By My Calculations...

I just transferred $488 to my 2011 US Travel Fund...so I can do this all over again next year!!  I can't wait.

The fund is now 100% full.

I have spent approximately $1K on top of airfare so far, during the first month of my vacation.  I didn't have to pay for accommodation during this whole time (score 1 for family and friends!!), but I have had to pay for a lot of my food and gas and other incidentals.  And of course, I have been binge-shopping at Target, REI, and Walmart, as well as Marshall's, Rugged Wearhouse, and other lovely stores.

I figure I'll spend another $1K or so during the second month of my vacation.  I'll mostly be camping out, but will have to pay for ALL of my food and gas and camp fees from now on.  I'm going to try to keep it to a minimum...but if the opportunity to take a helicopter ride around and into the Grand Canyon presents itself, I'm calling that a once-in-a-lifetime thing and taking it.

So after the damage from this vacation is accounted for (at the latest, October, I'm hoping!), I will move on to the next goal.  Which is (drumroll please):  donating a full 10% of my gross monthly salary.  After that, I hope to save a little more in my Move Back to US fund.

After that is all done, I really need to focus on saving up for retirement and for any Family Emergencies.  Any saving in 2011 will need to go toward traveling and moving back to the US!  It is amazing how fast time is going by now!

Real Life VS Vacation

This is the longest vacation...EVER.  I have been on Lake Michigan for a family reunion for 5 days, at my parents' house as a home base, in my college town for a day trip, to the beach for a day trip, in Boston and Rhode Island for 4 days.  I have gotten together with my high school friends and their children, nearly my entire family on my mom's side, my best friend from college, my 5 best friends from grad school, and my two younger cousins.  Tomorrow I go see other high school friends for a mini-reunion party in a city about an hour away, Sunday I go to church and see my church family, Monday I meet up with more high school people and their kids, Tuesday I have game night with my dad's side of the family, and Wednesday I meet up with more family at a county fair.  Life is busy, and it is good.

I've been gone since August 3, but I've done so much and been so many places, I feel like I've been gone for 6 months already!  I struggle to remember things that only happened two weeks ago.  NZ is a distant, distant memory.  Literally the ONLY thing I miss from my NZ life is having a routine and going to work, and I don't miss either that much.  Partly because I'm still working for a few days while on vacation and because I don't really mind living out of a suitcase.

Yesterday, I applied for a job here on the East Coast, roughly 3 hours away by car from my family.  It isn't my ideal job, but it is with the organization I want to work for for the rest of my life (I think), has awesome benefits, and a decent salary.  I could hopefully transition into something more fitting of my career goals after a while.  I would desperately miss my current job, but it would get me that much closer to an OK job in my dream location--near my family.  I am definitely not going to find any job equivalent to my job in NZ, so I guess I have to choose between the two.

I have so many friends here in the US, on the East Coast, that I want to see more of, more regularly.  Every single friend that I've visited has said that our time together was way too short.  I miss being missed and loved, and told that.  I can't seem to keep up with people when I'm in NZ, due to scheduling and most of all, the time difference!

I also can't seem to find that close of friendships with people that I met after school.  School seems to bond me to people in a way that can't happen outside of it.

There are a few other NZ things that I miss, actually--or the absence of things.  The US is way too crowded. There are people EVERYWHERE!  And I miss some of the diversity of accents and cultures.  The US has too much of the SAME.  Same sameness.

Life is busy, and it is good.

Loyalty Vs Money

Before I left NZ for my epic 2 month vacation, I had happily secured a tenant for our garage, netting my roommate and I a cool $40 extra per week, and reducing our individual rents from $210 to $190 per week, which I think is in line with what the apartment is worth.  The tenant, a neighbor (neighbour?) of ours, is extremely nice and lives just three apartments down from us.  There have been no problems with him, communications and payment has been extremely smooth, and he agreed to EVERY demand we made of him, including asking for a security deposit for the garage door opener, dealing with sharing the space with our stuff (and our friends' stuff), and making do with no light (I have asked my landlord about this about 12 times, she still hasn't fixed it!!).

I actually think I offended him once when I reminded him that payment was due and I hadn't received it.  It was his second payment; the banks we use take a LONG time to communicate with one another, so I was concerned when payment didn't come through on the day expected.  Since then, he has paid a whole 4 days early, without fail.

Initially, he only needed the garage for a month, as he was expecting to move.  A week ago, he sent an email saying that he will use it for the next 3 months or so.

My roommate sent me an email yesterday, saying that she had talked to someone else about long-term tenancy for our garage, and that she was going to kick the original tenant out.  In our 'lease agreement' that I stole from the internet and modified, either one of us (lessee or lessor) can terminate the lease at any time for any reason, so this is totally legit, but it doesn't totally feel right.  I feel like he and I have a verbal agreement, but my roommate never met him (because I do EVERYTHING pertaining to our apartment and my roommate has been really lazy and uncooperative about meeting people, handymen, fire inspections, etc. lately).

So I'm a little torn about this.  Part of me hates to inconvenience anyone, or disappoint anyone, and I especially hate to do it to a tenant that has been so easy to work with.  Then again, a long-term tenant in that garage spot would guarantee an extra $1000/year, rather than just a few hundred for the next 3 months.  There is no guarantee we'd find a long-term tenant after the original tenant moved, either--it has taken over a year to get the garage rented out before now!

So I guess it is clear:  renting out the garage to the long-term tenant and kicking out the short-term one makes the most sense financially.  But that doesn't mean I feel good about it.

Humming Along

It's been nearly two weeks away from NZ and I'm still haven't slowed down.  I am extremely busy for someone on vacation!  How, you ask?  I'm really not sure.  All I know is that it is quarter to 11 pm and I haven't stopped all day.  Cleaning and vacuuming, fixing dinner and dessert with my mom and sister, stripping tape from the recently painted walls, watering the flowers and bushes, doing dishes and laundry, hanging out in the woodshop with my dad, fixing my mom and dad's computer (3 hours and counting...UGH why are printers so hard to get to work?!), and trying to get every US product I want and make and confirm plans with everyone here...is a full day.  Yesterday was full of shopping and attending a pool party with old friends from high school and all of their kids (12 of 'em total!!).  That sounds relaxing, but when you have not seen people in 10+ years, it becomes work to hang out with them and all of their children (all under 10 years old!)!  I am NOT complaining, though.  I really love this time, planning the next stage of my trip, and am enjoying helping out my mom and dad and sister, and spending time with people I rarely get to hang out with.

I've spent another probably $350 in USD on various items.  Mostly undergarments I needed ($6 quality bras!) and Express jeans ($9), shoes ($30 for 2 pair, buy one get one half off at Number 1 Shoes), and a sundress for the wedding I'm going to next weekend ($10), socks, vitamins, and a bunch of other US products, as well as food I bought for the 'rents.  They tried to pay me back, but I always refuse--I don't want to be a total mooch!  My sister is so patient and nice with me on my hours-long shopping sprees, so I always buy her an outfit.  She got Lane Bryant shorts for $1 from me yesterday, as well as a sexy black jersey dress for $8.  (I love Rugged Warehouse and Target!!!)  I also bought an ENTIRE tank of gas for $22 yesterday.  I thought that was REALLY cheap.  :)

And, of course, I bought my favorite US snack items.  I am OD'ing on junk food here, and I feel kind of gross.  But when one has been deprived of Twizzlers for a year...and then suddenly exposed to a whole 1 lb package for $2.50...well, I'm just not responsible for what happens after that.  I also am loving starburst, white cheddar popcorn, swiss cake rolls, white cheddar baked cheetos, and a lot of other things that I am too embarrassed to mention.  I will have to start an exercise regime when I get back from this!

Spending

Tomorrow I'm going shopping with my sister for US products and a revamp of my work and play wardrobe!  I'm very excited, esp. for Target!  I cashed in my credit card rewards points for a $75 gift card to Target, and it is burning a hole in my pocket!  :)  Also on the docket are REI, Old Navy, Rugged Warehouse ($2 shirts from places like Banana Republic!), Ross, Marshall's, Wal-mart, and Best Buy (or whatever it is called now) for some electronics that are cheaper here, even with the exchange rate.  It is funny, I don't even go into the mall now--I shop on the outskirts, in the strip malls that have cheaper gear.  JC Penney's, Macy's, and Sears' stuff don't really float my boat, anyway.

So far I've spent about $50 NZD during my US trip.  Not bad for over a week away on vacation!  My NZ total for the month of August stands at $986 (including rent of $840).  Happy with that, but we'll see what damage tomorrow brings!

In other news, I found the job that I had intended to get in a few years when I returned to the US.  It is advertised NOW, though, and these kinds of jobs don't come up very often, esp. in my field with the exact organization and the exact location I'd wanted.  I'm not sure whether to be excited or bummed, actually--I have a LOT more to learn and do and finish with my current job, but...I feel like I would be stupid not to apply for it while I a) have time to put together the perfect resume and cover letter; b) am HERE where they can interview me in person; and c) it is offered.  The thing is, it is in my field, in the exact location and salary bracket and the organization I've been dying to work for for 10 years, but the job description would be a definite step DOWN in responsibility and fun compared to my current one--and I'd be doing more web-design type stuff than actual science.  I don't know what to make of this--part of me doesn't want to apply just because of that.  However, it is the first position I've seen advertised in the field I'm into, after looking for 3 years off and on!  Oh, hem and haw...

Also, the guy renting my garage continues to do so...putting $20 NZD/week into my pocket!  I need/want to find a home for it, so it doesn't get frittered.  I also received ~$20 more in my paycheck because I cancelled my NZ health insurance.  There should be even more in the next check.

Universal Life Insurance

That's the kind mom and dad have, the kind that will run out in less than 10 years.  My advice to anyone out there?  Do your homework before sinking $250/mo for 20 years into a policy that you think will pay out a million dollars at the end.  This is ridiculous.  It's official, my mom met with multiple advisors at various companies, and they will have been paying all that for absolutely nothing now; there is no way my dad can pass any sort of health exam to get a new policy at this point in his illness!

My mom did look into term life insurance at her work, and coverage drops to $0 when she leaves her job and it costs too much for very little coverage ($50K) while she is in work.

She's also looking at term life through some professional associations she is in.  They all seem to cost a lot for very little, again.  And most drop coverage from ~$60K to $12K after age 70, for premiums of about $300/mo.  Yikes!

My parents simply don't have the money with all of the medical bills my dad and sister have run up.  The thing is, they never seem to get out of the hole.  My mom told me that they had paid off the house 14 years ago--before I even entered college--and it is now 100% mortgaged.  Also, my mom got ~$20K or so from my grandfather's death 3 years ago, and that is all gone, too.  Medical bills are no joke, folks.  There needs to be some change.  It is just not OK for people to be this poor because they happened to get sick.  To make matters worse, my dad is sick due to his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam.  Is the government paying for his care?  Nope.  America is supposed to be about freedom and pride, and we can't even take care of the people who provide that for us.  Shameful!!

Preparing

I mentioned in my last post that I felt that I needed to do something to prepare for my family's eventual financial ruin.  I'm all for keeping my chin up and hoping for the best, but realistically, the only thing that would help us at this point is a lotto ticket.  And that isn't realistic at all.

So what can I do?  This is what I've thought of:

1)  Get term life insurance on myself for the amount of time that I can reasonably expect my mom and dad to survive.  20 years max?  30 years if my mom takes care of herself?  I could probably afford about $200/year in the short term, which will buy me about $150K in coverage.  It isn't enough, but it's something, and I just want mom to get a little relief if something happens to me.  Later, if I can afford more, I will have to buy more coverage, for sure.  My goal is something like $1.5 Mil.

2)  Get my Will and Trust filled out, as well as master accounts.  Make it easy in case something happens to me.

3)  Scrap my Europe and other fun funds and convert them to a Save the Parents Fund.  I want them to be happy WAY more than I want to go to Europe or own a house.

4)  Take better care of my physical self and my mental health.  This may mean less blogging and internet time and more time invested in healthy things.

5)  Review my budget again and see where I can cut back.  There must be something I'm missing in my grocery budget and Misc funds.  They don't need to be that large.

6)  Stop kidding myself.  There is no magic bullet anymore; my dad's life insurance is not going to support my mom in her old age.  I will.  Therefore, it is time to put more in retirement and more towards long-term savings.  The fun has to stop and I have to cut way back.

7)  A second job?

I wish my dad and sister would change and start being able to not only support their expenses but also contribute to the household as well.  Do I hope this will happen?  YES.  Will it?  I think there is a 0.2% chance.  So I'm preparing.  What else could I do?

Cursed

My family reunion last week was bliss.  Well, mostly--there were some issues with my sister not being able to keep up with the rest of my 20-something cousins due to her weight and her medical issues.  She has diabetes now and is doing NOTHING to regulate or control it.  Also, her speech and thought processes are slow and she doesn't talk to anyone without prompting from others, so I think it was a pretty miserable time for her.  But on the whole, for me, it was four days of hiking, swimming in crystal-blue lakes, playing board games and solving puzzles with my extended family, bonfires with s'more's and my uncle serenading us by guitar on the lakefront under the stars, and gossiping and drinking with my (mostly) legal cousins and aunts and uncles.

I got back to my family's home yesterday and saw my dad for the first time in a year (he couldn't/wouldn't go to my mom's family reunion due to his medical issues).  Less than 14 hours after returning, my mom and dad are fighting...over money.

My dad is completely ridiculous and he is driving ME crazy, I don't know how my mom deals with it.  First, he ran up lots of debt on a credit card  that my mom trusted him with for emergencies, and didn't pay it consistently or on time.  My mom dealt with that, and then just today my mom found a bill for $700 for running an ad in the newspaper offering his services in his chosen profession.  He didn't get any business out of that ad, and now the bill has gone to collections, placing a black mark on both my mom AND dad's credit.  My dad has told me secretly ("don't tell your mother") that he has many other bills that my mom doesn't see that he intercepts, and that he is 'dealing with it.'  He blathers on about how he is dealing with it by 'putting my stuff up for sale' and that my mom shouldn't worry about it, but seriously, how can you trust someone that is constantly lying to your face and ruining your credit and any hope you have to fulfill your retirement dreams?  I want to yell and scream at him and make him realize how he is ruining my mom's future, but honestly?  I think he knows.  I just don't think he can help himself.  He is sick, feels lousy, is hopeless for his future, feels like a failure that he can't take care of his family anymore, and is nearly house-ridden.   Would I go stir crazy and run up some bills if I were like that?  I'd hope not, but I can't say for sure.  Maybe I would.  I'd tell my mom about the 'secret bills' but for some reason I can't.  I feel like my mom can't handle it now, and that I'd be betraying my dad's trust, and that it is really none of my business to regulate their finances.   Even though I know it will affect me in the long run.  I'm really not sure what to do with that information.  Like any daddy's girl, his approval of me means a lot and I don't want to lose his confidence, and plus somehow I feel like as long as he's telling ME, I have some control over it or can be prepared to help when my mom finds out later (no ifs--she WILL find out because HE HAS NO MONEY to pay for the things he charges!).

Adding to the mix is that basically, my dad is not only driving my mom into the poorhouse, he's leaving her with nothing.  Their (and my) thought process has always been that once my dad goes, the bills will be paid and my mom will be well off with the $1 Mil life insurance policy that my mom and dad took out over 20 years ago and have been paying ever since (about $250/mo).  With his health the way it is now, there's no way he can qualify for any other life insurance.  So we were all surprised when my mom figured out recently that the life insurance policy that they've been paying on will be drawn down to $0 in less than 10 years.  Right now, it is only at $20K--meaning that if my dad died TODAY, my mom would only get $20K and that is it.  (What happened to the $1 Mil?  I DON'T KNOW)  I asked lots of questions, but I still don't understand what type of policy it is.  They pay $250/mo, and they make interest on what is in the account.  Only, the kicker is that the company takes out a bunch of admin fees to manage the account and have slashed the interest rate to basically nil, so that the amount available for payout at any one time is dwindling.  The company that my mom and dad bought the policy from has closed a few years ago, and the new firm managing the account has made the account draw down like this, and to boot, has refused to switch the policy over to something more reasonable.  I mean really, do they really expect people to stay with the policy if they are going to get $0 out of it later??  In my dad's case, I guess so, because he is stuck--he can't get any other coverage.

So now I'm hopeless for my family's financial future.  My dad's life insurance was really the only thing that was allowing everyone to have hope that things would eventually get better for my mother.  My sister can't help--she's on the dole and won't be getting off anytime soon; she spends every dollar that passes through her hands, plus has my mom paying off her debts.  I think there are just some people or families that are cursed, maybe.  It completely sucks, because my mom is the best person I know, and she has been getting dragged under by my dad and sister for the past 10 years without a break, and they are both getting worse and worse about lying to her and running up bills.  I know I will be the only person that she can turn to when it collapses; I have to stop running around having frivolous fun like I have been and start to prepare.

July Spending Roundup

It's time for me to do a quick run-down of my spending this month.

Once again, I've fulfilled my savings goal.  Since it was a 3 rent-check month with only 2 paychecks (they stagger fortnightly), I decided to only save $500 towards my 2011 US travel fund.  That fund now stands at $2,569.95, 86% complete!  

I came in at or around budget for every category this month.  My strategy to restrict my weekly spending seems to have worked quite well!  I may have to use this in the future.  

My big spend this month was on music downloads.  I spent $150 getting every song I wanted, to make my plane ride to the US a little nicer.  I'm really dreading that 24 hour, 3 flight process. It is partly why I only go back home once a year now (but 90% is because of the money and time off).

Rent:  $1,260/$1,260.  Crazy 3 rent check month!

Groceries:  $287.24/$400  I figured out my problem:  my picky palette.  I won't eat enough of my dinner if I don't actually crave and like what I have on-hand, so I'm better off indulging in the grocery bill.  The aftermath of eating bags of cookies when I get hungry later that night isn't worth it.

Internet:  $61.73/$60  Not too bad.

Electricity:  $149.42/$100  As my dad would say, Shizenhosah (incorrect spelling of a German swear word)!  Electric bill out of control this month with my roommate's habits.  

Eating Out:  $40.20/$100  Slow month.

Charity:  $50/$50  Counted $20 from my professional society membership and $30 from the wedding gift I bought.  Technically, these go to people and organizations that I support.

Cell phone:  $10/$75  Good month here.

Medical:  $15/$57  For my glasses and eye exam (insurance covered the rest).

Misc:  $260.28/$500  

• $32.90 Transportation.  $20 of it was for a cab ride that should have been much less, but I only had a $20 and was the first person to get out of the cab.  My coworker owes me some money but i haven't received it yet.  The rest is for busfare.
• $164.20 Entertainment.  music downloads.  I miss the days when I didn't feel guilty using limewire.  Sigh.
• $5.76  Fees and Stupid Tax.  Literally, for my 2009-2010 NZ taxes.
• $9 Gift.  A birthday drink for a friend.
• $7.38  Work.  busfare to a talk, and I bought T-squares and triangles to make one of my tasks easier.
• $20  Goods and Wants.  A postcard for my aunt, and the rest on travel size bottles for my trip.

I was very conscious of my spending this month, and it really shows here.  I'm under budget even though it was a 3 rent month and even thought I went over in Electricity.  

August will be rough because I will be spending USD!

In the Throes

I'm almost all packed, but tomorrow and the next couple of days will be whirlwind-y as I prepare to leave NZ for nearly 2 months.  I can't believe how quickly it has approached...nor how excited I am to see nearly everyone and everything that I have loved in my life.  I'm so blessed.

This kind of trip is why I save over 30% of my salary each month.  It revives me, connects and grounds me, and I live for it.  (That's a topic for another post though--I deny myself during my 'regular' life and live for the times I travel instead of living every day to its fullest...hmmm...not sure how to fix that yet!).

I don't have regular posts lined up while I'm away...just not that kind of blogger, I guess.  The next time you hear from me, I'll be at my family home, relaxing after a week in the midwest with my mom, sister, and my mom's extended family (my aunts, uncles, and cousins).  This side of the family is extremely nice, well behaved, and fun to be around (as opposed to the other side), so I'm really looking forward to it.

I believe there will be some financial lessons learned from my uncle R--he's had a lucrative career, and has always been very frugal and is now retired and is enjoying the fruits of his labor.  I hear that my aunt K and uncle R's house (where we'll be staying) is VERY nice--they designed it and had it built to their specifications when they were a few years away from retirement.  And they have a houseboat and live on a Great Lake.  Can't wait to see everyone, and the fancy house and surrounds!

After the family reunion, I'll have a week at home to relax, and then I have a high school reunion of sorts with my best friends from that era.  I'm sure I'll post that week and tell you aaaalllll about it.

August and September Goals

In August and most of September, I'll be in the US doing my travel and family thangs.  As such, I won't have a structured life and that makes for difficult goal setting and achieving.  But...I'll commit to doing the following:

1)  Finish Master Account list for family.
2)  Finish Will, Power of Attorney and Trust paperwork (through Suze Orman).
3)  Floss every day.
4)  Spend no more than my NZ disposable income in August and September (roughly $50 USD/day).  That may seem like a lot given that I've got cheap or free lodging everywhere I'm staying, but I have rental car fees and gas and food and a whole lotta things to pay for with that $$.

Stretch Goal:
5)  Between August and September, save $488 NZD to finish off my Travel to US 2011 Fund ($244 each month); drops spending down to $40 USD/day).