Over the weekend, I read an article that discussed the possibility that the Fed might raise rates soon. (What does soon mean in this case? I don’t know.) The article was written with a sort of “Oh no, this is terrible!” sort of vibe, but as a saver, I was pleased to see this happening. Rising interest rates are always good for my savings account.
Now, I’m not entirely selfish here. There’s another big positive to rates rising. If the Fed is comfortable bringing rates up again, that means that they believe that the economy is finally moving in the right direction. That’s something I think we can all handle. It’s nice to not see all sorts of doom and gloom going on. Plus I like the idea that maybe my retirement accounts will finally start to show some real growth instead of loss.
Of course, I don’t want rates to skyrocket. That would be amazing for my savings account, but not so amazing for the day when I want to try to get a mortgage. But maybe we could have a nice balance.
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
I hope the unemployment rate improves. That seems to be a better indicator of economic stability to me.