We met with three different agents to discuss re-listing the property. One was absolutely a no-go.  He didn’t seem to have much insight into the market, and didn’t have anything new to tell us.  Another was great.  She was really great.  She is utilizing all kinds of new marketing methods online, maintains a blog about the local real estate market, and is very knowledgeable and up to speed on our market.  The problem is that she targets the demographic that I’m in.  That’s not the demographic we’re going to be marketing to.

The agent we chose is high energy, highly aggressive, and older.  This was important to us because we want to sell the property ASAP, and our target buyers are either older (retired) people or parents looking to buy a property for the college students.  He’s very excited, but realistic.  When we interviewed him at the property he pointed out several things we need to change.

That’s what we were looking for.  Our previous agent was just like us–she didn’t understand why the property wasn’t selling.  This guy seems to know why.  I’ll keep you updated.

All told, we were about $80 over our written budget.  It’s not a huge deal–we leave a little wiggle room anyway by rounding off our income–but we like to have some carry over to save extra for the next month, and this is the first time we’ve been over budget in a while, so we were disappointed.

The solution is to probably extend the envelope system to more items.  That’s where we got caught on the redecorating expense…everything went on the debit card.  We’ll find out for sure in the coming months because we’re having to budget for Christmas.  Travel and gifts altogether are probably going to cost us somwhere in the neighborhood of $1,500.

Consumer Debt Worst Offenders

A lot of people feel like their drowning - and that they’ll paying bills and consumer debt payments till the day they die or they hit bankruptcy, only to start the cycle again. If you’re in this situation, this doesn’t have to happen, but you have to act now!

Learning From Our Mistakes:  Our First Auto Loan

But good news was that I had an Old Navy credit card account (which I had never used), so I could actually get a loan - at an interest rate 24% APR. It was the only way, they said, that we could get a car.

Uh oh…I don’t like where that’s headed.

10 Ways to Save on Gas and Improve Mileage

Don’t automatically assume that a hybrid will save you money on gas - Recently, I was at my Lexus dealer for a routine maintenance. I asked the service rep about the hybrid. She was honest enough to say that you will probably save on gas if you only drive in the city, but it is not really that effective if you are always driving on the highway. So do not automatically assume that getting a hybrid is going to save you on fuel. In fact, before you consider the following a hybrid, consider the next tip.

Hang on a minute…let’s think this through.

When are you planning on retiring?

Unless you’re going to retire next month or possibly next year, there’s no reason to freak out.  The value of your account may be dropping, but you haven’t actually lost any money until you sell.

Are you buying or selling?

If you’re like me, you’re contributing to your 401k, not pulling money out of it.  If you’re buying, there’s no reason to freak out.  I bought two weeks ago too, and this week everything is on sale.  If I thought it was a good deal two weeks ago, doesn’t it make sense that I’d think it’s a great deal this week?

Are your kids healthy?  Is there food in your refrigerator?

Seriously.  There is no reason to freak out!

• I’m going to work
• We’re contributing to our 401k
• We’re sticking with the price we have set for our house that’s on the market
• We’re saving into our short-term savings account–the same amount we’ve contributed the last several months
• We’re sitting down tonight to finalize our household budget for October

In other words, nothing has changed.  I’ll admit we’re a little excited about the prospect of buying mutual funds at a deep discount while everyone is panicking.  I think the people on Wall Street need to learn a lesson here, and hitting them in the pocketbook is the best way to get them to pay attention.  Is it going to trickle down and affect the rest of us?  Probably so.  But the pain we’ll feel short term is nothing like the pain we’ll feel if we continue to put this off with more and more credit and corporate welfare.

The response from this advisor:  ”Well, I wouldn’t have recommended paying off your car…that’s a depreciating asset.”

What?  Why would you ever want to have debt against a depreciating asset.  That’s how people get upside down in things and get stuck with them!  Why would you want to pay 6% interest on something that’s losing 10% of its value every year?  Is it because you just aren’t satisfied losing 10% and want to lose more?

Here’s the bottom line.  People with money lend it to people who don’t have money…and they end up with more money.  Besides that…if this guy is in his 60s and is still working as a financial advisor, how much does he know?  Shouldn’t he be a millionaire ten times over by now?

Also, fuel prices dropped this month, which saved us a lot, and I also drove on a business trip that resulted in an extra $240 paid for mileage.  Another bonus came from the fact that we budgeted our income to be a little bit less than it actually was.  All totaled, we had a surplus of just under $600 this month.

We’ve been budgeting $500 a month for saving and investing with a plan to increase that amount by carrying over whatever is left from the previous month.  That means we’ll be able to save a whopping $1,100 with our mid-month paycheck we get in September.  Now, if we can just get rid of the condominium we’ve had for sale for the last five months, we can really start gaining some ground!

There are so many great real estate deals out there right now.  There’s one in particular that we’d love to take advantage of–it’s a 1970s brick ranch that is getting close to foreclosure.  The gentleman who lived there passed away.  He had a reverse mortgage that amounts to ~$140,000.  We’d love to be able to grab it at that price and gut it (it’s probably worth $200,000 as is), then sell our current home and pay down the mortgage.

The result would be a house that’s exactly what we want with a huge back yard, close to a park, and our mortgage would be cut in half.

We almost eliminated our use of debit cards except for gas and groceries.  For everything else we moved to cash in an envelope.  I can’t speak for the wife and her personal expenses, but I’ve been walking around with the same $10 in my pocket for over a week, knowing that it’s all I have left to “blow” for the month.  I can’t stand being broke, so there’s no way I’ll spend this money and be forced to walk around with empty pockets.

Three days to go until the end of the month.  I think I can get by that long without spending $10.

Blogging.

I’m not saying that I’m a full time blogger, or that that I ever expect to get rich from it.  However, I do make anywhere from $150-$200 a month on my blogs (I have several) depending on the time of year.  This allows me to pay for my phone, which I need to have for the consulting I do, along with my internet access, which I need for both consulting and blogging.  That doesn’t sound like a lot, but those bills are being paid with money that isn’t taxed, and in the long run it really helps.  I’m also able to buy computer equipment I need with the money I make from consulting, and that adds up fast!