So, sometimes we blog about finance or current events. Other times we blog about personal matters. This posting deals with my limited budget and how I’m investing despite having little money.
I’m currently pulling in about $1,850 before taxes. This is primarily from two sources of income; my assistantship at the University and dividends from our stock market investments. The university pays about $1,200 per month, and our stocks are paying about $650 per month. This totals to $1,850.
In order to feed our ravenous mortgage, my university pay of $1,200 goes straight into an ING account my wife Miel uses to pay bills. The stock dividends of $650 covers my miscellaneous costs like clothing, food, the power bill and my cell phone. Since I don’t have expensive tastes, usually there is $50 – $120 left at the end of the month.
Fifty to one twenty isn’t a lot. So, I’ve been thinking about ways to invest small amounts of money. This month, I put $50 into prosper.com. Prosper is good for small amounts because the transaction costs are only 1% and you can make a 20% or better return. Since my wife and I set the goal of maxing out our retirement, I put $75 into my Sharebuilder ROTH IRA. Sharebuilder charges $4 per trade, so it also has low transaction costs. When my trade goes through on April 6th, I should be the proud of owner of $71 worth of Johnson Controls (JCI).
Best,
James
No Comments yet!