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Home > Yes, I’m Doing April Too

Yes, I’m Doing April Too

April 5th, 2006 at 01:52 am

People I know question how long I will continue on the challenge. It’s sad to me that they thought one month would be “enough.” Even though I had been pretty frugal, it’s been great to see the areas I had gotten too loose in. I’m at least 40 pounds overweight-why did I go out to eat so much? It’s not as if I was ordering steamed vegetables and broiled fish. I shrugged at certain expenses, such as my crazy electric bill, because I had enough money coming in to pay the bills, but I never worked at really lowering these bills. I’m learning from this challenge, and I am not feeling deprived.

In April I want to try and get pre-qualified for a home loan. I have been idly thinking of it. My income is pretty good for my area, but, and it’s a big but, I live in California. House prices are just craziness. So I will find out if I can do the house thing or not. I don’t mind finding out I can’t. (I already know it would only be a smaller house if I could: a one or one and a half bedroom, no garage, etc.) At that point, I will need to make some investment decisions. I have a lot more than 6 months expenses in savings: not the best place at 1.25 percent. I have 457 Deferred Comp that I could increase contributions to-I hadn’t yet because I couldn’t borrow against it for a down payment. I have an IRA I haven’t paid attention to. And I know nothing about investing. So once I find out about the house, the next challenge is to take the money frugality gains me and make it more active.

1 Responses to “Yes, I’m Doing April Too ”

  1. jodi_m Says:
    1144203759

    We switched our emergency fund to HSBC. Now we are earning 4.8% instead of 1% - makes quite a difference when you are talking a big chunk of change. At least you can park the cash somewhere earning a better interest rate while you think about what to do with it...

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