Right now, our payments for our debt is exceeding our income, so we’ve stopped 401k contributions to help make the difference up. However, in a few months, we should be at the point where we can actually afford to make payments within our income. I’ve been debating if it would be wise to start adding to the 401k as our debt goes down. Dave Ramsey says no, but I really don’t like the idea of not contributing for a couple years, and losing my match.

So, our options are to just pay off debt, get out of debt quicker, and lose the benefits of compounding interest for a couple more years. Or, we can start bringing the 401k back up, and have more money for retirement, but take longer to pay off debt.

Anyone been in this situation before? What do you think we should do?

I keep hearing people talk about Compact Flourescent Lamps, and how they are so much more energy efficient than standard bulbs. Let’s do some math and find out..

….click here to read more

At work, we have the opportunity of enrolling in a Health Savings Account this year. It looks like a great option, except for one thing — I’m on a single name-brand prescription drug. Just for that drug, I would end up spending more than the difference in premiums. However, the one thing that would still be nice with the HSA would be that everything is 100% covered after the deductible amount. For this year, however, we stuck with the standard account.

Have you tried a HSA? What has your experience been?

CNN recently posted an article discussing the downside of credit card rewards. Personally, I have stopped using credit cards until we are out of debt — if we’re not spending on something that allows us to go further into debt, well, it’s a lot harder to go further into debt.

However, I have found that rewards cards would actually work out pretty well for me — *if* I paid the balance off. For example, I generally earned an average of 1.5-2.0% cash back on my Amex Blue card, which was always nice on my annual renewal statement.

What has your experience been with reward cards?

If you’ve been watching the news lately, you’ve heard the stories about car makers having issues selling their large vehicles. One of the most recent stories is GM closing plants making SUV’s and trucks:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/business/04motors.html

In some ways, I see this as both a positive and a negative.. we Americans do tend to drive much larger vehicles than we actually need, so the gas prices will certainly help encourage people to drive the smallest car they can get away with. On the other hand, is this going to make it harder for those that do need a larger vehicle to purchase one?

We have two cars — a sedan with good gas mileage (which I generally drive), and then a SUV with crappy mileage (which my wife usually drives to work, which is only 5 miles away). We like having the SUV around, as it’s much nicer for hauling the dogs around with, and gives us the ability to pull a trailer those few times we need to. Of course, we could always just rent a truck any time we pulled a trailer.. but I don’t really have a problem with driving a SUV for the few miles that vehicle is driven.

What do you think? Is it OK for us to drive a SUV?

For all of you that have attended Dave Ramsey’s Finance Peace University classes, I’m sure that you remember his list of so-called “myths” about debt. Read more for some that made me giggle..

….click here to read more

We’re still going through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University program. Last night, we had the “Credit Sharks in Suits” lesson. On the plus side, this is one of the few lessons that I agreed with him on most things. However, there was one big place where I disagreed — his statement that a FICO Score is an “I Love Debt” score, and that it was not necessary to work to have good credit.

….click here to read more

We purchased a new Chevy last year, when they were blowing them out. As we are approaching the one-year mark, we got an e-mail saying that our OnStar is going to expire:

As your renewal date of 07/02/08 approaches, we want to remind you that your Safe & Sound Plan will be automatically renewed at $18.95. After this date, the credit card you’ve placed on file with us will be charged $18.95* per month. Please take a moment to review your OnStar billing statement below.

Since we have never once used the OnStar since purchasing the vehicle (and the pack of cheap minutes that came along with it), we decided to cancel. The only downside I see is that we lose the automatic notification if the vehicle is in an accident, but is that really worth an additional $18.95/mo?

I’d love to hear about anyone’s experiences with OnStar, and if it’s possible to get a less expensive, “accident-only” package!

Around 6 months ago, all of the nifty promotions we were getting on our cable finally expired, and the price skyrocketed. Before the price shot up, we had premium cable service with all the movie channels, 8mb internet, etc, for a grand total of $80/mo. Wasn’t a bad deal at all! After the promos expired, the price shot up to $160/mo. Uhh, ouch. Of course, this was insane, so we cancelled all the super-special stuff, but we were still paying $120/mo for 8mb internet and “standard” cable. Double-ouch!

I finally got fed up enough with it that I gave them a call, and said I was going to switch to satellite and DSL if they couldn’t lower my price. What do you know, they dropped it to $99/mo, just because I threatened to go elsewhere. Nice!

Proves the “never hurts to ask” saying true! I really need to try that at the grocery store sometime..

The Consumerist has an article which discussions the most annoying airline fees. It’s amazed me how many fees they have tacked on over the last year alone. The most annoying ones for me out of the list:

• Checked Baggage — they now charge for the *FIRST* bag, not just the second and third like a few months ago. Sheesh!
• Seat Preference — you used to be able to just pick a seat. Now, you get to pay for the privilege of getting an aisle seat.
• Curbside Checking — it’s better for the airline, and for us. Why charge??
• Fuel Surcharge — well, I suppose they need to pay for the gas too.

I hate traveling.