Well I’m all moved in back at Simpson for my sophomore year, which among other things means that my already skimpy income becomes even more sparse with the end of my summer job. I figured I’d reflect back on and compose a little write-up of the financial progress I made during the past 3 months.
I didn’t make a lot of money this summer- just about $2,500. However, I feel that I utilized what I did make in a very efficient manner. I was able to make some good financial progress despite a relatively low income. Here’s what I accomplished over the past 3 months:
I was able to grow my ING accounts a little bit-
-Emergency- From $23.06 to $179.58
-Long Term Savings- $26.05 to $47.29.
-Midterm 1 (car)- $9.01 to $69.21
-Midterm 2 (computer)- $5.01 to $65.15
-Vacation- From 1 measly dollar to $16.01 (woo-hoo!)
I also opened new ING accounts for a snowboard ($11.00), a biking fund ($7.00), and a textbook fund for second semester this year ($10). I realize that all these amounts are pretty paltry, but I’ve only been using ING for about 6 months so far. I’m adding to them on a regular basis and they are growing slowly but surely.
I made some progress on my portfolio this summer as well. I continued my recession-proofing that I’ve been gradually doing over the past year or so, lowering my exposure to growth securities while building strong positions in commodities and bonds. In addition, I also added some physical gold bullion this summer as a long-term inflation hedge.
I put away money every week for this school year, and by doing so I was able to buy all my textbooks without putting them on my student loans, and also leave myself with a few hundred bucks of spending money to mess around with this fall semester.
The one area where I could have done better is my Roth IRA. I neglected it completely this summer, and I haven’t put in any additional money since I opened it last year. As a college student, it’s hard to think about retirement, but I should be doing my best to funnel as much money into it as possible. My future self will certainly thank me.
It was a pretty good summer all around, and I proved to myself that one doesn’t have to be raking in buckets of dough to be moving forward financially. I had to make some sacrifices to achieve this progress, but I still had fun as well. It was well worth it.
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2 users commented in " Summer 2008 Financial Wrap-up "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI’m amazed at how you’ve created an action plan in college and already have investments and a recession proof thought process. I was thinking about saving money for pizza and going to an occasional movie when I was in college.
Are you planning on working while attending school or can you live off savings and student loans?
Last summer (2007), I saved enough money so that I could live on that for both semesters while focusing on school.
This time around, I didn’t put away as much specifically for this school year, so I’m going to have to work some. I actually just started tutoring econ here on campus. It’s only 6 hours a week at minimum wage, but I don’t have to drive anywhere and half the time I’m just sitting there working on my own homework anyway. This will be more than enough to get me by until next summer (my out-of-pocket expenses during the year are pretty small). I could look elsewhere and make more, but I don’t want to lose focus on school.
I don’t use student loans to pay for books or living expenses. The tuition/room and board bill is enough!
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