The stock market has been very nice this week. I don’t know what is going on but whatever it is I hope it stays that way. It has not made me a millionaire yet but at least I am gaining back what I lost during the last slide. I guess it wasn’t a slide per say, it was more of a roller coaster ride with more downs than ups. I hope the trend continues and I will be a very happy guy. Just remember, if you are investing like me and if you are in it for the long term stay calm and focused when those drops come.

Surprises happen, and I should look no farther than today’s 403-B report. The market has continued with its wild swings as we all know but one thing has changed for me personally. I don’t pay attention to it anymore and by that I mean that I don’t obsess over it. I would check pretty much every other day but I can only remember checking twice since last report. That is going to be my new strategy from now on, keep an eye on it of course just don’t obsess over it and with that lets check them numbers.

Credit cards are not bad at all, in fact they can be a real friend but only if we know how to use them. I can say that because that is what I do, I use my credit cards to my advantage and so can you. My current credit card gives me 5% back on all gas purchases, which is real good just check those gas prices and you’ll agree with me, and 1% on everything else I purchase. I got it back when I used to borrow a car to go to work so it made sense, I take the bus now so I don’t get that 5% bonus anymore. I do get that 1% and how I do it is simple, I charge my monthly phone and Internet bills to my credit card. One percent does not sound like much I know but the whole point of doing it is to get something back for using something that many people try to avoid. Right now I have about $50 dollars cash back bonus on my card and each month it grows a little more which is exactly the point.

Don’t get me wrong, there is always a negative to everything and I know that credit cards can be real bad and I will tell you why on a coming  post.

I thankfully don’t have a huge debt in fact I owe about $250 of which about $75 is a monthly charge for my cell and my MSN dial up account. The rest is for stuff that I have bought. I am working on paying off that debt and by the end of April I think I will be done with it.

My Blogging related expenses add to my debt but not as much as you’d think. I pay about $30 dollars every three months for hosting for Weekendshere and I already paid $40 dollars, a real bargain, for the whole year for hosting of Gainsnlosses.com and Mydailymundo.com. And lets not forget the $7 dollars that I have to pay every year for the domain names that I own which are only seven. Other than that I try to keep a very tight leash on expenses which is good because unpaid debt can turn real ugly really fast.

When I am debt free you will be the first to know.

February the month of love and of a lot of pain for us investors. The market continues to head south and that makes it very hard for us investors, we can’t seem to make an honest buck. So far the only thing that seems to be going up is my blood pressure, if only I could make some money every time that happened but that is asking too much. So here we are with another 403-B report so lets check and see them numbers.