New Year's Goals

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My first goal for the New Year should probably be to stop procrastinating since I’m not getting around to posting this until January 3rd. Since I’m returning to school my financial goals will be limited but I’m making some non-financial goals as well. I had a pretty good year in 2007 financially. Some of my 2007 financial achievements are listed in this post “Saving On Minimum Wage.” Since then my total contribution to my IRA is $1250 and I paid over $2000 total on my private student loan to completely pay it off.

Here are the goals for 2008:

  1. Don’t incur any debt other than student loan debt. -This shouldn’t be a problem.
  2. Improve my blogging- Since I’m returning to school it will be easier for me to access the Internet. I plan to establish a regular M-F posting schedule and do some other things to improve my blog.
  3. Lose 20 pounds-This may have been a goal last year also but I weigh the same as I did at the beginning of last year. I just have to start using the fitness center and cut back on the junk food.

Those are my main goals. There are plenty of other goals I’d like to accomplish in 2008 but these goals come first.

Small Electric Bill and Big Gas Bill

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My latest electric bill was only $11.14 for 50kwh of electricity.  My gas bill was $84.72 which was larger than I expected.  I keep my thermostat low but my apartment is poorly insulated and drafted.  My furnace looks to be quite old and is probably not very efficient.  For now I have to have gas since I can’t do without heat.  Sometime in April or May though I will once again cancel my gas service.  Next time I move I’ll make sure the place has electric heat.

Private Student Loan Paid Off

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I just sent a payment of $507.99 to Wells Fargo to pay off my private student loan.  Now my highest interest loan is my Grad Plus loan at 8.25%.  I probably won’t pay anything more on my student loans until I finish school.  My plan for my extra money now is to max out my Roth IRA.  Since this is my last month of working before returning to school I need to contribute all I can now.

November Expenses

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for November.

Household

$437.02

Utilities

$82.79

Transportation

$300.35

Food

$101.72

Entertainment

$155

Medical/Dental

$122

Student Loans

$500

Total

$1698.88

Medical/Dental should go down this month because I won’t have a dentist appointment.  Transportation should be down this month because November’s total includes paying for six months of insurance.  Student loans will be up because I’m paying off my private student loan.  Everything else should remain roughly the same.

Balance Transfer Finally Fixed

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Last month I decided to transfer the balance of my private student loan from Wells Fargo to Capital One to take advantage of a low-interest balance transfer offer.  It was only going to save me a few dollars in interest but since it would only take a couple minutes online I decided to go ahead and do it.  That ended up being a mistake.  The payment from Capital One never showed up at Wells Fargo.  I had to spend several hours on the phone to get it straightened out.  Capital One has told me that they are stopping payment on the check they sent and will credit my account.  I’m hoping that they actually do this.

Dealing with Capital One has been a PITA.  I’ve had to spend 20-30 minutes on hold or more every time I called them.  Then when I do finally get through to a representative they can’t help me and have to connect me with an account manager.  This means another 20-30 minutes.  Every time I have called them they are experiencing unusually high call volume.  If you have unusually high call volume every day wouldn’t that make it normal call volume?  Capital One is my oldest credit card so I don’t want to cancel it but I may not use it anymore.
Wells Fargo has been much better to deal with.  I can get through to a person in just a few minutes and they actually seem to know what they are doing.

Before I do another balance transfer I’ll have to consider if the risk of it being screwed up is worth the potential reward in savings.