Quote From: marcia52When I purchased my home back in 1997, I picked up a brochure at the bank on ESCROW. The AHA moment came when I realized that I could do the same for myself. So I went home and made a list of what my yearly bills were going to be:
- Car Insurance, House Insurance, Life Insurance, Dental Insurance
- Water & Sewer
- Vacation
- Home Repairs
- Car Repairs
- House payment
- Property Taxes
I then totaled up the amounts and divided it by 26 (the # of paychecks I get in 1 year). Then I went to the bank and opened up a savings account. Had the bank transfer the AMOUNT into the ESCROW account every pay period.
It took a while to build up the ESCROW; however, it was wonderful when at 6 months, I was paying my car insurance at one time.
The house payment was easier too! Instead of 1 large payment, I had it split up. All I had to do was transfer the monies back into my savings and write a check.
NOTE: there are 52 weeks in a month, and I got paid every other week which meant I had 26 paydays in a year. 2 of those checks helped me to build up my ESCROW account and I had the extra monies to help me pay for emergencies or a vacation or a new TV at the end of the year.
IYour set up is great. Do you have any money in an incidental account? Lets say one of your expenses goes up or you want to treat yourself to a new coat. LOL, one month I paid $50 for phone, then in like a month, it went up to $100 (I added long distance and the answer call).
If you pay your bills with your credit card (this is risky), pay the total amount at the end of the month, some credit cards have nice incentives like plane tickets, gift cards, etc. I'm thinking of doing this. Some cards give 3 points per dollar depending on what ya buy. My budget has no room for fun nor steak. LOL read some of my postings; Im the coupon queen with a freezer full of turkey burgers.
