Closing the books

My books are closed for the year.
I paid every bill that we started in 2019
Some I pay forward
Here was today's work:
- groceries purchased
- cars are on full
- insurances
- electric bill
- cable bill
- Physical Therapy sessions
- Doctor bills (from injury)
and finally, the credit card bill is completely paid off.

We had two major purchases in 2019:
 new roof
 land for our new house

We did several trips this year:
Two to Phoenix
Israel
Idaho
New York
Hawaii

We had two major medical incidents and one pet incident.

Nothing changed in income.
We did rolled the last of my husband's Traditional IRA into his Roth.
That will increase our income tax.
We chose to keep that money out from the actual funds.
Probably better not to, but it seemed the best decision at the time.

I added the roof and land back into our current balance
-they added to our net worth-
 to see how our money grew.

Overall we made about 9% between saving and interest.
We will begin 2020 about 1% less then 2019.

Clear as mud?

Outside of our regular savings
We also keep separate savings accounts In there we have:
 enough for half of a new car (three more years on this one),
Taxes, gifts and  insurance  until June (we begin to save for Jun- Dec tomorrow),
a month of emergency money,
 enough to fill the propane tank in March.

We do not keep track of each other's allowance,
but I know we each have enough for a toy or two if something comes up.

It only got a bit tight when we thought we may have had to help with
other family medical bills
but that passed
and we are back on our road of retirement.


And with that 2019 is a financial wrap.

End of the year money round up

There is always this lull
after Christmas presents are purchased and wrapped
That I work on the books.

This year I am making a list of what I do in the next six weeks
for tax season
and next year.

Although I will have to wait to do taxes until March
because I will be waiting for documents
Everything will be ready for them to be sent.

Here is my list:

Close the books on my envelopes

Did I allocate correctly? What is left over.? What is the budget for next year?

Consider starting a new envelope for moving?

dogs and propane

auto repair and purchase

gifts and taxes (they are the same thing, right?)

education

travel

take out/ special groceries

House repairs

  Personal Allowance (only to figure out the budget)

Pay off, every single thing that has posted, 

between Dec 31- Jan 1.

All of my spending that I did in 2019

needs to be paid for in 2019. 

I do not carry any negative balances into the new year.

No carry of credit card debt on 2020 money.

Print off the final statements, 

from every account, when they post in January

I am a hawk.

This one thing has saved me so many hours when preparing our taxes.

This will be first year for:

Calculate my husband's RMD for the year 

and prepare where it will be applied.

He will turn 70 1/2 in December 2020.

Almost all of his Traditional IRA accounts have been rolled in the last ten years.

What ever is left is divided by 27.4 

(how long the IRS plans before he dies)

and place that into an account.

What account will be a discussion. 

Calculate how much of my Traditional IRA should be rolled into a Roth, and do it.

I still have a larger T IRA

Right now the taxes are very much in favor 

of me rolling as much as possible next year. 

Until this year the emphasis has been on his IRAs

There are three years before my Social Security comes into play.

Roll, baby, roll.

Check rates on CDs 

Several CDs will mature soon.

Where will they go?

I just rolled some IRA money into a 3% CD

Oh, how I long for the days of 7%.

Do you have anything on your list that I am missing?

Memories

My mother (89) and I had a chuckle yesterday
"It must have been crazy to try to
balance all Christmas things out for 22 people!"
"Seriously, I don't remember".

My mother does not remember much of our childhood.
No clear remembrance of any firsts except my oldest brother.

We all played tennis and swam, but there is no memory of meets, or games
or even sitting at the softball stadium all day, ever other day, in the heat of the summer
while each of us played in our own leagues.
Confirmations, even baptisms - five children in ten years.
It is all a blur.

She does not remember details after her father died when she was in high school
when the household went into poverty for a bit.
She does remember that she shared the wedding dress
with her two older sisters
but I had to explain why.

But there are things she does remember:
Her year as a clerk at the local hospital
Her year at college
Her time as the Vice President of the Junior League.
Her taking the trolly to school in downtown Phoenix.

The mind is an amazing thing, isn't it?
My mom can argue politics until she is purple
she keeps up with technology
she gets upset when her books don't balance.

Still, the memories that I treasure most in my mind
Are gone.
Mom has been older for a long time,
she hit elderly about three years ago...
and with that, only clearly happy memories come through.

It makes me ponder,
what will I remember?