Roth IRA Contribution

I got my April paycheck from my college a couple of days early today, so I went ahead and made my contributions to my Roth IRA and my emergency fund this afternoon. It looked like I would be able to set aside $600.00 this time around, so I put $300.00 into my Roth IRA and $300.00 into my emergency fund (which is moonlighting as my summer savings fund since my summer income will be somewhat questionable this year). I decided to add a a dividend ETF to my Roth IRA portfolio, too, so I'll be excited for my automatic investment plan to go through in the next week or so. I may have to wait until the second week in April to invest the funds I just deposited, though, since I'm not sure if Sharebuilder will receive them before the set-up deadline for the first Tuesday in April. No big deal, as I'm happy to let my $300 sit in the money market fund for a few days collecting money market dividends before it gets invested into my ETFs.

Speaking of dividends, I decided to go with the Powershares High Yield Dividend Achievers ETF (PEY) rather than the iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend ETF (DVY) for my portfolio. I didn't have very deep reasons for this, other than that the stocks that make up the PEY fund have a longer track record of increased dividends than the stocks that make up the DVY fund. Plus, PEY pays a monthly dividend rather than a quarterly one. I like the faster compounding of the monthly dividends, and I like being able to watch that compounding in action monthly rather than having to wait three months between each dividend payment. It will curb my urge to tinker with my portfolio unnecessarily!

One last piece of good news: my wife had her telephone interview for the merchant-in-training job in Ohio this past Monday, and she got a phone call today inviting her out to Columbus in mid-April for the second-round interview. Take a look at the rental prices in the Columbus area and you will see why we are excited about the prospect. So keep your fingers crossed!