My blog has moved!

You should be automatically redirected in 3 seconds. If not, visit
http://stackingpennies.wordpress.com
and update your bookmarks.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Initial asset allocation proposal

I've done some research and came up with something I'm comfortable with.

This is what I'm thinking of:

Fidelity U.S. Equity Index Commingled Pool
55
Fidelity Spartan International Index FSIIX 20% 15
Fidelity Spartan Extended Market Index FSEMX 15% 15
Morgan Stanly International EquityA, MXIQX
5
Fidelity US Bond Index FBIDX 10

It is quite loosely based on this article from kiplinger, however I don't have access to an emerging markets fund in my 401k, and I thought that having nothing in bonds was a bit risky for my preference.

I'm 24, so a long way from retirement and I don't mind some risk. Am I missing an important asset allocation? I do have access to a variety of other funds, which I will list here in a word vomit fasion: Fidelity target date funds, Low priced stock, blue chip growth, capital and income, dividend growth baron growth, Wells fargo mid cap, Alliaz small cap, diversified international, equity income...

Does my asset allocation seem sensible? Any glaring mistakes? Anything I need to look into in more detail?

Thanks for any feedback!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Reallocating my 401k.... soon!

My 401k lost 100 dollars today, and my Roth about the same. However, my 401k has 3 times what my Roth does! Not that you are supposed to check your gains and losses daily, but NPR was all abuzz with news of the Dow Jones slipping, I couldn't resist.

Oh, who am I kidding, I check almost everyday. But I remain level headed. Really, I do.

Still, I have been planning to reallocate my 401k for several days now, after realizing how little I knew when I made the choices I did. I still don't know that much, but now I am ready to learn.

I am a big fan of buy and hold, of picking some asset classes and rebalancing about yearly. But buy and hold does assume that the original choices were well thought out! Were mine? No they were not. Over the next week r so, I'm going to investigate where my 401k money is going, and where it should be going, and figure out an approach on how to get it where I want it to be.

My Roth IRA is secondary for three reasons. First, it has less money by about 1/3. Second, it is in a target date fund for 2040, and I'm fairly comfortable with that. Third, the choices there are infinite (!), and it seems like a harder fish to fry! Though I heard a rumor that Vanguard's target date funds had a much lower expense than Fidelity, my current broker. I must investigate switching in the future.

First things first, where is my 401k money invested? Last night I made a new tab in my finance spreadsheet for investments. Now that I've done it, I'm shocked that tab never existed before! There are some fees and expenses that I have never (not even once) glanced at, and honestly, I have no solid logic for picking the asset classes I did. I'm almost embarrassed to post them, actually, but here they are. I realized I had a whopping 5% in a stable value fund! I do not mean a bond, I mean stable value, with a goal to make $1 always worth $1. Oh my.

45% Fidelity Freedom 2040 FFFFX
15% Fidelity US Bond Idx FBIDX
15% Fidelity Mid Cap Stock FMCSX
10% MIS Intl equity A MXIQX
5% Fidelity Equity Income FEQIX
5% Fid Mip II CL2 (no ticker, stable value)
5% My company stock (does pretty well, mainly here
because that's where employer contributions go automatically)

With 15% bonds and 5% stable, no wonder it held value better than my Roth. Still, i'm 24, I don't think it is the wisest choice. And the Equity Income fund? It invests in large cap "income" funds. What does that even mean? As a young investor, is an income fund something I should be interested in? These are questions I need to answer.

The next step is research. Thus far, I've been looking into the "Lazy Portfolio" theory. Realistically, my 401k options are limited, so I can't just pick what I want. I know i want to put a portion of my money into the index funds. I also will use some mutual funds to get my hands on some other asset classes. But I don't know which asset classes I need.

I'm not ready to reallocate yet.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

256% net worth increase!

I was coerced into spending a pretty penny on wine this weekend: Thirty dollars for my boyfriend and I to attend a wine tasting, and another 35 on some wine itself. Wine is an expensive hobby to get into! We have been taking a four session wine class (third class tomorrow) and have already learned a lot, and bought a lot of wine. I was rewarded with my boyfriends purchase of an entire case of wine as an early partial anniversary present.

Usually, my boyfriend is quite frugal, so I was slightly surprised at the purchase. We have fairly similar spending habits, and generally encourage one another to be mindful of our spending on unnecessary things. We don't live like paupers, but we are conscious of money going in and out.

From June to July, Yodlee reports an astounding 256.52% increase in net worth! Of course, this is because I started out June in the negatives, and now am safely in the positive zone. Also, august is a 3-paycheck month, so I should be able to dump a extra into savings then.

I'm toying with the idea of opening a CD to get a little more bang for my buck, but with my future being unknown (I will be seeking a new job, anticipating starting in January or February), I want to keep my money liquid.

My financial goals shall remain unchanged, and I am focusing on my next goals of finding a good job. I've done some initial searches and while it might be a little work, I should be ok.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Credit Card Fee and Customer Service

While checking out my expenses in Yodlee, I noticed that there was a fraction of a percent allocated for "Finance charges and service fees" I always pay my credit card in full, so I was mystified.

Further investigation showed that when I had tried to make an early payment to my brand new Chase Visa card, the payment had been returned (this I was aware of--i think the account information I entered was wrong), and they tacked on a 39 "returned payment" fee.

I was surprised that I missed that when it happened, but it was a busy time. I didn't think the fee was fair ($39 for mistyping the account?) and figured I'd be on the phone for awhile attempting to get them to waive it. I saw that they had an online message center, and I gave that a shot. I like the idea of asking questions online more than the phone, but many times I found that they just reply with a "please call us" message. I sent them a message explaining the situation and asking if there was anything that could be done.

Less than a half hour later, they replied and agreed to waive the fee! Wow!

I could only be more impressed if they hadn't charged such a ridiculous fee in the first place! (Seriously, $39?)

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Midmonth checkup

I have reached my ZERO NET WORTH goal! Actually, I reached it over a week ago, and I'm sitting around 1.5k net worth. I'm pretty pumped about it! I wish I had more accurately tracked my net worth when I first started working--it took me until december to get really "into" the money management stuff. But I do know that when I ended school in June, I had a net worth of at least NEGATIVE 28k or so. I also have furnished a small apartment, mostly from scratch. Not bad!

I put 1500 of my tuition reimbursement into my Roth IRA, meaning I only have to fund 100/mo to it for the rest of the year--that'll sure make it easier to keep up with my other monthly goals. The other 500, I put a little into each savings account (one for general savings, one target to be used for student loans).

I also sold my old laptop to my parents for 200. It is worth more than that, but I thought it was a fair deal.

A midmonth checkup of my spending shows that $55 has been spent eating out thus far this month. The month is only half way through, and it will be a challenge not to go out again this month!

Personal spending is at about 30, my projected "limit". I bought some new foundation, some cheap earings, an adapter to play my ipod in my car... just a few little things.

Gas is already at 74, but I don't have any plans to go out of town anymore

Entertainment is up (about 45), as I went out more rather than staying in. Of course it is cheaper to stay in, but then the costs of any beer/wine we drink tend to fall under grocery rather than entertainment. When we go out, I classify it as "fun".

My energy bill is up by almost 20, for just a small apartment! It has been much hotter and we've been sleeping with the A/C rather than the window open.

I went to work on Saturday for about 4 hours, putting me on track to get some overtime this week, provided I work at least 2 extra hours some other day. As i'm salaried, they only pay us overtime if we work at least six hours extra. There is a lot going on at work, so I'm sure working extra won't be too hard! In fact, it would sure be nice to get in 10 extra total, but I don't know if I'll have the gumption for that.

I haven't been blogging as much, because the more I read, the more I know that there is a plethora of really well thought out PF blogs out there. But this entry right here has changed my mind some--just writing out a midmonth check up was great for me! For anyone else, who knows, but anything that enables me to continue to meet my goals is a good thing!

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Initial asset allocation proposal

I've done some research and came up with something I'm comfortable with.

This is what I'm thinking of:

Fidelity U.S. Equity Index Commingled Pool
55
Fidelity Spartan International Index FSIIX 20% 15
Fidelity Spartan Extended Market Index FSEMX 15% 15
Morgan Stanly International EquityA, MXIQX
5
Fidelity US Bond Index FBIDX 10

It is quite loosely based on this article from kiplinger, however I don't have access to an emerging markets fund in my 401k, and I thought that having nothing in bonds was a bit risky for my preference.

I'm 24, so a long way from retirement and I don't mind some risk. Am I missing an important asset allocation? I do have access to a variety of other funds, which I will list here in a word vomit fasion: Fidelity target date funds, Low priced stock, blue chip growth, capital and income, dividend growth baron growth, Wells fargo mid cap, Alliaz small cap, diversified international, equity income...

Does my asset allocation seem sensible? Any glaring mistakes? Anything I need to look into in more detail?

Thanks for any feedback!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Reallocating my 401k.... soon!

My 401k lost 100 dollars today, and my Roth about the same. However, my 401k has 3 times what my Roth does! Not that you are supposed to check your gains and losses daily, but NPR was all abuzz with news of the Dow Jones slipping, I couldn't resist.

Oh, who am I kidding, I check almost everyday. But I remain level headed. Really, I do.

Still, I have been planning to reallocate my 401k for several days now, after realizing how little I knew when I made the choices I did. I still don't know that much, but now I am ready to learn.

I am a big fan of buy and hold, of picking some asset classes and rebalancing about yearly. But buy and hold does assume that the original choices were well thought out! Were mine? No they were not. Over the next week r so, I'm going to investigate where my 401k money is going, and where it should be going, and figure out an approach on how to get it where I want it to be.

My Roth IRA is secondary for three reasons. First, it has less money by about 1/3. Second, it is in a target date fund for 2040, and I'm fairly comfortable with that. Third, the choices there are infinite (!), and it seems like a harder fish to fry! Though I heard a rumor that Vanguard's target date funds had a much lower expense than Fidelity, my current broker. I must investigate switching in the future.

First things first, where is my 401k money invested? Last night I made a new tab in my finance spreadsheet for investments. Now that I've done it, I'm shocked that tab never existed before! There are some fees and expenses that I have never (not even once) glanced at, and honestly, I have no solid logic for picking the asset classes I did. I'm almost embarrassed to post them, actually, but here they are. I realized I had a whopping 5% in a stable value fund! I do not mean a bond, I mean stable value, with a goal to make $1 always worth $1. Oh my.

45% Fidelity Freedom 2040 FFFFX
15% Fidelity US Bond Idx FBIDX
15% Fidelity Mid Cap Stock FMCSX
10% MIS Intl equity A MXIQX
5% Fidelity Equity Income FEQIX
5% Fid Mip II CL2 (no ticker, stable value)
5% My company stock (does pretty well, mainly here
because that's where employer contributions go automatically)

With 15% bonds and 5% stable, no wonder it held value better than my Roth. Still, i'm 24, I don't think it is the wisest choice. And the Equity Income fund? It invests in large cap "income" funds. What does that even mean? As a young investor, is an income fund something I should be interested in? These are questions I need to answer.

The next step is research. Thus far, I've been looking into the "Lazy Portfolio" theory. Realistically, my 401k options are limited, so I can't just pick what I want. I know i want to put a portion of my money into the index funds. I also will use some mutual funds to get my hands on some other asset classes. But I don't know which asset classes I need.

I'm not ready to reallocate yet.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

256% net worth increase!

I was coerced into spending a pretty penny on wine this weekend: Thirty dollars for my boyfriend and I to attend a wine tasting, and another 35 on some wine itself. Wine is an expensive hobby to get into! We have been taking a four session wine class (third class tomorrow) and have already learned a lot, and bought a lot of wine. I was rewarded with my boyfriends purchase of an entire case of wine as an early partial anniversary present.

Usually, my boyfriend is quite frugal, so I was slightly surprised at the purchase. We have fairly similar spending habits, and generally encourage one another to be mindful of our spending on unnecessary things. We don't live like paupers, but we are conscious of money going in and out.

From June to July, Yodlee reports an astounding 256.52% increase in net worth! Of course, this is because I started out June in the negatives, and now am safely in the positive zone. Also, august is a 3-paycheck month, so I should be able to dump a extra into savings then.

I'm toying with the idea of opening a CD to get a little more bang for my buck, but with my future being unknown (I will be seeking a new job, anticipating starting in January or February), I want to keep my money liquid.

My financial goals shall remain unchanged, and I am focusing on my next goals of finding a good job. I've done some initial searches and while it might be a little work, I should be ok.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Credit Card Fee and Customer Service

While checking out my expenses in Yodlee, I noticed that there was a fraction of a percent allocated for "Finance charges and service fees" I always pay my credit card in full, so I was mystified.

Further investigation showed that when I had tried to make an early payment to my brand new Chase Visa card, the payment had been returned (this I was aware of--i think the account information I entered was wrong), and they tacked on a 39 "returned payment" fee.

I was surprised that I missed that when it happened, but it was a busy time. I didn't think the fee was fair ($39 for mistyping the account?) and figured I'd be on the phone for awhile attempting to get them to waive it. I saw that they had an online message center, and I gave that a shot. I like the idea of asking questions online more than the phone, but many times I found that they just reply with a "please call us" message. I sent them a message explaining the situation and asking if there was anything that could be done.

Less than a half hour later, they replied and agreed to waive the fee! Wow!

I could only be more impressed if they hadn't charged such a ridiculous fee in the first place! (Seriously, $39?)

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Midmonth checkup

I have reached my ZERO NET WORTH goal! Actually, I reached it over a week ago, and I'm sitting around 1.5k net worth. I'm pretty pumped about it! I wish I had more accurately tracked my net worth when I first started working--it took me until december to get really "into" the money management stuff. But I do know that when I ended school in June, I had a net worth of at least NEGATIVE 28k or so. I also have furnished a small apartment, mostly from scratch. Not bad!

I put 1500 of my tuition reimbursement into my Roth IRA, meaning I only have to fund 100/mo to it for the rest of the year--that'll sure make it easier to keep up with my other monthly goals. The other 500, I put a little into each savings account (one for general savings, one target to be used for student loans).

I also sold my old laptop to my parents for 200. It is worth more than that, but I thought it was a fair deal.

A midmonth checkup of my spending shows that $55 has been spent eating out thus far this month. The month is only half way through, and it will be a challenge not to go out again this month!

Personal spending is at about 30, my projected "limit". I bought some new foundation, some cheap earings, an adapter to play my ipod in my car... just a few little things.

Gas is already at 74, but I don't have any plans to go out of town anymore

Entertainment is up (about 45), as I went out more rather than staying in. Of course it is cheaper to stay in, but then the costs of any beer/wine we drink tend to fall under grocery rather than entertainment. When we go out, I classify it as "fun".

My energy bill is up by almost 20, for just a small apartment! It has been much hotter and we've been sleeping with the A/C rather than the window open.

I went to work on Saturday for about 4 hours, putting me on track to get some overtime this week, provided I work at least 2 extra hours some other day. As i'm salaried, they only pay us overtime if we work at least six hours extra. There is a lot going on at work, so I'm sure working extra won't be too hard! In fact, it would sure be nice to get in 10 extra total, but I don't know if I'll have the gumption for that.

I haven't been blogging as much, because the more I read, the more I know that there is a plethora of really well thought out PF blogs out there. But this entry right here has changed my mind some--just writing out a midmonth check up was great for me! For anyone else, who knows, but anything that enables me to continue to meet my goals is a good thing!

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Initial asset allocation proposal

I've done some research and came up with something I'm comfortable with.

This is what I'm thinking of:

Fidelity U.S. Equity Index Commingled Pool
55
Fidelity Spartan International Index FSIIX 20% 15
Fidelity Spartan Extended Market Index FSEMX 15% 15
Morgan Stanly International EquityA, MXIQX
5
Fidelity US Bond Index FBIDX 10

It is quite loosely based on this article from kiplinger, however I don't have access to an emerging markets fund in my 401k, and I thought that having nothing in bonds was a bit risky for my preference.

I'm 24, so a long way from retirement and I don't mind some risk. Am I missing an important asset allocation? I do have access to a variety of other funds, which I will list here in a word vomit fasion: Fidelity target date funds, Low priced stock, blue chip growth, capital and income, dividend growth baron growth, Wells fargo mid cap, Alliaz small cap, diversified international, equity income...

Does my asset allocation seem sensible? Any glaring mistakes? Anything I need to look into in more detail?

Thanks for any feedback!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Reallocating my 401k.... soon!

My 401k lost 100 dollars today, and my Roth about the same. However, my 401k has 3 times what my Roth does! Not that you are supposed to check your gains and losses daily, but NPR was all abuzz with news of the Dow Jones slipping, I couldn't resist.

Oh, who am I kidding, I check almost everyday. But I remain level headed. Really, I do.

Still, I have been planning to reallocate my 401k for several days now, after realizing how little I knew when I made the choices I did. I still don't know that much, but now I am ready to learn.

I am a big fan of buy and hold, of picking some asset classes and rebalancing about yearly. But buy and hold does assume that the original choices were well thought out! Were mine? No they were not. Over the next week r so, I'm going to investigate where my 401k money is going, and where it should be going, and figure out an approach on how to get it where I want it to be.

My Roth IRA is secondary for three reasons. First, it has less money by about 1/3. Second, it is in a target date fund for 2040, and I'm fairly comfortable with that. Third, the choices there are infinite (!), and it seems like a harder fish to fry! Though I heard a rumor that Vanguard's target date funds had a much lower expense than Fidelity, my current broker. I must investigate switching in the future.

First things first, where is my 401k money invested? Last night I made a new tab in my finance spreadsheet for investments. Now that I've done it, I'm shocked that tab never existed before! There are some fees and expenses that I have never (not even once) glanced at, and honestly, I have no solid logic for picking the asset classes I did. I'm almost embarrassed to post them, actually, but here they are. I realized I had a whopping 5% in a stable value fund! I do not mean a bond, I mean stable value, with a goal to make $1 always worth $1. Oh my.

45% Fidelity Freedom 2040 FFFFX
15% Fidelity US Bond Idx FBIDX
15% Fidelity Mid Cap Stock FMCSX
10% MIS Intl equity A MXIQX
5% Fidelity Equity Income FEQIX
5% Fid Mip II CL2 (no ticker, stable value)
5% My company stock (does pretty well, mainly here
because that's where employer contributions go automatically)

With 15% bonds and 5% stable, no wonder it held value better than my Roth. Still, i'm 24, I don't think it is the wisest choice. And the Equity Income fund? It invests in large cap "income" funds. What does that even mean? As a young investor, is an income fund something I should be interested in? These are questions I need to answer.

The next step is research. Thus far, I've been looking into the "Lazy Portfolio" theory. Realistically, my 401k options are limited, so I can't just pick what I want. I know i want to put a portion of my money into the index funds. I also will use some mutual funds to get my hands on some other asset classes. But I don't know which asset classes I need.

I'm not ready to reallocate yet.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

256% net worth increase!

I was coerced into spending a pretty penny on wine this weekend: Thirty dollars for my boyfriend and I to attend a wine tasting, and another 35 on some wine itself. Wine is an expensive hobby to get into! We have been taking a four session wine class (third class tomorrow) and have already learned a lot, and bought a lot of wine. I was rewarded with my boyfriends purchase of an entire case of wine as an early partial anniversary present.

Usually, my boyfriend is quite frugal, so I was slightly surprised at the purchase. We have fairly similar spending habits, and generally encourage one another to be mindful of our spending on unnecessary things. We don't live like paupers, but we are conscious of money going in and out.

From June to July, Yodlee reports an astounding 256.52% increase in net worth! Of course, this is because I started out June in the negatives, and now am safely in the positive zone. Also, august is a 3-paycheck month, so I should be able to dump a extra into savings then.

I'm toying with the idea of opening a CD to get a little more bang for my buck, but with my future being unknown (I will be seeking a new job, anticipating starting in January or February), I want to keep my money liquid.

My financial goals shall remain unchanged, and I am focusing on my next goals of finding a good job. I've done some initial searches and while it might be a little work, I should be ok.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Credit Card Fee and Customer Service

While checking out my expenses in Yodlee, I noticed that there was a fraction of a percent allocated for "Finance charges and service fees" I always pay my credit card in full, so I was mystified.

Further investigation showed that when I had tried to make an early payment to my brand new Chase Visa card, the payment had been returned (this I was aware of--i think the account information I entered was wrong), and they tacked on a 39 "returned payment" fee.

I was surprised that I missed that when it happened, but it was a busy time. I didn't think the fee was fair ($39 for mistyping the account?) and figured I'd be on the phone for awhile attempting to get them to waive it. I saw that they had an online message center, and I gave that a shot. I like the idea of asking questions online more than the phone, but many times I found that they just reply with a "please call us" message. I sent them a message explaining the situation and asking if there was anything that could be done.

Less than a half hour later, they replied and agreed to waive the fee! Wow!

I could only be more impressed if they hadn't charged such a ridiculous fee in the first place! (Seriously, $39?)

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Midmonth checkup

I have reached my ZERO NET WORTH goal! Actually, I reached it over a week ago, and I'm sitting around 1.5k net worth. I'm pretty pumped about it! I wish I had more accurately tracked my net worth when I first started working--it took me until december to get really "into" the money management stuff. But I do know that when I ended school in June, I had a net worth of at least NEGATIVE 28k or so. I also have furnished a small apartment, mostly from scratch. Not bad!

I put 1500 of my tuition reimbursement into my Roth IRA, meaning I only have to fund 100/mo to it for the rest of the year--that'll sure make it easier to keep up with my other monthly goals. The other 500, I put a little into each savings account (one for general savings, one target to be used for student loans).

I also sold my old laptop to my parents for 200. It is worth more than that, but I thought it was a fair deal.

A midmonth checkup of my spending shows that $55 has been spent eating out thus far this month. The month is only half way through, and it will be a challenge not to go out again this month!

Personal spending is at about 30, my projected "limit". I bought some new foundation, some cheap earings, an adapter to play my ipod in my car... just a few little things.

Gas is already at 74, but I don't have any plans to go out of town anymore

Entertainment is up (about 45), as I went out more rather than staying in. Of course it is cheaper to stay in, but then the costs of any beer/wine we drink tend to fall under grocery rather than entertainment. When we go out, I classify it as "fun".

My energy bill is up by almost 20, for just a small apartment! It has been much hotter and we've been sleeping with the A/C rather than the window open.

I went to work on Saturday for about 4 hours, putting me on track to get some overtime this week, provided I work at least 2 extra hours some other day. As i'm salaried, they only pay us overtime if we work at least six hours extra. There is a lot going on at work, so I'm sure working extra won't be too hard! In fact, it would sure be nice to get in 10 extra total, but I don't know if I'll have the gumption for that.

I haven't been blogging as much, because the more I read, the more I know that there is a plethora of really well thought out PF blogs out there. But this entry right here has changed my mind some--just writing out a midmonth check up was great for me! For anyone else, who knows, but anything that enables me to continue to meet my goals is a good thing!

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Initial asset allocation proposal

I've done some research and came up with something I'm comfortable with.

This is what I'm thinking of:

Fidelity U.S. Equity Index Commingled Pool
55
Fidelity Spartan International Index FSIIX 20% 15
Fidelity Spartan Extended Market Index FSEMX 15% 15
Morgan Stanly International EquityA, MXIQX
5
Fidelity US Bond Index FBIDX 10

It is quite loosely based on this article from kiplinger, however I don't have access to an emerging markets fund in my 401k, and I thought that having nothing in bonds was a bit risky for my preference.

I'm 24, so a long way from retirement and I don't mind some risk. Am I missing an important asset allocation? I do have access to a variety of other funds, which I will list here in a word vomit fasion: Fidelity target date funds, Low priced stock, blue chip growth, capital and income, dividend growth baron growth, Wells fargo mid cap, Alliaz small cap, diversified international, equity income...

Does my asset allocation seem sensible? Any glaring mistakes? Anything I need to look into in more detail?

Thanks for any feedback!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Reallocating my 401k.... soon!

My 401k lost 100 dollars today, and my Roth about the same. However, my 401k has 3 times what my Roth does! Not that you are supposed to check your gains and losses daily, but NPR was all abuzz with news of the Dow Jones slipping, I couldn't resist.

Oh, who am I kidding, I check almost everyday. But I remain level headed. Really, I do.

Still, I have been planning to reallocate my 401k for several days now, after realizing how little I knew when I made the choices I did. I still don't know that much, but now I am ready to learn.

I am a big fan of buy and hold, of picking some asset classes and rebalancing about yearly. But buy and hold does assume that the original choices were well thought out! Were mine? No they were not. Over the next week r so, I'm going to investigate where my 401k money is going, and where it should be going, and figure out an approach on how to get it where I want it to be.

My Roth IRA is secondary for three reasons. First, it has less money by about 1/3. Second, it is in a target date fund for 2040, and I'm fairly comfortable with that. Third, the choices there are infinite (!), and it seems like a harder fish to fry! Though I heard a rumor that Vanguard's target date funds had a much lower expense than Fidelity, my current broker. I must investigate switching in the future.

First things first, where is my 401k money invested? Last night I made a new tab in my finance spreadsheet for investments. Now that I've done it, I'm shocked that tab never existed before! There are some fees and expenses that I have never (not even once) glanced at, and honestly, I have no solid logic for picking the asset classes I did. I'm almost embarrassed to post them, actually, but here they are. I realized I had a whopping 5% in a stable value fund! I do not mean a bond, I mean stable value, with a goal to make $1 always worth $1. Oh my.


45% Fidelity Freedom 2040 FFFFX
15% Fidelity US Bond Idx FBIDX
15% Fidelity Mid Cap Stock FMCSX
10% MIS Intl equity A MXIQX
5% Fidelity Equity Income FEQIX
5% Fid Mip II CL2 (no ticker, stable value)
5% My company stock (does pretty well, mainly here
because that's where employer contributions go automatically)

With 15% bonds and 5% stable, no wonder it held value better than my Roth. Still, i'm 24, I don't think it is the wisest choice. And the Equity Income fund? It invests in large cap "income" funds. What does that even mean? As a young investor, is an income fund something I should be interested in? These are questions I need to answer.

The next step is research. Thus far, I've been looking into the "Lazy Portfolio" theory. Realistically, my 401k options are limited, so I can't just pick what I want. I know i want to put a portion of my money into the index funds. I also will use some mutual funds to get my hands on some other asset classes. But I don't know which asset classes I need.

I'm not ready to reallocate yet.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

256% net worth increase!

I was coerced into spending a pretty penny on wine this weekend: Thirty dollars for my boyfriend and I to attend a wine tasting, and another 35 on some wine itself. Wine is an expensive hobby to get into! We have been taking a four session wine class (third class tomorrow) and have already learned a lot, and bought a lot of wine. I was rewarded with my boyfriends purchase of an entire case of wine as an early partial anniversary present.

Usually, my boyfriend is quite frugal, so I was slightly surprised at the purchase. We have fairly similar spending habits, and generally encourage one another to be mindful of our spending on unnecessary things. We don't live like paupers, but we are conscious of money going in and out.

From June to July, Yodlee reports an astounding 256.52% increase in net worth! Of course, this is because I started out June in the negatives, and now am safely in the positive zone. Also, august is a 3-paycheck month, so I should be able to dump a extra into savings then.

I'm toying with the idea of opening a CD to get a little more bang for my buck, but with my future being unknown (I will be seeking a new job, anticipating starting in January or February), I want to keep my money liquid.

My financial goals shall remain unchanged, and I am focusing on my next goals of finding a good job. I've done some initial searches and while it might be a little work, I should be ok.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Credit Card Fee and Customer Service

While checking out my expenses in Yodlee, I noticed that there was a fraction of a percent allocated for "Finance charges and service fees" I always pay my credit card in full, so I was mystified.

Further investigation showed that when I had tried to make an early payment to my brand new Chase Visa card, the payment had been returned (this I was aware of--i think the account information I entered was wrong), and they tacked on a 39 "returned payment" fee.

I was surprised that I missed that when it happened, but it was a busy time. I didn't think the fee was fair ($39 for mistyping the account?) and figured I'd be on the phone for awhile attempting to get them to waive it. I saw that they had an online message center, and I gave that a shot. I like the idea of asking questions online more than the phone, but many times I found that they just reply with a "please call us" message. I sent them a message explaining the situation and asking if there was anything that could be done.

Less than a half hour later, they replied and agreed to waive the fee! Wow!

I could only be more impressed if they hadn't charged such a ridiculous fee in the first place! (Seriously, $39?)

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Midmonth checkup

I have reached my ZERO NET WORTH goal! Actually, I reached it over a week ago, and I'm sitting around 1.5k net worth. I'm pretty pumped about it! I wish I had more accurately tracked my net worth when I first started working--it took me until december to get really "into" the money management stuff. But I do know that when I ended school in June, I had a net worth of at least NEGATIVE 28k or so. I also have furnished a small apartment, mostly from scratch. Not bad!

I put 1500 of my tuition reimbursement into my Roth IRA, meaning I only have to fund 100/mo to it for the rest of the year--that'll sure make it easier to keep up with my other monthly goals. The other 500, I put a little into each savings account (one for general savings, one target to be used for student loans).

I also sold my old laptop to my parents for 200. It is worth more than that, but I thought it was a fair deal.

A midmonth checkup of my spending shows that $55 has been spent eating out thus far this month. The month is only half way through, and it will be a challenge not to go out again this month!

Personal spending is at about 30, my projected "limit". I bought some new foundation, some cheap earings, an adapter to play my ipod in my car... just a few little things.

Gas is already at 74, but I don't have any plans to go out of town anymore

Entertainment is up (about 45), as I went out more rather than staying in. Of course it is cheaper to stay in, but then the costs of any beer/wine we drink tend to fall under grocery rather than entertainment. When we go out, I classify it as "fun".

My energy bill is up by almost 20, for just a small apartment! It has been much hotter and we've been sleeping with the A/C rather than the window open.

I went to work on Saturday for about 4 hours, putting me on track to get some overtime this week, provided I work at least 2 extra hours some other day. As i'm salaried, they only pay us overtime if we work at least six hours extra. There is a lot going on at work, so I'm sure working extra won't be too hard! In fact, it would sure be nice to get in 10 extra total, but I don't know if I'll have the gumption for that.

I haven't been blogging as much, because the more I read, the more I know that there is a plethora of really well thought out PF blogs out there. But this entry right here has changed my mind some--just writing out a midmonth check up was great for me! For anyone else, who knows, but anything that enables me to continue to meet my goals is a good thing!