Yes, yes, tomorrow is the day that I go in to do some paperwork, listen to some information about my soon to be new job, and take a mandatory drug test. It’s not quite as fun as the first day of actual work (which comes next Tuesday, happily enough), but it’s still a pretty sweet day.
The only problem is, I seem to be having trouble getting to sleep; it’s nearly four in the morning as I write this, and I’m still not tired. I don’t know if it’s nerves or just inertia, but the Sandman has been eluding me tonight. I have gotten a chance to read up on some of the articles that, with spending the past few days with my girlfriend and then going home to get ready for this interview, I haven’t had a chance to read up to this point. So, here are a few of the articles that caught my eye in my late night ruminations:
Marriage and Money: Joint or Separate Accounts - An interesting view of the future, provided by Green Panda Treehouse. I haven’t had to worry too much about combining my expenses with my fiancee up to this point, as a result of the aforementioned living on opposite sides of the state, but at some point, we’ll have to combine our finances, and this is a pretty good template to follow.
To Prepay Your Mortgage or Not – In general, paying down your mortgage early is a good thing; you’ll save on interest payments and there’s the always fun ‘being free from debt’ aspect to consider. But, as My Life ROI points out, doing so at the expense of your other investments is generally not a good option. Basic money nerd rule: if the (after-tax, where applicable) return of the investment you’re considering doesn’t beat the return of your current investment, stay with what you have.
Moving: Maximizing Space When Packing Your Car – Some surprisingly time appropriate advice from Stephanie at Poorer Than You, just as I find myself needing to move my stuff across Pennsylvania again. Most of the advice should make sense; reduce what you take, remove extraneous packaging, and using clothing as cushioning. My favorite part of the article is that she refers to packing a car as ‘Tetrising’, which tickles my dork senses.
9 Small College Expenses That Add Up – On Mrs. Micah’s blog, there’s yet more advice for future (and current) college students: watch out and save up for situations where you spend small amounts that can add up. Sure, ten cents a page in the computer lab doesn’t sound like much, until you have to spend the money you were saving for the weekend on in order to print out the five research papers your teacher assigned you to read, each averaging about 30 pages. Yup, there goes your beer money. Moral: Small expenses add up quickly, a lesson we can apply both in college and out.
Carnivals and Round-Ups Featuring my Columns
- Money Hacks Carnival-By the Books Edition hosted by Personal Finance by the Book, which features my Reading Online Stock Data column
- Weekly Dividend Investing Round-Up – August 8, 2009 hosted by The Dividend Guy, which features my Why Investors Care About Dividends column
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