Easy Change

Things are going really well. In addition to a slow, but sure increase in net worth, things are becoming easier in terms of bills. After some recent calculations, I've determined that there will be enough money in this coming month to completely payoff my car loan. It seems a little premature, but the idea of getting completely out of debt on the car is so exciting I cannot wait to do it. Last week, I was able to call up and get the payoff amount and I ran the numbers for the checking account and found that I had just about enough in there to cover it. Originally I thought I had more than enough, but it turns out the amount was just right. So now I am in a situation where I need to be able to wait a couple more days, but in about 2 weeks, the loan will be paid off. But the Real Payoff comes in 2008. For me, the real payoff will be the extra several hundred dollars that I save each month by not having to deal with that bill. The real payoff will be knowing that there is that much l...

So, recently, my situation has changed and due to some restrictions related to employment, I have to get rid of some of my retirement holdings which are currently invested in ETFs. ETFs are nice alternatives, in my opinion, for people like me who really cannot afford the minimum requirements for investing into more standard mutual funds. So, rather than deal with the minimums, it is easy to open up an account at a brokerage firm and then purchase individual ETF shares which trade like stocks. Personally, I bought VTI and VNQ. I've always liked Vanguard, and I think that these are nice solid index funds with low expense ratios that I was comfortable with. However, now that I am not allowed to own ETFs, I need to get my money into mutual funds, but I still don't have the minimum required. What to do? Using Vanguard's website I was able to do a screen that captured my major requirement: minimum investment. Fortunately, there IS a fund by Vanguard that has only a 1000 dollar r...

Not long ago I switched to electronic statements for my bank accounts. I chose not to have them sent to me directly, instead, I will go to the website and download them in pdf format. I think this is a great idea for a few reasons: 1. It saves time because I don't have to open them up each month. 2. It saves paper. 3. It prevents me from having to file them away and hang on to them for years on end. 4. It means there is less mail with my personal information floating around out there. Have you switched yet? You should consider it. I think you'll be as pleased as I am.