I Opened Roth IRA

After going back and forth over whether I should hold off on this goal a while longer, I decided to open a Roth IRA. I will transfer $200 per month into my Roth IRA for the remainder of the year. Why do I have an extra $200 in my budget you may ask? It's not really extra, my private student loan from college recently went into deferment (nearly $300 per month) because of my in-school status as a part-time graduate student. So, I've decided to use this money I'm already accustomed to paying out each month into a Roth IRA and the remainder will most likely be diverted to my credit card balance. My student loans are not a financial focus for this year but I hope to be able to accelerate payments in 2010 and beyond. For now, I'll keep chipping away at my other financial goals, which I've discussed in detail before like adding to my emergency fund, paying off credit card debt and contributing to retirement funds. When I do start paying my student loans again in 2010, after my graduate program is over, I plan to increase my income and decrease unnecessary expenses in my budget.