Market Post-Mortem

I realize I haven't posted in a while, but year-end corporate bookkeeping, work, and some personal affairs consumed a lot of my time. Being occupied can numb the stress, the pain some.

A lot has happened, including that freak 2-10% global equity market drop. Fun times! My recent entrance into index ETF's ensued with a drop, losing the 2-5% gains I'd made since early January. Also, I began building my portfolio's core by using a portion of cash reserves to purchase a total market index fund-- *two* days before the drop. Yowzers. Talk about bad timing.

Anyhow, I'm waiting for the market volatility to play itself out before I further slip into my eventual asset allocation.

I made one *huge*, unintended mistake lately. When buying my mom's luxury SUV with my corporate discount, I rushed my judgment at the bank which funded the loan and made a sizable down payment.

We've all heard that paying down short-term debt aggressively leads one on a road to that ever-greater credit score, and freeing up cash for potential future investments.

However, I feel I've reined in and have a handle on my monthly expense budgeting, so I know how much I'm projected to spend every month in 2007. With that being said, I could've taken advantage of the pro's of having an auto loan (disciplined leveraging) without being bit by the con's (spiraling, out-of-control expenditures from lack of disciplined budgeting).

What a mistake. By doing so, I negated nearly $7,000 worth of potential short-term cash reserve I would've had at the end of 2007. That hurts.