You know you’ve become an adult when you get excited about new windows!  Ever since Andrew and I purchased our home almost 2 1/2 years ago we knew that new windows were at the top of the home improvement list.  Although we always knew that it’s a pricey investment, we were sick of holding windows open with a piece of wood, chipping paint and rotting window sills.  It was worth being patient and saving up.  And we were finally ready and excited to go for it!

The problem came when we invited a sales rep into our home for an estimate.  You see, at some point in our house’s nearly 80 year history, someone replaced about half of the windows to double-paned.  When they did this, they didn’t replace the exterior wrapping or screens.  So when we did our own estimations of the windows cost, we assumed only about half of the windows would need complete replacing.  But the sales rep informed us that it’s not possible, and that it’s actually preferable to just replace a screen or the wrapping.  So we quickly realized we are going to have to replace all of our windows.  Needless to say, when it was all said and done, the estimate was about double of what we had expected (and saved for).

After much thought and discussion, we decided to take the following steps to our project:

1.  Re-evaluate.  With the savings scoreboard, we are saving for several different categories at the same time, but some of those categories aren’t needed for several months, or even a year.  So instead of setting that money aside already, it will be transferred to the windows account.  After the windows are done, we’ll be able to allocate more money to those other accounts.

2.  Wait on the current project.  Since we have a strict no-debt policy in our home, we know that we do not want to make a commitment until we have all of the money needed to do the project well.  If it means waiting another few months to do it debt (and stress) free, it’s worth it!

3.  Defer gratification on other things.  In addition to getting new windows, we were also hoping to build a deck or patio this summer.  But with the increase in the window project budget, we just won’t be able do both.  So we decided that it won’t kill us to wait one more year before enjoying outdoor dining.

Whether it’s a big ol’ home improvement purchase or just an item on our grocery list, the two of us are in constant communication and discussion about where are money is going.  We think it’s really the only way to win with money as a couple.  We’ll keep you posted on the progress of this home improvement project!

We had the opportunity to catch up with some good friends this weekend, and it was during our visit that seeds of an impulse purchase began to take root!  After dinner we headed into the living room for a couple rounds of Sequence (with the Winter Olympics on in the background, of course), and as we were playing, I noticed a new beautiful pair of speakers that I hadn’t seen before.  (From what I could tell from searching on Amazon after the fact, they appeared to be Polk Audio Monitor 30s, just in case you were interested.)  Sure enough, they were a Christmas present to the couple, and I found myself immediately covetous of their good fortune.

Now, I’ve been wanting a pair of speakers for some time now, and particularly so since we made this special purchase just before Thanksgiving.  That being said, I think I’ve done a good job keeping at bay the impulse to somehow force this into a new “electronics we definitely need” category in our monthly budget.  Then I saw those nice little bookshelf speakers with their cherry wood cabinets and trendy updated Polk Audio logo, and all I could think was… I want.

That was Saturday.  I mentioned it to Julie on Sunday, and she suggested maybe setting up a search for similar speakers on Craigslist or eBay.  A totally reasonable suggestion, to be sure, and I even went so far as to take a look at both sites.  The problem is that their is no finality in that process for shopping.  No, the stereotypical masculine shopping plan was quickly rushing into action, and this is how it tends to go for me:

1. I know what I want.
2. It is my perception that I have the means to make the purchase.
3. The purchase is made.

Translation: I want some stuff, I have the cash money, and now I’d like for said stuff will be mine.

So, I ran out of time and energy to think about it any more on Sunday.  Didn’t come to mind on Monday.  Then Tuesday came.

One of my favorite sites to frequent is Deals.Woot, and I thought I could maybe set up a search for bookshelf speakers on there.  I did a quick search, and up pops up those darn Polk Audios in their pretty goodness.  Must. Discuss. With. Wife.  Knowing that these are the types of decisions we make together, I passively-aggressively emailed this deal to Julie and indicated that we could talk about it later on.

The discussion arrives, and we decide that the funds are available in our household category, so I’m feeling free to make the purchase.  I log on to Amazon, and nothing.  I can’t even bring myself to add those beauties to my shopping cart.  The desire to have them make their way to our house has completely left me, and I realize that it was not meant to be, for now.  I had been bitten by the impulse purchase bug and miraculously recovered before our debit card could do its thing.  Read back a little ways on EGS, and you’ll realize that this was not always the case.

So, if you ever hear that little voice in the back of your head that’s asking you to ask yourself a very important question, let me offer a little advice: listen.  It’s asking you the question: do you really need this?

As we posted Saturday on our Facebook fan page, this weekend we were able to knock out our income taxes!  Many thanks again to the big ol’ Money Crashers giveaway that left us with a free copy of TurboTax Premier [affiliate link].  The process is, to some small degree, enjoyable, as we think about the past year and how God has continued to provide for us in a really big way.

The funny thing is that, although we’ve been using some variation of TurboTax for the last several years, the whole process always ends up taking more time than we ever expect it to.  We begin our taxes well-organized and prepared to complete it in a reasonable amount of time, perhaps an hour or so.  But there I was on Saturday afternoon, and before I knew it, 3 hours had passed me by.  Part of it seems to be that there are things about filing our taxes that I seem to forget each year and then remember only while I’m doing it.  So, here are a few items that we’ll keep in mind as we go through the year ahead and prepare for filing our income taxes in 2011:

1. A file folder does not mean one has reached organizational greatness. As different tax-related statements come throughout the year, we tend to put them in a specific tax folder and not think much about them until the time for filing comes.  This weekend I quickly realized that we might have benefited from organizing these documents into different categories prior to logging in to TurboTax.  It meant that I couldn’t really get into the rhythm of going through the program, as I was working to get mortgage/property tax statements, listings of charitable contributions, and other W-2 and income items all into place.
2. Store receipts are actually important. We’ve shown you our budget and receipt-keeping process, but I continually forget that it’s important to keep track of the purchases we make online.  The state of Michigan requires that you claim whatever online purchases you’ve made for which you’ve not paid state sales tax, and since we didn’t keep track of that this year, we ended up having to pay the maximum amount of tax ($50) for an assumed amount of $1,000 in online purchases.  Since we didn’t want to take the time to figure out what we actually spent online without paying sales tax, we took a bigger hit than we probably should have.  Better planning will help us avoid this in the future.
3. Use a great new tool — ItsDeductible. We weren’t aware of this great online tool, which allows you to keep track of charitable donations throughout the year and then import them into your TurboTax online or desktop software when tax time comes around.  We believe that part of good stewardship means making sure that you receive credit from the government for the charitable contributions we make during the year — it helps to  ensure the financial freedom to continue giving.

So, these are just a few ideas we’ll put into place as we look ahead to this coming year.  As with anything, the more refined the process, the more easy and enjoyable the end result can be (if that’s possible when it comes to filing taxes).  What are your tips for tax time and planning in the year ahead?

In December we commented on completing the full funding of our emergency fund, and that the next step in the process would be to begin funding our retirement (following Dave Ramsey Baby Step #4 from The Total Money Makeover). Both of us have pre-tax accounts through our employers (Julie has a 401K through John Hancock, I have a 403b with Fidelity), but an even more essential part of this is to also begin funding a Roth IRA*.

Julie had already started a Roth IRA; a gift she had received after graduating from Hope.   I did not yet have one in place, so I had been looking for a couple weeks to find a game plan for getting this going.  At first I looked at Fidelity, but I quickly realized that I’d either have to have $2,500 to open an account, or else commit to contributing more than we had in the budget to do so.  I then checked with our credit union, but I was unhappy with the options and minimums there as well.

Then I remembered the Investing ELP program available through Dave Ramsey’s organization.  ELP stands for “endorsed local provider”, and these are people that must meet certain requirements in order to receive referrals from Dave’s website.  They basically have to take the time to provide really excellent customer service — to have the “heart of a teacher” when explaining the investment process.

I did a search for ELPs in our area, but was disappointed to find that the closest organization with the ELP endorsement was a half-hour drive from our home.  I was hoping to find someone a little more conveniently located, but I was also trying to just get the account opened, so I decided to proceed nonetheless.  This person gave great service from the outset, following up to my request for information no less than 3 times before I was able to give them a call back.  Once we got the conversation started, it was clear that this was going to be the right choice.

We set up an appointment for last Tuesday night, and during that short meeting, my adviser went through an investment plan that they had thoughtfully prepared prior to the meeting.  They took the time to go through the investments they had selected, and didn’t assume too much about my pre-existing financial knowledge (this is good, because there’s not much to assume about!).  I also appreciated that the mutual fund selections were in line with what Dave typically suggests, a relatively equal mixture of:

• Growth
• Growth and Income
• Aggressive Growth
• International

It meant a lot to me that this person was willing to take on such a small account as well.  We’re investing a reasonable percentage of our monthly income into our Roth IRAs, but I’m guessing that they probably could find “bigger fish to fry”, so to speak.  This was affirmed when I showed gratitude for their willingness to do so, suggesting that this approach to growing the client base had been beneficial to their career.

At any rate, we’re both off and running!  Our budgeted amount may shift in the future as we balance other demands on our financial life, but we are committed to saving for retirement with the same “gazelle intensity” that eliminated all of our debt, with the exception of our home mortgage.  And in this, we’ll also continue to recognize that we are simply stewards of the resources that our Father has given us — it’s an important job, and we’re so excited to do it!

*We’ll again defer to Mr. Ramsey’s wisdom on the basics of investing in a Roth IRA.  Essentially, he points out that it’s important to make contributions to a Roth IRA because the money invested in the account grows tax-free.  That being said, there are income limitations for who can invest in a Roth IRA — at this point in our careers, we’re in okay shape!

Clearly we love to budget. It’d be pretty tough to write a blog about responsible personal finance if we weren’t passionate about purposefully spending our money.  However, with every good plan, there are always going to be situations where the black and white of the rules get grayed out a bit.  We mentioned before when we bought our snowblower that sometimes additional expenses arise that aren’t necessarily emergencies, but are nice to be able to purchase when needed (i.e. when 10 inches of snow have fallen on the ground).  In that case we drew from savings/Christmas money to make an unplanned purchase.  We were faced with a similar predicament this week.

Being the last day of the month, our dining budget was maxed out.  We’d cleverly gotten the most out of that category and were looking forward to the start of a new month and a new budget!  We were content with going home from church to leftover chicken noodle soup for lunch.  But things changed when we ran in to some old friends — good friends — while at church.  These weren’t friends that we see every other week, but friends that we’d lost touch with for several months and that we were thrilled to catch up with.

After a couple minutes of chit chat in the church lobby, they invited us to go out to brunch after the service.  As we walked away to reserve some seats, Andrew and I quickly discussed that we shouldn’t be going out to eat since the budget was done for the month.  But then we stopped thinking practically and starting thinking emotionally and relationally.  Sometimes an overdue, much-needed conversation with friends trumps the budget.  Sometimes it’s more important to spend a few more bucks for the sake of a relationship.

So a couple of hours later we found ourselves eating omelets and drinking coffee—not feeling the least bit guilty for coming in $9 over our dining budget.  Maybe we’ll spend $9 less this month, but we’ll definitely see the true value in where our money is spent.

We hope you won’t mind if we digress from our normal personal finance topics and stories to comment on other timely and important items of interest.  Such is the case this week as Andrew takes some time to share his thoughts on Apple’s recently announced iPad.

Okay, so here’s my confession (if you didn’t know it already): I would consider myself to be pretty much your run-of-the-mill technology nut/geek.  I’m always interested in the latest products in the world of technology.  That being said, I’m reticent to jump on the bandwagon without giving some real thought to the utility of new products, particularly as they relate to my own life and our household.  With that, I’d love to share some thoughts about my favorite debt-free company’s newest creation, Apple’s iPad.

An announcement event

Confession: One week ago today, I took the afternoon off from work so that I could watch TWiT‘s live video coverage of Apple’s special event.  Sounds like a real party, I know, but the reality is that whenever Apple has an event like this, I have real trouble focusing on anything but for that time period and for any number of hours afterward.  And it was a blast.  They were able to grab a live video stream via Skype and so even though Apple wasn’t providing a live feed, I was able to watch Steve Jobs’ presentation pretty much in real time.  It was definitely exciting to watch.

Gorgeous design

The iPad looks really beautiful and continues in the grand tradition of thoughtful and forward thinking industrial design from Apple.  There may have been some missteps in the past (the G4 Cube, among others), but I believe this to be just as, if not more beautiful than iPhone.  I love that it has a brushed aluminum back and although the black bezel around the screen is wider than one might expect, it seems necessary given the e-reader and other functionality of the device.  All reports suggest that the screen is clear and crisp, and that the LED backlighting is really bright.

Perfect category placement

We have been thinking about moving on from our aging iBook G4 (mid-2005 edition) for some time now, and I had been hoping that iPad would be a welcome replacement.  I now realize that was a pretty silly thought process, because there is no way that Apple would want to even risk cannibalizing what is a significant laptop business.  The feature set of iPad is such that it fits a new middle ground of mobile device, somewhere between the smartphone and the laptop.  I’ve been describing it as the kind of thing you’d want to use while sitting on your couch watching TV—a computer that will let you do email, Facebook, and browse the web in a more convenient way that even a laptop can.

On our coffeetable

As we plan our larger purchases for 2010, we’re thinking that this will actually be the device to “replace” our iBook.  Don’t worry, “ol’ Faithful” will still serve a significant purpose: to store all of the music and movies that we’ve amassed, and to be a media server in some cases.  But beyond that, we believe iPad can accomplish 95% of our personal computing tasks, and we expect it will be a lot of fun to use.

iPad + Earn Give Save

I’ll be really interested to see how effective it can be as a blogging device.  I expect that specific blogging tools will be developed to take full advantage of the additional screen real estate.  I also expect the rapidly progressing technology of dictation to become a significant player when it comes to the business of content creation.  Current iPhone apps like Google Mobile (voice search function) and Dragon Dictation are evidence of that.

One thing is for certain. What may eventually become a beloved machine in our household will only be so when we actually have the cash money to plunk down at the Apple Store or online.  We’re not going to go into debt for the latest and greatest toy, that’s for sure.

One other thought that’s even more important—as great as it is, we must always remember that the iPad and any other gadget is just stuff.  Like any other material possession, its important is far overshadowed by our faith, and this should always be our first thought when we contemplate a purchase like this.

Okay, it’s been out for a week now.  What are your thoughts on the iPad?