Don't Wait Until You Retire

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There are a lot of things I want to accomplish that I don’t get done.  I tell myself that this is due to the time constraints imposed on me by school and my job but that isn’t entirely true.  A recent post at My Money Blog,  “The Depressing Truth About Early Retirement” helped me realize what I already knew. The post describes how early retirees have many things they want to accomplish thatthey don’t get done.  This makes them realize that it isn’t the job holding them back but a lack of motivation, organization, or discipline.

I have to admit those factors are what is holding me back.  If  I can’t get things done now, why would it be any different when I’m retired?  I can’t accomplish everything I want to while working but I can accomplish some things.  Right now I’m not getting much done at all.  I need to focus on getting some things accomplished now so I can continue and expand on that when I retire and have more time.  I’m considering a semi-retirement of sorts that would allow me to get stuff done and still earn money.  This would consist of working half the year and ratcheting up my frugality the rest of the year.  My future living plans that I was going to post about yesterday will be a key element in making the semi-retirement feasible. I promise  I’ll post about that on Monday.

Turning Off the Gas Didn’t Work

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Last year I was able to successfully turn off my gas and save some money during the summer. I tried to do that again this year but my landlord was uncooperative. He didn’t want to go through the hassle of turning off the gas so I am forced to pay for gas through the summer even though I won’t be using it. I did manage to save a little through my attempt at turning off the gas. For the short period the gas bill reverted to the management company rather than me there was a smaller customer charge so I’ll save that little bit. I’m unhappy that I’m unable to do this and will be moving out at the end of my lease. Wherever I live next won’t have gas heat-at least not natural gas heat. More on my future living plans tomorrow.

An Unexpected Windfall…That I’ll Probably Have to Return

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When I logged into my latest bank account today I expected to see a bonus of $50 credited to my account.  Instead there was a credit of $150.  I don’t have the terms of the bank bonus with me but I believe they made an error and credited me for a larger bonus than I qualified for.  I briefly thought about just waiting to see if they would catch the error or not.  I really don’t think they would though.  The bonus was entered by the person who opened my account and they probably just rely on that when determining what amount to credit.  I decided to go ahead and let them know of the error though.  I’m hoping that maybe I’m wrong and I did qualify for the larger bonus amount or maybe they’ll just let me keep it.  If not and they take the money back that is okay because it wasn’t mine anyway.  I’m frugal but I don’t compromise my ethics for financial gain.

Accelerating My Internship

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My original plan was to work at my internship through the end of July.  I’ve changed my mind and hope to wrap up my internship in the next two weeks.  I just have to put in a total of a 120 hours to get full school credit for the internship. I should be able to work enough in the next week to get to that total.

I’ve changed my mind for several reasons.  One is the gas cost of of making the 3 hour trip twice a week. Another is the limited time I have left to earn income. Another big one is less time to spend with my girlfriend.  I knew of all these before I started my internship but thought by extending my internship I would gain exposure to more experiences.  It now looks like there wouldn’t be any significant new experiences in the extra couple of weeks so I might as well wrap it up so I can get back home and get my finances back on track.

June Credit Score

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My credit score for June is 710 down from 719 the month before.  This is still a decent credit score but way down from the high of 781 earlier this year. I’m assuming this drop is due to the balance transfer I used to pay down one of my student loans. Since that was a couple of months ago my score should start stabilizing.

I get my credit score for free from my WaMu credit card which is about all that card is good for.  I’m not particularly worried about my score since I don’t plan on borrowing any money other than student loans.  Your credit score can affect other things though, such as your insurance rates, so it is good to maintain a high credit score even if you don’t plan to borrow money.