Welcome to the delayed Investing 101 post that was supposed to run last week but a vacation got in the way. The market continues that roller coaster ride, Six Flags anyone?, and so do my investments. Lets have a look at those numbers.
403-B
Started $373.48
My Contribution $ 25.00
Up/Down -$ 14.44
Balance $384.04 Rate of return 15.7%
DCP
Started $495.85
My Contribution $ 0.00
Up/Down -$ 2.95
Balance $492.90 Rate of return 2.7%
Total $876.94
Down $ 17.39
If you read Tuesday’s post then you know that my investments took a beating the last couple of weeks. Today we get to see the results of that beating. It is not pretty but stuff happens and sure enough it happened to me. Despair not, there is always tomorrow. Lets check those numbers.
403-B
Started $362.50
My Contribution $ 25.00
Up/Down -$ 14.02
Balance $373.48 Rate of return 20.6%
DCP
Started $483.64
My Contribution $ 14.08
Up/Down -$ 1.87
Balance $495.85 Rate of return 3.3%
Total $869.33
Down $ 15.89
If you remember the market was flying high, all the way to 14,000. Then it took a beating and so did my investments as I expected they would. How much of a beating?, you are going to have to wait for Thursday’s post to find out. I am not worried one bit to be honest, reason being I knew the nature of the game before jumping in. High risk equals high rewards or loses and I have been experiencing the latter for the last couple of weeks but what is a guy to do. Get on the first flight to Hawaii you say, if I could I would and trust me that would do me a lot of good. Back to my investments, I’ve said it before, I am in it for the long run and naturally those ups and down will happen. Remember, I am just beginning this race and I don’t have that much money invested so I can afford to be nonchalant about the whole thing. What I do have is a plan, you can read about it here. The plan is sound and logical I think. Naturally if I run into something that adds to that plan and makes it that much better I will include it because we are trying to make money after all, right?.
If you remember on last Investing 101 post no deduction was made from my paycheck for my 403-B. I was going to check and find out why that happened but in the end I didn’t, blame that on my laziness and not my Lazy Boy ok. Everything is going fine and that is the way I like it. This is a long term investment and that means that ups and downs are part of the show and to be expected. Lets take a look at those numbers.
403-B
Started $330.53
My Contribution $ 25.00
Up/Down +$ 6.97
Balance $362.50 Rate of return 25.5%
DCP
Started $484.15
My Contribution $ 0.00
Up/Down -$ .51
Balance $483.64 Rate of return 3.7%
Total $846.14
Up $ 6.46
If you read my $300 post last Thursday you know I didn’t know quite what to do with all that money, if you haven’t click here to read it. I thought about it over the weekend and finally made a decision, which wasn’t that difficult to make to begin with. So I am going to do it, I am opening an ING Orange Savings Account with a 4.50 APY. I went to the ING website yesterday, clicked on the open by mail option, filled out the required info, printed and sent the form along with my check, the whole process was easy and took me less than five minutes. If you prefer instant gratification you can do the whole thing online as well. Remember to look around for the best deal possible and never ever settle for anything less, we are talking about our hard earned money after all. Stay tuned.
