The job change has had me more scrambled than I expected! I'm loving the new role, even though the commute is still pretty rough. (Hurray for audiobooks from the library!)
I've not been doing my monthly check-ins mostly because I thought I didn't have online access to my old 401(k). (Turns out I did have access, and I was finally able to initiate the rollover on it this week! There was about $2k not vested, but I don't think my mental health was worth sticking around just to vest that extra 40% of the company contribution.)
I was also finally eligible to sign up for the 401(k) at my new job - I thought it was 90 days, but it was actually after three months with one hour of service, which was July, August, and September - so I'm signed up as of October 1! My first deduction will be on this coming Friday's paycheck. We have access to both a regular and a Roth 401(k), so I spent some time waffling on which to put my 4% into (salary match is up to 4% - I'll increase it once I pay off my credit cards). I asked my brother his opinion, because I was leaning toward splitting the difference, and he suggested to just put it all in the 401(k). I decided to do that because I believe I'll be in a lower tax bracket once I retire, plus I appreciate the lowering of my current tax bill.
One of the other things distracting me was trying to figure out how and when to move. I need to make some cosmetic updates to my current place in order to sell it for the best price, and I have too much crap in general. I debated between a personal loan and just saving up for a few months, and finally decided my credit score can't take the hit of a new loan if I want to get a good interest rate on my next place. So I reworked my budget, and all of the money above my credit card minimum payments is now going to be diverted to a savings account (~$1,100, plus another $265 from my still deferred federal student loan payment). I should have about $7,500 saved by the time I ready to pull the trigger in about 5.5 months. (Side note: I have enough equity in my current place that even after my next down payment, I'll have enough money to pay off my credit cards immediately.)
An upside of waiting means I have more time to declutter my place. I'm still determined to work on it daily, but it doesn't feel quite so overwhelming with the longer timeframe. I can also maybe do some of the cosmetic upgrade stuff myself, like painting and some minor repairs.
A downside is that my credit utilization is still a bit high - it's currently sitting at about 41%, and ideally should be 35% or less. Aaaand I just fixed that by requesting credit limit increases on three of my balance transfer cards - one was approved for a $4k increase and two for a $2.5k increase. Love technology! That puts me at just a touch over 35%, which will decrease further when this month's payments hit. The increases should also help with those individual cards' utilizations as well.
The final thing I need to do is switch my daily spending to a card with a higher limit - the current card's limit is only about $2.2k, and I usually spend about $1.5k per month on it. I have another card with an $8k limit (Chase Sapphire) that will work much better. I like the $2.2k card because it's Southwest Airlines-branded, but the $8k card has Chase Ultimate Rewards, which can be transferred to Southwest if I want. I've requested some of the credit line from my Chase Amazon card be transferred to the Southwest card, but I'll still move my recurring payments to the Chase Sapphire card. (Why am I not requesting credit line increases from Chase? Because their FAQ says I have to send a secure message with the amount I want to increase, and that they're going to pull my credit report to evaluate the request. Hard pass, given my future mortgage application!)
My Experian FICO score yesterday was 721. Wells Fargo's FICO 9 score says 699 as of 10/1. I want to get up to 760 or better by the time I apply for my next mortgage. The WF details say that I have too many inquiries in the last year, but the only hard inquiry I'm aware of is from applying for my latest balance transfer card in April. (I checked my credit reports yesterday - I stupidly got distracted while getting the last one and the session timed out and wouldn't let me re-access it. Luckily during the pandemic we have access to our free credit reports weekly, so I'll do a better job next weekend getting all three.)
This feels like a good stopping point for now. I'll try to put together a September net worth update shortly!
