| Missed the last couple of NetworthIQ entries due to some vacation time and getting reintegrated in the swing of working in a non-deployed environment again.
Unfortunately, my vacation time took up a little more money than I expected, so I am paying off a credit card that is at about $6,000 right now. I?ll have the bulk of it paid off as I will use a portion of my SDP money that I saved while deployed to pay down the card. Once that is done, I will be able to focus on paying off my cadet loan again and be completely debt free.
Tax time is coming up, and since I need to file taxes for both 2010 and 2011, I will probably check out a couple of sites and the Army tax center to ensure that I get the maximum refund back, although I am sure 2011 is going to be a small return since that was essentially a tax free year.
I need to reinvigorate my efforts in improving my financial education so that I can make more informed decisions. I did see a financial advisor that was near my base, but she did not really offer me too much to think about except for the possibility of adding annuities to my portfolio. When I first started reading about investing a few years ago, I remember that it was noted that annuities should be avoided. I don?t remember the exact reasons why, but it is something to look into again as I am looking to diversify my portfolio a little more this year.
|