I'm doing 43 things
Been working 3 weeks now and by the end of this week I will have $1,000 which is more than I have ever had before (I topped $550 once when I was working in Year 12 at school). That $1,000 is going to be my emergency buffer, not to be spent. It isn’t all peachy though, I do have quite a sizeable debt ($5,345) to my parents that needs paying off as well so that is where quite a big chunk of my earnings will be going first.
I have been living very frugally since being broke before this job, so I am comfortable not spending money. That will help me to save more as well as get this debt paid down. It will be truly sweet to be able to see my debts disappear once and for all. If I save at the same time as I pay off the debt (i.e. it will take longer to pay the debt since some of my disposable income will be going to savings instead), then when the debt is paid off I will still have a huge pool of savings. By May next year I should be debt free if I follow the current plan and I should also have a decent savings pool.
I have also been learning about shares, bonds, options, futures, derivatives and annuities. When I save some money for the long term, I want to be able to capitalise on it further! So far it looks like bonds are the safest bet since they have an attached interest coupon and I might consider investing in mining stock in our domestic mining boom (Australia). So long as the investments have returns higher than the inflation rate it is worthwhile in my opinion.
