel this year)
Save $4000 for 2009 IRA contribution.
- Continue my "Paper (clutter) Challenge"
- More to come as I think it over.

a few odds and ends

November 25th, 2008 at 06:55 am

On one of my last posts I mis-spoke. I said that I was now getting 40 hours a week at work again. When I went in that day I found out I was only scheduled for 34 hours that week. I don't know what happened. The good news is that my boss left me work a few extra hours so it wasn't too bad. Still its a shame working in a store thats doing fairly well and working in the toy department at the Christmas season and I can't have my crumby 40 hours a week.

Anyways I found another dollar a couple days ago. My luck on finding money is still holding pretty well.

I also got a Pinecone check waiting to go to the bank and another one should be on its way. I was putting all survey money into my travel fund. But then I got sloppy and started dividing it into various other accounts. I have to start
putting all Pinecone money back into travel again. It added up kinda fast and it gave me initiative. I'm hoping I can go to Costa Rica in 2009 or someplace thats far off and exciting. I have enough money in my fund to pay for it already so its not totally a financial decision.

Had to pay my dentist about 21 dollars today from my last visit. I thought I paid them already but actually had forgot until I received a second bill from them. So I took care of that right away.

One of my credit cards was closed by Chase. I had 2 cards from them that are very similar. The one I use a lot and get points from. The second one I just kept as an emergency type thing in case I needed it. They asked me once why I didn't use the second card and I explained it to them. At that time they said it was fine and told me I could just save it for emergencies. They also upped the credit limit by a lot on the card that I do use. So now I got a letter from them closing the account because of lack of use. Ohh well it seems like more of a loss to them than for me. I just wonder if it hurts my credit rating. Even if it does I have no plans on buying anything major in the near future and my last credit score was 805 so I really don't care.

Everyone have a good week and a very happy Thanksgiving.

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “a few odds and ends”

creditcardfree Says:
November 25th, 2008 at 02:47 pm 1227624469
1227624469

The account closure can't be held against you since you were not in default. The only thing it probably changes is your debt utilization ratio. That is how much outstanding debt you have compared to credit available. Now you have less credit issued to you. Not really a bad thing and not too much to worry about in your situation.
toyguy1963 Says:
November 25th, 2008 at 04:06 pm 1227629189
1227629189

Thanks for the info. creditcardfree. I wasn't very concerned and there wasn't a lot I could do anyway but its good to know that it isn't resally held aginst me.

I still have 7 credit cards. And I still only use 1 of them. The others might start dropping me too.
creditcardfree Says:
November 25th, 2008 at 08:49 pm 1227646173
1227646173

It is possible they will drop you or lower your limit. It is just the banks/credit card companies changing their portfolios so they do have as much outstanding credit out there. Nothing personal!!

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The Toyguy's Blog

Chugging along at a snail's pace.

a few odds and ends

3 Responses to “a few odds and ends”

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