Primary Mortgage Insurance (PMI)

I put a little over $3,000 down on my $102,000 house. I was approved for a FHA loan. Because I put less than 20% down on the home I had to have Primary Mortgage Insurance or PMI. My home is now worth $123,996(according to http://www.zillow.com/) and I owe $99,000. Since I owe less than 80% of my home's value, I should be able to cancel the $40 a month PMI. So, I went to the following websites to see how I could cancel my PMI:

1. http://www.frbsf.org/publications/consumer/pmi.html#cancel
2. http://moneygirl.qdnow.com/2007/07/03/how-to-get-rid-of-pmi.aspx

According to Money Girl (#2), I can't cancel PMI for a FHA loan:

These rules for canceling PMI do not apply to FHA or VA loans, high-risk
loans, or loans with lender-paid PMI

According to #1:

Under HPA, mortgage lenders or servicers must automatically cancel PMI
coverage on most loans, once you pay down your mortgage to 78 percent of the
value if you are current on your loan. If the loan is delinquent on the date of
automatic termination, the lender must terminate the coverage as soon thereafter
as the loan becomes current. Lenders must terminate the coverage within 30 days
of cancellation or the automatic termination date, and are not permitted to
require PMI premiums after this date. Any unearned premiums must be returned to you within 45 days of the cancellation or termination date.

For high risk loans, mortgage lenders or servicers are required to automatically cancel PMI coverage once the mortgage is paid down to 77 percent of the original value of the property, provided you are current on your loan.

I'm not sure if my FHA loan is a high risk loan, so I'll look over my paper work and see if there is anything about PMI termination and then call my mortgage company.

As a side note: Money Girl has a great podcast and website.

Out of Town Sweet Hearts

Like Debt Hater I have an out-of-town sweetie. If you would have told me a year ago that I'd be driving for 3.5 hours one way to see some man, I would have called you a crazy and laughed in your face. Life is weird, and I drive once a month to see him for about $50 to $60 in gas.

So, taking on a long distance sweet heart is basicly like taking on another bill. Can I justify spending money that could be going towards bills, children, and debt just to see a man.

1. First of all, does this relationship have potential or are you just buddies?

I say this man has potential:

• He is thirty-three, tall, chocolate and handsome (my favorite type of chocolate). You know we always have to focus on looks first.. tsk, tsk. you'd think after two kids and two baby daddy's looks wouldn't matter so much.


• no kids. Which could be a positive or negative thing depending on how you look at it.


• He's currently attending the University of Arkansas for his master's. He says (and I know men say a lot of things, so I try to look at his actions also) that he's getting old and he's looking to settle down once he graduates.


• He likes kids and has no qualms about raising another man's children because he was not raised by his real father.

2. So if he is just a F buddy then I would have stopped dating him but since he has potential, I have to ask myself what are his future goals and how do I fit into those goals?

• He told me after he graduates that he plans to move to OKC.

3. What are my goals and how does he fit in.

• Right now I just want to work, save money, and write. I don't think I want any more kids. He wants one more child. I need to make up my mind about this.

Because he is a college student I pay for most things-- movies, gas, food and I don't mind, because I know that when he graduates in December and gets a job, I won't have to pay for our dates. but again, there are no guaruntees that this relationship will work out. So I have to ask myself will I regret the money I've spent on our dates and the gas it takes to see him if the relationship doesn't work out? Right now the answer is no. I enjoy the time I get to spend alone (no kids) on the 3.5 hr drive. I love the atmosphere and the trees of Arkansas. and maybe I'm beginning to love him.... Maybe. and despite my horrible track record with men, I still think it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Home Equity Lines of Credit

I finally left my little bank that i've have been a member of since I was in high school. I left it for Chase because I got $100 free and the conversion was fairly simple. Although, I still have to change a few of my direct deposits. But all in all I'm glad I did it because I can access Chase from Yodlee, my online money manager. Well, while I was opening the account the rep asked if I wanted to open an home equity line of credit (HELOC). I said yes because I knew it would raise my credit score. More on why it would increase my score later. So, I applied and I was approved at an interest rate of 12% with a credit score of 660. Hmmm, I thought it was kinda high but didn't say anything.

I close on Saturday and in the back of my head my imaginary Single Ma has been telling me that I need to shop around. I'm a procrastinator but Midfirst is giving away $100 with a HELOC. OOh, so free money got me moving and I called a rep. The rep told me that with a credit score of 660 I should have a 9.5% interest rate. Hmmm, that is much better than 12%. I don't plan to ever use it but just incase, I need it lower.

I like Chase so I am going to see if they can do a counter offer. But I am getting ahead of myself. The rep could be wrong about the interest rate and it may be higher.

By the way HELOC interest rates can increase or decrease over time. Chase offered me 4% over the prime interest rate. Midfirst was talking about 1.5% over the prime interest rate.

I'll also need to compare the fees?
Do I have the option of paying interest only?
The yearly fees?
Am I charged a yearly fee if i don't use it?
How long must I keep it open to avoid a fee?

Back To My Original Weight

Slolwy, very slowly, after six months I'm finally back to the wieght I was from a year ago. The weight I considered my normal weight but I changed jobs in August of 2006, and the tormoil threw off my eating habits and I gained eight pounds. Eight pounds on a short person (5'3") is a lot. I went back to my old, low stress job and after six months I've finally lost the eight pounds.

Contributing factors to weight gain in the first place:

• I was doing all cardio and no weight lifting when I did make the time to work out.
• There was a really good chinese restaurant next door. I went there and used stress as an excuse to eat.
• I started eating Mcdonald's cheeseburgers and fries again.

When I list it that way, it doesn't seem like a big deal but those little additons added up to eight pounds in six months.

Contributing factors to weight loss:

• My best friend thinks i've been taking diet pills. I did for two weeks but I didn't like the side effects. So no, I didn't use pills.
• no hamburger meat, I buy turkey, fish or chicken instead.
• On gym days (2-3 times a week) we have cereal or pb and jelly for dinner (my son loves that change).
• I've added more and more fish to my diet, which is delicious and I can't believe I'm just now starting to cook it.
• Use Splenda instead of sugar for Kool-Aide and tea. We can't tell the difference. But Splenda sucks in coffee.
• On the days we don't have gym. I cook and we eat and either I'll go and mow the yard or we'll go bike riding. That burns off the food I'd just had. (I think this makes the second biggest difference)
• And the most important thing for me: Stop over eating. I am the biggest over eater ever because I eat for pleasure.

Weekend Report

I don't know why I haven't posted anything. I've had the time. and all i've been thinking about are my finances but... I haven't posted anything. I need to write down a plan to achieve my long and short term goals. I also need to post my weekend spending reports because that is where I spend most of my money-- Over the weekend. So I'll post about that first. How much money I spent over the weekend. Well, I knew it was going to be horrible because I went to Arkansas to see boyfriend (A three and half hour drive).

$50 gas
$9 trip to walmart to buy cleaning supplies (he detailed my car for me)
$22 for extra cleaning supplies and then i bought other crap
$10 for babysitter
$15 for drinks
$22 for breakfast (he cooked but I bought other crap from Walmart)
$128 total

If it wasn't for the added on crap, the weekend spending would not have been that. But... I had a great weekend away from the kids. and I think the detail job he did was probably worth $150.

I Saved Myself $972/year and aLump Sum of $1,129

In the spirit of fighting procrastination, yesterday I did some spring cleaning of my finances and saved myself $971/year. Go me!

Bills
canceled efax:
$17/month, $204/year

downgraded Netflix:
$13/month $156/year

increased home deductible and coverage:
$7/month, -79/year

increased geico deductible from $500 to $1000 to save:
10/month, $120/year

downgraded cable (They were charging me for $12/month for Cinemax):
$24/month, $288/year

canceled Vongo:
$10/month, $120/yr

savings of $81/month, $972/year

With the extra

Lump Sum
Disputed Let's Talk $150 (to credit card). They charged me $150 for returning their freaking m erchandise

Called AOL for credit for double charging: $77 (to credit card)

Applied for my daycare and health Reimbursement Account: $750 (I'm not officially saving money on this but I usually take forever for these reimbursements)

Requested Credit for Water Bill: $152

Total $1,129.

Where is the $1,129 going? easy. To my Chase Card (Amazon) that I used for rewards. Unfortuntately, I haven't been watching my spending for the last three months so I have a balance that I need to rapidly pay off.

Now where is the $81/month going. I could use it to pay off credit cards also but soemthing is telling me to apply it to my 401k. So let's comprise. $40 to 401k and $40 to savings!


So what reoccuring bills do you have that you need to cancel?

Insurance Deductibles

Today I increased my auto insurance deductible to $1,000 from $500 and saved $120 per year, which is $10 a month. I need to make sure I put it in a savings account. I feel comfortable doing this because I have an A-OK savings account.

I also increased my home coverage from $115,000 to $125,000 and my deductible from $1,000 to $2,000. Which increased my premium from $1,119 to $1,198 which is an increase of $79. (I need to crank up my savings account!)

Totals savings
Auto: +120
Home: -79
Difference: +41

I need to look into having my home and auto under the same company but geico has always been the cheaper company for me.


For more info on whether you should increase your deductibles go to the following sites:

Here and here

I Am Officially a Stock Holder!

I know this isn't a big deal for most people but thanks to Money Hustler and the $50 bonus for Sharebuilder I bought my first stock (last week). I followed his advice and bought a $1.00 stock to recieve the $50 dollar bonus and I did the same for my children. And then today, I actually checked the stock market. I was so scared of the stock market, that this is a big deal. Of course, I have a lot to learn and some credit to pay off before I can seriously get into buying stocks but it's a big deal and something I've never done before. I'm tempted to keep the %50 in the share builder account but... like Single Ma said, "You gotta get debt out of the way first."

Financial Goals (Short and Long term) July 2007

Financial Goals:

Long Term:

• Develop a positive networth by July 2009. (Current network -$28,000)
• $2,000 savings account/emergency fund and then start investing.

Short term:

• Pay off WaMu credit card by December 2007 ($2,600)
• Beef my savings account back up. Goal $1,000