Money In My Pocket

Frozen Budget

Over this cold winter at home, I thought about my budget and future finances for the rest of the break. Even after the cuts in Christmas shopping and reserve night of sad social life, I realized that I would be a few dollars short of the necessary expenses. So I banked on the fact that I would be receiving the traditional monetary gifts from certain family members. Sure enough, they came through and I was able to make it through the season.

Another source of income during these trying times was from the famous day after Christmas when the return lines rival any female restroom line. One store gave me a cash refund, but the two other stores only gave store credit for the value of my unwanted gift. My appreciation of this is immeasurable, because I found items that are of value to me and actually benefit my life.

CDs Continued

While I was buying a new CD the woman at the bank told me about the two CDs I purchased previously.  While one has an interest rate a bit higher than the one I got a few days ago when I got my most recent CD, one was drastically lower.  It had been renewed once, and I suppose it came up while I was at school.  Usually I just trust my dad to do something with it to ensure that it is getting the best rate possible, but maybe he forgot this time.  As I have explained in a previous statement, I do not get sensitive personal documents sent to me here at school for fear of what might happen to them—I feel safer just sending it home.  Now I will really have to keep up with these things myself to ensure that I am looking after my money so I can get the most out of it while it is sitting in the bank.  I got the woman at the bank to tell me the current rate, when it comes up for renewal or cash in, and a phone number I can call to talk with her about getting a better rate next time.  It’s a hard lesson to learn, but at least I learned it relatively early in my life.

CDs

I got a bit of money for Christmas, so I added it to my bank account where it joined deposited checks from my job and other gift money from a while back.  I really hate keeping too much money in my account because not only will I be tempted to spend it, I am also afraid that if my debit card is stolen, they can wipe out everything I have.  Also, it would be stupid to just leave that money sitting there when it could be gaining interest elsewhere.  So when it gets to this point, I like to purchase a Certificate of Deposit, or CD.  I have only done this twice before, because I want to leave enough money in my account for me to work with when I need it.  I got an okay rate for interest considering the economy, but I did not really shop around because I wanted to keep it at the bank I currently do business with.  I chose to reinvest the interest into the CD, that way it will earn more money each period.  Now I can watch it grow, even though it won’t be growing that fast.