I'm a terrible Blogger

I feel bad for not updating.

I'm just not cut out to be a blogger.

Effective Borrower's Cost

Mortgages fascinate me. .. mostly in the fact that you can pay on a $100,000 mortgage for a year, at about $750 dollars a month with is a total payment of $9,000 and your ending balance left to pay on your mortgage is roughly $99,200. So $800 of your hard earned $ went to the principal and the rest went into the sweaty little palms of the mortgage lender. All I have to say is: I am on the wrong side of the table.

I made a quick little sheet on the right hand side titled: "Mortgage EBC" (EBC standing for Effective Borrowing Cost). When you roll discount points and closing costs into a mortgage you are actually receiving less money to put towards your real estate investment, but you are still paying on the full loan amount. This difference, along with living in your home for less that the length of the full mortgage, will increase your APR on your loan by a substantial amount. It is fun necessary to figure this stuff out. This sheet will help you do it.

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Day 1: The Introduction

Well, I'm ready to start this thing off with a bang. On the right side of the screen I will post many useful spreadsheets. Generally these are financial based, but sometimes I get a wild hair and try something different. The current project is to integrate my expense tracking report with the well known budgeting program: PearBudget. (which I highly recommend and so do a few other people) However, one of the limits of PearBudget is that you cannot separate multiple expenses from a single day, it is a macro view of your finances. ProjectRuby is a micro view that allows the user to look at his/her finances under a microscope. Plus, it is VERY customizable. Please keep-in-mind that this is a constant work-in-progress but hopefully it will benefit someone besides myself.

Here is the story: the semester after my first accounting (2003) class I got this idea in my brain about managing myself like a business and tried to develop a system that was (1) free and (2) able to change with my progress through college. Version 1 wasn't so hot, while version 3.0 started to act like it was suppose to and it has been growing ever since.

Give it a shot! I've been tracking my expenses for the past 2.5 years and it has become... dare a say, a small hobby. Plus, it acts as a financial journal. I know what I was doing a year ago today! (buying a scantron for my international accounting exam and I purchased 2 songs off of iTunes for my finance, then girlfriend)

Try it for a month, you will not be disappointed.

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