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I am going to focus on long-term investments instead of long-term savings whenever I get the opportunity. In the past, I opened a ShareBuilder account (now ING) and took advantage of the opening bonus. Occasionally when I have an extra $25, I transfer the funds to my ING account and make a $21 investment (after the $4 fee) into the S&P 500 Index Fund.
I also used to contribute 1%-2% into my Employee Share Purchase Plan. It is a pretty sweet deal because I am able to pay for company stock with a 20% discount. Not bad at all. I currently hold about 22 shares valued today at $1,345 and I would like to go back to contributing at least 1% ($60). The combined investments total $1,600 or 8% to my new $20,000 goal. Not bad.
I decided to attack my Perkins Loan first out of all of my student loans. It has the smallest remaining balance at $2,500, originally $3,000. There is a fixed monthly payment of $31.86 per month so I am hoping to eliminate that loan sooner rather than later.
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2 comments:
Do you think you may have too many things going on? At this stage, with your current debt load, would it make more sense to put those spare amounts toward debt, whether credit card or Perkins, rather than in a long-term account? It seems like you run the risk of spreading yourself too thin with eggs in too many baskets, and not get the results you're looking for from any of them.
I wonder about that too Aaren. I think I just want the situation to get better like...yesterday.
It is going to take me close to 15 years at my current rate to pay down my loans. I debate all the time in my head if I shouldn't be saving at the same time even if it's just a little bit.
One thing I do know is that my finances will stabilize by the middle of the Summer and then I will be in a better position to truly budget.
It is also very tough to get paid once a month. My last paycheck was February 25th and I don't get paid again until March 30th. When you get paid once a month, the progress feels even slower.
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