Before I get to the main part of the post, an update -- everything is done on the refinancing through ING Direct except the closing, which hopefully will take place in the next week. So far it all looks good, so now it's just a matter of finishing up the fiddling paperwork. Fun.
Now, to the main thrust of this post ...
At least on the surface, what I have to talk about today doesn't appear to have much to do with finances, but watch my literary legerdemain and see how I tie it all back in....
Every year, Amazon.com runs the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest (ABNA). I have a young adult novel -- "The Coming of the Heroes" -- I've been working on for the better part of eight or nine years, so I submitted it to the contest back in January. From an initial pool of 5,000 young adult entries, my novel is now one of the top 250.
I'm inviting anyone and everyone to check out my excerpt (the prologue and first chapter) and, if the mood takes you, to rate it and leave me a review. The more reviews I can get, the better the novel will look overall, which is always a good thing.
So, how do you rate it, you ask? Simple...
1. Click here.
2. If you have a Kindle device, skip to step 3. If you don't, look at the right side of the screen, and there you'll see some options to download a free Kindle reader to your device -- PC, MAC, iPhone, Blackberry, etc. Click the one you want, and then install the software.
3. Now, go back to the page you went to in step 1. Over at the right side of the screen, click on the "Buy now with 1-click" button. Don't worry, it's free.
4. Read it. Then, down at the bottom of the page, click on "Create your own review" to rate and review the excerpt. This won't help me through to the next level of the contest, but if I progress far enough, these reviews will effect the hearts and minds of people who could potentially put me on even further.
So what does this all have to do with finances, you ask? I could take the easy route and say, "Well, if I win the contest, there's a publishing contract on the line, with a $15,000 advance against royalties." You see, there's a dollar sign in that sentence, so it must have to do with money, right?
But I won't take the easy route. Instead, I'll get philosophical for a moment...
Why do we want money? The simple answer is that we want money so we can do what we want to do, what we love to do, what we were born to do (or, if you're a Lost fan, what we're destined to do). Now, I don't claim any sort of divinely-given purpose, but I do know that I love to create things. I'm already a composer and arranger with many pieces in print, and no matter how many pieces I write, I'm always excited to get to the next piece.
The same is true of writing. I haven't had the success yet with writing that I've had with composing, but I love to do it just as much. Progressing in this contest just gets me closer to my dream, which is to live my life doing nothing but creating. More than the creating, though, is being able to share what I create with others, not out of a selfish "look at me!" purpose, but because I hope that what I've made will touch peoples' lives, and perhaps make those lives just a bit better. Even if I don't win the contest, the farther I progress, the more marketable my work becomes, and the more likely I'll be able to get my book out there where I'll have a real chance to share it with others.
So, a big thank you in advance for taking the time and effort to look at my excerpt, and if you feel called to rate and review it, so much the better. With spring break starting tomorrow, hopefully it'll be easier to find the time to write here more. In the meantime, enjoy the weather spring has to offer.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Answers to Reader Questions
A couple of our readers have asked some questions about our ongoing refinancing, so I thought I'd address them here:
Honestly, the only documents which aren't "within our reach" are all forms they sent for us to fill out and return (which we've got and are easy to fill out). All they needed form-wise were recent pay stubs (most recent for each of us), last 2 years of W-2s (fairly easy as it's tax time), and the declaration page from our homeowner's insurance (not sure exactly what they want, but I think I've got something close). Yeah, if we needed the number of items most mortgages require, we might balk, as well.
As for the adjustable rate, the mortgage we've got doesn't adjust at all during the 5 years we have it, and as our plan and goal is to be rid of the blasted thing before the 5 years are up, we're considering that we've got a 3.75% rate for the effective remaining life of the loan. If we weren't planning on killing the thing off before the 5 years were up, we'd never refi.
If we don't make it and still have some balance left at the end of 5 years, even if that remaining balance is at a higher rate, we still win. If we only pay the minimum payment (about $225 every two weeks), we'll have somewhere over $80,000 left after 5 years. Even paying twice that monthly payment takes a huge bite out of the remaining balance. With the amounts we'll be putting toward it, if we do have to roll over for another 5 years, we should have a nice manageable balance left, so even at a higher rate, it won't break the bank.
Thanks so much to SlyGly and RLOusley for the comments and questions -- keep them coming!
Brief refinancing update: we got the paperwork from ING Direct -- a bunch of papers to sign, no real surprise there. I'm going to wait until this weekend to get our most recent pay stubs (since it's pay week -- yeah!) and send those in along with everything else, probably electronically (I can scan and email all the documents in -- I love the digital age). As part of the packet, they also gave us a copy of our credit scores -- mine is 809, and Ellen's is 799 (probably because I have a credit card I've had since college, giving me a longer credit history than her). I've used calculators and other things online to guestimate our scores, but seeing exactly what they are is really good to see.
I'll be sure to let you all know how refinancing is going. In the meantime, keep the questions coming!
"You make it sound so easy! I am seriously considering refinancing. But every time I learn that I need to find some document that isn't immediately within my reach, I think, ugh, this can certainly wait until a later time..."
Honestly, the only documents which aren't "within our reach" are all forms they sent for us to fill out and return (which we've got and are easy to fill out). All they needed form-wise were recent pay stubs (most recent for each of us), last 2 years of W-2s (fairly easy as it's tax time), and the declaration page from our homeowner's insurance (not sure exactly what they want, but I think I've got something close). Yeah, if we needed the number of items most mortgages require, we might balk, as well.
"Based on the information I learned on your blog, my husband and I looked into refinancing with ING. Their 3.75% rate is great, but the adjustable factor scared us a bit. Thoughts?"
As for the adjustable rate, the mortgage we've got doesn't adjust at all during the 5 years we have it, and as our plan and goal is to be rid of the blasted thing before the 5 years are up, we're considering that we've got a 3.75% rate for the effective remaining life of the loan. If we weren't planning on killing the thing off before the 5 years were up, we'd never refi.
If we don't make it and still have some balance left at the end of 5 years, even if that remaining balance is at a higher rate, we still win. If we only pay the minimum payment (about $225 every two weeks), we'll have somewhere over $80,000 left after 5 years. Even paying twice that monthly payment takes a huge bite out of the remaining balance. With the amounts we'll be putting toward it, if we do have to roll over for another 5 years, we should have a nice manageable balance left, so even at a higher rate, it won't break the bank.
Thanks so much to SlyGly and RLOusley for the comments and questions -- keep them coming!
Brief refinancing update: we got the paperwork from ING Direct -- a bunch of papers to sign, no real surprise there. I'm going to wait until this weekend to get our most recent pay stubs (since it's pay week -- yeah!) and send those in along with everything else, probably electronically (I can scan and email all the documents in -- I love the digital age). As part of the packet, they also gave us a copy of our credit scores -- mine is 809, and Ellen's is 799 (probably because I have a credit card I've had since college, giving me a longer credit history than her). I've used calculators and other things online to guestimate our scores, but seeing exactly what they are is really good to see.
I'll be sure to let you all know how refinancing is going. In the meantime, keep the questions coming!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Starting "The Ball" Rolling
And just what is "the ball"? Why, the big orange ball of ING Direct (www.ingdirect.com). I went online yesterday, filled out all the necessary screens, and clicked "submit" to start our application to refinance our mortgage.
Nothing happened.
So I clicked "submit" again. Again nothing, save a nice error message telling me to wait and try again, and if the problem persisted, I should call ING Direct.
Now, I hate talking to people on the phone -- always have, likely always will. I prefer to think in words and text instead of speech. But we'd put the process off for too long, so I called. God bless a bank which has customer service people in on a Sunday (even if they're in Los Angeles and likely have far nicer weather than we do here).
I worked with the gentleman (sadly, I don't remember his name) and in about a half hour we had everything approved, rolling, and moving along. Our rate is locked in at 3.75% (it dropped since our last post here), and now we just need to get some documents from them, sign them, and send them copies of some of our information (homeowners insurance declaration page, two years' worth of W-2s, and recent paystubs -- very normal-type things). After that, they process the whole thing, then someone from a title company comes to our house, we sign things, and badda-bing, badda-boom (yeah, I can't believe I used words like "badda-bing" either) we're refinanced. Our payment will be $225.77 every two weeks, which we'll electronically debit from our Electric Orange checking account at ING Direct. Couldn't be any simpler.
Not only does this drastically reduce the interest we'll be paying every month, but the amount we absolutely need to have on hand every month to pay the regular bills drops by about $650. I'm not a big fan of bureaucracy, and I'll be a much happier camper once the whole closing process is done, but I'm just a little giddy that we're just that much closer to our financial goals.
Anyone else refinanced lately, or thinking of refinancing? Feel free to share in the comments section. And, as always, if you've got any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Nothing happened.
So I clicked "submit" again. Again nothing, save a nice error message telling me to wait and try again, and if the problem persisted, I should call ING Direct.
Now, I hate talking to people on the phone -- always have, likely always will. I prefer to think in words and text instead of speech. But we'd put the process off for too long, so I called. God bless a bank which has customer service people in on a Sunday (even if they're in Los Angeles and likely have far nicer weather than we do here).
I worked with the gentleman (sadly, I don't remember his name) and in about a half hour we had everything approved, rolling, and moving along. Our rate is locked in at 3.75% (it dropped since our last post here), and now we just need to get some documents from them, sign them, and send them copies of some of our information (homeowners insurance declaration page, two years' worth of W-2s, and recent paystubs -- very normal-type things). After that, they process the whole thing, then someone from a title company comes to our house, we sign things, and badda-bing, badda-boom (yeah, I can't believe I used words like "badda-bing" either) we're refinanced. Our payment will be $225.77 every two weeks, which we'll electronically debit from our Electric Orange checking account at ING Direct. Couldn't be any simpler.
Not only does this drastically reduce the interest we'll be paying every month, but the amount we absolutely need to have on hand every month to pay the regular bills drops by about $650. I'm not a big fan of bureaucracy, and I'll be a much happier camper once the whole closing process is done, but I'm just a little giddy that we're just that much closer to our financial goals.
Anyone else refinanced lately, or thinking of refinancing? Feel free to share in the comments section. And, as always, if you've got any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)