A Little Silliness
I told the grandparents to give him coal.
Author: Andrew
A Jaunt to Pennsylvania
Over Christmas break we joined Shae’s family for a jaunt to Pennsylvania. I think it was part family reunion, part celebrating her sisters graduation from a masters degree program. Anyhoo, below are some pictures from the trip with a heavy emphasis on Frugal Boy.
2016 Year In Review
Every year it is fun to look back and see the bird’s eye view of the past financial year. Mint.com makes that especially easy to do.
Our spending was heavily weighted by the down payment for an apartment building.
Spending by Category
Taxes normally dominates our spending followed closely by Kids (aka childcare). This year Travel made a big splash because we took two international trips. You can read about those trips here and here.
Our asset allocation has also shifted quite a bit over the past year. Our primary residence and apartment building now make up a significant portion of our assets.
Assets by Account Type
We still have the majority of our assets invested in the stock market under tax advantaged accounts (401ks, IRAs, 529s). We also have maintained a healthy liquid cushion should life throw us any curve balls.
The apartment acquisition also put us back into the debt game.
Debt By Type
Credit cards balances are still being paid in full every month, but the ‘Loan’ is the mortgage for the apartment building. At 3.5% for 30 years, I would consider it ‘good’ debt. We currently have no plans to make any accelerated payments.
Overall net worth (assets – liabilities) trended upward for 2016.
net worth (primary residence not included)
The upwards trend is a good sign that we are living below our means.
In some sillier number comparisons,
we used more water this year than in 2015. There are likely two reasons for this: 1. Frugal Boy is using more water than when he was a baby and 2. I replaced a super low flow shower head with a medium flow head.
~ 600 cubic feet more water used
Electric usage is also up this year. There are more gadgets and gizmos in our house. I also ran power tools quite a bit this Fall while working on the basement remodel.
electric usage
Natural gas usage has remained inline with previous years. Insulation efforts have not yielded any major changes in efficiency.
natural gas usage
We used approximately 1.3 TB of internet bandwidth this year.
That is a lot of Netflix!
Odds and Ends for December
The weather has been frightfully cold. I know because I spent 20 minutes changing a flat tire this morning in a parking lot. Before you travel for Christmas or New Years, double check that your spare tire is in good shape, a jack, and tire iron are included and in working order. It is also a good idea to have a blanket in the car.
On a different topic, Shae and I enjoyed watching the movie The Company Men, starring Ben Affleck and Tommy Lee Jones. The movie follows several white collar workers who face downsizing during the 2008 financial crisis. It offers a great cautionary tale of living above one’s means.
Finally, after three and a half years, we have furnished all three bedrooms in our house with mattress sets and frames. The last acquisition was a $85 Craigslist bed frame made by the now defunct Cochrane furniture company.
Home Depot’s Secret 11% Off Rebate
If you live in the Midwest, you probably already know about the home improvement store Menards and their fantastic 11% rebate sales. What you may not know, is that Home Depot has a double secret probation rebate match program.
https://www.homedepotrebates.com/11percentmatch/
Whenever Menards is running an 11% rebate sale, Home Depot also runs a corresponding “Rebate Match” sale. The only difference is that Home Depot does not advertise it in any way that I’ve seen.
This is the first time that I am trying to take advantage of the secret match program. Hopefully my submission results in success. I have read on various forums that Home Depot does limit this to areas where Menards exists, so if you aren’t in the Midwest you might still be screwed.