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It’s been a while! Been living that pandemic life!! 2020 was a wild ride! I became a bit busy (read too busy for my blog) as I had the opportunity to work on Capitol Hill for a year and as you can imagine, things got really real with a pandemic, calls for racial equality, and an election. Things are settling down a bit and I’ve really begun to think about how I can shape EnLife into help for all of you, not just with your personal finances (it’s one of my favorite things to talk about), but for your ENTIRE life! That’s actually how EnLife was born, it was to help people with money that eventually leads to enhancement and enjoyment of their lives. However, that was 11 years ago and so much has happened since then, that I’d be remiss to ignore how it’s all connected. So, let me just throw this intention out there. My plan, and I can use your help, is to really propel EnLife in 2021 to share my life experiences in an effort to help others and to establish a network where we can all help each other. I will start posting in some of the social media spaces – most likely Facebook and YouTube and if you have any other platforms you’d like to us to go, please let me know via comments. Please share with others that you think will enjoy the content and as always EnLife until next time!  

Hi EnLifers!! I’m back!!! Man-it was a busy summer and we’re just getting into a groove with school starting! So in all of the busy-ness of life, I stumbled upon something I was unaware of regarding my homeowner’s insurance. A storm hit our area in March of this year and one of our neighbors had some major roof damage also resulting in some major interior damage.  She was telling me about all of the problems she had with insurance covering the losses because she had a policy that provided “Actual Cost Value” coverage and she had no idea. So then upon researching it, I found out why that would be a major issue. So, Actual Cost Value (ACV) means that the insurer will pay for losses LESS the depreciation for the age of the roof and home interior in addition to the normal deductible.  What this meant is that if the roof and interior were depreciated, let’s say down to $5000, then the insurance will only pay that minus the deductible. However, if in reality it costs $15,000 to fix your roof and/or home interior, then you’re out $10,000.

Of course, I looked up my coverage immediately mainly because 1) I wanted to see what we had and make sure we were adequately covered and 2) since there seemed to be a lot of damage in the neighborhood, we wanted to get it checked out to make sure we didn’t have damage that we couldn’t see.  Fortunately, I had something called “Replacement Cost Value” on my home and roof.  What this means is that the insurance company will cover the real total amount of what it costs to replace and/or repair the roof and/or home interior minus the deductible of course. So, I breathed a sigh of relief UNTIL a month ago! When my insurance renewed, they automatically switched our roof coverage to ACV due to the age of the roof (everything else is still replacement value). When I noticed, I called to find out if I could have to have it switched back and was told I could not; however I could switch to another insurance company that would which is what I plan to do. In the meantime, hopefully our roof is ok. I’m nervous to get anyone to check it out as I’ve heard about scammers who inspect the roof, but actually create damage while up there. Before I go through any of that, I’d rather get the roof insured entirely. So, hopefully this helps you educate and prepare yourself before sustaining an actual loss. As always, please share with anyone you think would find this information useful and please share your stories if you’ve been affected by this or have any tips to share!

Happy Fall!!

MK

Hi EnLifers! It’s been a couple of months since I checked in! Lots has been going on with the school year ending and lots of road trips! I wanted to check in and for accountability and let you know I executed the 529 from the last post!!  YAY!! The kids now have 529 plans and though we’re not contributing right now, at least we’ve gotten started and will still have the benefit of compound interest/gains! So the other thing is the emergency savings and what do to with that. I am concerned about the liquidity of it if we should need it. So stay tuned on that. Honestly, we’re traveling so much this summer, I haven’t been able to focus as much on our finances. Hope to check in toward the end of the summer to regroup. In the meantime, please enjoy your summer EnLifers!

Hi EnLifers!! Sooo, I was thinking about what I wanted to write today and basically what’s on my mind is all of the things I haven’t done yet this year. So, my plan is to write it here as a reminder and for accountability so that I’ll make it more of priority. Two goals that I haven’t executed yet are to set up 529s for the boys and to switch our emergency savings to either a high yield savings, CD, or mix of both.  So what’s holding me up? Life in general, but also some contemplation that I’ll share here in case you’re pondering the same thing. The main thing I’ve been pondering re: the boy’s 529 is if I should take the savings that are in their accounts and start the 529 or start from scratch. A few things were considered before making a decision – 1. We are not in a position or ready to contribute on a regular basis. Right now, it’d be more of when we receive windfalls etc until we have additional, steady income. 2. I want them to have some $ in savings when they reach maybe 16 or 18 or something to use it for whatever they want-car, college spending $, etc. It won’t be a whole lot, but basically be comprised of their piggy bank $ and cash gifts over the years. 3. Which 529 is the best? Right now, we live in Georgia, but apparently, you don’t have to open a 529 where you live which opens so many more opportunities. There are TONS of 529s and I found it a bit overwhelming at 1^st, but there are some sites I trust-mainly the government sites. The best place to start a review of 529 plans if you’re interested is the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). They have an intro to 529 plans that can be found here and they have also set up the College Savings Plan Network, where you can find out more about 529s and even compare plans. I also searched the internet for free independent reviews of 529 plans.  Ultimately, I decided to go with the Georgia plan as I found it was rated fairly well and they also give tax benefits to GA residents. In talking things over with my husband, we also decided to take any money that we’d saved directly in the kid’s savings accounts and put in the 529 plan and leave gifts in the savings accounts which I thought was a good compromise. Now, I just have to execute. I’ll give myself until the end of the month to execute and check back in with you all to let you know what happened! Do you have any experiences and/or opinions to share re: 529s? If so, please share below in the comments!

Hi EnLifers! So today, I’m excited to share that I created a meditation space in my guest room closet today!  Might as well use some of that extra un-used space I referenced in last week’s post!!  I cleared it out and now, it’s stocked with some pillows, candles, inspirational reading, and prayer sticky notes! I was actually inspired by a friend who has a prayer closet!  I’d planned on having some dedicated meditation space whenever we finished the basement, but this idea allowed me to not have to wait for something that is probably way down the road. Why is this important to me? Well, besides being a person that draws energy from the aesthetics of spaces, a couple of months ago, I did a 21-day meditation on time. It focused on how we relate to time and how to be present in the now- basically being mindful.  It was a very shifting experience and it gave me tools to use for when I’m stressed and/or negatively spiraling. Many times, I’m stressing out about something I’m reacting to in the present and/or that I’m projecting in the future. This is where mindfulness comes into play where I can focus on the present. In the present, I can choose to focus on positive things that are in the present, like beauty or nature around me, my breath or heartbeat (which when you think about are both fairly miraculous!), and just whatever brings me back to gratitude vs stress/negative energy. Ultimately, whatever I’m stressing about is generally not worth the attention I’m giving it IF I focus my attention on all the great, positive things I have to be grateful for in that same moment. This ultimately can be applied to any area of your life and I realized finances are no different, so maybe you can use these tactics too. When I’m stressing about finances, in particular on this journey to financial independence, I stop, close my eyes, and think about 1) what my finances are providing me in the present; 2) what positive experiences and/or accomplishments have I had in the personal finance arena; and 3) meeting my financial goals in the future and the resulting feelings when I think about that time. I can do this anywhere, but now I also have a special space to go to when possible to focus on these things. Physical spaces are important to me and being able to have a place to be intentionally prayerful, reflective, and focused on is right up my alley! So I’m excited! Can’t wait to use it for the 1^st time! Please share how you de-stress in the comments below and as always-I hope you have and “en-lifefull” week!

-MK

Hi EnLifers! I’m sitting here dreading another Monday of going to a stressful job after I’ve had such an enjoyable three days off enlifing-enjoying the freedom and control over my time. So of course, it’s got me thinking 1) I have the power to choose to be present right now and continue enlifing while I can –that’s the mindfulness I’ve been working on to help manage stress (that in another future post) and 2)  what would it take for me to quit my job? Number 2 is a really loaded question that fans out into many other questions-like what would I ultimately gain if I left my job?; how would I provide for myself and my family if I left?, what would my future look like without stable, full-time employment? Every time I’ve thought about leaving my job like when my kids were born, I’ve always thought it impossible without being able to replace my income somehow. Turns out, that’s not the only option. I’ve been seeing a lot of articles and listening to podcasts lately around this movement called “minimalism” or as some people call it “essentialism”.  Some people are using it to get rid of stuff in their lives and live more free of consumerism. So that got me thinking another option would be to just choose to live off less! It could possibly help me gain the financial freedom to leave my current job and/or optimize my finances so that even if I don’t leave my current job anytime soon, my family and I will be in a more comfortable situation as we would already have adapted to “living minimally”. So what are my options? The following are five (5) things that I’ve come up as potential options. Some of these are BIG moves and changes and would definitely have to be discussed and considered in the context of where my family is now, but they are options nonetheless and maybe even ones that you may want to consider if you are thinking about how to reach financial independence and/or anything like getting out of debt, saving more, or investing more. So this is what I came up with:

1) Move into a cheaper home – We are fortunate in that when we sold our home, we profited from it and bought our current home with a small mortgage. However, we really profited enough that we probably could’ve found a home to buy mortgage free with some sacrifices. So realistically, that is still an option. We love the home we live in, but it has a ton of space that we honestly don’t use much such as 2 guest rooms, nice-sized formal dining room, and a full unfinished basement.  So when thinking about it, we could sell this home, get the equity in it, and find a home that we could pay cash for and be mortgage free! Not to mention there would be less to clean which means more time for me and my family!

2) Pay off all debt – We’re working on this now, but we could work to accelerate it in various ways. At this point, we only have student loan and mortgage debt. One option I’m working on now is to see if my employer will pay the balance of my student loans (job is looking better already! J). If this pans out, I’ll definitely be at my job longer with a service agreement, but then we could put my student loan payments towards my husband’s student loans and accelerate paying his off in full. Once we had the student loans paid off, then we could either use the additional cash flow to pay off the mortgage and/or invest. Either way, it’d make me feel more comfortable leaving my job if we didn’t’ have debt.

3) Spend less – Now, I know this seems probably like a no brainer, but it is difficult to actually do at times. But it’s a good thing to do when possible. I’ll probably write a future post about the process I’m using now and how I’ve been able to save money in our monthly budget at times by simply not spending. It’s amazing what happens when you are not caught up in consumerism and actually stop and think – “is this something I really truly need to buy?”

4) Active Income – When I’ve thought about these last two options, they really fall under one category of developing additional income streams, but because I like 5 things, I’ll give them each their own number.  Side-hustling, moon-lighting, whatever you want to call it, falls into the category of an active income stream in my opinion. It basically means I’ve got to actually do something in order to earn more money. I could take on a part time job, develop a product or service to sell, etc,. I’ve had a side hustle before along with said full-time job and it was a lot of hard work, but fulfilling. It’s actually what made me launch this blog. I owned a life and financial coaching service, but phased it out to raise kids and move to another state. I miss that work, but know I don’t have the physical time to devote to coaching one on one right now, but I still want to share the message through my own journey and hopefully help someone-hence the blog.  My ultimate dream is to live on a beach and help people live their best lives through gained financial independence and literacy! I want to be able to do that full-time. So basically, a side hustle for me may be to develop some service, workshop, or product (e-book?) that helps people and provides value, while also providing income. Combined with living off less, this would give me the financial security I need to leave my job.  I’m continuing to think about this one, so if you have any suggestions, please share!

5) Passive Income – So this is something that I never really gave much thought until recently. I’ve dabbled in it before kind of not realizing what I was really doing when I took the proceeds from selling my first home and opened a CD that earned 5% and just kept reinvesting the interest earned.  That’s the first time I earned money by really doing nothing (i.e. passive income) other than letting someone else borrow my money and pay interest. It really is the old adage of let my money make money for me! It has become painfully clear that I’ve missed that boat for the past three years as we have money (mostly emergency savings to last us 10-12 months should I lose my job) sitting in the bank in a money market savings account earning 0.04%. So one of my ideas is to, at the very least, put most of that money in a Certificate of Deposit that at least earns us 1-2%. However, I’ve also been thinking about investing in something that produces a larger yield than 1-2% annually like rental real estate (which I think is actually a mix between active and passive income), the stock market,  or investing in start-ups.

So now, I’m excited because for the first time, I can see options for how to become financially independent before I’m 65! I’m personally not trying to wait that long to do what I really want to be doing. I believe with some intention and careful strategic planning, I can do some and/or all of these things to help prepare  for and achieve financial independence. I ultimately believe starting with the first few ideas which are rooted in minimalism will actually help me optimize my active and passive income streams. Are you trying and/or have you tried any of the ideas/options listed? If so, how did they work for you? Please share your ideas and questions in the comment section below!

Until next time,

MK

Hi EnLifers! So, this week, I finally filed my homestead exemption. I’m not sure how many of you have heard of this, but please look it up if you haven’t heard of it and see if you are eligible. Basically, it is a discount on your property taxes which could ultimately lower your tax bill and/or mortgage payment if you have elected to carry an escrow account. The clerk said it’d take 40% off our fair market value and then she went through some calculations that I didn’t quite follow and I won’t bog you down with. However, I am eager and excited to see what discount awaits me! Now granted, I’m kicking myself about this because I’ve been in the house for 2+ years at this point and missed out on the discount, but I can’t dwell in the past. All I can do is learn from it and share with others so they don’t make the same mistake, which is what I’m doing now! Anyhow, all of the property taxes stuff got me thinking about the true cost of owning a home and if it’s really worth it. Now before you look at the screen all crazy, bear with me. First off, when I say worth “it”, what is “it” exactly? For me, it’s the investment itself-if it’s a good investment say over the stock market. I listen to quite a few finance podcasts and read my last Money magazine yesterday (I have decided not to renew any more magazine subscriptions-more about that later). There are many debates on real estate investing and stock market investing. The real estate folks talk about how much they’ve made in real estate and the stock market advocates say that real estate long term return on investments is usually lower than stock market performance.  For me, the stock market argument makes sense to me on the surface when you’re looking at pure returns, but I always wonder what goes into the “real estate” returns. I mean understand it to mean home fair market value increases over time. For example, home prices rose 6.5% from 3^rd quarter of 2016 to 3^rd quarter of 2017, Quarter 3 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). However, that got me thinking. There’s SO much that goes into value for me. As a homeowner for the 3^rd time now, I think about all the money we spend that kind of gets lost and/or not counted in home ownership, hence the property taxes. However, there are other things too like mortgage insurance that some borrowers have if they put down less than 20%, and then just the pure mortgage interest you pay, homeowners insurance, Homeowners Association fees, appliances and their maintenance, the house itself and its maintenance, yard maintenance, and if you’re like me-all the decorating including furniture!! That’s A LOT. Now some may say, some of these things you’d have no matter what. Well if you’re renting, you definitely don’t have property taxes, mortgage insurance, or mortgage interest and renters insurance is pretty cheap comparatively. So I don’t know. I haven’t sat and done the math. However, there’s another angle that I think of when talking of real estate investing and that is the folks that either flip properties and/or rent their properties out or even just had to move and sold their house for way over what they paid. I fall into that latter category, so I’m all about real estate in the right market. So, in that sense I wonder what the return on that is?  Again, I haven’t done the math, but I’m curious about it. What I know for sure is that for me, there is something that feels good about owning-maybe the idea that one day, I will fully own it and not have to worry about arguably our biggest expense ever again and that hard earned $ can go toward my future retirement savings. I won’t ever own if I’m renting. So for me, in that sense, it is worth “it”. I believe on the investing front, it’s just always important to diversify. I personally plan to someday have a mix of investments in the stock market (I do that now through my retirement savings) and real estate via renting or flipping.  In the meantime, I’ll just think of my house as a modest investment and someplace I like to come home to with the hope that I’ll actually own it one day and that it’ll be worth at least what I bought it for by the time I’m ready to sell. What about you? Do you think buying a home is worth it? Let me know your thoughts!

Hi EnLifers! I hope this finds you thriving! I have a little time whiplash, like seriously where did January go?! Today, I’m going to follow-up with the last post around dental insurance. Now if you are wondering why I am so stuck on dental stuff right now, it is because I am in the midst of what seems like a lot of dental work at the moment (see last post re: my lack of dental hygiene J). Anyhow, this past week, I had a root canal and I’m waiting for an appointment to get a new filling from the hole they created with the root canal and possibly a new crown for the tooth. Now, I knew going in to this year that I would need the root canal, however I didn’t know what else might come up. In anticipation, I opened a health savings account so that the out of pocket dental costs wouldn’t disrupt our financial lives and spend plan too much, plus it’s tax free dollars, so double ching-ching for me!! Anyhow, I had already determined that insurance wasn’t cost advantageous, however I stumbled upon dental discount/savings plans on a website called dentalplans.com. There may be more sites like this, but this one happened to be offering a sale on their plans when I visited. I also recognized some of the popular insurance companies represented like Aetna and Cigna, that I just felt comfortable with this site. I wondered if this could be one more way to save a little on the dental work in addition to or instead of the 10% self-pay discount they usually quote. I researched which plans my dental providers accepted (at this point, I have a dentist and endodontist) and looked for the balance in overall price of the plan and the discount provided for the various procedures I needed. The plans ranged in cost from about $80/year to $180/year for individuals and about $130/year to $300/year. The discounts on various procedures ranged from 10-60% AND some of them also served as discount and/or savings on vision, prescriptions, and more. I purchased the Careington POS plan that provided a 20-50% discount and also has other benefits such as pharmacy, vision/LASIK (which I may need renewed soon), hearing, and specialty care. The site was running a sale (remembering 30% off), so normally, the plan would be $199 per year plus a $20 processing fee, so essentially $220 a year, however I got it for $149 plus the $20, so $170. Now all I had to do was sit back and see how this works out ie. if it actually ends up being cheaper for me or not. I figured worst case scenario, I could at least break-even. I plan to track all year and provide an update at the end of 2018 as to how much I actually saved. I have to say I think it will be pretty good as I just did the math below and I’m already in the black as far as savings outweighing the initial upfront costs – see below.

Ok-well another post in the books! If you are reading this, please subscribe and share with others you think could benefit from it! Continue to thrive as you continue to enhance your financial and overall life!

Happy Love Month!

MK

Hi EnLifers! So, this week’s post is about something my husband and I debate over each year – whether we should buy dental insurance. The intention is to have it in case we need to have any major work done outside of the preventive cleanings and x-rays that our medical insurance provides. So what do you do? Each year, I’ve done the math to see which would make more financial sense and I’ll share my process and an example here.

1. Check with the dental provider to see what dental plans they accept. Ours only accepted two, so that made it easy.
2. Identify the bi-weekly premiums to calculate how much it would cost for the year. In our case, I’m looking at family plans since we have children, so those prices will be reflected in the example.
3. Think of any dental procedures you predict you will need. A little secret, I’m not the best at oral health though I’ve gotten better over the years, so I count on the possibility of a cavity or two. But think crowns, periodontal cleanings etc. Most times, you can even plan your expenses as the dentist will usually inform you that you need something done, so I usually ask for their fee schedule and any discounts they offer for self-pay.  In our case, it was for periodontal cleanings and maintenance this past year.
4. Find out what the dental insurance company will pay for your identified procedure. This coverage can range from full payment (100%) to a low of 30% of costs. It’s important to take into account the cost to have insurance PLUS the cost of the actual procedure under insurance.

5. In our case, it was cheaper to pay out of pocket rather than pay for dental insurance in both cases. Now, of course there are other considerations as well. What if you have something else come up that might be covered under insurance? This is quite possible, but hasn’t been an issue for me so far. The other thing that some would point out is the tax savings of the most health plans as they are usually deducted before taxes. A good point, but the way I get around that is using a health savings plan which is also deducted pre-taxes.

So there you have it- a simple way to determine from a strictly financial perspective if you really need dental insurance. However, I totally understand that some people just like having insurance to make them feel more secure, which is understandable. However if you want to take a walk on the wild side…. I’m your girl! (not really, I’m fairly risk averse). In next week’s post, I’ll cover something I found out about this year –dental discount plans! I purchased one and will track throughout the year whether it has been useful or not for our upcoming needs. As usual, continue to find things that bring enjoyment to your life! EnLife!

MK