The Year Is Still Young
The Year Is Still Young
Are you taking care of your money? That’s something I ask myself every time I reach into my pocket now. The answer to that question for me is, I am, and I’m getting better at it everyday. But there’s always room for improvement.
I’ll tell you where I’ve improved – I’ve trimmed the fat off my cell phone bill and regular telephone bills. There’s nothing nicer than opening either bill up and paying a fraction of what I used to carelessly dish out. No call waiting on my home phone, and I purchased an answering machine instead of dishing out the seven or eight dollars monthly for voicemail. I would eliminate the phone service at my home period, but I send and receive faxes quite a bit and I have DSL. Plus, I guess I just can’t get used to relying on solely on a cell phone as a means of communication. Now, as for the cell phone, I’ve slashed those minutes like a stalker slashing some poor celebrity’s tires. I have to watch how much I talk, which can be inconvenient and even more costly if I go over my allotted minutes, but I have a smaller cost and less gossiping to show for it.
I stay out of Marshall’s, Ross, the outlet malls, and anywhere I know I could potentially go nuts with the cash. When I think about all of the clothes crammed into my closet, I get a little sick and dizzy when I think about acquiring more and often have to leave the mall as quickly as possible. I drive less (no oil addiction here), eat less, and cut back on cable service. I’m becoming more and more mature financially; yet, some things still need to receive some attention.
I do invest, and have become more creative with it as of late. I realize, though, that it is high time for me to step it up. I mean, I’m not getting any younger here and I’m not sure I can see myself ringing up shower rods and trash bags at Target at seventy years of age. I’m kind of spreading my little pennies here and there between the credit union, this company and that, and a savings account. One thing I’ve been interested in since business school is stock option trading. I learned a lot about it theoretically in my finance classes, but now I’m ready to broaden my horizons and really do some trading. At some point, when I actually can spare fifteen percent of my earnings, I will devote some time to investing aggressively, or identify someone trustworthy who can do it for me. When you work for a company, you invest (or divest, depending on your perspective) a little more than 7% toward social security, and your company matches that amount to total 15% of your earnings that are contributed to social security. Depending on what you believe, that money is available to you upon retirement. To keep up with what I’ll need to retire, I’ll need to invest an entire 15% of my earnings from now until I retire. There are so many ways to do this, and as I learn more, I will do more, and share more. Whatever you or I do, don’t despair. The year is still young, and we can do what we need to do to establish our financial independence.
Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
www.AdrolitePress.com
www.ChandraAdams.com
www.NorthBayMediaReview.com
Are you taking care of your money? That’s something I ask myself every time I reach into my pocket now. The answer to that question for me is, I am, and I’m getting better at it everyday. But there’s always room for improvement.
I’ll tell you where I’ve improved – I’ve trimmed the fat off my cell phone bill and regular telephone bills. There’s nothing nicer than opening either bill up and paying a fraction of what I used to carelessly dish out. No call waiting on my home phone, and I purchased an answering machine instead of dishing out the seven or eight dollars monthly for voicemail. I would eliminate the phone service at my home period, but I send and receive faxes quite a bit and I have DSL. Plus, I guess I just can’t get used to relying on solely on a cell phone as a means of communication. Now, as for the cell phone, I’ve slashed those minutes like a stalker slashing some poor celebrity’s tires. I have to watch how much I talk, which can be inconvenient and even more costly if I go over my allotted minutes, but I have a smaller cost and less gossiping to show for it.
I stay out of Marshall’s, Ross, the outlet malls, and anywhere I know I could potentially go nuts with the cash. When I think about all of the clothes crammed into my closet, I get a little sick and dizzy when I think about acquiring more and often have to leave the mall as quickly as possible. I drive less (no oil addiction here), eat less, and cut back on cable service. I’m becoming more and more mature financially; yet, some things still need to receive some attention.
I do invest, and have become more creative with it as of late. I realize, though, that it is high time for me to step it up. I mean, I’m not getting any younger here and I’m not sure I can see myself ringing up shower rods and trash bags at Target at seventy years of age. I’m kind of spreading my little pennies here and there between the credit union, this company and that, and a savings account. One thing I’ve been interested in since business school is stock option trading. I learned a lot about it theoretically in my finance classes, but now I’m ready to broaden my horizons and really do some trading. At some point, when I actually can spare fifteen percent of my earnings, I will devote some time to investing aggressively, or identify someone trustworthy who can do it for me. When you work for a company, you invest (or divest, depending on your perspective) a little more than 7% toward social security, and your company matches that amount to total 15% of your earnings that are contributed to social security. Depending on what you believe, that money is available to you upon retirement. To keep up with what I’ll need to retire, I’ll need to invest an entire 15% of my earnings from now until I retire. There are so many ways to do this, and as I learn more, I will do more, and share more. Whatever you or I do, don’t despair. The year is still young, and we can do what we need to do to establish our financial independence.
Chandra Adams
Author
Shades of Retribution
www.AdrolitePress.com
www.ChandraAdams.com
www.NorthBayMediaReview.com
posted by Northbaywriter | 1:11 PM
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