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Deployed Finances

May 20th, 2008 at 05:53 am

I am not sure about some of you in the military but I rather enjoy doing finances while deployed.

1. When you see your paycheck you notice there are no federal taxes withheld (except fica, ss, med).

2. You also add in all the combat pay. $250 for family seperation, $225 for Hostile Fire pay, $100 for Hazardous Duty pay.

3. You expenses back on the homefront drop (if you are lucky) since my wife is only spending for herself and my son.

This is where a lot of us in the military get ourselves back in line. I could easily pay off my car loan in the next couple months. But why pay off a 3.9% loan when I can put money in the SDP.

The Savings Deposit Plan is somewhere where deployed service men and women can put in up to $10K and get a guaranteed 10% interest from Uncle Sam.

I was also lucky enough to have internet available for my laptop so I can update Quicken and have easy access to my finances.

- D

Budget Busting

February 5th, 2008 at 02:48 am

I have been doing pretty well at not staying within the budget I set out for myself at the beginning of the year of $200 per week discretionary spending.

It's always something I didn't think of.

Last week I renewed my magazine subscription to Kiplingers for another 3 years for $50. I sent my mother flowers after her surgery for another $50. And my wife got a haircut for $40. (she does this every couple months)

This week I stocked up on my multivitamins, $40, for the next few months. I have cholesterol issue so I get some heart healthy GNC stuff that works pretty good. I got a piece of exercise equipment to help me stay in shape when I don't have time to hit the gym, $50. And I had an unplanned work dinner for $20.

Oh well, hopefully most of these things will pay off in the end and I'll have a few light weeks.

I also got word that I am deploying this summer. Though this is not so good news for my family, it will in the end help our finances as I will not need to be fed or entertained. Plus, the tax-free pay and extra combat pay perks always add an extra $750 or so a month to my income.

All in all, I should have no issues taking care of my 2008 todo's...

2008 Goal - changing course, getting rid of debt...

December 28th, 2007 at 08:02 pm

Okay, this is my first Blog entry so bear with me. I hopefully gave you a quick snapshot of my families situation under my info. What I'd like to throw out there today is my thought process on my 2008 goal of paying off my Auto Loans.

First of all, both loans were for 60 mos and I had no previous intentions of paying them off early. I got lucky enough to purchase both vehicles a few years back when interest rates were quite nice.

However, I was bored at work one day and was looking at my Money Market accounts interest. It got ~4.25% last month, well not actually 4.25% but 4.25%/12 or the equivalent monthly amount. Anyway... in the past I never thought about taxes, and since I am fortunate enough to still be in the 15% tax bracket and I was getting upwards of 5% on my Money Market I never looked into paying off my low interest debts early.

STATS:
Truck Loan: 3.25% - 16 Pmts Left
Car Loan: 3.9% - 29 Pmts Left
MMKT (4.25%) - Tax: 3.6% Yield

So now with the lower money market rate I set my 2008 goal to pay off my Car loan before I put my usual $500 a month into savings/investments.

So, $500 plus the approx $300 / mo that goes to principal on the car should get me paid off by Dec 08.

Now, in my mind there is a small struggle with the truck loan as to whether to pay it off early or not after the car loan. I am leaning towards knocking it out as I should be getting extra income starting this summer as I will be deployed.

There is no telling how this will go. We have a pretty tight budget set and even though I am comfortable with it, I am sure there will be things I didn't account for especially considering we have a newborn Son.

Wish us luck...