How much did I make by raising questions?

     When you receive bills from your doctor, what do you do? Do you ever suspect there could be a mistake? Believe or not, a lot of times, the amount on the bills that you receive from your medical service providers are incorrect.
     We do have a very good health insurance called Foreign Service Benefit Plan (FSBP). We became eligible for this insurance when my husband was working overseas as a part of DoD system. We used to have BCBS for a long time, but FSBP is much more superior than BCBS and other insurance plans we are eligible for as a federal employee.
     As y'all know, I gave birth to twins last year, which means lots of doctor visits. For each bill, I compared what the bill states with what I see on the EOB (Explanation of Benefits) on FSBP website. Believe or not, for most of those bills, I found the provider charged me much more than what the EOB states as 'member responsibility'. Why couldn't they figure out correctly how much I owe them? Are they hoping that I would be naive enough to succumb to their fancy bill and 'just' pay whatever they charge me?
     Frustrated and annoyed, but I picked up the phone to call my insurance company. To my relief, the customer service representative agreed with me that I owed $0 instead of $1,130, $5.80 instead of $90.79, etc. Then it took another few weeks or sometimes several months for FSBP to talk to/resolve the issue with the provider.
     Do you want to know how much I saved last year by being me, the TAPO mama? $1562.94
     Ha! The morale of this story is ' NEVER, EVER pay your medical bills before checking your EOB'. You don't want to bother? Well, let me do the work for you and you pay me 20% of what I save for you. Just shoot me an email. 

TAPO

Put Your Money to Work

     With such a low interest rate, it feels so lame to let the money just sit in the checking or savings account. I want to see my money go around the town and bring in more its kind.
     This past summer, CJ & I put our money to work, and the outcome is quite significant. Chase bank offered $300 for $500 direct deposit every month. We need to keep this minimum 6 months. Citi Bank offered $400 for keeping $15,000 balance for the 1st month and $10,000 for the next two months. Both CJ & I took advantage of these offers, which means we made $1,400.
     We just found out that HSBC is offering $350 for keeping a balance of $1500 for 6 months, and both of us plan to take advantage of this as well.
    Having extra 6 bank accounts can be overwhelming, so we plan to close them whenever the minimum time requirements are fulfilled. In order to keep things organized and to remind us when we are going to close those accounts, CJ put the dates on the google calendar.

     Where do we get these information? From here.

TAPO

Mother's Helper

     A mother's helper is different from a babysitter. Babysitters are expected to work independently and often to work in the absence of the parents of the child/children. A mother's helper is rather expected to provide an extra pair of hands to a busy mom, and she works with/alongside the mother. It's a great concept for a person like me who is reluctant to leave kids with another person other than my husband.
     With twins, we hired a mother's helper. Sophia stayed with us for the first two months. She was referred to us by someone at our church. She is 13 years old and is one of the 11 children in her family, bringing a lot of experience taking care of her younger siblings. She worked 5 hours a day for 6 days each week, and we paid $200 per week.
     Her work included feeding babies, changing diapers, washing and sanitizing bottles, folding laundry. During the first two months, twins slept most of the day, so Sophia also took Elisha outside for half an hour each day to fetch mails or to walk to the playground. She was free to read books or study when there was nothing to do. I left kids with Sophia once a week for an hour so that I could see my physical therapist, but CJ and I have never left kids with her for an extended amount of time.
     After Sophia left us due to her family's busy schedule, we hired another homeschooled girl, Mercy. She comes 3 days a week for 5 hours each time, and we pay $100 per week. Now that twins do not have to be fed so often, she spends the extra time to help Elisha with her memory work for Classical Conversations. Also, she just started teaching Elisha violin whenever her hands are free.
     Before we hired Mercy, I had interviewed several other girls. One of the biggest challenges was to find someone who will set a good example for Elisha who is very observant. So the one who showed up with not much clothes on, another 13-year-old girl who was wearing lots and lots of makeup, and a 14-year-old girl who watches TV until 4am...they did not get the job. Oh, and the high school senior who we test-hired for a week, just because she was referred to us by someone in our homeschool coop...I had to ask her to stop coming because she was on her smartphone ALL the time. As you see, there was quite a drama until we found Mercy.
     For pay-wise, we are paying more than the going rate in and around our neighborhood. However, both CJ and I think it's a fair rate considering the peace and rest our family gets to enjoy by having Mercy.

TAPO

Back to work after 7 years of staying home!

     The last time I had gotten a paycheck was January 2010, and right after that last check, CJ and I moved to Seoul, Korea for CJ's job with US Army Corps of Engineers. So, it has been a little over six and a half years since I was a part of the US workforce.
     I am now back to work...I mean back into an official payroll system. It has been two weeks since I started teaching ESL classes at Alamo Colleges' Palo Alto campus. With three kids taking up my mind and body most of the day, I did not have much time to ponder about what it would be like to go back to work after so many years. I just had to jump in. There was no moment to enjoy that nervousness, excitement, and the kind of feelings people usually experience in situations like this.
     I am having fun teaching my hardworking students, who come to 6pm-9pm classes three times a week after a long day at work. I respect them, and I want to contribute to their growth and success.
     Considering how much time I spend to prepare lessons, the hourly rate is pretty small, but I am thankful that I can close up the six and a half year gap in my work history. Also, it is enough to pay the mother's helper who helps me and CJ on the days when I work. Also, CJ says this will help with my social security paycheck later on.

 TAPO   

No Plan Day

A few weeks ago, one Saturday, we had a 'No Plan Day' in our household. We decided not to plan any social hangout or day trip, but to spend the day taking care of our overall finance.

C.J. and I sat down together and did what we call 'finance check-up'. We don't do this for fun. It's not fun at all. Going over how we've been doing in saving, giving, investing, and spending, we sometimes get quite tense and sharp with each other.

However, we do this because it's very good for our soul. For us, this check-up time is like doing a deep-cleaning of the house. It's a stressful and agonizing process, but when it's done, we feel so relieved to know that things are in order and that there is no little mouse eating away a corner. More than anything else, when we keep our finance in order through this check-up time, we have such a peace knowing that we are staying accountable to God with His money.

We try to have this No Plan Day a few times a year, instead of once a year. In that way, the amount of work and stress involved is not overwhelming, and also we get to keep track of our annual budget and make any necessary adjustment through the year.

TAPO

Your Money Counts

Reading this book was the very first assignment for our Crown Financial Ministries class back in Summer 2008. C.J. and I still refer to this book to make decisions on our finance.

As I see the current economic turmoils going on in the States, I am so thankful that C.J. and I are living by the sound, biblical guidance we had gleaned from this book.

Do you want to do something about your finance, but don't know where to start? Are you worried about the pandamic economic fails? Do you want to clean up your financial mess? Or do you simply want to know what God says about money? I can't think of a better book for you than this one.

I hope you will be convicted, challenged and changed forever by reading this book.

TAPO

Time is Money

In my pre-baby years, I used to work two jobs: full-time audiologist during the day and part-time ESL instructor during the evening. I thought I was crazy busy then. However, now that I've become a full-time mom, I find mothering an infant is much more work than working two jobs!

When Elisha takes a nap, literally every second counts for me, because I never know how long is her nap going to be. She can wake up in five minutes or in a few hours. As soon as she falls asleep, my mind starts spinning, going through the mental list of a dozen things-to-do.

Most of the things are related to housework. However, some of the things on the list are directly or indirectly related to saving/earning money: disputing over service charge on a bank account, searching for used baby items on craigslist, listing items on craigslist to sell, filing healthcare claims, searching for a more affordable health insurance plan, logging in daily spendings, updating bankbooks, etc. As I struggle not to be negligent of these responsibilities, I often have to remind myself that 'TIME IS MONEY'.

TAPO

Saving One Income, Living On the Other Income

This is one of the challenges we took to our heart during Willow Creek's Good Sense workshop. CJ and I have briefly talked about this topic when we were engaged, but at that time, CJ didn't seem to think it's possible to live on one income. His such response was pretty understandable, because, at that time, after paying for his tuition, he did not have much spendable or savable income left.

Despite CJ's doubt and not-so-enthusiastic response, we have been working toward the goal ever since we got married two and a half years ago. During the first 12 months, we weren't able to save as much as we wanted because of CJ's tuition for his MBA program. However, we put into a savings account as much as we could even during that time. When CJ finished his schooling, we increased the monthly savings with a goal amount of money which we want to reach in one year. We kept pushing the limits, and before we realized, we were saving and investing almost one whole income.

Now that I am staying home with our baby daughter, I am very grateful that CJ and I have been well-trained to live on one income, that we can live contently with only one income. Actually, even now living with only one income, we are still saving quite a portion of it!

Consider saving as a game, a game with yourself. See how far you can stretch and save. It is often said that when it rains, it pours. How about building a safety net while you enjoy the saving same?

TAPO

Hooray to Local Banks!

A few months ago, we decided it is wise to take advantage of current low interest rates and refinance. We thought we would save a lot of money by reducing the total mortgage interest we will have to pay over the remaining mortgage life.

During our pre-bank visit research, we found out that small local banks give much more favorable rates than larger, well-known banks. After much discussion, two local banks were picked for visit: Liberty Bank and Harris Bank. I want to take this opportunity to share how impressed we were with the sincerity and honesty of their service.

At the Liberty Bank, a young banker welcomed us into his office. As I have believed wisdom comes with aging, I didn't expect much from the young man. However, he spent almost an hour to explain and answer our questions. He was sincere and he did not try to 'sell' stuff. We were given a free mortgage 101 lesson. At the end of the visit, CJ and I found out that Liberty Bank does not offer commission to its bankers for selling products, which explained why the young man was able to be fair and honest with us.

Next, we visited Harris Bank. The morgage banker, Kevin, was not in the office. However, instead of telling us to come back later, another banker went an extra mile to let us talk to Kevin over the phone. Kevin was straightforward: He said, "Why are you going to waste that $1200 refinancing cost? You'd better use it to pay toward your remaining mortgage balance. Even though your mortgage rate goes up next year, it will be a minimal increase." He could not have been wiser! Refinancing cost is 100% wasted money. However, if we put it toward our mortgage principle, it will reduce the balance and therefore reduce the interest. With our current mortgage balance and mortgage interest rate, $1200 is greater than the money we will save on interest payment by refinancing.

The first banker helped us understand the basics of mortgage and refinancing. However, Kevin's insight was what the first banker at the Liberty Bank could not offer to us. If we had talked to only the first banker, we might have gone ahead with refinancing by now! Whew....Praise God!


Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed. (Proverbs 15:22, NASB)

Where there is no guidance the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory. (Proverbs 11:14, NASB)


TAPO

Credit Scoring Changes We Need to Know

Do you know how your credit score is determined? Do you know that the credit scoring system has changed recently? Do you know what are the changes and how they affect you and your family? Mary Hunt wrote an excellent, easy-to-understand article on this topic in the finance section of Crosswalk.com.

Here is the summary:

1. The new version of credit scoring model, FICO 08, ignores small collections that may appear on your credit report.
2. It is less punishing for those who have had a major setback, such as repossession, as long as their other active credit accounts are in good standing.
3. It allows some authorized-user information to be included when developing that person's credit score.
4. You should never use more than 30% of your available credit, even if you pay your balance in full each month.
5. You should not close credit card accounts, because it will reduce the total amount of your available credit.
6. The accounts you have need to be active, which means you'd better use each one for a very small purchase every month or so.

We all know that good credit score is somewhere between 700-759, and 760-850 is considered excellent. Obtaining your credit score is not free, but you can purchase your score at MyFICO.com for $15.95.


*Tip of the Day
Knowledge is power.

TAPO

Is Mortgage Debt?

Some lenders define home mortgage as "investment". Others go even further to say that mortgage is not debt. That's distortion of truth and reality.

I believe our home mortgage is debt because we "owe" the lender, and also because we have to pay interest for the remaining principle until it's completely paid off. I wish I could say we 'own' our home, but the truth is our home is not really ours until the mortage is paid off completely.

With the current economic turmoil and plummeting housing market, many homeowners are realizing buying a home is not a guaranteed investment any more. Depending on where you live, you might better off by renting.

If you have questions regarding mortgage or refinancing your current mortgage, I would like to refer you to following resources:

Crown Financial Ministries - You can find many usuful calculators on their website such as loan calculators, different mortgage calculators, and even a rent vs. buy calculator!

Dale Vermillion - I like to listen to him answering mortgage-related questions on Moody Radio. He can be found at mortgageempowered.com. I haven't read it yet, but I heard many good things about his new book Navigating the Mortgage Maze.


TAPO

Where Do I Start?

Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life. (Proverbs 19:20, NLT)

"I want to live with financial freedom, but I don't know where to start." I hear this a lot these days.

If you are a highly motivated and disciplined person, starting to write down "all" your spending for the next 30 days is a way to start. That will give you an idea for the next step: budgeting for the next month, which will help you come up with a realistic budget for a longer term, i.e. a year.

However, if you are like me, who needs someone to inspire you and keep you accountable for the progress, I would recommend taking a workshop or two. Willow Creek's Good Sense was the first finance workshop for both C.J and myself. It was a one-day workshop which helped us to see the big picture of our overall financial status. At that time, even though we were engaged, I felt finance was still a sensitive topic to discuss on our own. In that sense, Willow Creek's Good Sense workshop provided us a safe place to take a hard look at each other's financial situation and discuss about future financial goals as a couple. In addition, the workshop also helped us come out with a rough monthly and yearly budget, which have become the foundation of our journey toward financial freedom. At that time, this workshop cost us $35.

Three months into our marriage, we had the privilege of having Crown Financial Ministries workshop at our home church. It was a 10-week long, intensive, and very thorough workshop. There were even plenty of homeworks to be done for each class, but we loved it! What I liked most about this workshop were its strong focus on the basics and the accountability provided by fellow attendees. This workshop cost us $55.

Best wishes!


TAPO

Am I a Good Manager?

Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together! (Matthew 25:12, NLT)

Kris was my very first discipleship leader. She discipled me for about 6 months. Kris was a stay-at-home mom, and she and her husband, Tom had two toddlers at that time.

I remember Kris and Tom not doing very well financially, and Kris used to ask me to pray for money needed to repair their roof, to replace their broken dishwasher, etc. Then, one day, Kris told me a revelation she had had that week about their financial situation. She said, "I realized that we never have enough money because we are not handling it right. Tom has a well-paying job, and we should be O.K. but we are not...I mean, we just are not good managers of His money. How could God entrust us with more, then?"

Can I handle more if I am given more? Am I a good manager?

Everything in the heavens and earth belongs to God. He gives and He takes away. Whatever given to us are our responsibilities, something that we will be asked to give an accounting of one day.


TAPO

Got Emergency Fund?

The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets. (Proverbs 21:20, LB)

A few years ago, there was a contest on Moody Radio. The rule was to describe life in 6 words or less. The winner's phrase was "Not What I Had In Mind".

Life certainly is not predictable, and the uncertainty of life often entails unexpected expenses.

It is a well-known fact that in America, unexpected medical expenses is the the number one reason for people getting into debt. In today's economy, job loss is competing for the top spot with medical expenses. How about a major car repair that needs to be taken care of immediately?

An emergency fund is an amount of money that you can obtain quickly in case of immediate need such as: an illness, loss of job, or other interruption of income. This money should be set aside in a savings account which pays the highest available interest or in a money market mutual fund that provides immediate access to cash if needed.

During our pre-marital finance workshop at Willow Creek's Good Sense, we decided to save 6 months' living expenses as an emergency fund. However, right now, we are aiming for 12 months' living expenses.

Having an easily accessible fund does not mean losing opportunities to earn interest on the fund. C.J. and I have been using a 7-day CD to keep our emergency fund. It automatically gets renewed every 7 days, provides a relatively high interest, and it is easily accessible.

It is often said that when it rains, it pours. How about building a safety net which not only provides protection but also keeps growing?

TAPO

Seeing is Spending

Last week, C.J. received a big cash gift for his MBA graduation. As we have a tendency to spend what we see, we decided to put that money into a short-term CD which we plan to use for our future car purchase. We love living on the left over!

I wish I had such discipline as a single person. Before I got married, I had only one checking account, which did not help much in regulating my spending. I definitely could have saved much more by putting extra money into something which is not as easily accessible as a checking account.

Well, better late than never!


TAPO

Allowance Money - Money & Marriage

Starting this month, we are giving each other allowance money - $20 a month. Woohoo! It's a way to reward ourselves for our efforts to live frugally.

Looking back at the past 15 months we've been married, we did a wonderful job of managing finance. Fighting against health insurance companies; haggling with furniture companies; confronting and negotiating with utility companies; selling old books and household items on E-bay and Craigslist; packing lunch everyday; taking buses to work during the gas price hike last year; clipping coupons every week...

Even when we had an argument and there was a cold war going on in the home, we kept each other accountable for every dollar we spent. Our commitment to be faithful stewards of the financial blessings God gave us has bonded us much stronger than we could imagine. Without us realizing it, we've become a good team.

*Tip of the day
Managing finance together with your spouse not only builds your financial freedom, but also builds your marriage.

TAPO

Living with the Leftover

On my last posting, I mentioned briefly about our new savings program. Both C.J. and I have the tendency to spend what we see. If we know we have $5000 in our checking account, our spending for the month will be crafted to spend that $5000. However, if we know we have only $1000 in our checking account, somehow we survive with that money without having much trouble.

So, we decided to leave as little as possible in our checking account, and put away as much as possible in forms of something that cannot be accessed easily.

This works great for us. We might not get all we want, but, at the end of the day, we do get all we need and still get to build the financial freedom and security.

Flub #1

We, the finance-savy couple, flubbed - flubbed BIG time.

Our food cost in February went over $400! Calm down... At the end of the day, we are mere human beings who can be just as careless as anyone can be. So, rather than grieving over the flub, we sat down and decided to take a cold look at the food cost of our February's spending. Here are the lessons we learned:

1. "Everyone" in the household needs to know the current status of spending

In February, C.J. was in charge of logging and updating our spending plan, and I didn't take the time to take a look at it. Not knowing what was going on with our food spending, I let our grocery shopping go unchecked. Also, C.J. enjoyed many eat-outs and decided not to include them in our food category. He created a new category called eat-out and made himself feel better telling himself 'food'category is still under $250.

2. Have a plan of what to do with surplus

Due to C.J.'s tuition for MBA, our finance had been tight until January. When February came, we knew we would be able to afford to be more lax on our spending. Then, we let our spending go unchecked in many ways - big time in food cost. Now we have a new savings program where we put little bit more than our estimated monthly surplus. Knowing that we both have the tendency to spend if we see the money, we decided to leave as little as possible in our checking account.

3. Reward yourself, but Don't be careless

As we have been good steward of our finance and paid off C.J.'s tuition without getting into debt, we deserve some reward. We were careless for a month and let the food bills hit the ceiling, which was very short-lived, unproductive way of rewarding. To celebrate C.J.'s graduation and our financial diligence, we are saving for a vacation in May, instead of keeping splurging on un-needed, trivial things.

What's a Budget For?

One dollar here, one dollar there, and one dollar EVERYWHERE! This is what happens when you don't have a budget. At the end of the month, you just don't know where all the money is gone.

During our engagement, CJ and I wrote out a rough budget, but we did not follow through it during the first two months of our marriage. Only after we started attending the Crown Financial Ministry classes http://www.crown.org/, we started strictly adhering to the spending plan, and we cannot overstate the benefit of having a budget.

I. Know Where Your Money Goes

When we first got married, CJ and I had a rough draft of a budget which we had to write out during a finance workshop at a church during engagement. However, it turned out the budget was not very realistic as it was written when both of us were living without budget as singles.

To come up with a realistic budget this time, CJ and I started from the scratch. For two months, at the end of each day, we logged in all our spendings in a note, and kept all the receipts in an envelope.

II. Set a Budget

By the end of May, after two months of following our spendings, we were able to come up with a very realistic budget for each category: Income, Giving, Savings/Investment, Mortgage, Utility, Health, Food, Entertainment, Gas, Car maintenance, Bus, Clothing, School, Gift, Miscellaneous.
And this is when we started attending the 10-week long Crown Financial Ministry class at our home church. I believe the accountability we had with other attendants of the class gave us a strong motivation to stick to our budget.

III. Develop Your Own System

We continued our paper and pen system of logging in all our spendings daily, but we also created an Excel budget worksheet. Two or three times a week, whoever is in charge that month, that person will transpose the entries from the note to Excel table. The Excel table shows us how much we have spent for each category by a certain date of the month. It also shows if we are in surplus or deficit at a specific time of the month.