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Sometimes I wonder whether we are making a mistake throwing so much money at our debt.  I worry that we are negatively impacting our future by not putting more into IRA’s or 401K’s.  DF doesn’t contribute to his IRA at all, and isn’t contributing to his 401K until he has been with is company for the two years required to get a company match.  I contribute a tiny bit to my IRA and I don’t even have a 401K.  Meanwhile, my loans are at 6%, 6.5%, 3.99% (credit card lifetime balance transfer) and his are at 0% (12 month balance transfers), and 4.99%.  We could probably earn this much in the market (well, maybe not this market… but over the long term).  So, should we be paying our debts, or should we be investing more for our future? (more…)

I was wondering what to do with my IRA, and I read an article on MSN about some stocks that seem like a great pick in today’s market.  GE was mentioned, because it is hovering around $12-$13 a share and still paying its dividend, so buyers are getting paid about 7-8% (in dividends) just to hang out and wait for the market to come back.  It seemed like a no-brainer.  GE is a company I have heard of, I don’t think they are going anywhere any time soon so I feel like the stock will bonce back, and the CEO has just gone on record saying they will be keeping the dividend.  This may not be the best way to make stockpicks (read a random article, go on what you know) but it may not be the worst either… We’ll see what happens.

I try to save money all the time, and I am constantly looking for way to cut our spending and expenses down even further.  Here are 5 painless ways that I saved money this weekend: (more…)