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Archive for September, 2008

Will be done

September 24th, 2008 at 04:18 am

I cashed my checks today, total of $840. I transfered 125 to my savings because I had to use 100 early in the week. So that puts me at 715 total to send off. If you remember, my debt was 898. Payday is Friday, I have 244 coming my way (with 61 to my savings automatically). So combined with the 244, I have 959 to pay with. 959-898=61. That is how much will be left in my checking. My savings will be at 299. I know 61 isn't a lot of spending money for 2 weeks, but I have a lot of work coming this weekend, going to be a good payday, and most in cash. That will give me more spending money for the 2 weeks. I'll be debt free and everything else will be heading to my savings. I still have my monthly debts, such as gas, Pre-paid tuition, cell phone, money transfer to my IRA. So that will be 150+gas per month. Should be taken care of in one paycheck from normal work, everything from independent contracting will go straight to savings, or maybe my other IRA, prob a mix. I'll keep things updated.

Checks :)

September 20th, 2008 at 03:08 am

Finally, I got a couple checks with the sum total of 390. Wonderful. Come Monday, they shall go in my account and be sent off to the CC on Friday, along with some of my paycheck. I'm hoping that I will have another check to deposit along with the other (which should be to the tune of 300 or so). So, with the two check in hand and some of my paycheck, my CC will be down by about $600, leaving me with 548. If I get the other check, then it will go down by more, but I will leave that to when it actually comes in. Well I'm off, till next time.
***Update***
I don't think I posted that I sent 250 toward my CC, so balance right now is 898. I also forgot that I have to send in a deposit for the people who are going to come to my son's b-day party and give a reptile presentation. That amount is around 100, so that is 100 less that I have to send to the CC. So the amount to be sent Friday is closer to 500, but will leave me only 400 or so in debt. Will update later.

IRA update

September 18th, 2008 at 11:53 pm

Wanted to update on holdings for my self directed IRA. I have purchased WIN, ACAS, and GE. I have an average yield of 11.37% (because of ACAS's outstanding yield). GE I have a yield of 5.03%, ACAS is 21%, and WIN is 8.09%. Add them together and divide by 3 is how I got average. Weighted average isn't too far away from that 11.37%. I don't have much in there, but all the dividends are being reinvested for free (thank you broker) and it only cost $4 to buy. I'm at their mercy as far as entry price, but seeing as how I'm going for yield with a long horizon, I'm not worried about that. I plan on building on these positions before I venture to another company. BAC is looking good, assuming they don't have to cut their dividend. As it stands, they are around 9%, but with the buyout of Countrywide earlier and their recent buyout of Merrill Lynch, who knows if they will have to cut it in order to help finance it. In any event, they seem to be in a good position once all this has past. (please don't take as a recommendation, these are thoughts of analysts I have read)
As always, any comments are welcome.

Slow Checks

September 18th, 2008 at 11:44 pm

So, the part that sucks about being an independent contractor is the payment time period. What I mean by that is how long it takes to receive payment. Usually it doesn't take this long, but for some reason, they are being really slow. I'm sitting on about $700 in unpaid earnings. I could use that to pay down my debt, which right now stands at about 1150. I know it went up. I have had automatic payments put on it for my class ring, which has been running 150 ish a month. This should be the last month I have to pay on it. Also, I had another 25 put on it for E-pass (which is electronic payments for tolls, just in case anybody was wondering). This was put on because work has taken me to more distant places and I had to get there fast. I've also been spending more in gas, because of more work. I'm still making a nice profit after factoring in gas and food so no worries there, plus the mileage is a tax break, as is half the food. I will talk more about things as they come about.

IRA's

September 12th, 2008 at 03:02 am

Ok, so I've mentioned in a couple posts that I have IRA's and that I will expand on them later. Well, it is later. I have 2 IRA's, both Roth. One is with T-Rowe Price. It is a mutual fund and I contribute $50/month towards it. I opened it November 30 of last year with $2000. I plan on keeping this up until they switch Portfolio Managers, then I may be shopping around.
My other IRA I just opened. I took the proceeds from a failed stock trade (failed as in I lost money) and decided to put it into a self directed IRA. The premise for this IRA is simple, buy solid companies, with a history of raising dividends. The plan is to never sell the shares, but to reinvest the dividends in order to build up positions.
I realize that this strategy is a little conservative, especially for my age and time horizon, but it is a strategy that I can keep up with. I have realized I don't have the patients to research and do homework every week or month per position. With this strategy, I can buy and hold, the only time to sell is when the company can no longer raise the dividend, or cuts the dividend.
I also have 2 different retirement accounts from work (which I am no longer allowed to contribute to based on my position at work). One is in a general money market account (it's only $50). The other is through AIG. It has about 1300 in it. I can't remember where it is allocated, and I can't remember the username/. Oh well. I will figure it out. I have contacted them about switching to my IRA with T-Rowe, but they said because I am employed still, I cannot move it to an IRA.
I think that is about all I have to say.

Change of plans

September 11th, 2008 at 02:51 pm

Ok, so I decided to change plans a little. With the check that recently came in, I decided to send that to my new Roth. I don't see this as a big deal because I know the money is coming in (2 games today, 1 on Friday, 5 on Sat and 4 on Sunday.) So for the weekend I'm looking at roughly 200 coming in. Like I stated before, I will dive more into my IRAs (yes plural) more in another post. I don't have a lot of free time right now (I'm at work working hard (roll of the eyes)). I'd like to hear your thoughts on this change of plans, if you have any.

Check is in

September 11th, 2008 at 01:36 am

My check from my work over the Memorial weekend is in, a little more than expected. $402.50 All of this will go towards the CC, putting another huge dent in it. With all these dents, it is bound to shatter shortly. Smile Not sure when I will be able to deposit it, I have work and school all day tomorrow, work and more work all day Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We shall see.

Slowly getting there

September 10th, 2008 at 01:51 pm

Ok, so I took 200 of the Fin Aid and sent it to my savings so I can have some in there. the rest is heading to the CC. I had 1665 or so on the CC. Since I have my cell phone bill automatically sent there, it is up to 1711 or so. I sent 748.01, which will completely pay off one CC. that leaves me with just under 1000 left. Pay day is Friday, so that's another 217. With that, I can send another 250 to the remaining CC, leaving around 700-725. I am still waiting on my check from Memorial weekend, just under 400. I have had some extra work this past week, so those checks should start coming in shortly. All in all I'm probably sitting on about 600 in checks waiting to come in. I shall keep you all updated.
Just one quick thing, if you refere to my first post, I have some goals and things to buy. All of that will be paid in cash and will come after I have a minimum of 1,000 in my savings.
Also, opened up a new IRA. I will post more on that at a later time.

Financial Aid check

September 9th, 2008 at 02:12 am

My Financial Aid check came in the mail on Saturday. I haven't had a chance to deposit it just yet. Ok, that's a lie, I had a chance today and forgot to do it on the way home. I won't have a chance to do it until Wednesday. The good news is that it is more than expected, which puts a very good dent in the debt. Also, Friday is pay day, which will help with the debt. By the time everything is deposited and sent out, I will be almost debt free. I'll keep you all updated.

Woohoo

September 3rd, 2008 at 03:02 am

Check came in for money I lent. Good, now I can deposit it and send it to the CC company. Hoping my Financial Aid check will come in later this week, that will help tremendously. Didn't spend any money today, other than gas to and from work/school. Tomorrow will be the same, although more gas, to and from work/school and to my sons's soccer practice and back. Received new contracts for games for Thursday, Saturday (also UCF football game), Tuesday as well as Next Saturday. Will keep everything updated. On another note, can anyone tell me how to get those cool gadgets I'm seeing on other people's blogs?

Good Weekend

September 1st, 2008 at 09:22 pm

This was a good weekend for being able to pay down the debt. Made just under $400 for the weekend, 12 games (and close to 26 miles of running). Pretty darn tired, but not feeling too bad. Back to school tomorrow. Once I receive the check I shall update further.