Restless Dollars

I checked our savings today as end of the month is when we get our interest credited and noticed that, yet again, our APY has dropped. Now it is 0.75%. That is seriously pathetic. I’ve had this discussion with coworkers about how it really is costing me more to keep that money versus inflation, and I really should just pay down debt and put more into our stock purchase plan (which I’ve done).

So, in that vein, we took our sizeable tax refund and paid off the VW. Now what? My car is at 1.9% – sure it’s more than 0.75% but, it’s low. The VW loan was 5.9% so, that made sense. With the Husband still not really working full-time we are still below the income threshold of being able to claim student loan interest as a tax deduction, so, I hesitate to pay that off as well (it’s like 6K or so left @ 6.375% – I consolidated in 2001 so bad timing on rates). I really feel like I could be earning more with my money than just having it sit there and make less than 1%. But I am so risk averse!!!

I have been itching about it the last couple weeks. I finally feel like, while we are not super-comfortable like we were pre-2009, we’ve got some breathing room.  I don’t feel like we are on the edge anymore. I can’t help but wonder if maybe it’s time to consider investing in property. I know, the bubble, risky, hard to qualify, vacancies, blah blah. But here in San Diego, we are back on the up and the rental market is strong. Prices are not rock bottom anymore, yet they are still low where rent more than covers mortgage and expenses. You can make money on it every month.

But… to part with well over half of my security blanket… man, I don’t know. If only we lived in an area where houses were like 100-150K. It would be an easier call to make. Then again, maybe the rental market wouldn’t be as strong as it is here.

Wouldn’t it be great to not have to take risks to make more money? But then we’d all be rich, right?

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