financial stuff (boring) in 2014

At the moment, an appraiser is here evaluating our house. We’re having two loan providers bid on a refi for our house, and, in addition to that we want to absorb a good chunk of our outstanding credit card and car loan debt into the new mortgage, so we have to ‘prove’ our house has gone up in value. Which is a weird concept to me, since we put 20% down, don’t we already have 20% in leverage assuming our house hasn’t decreased in value since we bought it a year ago? And, in fact, based on Zillow and Redfin, it hasn’t decreased at all. In fact, we are hoping the appraiser comes back with a new value that is actually about 12%-19% higher than our purchase price, but, uh, we shall see!

Getting this new mortgage with a new interest rate that is 2 full percentage points below what we have now (from 5.25% to 3.25%) would be SO MAJOR for us right now and would help alleviate the cloud of obnxious debt we have hanging over our heads. Our mortgage price would go up, yes, but we would actually have a lower monthly payment and I would be able to consolidate a large chunk of stuff into the new mortgage which would free up SO MUCH money on a monthly basis as well. Which, in turn, would allow me to finally pay off the ridiculous amount of money I owe the IRS and actually maybe get caught up on my estimated taxes for 2014. It’s amazing how much of a hole we dug ourselves into in just a year; it’s been the perfect storm of things leading up to this situation, but I’m just hoping to level the playing field back to something more manageable and less-anxiety-inducing. Coupled with that, I am on track to make 50% more in salary than I did in 2013. HOWEVER, to be fair, I made 36% less in 2013 than I did in 2012, so I was operating in a defecit in 2013 which just so happened to be the year that we made our first single-family home purchase and ALSO dumped tons of cash into it. So operating at a defecit was definitely not something I had planned on when I increased my mortgage and credit card debt.

SO. Anyway. Super boring, I know. But if this appraisal goes well, I’m hoping that we will be able to make this loan happen and I can at least breathe a little easier.

Also up on my agenda for this week: get a 2nd bid for solar panels and get that shit installed, stat. My a/c bill came yesterday and I nearly peed myself it was so ridiculously high (2x what I had budgeted). Our first summer in our home was QUITE EXPENSIVE. Stupid utility companies and their stupid rates for keeping our house tolerably cool. Stupid.

In another entry, I’m going to try and remember how awesome Joaquin’s birthday party was, with some pics & details. That ouughta be fun.

Later dudes. (fingers crossed!!)