Yesterday was a long day, and the post I was planning just didn’t get done. I’m putting it off to another day, and instead have some short snippets and updates, mostly about procrastination. Fitting, since I am publishing this late in the day.
Fees Still Matter
Today I finally took care of my Roth IRA investment choices. I realized in September that the fees were too high, but didn’t quite muster up the energy to deal with picking alternatives. How embarrassing to wait six months to fix this!
On the other hand, the website is much easier to navigate today. Last fall, once I realized I wanted to change my investments, I struggled for quite some time to find the information I needed (hence, the 6 month delay). Today I was able to compare all the funds of the same type in less than a minute.
I will double check tomorrow or Friday, but I think I got this all fixed. Finally.
It’s Tax Time, or Is It?
I’ve been meaning to send all my papers to my accountant.
They are sitting in a repurposed shoe box (really!), reproaching me whenever I look over at it. I’ve just been too busy at work to make copies and send them on their way.
As it turns out, I received another tax form in the mail today. This makes me feel better about my procrastination.
However, I think this weekend I actually do need to look at these papers, and then send them to their destination.
Time in the Market, or Timing the Market?
At work, I contribute regularly (and automatically) to my retirement account. The money goes in monthly, whether the market is up or down. That’s a good thing, as I don’t have to make any decisions about how much to invest, or whether today is a good day to invest. I picked my funds years ago, and leave the account alone.
On the other hand, I also have an investment account, which I fund irregularly. I confess, I do not do use that money to buy index funds, but instead pick stocks.
Picking stocks takes some time, time which I often don’t really have when my work day runs long.
That means that instead of getting my money into the stock market ASAP, I have been letting it sit as cash in my account. It makes very little in interest, and has not been able to contribute to the growth of my portfolio. If you had checked the account 2 months ago, you might have said I had significant cash drag.
Today, after several days of drops and rises, the cash drag means I have lost less of my portfolio. It makes me feel a little better about the volatility of the market.
But I probably should figure out a way to make the money work harder for me. Like, you know, investing it. How “convenient” that stocks are a little cheaper than they were 2 weeks ago.
I suppose this is timing the market, but I will choose to think of it as a happy coincidence.
Playing Chicken with Show Tix
In theory, barring crazy developments in the COVID-19 situation–and I’m not ruling that out–Mr. PiN and I are supposed to go to a meeting in Las Vegas soon.
Though the meeting starts early in the morning, we had been hoping to see at least one of the shows that Las Vegas is known for.
Now, with the uncertainty of travel (NYU has banned travel for its medical staff), I am not 100% we will be able to go to the meeting. Certainly not confident enough to drop a couple of hundred dollars on going to a show that we might not be in town for.
On the other hand, if we do go, it is entirely possible that tickets might be cheaper, if tourism is down.
Thus, we have two potential ways to win by procrastinating. We will see how that goes.
What have you been putting off? Did anything turn out better because of the delay?