January 7, 2007
I was good and bad when I picked my Roth. I’ve known that this was coming for weeks, duh, I blogged about it when I got my bonus, but I didn’t reallllly research too much. Tsk tsk! Seriously, 3k of my money gone in ten clicks and I didn’t research?? What the heck was I thinking? Well, anyway, I’m glad I waited because I’ve been diligently reading my WSJ and finally hit the investing pages that covered the performance of stocks and bonds. I know past performance is NOT an indicator of future performance, but I just wanted to get a feel for what sorts of bonds were out there.
I decided on a bond mutual fund through Vanguard for two reasons: simplicity’s sake because that’s where my 403(b) is, and because my 403(b) is VERY aggressive, holding 92% stocks. I need some Bond Action to even that up there. [Speaking of Bond Action, I finally caught up to the rest of the world and saw Casino Royale. I was suitably impressed, though rather puzzled by a couple things in the plot. Did anyone else see it? Like it? Dislike? ok, back to the regularly scheduled programming ….] So, bonds. Yes, bonds. I realized that the way I was looking at bonds through Vanguard’s site was leading me to a bunch of junk bonds [well, they’re below investment grade, which are referred to as “junk” bonds, I believe] and although I had read an article about junk bonds becoming more desirable, I’m not ready to go there. High investment grade for me, thanks!
I took advantage of Vanguard’s nifty notes on each mutual fund and decided against one fund because I AM still a low-tax bracket resident and not in need of a tax-exempt fund yet, and against other funds that charge a fee which is never phased out, unlike still other funds which charge $10/year until your fund contains more than $5000.
I finally settled on the fund that has me (for now) written all over it: Long-Term Treasury Fund. It’s for investors who are seeking a high and stable level of interest income, and a bond investment to balance the risks of a portfolio containing stocks. It’s not for investors who are unwilling to accept significant fluctuations in share price or seeking long-term growth of capital.
It’s not that I’m not seeking long-term growth of capital but as I said earlier, I need to balance out my heavy on the stocks portfolio.
January 5, 2007
I finally opened my Roth IRA!! My first $3000 contribution! I’m thoroughly thrilled.
I never conveniently have a cold fighting arsenal ready when I get sick. I really should because I’ve been getting sick WAY more frequently at this job than I ever have before. Wait, I do have a leftover packet of cough drops from when Savon was having that sale and coupon deal but other than that, I had to get a second carton of OJ after finishing off the first one and the Minute Maid Kids with extra vitamins (I don’t know why I needed that one, I take a multivitamin at night) cost $4.39!! Ridiculous. Actually, it was my own fault for asking MaDucky to pick it up for me while I was at work, thinking it was still on sale. MaDucky just assumed it HAD to be that brand, regardless of the sale.
Man, being sick is one thing, but messin’ with my budget is MUCH less ok!!
January 3, 2007
BigPuppy doesn’t like her picture taken, but she’ll do it if Mom makes her. Reaaaallly makes her with disapproving noises and scolds. LittlePuppy wanted me to know that he was entirely disinterested. He posed for the photos in his younger days, but no more. Anyway, these are my furry little medical expenses =)
It’s a work in progress, it turns out. I’ve been working the numbers and trying to find a happy medium between my projected base salary without overtime and a realistic salary including overtime. The reason I’d rather not just use my base salary is because it’s extremely rare for me NOT to work overtime. And I frankly don’t make enough just with my base salary to meet all bills and savings goals.
My compromise is not to set savings goals SO high that I feel obligated to work 50 hours of overtime every two weeks but keep them high enough to account for the inevitable overtime. I think I can get away with about 30-35 hours and still make these goals.
Ideally, I’d like to save the following amounts and categories:
Mini e-fund for non-critical emergencies (asap): 5k = 416/month
Roth (12 mos): 4k = 333/month
House and/or Wedding (24 mos): 15K-20k = 625-833/month
Vacation/Travel (12 mos): 3k = 250/month
Car maintenance, starter fund for next vehicle (12 mos): 5k = 416
= 2040-2248/month
= 24,480-26,976/year
I think my new, most realistic, goals will be:
1. Mini e-fund: 3200 (01/07-04/07)
2. House fund: 6400 (05/07-12/07)
3. Roth: 4000 (1/07-12/07)
4. Car: 2640 (01/07-12/07)
= 1353/month
= 16,240/year
while budgeting 28,320 for bills and rent and increasing the pre-tax 403(b) contribution to 500/month. Any extra monies will go straight to the House fund. The increase in bill money is not an indication that I expect expenses to go up, but rather to give myself a teeny tiny cushion in that account so that I don’t feel like I’m always running on empty each month. This, and all continued efforts to keep regular expenses down, should prevent any borrowing from the e-fund, as well.
Still to come:
Opening my Roth IRA – Educate me, Vanguard! I’m having trouble picking a mutual fund.
Submit my increased contribution to the 403(b)
*Note: I’m rather disappointed to realize that I’m only projecting a 36% savings rate (not including the pretax retirement 403[b]) this year. Well, whatever I make over the allocations will go towards savings as well.
January 2, 2007
One of the new gals broke our no-gifting-pact and got us matching shirts. Well, if we must…..
