Really moving slowly here…

My Roth IRA is not doing much right now, though April 1 I intend to put another $100 in it and change the Mutual Fund in which I am invested. I didn’t really pick which one (my financial planner did), or I just didn’t realize I was picking one. So I’m going for a more aggressive approach.

My 401-k is doing well now, though it’s just getting started. So far, for the last month, my rate of return is 5+%. Given the return and the fact that it’s pre-tax contributions, I may increase my investment into that. Currently I do $40 a month because that is what my employer matches. (Can’t let anymore of that free money slip through my fingers. I waited far too long to get it started already).

As far as the budget, life keeps getting in the way. March had me paying for the dog’s trip to the vet for annual shots, as well as paying our 6-month car insurance premiums. April my wife will buying some much needed clothing, getting our 2-year-old some shoes, and our 2-year-old will be turning 3, so we’ll be buying gifts and having a party. I’m hoping, though, to pull some money aside for Mother’s Day. I have some lackluster holidays to make up for with great presents!

I also want to try to budget for savings up front so we can build up our emergency fund. ‘Pay yourself first’…..it’s a good idea. And of course, I am waiting to hear about a new job. I interviewed March 16, and hope to hear something this week. Pay would be a little better, job would be much more to my liking.

Hopefully, somewhere in all that, I can save more money to invest. We’ll see!

Yes……I made a profit!!!

If you’ve been here before, you know I just started up my 401-k and a Roth IRA. Well, just after my funds were purchased through those, the market took a nose dive.  

Every day I look at my 401-k and Roth online to see how they’re doing. So far the Roth is doing fine. I’ve already had a dividend payment. Finally, this morning, my 401-k has a positive rate of return!

I put in $20, and the company I work for matches it. So I had started with $40. Previous days had seen rates of return on the order of -4%, -2%, -0.1, etc. Today, my rate of return is 0.45%. I’ve earned an astounding $0.18!!! Laugh all you want….I’m laughing all the way to the bank!

 :D

Update, the next day: Now I have negative rates of return again….so are the ups and downs of the stock market!

Savings/Budgeting Motivation by Snapple

I’m sitting here at my desk, drinking a Snapple Nectarine White Tea and working on April’s budget. (I like to get started well in advance so the month doesn’t sneak up on me. I don’t like spending money without having already planned it.)

If you’re a Snapple drinker, you know each cap has a  “Real Fact” printed on the underside of the lid. Today’s is “A teaspoon contains 120 drops of water.” Thinking about that while doing my budget made me think. A single drop of water is nothing. But just put 120 of them together and you have a teaspoon of water.

So how is that motivation? It’s just a reminder that little things add up. Take my situation, for example. All I have in my ING Direct account is $36.54. (I withdrew $100 to put into my Roth IRA.) So for February all I earned was $0.27 interest. But this month I am earning interest on that interest. Then I’ll earn interest on that interest, and so on.

A penny is just a penny, and some people just throw them away, because the value is too small to care about. But 100 pennies is a dollar. Just keep that in mind as you cut costs a little here, a little there on your way to building up your savings and retirement. 

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What to do with my investment savings?

Having just opened my Roth IRA, I am thinking about using the money I save to contribute to my Roth. It’s a growth and income fund, so I would like to grow more of my money….as much as I can.

I had thought about using it to buy stocks, but I worry a little that it’s more uncertain. I went to all this trouble to save the money, and I don’t see buying stocks with such a small amount having that big a payoff.

Maybe I should just reinvest into the Roth IRA and let it sit and grow there. I know compound interest is going to work in my favor, but at the beginning, it is excruciatingly slow. When you have a little over $100 in a savings account and get excited because you earned $0.27 interest in February, you know it’s frustrating.

I suppose I am going to have to try to cut more out of my budget to save. The hard part is getting my wife to go along on some of this. I’m so focused on trying to divert as much of our money as possible to investments that I am more willing to do without.

I suppose she is also struggling with the same thing I am, which is the actual reality of living paycheck to paycheck and living within our means. When we had the credit cards for overdraft protection, we generally overspent by around $1,000 every month. So she has trouble understanding why we now can’t do the things we used to do.

I suppose we’ll just have to work harder at this and eventually things will improve