One Dollar Allowance

We’ve been on a 2+ week trip, so I didn’t get around to this update. The financials are mostly updated, but I didn’t seek out a lot of details in the investment side to change those. The investments are down from the last update. We had quite a few “big ticket” items purchased for rentals over the last month, and we traveled, which added to our spending.

RENTALS

We’ve having more and more late payments with rent. We had one house have several issues and she texted nearly everyday. We have another house that didn’t pay June rent until July 5th, and when asked if she had a day she’ll pay, she said, “yes.” That’s like someone asking if they know the time and you respond yes. Is that the intent? Can you extrapolate the need for information? When Mr. ODA pushed, she said “well I just paid rent with my pay check, so this pay check had to go to other bills.” Having a roof over your head should be a priority. Another house paid $1150 out of $1400, but then didn’t pay the final bit so I did enforce the late fee on her, but I cut it in half. Another house pays twice per month because of their history of not paying for a long time, and so then they’ve now paid two late fees this month since each payment was late. At least I have them talking and letting me know when to expect rent.

One house wanted the side yard cleaned up. It’s always had trees in it, but the house next door sold and put up a fence. So it was more clear what was their property and they wanted space for the kids. I said I’d contact someone, but it was nearly impossible to get someone out for the job. He finally looked into doing it himself and I agreed they could pay half rent for that effort.

Another house had the stove go out and the toilet needed a new piece. The stove arrived dented, so we had to get it re-delivered. Another house had the HVAC go out, so that was a service call.

Another house had a compressor failure in their HVAC. We plan to sell this house, so we went for half the cost for the fix, but that was still $3,500.

I paid two home insurance bills. These houses aren’t escrowed, so they fall on me to manage, which is actually my preference.

PERSONAL

We registered for fall sports, which isn’t a small penny of a process. Our oldest is going to try out soccer. We’ve had 2 failed attempted when he was really little, but he’s been playing at recess for 2 years and seems to have grown a [slightly] thicker skin. Mr. ODA and I have played against him in the yard a bit, and we’re impressed by his ability to block the opposition, so maybe it’ll actually work out. Side note – he’s a really strong swimmer and treader of water. Someone last week said he could do water polo and a lightbulb went off. He probably would really enjoy that! Well, we live in the middle of the country and that’s not a thing (although I don’t get why because it requires a pool and not an ocean).

Our final payment for the cruise in October was due mid-July. As long as you don’t make final payment, they’ll adjust the price. We had a huge adjustment back in the black Friday sale timeframe, but I was holding out for even a little more. So I made the payment at the last possible moment, but that was a huge chunk added to the credit card.

School is just around the corner. Luckily we have family who buys clothes for our kids year round, so there isn’t a major “back to school” clothing shopping experience in our home. I need to buy a few supplies, but that needs to wait until next week when I can inventory what I purchased last year. I bought in bulk last year for two reasons: 1) if the teachers needed more supplies during the school year, I could just throw them in a backpack; and 2) supplies don’t expire, so I’d be ahead of the game for this year. It just requires me to know what’s there and what is still needed. Open house is the first week of August, so that’s my deadline. We do have everyone’s backpacks and lunch boxes ready at least.

NET WORTH

The market went down this past month, which is where the difference is in our net worth. We also increased our credit card balances a bit with the rental work needed. So the net is slightly lower than last month, but much higher than where we were a year ago. That’s the perspective I keep because the month-to-month fluctuation doesn’t matter that much.