Quick Relief

Mar 14, 2008  |  Posted by: Megan Stay

Most people who know me know that I am an anxiety ridden human being. I found out in college that my grandfather had a nervous breakdown when my dad was a kid and left work for a period of time. That’s a fun bit of info to learn when you’re going through your own saga.

The point of this sob story is that I’ve never been very good at making goals and plans because I stress out too much about the present. My finances have generally been a “fly by the seat of my pants” thing. I haven’t had a savings account since I was in high school and even then it was just a savings/checking account. My mom tried on numerous occasions to get me to learn to budget. She helped me open a savings account when I was ten and put me on a budget when I was in middle school. She and I planned out a budget of all my expenses, including everything from food to shampoo, clothing and even chap-stick. There was one major flaw with this plan: I didn’t drive nor did I cook dinner for myself nightly. So in the end I pocketed the money for a couple months and the whole endeavor was dropped.

Now, as a married co-dependent individual, money must be closely watched. As it turns out, living in suburbia has a lot more expenses than living in the city. I had been having minor heart attacks for a month or so since we arrived in Las Vegas. Then it occurred to me that I could get rid of all my woes and anxiety by simply keeping track of all of our finances and putting together a strict budget to help us begin saving for a house(which we hope to buy in another year or so, before the buyers market returns to a sellers market).

With that in mind I got myself set up with Quicken and organized all of our accounts and opened a savings account.

Now, all we need to do is figure out how to invest our little nest egg to make the most profit in the least amount of time…anyone care to share their investor’s knowledge?

Comments

  • Uptown Girl says:

    1. I wouldn’t call yourself co-dependent

    2. I’m so proud of you — quicken and all! Way to go!

    3. The best thing you can do with your money to ensure it’s safety with a very volatile market is keep it safe in the best CD you can find. Go for a 60 month term if you have to… usually the penalties are only 3 months interest on an early withdraw. I’d set aside a certain amount in your budget that you will put in a CD every month. The one with the best interest rate your bank offers at the time, be it 3 month or 60 month. They’re FDIC insured and you can usually find some pretty good rates.

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