Emily's budget

"Stop your identity crisis and get some identity capital" 

The plan

Phase 1:

1) Make a budget

2) Build emergency fund

3) Max out matching retirement programs

4) Pay all your loan minimums monthly, then allocate extra $ to the highest interest loan (or the smallest one, if interest rates are the same)

5) Investigate loan deferment options if you have multiple loans to avoid paying interest in the short run. Also, see if you're eligible for any loan forgiveness

Phase 2:

1) Start a Roth IRA!

2) Make individual accounts in savings for different savings goals

3) Build emergency fund to 6+ months of expenses

Phase 3:

1) Max out all retirement plans (I'm not even here yet...)

2) Save up to build a house in Mell's backyard

Dollar-cost averaging. This article talks about it in terms of lump sums, but the principals are the same no matter where the money is coming from.

"Here's how it works: Every month, invest the same dollar amount in a stock or mutual fund. You can use the strategy either with a starting lump sum of cash or as you receive income from paychecks or other sources.

The strategy is appealing for a couple of reasons. First, the strategy naturally takes advantage of changing prices. When share prices are low, your investment buys more shares on the cheap. Conversely, your fixed dollar amount buys fewer shares when their price is higher. On the whole, this prevents you from buying high -- and if share prices bounce up and down a lot, you can end up with more shares this way than you would by making a bigger up-front purchase.

Basically indicates that interest rate rules for consolidation have changed and you're usually better off NOT consolidating

Roth IRA's are a great way to save for retirement when you're starting out. The basics:

1) You can only invest $5000 a year

2) Like all retirement accounts, pick one with a low maintenance fee. Vanguard or T Rowe Price are the best

If you are trying to decide which investing strategy to use after having learned a bunch of new financial lingo, you might be thrilled to come across the buy-and-hold strategy. What you see is what you get! The buy-and-hold investing strategy is simple:

Find out how to get your federal student loans forgiven or canceled due to your service as a teacher.

Current Stafford loan interest rates

Subsidized: 3.4%

Dave Ramsey's debt snowball plan technique:

1) Build a $1000 emergency fund