Monday, December 10, 2007

Reading

I wanted to put in a word about a book I'm finishing. It is The Little Book of Common Sense Investing. (Link to an Amazon page with reviews etc.) It's a good read. I learned some things and this is the reason I opened a Schwab account.

One line summary - index funds are the way to go.

I did not realize this is the third book in a series so I might go back to catch those. This is the reason for opening a Schwab account last week. I plan to invest in an index fund.

Credit Score Dropped Again

It is down to 726 now, 12 points.

ScoreWatch picked up two things -
My Kohls card balance increased (up to $80 and some change - whew, watch out, haha)

I closed a furniture store card. ScoreWatch seems to suggest this increased my score but I've read that closing accounts harms your score in the short term. I knew this but wanted it closed anyway.

Friday, December 7, 2007

Intro

I made this blog to track my little money journey. Here are my goals:
1. Buy a house
2. Pay off car
3. Pay off student loan
4. Save for retirement

Sort of in that order, except #4 is ongoing and I vow to continue doing that as I work on my other goals.

The good news is I have no credit card debt (I pay it off monthly) and my credit score is in good shape. It was 742 until this week when it dropped to 738 because Schwab checked it when I opened my account there.

The bad news is my net worth is negative, right around -4500-5500. I'm pretty excited to be making progress toward my goals, as slow as things seem to be crawling.