The Mail Is In And The News Is Good!

I received my dividend cheques for my company shares in the mail today. I was expecting $678.14, so imagine my delight when I added them up:

• $137.10
• $89.19
• $109.93
• $194.68
• $60.99
• $54.81
• $64.53
• $56.80
• $157.35
• $39.02

and they came to $964.40. Nothing like a $286.26 snowflake to make a girl’s day! As soon as I get a chance this week, it’s off to the bank to bank them so I can put it all towards paying off debt.

I don’t think there’s anything more important when trying to eliminate debts (for me anyway) than taking full advantage of any windfalls that come your way to get yourself into a better position.

I also received a letter from one of my banks offering to switch me over to a gold card with a pre-approved limit that’s $3000 more than I have now. It was such a great feeling to not be tempted for even a moment.

Things are looking better than they have for a while now financially.

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Dude, Where’s My Superannuation?

I made the mistake of checking my Superannuation fund yesterday while I was thinking money.

Could I have picked a worse day to check it than the day $100 billion was wiped off the Australian Stock Exchange?

It made a big dent in my super balance, a touch over 11% gone as I've invested my fund almost entirely in Australian Equities. Oh well.

I’m not touching anything for now, I've still got 26 years until I retire (assuming retirement is at 65 for me) so I’ll just sit tight for now and ride out the storm. Plus start learning more about how best to manage my retirement funds and diversify once I have a clue what I'm doing.

I was speaking to a friend in London last night about all this and he was telling me he’s got over 4 times as much as I do and he’s only a year older (he's just moved there). Granted he earns substantially more than me and has done for years, but the key difference is he’s been contributing at least 11% since the superannuation guarantee kicked in 1992. A smart cookie that one.

I won’t be selling the shares I found yesterday any time soon either. If I was in a better position financially I’d actually be buying more to be honest! :-)

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