Next credit card to pay down: Chase Sapphire

The Chase Sapphire card is the next victim on my credit card paydown list, with an interest rate of 15.24% (the same as the Amex I just paid off - I basically flipped a coin on which one to pay first). As of two days ago, it has a balance of $7,566.89, including the previous billing period's interest. 

Here's how I'm dealing with it: Balance transfers! I qualified for a new credit card from Citi (Citi Preferred Diamond) with a $4,100 credit limit, and also finally realized how I could get a new balance transfer on an existing Citi card I already have (Citi Simplicity, $2,700 limit). 

The Simplicity transfer processed two days ago as well, so my current balance is $4,945.53 (there was also a 3% transfer fee). I have to pay the Simplicity card by March 1, 2022, so I plan to pay $270 per month for the next 10 months.

I'm waiting for the Preferred Diamond card in the mail still, which I think is why the transfer hasn't processed yet. That one will bring my balance down by another $3,980ish (I'm not sure of the exact amount) to under $1,000! This card has an 18 month 0% period, so I'm going to be paying $227.75 per month on it. I expect to be able to pay it off by June 2022, because at that point everything else should be paid off! 

I'm currently budgeting $1,315 for credit card paydown (ugh, I hate that number), plus $265.78 from my federal student loans. It's being allocated as follows:

Card	Monthly payment
Chase Sapphire	$231.80
Chase Freedom	$50.00
Chase Amazon	$110.00
Wells Fargo CC	$82.00
Discover BT	$500.00
Citi Preferred BT	$227.75
Citi Simplicity	$270.00
Affirm	$109.23

(Affirm is due to be paid off in May, at which point that money will be reallocated to the Chase Sapphire.)

The remaining Chase Sapphire balance will be paid off by July! (I'm counting it as paid off even though most of the balance has been transferred to 0% BT cards, because then it's no longer accruing interest and digging me in deeper.)

After the Chase Sapphire is paid off, next will be the Chase Freedom, which should only take a couple months given that it's a relatively low balance (currently only about $1,000). The Discover BT will also be paid off at the same time as the Freedom. (The Discover balance was previously on the Marriott Amex.) 

I'm really excited, I finally feel like the end is in sight for this damn credit card debt. It's been hanging around my neck since I graduated grad school at the end of 2016, and I'm finally in a financial spot where I can make significant progress with it.

March net worth update

March was a great month for me! I got my third stimulus check, which I allocated to a vacation 

Here's my introduction post where I broke down my net worth in January, and here's a link to my February update.

Here's where my net worth stands now as of 3/31/2021:

• Checking: $4,503.83 (I have two checking accounts - more on that to come!)
• Short-term savings: $3,848.80 (This is several savings accounts: car repairs, car insurance [paid every six months], cat savings [I have two approaching-senior cats, and their vet bills are always a kick in the teeth], and vacation)
• E*Trade: $512.45 (this is literally just a few shares in one stock that I've had since I was probably 12 or so?)
• Retirement savings: $30,288.86 (Roth IRA) and $35,856.26 (401(k) - I'm also not fully vested yet, but since I don't intend to leave my current job before I fully vest, this is the full amount in my account)
• HSA: $1,132.43 cash, $7,999.52 invested = $9,131.95 (my HSA requires at least $1,000 in cash available to pay for expenses - anything over that, I just haven’t invested yet)
• Condo: ~$120,000 (Zillow estimates my place to be worth $173k, which is so unbelievably comical to me. I don't even know if it's worth $120k, but that seems like a more likely number than $173k.)

Total assets: $204,112.15

• Credit card debt: ($22,651.74) (due to be paid off by September 2022)
• Student loans: ($21,649.34) (mostly federal, and payments are suspended until September 30, 2021 - roughly $5.4k is private, so that's where I'm focusing my efforts) (private loan due to be paid off December 2022, and federal loans April 2023)
• Car loan: ($760.19) (due to be paid off August 2021)
• Affirm loan (I desperately needed a new mattress last year, as my 15+-year-old one was causing problems for my back, and Affirm was offering 0% and no fees for a 12 month loan of the purchase price): ($218.50) (due to be paid off in May 2021)
• Mortgage: ($36,127.56) (due to be paid off November 2038 - before grad school, I made 8 months of principal-only payments that were the same amount as the mandatory principal+interest payments [not including escrow for taxes and insurance] and it cut 2.5 years off the life of my loan, which still blows my dang mind)

Total liabilities: ($81,407.33) 

Net worth: $122,704.82

My prior month net worth was $118,215.51, which means I've had an almost $4k gain in about 4 weeks! It was almost entirely an increase in assets - my credit card debt stayed steady because I put an upcoming vacation (funded by my stimulus) on it. I did consider upping my estimate of my condo valuation because Zillow has increased the value by about $6k, but I decided it wasn't time yet.

Marriott Amex - officially paid off! Next steps...?

I'm so stoked! Last night at 10:30 pm, I was looking at my GoodBudget app, and I realized I could pay the last little bitty chunk of the Marriott Amex (while borrowing a bit from the next pay period's envelope loading/the "unallocated" envelope). I have officially paid it off!

So technically, I did make three additional purchases on it this month, primarily because I didn't have my main credit card with me. I bought a bottle of kirschwasser and a bottle of whiskey at the liquor store, I paid for a massage with it (that money came out of my stimulus funds), and I ordered some (much-needed) leggings from Old Navy, so I'll be on the hook for all of that (about $300) when the billing cycle closes in April. 

My federal student loans are frozen because of the pandemic, so I've been using that money (about $265) to pay off this card. That $265 plus the $97ish in the regular mid-month budget will more than cover the last chunk of spending, and I will be ready to move on to the next card, the Chase Sapphire with about $7,500 (ugh) on it.

I've already been paying slightly more than the minimum payment on the Chase Sapphire (I set all my cards up with a fixed payment instead of just the minimum because I hated having to adjust my budget every month). The current minimum payment is about $150. With the Marriott Amex paid off, I'll be able to put $680 ($150 min pymt + $97 Amex mid-month amt + $168 Amex end-of-month amt + $265 fed student loan) each month toward it! I'm expecting to have it paid off by November of this year.

I'm also planning to apply for a 0% interest balance transfer card in a couple of weeks to use for at least part of the Chase Sapphire balance. I do have an offer from my current Discover card for a balance transfer, but I need to find out how they apply payments, because I don't want to get stuck owing money on an older balance transfer if they're applying payments to the newer transfers. That is a problem for future Tex to figure out!

Job hunting update

As I mentioned last week, I've started applying for jobs. I'm trying to be a bit judicious in only applying for things that sound interesting to me and for which I'm qualified. (I am allowing myself to stretch some, since apparently it's much more common for women to only apply for jobs they definitely meet the criteria for, while men are more likely to apply for jobs they don't quite have the qualifications for.) 

So far I've had two phone interviews that have gone really well, and the salaries in the market are going to be such a boost to my debt payoff plan and future investing plans. I'm looking at a minimum 20% boost by moving from my current job.

One of the things I struggle with is imposter syndrome, which is wild because I absolutely have the experience that these job posters are looking for, and I'm very open about where I have drawbacks (but also that I love to learn new things).

I am a little bummed because the first job I applied to two weeks ago rejected me, but I was already ready for that to happen after I opened the cover letter last week and re-read it - good grief but it was terrible. It was a good start, but I definitely missed some critical language that would have better conveyed my enthusiasm and suitability for the job. I learned my lesson and have crafted better cover letters in the intervening time. 

It's interesting how different job hunting is this time around. A decade ago, when I was fresh out of undergrad with a liberal arts degree, I was not a top candidate for anything (and to be honest, I didn't know what I wanted to do). I enjoyed where I ended up, but it was not very well-paying in the grand scheme of things, which prompted my going to grad school. I took on debt in grad school, both student loans and credit cards (frivolous spending, sigh), but I'm so thrilled at the opportunities that my master's degree has presented me. I'm in a career that challenges me mentally and is decently necessary to the economy as a whole, so I have skills that are transferrable and in demand. That means that I can command more in salary and also find a job that suits me, rather than feeling pressured to take whatever was offered because it was the only thing on the table. I'm excited to see where this next step takes me!

Whoops

I haven't been keeping up with my spending journals. I could make excuses, but I don't have any particularly good ones. The project I was on at work wrapped up last Tuesday, and I just sort of fell into a funk. I think I suffer from depression (I was diagnosed as a teenager after my dad died, but I haven't seen any sort of mental health professional since then) and/or seasonal affective disorder, so I tend to spend a lot of time working on my mental health, but occasionally I slip and anything that's not an absolute must-do (basically, food and work) falls by the wayside. I just showered for the first time in four or five days, for instance.

I've also bought some stupid stuff in the last two weeks that I didn't really want to confess to. I bought a customized Yeti, coffee beans from a local roaster, a lot of pizza (I think it was like 5 places in a week), a slightly spendy dinner out with my sister-in-law when she came to town (socially distanced on a patio), and I blew my $1,400 stimulus on a trip to Universal Studios Orlando in early May. I decided not to feel too guilty about my trip, though, because: 

• I spent my last two checks paying down my debt
• I'm on track to pay down the Marriott Amex by April as planned
• I have not gone on vacation in a year and three months (as of now) and by the time my trip rolls around it'll have been almost a year and a half
• I got my first vaccine shot last week, so by the time my trip rolls around I should be fully immunized.

The package I got was about $840 for four nights at an on-site hotel and a three-park four-day ticket. I paid for my flight with points on Southwest, although I did splurge for the Early Bird check-in, so that was another $51.20. I earmarked about $200 of my stimulus to get a massage on my upcoming birthday, and the remaining $300-ish will be spent on the trip itself.

This morning I spent a few minutes during a work webcast catching up on my expense tracking in GoodBudget. Honestly, the damage wasn't as bad as I thought. I'm dying to put the next chunk of change on the Marriott Amex, but the billing cycle is due to close today, so I'm leaving it alone until tomorrow at the earliest. 

I've also started applying for jobs! I'm trying to apply to only things I think will be interesting and that I want to do.

All in all, I am making progress and mostly good decisions, even if I'm not reporting it. 

February net worth check-in

February was a good month for me! I paid down my Marriott Amex to below $1k, which means I'm on track to pay it off by April.

Here's my introduction post where I broke down my net worth in January.

Here's where my net worth stands now as of 2/28/2021:

• Checking: $3,354.45 (I have two checking accounts - more on that to come!)
• Short-term savings: $3,392.41 (This is several savings accounts: car repairs, car insurance [paid every six months], cat savings [I have two approaching-senior cats, and their vet bills are always a kick in the teeth], and vacation)
• E*Trade: $472.35 (this is literally just a few shares in one stock that I've had since I was probably 12 or so?)
• Retirement savings: $29,320.69 (Roth IRA) and $34,265.76 (401(k) - I'm also not fully vested yet, but since I don't intend to leave my current job before I fully vest, this is the full amount in my account)
• HSA: $1,178.04 cash, $7,866.85 invested = $9,044.89 (my HSA requires at least $1,000 in cash available to pay for expenses - anything over that, I just haven’t invested yet)
• Condo: ~$120,000 (Zillow estimates my place to be worth $168k, which is so unbelievably comical to me. I don't even know if it's worth $120k, but that seems like a more likely number than $168k.)

Total assets: $199,850.55

• Credit card debt: ($22,359.63) (due to be paid off by September 2022)
• Student loans: ($21,807.37) (mostly federal, and payments are suspended until September 30, 2021 - roughly $5.5k is private, so that's where I'm focusing my efforts) (private loan due to be paid off December 2022, and federal loans April 2023)
• Car loan: ($910.68) (under $1k! and due to be paid off August 2021)
• Affirm loan (I desperately needed a new mattress last year, as my 15+-year-old one was causing problems for my back, and Affirm was offering 0% and no fees for a 12 month loan of the purchase price): ($327.77) (due to be paid off in May 2021)
• Mortgage: ($36,229.59) (due to be paid off November 2038 - before grad school, I made 8 months of principal-only payments that were the same amount as the mandatory principal+interest payments [not including escrow for taxes and insurance] and it cut 2.5 years off the life of my loan, which still blows my dang mind)

Total liabilities: ($81,635.04) 

Net worth: $118,215.51

My prior month net worth was $112,293.71, which means I've had an almost $6k gain in about 5 weeks! About $3k was liability paydowns, and the rest was increases in cash and investments. 

Tex's money journal, February 21 - February 27

I originally planned to do these like Refinery29's Money Diaries, but my life is not interesting enough to be broken down by times! Also, these days I don't do much more than sleep, work, and obsess about my finances. I'm hoping I'll be more interesting in a couple of weeks!

February 21 (Sunday)

One of the things I forgot to mention in last week's spending was my order of emergency food from Go Habitat. I ordered their two week supply at the recommendation of a coworker. He even provided me a discount code that gave me $38.50 off, so it cost me $143.20. I charged it to my Marriott Amex (the one I'm working to pay down, sigh), and after a couple of days decided to pay for it out of my short-term savings - that is more or less the point of that savings account!

I didn't spend any money today. Well, not entirely true. I had a minor freakout about our project deadline being in 12 days, so instead of taking a break to cook the soup I had planned (I had also forgotten to take the chicken out of the freezer), I ordered a bunch of Indian food. Work had given us DoorDash credit, so it didn't actually cost me anything out of pocket. It was about $60 worth of food, plus $10 in tip (I have DashPass through one of my credit cards so the other fees were minimal). I ordered vegetable pakoras, mulligatawny soup, saag paneer, chana masala, naan, cheese naan (my favorite!), and a vegetarian sampler that consisted of "half" portions of saag paneer, dal bukhara, and malai kofta, plus roti, spinach pakoras, a samosa, and gulab jamun. It ended up making about 8 meals - the soup and the pakoras/samosa, the entree saag paneer and chana masalas were two each, and the vegetarian sampler half portions were another three. I have grocery pickup scheduled for Tuesday, with a very simple crockpot meal in the rotation and a slightly more complicated recipe (egg roll in a bowl) as well. 

Breakfast was oatmeal with egg, I finished off the last lemon chicken thighs with green beans for lunch and ate a cheese naan, a few pakoras, and a small portion of saag paneer for dinner. (I was pleased that I stopped eating when I was full. A problem I've had for a very long time is the inability to self-regulate an appropriate amount of food, so it was nice to do it even just this once.)

I spent most of Sunday working my tail off because of that freakout. It had the happy result that I felt much better about our progress by the end of the day, so all's well that ends well.

Day 1 total: $0

February 22 (Monday)

Another no-spend day. Breakfast was oatmeal and egg again, lunch was chana masala (spicy!) and naan, and dinner was mulligatawny soup and the remaining pakoras and samosa.

Work was good, and our status meeting helped me realize we were in better shape than I had thought the previous day. I went out for a lunchtime walk, my first in over a week, and felt much better physically and mentally for it. 

Day 2 total: $0

February 23 (Tuesday)

Time to spend money! I did my laundry (just clothes) for the first time in over a week ($1.50), picked up my grocery order from HEB ($65.68), made a small donation ($10), and got my tax refund, so after topping off a couple of budget envelopes (my entertainment spending went a lil crazy last week with the tea and the gym program purchase), I put the rest toward the Marriott Amex ($276.13). I'm so close to being under $1,000 with that card! Once the short-term savings transfer for the emergency food posts, the balance will be finally be in the three digits. My Amazon Prime annual payment also posted ($128.82), that amount will come out of my annual savings fund. $482.13

Work wasn't super-productive. I think I swung too far in the other direction from Sunday's freakout and was just complacent and easily distracted. Breakfast was a jalapeno-cheese kolache from the grocery order and a banana, lunch was dal bukhara and more naan, and dinner was saag paneer. I made more naan (completely whole wheat) because I clearly didn't order enough. I'm a little nervous I'll eat it all instead of eating it with meals like I'm planning to, but this is something I need to work on.

I signed off my work computer at nearly midnight and went to take off my makeup with an oil-based cleanser, only after the application of which did I discover that the water had been shut off in our condos. I checked my email and saw the management company had sent out a notice saying they found a "major leak." This is crazy annoying because I've been using up all the water I boiled/bottled last week, so I only have a couple of bottles left, and they don't have a timeline for when they'll fix it.

Day 3 total: $482.13

February 24 (Wednesday)

I let my annoyance at the water situation get the best of me this morning. I went to the local grocery store to buy water (I haven't been in a grocery store in months!), and also picked up instant coffee and some Coke Zero ($8.76). Then since I was already out of my house, I mobile ordered Starbucks and went to pick it up. I had to reload my Starbucks balance ($15) to cover the cost of the coffee, but I decided it was worth it. Then I subscribed to the new People Royal magazine because I'm low-key obsessed with the English monarchy, and I wanted a little treat to make me feel better ($20). I moved money from my car envelope to top off the entertainment envelope again to cover these expenses - the only driving I'm currently doing is to and from the grocery store. $43.76

The water came on again around 4 pm, which was a relief. I'm skeptical it will stay on, but at least I have supplies to deal with it if necessary. 

Day 4 total: $43.76

February 25 (Thursday)

I woke up before my alarm, which was not ideal given that I went to bed after midnight. I do think I would function well with 7.5 hours of sleep generally, but for some reason I insist on attempting 9 hours. 

I ended up having a terrible time focusing on work today. Eight days til we're done with this project, but most of my part is done. I got a reminder email that I had signed up for Austin Monthly's Front Porch Session, the virtual version of which comes with a free cocktail kit that you have to pick up from Still Austin the day of the show. While I was picking that up, I impulse bought a bottle of their gin and a bottle of their whiskey. (I haven't even tried their gin yet; it was the sample in the cocktail kit yesterday but my cocktail shaker is currently occupied with leftover tea from the storm when I had no other containers.) $77

I was supposed to make soup for dinner, but I talked myself into getting pepperoni rolls instead. I'll have to make the soup for lunch tomorrow, but it's a pretty simple recipe. Pepperoni rolls were $8.65, but I round up for a tip (even though I always order carry out). $10

And of course, today is the day my Chase minimum payments post ($345 total). The short-term savings transfer for my emergency food hit as well, so I threw that at the Marriott Amex ($143.20). The balance is finally under $1,000! I'm so close to paying it off at last. $488.20

Day 5 total: $575.20

February 26 (Friday)

A decent workday, and I signed off at 5 pm (for 5 o'clock Friday!). Breakfast was a jalapeno kolache and a banana, lunch was cabbage egg roll soup I didn't make last night, and dinner is pot roast (literally just a pork roast with cream of mushroom soup and onion soup mix) over egg noodles, with a side of Italian green beans with olives. I spent the evening watching Modern Family and reading on my Kindle. (Actually on the Kindle webpage.)

Today my private student loan posted ($55.43 + $21.94), and I sent $5 to my short-term savings account from the unallocated envelope in my budget. $82.37

Day 6 total: $82.37

February 27 (Saturday)

Ugh, I drank too many bee's knees cocktails last night (I drank three total). I also dropped the shaker while making what would have been my third one, splattering gin, lemon and honey all over my kitchen - and naturally I didn't clean it up while I was inebriated, I just cleaned the shaker and made another one. I slept terribly, too - ever since this year's Whole30, booze hits me so much harder than it used to. I woke up three hours after I went to bed (I'm already sleep-deprived because of work!) and couldn't go back to sleep for a while, so I played on my phone a bit. Then I only got another three hours of sleep, so my day started earlier than I would have liked. More phone time before I got up (it's such a bad habit). 

I was going to go start doing some laundry I'd been procrastinating, but I overheard some neighbors mention that there were supposed to be plumbers on site from 10 am to noon, and I didn't think I'd be done with the washers by then, so I just didn't start. Instead I got onto my work laptop a little earlier than usual for a weekend.

My Fire TV remote stopped working a while back, but the box was still working, so I had just been using the app on my phone as a remote. (Technology is wonderful.) Tonight, though, I'm not sure what happened, but the app couldn't connect to the box. Hulu played on for a while, which was perfect, but eventually I got the "Are you still watching?" message and had to set up my Fire TV Stick.

Day 7 total: $0

Weekly spend: $1,183.46

Mostly credit card payments this week! I'm very stoked about my Marriott Amex balance getting below $1k.

• Credit cards: 764.33
• Entertainment: 250.82
• Student loan: 77.37
• Groceries: 74.44
• Donation: 10
• Savings: 5
• Laundry: 1.50