Wide Open Wallet
An honest look at family finances
Random Friday: Asthma, Pirates, and why I’m glad I’ve paid extra on my mortgage.
Author: Ashley10 Oct
Fridays have become increasingly random around here, so I’m going to continue with that theme.
Before we get started I would like to put out another call for guest posts. I’ll be at the Grand Canyon next week. So if anyone wants to write a guest post for me it would really help me out. Thanks!
Asthma
I never got a chance to post yesterday. The kids and I were all sick. My daughter came home early from school on Friday with an asthma attack. The doc called in a prescription for her ($10) and she spent the weekend hooked up to her nebulizer. Five days later she still wasn’t feeling 100% so I made an appointment ($20). The doc gave her two prescriptions. One for another round of the steroids ($10) and put her back on her daily asthma meds ($22). He wants her to take the daily meds for three months (another $44) and then go back for a follow up visit (another $20).
So all told one asthma attack is going to cost me at least $126. Blah.
Pirates
I know I just wrote a whole post about homemade costumes. And there were some really good ideas left in the comments. While I still think homemade costumes are the best, I bought my son’s pirate costume yesterday. I know, I know. But it was only $10 and it’s pretty cute. He likes it a lot, and that’s one less thing for me to think about right now. I’m sorry. I want everyone to send me pics of their homemade Halloween costumes though. It would be fun to put up a post of everyone’s homemade costumes.
Why I’m glad I’ve been paying extra on my mortgage
I checked the balance of my IRA before heading out to the bus stop this morning. I lost $4,000…. yesterday. So I’m feeling gloomy now. It’s really hard to keep your head when you feel like someone has taken a match to your retirement fund. I can picture some evil man standing there laughing as my money goes up in flames. BUT I’m not going to stop investing. I’m kinda glad now that I don’t invest very much each month. I’m feeling good about the fact that I’ve been sending $100 a month to my mortgage rather than retirement.
It just proves that you have to do what you want. Lots of people over the years have told me that I’m losing money by paying off my mortgage early. Maybe they will turn out to be right, maybe they won’t. But either way, it’s what I want to do and it’s my money, my plan, and my decision. I’m telling you right now I’m thrilled with that decision. In the last 12 months I’ve put $1,200 towards my mortgage, since the rate is 5.75% I’m essentially earning that amount on my money. There isn’t anywhere right now that I could earn 5.75% on my savings. Since my IRA is down 20% this year, I’m feeling pretty good about my decision.
So I’m going to stick with my plan. Even though the market isn’t my favorite thing right now I think it’s important to stick with the plan. Both my plan to pay off the mortgage, and save for retirement. If it was a good plan when the markets were doing well, then it’s a good plan when the markets are doing poorly.
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2 Responses for "Random Friday: Asthma, Pirates, and why I’m glad I’ve paid extra on my mortgage."
I have been diagnosed with Asthma just recently (year and a half back) and can relate to the expense of an Asthma attack. I hate the steroid use and avoid it when I can. As for the daily meds for it, I have that and just got a year subscription and a come back in three months.
As for the extra payments, the earnings you are making aren’t taxable as they would be if you were actually earning income.
Only thing better is do you have a large EF? I’ve been contemplating a major home repair, but am not sure if I should do it because we’ve emptied our home repair fund for the year already with other necessary repair work.
Thus it would have to come from the EF and I’m not sure that’s something I want to touch in this economy right now at least.
So I think if you want to pay off your mortgage great. As long as you have enough in savings. Mostly because of the one income of your family.
Do you have enough to repair your cars or replace them or for unexpected home repairs as well?
I planned $5k/year for home repairs and this new repair is about $5k. If we hold off for next year, it will be next year’s project. Last year it was a fireplace. This year it was a retaining wall. This new project is heat pumps.
So it’s not just decorating or wasteful projects, but major needs. But we can’t afford to do it all at once. But the pumps just broke down recently, well it’s leaking.
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