September is an interesting month for me this year. I’ve relocated to Washington state, but at the same time I’ve also received a few extra (cash) bonuses that have just so happened to occur at the same time. These bonuses occur only once per year, and one of them is a one-time thing. However, they are all occurring concurrently.
So, I have some decisions to make. One of things I’ve always been careful to do is make sure I have enough capital in reserve in case I need it. This is for those unexpected expenses that come up, such as needing to buy a plane ticket and rent a car in order to get back into my country after a trip to Las Vegas.
I am currently at the point where my reserve capital should be okay for a while, so here’s where I see things:
- I can deploy my excess capital by paying off some loans, and indeed this is what I did. I still have a little bit of student loans to pay down and also my car loans. Which one do I pick?
Ultimately, I went with paying down part of my car loan. I split the loan into two pieces, I put part of it on a bank loan and another part on my line of credit. Since my line of credit has the highest interest rate, I paid off that one first.
I then paid off my Manitoba Student loan. I can’t remember what the interest rate on that is, but I think it’s higher than my bank-financed car loan. Next in line would be my Canada Student loan.
- I used to think I could take a trip somewhere, but that option has been taken off the table. When I moved from Microsoft Canada to Microsoft US, all of my remaining vacation days (I had a lot due to carrying so many of them over) were paid out to me. So whereas before I had the time but not the capital, now I have the capital but not the time. This kind of concerns me, because my big goose of a brother has now traveled to as many countries as I have. I need to retain my lead.
- I could invest some of my money. I’m currently holding 8 stocks, all of them profitable. I could put some extra money to work, but I don’t know if I’d want to hold more than 8 positions. Too many positions are hard to follow. I’d probably have to pyramid into an existing position. Or maybe I could buy an oil stock.
- I could buy some doodads. I rarely buy doodads, particularly electronic ones, but I have been thinking of an iPhone or a GPS device. Or maybe a Macbook.
- I have to move out of my temporary apartment soon. I will need money to buy furniture. This is definitely something I have to keep in mind.
- I could simply save my money. I view this as the riskiest option because of the declining purchasing power of the dollar, both in terms of inflation and in terms of the US dollar weakening against world currencies.
The biggest motivation I have is that I should keep my money moving. Point 6 is the one that concerns me because not doing something with my money is (probably) worse than doing something silly with it.