We "Luvs" Southwest Airlines

So Yeesin and I are going to Florida for our Wedding Anniversary at the end of this month, and we booked out flight tickets on Southwest Airlines last night. We thought we got a good deal already to Fort Lauderdale @ about $200 per person and bags fly free. :)

Then the next morning, we find out that the fares dropped overnight, and they have openings for direct flight from KC to Fort Lauderdale now. :( Usually, this is were we normally kick ourselves for booking to early and missing out on a deal. Totally KIASU!

Then, I remembered that SW has a really good change policy where they (1) charge no change fees (2) Give you credit for the price difference (3) Can do all of this online..


The Result: Save $177 on our flight, changed it to direct on the return leg AND got the money refunded on my AMEX, and we did all of this ONLINE! (I was PLEASANTLY surprised!) We LUV Southwest, what more can I say!

Getting some serious paperwork done

Yep, Jaz just turned 1 now, and we finally finished up some long due paperwork. You know, the kind of worst-case-scenario type stuff that you never want to talk about because of "pantang". Seriously though, as parents now, we need estate plans to be inplace for the safety of your children. So, we finally wrote up a living trust for both of us courtesy of a fixed-price legal plan from work.
Interesting few factoids that we found out in the course of getting this done. Wills and living trusts are not the same, look it up on wikipedia to see the details but basically living trust allow you to go around the probate process versus just doing a will. Plus living trusts have have additional other things that you can "legalize", like financial & healthcare powers of attorneys. Wills are cheaper for sure, but with this fixed price legal plan, it defintely made the living trust option cheaper for us.
Anyways, its finally done, so now we can sleep easy now that this is taken care of. :)

Good news, we saved a bunch on our refinance.

Well, we did it. After a 2 month long wait, we finally went and closed on the refinance on our house. Managed to get the rate dropped from 6.125% to 5%, which doesn't seem like much at first. However, after we factored in the existing balance and interest into a new loan, we managed to drop the mortgage payment by about $500 per month. Actually, the main reason we were doing it wasn't so much to get the payment down, the real reason was to get the remaining interest down!
Here's an interesting back-of-the-envelope fact, most people pay at least the same amount of interest on your mortgage. So, instead of thinking how much you need to pay per month, we should be thinking, how much of our money is going into interest. So with this refinance, the monthly minimum payment dropped, but we took advantage of the payment cushion by paying up with extra principal on the loan. Long story short, saved a bunch of (total) interest, to the tune of 70K on our refinance! Plus, we gain the additional flexibility (if we have to) of not prepaying and dropping to a regular payment in cash conservation scenarios...

DIY for the people that are interested Below....

For the Calculator savvy folks out there, check out these free link to see if you can do the same on your own refi's too!

Refinance Interest Savings Calculator
Prepayment Interest Savings Calculator

Postcards from our M'sia Vacation (Penang)

Just arrived in Penang after flying in on the regional Fireflyz propeller plane. Grandpa really proud of his new granddaughter. Our little one decided that she wanted to follow in her mom's footsteps, and be a motorcycle-ahmoi! Went to Bali-Hai on Gurney Drive, met up with Yeesin's Cousin's family and Marvin from the US joined us too! Check out the delicious seafood in the huge fishtanks behind us! Jaz decided to use the plastic chairs there as walker toys... Cheaper than buying a brand new one! Grandpa's neighborhood closed up the whole street and had dragon dances, dragon-snake dances and fireworks and not to forget food to celebrate CNY! Jaz finally learned how to eat porridge in Canton-I at Queensbay mall. Before this, she won't even want to touch that stuff! Mom and Jaz at Seafood place at Raja Uda. Long drive across Penang Bridge to get there, but YUM!!!!

Postcards from our M'sia Vacation (Klang Valley)

Yes, its been a while since we last posted anything of import. Mainly be prepping for our first trip back to Malaysia with Jaz, and after the trip trying to get everyone back on their original schedules, and obviously to unpack!

Spent a short overnight with Yeesin's uncle and aunt in San Francisco enroute from Kansas City back to Malaysia. San Fran seemed like a good resting point between the long flights. Jaz was sleeping already before we even got on the plane!
Jaz's first AngPow ever! She wasn't sure what to do with it for a while, mainly just chewing on the packet. We don't think she'll understand the concept maybe for a few years!
Mommy bought her a really cool CNY outfit! Its a little big for her now, but the best thing is she can wear it for a few more years!
Had to do Bak-Kut-Teh in Klang. Rite of passage for all the Yeoh clan. Grandpa brought us to this really cool "Yeoh" branded Bak-Kut-teh (See sign in the background). Too bad no discounts for same last name! Jaz got her first ever swim! Mommy bought her a swimsuit and swim diapers, so she was good to go. Her favorite things was to let us dunk her in and out of the pool! Whats CNY without a reunion dinner! Here's the shot before we "Lo-Sang"ed. All the Yeoh's in the picture with yours truly behind the camera.