Blogging: Looking to the Past

One of the neat things about blogging for any length of time is that you have a history or work to look back on. Amybear and I are making future financial plans right now, so it is a good time to look back at this post from a year ago.

Since that time I have paid off my only debt, my car loan. That was successfully accomplished in September of last year and both Amy and I went into our marriage carrying no debt whatsoever. I also started an ING savings account, which is earning me interest at 4.35% annually. I'm putting a lot of money in there currently.

Unfortunately saving up a lot of money didn't really happen prior to the wedding. I haven't spent frivolously by any means, far from it. But I was willing to purchase items that had sat on my to-buy want list for several years because I now had the money. We also spent a lot of my money on the honeymoon both in travel arrangements and shopping. It was nothing compared to what Amy's dad spent of course, but it was still a large percentage of my bank account. The presents helped recoup some of this, but I didn't break even. Of course I didn't have to go into debt for any of this and of course I would gladly pay any price to be married to my wonderful wife.

The good news on the home front is that a year ago real estate was a sellers market. Thanks to shifting interest rates, today it is a buyers market. Amybear and I are both working hard to save up a down payment for a house. ING does have a very nice CD system with good rates to help us save, but the shortest term is 6 months which might be slightly too long for us right now. I'll have to forego the additional 0.65% interest and stick with straight savings. ING has a mortgage program, but it doesn't look that appealing to me. I like traditional fixed rate plans. We have months left on our current apartment lease before we really need to worry about the specifics of mortgages and houses. I don't know if we'll have the standard 20% saved by then or not, but we can try.

I wonder what I'll think of this post when I look back on it a year from now.