Getting My Financial House in Order

I've been home sick the last few days..... I hate taking sick days because it means I get WAY behind at work -- plus I'm not getting anything done at home, either.

I did get a few things accomplished -- some shutterfly gifts organized and ordered, tried out the Viggle app to see if I can earn some gift cards to help with Christmas and worked on getting more return out of the money I do have. Last year, I transferred $1000 of my savings to a variable rate CD, to which I added $150/month. I felt fairly safe doing that as I had other savings sitting there, plus the penalty for early withdrawal was 3 months interest, and even with that, it was still earning more than my savings account! During its span, the CD earned a whopping $8.66 in interest. (woo.hoo.)

So, the CD came to maturity. At maturity, I had 10 days to withdraw, make changes, or just leave it alone and let it ride. Since this 10 days fell during my sick time, I decided to focus and make some changes. As it stood, I had $2800+ in the CD at maturity. The fixed rate CDs were performing a lot higher than the variable rate, so I moved $1800 to a one year fixed rate. I kept $1000 in the variable rate and will continue to add $150/mo to it.

I considered moving some to "better" investments -- but since this is my "able to sleep at night" money, I just didn't want the volatility of the stock market. II won't get rich off the CDs, but they are earning a bit more than just sitting there in a savings account, and I like the mental blockade of not being able to get to it quite as easily. Maybe when I have real money saved instead of barely 2 months living expenses, I'll go for a bit of higher risk and higher yield. Here's hoping I get there.