Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Why does one want to expose themselves to public scrutiny?


Most don’t. But I have found some warm fuzzy feelings in reading about others who have had similar experiences as me. And tonight, as usual I will be sharing way too much or as we used to say 'TMI', but I digress… For the last two days I have been in numerical wars with different financial systems, got that? Not literally at war, with killing beings, oh no, not that, just trying hard to make sense of all the craziness of increased homeowner, Citizen’s Insurance, taxes and insurance as well as flood insurance via FEMA. Our homeowner’s was exonerated somewhat when a few months ago we had the house re-inspected and Hubby through my determination of insistence had the second inspector go out into the garage and see our hurricane straps from that area's rafters into our roof… You see, not only don’t we have a basement here, but that is generally rare here in Florida anyway, but we do not have an attic which we have had in our other two homes in Florida, and the first inspector insisted that we had no access to our attic, how odd, we told him we had no attic, but he refused to go into the garage where he could have seen the strappings there, metal attachments to theoretically prevent the roof from flying off in fierce winds! The new inspector listened and we were finally refunded a whopping $575 to our escrow, since our bank already paid the larger amount the month before… and for that new adjustment, instead of our monthly payments going up $112 a month they would now only be going up $74 a month, whew, how to bite the bullet, a figure of speech again, not really and not literal, okay? But wait there’s more…that was homeowner’s not including our flood insurance which of course is a separate entity and that we found was not readjusted with our homeowner’s its coverage being $11,800 more. One phone call to our insurance agent and voila and $68 a year saved… I know, BIG Deal, but every penny counts, and we should all be more diligent in watching where it all goes. Lastly is the last straw is a refinance no points, no down expenses what so ever its with the same bank, Bank of America, who we are with now and for years, nearly two percentage points lower, fixed rate, but a few months shorter payoff wise, too good to be true…NAH! HARP it is called, when your home is worth less than what you owe by a minimum of 80% and sadly ours met the criteria. This time though it is processed slower and so for three months we will have to pay the higher monthly amount, that is the $74 more not the $112 more… Our credit rating miraculously has been maintained in the excellent range in spite of all our near financial disasters over these last several years. Paying bills on time, not over spending has its rewards I suspect, no I knew that. Taxes are unshakable as we all know so I attacked these increases where I thought we might have some wiggle room and so far it looks as if it will work, within the next three months our payment will only be going up about three and half bucks a month, and so the seventy-four dollars will be nothing but a not so fond memory when all is said and done and that is with all the new increases too! Negotiations, wow what an exhilarating feeling, sure it ain’t millions but who cares, I helped us, Hubby and I to live a bit of a more manageable life, financially speaking… too bad we can’t tweak our medical insurances a bit, but they appear to be written in stone, at least mine does, United Healthcare PPO. Hubby did meet with someone offering a better deal, but when we did the pros and cons of the two policies, his won hands down, Universal Healthcare HMO. On that note of I do hope some noteworthy info got out there, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share your overages with you know who and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?! PS Our loan officer David is wonderful, I would adopt him, but he’s already a grown man married with two children…darn! Always could use a spare, kidding!

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go?

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go? :   My eyesight is going again... in case you missed it... Netanyahu snaps back against growing...