Easy Change

After a very long journey of about 7 years, I will soon be paying off my second student loan. This loan is a private loan which unfortunately did not have any tax-deductible interest so it was in my plan to move this to a zero-percent credit card. I've done that and it has made a huge difference. Making progress wasn't super easy, but I took most of my extra income and tried to put it toward this debt. For me, one of the biggest benefits to paying off this bill would be the increased monthly cash flow. Now it looks like there will be fewer than 6 payments left, depending on how much I can pay toward it each month, since there is a balance of 1290 dollars left. The amazing thing about paying off debt for me is the feeling. The debt actually feels like a weight. And as it is paid off, I feel more and more confident and in control. I think that this just comes from knowing that as time goes by, more and more of my money is actually mine and not going to other people.

Check out this article about the war in Iraq. http://www.examiner.com/a-953145~Bush_quietly_advising_Hillary_Clinton__top_Democrats.html I'm interested in how this goes because there are a ton of factors to consider in terms of the economic ramifications with regard to how the war goes. This morning I learned that the president will be seeking an additional 50 Billion on top of the 150 Billion already slated for Iraq for this fiscal year alone. From a mutual fund perspective, this is quite interesting. I know that many of the mutual funds that invest heavily in Aerospace and Defense have done quite well as a result of the Iraq expenditures. In fact, I know someone who has seen gains of close to 30%. This is amazing stuff really. But if you are addicted to those gains, its best to keep an eye on the ball in terms of what is going to happen in Iraq. It appears that Bush is trying to advise the candidates that there simply might not be an easy way to flip a switch and be out of Iraq i...

I've never been more aware of how precious your precious resources can be until very recently. For me, my most precious resources are my health and my time. Thankfully, I am in good health overall. My time, however, has become extremely scarce and that has had a direct impact on my financial situation, for the good and the bad. The Good The reason I am so short on time is that my full-time job has become hectic. I've had the opportunity to prove my worth and I've been subsequently rewarded and recognized for that work. The nice rewards come at a price though. And when your already-scarce resources are depleted even further, you start to wonder what the true value of those resources are. The Bad This brings me to the bad part of being so busy. The lack of time has really forced me to divert the focus that I had on my other side projects which were devoted toward passive and multiple income streams and get back into all-in-one bucketing in terms of income. This doesn't pr...

I just got word from my company that they are changing my 401k options again. I am a little excited because there is finally an option that is an S&P 500 fund. This is the first time that we have had any fund that is designed to track one of the major indexes. I like this idea because it really makes it a bit simpler to keep track of. Thankfully, the options that they are removing is one that I didn't particularly care for anyway due to my age: a dividend-focused fund. In the end, I checked my retirement outlook today and things are looking quite good. Currently, I am planning to work part-time into retirement and that helps quite a bit with defraying the costs of the first few years of retirement until later on when it may no longer be feasible anymore. my current allocation for my retirement account according to fidelity is 91% stocks and considering my age of late twenties, I think that this is quite reasonable.