I wanted to update our van loan balance to reflect our regular payment, but the online balance isn't showing our payment yet. It has been deducted from our checking account. Customer service isn't open again until Monday. Darn.

So...I'll just say that our balance has to be under $8,200 with our regular payment. Yip. Ee.

I'll update the sidebar and post again when it is confirmed online.

On a side note, I think I need to get back to my ebay challenge this week. I have several things that would be good to sell now. And the cash would be nice.

I made another pricipal payment to our van loan today in the amount of $515. (See I added the $15 mentioned yesterday here!) This payment is smaller than the last one, but it all counts.

New Van Balance: $8,652

We are now under $9,000. Yipee! Another milestone. The regular payment should pull very soon, so I'll be updating again soon.

In case you are curious about what the plan is after the van loan is paid off, here's the scoop. We are saving as much cash as possible to purchase DH a vehicle. It seems likely it will be a truck. Hopefully, we can find a great deal on used and take out a very small loan.

From there our plans are a bit up in the air. We may be moving, or not. We need to keep cash available for a move. If it appears the move is further away, then we would pay off the small truck loan (if we have one). After that, I would really need to evaluate. College will be getting closer for our oldest. Overall, the goal will simply be to keep improving our financial situation, through saving, investing and mortgage paydown (if we have one at the next location).

I know. It's a bit vague. It even bothers me a bit. So it goes as a military family. I will just do the best we can with what we know at the time.

I cancelled the gap insurance on our van. The refund of $258.47 was finally received and applied to our loan balance.

New Balance = $9,167

Getting closer to another milestone. Expect that next week when our regular payment hits the account!

I made a large payment to our van loan today that brought our balance below $10K. The payment was $1175. This is an extra payment, so the full amount reduces the principal.

New van balance: $9,425

Yipee!! I'm happy dancin' over here.

I think I mentioned this in a blog post awhile back: I cancelled the gap insurance on our van. The loan will be paid off shortly...so why keep paying for it. I was just informed my refund will be $258.47!! I think we paid $495, so half will be returned.

It does get sent to the lender, well after the dealership receives it and sends it to them! I will be checking that account everyday, since I know that it will lower our outstanding loan balance. You know I like anything that lowers our balance!

It is just that time of year where we have lots of expenses. Dance shoes, pictures, fund raisers, fall school clothes, just to name a few. As a result, I have less money to send to our van loan. Or I should say less money than I would prefer to send to our van loan.

Although less in this case is still significant. I made a nice even principal payment in the amount of $529 this evening. It will post tomorrow.

New (even lower) van balance: $10,600

Yipee!! We're under $11K.

Our regular payment on our van loan posted yesterday. The principal portion was $453!

New Balance = $11,129

I expect to make another principal payment very soon. I just need to figure out what the amount will be. I know I can get that loan under $11K though!

NJDebbie asked in the comments yesterday about our plans after we have paid off the van loan. I bet a few more of you want to know too.

My husband has been very patient in waiting to get a new (or newer) vehicle. He has driven our beater cars (okay they aren't quite beaters) for years. He works very hard to provide for our family, while allowing me to stay home. We will be then saving for a large downpayment on his next vehicle. There may be some financing, but we will get it paid off quickly, too. Our current van and the future vehicle will be in our lives for quite some time as we hope to cashflow a majority of college for our girls.

I just now have to convince hubby not to go overboard with his purchase of a new vehicle. He sure would love all the bells and whistles.

I made a large principal payment to the van yesterday. Apparently, I checked way too early this morning because it was not showing up any where. Yikes! I sent $1011 in electronically, so you can imagine the little scare I put myself through. I decided to trust that it would appear. Sure enough, a few hours later it is recorded.

Our new van loan balance is now under $12K, with a balance of $11,582!!

Other exciting news: I was sent an email by Best Western Rewards that we have points to spend. I don't think we have stayed in one of their hotels for over 4 years. Because of the email, I decided to cash out some points for a $25 gift card to Target. Yipee! I will use the money for Christmas or groceries in December.

until payday! I did make yesterday a no spend day. Yipee!! I have about $60 left to make it through these next six days. I have enough food from what I can tell. I might need to fill in with a few things.

The air conditioning is staying off again today. It is so nice to have nearly zero humidity. I can stand heat, but not humidity.

I'm going to add a disclosure when I write these type of emails, because it never fails that when I say I only have $X left, someone says I need to plan better. Maybe I do. However, what isn't said is that we have zero credit card debt, all bills are current, we only owe money on our van loan and mortgage. We have saved 15% of our gross income for retirement, made college contributions and paid additional principal on our van loan. We have even set money aside for short term needs, such as the next auto insurance premium. When I say I only have $X left before a pay day it refers to our budgeted spending money. If I need something that exceeds that I do have cash available, I am not on my last dime!! To say otherwise is insulting.

We made our regular van payment with $448 going to principal. This brings our new balance below $13K!

New Balance: $12,593

Our regular payment is $496, but as we have paid down the principal balance on the loan, I've noticed that Honda is lowering our payment due. For instance, next month our payment will be $493.82. I guess that is good...I just need to add a few dollars extra to the principal payment.

Other news related to the van: I've requested cancellation of the GAP insurance we purchased. I'm hoping for at least $200 back. I believe it will get sent directly to our loan, so I need to keep an eye on that account. I'm not exactly proud of buying a vehicle that we had to buy GAP insurance on, but we are paying this loan down pretty quickly. It would have been more financially devastating to have owed money on a vehicle that we could no longer drive. And I must say...I love my van.

I have added a new page to my sidebar which will list the extra principal payments we make on our van loan. Here's what it looks like so far:

07072010 $265
07152010 $560
07222010 $700
08012010 $1200
08132010 $615

YTD Total = $3340

Not bad in just over 5 weeks time!!

It's payday! I've saved $215 towards our emergency goal and made a principal payment on our van loan in the amount of $615.

EF Balance: $2,736.98

Van Balance: $13,041.00

Our regular payment on the van loan will likely hit on Monday, which will put us under $13K!! The goals are moving along nicely.

I'm very interested in refinancing our mortgage. My sister mentioned rates that were below 4%, so I went looking online yesterday. I noticed ING Orange mortgages were 4% and under and closing costs for our home would be about $2K.

With one of the scenarios, we could recoup the closing costs in less than 9 months. If applied the savings in interest to principal we would begin paying the loan off faster. It is so tempting.

Right now we are paying 6%. I would have refinanced a year ago or more, but I kept thinking we would move. The closing costs would have been considerably more, too. Well, we could still move....so I don't know what to do.

Ugh...military life makes things complicated! In fact, can I refinance while DH is deployed? I have a power of attorney, but will that make things more complicated?

Well...just venting! I'm undecided. Any thoughts, even though I didn't give lots of details?

I'm going to tell a story about my sister in law. I don't know all their details, but some of this information may help someone else.

My sister in law and her husband filed bankruptcy on their business about four years ago. They did keep their house and cars. In the last year, Citimortgage would not accept payments from my SIL and returned the money. She has spent hours trying to figure out the problem and getting them to take her money. Obviously, if they don't take your payments you start to become delinquent according to the mortgage company.

Again, I don't have all the details. Apparently, they have a mortgage with a balloon payment. It seems this may have come due and been part of the problem. However, it was never communicated to SIL that the balloon was due. Even in her phone calls it wasn't communicated.

At some point, Citimortgage does apologize and admits they did not send notification the balloon payment. They now have until late September to pay the balloon. For SIL this will require refinancing their mortgage. Of course, it is hard to refinance when the current mortgage company shows your account as delinquent by months!!

Again more phone calls to Citimortgage to determine how she can get current if they won't accept payments. She speaks to a lawyer. She threatens to get her lawyer involved because she feels that if Citimortgage forecloses, they lose their equity of $50K and that technically Citimortgage is stealing from her.

She has the money to pay the mortgage and has all along. They just wouldn't accept payment. Finally, a customer service rep says she can wire the full amount and bring the account current. Of course, only after my SIL threatens to sue!!

My sister in law does wire the money. Citimortgage accpets and puts the account current. They now have until late September to make the balloon payment by refinancing, which SIL says is in the works.

Umm...why did it take so many hours of phone calls to get out of Citimortgage that a simple wire transfer of money would solve the problem? I hope this information might help someone in a similar situation.

Today was payday. The bills are paid!

I have added $215 to our emergency fund goal. Our new balance is $2517.36. I expect a little interest to be earned and added tomorrow.

I also made a huge $1,200 payment towards the principal balance on our van loan. The new balance is $13,656!! We are under $14K now. That makes me happy. I would love to see this loan under $10K soon. Maybe by October.

I love goal progress don't you?

I mentioned in my previous post that my oven may not be working. However, when I cooked the chicken last night it came out just fine and in the right amount of time. BBQ chicken. Very yummy!

Since the oven seems to be working I just made a $700 payment to our van loan!!

New Balance: $14,856

This money was from the grant I received from Our Military Kids. It really is extra funds and should not be saved for a oven repair. If the oven ends up not working in the future I do have other funds I can pull from. And it likely wouldn't be $700, right?!

It feels good to keep moving forward on the van loan.

Last night, I planned to send $700 to our van loan. Today, I've changed my mind in light of new information.

My husband took an extra $100 for spending money, simply because he thought that is what we agreed on and he didn't want to mess up my bookkeeping! But guess what? That isn't what we agreed on...and he did mess up my bookkeeping!

It seems my gas oven is not heating correctly. First dozen cookies came out great. The next two took nearly twice as long to cook! I'm attempting to cook chicken now to see if the cookies were a fluke. In the end, I may need to have my oven repaired.

I expect I should be able to send some money to the loan, but I'm going to wait until I know more about the oven repair first. Another lesson in patience while paying off debt.

I requested a grant from Our Military Kids to cover six month of tuition for my children to attend dance and tumbling. We received it!!

The check was sent to the organization and I actually had prepaid the tuition for the upcoming year. The dance studio is sending me a check for what is now an overpayment in the amount of $697. Yipee!

The real question though is what to do with this money. I could put it on the van loan. Or I could save it for things like school clothes and Christmas gifts. If I put the money on the van loan, as these expenses come up, I will need to reduce the amount I put on the van loan.

Any opinions?

Are you ready for this?

I made a principal payment in the amount of $560 on our van loan today. Our regular payment is also posting today. I expect $442 of that payment to go to principal. Umm...that is $1002 off the balance of our loan!!

New Balance: $15,556.00

We are now under $16K. Yipee!!

For an update on our emergency fund goal, see the previous post!

I'm looking forward to payday. I can make an emergency fund addition! The regular van payment hits. There should also be some extra for an extra principal payment. I could actually figure it all out today, but I'm going to wait. I have quite a few projects that need my attention today. It will be a good day to stay inside and stay cool with the heat index heading for 105 degrees.

In my last post I indicated that I would not be able to get the van loan below $16K in July. Well, it looks like I might be wrong. And that is good!

I won't know the exact amount I'm able to send in until next week when I pay bills, but right now, I might have another $300 to put towards the loan! Nice, right?

I have realized that DH's paychecks are beginning to even out. In other words, I think I know what his net pay is each pay period now that he is receiving deployment pay! That makes me so happy...at least financially. I still miss him very much.

I made a principal payment to our van loan in the amount of $265 today. Nine dollars of that payment came from Pinecone survey payments!

This makes our new balance: $16,558.47

Our regular payment is due on July 15th. At this point I don't expect the balance to go below $16K this month...but look out for it in August!

I'm reposting this since there is so much blog spam right now:

Shall we all post our progress on our 2010 Financial Goals? The year is half over!

1) Max out our Roth IRA's = $10,000
On autopilot!

2) Save 7% of basic pay in TSP
On autopilot!

3) Pay off home equity loan
Completed March 11, 2010!

4) Save money for college = $3,340
On autopilot, as of March 2010

5) Add money to emergency fund = $7,000
Currently at $1,861.63 and adding $430 per month for the next 6 months. I will add cash from the sale of our car when that happens, too. This goal is on track!!

6) Pay off van beginning balance = $19,444
Current balance is $16,823.47. So far we have not made extra payments but hope to make a major dent in this loan by the end of the year.

7) Convert IRA's to Roth IRA's
Complete!

Overall, I'd say we are doing great. Some items are complete, many will be taken care of automatically, and only two major ones to focus on.

How are your 2010 financial (and non financial) goals coming along?

Shall we all post our progress on our 2010 Financial Goals? The year is almost half over!

1) Max out our Roth IRA's = $10,000
On autopilot!

2) Save 7% of basic pay in TSP
On autopilot!

3) Pay off home equity loan
Completed March 11, 2010!

4) Save money for college = $3,340
On autopilot, as of March 2010

5) Add money to emergency fund = $7,000
Currently at $1,861.63 and adding $430 per month for the next 6 months. I will add cash from the sale of our car when that happens, too. This goal is on track!!

6) Pay off van beginning balance = $19,444
Current balance is $16,823.47. So far we have not made extra payments but hope to make a major dent in this loan by the end of the year.

7) Convert IRA's to Roth IRA's
Complete!

Overall, I'd say we are doing great. Some items are complete, many will be taken care of automatically, and only two major ones to focus on.

How are your 2010 financial (and non financial) goals coming along?

Our van loan balanced dropped below $17,000 today when I made our regular payment of $496. With $438.82 going to principal our new balance is: $16,823.47.

Yipee!!

In other news: my mother purchased a doll house for my daughters that has to be painted and put together with glue. It's like a construction project!! It is a bit overwhelming especially when they would like it done NOW. We now have zero excuses for being bored this summer.

We are behind on our goals. It is a bit frustrating. I know by the end of the year we will be close to meeting them, but it is hard not to see progress. Right now, I'm seeing the most progress on the van loan simply because I'm making our regular payments!

We have plans to sell our car to a relative as soon as August for $2500. That money will go to our emergency fund goal. If I count that right now, we would have close to $4000 of the $7000 that is our goal. I would need to put about $430 towards that goal each month, for 7 months, to meet the goal by the end of the year. That is definitely possible with the cash that will be coming in from deployment.

The emergency fund goal is really our first goal, even though a part of me really wants to get going on that van loan debt. I just need to face the fact that the loan won't be paid off by the end of 2010, but early 2011.

Well, just writing it out makes me feel better. We are so blessed to be able to make such great progress on these goals in such a short period of time. I need to remember that, right?

Our regular payment on our van loan was processed yesterday. We paid $439.26 towards principal reduction.

New Balance: $17,262.29

Next month we will be under $17,000!! I'm looking forward to that.

Today our regular van payment posted with $435.92 going to pay down principal. Yep, we have a large payment, but we actually should get pretty close to paying the loan off this year!

It will be a couple more months before additional principal payments are made, so the progress will be a bit slow in the beginning. But this is where we are now!

New Balance: $17,701.55