Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Short Update

The pieces of my personal finances are slowly coming together:

1. First Credit Card! I received it yesterday, and it came with a $500 limit which is more than I expected, especially having no credit history.

2. First Credit Card "Purchase" - actually a donation to charity for $50. (The donation was to Myanmar, which is where I would like to continue to give money. I have been to the country and the people there are truly amazing and gentle but unfortunately under a ridiculously sadistic and greedy junta, not to mention the added strife/poverty from the cyclone.)

3. My emergency fund now contains $330, which will be increasing when I deposit a $50 check from my German professor for graduation. I will be putting $100 per month into it initially, starting in July when my paychecks are regular - I started my full-time job last Wednesday (6/11) but already had a flight booked home to Seattle, 6/18-6/29, to get all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed. (Thank goodness I am still on my parents' insurance for the procedure!)

Those starting points above actually hit on 2 out of 3 of my initial goals of donating to charity AND opening an ING Direct Savings account to slowly start my emergency fund. There was also the unofficial "I-need-to-build-credit-but-am-scared-of-credit-cards" tidbit. Time to start working on goal #3 from below!

4 comments:

Anonymous June 17, 2008 at 9:54 AM  

that is great! I got my first credit card my freshman year of college through my bank, but quickly realized that a rewards card was really what I wanted. So, now I have two (visa and amex), and the visa is really just in case someone doesn't take amex. It is kind of scary at first! Just be sure to pay it off every month and you'll do great!

I think it's great that you want to give to charity -- I need to work on that.

Distar June 17, 2008 at 11:41 PM  

that is really commendable- to use your first "adult" purchases towards good causes. Esp Myanmar, which really needs it. You should email me if you want more info, I've been working on Myanmar response.(and yay! looking fwd to reading your blog)

Distar June 17, 2008 at 11:46 PM  

btw, you should read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/business/yourmoney/14money.html?em&ex=1213848000&en=36d077c26ac2ad07&ei=5087%0A

Shen Dove June 19, 2008 at 8:43 AM  

Sounds like you are on your way to your goals, great job!

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