I found myself with a large pile of money saved up from this summer with the Census, and an even larger pile of loans coming off deferment. I had originally planed to put that money directly towards the loans, making a slightly smaller pile of negative money. But I looked at my pile and thought, “That’s no fun.” I had been wanting to get involved in the stock market for a while, but I didn’t have the money to open an account (etrade wants $1k, Scottrade $500). Well, I have the money now, and if I can make it grow faster than interest accrued on my loans, I could put this money to a better use. So in late August or so I opened an account with Scottrade, and passed my pile of money over to them. I’ve been holding stocks for a week at the most, waiting until I get an acceptable gain, then selling. I made 4% during the month of September, which is more than good enough for me. If I can keep that up, I’ll be well ahead of the interest on my loans, and making a bit of money for myself. However, it’s worth noting that September was an especially good month for the stock market, and I probably did rather poorly considering that. But if I can keep up a modest gain, I’ll be saving money on my loans and keeping myself occupied.
All good things.