Personal Finance Confessional #2
For my second personal finance confessional I must begin by confessing that I'm very bad at confessionals! When I wrote my first confessional on August sixth I had every intention of beginning a weekly personal finance confessional. Nineteen days later I am just now getting around to confessional number two! So item number one this time around is that I need to work to be a more consistent blogger and confessor.
Item number two in this finance confessional is that I have strayed from the straight and narrow path regarding my Roth IRA investing this month. Since January I have been able to sustain a consistent $300–$400 in Roth IRA contributions into my Sharebuilder account. With the end of summer rapidly approaching, and with no paycheck from the university until November 1, I have been unable to make any notable contribution to my IRA this month.
Actually, as I wrote that last sentence I decided to log into my Sharebuilder account and check my deposit total for August so far, and I have actually contributed $272.00 this month! I didn't contribute it all at once, though, which is part of the reason it didn't seem like much, I suppose. There is probably a significant lesson about investing to be learned there: if you make small and regular contributions to your retirement accounts, you will never miss the money and it will add up to a significant sum very quickly. My August deposits are a perfect example of this principle, as I had convinced myself that I had only contributed $100 or so this month. Needless to say I am pleasantly surprised at the real total, and now I feel like I can beat myself up a little less in this confessional!
The third item of business is the very bad habit I have picked up now that I am back working in a shopping mall: eating fast food for lunch. Carl's Jr. is one of my favorite places to eat, but I am convinced that Carl's Jr. could be the spawn of Satan with its seductively enticing burgers that cause me to stray from my ideal path. In my perfect world I would be disciplined enough to pack a lunch every day like my virtuous wife, but I am weak in the presence of Carl's Jr.'s Six Dollar Burger. I will not bore you, my precious readers, with a sermon on the ills of fast food for one's finances and one's waistline, but this is the most serious personal finance temptation I have faced this month. In fact, I just took a moment to run a quick total on the amount of money I have spent on fast food so far this month, and the total is $208.32. So while I am pleased that I contributed a decent amount to my Roth IRA this month, the pill in all that jam is that I spent (ahem... wasted) nearly as much on fast food. I may need to join my friend Bobby Marchessault's Big Butt Weight Loss Challenge, starting a.s.a.p. It will be good for my fitness and for my retirement accounts.
So that is the scoop this go-around, my dear readers. Do not lose faith in me as a personal finance guru and mentor because of my many shortcomings. Like all true confessionals, may this one end in absolution of guilt as I rededicate myself to sound personal finance. $272 in Roth IRA contributions is still nothing to sneeze at, and I am in far better financial shape than I was just nine short months ago when my retirement savings were exactly zero dollars. Since then I have accumulated nearly $4000 in retirement investments, including my Roth IRA and my 403(b). I am keeping the faith through trial and tribulation; don't lose yours!
