Diane's Diary-ah

Well the Miss Texas Teen pageant was last weekend.  It unfortunately goes to the one who has had a personal trainer, tan, bleached teeth, hair at least waist length and curled, and fairy well endowed up top!  Yup! That's pretty much it in a nut shell!  Oh and had to have spent thousands on her evening gown, yes thousands!  Needless to say it was a nice experience for Stacey but she didn't place in the top 15 (which is where they went from 134).

She looked beautiful but not in the way that they look for which is stupid.  If all those girls were given rules like, no make-up, no hair dressers, and no tans, Stacey would have been in the running!  She looks very pretty without any makeup - many of those girls?  not! 

But hey, it was a once in a lifetime experience for her so I'm glad she had the chance.  I also got to spend some quality time with my other daughter who is in college and that was very nice too. Although it was a nice change of scenery, the Hilton we stayed at was a little too upper crust for my taste and the one restaurant there, extremely expensive. 

Glad to be back in my digs, dog hair and all.

This is the time of year when the first thing that comes into my head is not how many shopping days left until Christmas, but rather where I 'am' with everything.  I could care less how many shopping days there are left as I refuse to get all engrossed in the shop til you drop frenzy that we can expect from now through Christmas Eve.

I start thinking more about whether I should really keep being a rep for all these businesses I'm in. Many of them have minimums, some monthly, and it can tend to add up.  And I don't really like buying too much stuff that I don't even need. 

The job may not be real stable right now either and so I'm thinking of how to save money.  I'm in a few shopping swap groups in which I will get some sales in the next few months. And if my job maintains the status it is now, I probably won't make any major moves until the Spring. Then I will re-look at things and maybe drop everything, even Lia Sophia and Lavender Love.  Lia sophia requires a quarterly quota and the last quarter I ended up buying a qualified show by myself. I just don't do home shows and don't have a ton of time to try to get internet sales - that is the luck of the draw.  And maybe I'd feel more 'free' if I didn't have anything else I was involved in. 

I may have more time to write then as I'm still trying to write ...possibly a book.  If I feel like I should be doing something to promote my businesses, I tend to do anything else but sit down and write. Not having files over the weekend has helped me write some, but at this rate I will have to live to be 100 to even get a chapter done.

Well that's it for now...

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Posted by: DianeStJames    in: My entries

Modified on November 28, 2007 at 9:47 AM

50 Year Mortgages, Yikes!

Written by: Diane St James
Copyright 2007 

When surfing the Internet last evening, I was looking around at
the going mortgage interest rates to see how the 15 year rates
were doing. 

I couldn't help but notice the links for 40 and even 50 year
mortgages that were listed on one site I visited.  50 year
mortgages, yikes! I realize that times are tough and some folks
are having difficulties making their mortgage payments, especially
those with adjustable rate mortgages that just went up by 2% or
even more. But the topic of this article isn't that, nor the
ever increasing foreclosure rate. 

It is about a new mortgage tool that has been created under
the guise of helping out borrowers.  Why a guise you ask?
Well what mortgage lender isn't happy to take another 20 years
worth of interest payments from you?

If you are considering a 50 year mortgage, it is not smart
thinking for anyone who ever wants to retire and spend their
golden years free from the claws of their monthly mortgage payment!
Oh sure, everyone is living longer these days.  Why not a 50 year
mortgage if you're going to live to be 100 anyway?

I'll tell you why not! Folks need to be able to enjoy retirement
with limited monthly expenses.  Sure if you own your home free
and clear, you have to pay real estate taxes and homeowners
insurance. But, at least you won't have that payment that for
some of us is nearly half of our monthly income in some
cases - thanks to the evolution of automated underwriting. Let's
not go there though as that is another sore subject to me.

There is something key about 50 year mortgages you may not
know about. Getting a 50 year mortgage may not change
your payments all that much. Did you know if you get a $150,000
mortgage for 30 years at say 6.5%, the payment is $948/month.
The same mortgage for 50 years at 7.0% (hey the rate is always
going to be higher the longer term you have), the payment is
$905/month.  That is a savings of $45.00/month! That is all!
Not much for adding 20 years to your loan is it? Cutting out
that coffee stop every other day on the way to work would
more than make up that amount!

If you have a 50 year mortgage, chances are you may not keep
it all 50 years, but your principal balance will be higher than
it would otherwise be when you do sell or refinance it.
If you DO keep it all 50 years, you'll have paid 20 more years
of interest and probably work 20 more years than you want to.
Doesn't it get tiring working just to pay the bills?  Unless your
income level far exceeds your taste in homes, chances are you
live like many Americans, with very little left to put in
savings to show for all the hard earned money.

My viewpoint on all this is exactly why I was looking at the 15
year mortgage rates.  I just celebrated, albiet quietly, my 50th
birthday and would really like to at least have the option of
retiring when I'm 65. If I refinance my mortgage now to a 15
year mortgage I will own my home free and clear in 15 years.
Granted the 15 year payment is higher, but if I just cut out
those weekend dinners out and tell my kids no to the newest,
latest fashions, I will have enough to make up the difference.
Then instead of a flickering match, there will be that light
at the end of the tunnel to look forward to in 15 short years!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Diane St James is a full-time work at home mom who wears
many hats and is involved in many things.
Visit her website: http://www.dianestjames.com
Mortgage consulting: http://www.abcmortgage.net

Okay enough about doctors!

On to my pride and joy - my children!  Dani is doing well in college (or so she tells me) and really must love majoring in dance as she is in production numbers that require her between classes and practices to be on campus 7 days a week!  I am really proud that she loves what she is majoring in. She even wants to get a Masters so she can teach at the college level as opposed to having a dance studio in the future.  Either way, I am proud of her and can hardly believe she is almost half way through her junior year in college already! 

She is coming down to go with us to the Miss Texas Teen pageant after Thanksgiving.  Stac is in it and she is getting really excited about it!  I would be too!  We have to go pick up her evening gown today which hopefully is done its last alteration (needed 2), and a few other required outfits for the pageant but then should be pretty much ready. It is in Houston and I've got the hotel booked and our tickets for the events.  Hope she does well!  She really looks gorgeous in her evening gown.  Unfortunately the rules are no parents helping with makeup/hair, so I hope she can get everything right.  She has been taking some pageant workshops which have been a huge help, so it will be up to her.

Hub is staying home with the six-pack.  Hopefully he'll fare all right.  It is a lot to handle, but I think he can do it. Sure wish it was going to be televised so he could at least see it, but it not going to be.  So it will be us gals at the pageant and that will be fun!  I haven't been anywhere with just the gals since we came out 4 years ago to look at colleges. Hub got to go back east last year for a week or so, so I don't feel guilty about a weekend away.  ;-)

Oh, I almost forgot!!!  I went ahead and sold my old Honda Civic !!! It was having problems starting off and on, and I did finally get that resolved but just felt like something else was going to go wrong with it soon enough...and hub has been urging me to get a new car since I so 'deserve' it.  :)    I posted it on Craigslist and sold it in about a week and a half. Got $2950 for it which was great considering it had $187K miles and some small rust areas above each side above the rear wheels (from living in PA for sure). 

Right before selling the car hub and I went down into Austin to look at a Yaris as they were cute and the price of at least one I saw online was just over $13K.  The one I test drove was a pretty electric blue color but I didn't really like that the speedometer, etc was in the center above the radio area - apparently so that it could work for both the European and US market.  Anyway, we didn't take my car down that evening but were planning to early the next morning if we got a decent deal.  The guy we dealt with was nice enough but he didn't come down one PENNY on the Yaris...said it was the base model and no room for haggling, etc...That was a turn off to me.  But then we looked at the financing paper he shoved in front of me and it had 9.something % ~!  Well I had already looked on line and saw the going rates were around 6.5% for a 3 year loan which is the maximum term I wanted. I voiced my disgust with the rate and he said that was only an average, so I let him run my credit and he said it was excellent and that the rate was 7.5%.  Well I still didn't like the sound of that...but moving on....we mentioned my honda to 'trade-in'.  He said they wouldn't give me anything more than $500 for it because they'd just auction it off (it was too old with high mileage).  I whippped out the Kelly blue book print-out which listed the trade-in value of $1650 based on the condition.  He said it didn't matter and I pretty much got up and said "We'll I'll have to think about it. THis whole deal STINKS"!   I think hub was a little surprised I was so abrupt but the whole deal did suck!!  No negotating the price, no decent trade in allowance, and my neck would have to get used to turning to the right every time I drove!  

The next morning he called to tell me they COULD do better on my car and probably in the $1000-$2000 range but I had no desire to go back down to South Austin.  He blew it!  But honestly I should be thanking him because it made me determined to sell my car myself for as much as I could get for it and change my focus to the Corollas which had a $1000 cash back offer, got a definitive car loan from capital one at 5.5% and went elsewhere for my Corolla!

We went back up north to where my hub got his truck and my folks offered (without my even asking) to lend me the money for the remainder of the car expense at 0% interest which I accepted.  The dealership negotiated the price of the Corolla for me so my cost was $13888 before tax/tags....when compared to the $13,121 for the Yaris which is a lot smaller and not as nice, and so it was a win -win situation and I have my new car~!  I feel so much better not having an 'official' car loan too so that won't show up on my credit when I go to refi next year.  

Okay well sorry these posts were long...but wanted to catch everyone up ~ :)

Happy Saturday... 

Sorry haven't posted here lately, but I think there is only a few people that ever read this anyway. But since I did hear from my DD who is one of them, I thought I'd write this morning and get everyone up to snuff.  Besides, the weekend bonus work has pretty much ended as of a month ago and so I am actually getting some free time nowadays. 

Let's see, well first on the job front. My contract with the place I'm doing work for ended as mgmt was pressing my boss to end it due to some sort of company policy.  But I did sign on with a contracting company that is also doing the same work for them.  I no sooner signed up with them though (September 17th - which was my 50th birthday too), but they are now closing and everyone is merging with yet another contracting company that does the same work for my 'employer'.  I really am not thrilled with the musical chairs and the pay rate keeps decreasing with each move, but until or unless I find something better at home (which is really where I want to keep working), I am sticking with it. Hopefully they'll be no more mergers, moves or changes with that and hopefully the job itself is still a secure one there.  The income has decreased but not terribly.  I just do more for less pay when available.  Just can't beat working at home. Every day I hear about numerous traffic jams ,accidents, or hazard material spills (yesterday) that I haven't had to deal with at all since moving here.  All those time and money savings are really wonderful and honestly must save me probably between $5K -$10K/year when taking gas, food, etc into consideration.

Wood Stock is doing the best it has all year, actually making a teensy bit more than the outlay expenses the last month.  I think it helped when I told my hub the bottom line about how the net income was something like $100/month year-to-date.  He kept looking at the total numbers and not the net numbers and since I keep the books, I could see every month how it really wasn't even covering the bills.  I had mentioned it before but it suddenly has sunk in and he is charging more for things as he should have been all along.  There are a lot of vendors things in there and at a rate of 20% he'd have to sell $10,000/month just to make $2000/month which would be enough to cover the bills and maybe $1000 to us.  That is nearly impossible in that little town where he has the shop.  So at least he is thinking more business-like and adjusting some things. Hopefully he'll increase the going rate to 30% the beginning of next year.  He himself has said if it isn't really bringing any money in for the household it isn't worth it, but I know he loves having it and pursuing his art work so by being smart about it, it will hopefully start turning a net profit every month.  He's really only had the store open 1 1/2 years and so given that fact, it isn't doing badly.  Sometimes bearing the entire household expense load though does get weary and worrisome -especially with my job changes.

I am due for my annual gyno. appointment next month and for some reason it has been right before Christmas the last few years.  I don't think it is an urgent thing to get done every 12 months, so I am planning on waiting until like February. I also am due for my mammo nightmare as they have been lately in January and I'm going to do that in March as well.  I think added 2 months to the annual things shouldn't affect things that much and since I do all the right things including exercise for my body, I'm fairly confident going every 14-15 months for these things isn't going to increase my chance of cancer.  Besides some places on the Internet I've read about mammos is they can actually be every one to TWO years, yes even at my age.  I won't put it off that long but I'm not quite convinced it HAS to be every 12 months.  I know my sister had breast cancer but I don't think that necessarily increases my risks alot. She has a totally different lifestyle, diet and sleep habits than I ! 

Again because I'm 50 now 'I've read somewhere' <--sound like my mom :) that I should have annual physicals and a colon exam.  Maybe it is because my medical coverage sucks and I'm still paying on hubs MRI bills and other medical bills, but I think that is somewhat of a ploy to keep lining those in the medical field pockets.  I know I haven't been to a doctor since living in PA and even there I think I went once in the 5 years living in our last house.  I just don't think it is necessary if you live a healthy life.  I did go to a health fair (for lack of a better word) recently with my mother who wanted to get a flu shot they were giving away for free to medicare folks.  There I got my blood sugar and cholesterol checked for free. They were just fine.  I also got my blood pressure though and it was 150 over something (2nd number was not high).  But I take it at home frequently with a wrist monitor and it is always LOW., like 90 something over 50 something.  I told her I was nervous and I think I suffer from the 'white coat syndrome' where you get hyped up by being at the doctors and getting blood pressure taken it shows up high. Last year when I went to the gyno it was 150 over something but I remember being nervous about the exam.  The other night it came to me, I think I've had that problem ever since my botched up needle biopsy back in PA.  I remember the nurse taking my blood pressure and it being a little high afterwards, but it was botched up like I said - requiring 2 stitches on my breast - not a fun experience!   So I know I do not have high blood pressure but it will probably be always around 150 whenever someone in the medical field takes it.   Just took my BP now and it was 101 over 55!  See?!

That may be another reason I don't push getting a physical.  I don't want some doctor trying to put me on blood pressure meds when it is normally low and would be totally unnecessary and possibly harmful!! If it is already normally low I could be making it dangerously low if on meds, I don't know but my motto is the longer I can stay off ANY medications the better.  My folks are each on I think 4-6 meds each daily and that probably isn't even a lot for folks who are 80, but I like the natural approach of letting my body take care of itself (unless something major goes wrong of course).

Okay...this is getting really long so I'm going to continue in part 2.  

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Posted by: DianeStJames    in: My entries

Modified on November 3, 2007 at 6:00 AM