February Financial Update

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RENTALS

The rentals were expensive this month with $4600 paid out. This doesn’t include work that’s currently under way, but not paid for yet.

I paid for a water heater replacement, which was $1,904. I had to pay insurance on a larger property ($793). I paid the balance of the window replacement at one property, which was $1,064. I also paid for a plumber to address a leaking toilet and a rotted faucet ($325). We had a new tenant move into a vacant property, so we had that cleaned before her arrival ($165).

I had to pay for a plumber’s service call ($95) for clogged drains, for them to refer me to a rooter company ($250). I emailed that tenant that preventive measures need to be taken because I’ve not had so many calls to one property. She assured me they have taken appropriate measures and it’s just old pipes. The only problem being that we have several other properties with old pipes that never call for clogs.

We’ve turned over two properties and are about to turnover another property in the dead of winter. It’s so frustrating to be in such a position. All of those stories will be elaborated on in future posts.
– On one property, we charged a lease break fee of one month’s rent to cover our losses (the fee was different based on the month in which they broke the lease). Luckily, that covered our entire month of January being vacant, but we found someone for 2/1.
– Another tenant asked to leave a property because he lost his job. That was handled a bit different because we didn’t know in advance that this tenant would want to leave mid-lease. We told them there’s a fee of $250 (which is what it costs us to pay the property manager to find a new tenant), and that they had to pay rent until we found a new tenant. We didn’t lose any rent on that property.
– Now, we have a newly vacant property because the tenant can no longer afford it. I’m not expecting to recover her unpaid rent at this point. We approved a tenant to start 2/28, leaving us with 27 days of lost rent. However, we sent a lease over for them to sign. They’re currently dragging their feet on signing because they want to pay with their tax return. I don’t love that idea. They’ve been easy to communicate with up until this point, just slow. I’m hoping this gamble works out.

PERSONAL FINANCES

I had to transfer money to Mr. ODA’s account to cover the purchase of our new back door and a new treadmill (although that was only $400). This is an interesting concept for us. Mr. ODA had an account before we met. His account was grandfathered in to new terms and conditions at this bank. He’s kept his checking account and credit card for the rewards (I have access to the account; my name just isn’t on it). Any online purchases go on that credit card. However, that account only receives $250 every other week from Mr. ODA’s pay check (occasionally it’ll receive rent via Zelle). So sometimes, we need to transfer money from our main checking account to cover that credit card payment. All our security deposit accounts are with that bank too. So I had to then transfer from a security deposit account into his checking account, and then have him send that money to our main account. It wasn’t our finest money management moment.

Not much else happened this past month. We’ve gone skiing with the kids some more, I went on a moms’ cruise (which was amazing), took a small trip to piggyback Mr. ODA’s work trip, and have done activities around town. We’re gearing up for a procedure at a local children’s hospital next week, which I’m expecting will wipe out our deductible. Luckily that’s only $3,000, but I’m sure we’ll hit it. We’ll actually be late hitting it this year; it’s usually done in January.

NET WORTH

One of this year’s goal is to hit $4 million net worth. I thought it was going to be a ways away, but the market has been up big recently. We’re only about $14k away from that goal now!

“Cheap” Flights

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I recently went on a trip. We booked one of those “cheap” airlines, where you pay a la carte. Our round trip flight was about $50. In the process, I was amazed at the number of people who were frustrated by the rules, as if you don’t have ample opportunity to learn the rules in the process. So I wanted to go through a booking, to show you that there are plenty of warnings, and that it may or may not be cheapest to go this route.

I’m going to pretend to book a flight. From Cincinnati to Orlando, round trip, I found a flight for $87.96. The next page asks for my personal information. They then offer me a few options.

The price highlighted is for one way, and in smaller font, it indicates the round trip price. This could be a bit more straight forward, since my selection is for a round trip flight, so one way worth of baggage isn’t the expectation. I decide to ‘continue and customize.’ The next page is seat selection.

Every single seat has a price associated with it. Again, this could be more straight forward. Nowhere on the page does it clearly indicate that you don’t have to pick a seat. I click “continue.” There is a link below continue that says “what if I don’t pick,” but I didn’t check that. The next page causes me to pause and lets me know I should rethink my options.

I select no thanks. The next page provides my carry on and checked bag costs. I can select that I want to carry on and board first, just carry on, or have no carry on. I select no carry on and no checked bag. As I scroll down, it lets me know that I can have a personal item for free, and it lets me know the size restriction for this personal item. It tells me multiple times on this page that bags will be more expensive at the airport.

I click continue, without selecting any baggage, and it halts me again.

I then get asked a few questions about the check in process and any other add-ons. I decline everything, and I’m sent to the payment page. At the end of the page, I have to agree to several things, including baggage requirements, before booking.

The entire point here is that this airline has warned the consumer several times, through multiple pages and “clicks” that there are fees outside of the ticket price. So even if you didn’t know that the reason you found such cheap flights was because their pricing is a la carte, they’ve told you multiple times through the booking process. Similarly, you know going in, on any airline, that a bag over 40 or 50 lbs is going to be considered overweight.

It was frustrating to watch so many people get mad that they checked your bag size as you boarded the plane. You signed up for that. You could have checked the size. I read the wrong section when I packed my bag, so I had verified it as a carry-on size, which I didn’t pay for. I was able to move things around in my bag for it to be able to fit. If it didn’t fit, I knew that mistake was on me, and I’d pay the fee. The fee in the airport was $99. Yes, it seems astronomical to pay that fee for something that you can walk on with if you’re flying Delta or American, but it’s the rules for this airline, and I know that going in. I could have adjusted things for the flight home, so my total for this roundtrip would have been $150, still cheaper than roundtrips on other airlines.

For the pretend flight I went through above, if I had selected The Perks bundle, my total would have been $279. I’d get a carry on, checked bag, and the ability to select my seat at that price. Had I selected just a carryon each direction, my total would have been about $225. For the same dates, I could fly more inconvenient schedules (e.g., midnight arrival) for $209 through American.

When comparing the prices, you need to see what the best options are for what you need. If you can’t get by with just a personal item, then you need to factor that into the flight cost when comparing to other airlines. If you can’t handle the psyche of having your bag checked for size when you board the plane, then stick with the traditional airlines.

Be an informed traveler. Know the fees associated with your airline. Know the restrictions for each item. Plan in advance instead of having to move things around at the airport where you’re going to feel the stress.

Slider to French Door Replacement

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In my January financial update, I mentioned that we “somewhat on a whim” replaced our back door. I started to tell the story there, but I had more to share about the process and how we went about it.

We purchased our home in June 2022 with a sliding door out to the deck. This is the first house we’ve had with a slider. It’s not my preference, but it wasn’t worth putting any energy into.

Over the last year and a half, we’ve had trouble with it. The lock mechanism kept freezing on us, making it difficult to unlock the door to let the dog in and out. The door was also very heavy and/or hard to open. Our slider in the basement is much easier to move, but this one just wouldn’t budge without a lot of effort. On top of all that, there were vertical blinds over the door. I had no problem with how they looked. However, they weren’t installed correctly to begin with (the story of everything in this house, apparently), and the stick used to open and close them were on the wrong side. Then add in a one-year-old pulling on the blinds. Slats kept breaking, I was being blinding by the sun, and I was tired of fighting the baby to stop pulling at them.

In our Virginia home, we had a french door style (although one side was stationary) back door. Then in our last home, we had a regular back door, but there were blinds between the windows. That was my dream at this point: blinds between the glass so that they weren’t pulled or broken by kids, and a door instead of slider. I really didn’t want to hang curtains over the doors or manage blinds that get attached to the side of the door.

FINANCIALLY

We had a window company come out for a quote. He said that some work may need to be done to adjust the opening because it’s not a standard opening, but didn’t say much else. He went through all the details and finished out our meeting with a quote of $9,300. I can’t even begin to explain how that wasn’t even close to reasonable. He said it wasn’t a custom door and claimed that adding the blinds to the door was $2,100. No thanks.

The door I wanted was at Home Depot for $995. Seriously. It hit all the specs I wanted. The door was primed, not painted. To order the door painted white, it was going to be $2,200. I could paint the door myself for a lot less than $1,200. Both sides actually open, even though I was going to be happy with just one side opening.

I was hesitant to buy it because the window company made me feel like I had a custom opening. A few days later, my dad came to visit, so I asked him to measure the door. He confirmed that it is a standard size door. He said that before even measuring it, he knew it was going to be a standard opening because it would be way too much money to create a custom slider. He said I should get the door, and he’d help install it. I really only wanted the door measured. I planned on having our deck contractor install it, which he said he’d do for $500.

As I looked more into it, I was able to get the door scheduled for delivery for the next day for $79. By amazing luck, it was delivered at 9:30 am, meaning we could get to work right away.

INSTALLATION

The installation process was a lot more straight forward than I expected. It’s a job that requires heavy lifting and extra hands to hold things in place every now and then, but each step is logical.

My dad removed the interior moulding, and then he cut through any screws that were between the door frame and the house. We tipped the slider outward and moved it out of the way. We then cleaned out the opening, removing any extra foam insulation and sweeping out the sill. The next step was to put 3 caulk lines on the sill. The hardest part was keeping the kids and dog from stepping on this before the new door got moved into place. The door was then lined up on the bottom and tilted into place. A couple of screws were put in to hold it while we shimmed it.

The shimming process was time consuming, but it was straight forward. The screws went straight through the holes already in place for the hinges (one screw in each hinge was longer than the others so that it would hold the door in place). Once the screws were all in place, we then put spray foam around the door. It was important to keep an eye on the spray foam so that it wouldn’t creep out and attach (and stain) to the door.

The door that was removed didn’t have the brick mould on the exterior, so it sat further into the house. The door we installed did come with the brick mould, and my dad said it was best to keep it on. This meant that our gap between the floor and door frame was bigger than we’d prefer. My dad actually removed the last row of hardwood flooring (that had been ripped down to fit the original door) and installed a new, full row of flooring (we had some on hand in the basement). That was pretty impressive to me!

FINISHING TOUCHES

We could have used the moulding around the door that was already there, but I wanted to change the look of it. While I decided on the new look, it gave the spray foam almost 24 hours to expand and dry out before we cut it back. We cut it back and installed the moulding as I designed it. I painted the moulding, while deciding on the door color.

Everything around my house is a navy, even though I’m trying to push towards a black-and-white. The kitchen backsplash was navy when we bought it, the back of the living room bookshelves are navy, the dining room walls are navy, and all the roman shades are navy. I was afraid to pick a different color, so I went with navy on the doors. I used a metal-friendly paint to hopefully prevent chipping.

The door has moulding around the glass, with screws on the interior. The hardware bag should have included plugs for the screw holes, but it didn’t. I emailed the company asking for replacements, which they sent within 2 weeks.

COST BREAK DOWN

Door: $1,142
Paint: $22
Moulding: $71
Caulk: $14

Total tangible costs are ~$1,250. We then also bought my dad gifts to pay him for his services, knowing he wouldn’t take straight cash from us.

For now, I’m keeping the door navy. This picture only has 2 coats of the navy; I need to do the final coat with a roller. I think I’d prefer a lighter color on the door to compliment the navy, but also so you could see the black handle and black hinges I installed. I need more time to contemplate the change. Maybe once our deck is replaced (ignore the mangled deck railing and furniture that still hasn’t been replaced/fixed from the July 2nd storm where a tree fell on it) and the weather is nicer, I’ll have an epiphany moment. For now, I’m beyond thrilled with the replacement that was under $2000 for all of it.

Funds Management in Excel

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At the beginning of every year, I set up two spreadsheets in Excel. One is for our personal money management, and one is for each property’s expenses in the year (that will eventually be put into Schedule E in our taxes). I regularly mention using Excel to track your income and bills, so here’s a quick snapshot of what I do.

These are all dummy numbers, but otherwise, this is my spreadsheet set up (with several lines eliminated to reduce your visual clutter). The top purple section is rental income per house, the green section is rental property expenses, the blue section is our home’s bills, the gray section is what affect’s Mr. ODA’s account instead of our main checking account (Mr. ODA has his original account from before our marriage (I have access to view it) because of benefits associated with the linked credit card, and it was never worth closing it or adding my name to it). The white is what’s left over. The blue section is not necessary to be a different color and is left over from another way I tracked bills, but I’ve left it to differentiate home bills versus credits and investments.

The final line of “Other*” captures items that only occur once or twice a year, but have a significant impact on the checking account or is a deadline I want to be aware of. I keep the preschool registration fees on there so that it’s on my radar that registration comes due at about this time. In future months, I have taxes that are due for houses we have not escrowed, which is about $1500 worth in June and about $4000 worth in October.

The columns are organized by Mr. ODA’s pay check date. His pay check appears in the account every other Saturday, so that’s the date at the top. Then I’ve put all the income or expenses that align between that pay check’s date and the next pay check’s date in that column. This helps me project whether I’ll need a transfer from savings to cover the checking account balance. This particular section of the spreadsheet doesn’t show account balances, but you get the gist of the organization.

Each year, this is tweaked a little. I eliminate lines that are no longer necessary (for instance, our HOA is now paid annually, so I don’t need a line taking up space for a once-per-year bill). I add lines that become necessary (cable used to be paid by credit card, but now there’s a fee for that; since it affects our checking account monthly, it gets a line). It would probably be better to separate out my “investments” line into the specific transactions that happen each month, but I didn’t want more lines on my spreadsheet.

When rent is received or a bill is paid, I change the font color to gray. This indicates that it’s done and helps eliminate visual clutter for me. I can focus on the black font, which indicates to me it’s still due.

As I get closer to each pay check column, I update the projections. For example, a credit card may have had more than average expenses on it. This could happen because one credit card has a quarterly bonus for gas purchases. So while it’s typically $100 for a statement, it may be more like $200 because of the gas purchases on it. I update the projected payment because I need to monitor the checking account balance too. I also keep last year’s utility bill amounts in each column. I use this to track whether this year’s payment is comparable to last year’s at this time, so I know whether to look further into a bill because it’s significantly different than last year’s (for example, if last year’s June gas bill was $30, and this year’s June gas bill is $60, I want to check to see why it doubled, whether that means a leak or error in billing).

Every person’s tracking is going to look different. You may just have rent and utility bills to pay, and you can manage it via email notifications. You may want a more active approach to the tracking and use a spreadsheet in some fashion. This is just a start for you to have a visual in how a spreadsheet may be helpful in your money management, and may even help eliminate late fees or billing errors because you’re more actively managing your money.

New Year Financial Organization

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Two weeks ago, I shared how I organize my home and manage my time. I have my own home’s finances, thirteen rental properties, three kids with two in school, investments, and whatever other ad hoc bills show up to manage. I don’t have the ability to think in a quiet and distraction-free environment after 7:30 am. That post was all about the little steps I take at the beginning and end of my day that help set me up for success. This week is what I’ve done to organize our finances to ensure bills are paid on time, while managing it against what income I’m expecting. This also has tidbits on organizing yourself so you don’t end up with missed bills.

One problem that I run into is business hours. I seem to be working with a lot more companies that won’t let me make payments online and require a phone call. It’s so frustrating. So after a morning of my chores and managing the 3 kids, I need to put on my big girl pants and muster the energy to make my phone calls while the baby naps (and the two big kids are likely placed in front of the tv… except they like to tell me about the show they’re watching while they watch). Then there are ones that are even worse because they require me to leave a message for someone to call me back, even though my ability to have a coherent conversation is really only within these 2 hours of the day. For example, I ended up scheduling my son’s surgery while finishing up check out at Home Depot and walking out the door with two children in tow.

FINANCIAL ORGANIZATION

Every year, I need to set up two spreadsheets. One keeps track of our income and bills, and the other keeps track of property-specific income and expenses. While an investment property tracking mechanism isn’t something that everyone needs, a way to manage your bills is. My financial tracking spreadsheet has been used in the same exact form since 2012, when Mr. ODA and I got married.

Before I get into the spreadsheet tracking mechanism, you can do something as simple as a calendar appointment. At this time, the preschool director sends an email with a new link every month to pay tuition. Last year, it was the same link all year with no reminder email. Since this was something I wasn’t used to, I made a calendar appointment on the first of every month that said “Tuition Due.” I check my calendar every few days at the very least, so I didn’t need it to notify me; but you can set it up to send a push notification or an email if you need one of those forms to help with the reminder.

Mr. ODA gets paid biweekly. The paycheck shows up in our account on a Saturday, so my tracking is by that date. For example, his paycheck showed up on the 6th this month. I also expected to have most of rent paid on the 5th (falls on a Friday, tenants have a grace period until the 5th without a late fee, and it’s just after the holidays). I have each house listed with their respective rent due. As rent comes in, I turn the font color to gray from black, which is my indication that it’s been received. If I’m not expecting rent until later in the month, then I move it out to that two-week period column.

For expenses, I list anything that will come due between the 6th and the 20th. This includes all mortgage payments, utility bills, credit card payments, and investments planned. Again, as they’re paid, I turn their font from black to gray.

This process is necessary for me because of the number of bills I have to manage. The spreadsheet is an indicator to me that a bill is coming due, so if I haven’t noticed an email or mailing with the bill amount by a certain date, I go search for it. I don’t want to miss a payment. Sometimes, a system is updated and your email is missed, or there’s a glitch, and then there’s no email sent as the trigger for me to pay it. I like having the spreadsheet as a “safety net” for our bills.

MAIL ORGANIZATION

Nearly all of my bills are sent electronically to my email, but I sometimes receive paper mail. It could be a medical bill, a rental’s utility bill, tax bills, etc. I open all my mail the day it’s received.
– I separate out the junk mail and put it immediately in the recycling bin. A pile of envelopes building up over the week just creates distractions. You see a big pile that needs attention, and it’s a daunting task. If you eliminate the things that don’t actually need your attention immediately, it leaves a smaller pile for you to see.
– I lay papers that don’t need action, but I want to keep on file, in a pile at the bottom of my stairs. Many of these could probably be eliminated because I have access online. But sometimes it’s easier to have a paper version available. For example, my EOBs are mostly available online. Sometimes they don’t load on the website, and sometimes I need to take notes on issues I’m working on with them (which is far more often than I’d care to admit for a service I’m paying for).
– I lay the papers that need action on my “to do” pile, which is in the kitchen. When I worked in an office and didn’t have kids, managing these bills was a lot easier. Now I’ve set up a routine where I check the pile every Friday. The pile is visually available; it’s not in a basket or a drawer. There have been a few times where time flew, and before I knew it, I hadn’t checked the pile in 3 weeks (newborn life!). The scare that I remembered to pay a bill right on the due date, and by sheer coincidence checked my pile that day, made me establish a more consistent expectation of myself to look at the pile every Friday.

EMAIL ORGANIZATION

When I was working, this was a hot topic. I stayed on a top of my email. I verified that someone else didn’t respond to an email before I responded. I didn’t attend a meeting and state that I hadn’t seen an email pertinent to the topic discussed. I didn’t have leadership coming to ask me for a response to something that they didn’t receive timely.

I hit low hanging fruit first and reduced the clutter. This is the same concept as getting rid of the junk mail you get. I skimmed “all employee” emails to see if it was pertinent to me. I either read it right away (because these are just reading emails and won’t require an action) or I deleted it right away. I see people often just leave it sitting in their inbox unread. It’s a distraction. You’re constantly looking at something that needs to be dealt with, and it’s taking brain power away from the things that you really need to focus on.

Then I looked at emails from my direct leadership team. These items could be not pertinent to me, could require immediate action, or could be part of a larger situation that needs attention. After that, I focused on emails from my counterparts at the State. They’re my “customer,” and typically these emails are issues that need addressed timely.

Essentially, I’m skimming all emails and mentally filing them into how quickly they need attention or how much effort they’re going to take. If I can answer an email without any further research or effort than just typing the response, then I do that. I then immediately file the email because it’s “done.” I get it out of my inbox so that I can continue to focus on what needs addressed. At the end of this, I should only have a few emails left for action, and I get to work.

I manage my email the same way now, for my personal needs. Store coupons and such get deleted right away. A coupon is rarely good for more than a month, so I use my trash as the filing system there (which gets automatically deleted every 30 days). If I go to Kohl’s, then I just do a search in my trash folder for the latest Kohl’s emails to see if I have a coupon. I keep all emails that require action in my inbox. Right now, I have a Walmart order confirmation (so I’m tracking to make sure it arrives), a medical bill, a reminder from the Y to pick up a shirt, and the kids’ tuition email. When I’m done writing this, I’m going to go pay the two bills and immediately file them into their respective folder. When my Walmart order arrives today, I’ll delete that email. I’ll be going to the Y in the next couple of days, and once I pick up my shirt, I’ll delete that email.

BILL PAYMENTS

A lot of people would prefer to set up an auto payment for their bills. This is fine too, but that means you need to be keeping a balance in your checking account to cover all bills. I prefer to pay the bills based on what’s projected to be in my checking account, which is variable throughout the month. Some months, the pay checks align that mortgage payments to be paid on the 5th, sometimes it’s the 10th. You can only transfer out of a savings account 6 times per month, so I’m always managing that aspect as well.

The problem with auto payment is that you’re probably using that to “set it and forget it.” That’s not a great approach with bills. It’s a good approach if you’re sending $500 a month into your Roth IRA account, but not great if it’s your utility bill. If you’re usually seeing an electric bill for $75, then suddenly get a bill for $150, are you looking to see why that occurred? I did. Last year, I had a bill for $210 show up suddenly. I checked the meter against what they said the estimated meter reading was. They told me that the difference didn’t amount to enough to warrant an immediate credit. I thought that was unfair; I can afford to float that, but I don’t think everyone could suddenly absorb such an increase. I didn’t pay 2.5 months worth of electric because the actual readings were so much lower for the next couple of months.

REDUCE SUBSCRIPTIONS

Do you know what you’re subscribed to? Pay attention to all your charges over the next 5 weeks. Carefully consider what’s coming through. I’ve heard people say they didn’t realize they were paying two FabFitFun boxes. I’ve heard people say they’re paying for a Stitch Fix subscription that they haven’t used in 3 years. There are companies and apps out there that are trying to sell you a product to review this on your behalf. Is it really worth paying a fee to see what fees you’re going to save money from? No. Just put the effort into reviewing your statements now. Set a reminder in your email to check your week’s worth of charges at the end of each week. Pay attention.

What that company won’t do is help you decide if a subscription is worth it. Are you paying for 5 streaming services? Are you currently watching shows on all 5 platforms? Probably not. Go through phases. If you’re only watching one show on a platform, then you probably only need that subscription for a month or two of the year. We were subscribed to Peacock, but the only thing we used that for was The Office, which we put on as background noise; we cancelled that.

Have you been paying attention that a subscription has increased its cost? Is it still worth that price to you? These are things that you should be routinely asking yourself.

SUMMARY

The same goal applies in your daily routine as it does here: reduce the clutter so you can pay attention to what’s important. Reduce the number of subscriptions that you have coming in, reduce the number of papers you need to go through by immediately throwing junk mail away, set up an organized bill system so you stay on top of it instead of opening your mail once every two months.

January Financial Update

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As an intro for newbies: I write a monthly finance post. These posts started out as a way to manage our dollars spent per category. It evolved to show insight into my monthly money management and thought process. It’s also meant as a way to remind people that they should be looking at their money regularly.

Every month, I’m looking back at my spending, looking at trends on the higher level (e.g., why is my credit card higher than I expected), and sharing the rental property expenses and activities that I’ve accomplished.

I typically post on Thursdays. Unfortunately, life got in the way. I had 98% of this written, but I hadn’t updated our accounts until 10 pm, so this is now posting off-schedule, on Friday morning. Sorry about that!

RENTALS

I suppose with 13 houses, it’s inevitable that I’ll have to keep track of one.. or a few.. to collect their rent. One tenant is set up to pay twice per month (they pay a premium for this). They paid both parts of December late, and the first part of January late. They pay a late fee with that. I had two other tenants pay late by a few days, but they communicated this up front, and I didn’t collect late fees.

I’ve been sharing that I have a tenant who has been behind on rent since October 1 and has communicated very poorly. By the end of December, she was caught up with rent due, but no late fees. We’re now 11 days into January without any payment. My frustration with her was that she didn’t communicate at all for the first two months, and didn’t keep her word on anything that she said she was going to do, but didn’t tell us that something would change. I always say that I’m willing to help and work with you, but you have to talk to me. If I have to beg you to tell me what the plan is, I can’t help.

I paid a carpet cleaner $250 and paid a painter $2000 for a house that we’re turning over. The carpet was new before the last tenant, but they were there for over 3 years, so it had to be done. They didn’t damage the walls, but my property manager said that all the walls looked like different colors, and I didn’t trust “touching up” 4 year old paint. The paint looks amazing, so I’m happy I went for the whole house.

I paid just over $1000 as a deposit on 3 new windows for a house, which are scheduled to be replaced on Monday (a couple of weeks for new windows far exceeded my expectations!). We had replaced the majority of windows when we bought the house. However, at the time, the kitchen and bathroom windows were considered an irregular size, and we were told they were going to be $2000 just themselves, when we were paying $2000 for all the other windows. I don’t know what pricing scheme changed in 5 years, but now all sizes are the same price, and the 3 of them are $2000 now.

We had a tenant ask to be released from his lease, which we concurred to. We had terms associated with that, which I’ll share in a separate post. We were able to get a couple into that house with no loss of rent, which has been appreciated.

We’re under contract with our handyman to do work on a house, so that’s over $5,000 of cost that is waiting to rear its head out there.

PERSONAL

This was a month of spending in activities. I signed up for a 5k in August with “early bird” pricing, our daughter’s acro class had semester tuition due, and the kids’ monthly school tuition was paid as usual. Mr. ODA bought a new battery for his car and installed that. On somewhat of a whim, we replaced our back door, which was over $1100 added to Mr. ODA’s credit card.

Just before Christmas, we took a trip. It was just to Cincinnati, which we regularly do as a day-trip. However, we wanted to accomplish a few things this time around. We went to Top Golf for 90 minutes and lunch, let the baby nap at the AirBnB, went to Zoo Lights, spent the night, and then went skiing the next morning (the kids’ first time!). We already purchased season passes (and equipment) for skiing for 4 of us, and had already purchased the zoo annual membership. Without the cost of those two things, our trip cost $330 for Top Golf, lodging, parking (we stayed in the city), a ski lesson for our 5 year old, and food. Our lodging for 1 night was nearly $200 and was significantly more than we’d typically spend on lodging. However, we’re still in a phase of life where the baby needs the be in a space by himself so he sleeps for a nap and through the night. That means we look for a place with at least 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, or 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom (bonus points for master-sized closets or an extra bathroom with no windows for me to black out). We then made 2 day trips since then, and the kids are doing awesome on skis.

NET WORTH

Our cash has decreased, but that was offset to taxable investments because of our Treasury Direct accounts. Even with our extra spending, our credit card balances are comparable to last month’s. The increase in net worth from last month is mostly due to increases in our investment accounts.

This year’s goal is to hit $4 million net worth. Mr. ODA said that to our financial advisor via Instagram, and he didn’t share that publicly because it wasn’t relatable. The point in sharing here is that, well it’s January and people set goals, and to note that even if this goal specifically isn’t attainable to you in the short term, know that we also once had an account balance well below where we’re currently at. Consistent investing in the market (maxing out the 401k, maxing out the Roth IRAs, and establishing regular investing and watching the market) is a large contributing factor to where we are 10 years later. If I take the investment properties out of the equation, we’re still over $2 million net worth. That doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s something you can start working towards today.

New Year Organization

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I had a couple of posts teed up to reflect on last year’s finances and activities, but having some conversations with people made me realize that things that I find basic, aren’t for others. I thought I’d share some things that I do that help me be more successful (calm) in my day. I’m not an organization expert. I’m not the “lazy genius” that gets touted (although, I don’t see people executing what they learn there). I’ve found things over the years that have helped me keep my brain straight. This particular post isn’t financial related, but part 2 will be (but next week will be the monthly financial update, so come back in week 3 this month).

Even though I broke this up, it’s still long. Skim the middle, unless it’s pertinent to you, but the summary ties it up at the end.

I have my own home’s finances, thirteen rental properties, three kids with two in school (and they go different days of the week), investments (and Mr. ODA’s constant moving of money!), and whatever other ad hoc bills show up to manage. I don’t have the ability to think in a quiet and distraction-free environment after 7:30 am. I adapted so that I don’t feel stressed because I’m trying to pay bills while the baby is nipping at my heels and the 3 and 5 year olds are asking me for endless snacks.

Please note that I’m a stay at home mom that manages our rental properties part time and works ad hoc as a substitute. I fully acknowledge that all of this isn’t relatable to someone who is out of the house from 7 am until 5 pm, but I will point out that getting systems in place will make your shorter time at home less stressful.

For a real-time, real-life example, I’m frustrated because my writing of this post has bled into Mr. ODA and two kids being awake, and so I’m trying to finish my thoughts here while Kid #1 tells me about his 14 stuffed animals he brought down from his room, Kid #2 is telling me about her puppy and two babies, and Mr. ODA is asking me to meal plan for my dad’s visit. So here’s why I wake up before anyone else. 🙂

START YOUR DAY RIGHT

I wake up around 6:15 everyday. The kids are in preschool, which starts at 9. When my oldest starts school next year, I’ll start setting an alarm to be awake around 5:15 because I think he needs to be out the door at 6:45.

I know people who even say “I’m not a morning person,” who set an alarm and agree that starting your day without distractions from what you want to achieve makes for a better day.

I start my coffee and make something small for breakfast. I’ve learned that if I don’t eat something, then suddenly it’s 9:30, I’m frustrated by being asked for second breakfast by the kids while I haven’t eaten anything for myself (because if I make any move towards food, suddenly the kids NEED food right then also, even if they just ate). I eat something small, and then around 10 I have … I guess … “second breakfast.” I also learned that if I take time to actually sit and eat a bigger breakfast first thing in the morning, then I’m anxious to get to the other things that I want to do, so it doesn’t help me feel successful to the start of the day.

I empty the dishwasher. If you have young kids, maybe you’re lucky that they don’t see something and then immediately need that thing they wouldn’t have otherwise asked for, but I’d venture to say that’s not the majority. If I’m emptying the dishwasher and laying out their cups, waiting for their matching straw or lid to also get unloaded, they suddenly need milk in that specific cup. Therefore, I unload the dishwasher before anyone is awake and there’s no distraction.

I then make each kid their own water bottle. This was a surprising step to a few people recently. Sometimes this means just filling up the same water bottle as the day before, which is probably sitting on the counter from yesterday. Sometimes their water bottle was washed, so it was just unloaded from the dishwasher. I have specific water bottles that are our “everyday use” water bottles. They’re leakproof. They have a handle. This is what gets carted around when we leave the house. Having a full water cup means that I’m not in the middle of doing something and being asked for water. I refill the water at lunch and dinner, but sometimes there’s a request for more in between.

I set their water bottle and their respective vitamin on the table. When the kids wake up, they go to the table, eat their vitamin, and put their breakfast request in. Sometimes, I’m really on top of things, and I make a breakfast before they wake up (e.g., not cereal). If there’s a plate of food in their “spot,” then they typically just sit at the table and eat it. Most mornings, I’m giving a list of a few options and letting them pick.

I prepare their snack and water for school, if it’s a school day. Again, if I start rummaging through the pantry while they’re awake, they suddenly have preferences and questions. It’s better if I just have it done. As a compromise, I offered my oldest the ability to pick out his own snack every Friday. He wakes up before anyone else, so I have him pick it out before #2 wakes up (who wants everything #1 has or is doing).

If it’s a day that I want to pay bills and/or update our financial tracking spreadsheet, then I also make time for that before anyone wakes up. I can run through our finances in about 10 minutes without distraction. Sometimes, my son wakes up before I get to it, and then for 30 minutes I’m fielding questions about stuffed animals while also trying to keep track of what I’ve already updated.

I know a lot of people lay out their kids clothes the night before. Perhaps this will become part of my routine when my oldest needs to be out the door at 6:45, but at this point, we have plenty of time in the morning to get dressed and ready.

MIDDAY RESETS

I’ve consistently used a child’s nap time to reset the house. Pick up toys that are out (not everything, but most of what hasn’t been touched for a few hours). Clean up any dishes that have been left out. This started with my first’s nap time, and was really because I couldn’t physically sit and relax while I saw toys scattered around the floor or dishes piled on the counter. It has evolved over the years as we’ve had more kids, but the general gist is the same – give it a quick reset, but not a perfect clean up. It’s going to get messed up again before bed time, but it’ll be less items to manage at that time.

Now that my kids are a little older, I task them with it too. Since tidying our house has always been something they’ve seen, they do it well. While I put the baby down for a nap, it indicates that it’s time for them to straighten up. If they put their “morning toys” away, they get to watch a couple of episodes of a show.

I’m a stickler for pieces of toys to stay with each other, so this helps manage that toys don’t have pieces go missing. It also gives everyone a fresh slate to pick out new toys to play with, and it helps no one feel overwhelmed by the state of the room.

I clean up anything left over from lunch, wipe down the table and high chair, and at least get the dishes to the sink, if not the dishwasher. I used to fight anything being left in the sink, but I’ve let go of that.

I then use the baby’s nap time and the bigger kids’ tv time to make any phone calls needed, catch up on any financial things I didn’t get to in the morning, or clean a room.

END YOUR DAY RIGHT

Reset your house.

The two big kids go to bed around 6:30. After they’re in bed, I pick up most toys and clean up after dinner. When I clean, I focus on one room at a time. I start in the living room because rarely am I going to find something in the kitchen that belongs in the living room, but I’ll have items in the living room that need to go to the kitchen.

From the living room, I put any toys away that belong in that room. If a toy is meant to be in the basement, it gets put at the top of the stairs. If there’s a bedroom-related item that got left behind, it gets put at the bottom of the stairs. In both those cases, when someone walks to that area, they’re supposed to bring that to the next floor; in reality, I’m the only one who really does that. If there’s a cup or a plate, it gets put on the kitchen table (because that’s the closest to the living room). The point here is to work in phases. Don’t exert the energy to carry one toy all the way to the basement, to then see that another toy got left under the kitchen table and needs to go to the basement. This makes the task overwhelming.

Once everything is picked up, I move to the kitchen table area. All plates and cups (including whatever I’ve added from the living room), get moved to the kitchen peninsula. The baby’s high chair gets wiped clean, the table and chairs get wiped cleaned, and the dog’s food and water bowls get filled.

In the kitchen, I clear the counters first. Everything goes where it belongs – refrigerated items go to the fridge, any spices left out are put in the cabinet, leftovers are stored away. The goal is to get all the counters cleared off, leaving the dishes in the sink for last. If the stove needs wiped down, I do that once the counters are cleared because the grates need to be placed on the counter. Then I load the dishwasher from the sink and rinse out the sink. I can either rinse the sink after I’m done clearing it, or I can scrub hardened on food in the morning. Put the effort in to do it right so that it’s not a bigger task later.

The baby goes to sleep around 8, so after his bedtime, there’s usually more toys to pick up and a few more dishes that were used.

Then the dishwasher is turned on before bed. Our dishwasher runs for 2 hours. While sometimes it’s overflowing and needs to be run mid-day, it’s more likely that we run it every other night, after we’ve cleaned up the last of our things that need to be loaded from the day.

If I don’t do these things at the end of the night, then they bleed over into my morning chore list. I usually don’t have any “extra” time for my morning chores, so I prefer to focus on my night time to-do list as often as possible.

WEEKLY TASKS

There are things that need to be done, but they’re not done daily. For one, the bathrooms need to be cleaned. I knew someone who said “Sunday is for bathrooms.” She knew that every Sunday, she’d tackle cleaning the bathrooms. I loved that there was a system. I can’t say I’m consistent in that though. I try to remember to vacuum upstairs once a week, but the first floor probably gets vacuumed every other day. One thing that I did that has helped me clean bathrooms more often is that I keep a glass cleaner, all purpose cleaner, and a roll of paper towels upstairs. This means that I’m not thinking, “I should clean this bathroom,” but having to walk downstairs to get supplies and carry them back upstairs.

I change the kids sheets every two weeks. I try to do laundry in order of how it’ll go back on the bed. If I need to wash their blankets and comforter, then I wash the sheets first (since it all doesn’t fit in one load), this way I can get that step done while the blankets are being washed. If I wash the comforter first, then I have to do the entire thing all at once when the sheets are ready (note: my daughter will take any sheets on her bed, but son only wants his Paw Patrol sheets, which is why this system is complicated).

As for laundry, I don’t have any perfect answers, except that piled of laundry do not overflow our hampers. I used to wash our clothes separate from the kids’ clothes because I’d prefer to fold our bigger clothes than theirs, but now it’s a crapshoot. One thing that I have found helpful is that I sort the clean laundry into piles per person. Then I carry the pile into the respective kids’ room, fold it in there, and put it away right then. While my laundry may sit in the dryer for a day or two, this at least gets it folded and put away a lot faster than it used to be. Sometimes I force myself to fold by putting a load of towels in behind the clothes. This means I need to clear the dryer, but it won’t be as daunting because I’ll have the “reward” of “just” towels behind it. Ha!

SUMMARY

The goal here is simple: eliminate stressors that I have control over. I get things done when I don’t have to also manage 74897 toddler questions and a crying baby. I get my house organized before I go to sleep so that I am not overwhelmed by clutter and tasks first thing in the morning.

I’ve seen multiple articles over the last few years that talk about reducing clutter in your house to make yourself feel better. That when your house is cluttered, it makes your brain feel cluttered and exhibits a physically negative reaction. There are distractions everywhere you look that are taking brain power and exhausting you. If you come up with a system that gets kids’ toys out of plain view, that gets your kitchen counter cleared off and the dishes into the dishwasher when dirty, and eliminates piles of papers that will take you an hour to go through and organize, you’ll physically feel more calm and be able to tackle more.

Additionally, just staying on top of little tasks in a “system” you create that works for you and your household makes each day feel more manageable. I do a quick 10-minute reset of the house at nap time. This means that I’m not left with all toys and dishes and mess to deal with at the end of the day when I’m tired. I clean up room-by-room, creating piles of items that need to go to a different room, rather than putting each individual item exactly where it goes as soon as I touch it.

I’ll also point out that even though I use “I” throughout this, it’s a team effort with Mr. ODA. He cooks, cleans up the kitchen, straightens up, etc.

What day is your house sold?

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The day that’s in the contract as the closing date.

I truly can’t believe how many people have asked some form of this question in my life recently. While I’ve had multiple in person conversations on this topic, this post really stemmed from a Facebook post. “Is it an expectation for people to be moved out of their home the day of closing when buying a home? We sold our house, and are moving into a new home that we’re supposed to close the same day. Is there not a grace period?” What would that grace period be? How would the timing be determined?

On one side, I see the “closing date” section of a Kentucky contract simply states, “The closing of this transaction shall occur on the ___ day of ________________, 20__.” That’s quite useless actually (as I consistently find in KY law and legal documents). There’s a lot to be inferred by that statement, versus it being explicitly and clearly stated. On the contrary (as this has gone many times over), Virginia wins out.

In the paragraph before this image, it states where closing shall occur and by what date. This excerpt clearly indicates the purpose of “closing,” leaving little room for interpretation.

However, if we take a step back from the legal jargon and contractual obligations, whether explicit or inferred, we can see the logic. If you’re the buyer, once you sign the paperwork to purchase the house, wouldn’t you expect the keys to be handed over to you right then so you can start moving in and living in this house you just paid for? Wouldn’t you want the sellers out of the house because they’re no longer financially responsible for the house, and you don’t want any liabilities of their damage (intentional or accidental) to fall on your hands? You’ve done a final walk through and signed off that the house was in the condition you expected it to be in at that point in time.

Now this isn’t to say that there aren’t other terms and conditions that can be agreed to between both parties. “Lease back” or “rent back” clauses are commonly used. Sometimes it’s beneficial for a buyer to process the transaction (e.g., a rate lock expiration), but they allow the seller to remain in the home for an agreed-upon period of time (e.g., to bridge a gap before their new house is ready/available). But all of these terms are to be agreed to, in writing, before the closing date.

When we just sold our last house, we allowed the buyers to store things in the garage. We entered into a contract separate from the house purchase contract, called a “Preclosing Occupancy Agreement.” I haven’t needed one of these in Virginia, so I don’t know their standard form, but KY’s form does well here. The document outlines the date the buyer can take occupancy and whether there’s a charge for it. There were other items that outlined incidentals, such as utilities. In our case, the buyers were simply asking for garage space to put some of their belongings (because they had a same-day-closing for their sale and purchase), so we didn’t require them to put any utilities in their name before the sale.

BRIDGE LOAN

I can understand the complaint. Financially, you likely need to sell your current home to afford a new home. The “cash” from your sale is what you’ll use as your downpayment, as most people don’t have 20% of $400k sitting in a savings account (nor should you!). That makes the option to buy the house, take a day or two or seven to empty out your old house, and then sell your house not feasible.

There’s such a thing called a bridge loan. It’s a short-term loan used to purchase assets until long-term financing can be secured. There are more fees and high interest rates associated with this. However, it could be worth it to save the hassle of Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). PMI is required in many cases where you cannot provide 20% as a downpayment for a house purchase. It protects the lender in case you don’t make your mortgage payments. PMI is removed when your principal balance falls below 80% of the original value of your home, whether that’s through regular mortgage payments or you make additional principal only payments. You can request PMI be removed earlier than that if you provide proof that your home value has caused your principal balance to now be less than 80% of the value, which is typically proven through an appraisal at your cost. If you put 0% down on a $400,000 purchase, it would take almost 12 years of payments before your loan reached 80% of the original home value. That’s 12 years that you’re paying PMI on top of your mortgage payment, and those are funds that are doing nothing productive to your net worth. A bridge loan may be worth it if you already have a sale date on your current house and only need to cover a few days or weeks.

SUMMARY

Logistically, it would be great if you could buy your new home, move all your things, and then sell your current home. Financially, this isn’t normally feasible. A lot of the time, you’re needing the equity you have tied up in your current home to purchase your next home.

Our first purchase was made up of two 401k loans (that we maxed as residential loans, which are penalty free), a gift from parents because we were short just a few thousand dollars, and cash on hand. We needed about $80k. Our second transaction, we chose a new build house. We sold our house, went into a rental for 3 months, and then used the sale money to purchase. Our third transaction was also a new build. We hopped AirBnBs until that got old with a 6 month old and 2 year old, and then crashed in Mr. ODA’s parents’ basement. We had 7 weeks between selling our house and purchasing the new one, so the cash from the sale went into our account, and we let it sit there until we needed it to close. Then this current purchase was actually done before we sold our third house, but we had executed a Home Equity Line of Credit prior to the sale. We used the HELOC to put the down payment on the current house, and then the sale of our third house paid off the mortgage and HELOC before distributing the cash balance to us. In all of these transactions, we had the ability to float the funds. That allowed us the ability to house our belongings in “long term” storage (not a day or two) for those two times we had a gap between the sale and purchase. The HELOC allowed us to slowly move our belongings to the new house this last time, and then we did a final moving day of all our big items just before closing (our current house needed work when we bought it, so we didn’t move right away).

But in all cases, unless there’s a separate document indicating so, the closing date of a transaction is the date that you give or take possession of the property. If you were buying, you wouldn’t want to take the risk of the previous owners messing with something in a property you now own. If you were selling, the buyers would have the same expectation.

Bathroom Renovation

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We purchased a house in June 2022. Most of the house had been updated or was in good shape, but the master bathroom was the original from 1992. This isn’t a bad thing, but bathroom designs have changed a lot since that time. Aesthetically, the bathroom would have been fine. Functionally, I didn’t want to shower in a 2.5′ by 2.5′ shower stall, and the higher standard of vanity height is something I’ve gotten used to. The day we closed, we started gutting the bathroom.

BATHROOM EXPERIENCE

Our first ever renovation project was a bathroom that we gutted, redesigned, and rebuilt in our first home we owned, back in 2013. The house was a foreclosure, and it had been flipped by the bank. The place looked good, but it didn’t last. The bathroom shower tiles were cracking as soon as we moved in. We took walls down and rebuilt them because of mold, we moved the door to allow for a better vanity set up, and we moved the toilet so that you weren’t walking around the vanity to get to it. We had been quoted $25k for a contractor to do it. We spent $4k on materials.

Our last home was a new-build and had an unfinished basement with a bathroom rough-in. We had my dad’s help setting the plumbing, and then we finished it out ourselves. After we did the first bathroom, we said we wouldn’t do vertical tiling again. We really just learned not to use 12×12 tiles on the wall.

The bathroom cost us about $6k to complete. While everyone was being quoted $75k-120k for a finished basement with bathroom, we did almost all the work ourselves (dad’s help on bathroom and setting studs, hired a drywall finisher, and we didn’t lay our own flooring) for about $20k.

We also did a quick bathroom refresh in our current home. The basement bathroom here was forgotten. It hadn’t been cleaned or updated (most of the house had switches and outlets changed to white from yellow, but not this room). For less than $1,000, we laid a new floor, updated the trim, replaced the vanity and toilet, painted, updated the accessories and mirror, and replaced the switches and outlet. We didn’t touch the tub or the faucets in there.

BACKGROUND

The bathroom was an L-shape. There was a 114″ vanity with a full length wall mirror over that. It also had 2 5-light wall mounted light fixtures over each sink (excessive!). Then the shower was your typical plastic molded shower stall with a frosted glass door. It was 2.5′ x 2.5′. Around the L was the toilet (awkward positioning, really), and beyond that was the soaking tub with built-in molded steps. Oh, and there was a ceiling fan over the vanity.

THE PLAN

We needed to take everything out so we could see our options. We gutted the bathroom pretty quickly, but we dragged our feet on the rebuild. It worked out in my favor though; I’ll come back to that.

The L-shape encompasses the master bedroom’s closet. It’s a walk-in closet, but it’s not spectacular. We tried to make a plan where we knocked down the closet walls and reconfigured the whole space, but the window placement hindered us, along with some of the desired sizes of fixtures. Once we gave up on incorporating the closet space, it was clear we just wanted to make the shower more functional.

As we started laying blue tape to map out the size of the shower, we realized we were hindered by the closet walls. If we made it too big, we lost the ability to walk around the L-shape comfortably. The whole point here was that we wanted a bigger shower. We settled on as wide as we could make it, while still being able to fit around the corner (generally looking at 3′ wide, which is standard hallway width).

At the beginning, I mentioned that I wanted to washer and dryer moved from the garage entry. Mr. ODA said we’d do it “later.” But the walls were opened now… so why not now? He came around. We hired an electrician to move the dryer electric from the room off the garage, directly above it to our bedroom, and then up into the attic to move over and come down into the bathroom. That meant the width of the shower was now maxed at how wide our washer/dryer was to get through the hole.

We bought a waterproofing system to build the shower any size we wanted (versus a shower pan), and we ended up about 3.5′ x 5′. We dropped the vanity section to 7′, and dropped our lighting to 2 2-light fixtures. 🙂

We eventually will add glass to the shower area (there’s a curtain there for now). The master bathroom is the most infrequently cleaned area of my house (and I clean a lot!), so maintaining a glass shower enclosure that’s used daily is just not high on my priority list. Mr. ODA had built a shower bench for our last house’s shower, and by some miracle, it fit perfectly in this newly built shower. We also reused the floor tile option because we wanted a statement in here, but we were too scared to commit to a pattern and it not look right; we knew what this pattern looked like, so we kept it.

The plumbing for the washer and dryer was a concern. We were able to use the old tub’s drain to be the washer drain. We were also able to use the supply lines. However, since the supply lines were on an interior wall, and we were nervous about moving them to an exterior wall (so it would be behind the washing machine), we kept them there. The width of the room didn’t allow for clearance for the supply lines to be hidden down further, so the lines fall across the top of the washer. While not aesthetically great, everything else about this is so much more functional and makes me happy.

MUD ROOM

The washer and dryer moving to where the tub was in the master bathroom meant we could create a mud room. This was a really big deal to me. We park in the garage. Our garage door is basically always open and this is how people come and go. I wanted a functional space that wasn’t cramped by a washer and dryer that you were walking around.

Additionally, the previous owner had changed the closet function to be 2 shelves. There was no hanging room for coats, and there was no storage for mops or vacuums on the first floor. We moved the middle-of-the-closet shelf to be a higher shelf, added the dowel so we could hang coats, and cut the bottom shelf in half to still allow for some storage options, but also allow for vacuum storage.

We’ve since added shelving over mini fridge, and there are bins for shoes in the cubbies. In our last house, we had a bar area in the basement where this fridge was. We had originally planned for it to be in the basement in our current house also, but we don’t spend as much time as we thought down there. It was a perfect fit to include it in the mud room and build the bench to incorporate it.

By moving the washer and dryer from this room (for our own labor and about $400 worth of an electrician), we made our house significantly more functional. As I grow older (and move an absurd amount of times), I’ve learned how much more important it is for my house to function.

SUMMARY

A quick facelift to a bathroom is a pretty easy project. Moving plumbing, electric, and walls creates a few more levels of difficulty. However, it’s not impossible. We’ve learned over the years that if we act as our own general contractor (hiring out piecemeal), we can save a lot of money. In this post-covid-world, contractor costs are high. If we hired out this entire bathroom, I don’t doubt that we could have been looking at $45-50k with all the things that were to be moved. Instead, it cost us about $5,000 worth of materials and our time.

Our time was definitely at a premium. We dragged our feet on decision making, while focusing on other areas of the house. The kids’ bathroom is directly outside our bedroom, so it wasn’t a hassle for us nor was there an immediate need for us to be back in our own bathroom. We got the floor tile down as fast as we could before we officially moved in, since our washer and dryer would need to be placed. That lit the fire for our toilet and vanity to be installed too. But the shower was a different story. We got it framed out, but didn’t start laying tile and grouting until after our 3rd was born. I thought I would feel better doing that work once I wasn’t pregnant anymore, but I didn’t factor in the baby needing to be help all day long, so that created quite a challenge. But we did it.

We gutted the bathroom in mid-June, and we had it completed done (well, except for the shower glass that I just don’t even want) by Christmas. While we took our time doing it, the best parts are how much more functional and comfortable the house is, and how it cost us about 10% of what it would have been if we hired it out.

December Financial Update

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I’m not even sure where to start for this month. It has been a whirlwind. There were a lot of tax payments last month, and this month I was still paying those among several other things.

PURCHASES

I purposely paid my credit card statement a little earlier than the due date so that it wouldn’t be that high for this update, but then I put a bunch of charges on it over the last two days. To catch you up – we’ve been holding money in our savings account for as long as possible. When we were getting 0.2% interest on it, it didn’t matter when I paid the card, so I typically paid it shortly after the statement closed. Now that we’re getting 4.22%, it’s worth keeping the money in there to earn interest, and then paying the credit card closer to the due date.

Our regular-use credit card is currently holding: $300 towards my dad’s iPhone (I should really share that mess of a story in purchasing that) (also, that doesn’t clearly account for my sisters having paid $200 towards that because that’s just “cash” in our checking account balance), $500+ of the kids preschool tuition, renewing our zoo membership for $139 (honestly, 5 of us enjoying the zoo for the year for that price is wonderful), over $200 for signing our son up for tee ball, two car insurance payments, and a rental insurance payment. I don’t typically go through the charges like that, but it’s just been a bunch of just-big-enough charges to grab my attention on our credit card balance. We drove to-and-from NY, so our gas station payments are higher than average too. As a reminder, the credit card balance you see also includes $10k worth of new carpet that we’re paying slowly on a 0% interest credit card.

RENTAL PROPERTY EXPENSES

I paid two of our Richmond houses’ taxes. The taxes are due on January 14th, but if I pay them this year, then it reduces what’s viewed as our ‘profit.’ I make sure to pay any known January bills in December of each year. Those two houses are so tiny, so their tax payments being so much larger than they once were kind of hurt (I’ve discussed the increases in property assessments, thereby increasing taxes). It was about $2,000 paid out (on top of all the things I paid over the last two months).

I also had to pay two supplemental taxes for Lexington. Government entities not meeting deadlines is a pet peeve of mine (I used to work for the Federal government). Last year, I completely missed that paperwork I received was a supplement bill for education, and then I received a penalty.I thought it was their typical assessment notice since it was outside of tax payment time. Luckily it was a few dollars, but I was so lost. This year, I paid close attention when I received an extra tax-related document. This supplemental bill was for trash services. Again, a few dollars. But think of all the extra paperwork, staff hours, postage, payment processing cost to collect an extra $20 from every house.

RENTAL PROPERTY INCOME

We had two tenants give us notice that they’re moving out. While extremely unfortunate timing on the year, I’m also human and understanding of their need. One tenant had a traumatic work event that led to him being laid off, and another family bought a house. We’ll find a way to get the houses re-rented as soon as possible, even though our vacancy time may be longer than it would have been if we were looking for a May 1st or June 1st renter. We have someone interested in both houses at this time, so that’s encouraging.

We had 4 tenants not pay in full. They all reached out to me to let me know in advance, and they paid what they could by the 5th (I always appreciate that – it holds them accountable, and it allows me to not foot all of the bills that I have to pay on the houses). As of the end of the 5th, we were short over $3,000 worth of rent ($1300 of that was for the house that has been late since October 1st and is finally working towards paying their debts).

As of today, we’re short $2,400. The tenant who’s playing catch up only has a balance of $960 left, which is great (that’s been a long road). Another tenant typically pays $750 on the 5th and 19th. So they’re not late on $750, but they are late on the $375 they didn’t pay in the first half of the month (this is a special scenario that we put in place for them because they couldn’t pay all at the beginning of the month, so we increased their rent as a concession to being able to pay twice per month without creating more late fees for them… but they’re still late).

NET WORTH

The market significantly increased over the last month. We also had $28k come in as part of our insurance claim; our cash increased by $35k though, so there’s an additional savings in there. And even though we had large expenses on our credit cards, it’s still slightly down from last month.

BONUS STORY

Mr. ODA and I wait for Black Friday deals to purchase our iPhones. We typically purchase every 3 years. I usually bite for a new phone so that the camera is better, but I’m suspicious that Apple is sending updates to alter the clarity of photos on older phones. How can I take these BEAUTIFUL pictures for the first few months of having a phone, and then all my pictures are grainy suddenly? ANYWAY.

Walmart had a deal that you purchase the iPhone 14 on a payment plan, and they give you a $350 Walmart gift card. These are the deals we typically seek. Apple is still getting their full price for the phone, but Walmart is offering a deal to bring our net to $0. When you want to purchase the phone from Walmart, it asks you to log into your carrier’s account. For this phone, it’s Verizon. We spend hours trying to figure out who the primary account holder is and what that log in it. Verizon does it where you can create your own log in and see you phone’s data at any time, but to see the entire plan’s data, you have to be the account holder (makes sense, but complicates this particular instance). The primary account holder is my mom’s phone number. Who died in March. We finally get assistance with that and log into the account through Walmart. It brings up all the lines on the account, we select my dad’s number, and then it gets to step 2. It says they can’t verify the address on the account and we need to go to Walmart mobile desk in a store. I call Verizon. Can’t help. I call Walmart. They keep telling me to put the item in my cart, which isn’t how you purchase a phone. So no help.

I finally bite the bullet, and on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, march myself to the nearest Long Island Walmart. They can’t help because they need the phone in the store. I swear if I were at my Walmart in Kentucky, they would have helped me. It was actually at the point where I was going to risk waiting until Tuesday so that I could have my phone desk people help me. The Walmart employee actually wasn’t flippant or trying to blow me off; I believe he genuinely thought he couldn’t help me. What needed to happen was that he called their help desk people, and then he was the mediator to figuring out the address. I figure this because a Walmart customer service person transferred me to such a person, who said he’s not allowed to talk to me and has to have a Walmart employee talking to him on my behalf.

I gave up. Sunday comes. I hope that some “overnight” processing of information has magically cured the process. It didn’t. I call Verizon again. Some angel of a lady answered the phone and actually helped me more than I could have imagined. I told her that I wanted the Walmart deal because all the Verizon deals require me to change my plan to unlimited data. I let her know that I’ve already spoken to several people, and they keep trying to convince me that I get a “free” iPhone while my plan increases $30 per month in perpetuity (versus $23 per month for 36 months for the phone). She offered me a deal that equates to $5/month for the phone for 36 months. So I put 100x more hours into this than I should have, but it ended up working out in our favor!