Start a Roth IRA

After researching, I’ve found that my favorite option out of the two I was considering (T. Rowe Price vs. Vanguard) requires a minimum of $1000 to open. From my research, I’ve been looking for an no-load index kind of fund, and the T. Rowe Price Roth seems to have a lot more foreign investments made – which makes the fund more risky than the Vanguard. While I like that, because I would like my financial decisions to reflect my idea of being a global citizen, I’m still at a loss for which to finally pick. In the end, since I just finished my emergency fund, I can start saving at least a thousand for this goal, too. So that deters me a lot longer than June, seeing as I have a grand total of $0 saved for it so far.

I dunno when I will reach that thousand, whether it will be by the end of this year or the beginning of the next, but it’s still on my goals list. Going to make a separate bank account today to start saving up. Wish me luck!

March was madness, and a lot of crazy things have happened. I really mean to get to this goal in June.

I forgot that I already began a 401k at my current job. When I leave this job, I need to roll it over into my Roth that I will be making. I was inspired by Get Rich Slowly and Suze Orman to do this.

So far, I have done a little looking around, and this article in particular has really made me rethink my strategy. I think I need to consult with some more advice before June. Out of all of the places, T. Rowe Price has me the most confident, but I won’t put any chips down until June.

Because March has always been the “green” month for me, I’ve chosen the whole month to focus on starting up my Roth IRA and padding away extra cash (not so much spending) in my emergency savings (which is, lamentably, back down to ~$200).

I have a little over $200 in my checking now, but that will be going to pay school off, since I’m still not sure what I’m going to be paying (all of my financial aid hasn’t kicked in yet).

Just a mini update: I have $560 in savings now, and I don’t want to let it dip below $500! It’s gonna be hard…

I have to pay for a $420something set of tires (already have $120 saved)

Then pay off the $300 something I have for school by March ($0 put forth, going to get the tires done first then will focus completely on this)

Then scrape together $$$ for books…hoping to be less than $200

Then pay $70something for Ohayocon if I’m still going…

Then pay $110 in bills to my Mom for this month, next month, and the month after that…

I have a long way to go, but a new savings goal set in place: a.) don’t touch the savings money you are putting towards emergency funds…

After that, I’m going to start saving until I get to $1000. Will get back to you on this. Also, I have made it a personal goal for 2011 to get in the habit of reading at least one money magazine a month (Kiplinger’s, Money, Consumer Reports on Money, etc…)

Okay, as I’m writing this I am totally stoked!!

I know I shouldn’t get so excited about a thing like money, but I’m still really happy. I just got something in the mail last night from my company saying that I haven’t cashed a $182 check they issued me last December (which makes sense, but I don’t have any such check). They have all of the info on it, so I just have to mail them telling them I never got it, and I get the money.

I think it sounds about right, but I don’t know how I could have not realized I that I got a check but never cashed it. Must have been some kind of mix up somewhere in-between my direct deposit changeover and my old boss/hours being too good for me to really care. So, that means $182 dollars for me!

I thought long and hard about what I should put this good fortune towards. Should I spend it all on clothes? That was my first thought, but clothes aren’t a good investment, however badly I think I need them. I also thought about putting it all into some kind of foreign trip fund, but I really don’t want to hear my family moaning and groaning about how irresponsible I am, like they said when my sister went abroad. So I figured I’d split the money – $82 dollars going towards my savings fund, which is currently a little less than $200 (again), and the $100 going as an extra car payment. That means one month less to have to deal with paying back my mom, which is awesome.

I’ve been picking up extra hours at work to 1.) be able to pay my bills on time, and 2.) have more disposable income, since my free hours at school cut down on homework time immensely. With the disposable income, I’ve already whittled my style goal down a little (bought a beautiful fall/winter coat that’s very much in my kind of style), and I plan to use the extra money to work to finish my clothes goal. (Winter gloves/boots are coming this week! Whee!) The extra that goes into my savings account I will try very hard not to touch – I’ve only been dipping into it to cover my butt for gas and food, and that’s about it. So, without further ado: my mini-goal on 43Things is to have $500 in savings by the end of October, and KEEP IT THERE!

That’s halfway towards my halfway to this IRA thing. I plan on going to the library today and checking out a few books on Roth IRAs and 401Ks, since my company just mailed me my password to the 401k account I supposedly have now. Planning for the future: it’s getting better and better…

For the Roth IRA, I’ve been thinking that I should do something kind of like what my brother did when he decided to start a mutual fund a few months ago – give the bank $50 a paycheck, or $100 a month, or whatever. I figured that a good starting point would be to give $100 monthly to the bank for a few months after my car payments are over, then go to $50 a month for a year or two, and see where I go from there. Hoping that, in a year from now, I will be a lot better off financially, and now I realize that I should probably be making solid plans and a foundation for that now instead of just throwing caution to the wind and hoping some money magically appears alongside my…erm…”lax” spending habits.

Once I have my emergency fund in place, I think I should find a way to lock it up unless I absolutely need it. Beginning to think of putting it in a lock box at the bank. Wonder if that costs money?

A lot has happened since I last wrote on here. I paid off the $400, and the $62 debt seems to be forgotten by my friend, plus he offered it as a gift to me. If he ever needs the money, I will give it to him, but otherwise I am going to waive it.

I have about $150 in savings in the bank, but God only knows if I will be able to keep it there. The emergency funds keep getting used, because I am lax in creating a budget and do not remain disciplined enough to adhere to it. Mercy, mercy me.

I have been trying not to touch it, but my desires versus my income always leave me lacking – even though I feel like I have more control over my desires than most. More than fancy clothes and going out to dinner all of the time, I would like to take a smart step and create an emergency fund, then begin retirement planning.

I first read about retirement planning a year or two ago, and the author wrote that the earlier you start, the more you save up. Time goes fast. You say you’ll open the account today, and so many years go by…then what do you have?

I also have a $50 check from my grandpa that I got for my birthday; I will be putting that in savings if my college textbooks don’t completely eat my checking up. Then, I will be $700 from my emergency savings goal!

Looking on Get Rich Slowly (the place that inspired me to start on this goal), the first thing I ought to do before starting an individual retirement account is to save up for emergencies first.

What I’ve got going on right now will take me a while to do, but this kind of goes along with the Clean Sweep program I am about to add to my list of goals to do.

I need to pay my bills and then save up $400 to pay back school first (before this fall), a $62 debt to a friend sometime this year, and then build a $1000 savings fund before beginning to look into this goal. In the mean time, I can research where to open my Roth IRA. That’s the plan!