July 15, 2006

Train Talk: A car in any other name is … taxable?

So I have my own car, which I bought in my pre-Fatwallet/PF Blogging days. I have to say that though the buying process was not as bad an experience as it could have been, I definitely could have done better for myself. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a great car, with great gas mileage and she will be kept forever, but I still could have struck a better bargain, gotten a used car for much less money against my parents’ wishes, or not fallen for a couple of the finance department’s little “deals.”

Older and wiser, I had my chance to do better, though not for myself, last year when the family/Sibling needed a new car, preferably a new truck. As the person in the family with no debt to her name and excellent credit to boot, I was asked to consider financing the truck in my name to get the lowest rate possible.
I was hesitant for a few reasons: this was another chunk of debt.
This was asking me to trust Sibling to get his act together and make the payments.
This was asking Sibling to get it together, and be responsible FOR A LONG TIME.
This was making myself vulnerable to Sibling’s irresponsible ways for at least 4-5 years.
This was putting my hard-earned credit at risk.

Frankly, I didn’t think it was a good idea. But the primary reason I caved was because I knew how to play the Fax attack game, I knew I could be more aggressive than the rest of my fam, I couldn’t bear the thought of them going out and getting scammed by unscrupulous car salesmen and because if I didn’t do it, my parents would be the ones to shoulder the burden of collecting from Sibling. And I’ve learned that it’s far easier for Sibling not to follow through on promises to my parents than to me.

So I caved. Not without stipulating that this chance was his last chance to do right by me. Not without emphasizing that any missed payment sans communication regarding the situation that caused the missed payment would immediately force me to confiscate the keys and sell the truck I didn’t want, need or couldn’t afford. And certainly not without clearing stating that until the truck was paid in full, I would treat it as a lease to him. So long as he made his payments, he would have use of a car. This burden, I realized, could be an opportunity to improve the strained relationship between myself and Sibling’s spendthrift, careless ways. Or it could be a terrible mistake.
Still, I caved.

The rate offered through the dealership was pretty unbeatable, considering my relatively short credit history: 1.9% APR for 4 years. My credit union that financed my original loan could not match it. Month by month, Sibling managed to pay in full. Month after month, I started letting myself hope a little more than this could possibly last.

Last month, there was a period of radio silence from Sibling, lasting about 2 weeks. I panicked. Although I normally have a small surplus of cash intended for misc. bills and extra savings, my increased 403(b) contributions had just taken effect – I had no extra money to cover the $400 payment he’d been making, not after he’d borrowed a couple hundred to pay Dad immediately rather than driving 2 hours to make a cash delivery. I got very upset that he’d reneged on his promise to come through by Monday and was fuming at myself for trusting him by Wednesday. Things turned out ok by the end of the week, though, as Dad drove down to his apartment to find that he hadn’t returned anyone’s calls because he was sick and didn’t feel up to talking.

Amidst this stress, a train friend wondered why I didn’t just refinance the truck in Sibling’s name to get it off my credit. My reasons at the time were that his credit was so bad, the interest rate was sure to go through the roof and he would not be able to make those payments, and that for him to follow through on this loan was very important to reestablishing any amount of trust in him.
Having said that though, I have to wonder how long this peace will last, and if it does, how I’m going to transfer the truck to him. Since he’s making all the payments, including repaying the down payment my parents put down, he’s going to “own” the truck when it’s paid off. But legally, I’m not sure if I can just transfer ownership without any money changing hands? Would that be considered a gift that may be taxed as a gift worth more than the 10 or 11k that is allowed per year tax free? Would it be wise to refinance it in his name towards the end of the loan simply to have the title issued to him by loan’s end?

Fridays: Working From Home

I realized after my first day of working from home (a perk I get occasionally after having to work weekends in addition to my usual 14 hour days) that this could actually potentially cost more than its worth (a few extra hours of sleep, no commute, 3-day weekend feeling).

The costs add up quickly because you figure, I’m home, I can lunch with friends who are in town, get work done, and not have to be in the office! What you don’t realize is that you spend more time on your cell or home phone rather mindlessly, you have to run the a/c during the day (still ridiculously 99-101 degrees), and you’re even more tempted to eat out.

I’ve been trying to combat all these little financial drains, or at least be mindful of them. I’m not sure that yesterday was an unqualified success:
Phone call to cheer up depressed friend (2 hours, $0 for a local call)
Several text messages trying to coordinate lunch (0.50)
Short lunch with a good friend whom I’ve not caught up with in forever ($12)
(almost) filled up my tank- this one stings more because I normally commute via train, and I only drive on the weekend. My parents use the car during the week ($35!!)
I packed a couple of Luna Bars and a bottle of water so we wouldn’t feel compelled to pay exhorbitant prices at the bookstore’s cafe for a drink or a snack (free)
4 hours in an air conditioned bookstore working/reading (free)
Ross, need to find a new wallet for under $10 as my old one is getting too shabby and will have to be presentable for October’s work trip, but couldn’t find one – (0)
found a shirt instead – (8.63)

The gas money I might have spent anyway as I usually fill up when I get the car and it’s empty, but having the freedom to wander cost me an extra 20 dollars I wouldn’t have been able to spend were I in the office. On the other hand, for getting to spend an hour with my friend, and a nice shirt that can be worn professionally which my wardrobe seriously lacks, 20 bucks isn’t SO bad….

Of course, this wouldn’t be at all applicable for someone who contemplated seriously working from home because I don’t have to do anything but lug my laptop home, use the readily available internet, or can abscond to Borders for the aforementioned free a/c and comfortable feeling of having people around.

July 13, 2006

Project: Auto Loan Payoff, Part II

If I want to keep the length of the term the same, then I have to calculate the paydown for 26 months. Obviously my top choices would be the 0% BT with no transfer fees, but I prefer not to apply for new credit if I don’t have to, and I don’t want to max out my opportunities for good 0% BTs if I can fully utilize these credit lines that are just sitting here without any benefits like the Citi Credit Protector Retention Offers. At most, I’ll shuffle my credit lines to acccommodate and maybe ask for an increased limit if absolutely necessary.
It also seems most prudent (and simpler!) to select a single card/credit line to carry the entire balance on for life, rather than breaking it up amongst two or more cards with lower APRs because that may necessitate more BT fees and frankly, it would complicate matters more than I’m willing to juggle. I’m not ruling it out entirely, but it’s not on the list of preferred strategies.

So far, the best offers from Chase are:

With BT fee ($75 max), 4.99% until the balance is paid in full

$557.01 monthly payment
Time to payoff: 26 months
(I’m using AOL Finance & Money’s Calculator to see how much interest we’d be paying total): $782
With the fee: $782 + $75 = $837

With the usual $400 monthly payment
Time to payoff: 38 months
Total cost: $1110
With the fee: $1110 + $75 = $1185

With no BT fee, 6.99% until balance is paid in full

$569 monthly payment
Time to payoff: 26 months
Total cost: $1103

$400 monthly payment
Time to payoff: 39 months
Total cost: $1626

Thoughts: Wow, this doesn’t look as great as I imagined. I mean it’s still better than the 2684 no matter which range I go with, I just don’t like that it stretches out the time to payoff to another year. The highest total savings would be $1499, which is a rather large chunk of change!
There is always the option to transfer it again to a 0% when/if that comes available.
Or there’s always the option to transfer a large amount to a 0% and refi the remaining amount, but the only 0% option I have is with the Schwab card for about 8 months.

Anyway, I’ll have to sleep on this because I’m not entirely sure that I want to take on another $13700 of unsecured debt when, as I’ve said before, I’m the emergency cushion for the family. When I took on their credit card debt, I was UBERstressed until I had saved enough to payoff the entire amount if I needed to. Not only do I not have enough in my emergency funds to cover it, I would essentially be asking myself to put away … about $20k in a very short period of time! I don’t deal very well with uncertainties, especially financial uncertainty.

Is this worth it?

July 12, 2006

Project: Auto Loan Payoff

Since I can’t pay off my parents’ auto loan for them (a regular refi won’t work because they are upside down on the loan), I’d like to see if creative juggling can reduce the amount of interest they will ultimately have to pay. I’ve only ever done straight 0% Balance Transfers before, so I have no idea how this will work out, but it’s worth a try… Well, it’s late so just a few details to start.

My concerns are: 1) the difference between way auto loans work vs. credit cards
2) Taking on a huge chunk of unsecured debt

I’ve looked at several of my cards that I don’t use for anything to gauge the transfer offers, and here are the options (will definitely consolidate credit lines as necessary):

Chase 1
Available Credit: $5000

Chase 2
Available Credit: $7000

Charles Schwab 2
Available Credit: $380

Major Learning Curve or …. ??

Oh lordy, that was exhausting! I thought I was capable of playing with technology as well as your average Duck but … if so, your average Duck is downright SLOW. Many many thanks to Kira for dumbing down the HTML enough for me to get started, I hope to start actually personalizing some of this blog soon! (and that it won’t take too many more eye-crossing, trembly-fingered “is…is that it?” fumblings.)

Status Quo

So, it’s July 12th. 11 days after July 1st. And I don’t have my new title, nor the raise that SHOULD come with it. Why? Because my supervisor/boss and his boss are super-busy and haven’t had a chance to talk to me yet. Yeah yeah, they have a wedding to plan, deadlines to miss, and travel to arrange, all the usual excuses around this time of year.

So even though I “know” that I’m supposed to get them, I don’t KNOW that I’m going to get them, ya know? I have no details. Other than it’ll happen. Eventually.

Naturally, I feel like – even though it is likely nothing more unusual than the delay is due to the fact that they’re very busy, can’t manage their time worth a hill o’ beans, and they even dropped the ball big time on a Major Deadline because of their little wedding project –

1) I’m not going to GET the promotion OR raise after all. (no rational reason for this. In the last 8 months I’ve accomplished goals that haven’t been hit in years, logged more time and work hours than my workaholic boss.)
2) They’re delaying so that they’ll hit my 2-year anniversary mark so that they can give my coworker an undeserved, equalizing promotion. (rational reason for this: they actually have a SCHEDULE for promotions. Two years, first promotion. I’m a few months early. 4, actually. And she and I were hired and started on the same day. And she’s a bratty, tantrum-throwing troll.)
3) Any Number Of Disastrous Things are Brewing. Not in my favor.

Again, even though I “know” that it’s gonna happen and that I’m supposed to come up with an new job title that’s *snazzy* and *important-sounding* to match all the work that I’ve taken on and pushed through, I’m still on edge. Because it hasn’t actually happened yet. And it’s making me a little stir crazy.

And at the same time we’re trying to start interviewing for what should be my former position (actually, to replace a departed coworker, really). A position for which my friend would be perfect, and also incidentally needs in a major way. But I can’t seem biased. Though, I personally want him to get it and and feel that professionally, he’s right for the job.

So when all this is resolved and dust settles, I may be able to intelligibly post about How Raises and Promotions Seem to Work in a Small Office. (population: 3 student interns, 4 full time staffers, 1 supervisor staffer, 1 reigning Boss). Until then I’m going to be nervously shuffling my projects around my desk and trying to work through the increasing anxiety.

July 10, 2006

Citibank Pros and Cons

I previously touched on a few things I wasn’t happy with in working with my Citibank accounts system, so I thought it’d be fair to do a full assessment.

Pros:
** Immediate online access to all my checking and high-interest savings accounts. (I suppose this could be a con for those who don’t want easy access to their savings, but I find that it just doesn’t make sense to have emergency money that’s not readily available.)
** Linking Citicards: You can link all your Citi branded cards and it will show your basic card information such as total balance, amount due, amount available, and some transactions. I don’t particularly need the transactions as I just log on to the Citicard account but it’s still handy.
** Ability to show or mask all your account numbers: Let’s be honest. I’m simple. I want to be able to do stuff online, and not have to lug every single account number around with me in my head or wallet. I can just show the account numbers so when I call with a dumb question, I don’t have to fumble around looking for any bank account information that I don’t have.
** Next Day Transfer: double -edged ability, this one. It’s great for a one day transfer of my savings from my WAMU account which is loads better (and worth 2-3 days of interest) than the transfer times I had with ING or ED. But it can be a con as well.
** Awesome sign-up bonus — when they pay you. My signup bonus was $100 for opening a checking account (after 90 days) and another $100 for linking and paying a Citi credit card online (I don’t remember how long it says I have to wait for this part). I haven’t seen my money yet since I opened the accounts at the end of April so I still have a few more weeks before they’re late. I’d opened a checking account a few years back just for the bonus and closed it soon after, and they waited a while to deposit the money but didn’t give me any problems. Feathers crossed that they’re still as hassle-free this time around!
** The requirement of having a checking account with them was good to me because they give you a set of free checks (not just starter checks, printed ones) which is convenient if you just use a few checks.
** Thank You Points: the break-up radio commercials ads may be annoying, but a little extra for free is always good. With these points I may eventually be able to liberate those stray points that never quite add up to a good reward ($100 GCs = yum!)

Squawks:
** So far it doesn’t look like they’re terribly prompt with interest payments, and I’m not a fan of the rolling statement date. I’d gotten used to the last of the month statement-ending-date with ING and ED. That’s minor though.
**As previously mentioned: The savings accounts are money market accounts, which means there’s a limit of 6 transactions per statement period. Ideally I wouldn’t need that many, but I’m still working out the allocations and everything, I need some slack!
** Next Day Transfers: from outside institutions are unreasonably restricted, very annoying. (see previous post). I can understand if this were a transfer into a checking account in which case they’d be protecting themselves from people who transfer ghost money and write bad checks which may not be caught for a while, but these. are. savings. accounts!! I can only try to transfer money out, which just wouldn’t go through anyway if I didn’t have the money!

Hm, I guess I’m more a fan of Citibank’s new accounts than I thought.
Hope this is useful for someone out there 🙂