Catching Up Part 1: My Birthday Present from Barack Obama

Has it really been two weeks since I posted last? Egads. Part of the reason I like to keep myself on a once a week schedule is it keeps all the bloggy news from piling up and overwhelming me . . . and you, my loyal six readers. So I'm going to break up the goings on of the last couple of weeks in a few separate posts. Hopefully I can keep them as concise as possible.

But you know me. I probably won't.

So, let's go chronologically and begin with event number one:

My birthday! Turned 37. Forrest presented me with some nice smelly lotions to commemorate the day. Oh, and Barack Obama helped buy me a new car.



Okay, well, the car wasn't really a birthday present. We just happened to buy it ON my birthday, with a little help from Mr. President.

And how did Barack Obama help you buy a car, you ask? Let me 'splain. First off, about a month ago we refinanced our house with the help of the HARP program ("Home Affordable Refinance Program"--gotta love those government acronyms). We hadn't been able to refinance earlier in the year when we wanted to because, although we have really good credit (is it uncouth to say we have really good credit? ah well), our home has lost over $100,000 in value over the last 18 months. Yeah, I know. I don't want to think about that either. Anyhoo, the value loss and tighter lending rules meant that we didn't have enough equity to qualify. Major bummer, since rates were quite a bit lower than they were when we bought this house. But a few months ago the administration passed the HARP program for people just like us and, being the good little Hallstrom Family Mortgage Specialist that I am--seriously, sometimes I think I could be a mortgage broker or something, if I had even one iota if interest in professional mortgage brokering, that is--I jumped on it, and we snagged a sweet 4.75% interest rate, which brought our monthly bill down by a little over $300.

(And what does this have to do with your birthday, you wonder? And didn't you say you would try to be succinct, you ask? And didn't I tell you I wouldn't be, I reply?)

Sooooo . . . then, the Jeep Cherokee Forrest's parents have been driving broke down for the, oh, nineteenth time in the last three months. Okay, exaggerating a bit, but it was really on its last legs. (Bad metaphor. Moving on.) Forrest is the go-to guy when the Jeep breaks and also the go-to guy to help out when his parents need a car and it was pretty apparent to everybody that his poor 68 year old mom couldn't keep driving a vehicle to work every day that randomly stalled at red lights. So we decided it would be best for everybody to give them our van and get something newer for ourselves. I would have been happy driving the denty and smelly but paid-for van for a few more years, but the proverbial ox was in the mire.

As luck (or providence, depending on how you look at things) would have it, we'd recently come in to an extra 300 a month. Yes, an extra 300 a month we were planning to put toward other debt, but still, it was handy given the circumstances. And then ANOTHER government stimulus program was passed, this one with the snappy acronym CARS . (Car Allowance Rebate System).

Basically this program made it possible for us to trade in the Cherokee and get a $4,500 rebate on a new car, just as long as the new car got 5 mpg better gas mileage than the clunker. (It's actually a pretty smart use of stimulus money, imo--it moves new cars and simultaneously reduces emissions and fuel consumption. But then again I'm prejudiced because I got a new car.) We probably would have bought a used car for me, but once we took into account the rebate it made more sense to go new. Luckily the Cherokee has been registered to and insured by us this whole time (it was originally our car) so we could qualify.

So I researched and researched and finally found the car I wanted: the Mazda 5. We have the Tahoe for entire-family-traveling, but I don't like driving the Tahoe. Too boatlike and unwieldy; kids always winging the doors into other people's littler, more unassuming vehicles; nowhere to put the groceries; bad gas mileage. Don't get me wrong--I love being a passenger in the Tahoe. But driving it? Not so much. And I do love my van, as dorky as it is to love a van. Love the sliding doors, love the seating arrangement for the kids, love the room. But we didn't really need to buy another 7 passenger vehicle, and getting a NEW van was more expensive than we would have liked. Then I found the Mazda 5. A mini minivan! Great gas mileage, relatively inexpensive, sporty. Seriously, it's really fun to drive. And we did splurge a tiny bit and get the nice package w/ the leather and seat warmers and moon roof (I'm a sucker for a moon roof on a nice summer night). It even has a jack for my iPod so I can listen to This American Life podcasts and NEVER HAVE TO BURN ANOTHER CD AGAIN. Yippee! (I couldn't care less about engine size--just give me an iPod jack and I'm thrilled.)

So . . . we bought a car! And yes, we're not really putting a dent in the whole debt thing in the way we'd hoped just a month ago, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. And getting a sporty new car with a moon roof and an iPod jack does take the edge off.

So thank you, Mr. Obama and the American Taxpayer, for HARP and CARS and my new Mazda 5.

Catching Up Part Two: The Segullah Retreat coming soooon.

(And p.s.--Are you watching Big Bang Theory? And are you watching Better Off Ted? No? Then start! Best new comedies since Thirty Rock. And I don't say this lightly.)