I spend a ridiculous amount of time pondering over my financial status. This is especially amusing if you consider that my net worth is most likely still negative as of yet. Most all of the time I spend is work time though. Doing my ridiculous amounts of research and reading is what keeps me sane during the boring days.
Where I stand:
Assets: $13,190.57
Old Local Bank Savings Account (with entirely pathetic APY): $3,019.12
Old Local Bank Checking Account: $1,463.45
2005 Saturn Ion (just transferred into my name last Friday! Value determined based on blue book private party listing.): $10,025
plus: I know that I have a bunch of savings bonds stashed in my parents safe deposit box (thank you Grandpa). Father told me an approximate amount in there and I can't remember what it was. It might have been 6,000. But it seems like that is an awful lot so I'm confused. That could actually push me into the black however so it's a pretty big plus.
Liabilities: $13,455.47
Student Loans (plus interest, ew): $8,464
Car Loan (interest free thanks to the bank of Uncle Dave): $4,900
Credit Card (The sole purpose of having this is to try and build credit. I only have a $200 limit [yay no credit history] so I try to keep the balance around $100. It is set to automatically pay on the due date. Wait just one minute! I went on chase.com to look up my exact balance and they’ve increased my limit. $700 now. Suppose I’m going to have to charge more then. Oh it’s a rewards card too, that’s why I choose it knowing that I’d have a really low limit and high APR, but I’ve ‘earned’ like $5.): $90.97
Ok, so really not that bad. If I could figure out how much I have in bonds I’d most likely be in the black.
Upcoming additions:
SEP:Very soon I should receive my first statement about my SEP (Simplified Employment Pension). The HSO automatically contributes 5% of my Gross Pay into a nice little Retirement Fund for me. In theory this should be $108.33 monthly. Then also in theory it should start to earn a little bit on its own. It should be very exciting.
Roth IRA: When I asked the (and now my I suppose) Financial Advisor about my own retirement contributions as per the company 403b he informed me that given my age and income a Roth IRA is a better option. Having researched it to death I agree. Additionally I determined that I can also use it to save for a house. Sweet deal. So I need to start me up one of those. I've just gotten stalled about either calling him about it or just doing it online.
High Yield Online Savings: Why keep my dollars somewhere with a trivial APY when I can get %5.05. So I'm going to open up a savings account with E*Trade (https://us.etrade.com/e/t/home/completesavings?_skinnertab=bank) that will give me that much nicer rate. The primary use of that account will be Emergency Fund maybe a Vacation Fund. And also most likely house the semi-liquid funds that I might need for some day to day activities but there they'll earn a bit more.
High Yield Online Checking: Again, why not get some interest where you keep your cash. So I found what looks like a pretty sweet deal at Charles Schwab (http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/banking_lending/checking?cmsid=P-990750&lvl1=banking_lending&lvl2=checking&refid=P-1008151&refpid=P-999724). 4% APY and it still functions like a regular checking account with paper checks and a debit card. Useful being as some of the alternatives are paperless so no safety net of real checks. And if I wanted I could set up my Roth IRA there instead. Also if I decide to go freeform with my investing I’d have an account there that can do such things. I just hope that they’ll approve me for both the savings and the checking accounts. I don’t know if they pull a credit report or anything or not.
Thought! I could actually set up two Roth IRA’s (maybe) then one could be for retirement and the other savings for a house. Hmm….I shall need to entertain this thought more.
O well that’s really all that I’m thinking on that plane for right now. It all seems so small and trivial for me to be worrying about it as much as I do.
Next step: implementing those upcoming additions I talked about. I’m so much better at just looking at things than actually doing them.
0 comments:
Post a Comment