July Mortgage update and playing with numbers (or: another post on why we don’t just pay it off)

Last month (June):
Balance: $52,393.37
Years left: 4
P =$995.17, I =$219.23, Escrow =788.73

This month (July):
Balance: $49,389.48
Years left: 3.75
P =$1,007.01, I =$207.39, Escrow =788.73

One month’s prepayment savings: $7.90

Some fun tiny milestones this month. We’re under 50K in our mortgage balance. We’re over $1,000 in the amount of our regular payment that goes to principal. Next month we’ll be under $200 in the amount of monthly payment that goes to interest. That’s pretty cheap rent! (Our utility bills are far higher than that, at least in the summer.  And I guess technically the escrow part is also rent, making it a bit more expensive.)

At this point there’s two warring feelings going on. On the one hand, wow, we could just pay that sucker off. It is totally manageable at this point. If we applied our extra money sitting in savings (waiting far too patiently to be turned into bathroom linoleum, to fix the damage the kittens did to the master bath, and to finally do *something* about the kitchen) and our emergency fund and our summer money it would be gone. And we’d still even have DC1’s school tuition left.  (We’d have to re-save up for all those various funds, cutting spending under DH’s income, but it’s not like we’ve been in a hurry to fix things because man we’re lazy.)

On the other hand, the way that mortgages work, paying a huge chunk of money down now doesn’t save anywhere near as much money as paying the same chunk early in the mortgage. If we paid off our mortgage tomorrow we would save about $4,372.91 (possibly a little less because we’d have to pay a day or two of interest before the transaction went completely through) assuming the alternative is to stop pre-payments entirely and let the mortgage take its course. $4,372.91 just isn’t a whole lot of money over a 3.75 year period. If we continue pre-paying the $1,996.87 that we’re pre-paying each month, we’ll only pay an additional $1,473.20 in interest over the course of the mortgage, meaning that by paying it off tomorrow instead of as we’ve been doing it, we would only save $1,473.20 (and we’ll be done in 1.25 years). That’s even less savings!

Having the money and the option of stopping pre-payments allows us a lot of freedom. If DH’s company goes under, or I want to take a sabbatical, we could do that more easily by just stopping pre-payments. Paying off the mortgage entirely would free up less than 2K/month because >1/3 of our regular payment goes to escrow. It would stop the pre-payments too, but we wouldn’t have that pre-payment money anymore anyway because it would have gone to the mortgage. (We wouldn’t have our emergency fund either, for that matter, and we’d have to cut way back on spending.) Stopping pre-payments while still having the money we were using to pre-pay in the bank saves a full almost 2K/month.  That’s kind of fuzzy math there, but liquidity is what’s important in those measurements.  Not paying off the mortgage provides more liquidity in the case of an emergency or other desired expenditure.

And we’re willing to pay $1.5K – $4.5K over the course of almost four years for that freedom.  In fact, it’s tempting to stop the prepayments entirely and just wait out the 3.75 years… but if we did that I’d feel even more guilty about the extra money building up savings (the next risk-free option) earning next to no interest.  Keeping on with the current course doesn’t require any thinking and slowly depletes the extra amount in savings rather than increasing it thus forcing me to figure out where else to put the money while it waits for us to call home repair people to take it.

When you get/got close enough to the end of your mortgage that you could see it, would/did you pay it all off or drag it out?

If you need a link to love…

Delagar discusses the reverse Ghandi, though I would like to point out that my uterus has been rapidly losing rights and may end up with the same coverage it had back in the 19th century.

The feminist librarian on gaining weight.

Funny about Money updates us on her likely breast cancer prognosis.  And a more recent update.

this is actually somewhat similar to my process

irb is important

Why teachers are great according to third graders.

best comment

I love the horse’s face in the Mai Bhago picture

Busy day at Schrodinger Industries

thought this post was going to be about what your departing uni gets to keep from your grants, but…

a blob of peanut butter or something… so desirable

What would you do if you accidentally got money from Stephen King?

I think if you wear this one it gets you into a secret society, otherwise I cannot explain it at all

this will end well

pregnancy tshirts

good for St. Louis

#2 may be steadfastly refusing to discuss her moving, but a windy city gal is happy to share her moving thoughts

Ask the grumpies: Kindergarten skillz

Becky asks:

I wanted to ask – what is the “minimum” I am supposed to do to prepare my four year-old for kindergarten? He has all the basics, I think (can count to 20, does some simple addition in his head, knows the alphabet, recognizes letters, their sounds, and associated words). I have taught him some French words, and he knows a lot of Spanish from daycare. He just started printing practice, but he is not that fond of it! I have the starfall apps and we’ve started looking at them, but I often feel like a slacker Mom in this department. Thoughts? He is currently in the uni childcare, no preschool, so the teaching falls to us.

What do you really need for kindergarten?

1. potty training (some accidents ok)
2. self-feeding (hands ok)

Unless you’re going to a fancy highly competitive coastal k, your kid is already ahead and would be ready for 1st grade in much of the country, skills-wise. If it is half day k, you might be able to get away with no self feeding, but that would be a little odd.

Ideally your child will also be able to sit still for reasonable periods of time, will listen to the teacher, takes instruction, and plays relatively nicely with others.  Mostly being able to put shoes and jacket on are also good things, and to pull pants etc. back up after going potty.  These are skills that most children who went to almost any kind of daycare have.  But there’s still kids who stayed at home who aren’t used to not being the center of attention, and they learn those skills in kindergarten rather than coming in with them.

It doesn’t hurt to know numbers, colors, letters, scissors, patterns, printing, etc. but those should happen in kindergarten or first grade if your child doesn’t get them before that time.

Competitive kindergartens with tests and so on, have a lot more requirements, but they only exist in NYC and a few other places.  There’s an entire industry that exists just to fake these exams out, so a little Googling and maybe a book purchase or two can help for those in that situation.  But for the majority of us, it’s ok to just make sure the kid is out of diapers.

Grumpy Nation parents, what did your children need to know/already know before kindergarten?

Romance novel tropes that we love and that we hate

Hate:  Anything where something was misheard and if the characters just @#$ing talked to each other that big misunderstanding would be cleared up and the book would have ended in chapter 3.

Love:  When the main character tries to play matchmaker disastrously and ends up falling for the person she’s supposed to be matchmaking.  (And everything turns out great for the other half of the pair as well.)  Bonus points for same-sex couples getting together.

Hate:  September/May romances with super young heroines unless they’re done really well and don’t seem like pedophilia.

Love:  When characters are forced into a relationship (not a forced sexual or romantic relationship because that’s awful, but like they both have guardianship of the same dog or house or something) and through working together they come to love each other.

Hate:  When one or both of the main characters is too dumb to live.

Love:  When the hero asks if it’s ok to kiss the heroine (and she says yes!)

Hate:  Anything non-consensual.  When the hero refuses to take no for an answer.

Love:  Feisty older ladies like aunties who scheme in a good way.  Also young managing misses too, like BFFs or sisters.  So long as it all turns out for the best.

Hate:  When the main characters don’t come clean to each other soon enough.  He or she is actually rich.  Or he’s really his brother.  They get some leeway here if the reason they don’t come clean is because they’re in love and the other protagonist hates wealthy people, or if the future of England will be compromised if ze drops hir disguise,  but never if they just think it’s amusing to let the other person think she’s falling in love with the gardener even though she’s a lady and it’s a regency romance (for example).  And if the latter does happen, then at that point, the hero needs to LOSE the girl until he makes it up to her by losing some of his dignity as well so he’s learned his lesson about not being a jerk.  Heroes are redeemable, but they shouldn’t be allowed to end the book as jackasses.

Love:  Coincidences that turn out not to be actually coincidences, but part of an intricate plot to get everything to work out.  (Real coincidences in moderation, but be light on the deus ex machina.)

Hate:  when she takes off her glasses she’s actually beautiful, not mousy, like she was with them on.  Glasses make a woman automatically ugly.

Love:  Strong well-developed supporting characters who have personalities and aren’t just 2-d stereotypes.  (Whether or not they fall in love with someone by the end of the book!)

Hate:  All the characters are disagreeable.

Love:  When two old battleaxes fall for each other while trying to help the youngsters.  (or rekindle their romance from their younger days)

Hate:  Heroine bemoans that she’s too busty for fashionable beauty.  Really, your boobs are too big, and that’s your problem?

Love:  Women have genuine friendships and value them highly.

Hate:  You can tell who will end up in bed together by who hates each other the most at the start.

Love:  When there are multiple ways for everything to come out just right in the end– the characters don’t just wait on deus ex machina fate to intervene.

What are your favorite and least favorite romance tropes?

In which #1 tries to cajole #2 into blogging about her move

#1: We don’t have much in the blog queue. A bunch of ask the grumpies though, so we’re set on Fridays for a few weeks. I put a book review on Monday, but there are many other Mondays ahead if you feel like doing something monetary.
#2: I dunno bout money.
#1: Well, anything to do with the move and career is money, because career is money. And quality of life can be money.
#2: Hm. I’ll think about it.
#1: I bet our readers want to know what’s up with you, even things you find boring.
#2: We don’t really know what we’re doing right now anyway
#1: you can post about that
#2: sometimes we have a serious talk, and then sex.
#1: I don’t think they need to hear about the sex
#2: (sometimes we have sex without the talk beforehand, too)
#1: it would be sad if you only had sex after serious talks. I’d be like, let’s talk about global warming.
#2: I’ll warm your globes, baby!

Also…

#2 would like to espouse the opinion that moving is the MOST TEDIOUS of all things and it even bores ME, and I’m the one doing it.  Oof!

What do you all want to know about #2’s current situation given that she’s quit her job, recovered from pneumonia, and is in the process of scheduling a move, finding a new job, and reinventing herself?  (Note that talking about the logistics of moving makes her seriously grumpy– speaking from experience.)  Please keep it PG-rated.

Taming the Work Week: A review

Taming the Work Week is a short e-book by M. R. Nelson, aka Wandering Scientist aka Cloud.  In it, she makes the argument that everyone has a work limit, and that working beyond that work limit not only leads to diminishing marginal return (she doesn’t use that language), it can also lead to costly mistakes that actually create more work.

She notes that although research is clear that for early 20th century factory workers, 40 hours/week is the limit, we have no idea what the work limit is for knowledge workers.  And we really don’t.  It probably depends on a lot of factors (task mix, personal ability, etc.).  However, she provides steps for individuals to figure out whether they are working efficiently, and if not, how to work more efficiently.

It’s a short book with a lot of good tips.

Some may work better for some people than for others. For example, if you get more of your socialization at work than at home or after work, you may need that daily down-time with your colleagues interspersed with work, rather than waiting until you get home.  You won’t be as efficient or productive per-hour at work, but you’re also filling that socialization need on a regular basis.  On the other hand, if your home and social life provide a lot of social interaction already, cutting down on interruptions could greatly increase your productivity, allowing you to get out of work earlier without guilt.

Similarly, just going home when you’re not being productive doesn’t work for me because suddenly I become less productive earlier and earlier in the day as the days go on because I’m rewarding bad behavior and I have no self-control.  Instead, I need to task-switch from doing thinky research work to doing unrelated scut work like teaching prep or service.  That way I’m still being productive on stuff that has to get done eventually and I’m not training myself to leave before it’s time to pick up the kids (which is my hard deadline at the end of the day).

Nelson acknowledges these different kinds of different work styles.  Probably my favorite part of the book is where she provides some of the standard “how to be efficient” advice and points out when it doesn’t work for her and why. (Just going home doesn’t work for her either, but for different reasons.)  This added discussion of “why” really illustrates how you can think critically about the advice that’s out there to craft your own methods to improve your efficiency.

The biggest downside to this e-book is that the writing is uneven– it starts out stilted (carefully avoiding using contractions, for example), then shifts to a more conversational tone that is much easier to read.  Keep reading past the opening section or two– it’s worth it.

Link love

racism is terrible

Want more diversity in your romance novels?

“The kitten, at press time, was very cute. ”  Here’s another kitty.

bookcase and reading nook

ack!  ha ha ha look at that poor grad student

My mom was just telling me this

argh people are so dumb!  (probably even me)

here’s a linky link:  why you hate work

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE

I think Elmo actually knows, he’s just pausing for effect.

this is pretty good advice

For those with kids who want ideas about how to teach financial skills to their teens

More places to clickbait your stuffs.

This is one of the sweetest cutest animes ever made (there’s also a manga if you prefer it that way):

Do you read me, Google?

Q:  is grad school paid if i have a job?

A:  Depends on the program whether or not they will allow you to have a non-department job while going to grad school, and it depends on the employer whether or not they’ll pay for you.  There’s no straight answer.

Q:  how do i get my graduate school paid for

A:  If you’re a high quality candidate– high grades, high GRE, previous research experience (ideally some publications!), then you’re more likely to have graduate school paid for.  You can also try working for an employer who funds education, especially if you want to get an MBA or JD etc., which have far fewer merit-based scholarships.

Q:  what does it mean to be someone’s partner

A:  whatever the two of you decide it means, based on emotions, or based on an employment contract, or a LLC agreement or something.

Q:  how to politely and professionally tell secreatries to clean up their work areas of clutter

A:  Are you their boss?  Or the cleaning staff?  If not, an unprofessional way is to leave a passive-aggressive note.  That’s what seems to happen at our work.  If you are the boss, think about why you think they need to clean up the clutter.  Is it a valid reason or a stupid reason?  Then if it’s a valid reason, explain it to them.  If not, then why are you telling them? If you’re the cleaning staff, you may be best off just telling the boss that you will not be able to clean whatever it is you need to clean when the desks are as they are.

Q: what to do with $300k

A:  paypal to grumpyrumblings at gmail.

Q:  what to do with £300k

A:  paypal to grumpyrumblings at gmail.

Q:  ran out of cereal and bread what should i have for breakfast

A:  Leftovers.  Cold pizza.  Eggs.  Fruit.  Cat food.  (#2 notes:  no, not catfood)

Q:  what are some things that cause drama

A:  high school.  cheating.  misunderstandings.  suspenseful writing and taut editing.

Q:  if i were to live a day it would be ……

A:  only one day?  Maybe Groundhog Day (like with the movie), preferably with great fast public transportation that will take you lots of places?

Q:  dealing with resentment when one spouse gives up career for another spouse’s career

A:  Use your words.  Try counseling.  Make changes.  Meditate.  Divorce.

Kindle stuff besides Regencies that we mostly enjoyed

Here are some (mostly) free things we’ve enjoyed reading on the kindle.

Tyger Tyger: A Goblin Wars Book book by Kersten Hamilton (interesting; Celtic mythology)

Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian (fairy tale)

BECOME (Desolation #1) by Ali Cross (fantasy YA)

(In none of the above 3 cases was I inspired to pick up the sequel, however.)

I enjoyed The Corpse Reader by Antonio Garrido (which wasn’t free).

I really enjoyed Fledgling (Liaden Universe) by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.  Thanks, Baen Free Library!  This one “worked” for them in that it got me really interested in the universe and now I will buy more books in the series.

Another fun (free!) find was Anna Katherine Green.  Her work is strongly reminiscent of Poe and Doyle. I was entranced with the first paragraph of The Mayor’s Wife which is well worth the read.  Subsequent novels of hers haven’t really been keepers (and there’s been some antisemitism and other assorted racism that make for immediate deletion).  Still, I haven’t tried everything I’ve downloaded yet.  Amazon thinks we should read her Amelia Butterworth mysteries.  [Update, the first is a good mystery so far, but man, had to take a break when I hit racism… this time anti-Chinese-American.]

Ooh, the 2014 Campbellian Anthology of Campbell Award nominees.

I also have some other free stuff (incl. Cory Doctorow) that I haven’t read yet.

Have you found any good free Kindle gems since our last post on the topic?

 

The first time I met you

You remember these stories as well as I do, maybe better, but let’s revisit them in front of a bigger audience.  :)  Audience, imagine us as teenagers, which is something we once were.  The setting is a boarding high school.  Try to remember…

The first time I met you, it was after school in the evening or maybe in the day on a weekend, no it couldn’t have been a weekend.  I don’t recall exactly, but there weren’t many people around.  You were sitting alone in a “pit”– those mini-coliseums leftover from when our school building was an open school.  You were depressed.  I asked what was wrong.  You told me you’d asked a girl to a dance and she’d said no.  (Many years later she would come out as lesbian, which is the only possible reason I can think of that anyone would not be attracted to you, but then, I’m biased.)  I said generic that’s too bad you’ll find someone some day kinds of things and moved on with my life.  You moved on with yours.

Several months later, I want to say three because that’s a good number, I met you a second time.  Your roommate, for some reason I can’t remember, probably because I’m getting old, threw me a birthday party.  I think because my birthday is really close to your suitemate’s and that struck him as cause for celebration.  I was in a lot of classes with him and he was a fun guy in the way that precocious tweens are funny to real teenagers.  As his roommate, you were invited.  We talked some, though I don’t remember about what.

Every night between study hours and the time when they locked the dorms, a group of us, mostly from my science class, including your roommate, would roam around the campus in order to stave off cabin fever.  Sometime after my birthday you figured you had classes well enough under control and could start socializing more.  So you joined your roommate on these walks.  By the time your birthday rolled around, I knew you well enough to get you a present (though I don’t remember what it was… maybe Twizzlers?  Probably the only present I’ve gotten you that didn’t suck.)

Oddly, people started dropping out of the walking group and it ended up being just the two of us a few nights here and there.  You were so funny, talking about D&D and GURPs games as if they were real.  Almost a stereotype, except for not looking the part, with your tall, dark, handsomeness.  (Not that I dwelled on that back then.)

One weekend I decided to stay at school instead of going home.  It was the most fun I’d had that year.  We hung out, you and your roommate and some of your hall mates and I.  We ranged all along the off-campus area we were allowed to visit, and maybe a few places out of range.  We enjoyed the spring and being young enough to still roll down hills.  I broke up with my first boyfriend (from home) that weekend.  I still liked him as a friend, but I didn’t love him.

One night you kissed my hand saying good-bye on a walk.  One of those silly gallant things someone who loves living in fantasy worlds might do, meaning nothing by it.  And suddenly I realized I loved you.  I’d had no idea.  No idea.

I thought maybe you liked me too.  I was pretty sure.  I mean, who kisses someone’s hand without meaning something by it?  Turns out you do.  But I didn’t know that until ages later, when we were established enough that it was only minorly embarrassing to me.

Time passed, and we had more walks just the two of us.  And we had one of those conversations where I thought I was saying one thing, and you thought I was saying something else, and your response made sense in my context and in your context as well (another thing we discovered ages later)… and somehow we were dating.

I remember you seeing me off the first time when my mom picked me up, and she asked if we were dating and I said yes.

These memories used to be stronger, and they’re fading with time.  I feel like that song in Gigi, ah yes, I remember it well.  There’s so much life that’s happened since then.  We’ve spent well over half our lives together, and those baby and toddler years take a toll.

My love for you has not diminished.  I’m still that giddy 16 year old whenever we touch (especially when our progeny keep us physically apart for too long, or when I get to spend the week working from home while the kids are in school).  I still spend huge amounts of my day thinking about you.  But there’s so much more now, that there wasn’t then.  You’re still the most fascinating and attractive person I know, but you’re also a comfort and a support and a partner and a father to our children.  (And an accomplished cook!)  I can’t imagine life without you.

I love you so much.