The Adventures of GeekGirl

I use ING Direct for my Emergency savings, IRA, and to hold my school money. When I opened the account years ago, I think my interest was around 5% or so. That’s awesome. It was hanging on at around 2% for a while. Now it’s slipped down to 1.2 or something. That’s pretty pathetic and barely worth the trouble of moving money back and forth and stuff. It might be time for me to take my money elsewhere.

I’m not sure if I’m going to find anything better. I like Ally. There interest is only at 1.49%, but they have some interesting options for CD’s including a “No Penalty” CD. I really like that idea. I love that I can’t really touch CD’s, but I would really like to know that the money is available if there is an emergency. Otherwise, I’m not quite sure where I would go. I could consolidate my money and just put it all at Schwab or the local Credit Union. It would be far easier to access and the interest isn’t that different from what I’m getting.

Do any of you know of places with better interest rates?

As I’m sure many of my regular readers know, I’m a little personal finance freak. I love it. This wasn’t always the case, of course. It took me a bit to figure out that I have to spend less than I bring in. Such a hard concept to conquer, right? Anyway, this year I’ve been pretty shitty with the finances. Some of it was fatigue, some of it was just to offset the extremely shitty year that I had last year.

Unfortunately, that’s put me in a bit of consumer debt. Nothing major, but more than I would like. Once again, I made the executive decision to bail myself out with a bit of school money. Is that the wisest of decisions? No. Do I think I can replace that money if I bust my ass? Yes. Otherwise, no summer school for me. And since those will be pretty much the last of my classes (hopefully) you better believe that I’m going to do what has to be done to get that all paid for.

In reviewing my student loans, I realize that I made a bit of a mistake last year while trying to get into the condo. I took out a bit extra to help me out. Then, when everything fell through I payed off a few medical bills. Not the wisest decision and I will pay for it. My student loans are ridiculous. I have one that’s from my first degree in website design. It’s high. I didn’t understand how that one worked and took the school’s word for it. I will be paying that one off for quite sometime. The student loans I’m now acquiring are high because my school is expensive. That’s the cost of doing it on line and not needing to go into a class. The biggest worry is that I don’t wind up with a better paying job. Though, I honestly need to see it another way. I wanted to finish school. This was the best way to go about it and still pay my freaking bills.

The good thing in all of this is that my actual assets are growing! I’ve got $$$ in my emergency fund, a little bit in my IRA, have some change put aside for my next big vacation (Patagonia here I come!), and even have a few stocks. I’m nowhere near rich, but I’m stable. Which is all I can really hope for.  Also, I have NO consumer debt and the balance on my hospital bill is almost paid off. (Which reminds me. There is a class action lawsuit against the makers of Yaz. The drug that caused my embolism. I *might be able to recoup the $14,000 I paid out of pocket for almost dying.) I’d love to have the hospital bill paid off in the next 6 months since that would be an additional $175 per month to add to my savings.

All of this is to say that I hopefully plan to have my weekends back soon. I love working at the running store on the weekend, but I’m tired. Really tired. However, I need that extra $200 for the time being. Once I figure out how to make an extra $200 – 300 a month from home (I’m trying to get a website together for some editing/writing/proofreading work – it’s worth a shot) I’ll quit the running store. I also plan on asking for  a raise. I haven’t had one in over 2.5 years. I’m due. Just biding my time on that one.

Overall, I think I’m making ok decisions. My student loans are going to be ridiculous, but I can handle that. I’m putting money aside for a rainy day and saving for the things that are important to me. I live on an extreme budget, but for the most part I don’t feel deprived. That’s how it should be, right?

I’ve been shopping around for a new checking account for a while. I’ve been with Wamu for around 10 years. Overall, I’m happy with them but I hate the Savings Account that comes with it. I had to get the account in order to get free checking. Once a month $25 gets transferred over to the account, and I immediately transfer the money right back. It earns a ridiculously low interest rate, so I don’t want money just sitting there. What I really wanted to do was open a regular checking account that offered interest. Hopefully I could get a little bit of money from the money that I have sitting there to pay bills. Who cares if it’s only $1 or $2. Money is money.

I finally took the leap and opened a High Yield Investor Checking acccount at  Charles S. Schwab. I’d heard great things  about the account. It yields .75%, there is no minimum, no fees, and I get checks with it. Perfect! The only drawback is that depositing cash is going to be a pain in the ass. I can link my WaMu account for the time being and have money automatically deposit to it. Which is fine since my hope is to start dumping most of my bill money into it and then just have my bills come out automatically. It’s going to take me a few months to get to that point because the timing has to be right. I figure I’ll add one at a time. First will be my rent. I’ll just dump half my rent in with each check. Then when I have it all worked out, my bill money will just automatically depost to Schwab and then all of the bills will be taken care of. No wrries.

In unexpected spending, I got a call tonight from my dear friend A. He lives in Atlanta and has been one of my best friends since I was 17. He hasn’t worked in months and is going through some mental issues. I know it. My mom knows it. His family knows it. He doesn’t know it. Anyway, he’s run out of money and needs to “borrow” $100. He starts a new job next week. Of course I’m lending him the money, because he’s done the same for me. However, I gave him a very stern talking to and told him I’m going to be upset if he quits this job too. We’ll see if he can stick with it. I’m writing the money off as a gift. If he pays me back, great. If not, I’m not going to sweat it. I also made it very clear that I will not be doing this again. Fortuantely, I can afford to help him.

In other news, I’m off tomorrow and looking forward to getting a lot of things done. Maybe I’ll even have pictures. Yay!