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Finances & Money • Investing

I chose to pump $1500 into the economy today

September 18, 2008
By Michael Townsend
- Leave a Comment

After just getting off my soapbox about buying $1,500 televisions, and our own reasons for not buying, I decided to spend $1,500 of our money. But it might surprise you to know that it wasn’t any material goods that I purchased.

In fact, I transferred $1,500 into my Roth IRA. I just couldn’t bear seeing the market at such lows and not having the cash in my IRA to buy! The problem is that we now have to pay down our second mortgage quite a bit by next October so we can refinance the first mortgage. But it’s such a daunting task that it’s almost too overwhelming to think we can do it and still lead a somewhat enjoyable life (and still pay the last $5000 for my graduate school tuition).

Perhaps, if we’re lucky, the housing market would rebound enough to increase our home value another $10k-20k by this time next year? I doubt it though, so I’ll plan for the worst and be pleasantly surprised otherwise.

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About Michael Townsend

Michael Townsend founded CleverDude.com in June 2006 while working as a technical analyst in the Washington, D.C. area. A Penn State graduate, he built the site as a side project alongside a white-collar career that included earning a master’s degree and multiple promotions.

In five years he wrote nearly 1,300 articles on personal finance and life lessons drawn from his own experience. The blog grew from a hobby into a recognized early voice in the personal-finance community and generated meaningful revenue. He sold the site in 2010, continued as a guest contributor through 2015, and returned in 2023 after further career advances, paying off his home, and extensive travel.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Constance says

    September 18, 2008 at 4:42 pm

    I’ve increased my retirement contributions, also! I’m thirty-one and I can wait for stock so rebound. I feel sorry for the people that are/were close to retiring.

    Reply
  2. Matt @ Steadfast Finances says

    September 19, 2008 at 12:50 am

    Nice work. Many of the pros bought up their favorite companies that were selling at a discount while it was available.

    Reply
  3. Bail-outs says

    September 19, 2008 at 11:04 am

    Good job. Frankly, I haven’t even wanted to look and I have not. I think that is good also. I’m young and have some time for things to rebound.

    The housing rebound or lack thereof, is really dependent on where you live. I’ve heard that some areas of the mid-west are seeing increases in home values. If you live in California, Florida and some other places, it may be a while yet.

    For fun, I did post some interesting figures on what the current Bail-outs look like on my blog.

    Reply
  4. J. Money says

    September 19, 2008 at 12:06 pm

    Our portfolios are gonna be LOADED years from now, totally awesome. And let’s just pray our house $ will will start rising for sure!

    Reply
  5. chris says

    September 19, 2008 at 2:32 pm

    i suggest acting like our ancestors and putting the money in boxes in our house.

    the best part about it…you won’t be taxed for it!!!!!!!

    Reply
  6. Marci says

    September 22, 2008 at 4:52 pm

    I also took the opportunity to invest $1100 in the stock market last week. And in case you don’t think that’s much $$, it’s more than a month’s take home pay for me 🙂

    Reply

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