The first release of the online debt calculator is ready for users. The idea is that you don’t need to download a debt reduction spreadsheet or some external program, you can visualize your debt destruction right in your web browser. Debts can be reordered by dragging them around in the list, you can see what happens when you add extra monthly payments, reorder debts using the debt snowball method of smallest balance, and more.  Full instructions are in the sidebar next to the debt calculator.

With that said, I am looking for feedback. I am poised and ready to add new features, but I wanted to make sure that I had an idea worth pursing and figure out how users want to use it.  I am looking for all types of feedback.  Enhancements, bugs, and I even welcome negativity.  If this isn’t something that isn’t helpful or useful, I want to stop devoting time to it as soon as possible.  Use the simple feedback form on the calculator’s sidebar or publicly share your feedback by using the ‘Feedback and Support’ tab in the bottom right hand corner.

A picture is worth a thousand of my words, so here goes…and here is the debt calculator link again.

Original content from The Happy Rock: Debt Calculator Released and Ready For Users

I procrastinated filling taxes this year again…no big deal.  Late filing seems to be common practice for those of us who usually owe money each year.  The pain came when I received word that we need to file for extension and pay DOUBLE the normal amount to the fed and the state.   I was shocked.  I saved and paid quarterlies the same as I did the last five years and we got killed worse than normal.  Now I am trying to figure out what happened and recover.

A Little History

Every since we got married we have owed thousands of dollars in taxes each year.  The only times we haven’t owed are tax years when we were able to claim the adoption tax credit(a beautiful thing). The main ‘problem’ is that The Rockette has worked full or part time since we got married and from what I can see the tax code tends to not be as helpful to married couples with dual incomes.

The Rockette now works part-time as a consultant which means we are responsible for paying quarterly taxes.  The same holds true for my internet income streams.   Like previous years I paid less in quarterly taxes, because I would rather keep my money for as long as possible rather than overpay and let the government hold without having to pay interest.    It’s purely principle, not necessarily a wise personal finance decision.  It gives me a false sense of power in a situation were I am powerless.

Skip Forward To The First Year Without A Mortgage

This year is our first full year of being 100% debt free and renters. This means we lost our mortgage interest and property tax deductions.   Ouch!  I hadn’t really thought about the tax consequences, and I definitely wasn’t prepared for that loss to cause a doubling of our tax bill.

Ready for Pain

The lucky part is that we are ready to handle the pain.  We had already saved normally, so we had half of the bill sitting in a ’2010 taxes’ account in ING.  The rest of the pain was minimized by the hard work we put into become debt free and having an emergency fund.   Because of that, the tax bill became a nuisance rather than a catastrophe.  In the past this would have  thrown our life and finances into a tailspin.  It will take a little while to replace the money the emergency fund, but that is nothing compared to the damage and stress it would have done to us 6 or 7 seven years ago.

Listen To The CPA

One of the benefits of a of having a CPA is I will receive an adjusted quarterly schedule when my taxes are finished that will take this into account and factor in a new child.  If I had of followed the CPA’s recommended schedule this year, we would have been almost in line with were we expected to be.   I need to start fully trusting the CPA rather than still trying to partially follow my hacked together plan of years past.

Thanks to the emergency fund, we can learn and move on.  I have bigger and better things to worry about!  I am ready to start my next web project which you will hear about in the future.

Original content from The Happy Rock: The Pain Of Taxes Without A Mortgage

The title is over the top, but I am pretty excited.   I can’t call The Happy Rock revitalized until I actually start posting and investing in the community again, but that is my honest desire.  The blog has been languishing for almost two years, but now I am refreshed and ready to start taking action towards my goal.  A site rewrite was planned for a while and I finally pushed through it.

Why Did I Do It?

TheHappyRock.com

I had a few offers to sell The Happy Rock, but I choose to revamp The Happy Rock instead. I wasn’t ready to let it go even though writing is something of a battle for me.  I also  was unhappy letting it stay the meager personal finance blog it was.  I didn’t make sense to keep the site out of nostalgia, it had to be a part of the new places I want to go. As much as I love helping people destroy their debt, I also know that there are a lot of people stuck in the same place I have been for the last two years.   Stuck not quite happy with where our decisions(or lack of decisions) are taking us.  Stuck knowing that there is more to life, but trapped on the couch without action.  I just needed to gain some new habits, perspective, accountability, learning, mentoring, prayer, and a few swift kicks in the butt.   The Happy Rock will now exist to not only help people create financial freedom in their lives , but also to learn how to use that freedom to accomplish big things.   The expanded purpose allows me to be more authentic and connected to the material; I am on that exact journey.  I will begin to share were that journey is going and how I am taking action to get there in the coming months.

The Design Mechanics

As you can see I removed most of the clutter and trimmed down to the bare necessities.   I don’t want the purpose and focus on the blog to get watered down by cheesy sidebar widgets or obnoxious ads.    Most of the advertisements are removed or tucked away.   Adsense only shows to traffic that comes from search engines. There are a few text links in the footer that may eventually be on the way out and only a few organic affiliate links left.    The Happy Rock income has taken a hit, but I honestly believe that the journey to bigger things starts by challenging yourself to make long term decisions not ones geared for the here and now.

The main goal of the redesign was to make the site much more user friendly and content focused for regular readers(who generally don’t click ads), while still offering search visitors the choices they were after. I still have a few things to update, but I wanted to start moving rather than wait until it’s perfect to forge ahead.

I coded the site myself and enlisted a graphic designer friend to help with the artistic side of things. The graphic designer created the header, helped me with the colors and fonts, and created the beautiful widget around the slider on the main page. If you are interested in connecting with him, shoot him an email -> Josh Street.

The site is developed on the Thesis Theme for WordPress*. I am excited to be stepping up to a wordpress framework to be able to leverage all the speed, search engine optimization, and overall excellent theme design that someone else had to learn and code.   I used a the ThesisFolio skin as inspiration and a place to start.  I coded the rest by hand and even had to figure out javascript and jquery along the way.  I will detail the plugins and other nuisances I used to accomplish my goals in another post.  Needless to say, it was a fun and motivating experience.

Now the real fun begins, taking action towards bigger goals and posting again.

Drop a comment and let me know what you think of the new design and how you connect(or don’t connect) with the new vision?

* = Affiliate link

Original content from The Happy Rock: The Happy Rock Redesigned, Repurposed, Revamped, Reimagined, and Revitalized

[Update 5-2-2012]  Almost a year and half after the initial signs of life, ING Direct finally released their long awaited remote check deposit by scan or by smartphone picture.  It is called CheckMate and works perfectly. I tested it over the  weekend by following the three step Checkmate wizard(on my Android phone) that walks you through what pictures to take and the check was deposited within minutes.   You can view ING’s “How CheckMate Works” video for exact details or read PT Money’s article on his experience.

ING Direct is finally starting to show signs that depositing checks by scan and/or fax is going to happen in the near future.   Let’s also keep our fingers crossed that they will also integrate with mobile phones like iPhone and Android. Here is the information we have thus far(June 7th 2011):

Official ING Help Question

“I hear a lot of buzz about being able to scan checks for deposit called Remote Deposit Capture. Is this something ING DIRECT will offer in the future?” – ING Help Center

Response

“Let’s just say, it’s in the works.  We’re working hard to offer you more convenient ways to make deposits into your ING DIRECT account(s). Stay tuned…”

A second confirmation came directly to me as I complained on my Twitter account:

“Still hoping that @ingdirect will implement check deposit by scan. Seems like something they would’ve already done. Mailing checks is 90′s.” – @TheHappyRock Tweet

Official ING Response

“@TheHappyRock Mailing checks is sooo 90’s – Don’t worry, remote deposit is on the way. It’ll be a dream come true” – @INGDirect Deposit Tweet

Update 3/14/2011

“@LeviMaaia @TheHappyRock You bet, but still no ETA. We’re forecasting nothing but smooth sailing once released.” – @INGDirect Response Tweet

Update 6/7/2011

Judging from a recent tweet we might have remote deposit for July 4th.

“@JacobAtchley Let us ease the pain…you’ll be seeing some easier ways to deposit checks before you’re declaring your independence.” – @INGDirect Response Tweet

Update 7/6/2011

Looks like they didn’t make it by July 4th, but they still say it is coming very soon.  I hope so, because I have a bunch of checks to deposit.

“@adgriffi @TheHappyRock Remote deposit will be cause for its own celebration very soon…didn’t want it to get overshadowed by the holiday ” – @INGDirect Response Tweet

Update 7/25/2011

The new website design now has a ‘Deposit Checks’ option under the ‘Transfers and Deposits’ menu.  When clicked it displays a coming soon message.

Update 9/23/2011

A great observation by a Happy Rock commenter about the new release of the ING Android app. “ING released a new version of their Android banking app on 21-Sep. I took particular interest because it required acceptance of new permissions to complete the update. One of the new permissions was “Hardware controls, take pictures and videos”.”

Update 2/12/2012 (Over a year since the first update)

I just got off the phone with a customer service rep and he said that it should be “shortly”, but he couldn’t give a time frame.  He mentioned that other banks had a 30% success rate when they rolled out the remote deposit service and they are trying to make sure everything just works.  I know it is tough technology and the ramifications of checks not cashing is gigantic, but they have really botched the PR on this on.  As many commenters have mentioned the twitter feed is filled with quotes about how hard at work they are without any specifics.   They put a placeholder in their web interface in July of 2011when they first promised the feature, but it doesn’t feel like we are any closer in early 2012.  Let’s hope they keep pushing and work out the kinks ASAP.

———

As a heavy ING Direct product user, who is stuck mailing paper checks into my Electric Orange Checking account for deposit, I am quite excited. Remote Deposit Capture means that I can save on stamps and processing time, and I will spend a lot less time with money sitting on my desk doing nothing.     Hopefully, this gets done very soon which from the two responses above looks like it is a possibility.  I have a few more inquires out to see if I can gather a little more information.

Original content from The Happy Rock: ING Direct Will Start Allowing Paper Check Deposits By Scan….Now?



With mortgage interest rates at amazing lows, I (Ed) figured now is the time for 15 year fixed rate refinance:

I have a 30 year fixed rate mortgage with about 23 years and ~$156,000 left. With the 15 year fixed rate mortgages at about 3.7%, I have started to look into a refinance.

By refinancing, I stopped paying PMI, and shaved about 8 years off of the loan by paying down the principle in an with an astonishingly low rate and almost identical monthly payments.  If you are in a similar situation and value getting your house paid off as fast as possible like we do, it may pay to look into getting into a 15 year mortgage now.

Original content from The Happy Rock: Going To A 15 Year Fixed Mortgage

• Stockpile in case of job loss
• Stockpile in case of sharp food inflation
• Stockpile in case of rise in gas price
• Stockpile for peace of mind

• Obtain multiple subscripts to local major newspaper with coupon circulars.
• Buy coupons online(ebay, among others)
• Pay attention to Catalina.  Catalina is the small gray box that prints out coupons after you grocery store purchase.
• Coupon websites

• Double coupons
• “Perfect storm: Sale price + Promo + coupon”
• Instructions on how to get things for free and/or make money.

Original content from The Happy Rock: Crazy Saving with Coupons – “Pick Another Check-out Lane, Honey” Book Review

Josh Clark invented a running program called Couch to 5k. While, I realize that this program has existed since 1996, it maybe new to you as it is to me. His training system aims to take the couch potato and slowly(and painlessly) get him/her prepared to run a 5k race.  The first couple weeks are a mixture of running and walking.

The training is 9 weeks for about 20 minutes a session every other day.

While, preparing this post I realized how popular this program is. There are facebook groups, fan sites, pod casts, even a iphone and Android app dedicated to Josh Clark’s program.   Jump to the bottom to view couch to 5k resources.

The Program:

My personal experience

I’ve come to the realization that everything I learned in public school, I need to relearn.  Running is no exception.  I developed a hate for running in high school.  In HS gym class running was primarily about running as fast as you can for as far as you can.  I felt terrible after each session.

Today, I am into my second week of this program an I am enjoying each run.  It is hard work, and my first week I had to work through two quarter sized blisters on my heels (due to lousy running shoes).  I feel good for the entire day though.  Running in the morning gets the blood pumping and energizes me for the day.

Anyone else care to join in on the fun?

If you are looking for some additional motivation here are a few great success stories from around the web:

1. Couch to 5k Review @ Before the Parade Passes By
2. Couch to 5k @ Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans
3. My Experience with the Couch to 5k plan @ 400m to go

Best Android and iPhone apps for Couch to 5k:

iPhone

1. Get Running – Couch to 5k (*Highest Rated)
2. C25K
3. Couch 2 5k – Felt Tip (*Posters Choice)
4. 5k Runner – (*Free)

Android

1. C25k Pro on Amazon (Free Today 10-5-2011)
2. C25k Pro
3. C25k Free

Original content from The Happy Rock: Couch To 5k – Free Running Exercise Program For Couch Potatoes

The following is a guest post by a dear friend Ed(@ed_bruner) who is just months away from finally getting out from under $40,000+ in debt.

Use cash to plug up the holes

I assume every family budget has holes in it.  Ours did.  The holes were mostly unaccounted spending or personal spending…a trip to a retail store, a lunch out, snacks, etc.  These “little”spending events can destroy a budget or even derail your debt reduction if they are not kept in check.

The way we handle this issue is by allowing ourselves weekly spending cash. The rest of the income is for bills & savings.  All significant purchases are planned and discussed.  Once the personal cash is gone, the spending stops.  With the change to cash I’ve found that I pay more attention to the cost of things I’m buying.  If I want to buy something, then I need to save for it. It really is as simple as it sounds and it works.

I’m sure you are familiar with the statistics regarding credit cards specifically that we are likely to spend up to 15% more when shopping with plastic.  Dave Ramsey says that a McDonald’s study showed a 47% increase with plastic.  Cash is finite, credit (and debit) have overdrafts and outrageous credit limits, which entice you to be less concerned about price.  The minimum payment is only a small fraction of the debt amount.

We do use debit cards but have stopped all spending on credit.  When we use debit, it is subtracted from weekly cash allowance.

Its much more enjoyable to manage money, than manage debt.

Original content from The Happy Rock: Plugging the Holes in Your Budget

The following is a guest post by a dear friend and colleague Ed who is just months away from finally getting out from under $40,000+ in debt. Give him a warm welcome in the comments or a shout on twitter(@ed_bruner):

The First Step Into Chains

When my wife and I got married, we were debt free with money in the bank (minus my student loans…which I wasn’t even thinking about). When she got pregnant, we decided it was time to buy a house. The year was 2001. The Housing bubble in NJ was already ballooning. We had difficulty finding anything that wasn’t a “fixer-upper”x2. Mistake #1: the mortgage loan officer realized that I didn’t want to borrow all the money I was qualified for, so his advice was: “When you buy your first house, you want to borrow to the point that the payments are difficult to make because over time it will get easier”. I believed it. And so, our first house was a challenge. Our savings were wiped out because there was no extra money. In 2003, we moved to our current house. It too was a stretch. Over the course of years our debt was slowly becoming unmanageable.

Journey into the Red

To be honest, I tried to create a budget, but there was no room for savings. If something unplanned occurred, we had to put it on a credit card. We used an ATM card for our purchases, not cash. We would set an amount to spend, but would easily go over the small amount when tallying receipts. So, when I would “do the bills” I would have to juggle things to make it work. I would have to estimate the days it would take for a check to get delivered/processed so it wouldn’t bounce. We were living without a budget and the credit card debt was beginning to get stressful. 2005 brought pregnancy with child #3, the harsh reality of a needed minivan became apparent. Mistake #2: I reasoned in my mind that I could make the loan payments on a used vehicle if I took advantage of just 4 hours of OT a week. The vehicle was purchased in 2006, a month before the child was born.

Crisis

In May 2006, I suffered two strokes a week apart. I am thankful that I have made a full recovery, but I was on disability for several months….needless to say, no OT was happening. Debt was piling up, and for the first time in our marriage my wife begun managing the bill. I was mentally “checked-out” due to recovery. She realized the financial house of cards, I built for us was crumbling. When I returned to work, either OT was not available or I was still too mentally “checked-out”, either way, I wasn’t doing any. Between my medical costs, car loan, student loan, new baby we found ourselves 40k in debt with increased monthly expenses. Failure was imminent.

Hope and Change

Because I have the best wife in the world and because of several positive influences in my life, we realized that managing our debt was not the way we wanted to live the rest of our lives. Two main positive influences: 1. The Happy Rock, because I know him personally I was challenged and inspired to embark on this journey toward debt freedom. 2. Duggars, as corny as you may think the show is, it has made a resounding positive influence on my family. For those who don’t know, the Duggar family contains 19 children and boasts that they live debt free. If they can do it in AR with 19 kids, why can’t I do it in NJ with 3? These influences allowed me to see that not only is debt freedom possible, but it is essential to a successful family.

Resolved

I began to see debt as the enemy of our success and dreams. In addition, because of my faith, I began seeking Scriptural verses to confirm this avenue I felt God was directing me. “Owe no man anything but love” Romans….”the debtor is a slave to the lender” Proverbs…. Seeing debt as slavery brought more clarity and resolve. Large sums of debt keep us from enjoying things like much needed vacations, car repairs & maintenance, and proper heath care among other things. With debt, we are not free to pursue our dreams because we are tethered to a lender. I want freedom, don’t you?

Roll Call

Credit card  = $10,000

Auto Loan = $4,000

Student Loan #1 = $5,000

Student Loan #2 = $6,000

The First Steps Out of Debt

After expressing my intentions to the HappyRock, he gave me a copy of Total Money Makeover – D.Ramsey.  We began by creating a budget.  We started using Ramsey’s Debt Snowball method. Mistake #3: we wanted to get started immediately, we didn’t start with a $1,000 security fund first. I recommend the security fund.  Basically, we stopped adding to our debt using a good budget.  We started making minimum payments on all loans except for the one with the lowest balance. Finally, we began living on cash.  My wife and I each divided a modest amount for  each other for each week.  When that money was gone, the spending stopped.

The Journey is almost Over

After two years of intense debt reduction, we have paid off all non-mortgage debt, except for Credit card #2.  My father felt bad about not helping me out with college and started sending me money to pay the Student loans.  With his help, we wiped them out.  When you get to the point where we are at now, it is amazing to see how much money we could be keeping instead of sending to creditors.  Never did I dream about so much available money.

Our goal to reach debt freedom (minus the mortgage) this September.

Original content from The Happy Rock: Into Debt And Out Again – Overcoming $40,000 Of Debt

I have been listening and reading through A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life(affilaite link), and in it Donald Miller provides a very simple framework for thinking about your life: your life is a story.

The basic premise is that the same rules apply to your life as they do to stories.  The stuff that makes a good story makes a good life.  If your life feels boring then the story that you are telling is probably boring. Nobody sets out to tell a boring story, they often just happen because we aren’t intentionally trying to tell a good one. The idea is to live a page turner.

A simple question that really helped me gauge where I am at in my story is “what would the back cover of the ‘Your Life, the DVD’ say?

This is what I came up with for mine:

From food stamps and a young but devoted mother, Frank “The Happy Rock” successfully navigates a turbulent childhood into college where he meets his wonderful wife.  Together they conquer $70,000 in debt, get good jobs, and create a beautiful life for their two children.  You never know what kind of action his days will bring as he attempts to have patience with his children and tries not make his wife mad at him. Tune in to watch as he earns money and buys stuff.  Will he make it? Will he survive?

I know that doesn’t speak to how blessed my life is right now(it really is), but it is true to how I feel and yet still accurate at the same time.  As I look back at my life as though it were a story it was a real page turner.   Being born to a young mother and addict father, escaping poverty into the middle class, moving from isolation into marriage, and journeying from selfishness into parenthood is the stuff of good stories.  It didn’t feel like it at the time, but somehow that part of the story now reads like best seller.

When I look at where the story is heading now, the picture is much less engaging.   We ‘made it’, but the irony is that’s the problem. My wife and I have pretty much the freedom, money, and skills to do most anything we want, yet our life consists of Target, Netflix, Gardening, and going to the park.   Don’t get me wrong, it is a good life, but it isn’t one that keeps you on the edge of your seat.   There is virtually no conflict, no plot twists, and no chance of failure.  It isn’t a page turner and it certainly isn’t sending the message I want to my boys.

One motivating part about framing your life as a story, is that you are the author.  You get to change the storyline. In life you can’t change what happened, but you get full control over where the story is going.  The question is: What are the new story lines that you want to tell?

I would love to hear what everyone else thinks about their story lines?

Original content from The Happy Rock: Your Life Is A Story, So What Does The Back Of Your DVD Say?