| Currently in my sixth month of deployment to Iraq. Working to aggressively pay down all debt prior to redeployment.
Completed my R&R, however, I spent way too much money as my credit card currently shows. I guess that is the price to pay in order to have wonderful experiences in another country. Doing a hasty calculation, this may delay my ability by one month to ensure that I am debt free. Glad that I make a decent paycheck, still relatively young and that I am ahead of the retirement game in comparison to a lot of my peers (and some older folks too!) I will try to avoid using this logic as I get older.
I skipped my monthly payment into my non-retirement mutual fund account for the second consecutive month in order to add more money into the vacation fund. While I initially said that I would make up for it, I am doubtful now if I can make a catch up contribution to it at this time.
The addition of $3135 into the "other asset" column is my total contribution to the Army Savings Deposit Program thus far. I wont be able to attain the full 10% interest rate provided by the program, however, making the contribution for the next six months will allow me to save $9100 + interest and direct it all into my emergency savings account. Goal is to have at least $10,000 by the end of the deployment.
I have stopped reading the "The Small Investor's Guide to Large Profits in the Stock Market" by Justin Heatter. The book is a pretty born to be honest, but I will hold on to it since it has some good information on how to review different things prior to investing in a stock.
While I on vacation, I did pick-up a book called "Guide to Investing -What the Rich Invest In That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!" by my favorite financial author, Robery Kiyosaki. I have completed a quarter of the book already and I think it is a fantastic read. While I was expecting it to provide me with a basic framework on how to read and understand the billions of financials terms and techniques used to review and analyze different investment vehicles, at least thus far, it has gone in a different direction. It has defintely gotten me motivated to push harder to become financially literate and develop a written financial plan on how I will achieve my goals.
Investopedia is still a great website, but I need to start looking at it again so that I can increase my financial literacy.
Still plan on saving, but holding on to the money for the 2011 IRA contribution until I figure out what I should invest in next. Main thing to keep in mind is asset allocation. Prehaps my next investment should not be as agressive as my other holdings... |