Bill's Personal Finance Blog

Today, I logged into my Online Banking Acct to see what was going on (see if dd hit it) and i was shocked to see a $400.00 debit on the acct. I immediately googled the company name which was AAERC and nothin came up, stopped by a branch and after 20 minutes researching, it was a check that was deposited on my acct in November from a person that owed me money. The check was good, except that instead of writing $450.00, he wrote fifty dollars, the number was correct, but not the wording. I asked why it took so long to catch it and the CSR said, "Well, every transaction is manually checked and audited to see if there were no mistakes during the automation process and usually because of high volume towards the end of the year, sometimes it takes up to 6 months to catch it.

I was angry, had a major headache and didnt know if I cussed BofA or the person that deposited the check. This serves as experience. "You should be the only one depositing into your account" so this crap doesn't happen again. Oh well, time to go chase the person that owed me money. Now this is the bad part......

After playing around with some numbers. I have set some goals for my Emer Funds.

For my Cash Reserve i want to have $24,000.00 - I'm almost half way with $11,315.44. about 47% there.
For my Emergency Fund(Household Maintenance/Car Maintenance) I have set $12,000.00 with $104.87 in acct for that( it will be Keep the Change Transfers + Whatever is leftover on my household Budget. and Rainy Day/Vacation Fund is set at $6,000.00 with $184.45 - This is everything that I save with Coupons, Credit Card Rebates (ie. 5% cashback on Gas, Cell Phone Bill through AMEX SimplyCash) (3% on Groceries through Chase FreeDOM) and 1% on everything else. I opted for cash instead of points because Cash, i see everyday, points, it takes an eternity to see any thing relevant that can be done... I'll post an update on this next month to see how i am handling this agressive goals. My Debt is as follows

$ 54,514.07 - Unsecured Debt
$410,289.85 - Mortgage

I been doing some research into store insurance on merchandise and on the back of my head, this idea has been bothering me. I'm thinking of setting up my own Mini Insurance Company. Take the money that the store charges for insurance. ie. New Laptop ($149.99), take that money deposit into this insurance account(ing/emigrant works great), then another product and etc... I have been attacked at all these stores trying to offer you extended coverage (very profitable) and I am about to chip away at their profit since I buy alot of electronics in general. I remember paying $300 to insurance my Plasma TV for 3 years a few years back. The TV is still Humming and there is no holding back. I could have taken that money in put at these online savings acct and have around 330-340 with the interest compound... The product breaks down, i have a insurance..

I have an acct with BofA which I use mostly for house expenses.. Taxes.. Insurance.. Mortgage because of the Ease of Access to Deposit the money I receive from my Renter + plus a part time I Job I have. Buy groceries with the Debit card and recently signed up for the KTC, I think that is a very clever idea. You figure, you are chipping away cents here and there and it builds up. I'm already at almost $100.00 just with little change + the 10% match that BofA does (you have to take everything your bank gives) and this will be my official Rainy Day Fund/Gifts fund. Lets see this holds up 12 months from now. I figure its an easy non-intrusive way to save.

What terrible csr dept that e*trade bank has. I have spoken with about 6-7 diff people from diff locations(accents) and everyone tells me something different than its on the web site. I'm thinking of parking some cash for my operating account, just because, their checking acct is paying 3%, more than what BofA is paying 0.01% which, come on, is unreliastic. and while payment is in transit, i can earn a little here and there.. Counting the pennies guys, counting the pennies... thats where it starts...

Starting Off with a little about me. I'm a IT consultant out of Boston and i'm trying to work my self into a monthly budget. Maybe some sort of an excel sheet and diverse what whatever money is left at the end of each month. Since i'm in the middle when it comes to investing. I plan on putting about 60% in to cash (CDs/Online Savings Accts) and other rest in maybe some foreign etfs. I'll give you guys an update of how time goes... and an update on the budget.