February Review

My goals for February were pretty simple: put $100 towards my IRA, pay off the credit card, buy a $50 savings bond, and save up some cash.

IRA: Yes! I contributed $240 in February.
Credit Card: Paid in full
Cash: Opened a 6-month CD today for $500 saved this month. This will come due right around the time school starts next Fall to help pay for those fun expenses.
Was also able to save $240 towards my graduation cash fund, which I am trying to build up to pay for expenses after graduation (new apartment, work clothes, furniture, yadda yadda)

All in all, a great month - I had the extra bonus of receiving my normal pay plus my training pay, along with both my state and federal tax refunds, and spent very little money.

March Goals:
Save $200 cash for month
$100 to IRA
Hopefully bid and win on hotels for trips to Detroit and Chicago in September and October through Priceline

Friday Thoughts

I received my federal refund in my account today, $197, of which I am going to put about half into my IRA and keep the other half in savings. I am watching as the stock market hovers just above 7000 yet again, and see that my IRA fund has hit yet another new low

It seems things are just getting worse - it appears that GM and/or Chrysler will have to file bankruptcy afterall, which will set off a horrible chain of actions, as thousands of supplier will immediately fold up. I have family near the top of a supplier, who employs over 30,000 people, whom are on the brink as it is, and will file bankruptcy literally minutes after any of the Big 3 go down. I don't see it getting better anytime soon, and I wonder what effect this will have on my job prospects post-graduation. My advisors and those I talk to at career fairs state that I will have great opportunities if I continue on my current path, and the place where I am interning at this summer offers full-time positions to over 90% of interns, but of course that is before the economic collapse, and this branch of the office deals almost entirely with automotive related companies. Scary.

Wild Week

It's been a pretty interesting week in the financial world, with the market plummeting to 6 year lows, and down yet again today. The dollar is at it's highest mark in some time (of course when I was traveling in Europe last summer the dollar was at an all-time low), and oil continues to stay in the 30's. The reaction to the much anticipated stimulus plan hasn't been great, at least from the financial sector. Personally, I think the infrastructure portion of the bill is great - we need it, but the rest seems to be a hodge-podge of spending that no one is really sure about yet.

Work has slowed down drastically, as I am only going to end up with about 15 hours this week- not good news. I survived the first round of exams and did quite well which was a relief, and this morning my state refund was deposited in my account - yay!

Organization

I've been thinking quite a bit about privacy, security, and safety regarding the internet ever since my friend had his identity compromised last week. I realized that I access essentially everything via the internet: bank accounts, retirement accounts, credit cards, email, etc. What would happen if someone got a hold of my information? What will happen in the future re: the internet?

As a result, I have been trying to organize myself financially and otherwise. I am working on creating a filing system, and will be looking to store as much data as I can there - including printing out certain statements that are currently sent to me via email, any trade confirmations for my stocks, funds, or savings bonds, etc, so that if something does happen I will have some paperwork to make sure that I fully account for everything, and have some sort of evidence to support my claims.

If nothing else, this will at least ease my mind a bit, and force me to be a bit more organized - something I could surely use.

Money Moves

Deposited my check today, along with another $25 check that my parents gave me for Valentine's Day - nice surprise, as my mom came up to school and took me out to dinner yesterday on her way to our home up north for the weekend.

I put $100 to my IRA, bought a $50 savings bond (5.64% interest), stashed away $230 in a separate account as cash savings towards graduation, and the remaining $75 is in my account to hold me over until my next paycheck on the 23rd.

I am also in the process of documenting all of my passwords, account numbers, etc. to put on a flash disk - I've been inspired to do this, as a friend of mine fell victim to an identity theft and he has had to reorganize all of his accounts, changing passwords, login ID's pin numbers, and the list goes on.

As for the rest of the week, I am working all day Friday, most of Saturday, and then heading to the Boat Show with a friend Saturday night (no Valentine's for me with the gf in Africa until May!)

Finally a check

Apparently my employer has switched to having payday on Monday's so I finally received my first paycheck, for about $400. My $320 in training won't arrive until the next paycheck, as the pay period ended one day before my eligibility for payment.

No direct deposit available here, so I need to run to the bank tomorrow and deposit it - I will put $100 towards my IRA, and keep the rest as cash savings.

This week has not been fun, as I am not cramming for two huge exams which are both tomorrow - and as you can see here I am having trouble focusing on that!

Another week gone by

This past week was a bit of a dull one: school, work, and the flu. The first couple days of the week I felt extremely sick - which is something very rare for me. In fact, I slept for 18 straight hours Monday evening through Tuesday afternoon which interesting. Terrible headache, dizziness, stomach ache and a sore throat = no fun.

Work slowed down about this week, and I ended up with about 20 hours. Payday is Monday, finally. Expecting near $700 which will be put mostly towards general cash savings, as that number has dwindled, credit card, and an IRA contribution. Other than that, not a whole lot has happened this week financially, spending or saving. I threw another $40 into my IRA, and ended up spending very little this week - under $20 in fact.

I am also hoping that my tax refund will show up in my account towards the end of the week, if not, then it should be early the following week. With that money, and my paycheck I will finally be out of the January financial glut that I was in - switching jobs (therefore missing a paycheck), paying for books, paying off credit card (Christmas gifts, trip to New York), and can continue focusing on meeting my financial savings goals.

This week will also be a killer in school - 2 exams, a paper, and a lab - followed by 2 exams, a paper, and a lab the following week. Yikes!

January Review

January was a busy month, and it flew by quickly. I began the month training at my new job, and then starting back at school for Spring Semester.

My January financial accomplishments include:
- Signed apartment lease for next year at school
- Paid off the credit card bill which was quite hefty, as it included Christmas, a trip to New York, and other expenditures.
- Finished training and have been working a full schedule as a tax preparer
- Filed 2008 taxes - due a refund of about $250
- Made a contribution to IRA (only $60, but it counts - was also paid nearly $60 in year-end dividends)
- Checked credit report through one of the bureaus
- Paid deposit on August cruise

Now, I had hoped to make more contributions to my IRA, put some money towards savings bonds, and begin saving cash for my August vacation - but the cost of heading back to school (read expensive books) and a credit card bill that was much higher than normal, I wasn't able to completely meet all of my goals. That said, when summed up, January was a solid month for meeting my financial goals.

February's goals will include: $100 to IRA, $50 Savings Bonds, pay off this month's CC, begin building up cash reserves for travel and to meet savings goals for graduation next May.

Busy week

Hard to believe an entire week has passed since I last posted, but it was a very busy one. Work is really starting to pick up, so I was there for over 25 hours this week, plus the 19 credits of school - where the work has definitely begun to pick up.

In personal finance news, I finished my taxes yesterday, and will be receiving about a $240 refund, which will be split in three ways: cruise money, IRA/Savings Bonds, and cash savings. I've signed up for it to be directly deposited into my account.

Given the amount of work I have been doing the past week and a half or so, and the fact that my training payment will be included in my upcoming paycheck, I am looking at a pretty large check Friday - which should be near $700. Not bad for a part-time job while in college. From here on out my paychecks should be right around $350-400 through the end of tax season.

I've got a bunch of schoolwork to do now, before the SUPER BOWL. Go Steelers!!