…do you know “Slippage” is not only an actual word, but an Investing term that means, “The difference between estimated transaction costs and the amount actually paid”?

Anyway…that has nothing to do with my post…

I didn’t know that when I titled this post “Slippage” – because, to me, it refers to having a lapse in motivation. After making my daily check into some of my favorite personal finance blogs, I came across a post by “Well-Heeled” detailing her loss of motivation.

I don’t see this as a bad thing.

I left a comment on her site with a quote that her post reminded me of – “it doesn’t matter how many times you fall, what matters is how many times you get back up”. I truly believe this.

This stuff is tough and doesn’t promise to get easier. If it were easy it wouldn’t be that great of a goal. I think it’s okay to have set-backs once in a while. Hell, if it wasn’t then I’d be in trouble.

For instance, I went “over budget” because I’m a guy and didn’t really plan ahead for Valentine’s day – so I needed to dip into some funds that I had set aside for something else. S*it happens – and you have to cope and recover.

It’s a long road, but the journey is one we’ll all be better for I’m sure.

I began with a quote, so I’ll end with one – this time from a movie that I’m not even sure if I liked (Vanilla Sky), but the quote has stuck with me.

“The sweet isn’t as sweet without the sour”.

Hang in there, Well-Heeled. You (and I) will be back on track in no time.

I have two bank accounts that I use. One is a credit union to which my main income goes via direct deposit. The other is a Bank of America account that I use when I need to make a quick deposit and as a vacation fund savings account.

But now that I have a second job to supplement my main income I’m thinking of what the best way to handle the money transfer/pooling would be.

In my second job I get paid ‘under the table’ so direct deposit obviously isn’t an option. I’m paid in cash too so I’d rather not mail it to my credit union – they’re digital mainly – so I deposit it in my BoA account.

My original plan was to take the money from my BoA account, which would have been about $480 at the end of each month and send a check to my credit union.

But now I’m thinking of just putting my credit union account on complete automatic through the use of direct deposit and bill pay. Then I would use my second job and BoA account as my monthly spending account.

I like this idea – I just have to make sure that my credit union money can cover my bills and then it will be all set.

Unfortunately I know that if I know there’s money in the account – I will spend it. This plan will hopefully take the ‘loaded gun’ out of my hands and force me to live within the means of my second job, while the credit union account pays bills and grows.

I know, I know…I’m pathetic and have no will power. But hey – at least I admit it and know that about myself, right?

After seeing a few blog posts about Mvelopes, I’ve decided to give their program a shot.

The reason for this is that I see how it would be useful to have specific buckets (a.k.a. Envelopes) in which to plan for certain things that may occur either throughout the year or throughout the month. What I’m skeptical about is how easy I will find it to be.

While the program does link to (most) all your online accounts, it doesn’t physically transfer any money for you. So it’s really just a fancy way of telling yourself that you only have X amount to spend on Y this month.

Like I said, I’ve decided to give it a shot and take advantage of the free 30-days to see if I like it and if it makes any difference come my next pay period.

Like always – I’ll keep you posted.

Last night I took a look at my Credit Card Snowball strategy and came to the conclusion that there must be a better way to organize this debt.

Originally, I had told myself that I was not going to do anymore balance transfers, or open any more cards for transfer purposes, since it’s just becoming a way of deferring the debt responsibility.

However, my payments to my MBNA debt are being eaten by my rate, which is a generous (yes, I’m being sarcastic) 22.45%. As mentioned, I have an American Express card and being a member since 2003 I’ve decided that I’m going to test their former marketing campaign and see if membership really does have it’s privileges.

Now, I have read countless transfer/talk to your credit card company strategies in both books and blogs, but last night was my first attempt at trying to negotiate with my credit card. I called their customer service department and mentioned that I currently had a large balance at MBNA that I would like to move over to my current AmEx card – however it was about $13,000 and I only had an available balance of about $6,000 on my AmEx.

They told me that the most they could do was raise my credit limit to $14,000 – giving my about $12,000 for the balance transfer.

I then mentioned that my current AmEx balance is due to a previous balance transfer offer that they extended me which held a rate of 4.99% for the life of the balance. To which they informed me that they currently do not have any promotions like that, but they will have one coming up in about a week or so (their promotions run quarterly).

So, I will continue to make the payments on both my AmEx and MBNA debt. I plan to call AmEx back in about a week and if I’m not happy with the rate I’m given on transfers I will ask to speak to a supervisor.

Hopefully, AmEx will not only value me as a customer, but will also appreciate the idea that I would like to unload about $13,000 on them rather than their competitor.

If I can lower the rate on my largest balance from 22% to around 5% – that will obviously be huge.

As always – I will keep you posted.