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« Saving and Investing | Main | New face of retirement or work? »
The latest cover of Fortune:
2008 WAS THE WORST YEAR EVER FOR AMERICA'S 500 LARGEST CORPORATIONS --Last year was the worst economic performance in the 55-year history of the FORTUNE 500 list of America's biggest 500 companies. Earnings dropped 84.7% from the previous year, from $645 billion to $98.9 billion, marking the largest one-year decline ever. (A larger percentage drop in 1992 was attributable in large part to an accounting-law change). For every dollar in profits the 500 garnered in 2006, its members made 13¢ in 2008.
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| 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
| 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |


Comments (1)
April 19, 2009 10:41 AM
...I guess now what be a good time to get in.
Hello, and thanks for your past advice. I am in a dilemma and need a 2nd opinion. I've used both the debt reduction spreadsheet and savings calculator both from vertex 2. Now, I am desperately trying to come out of my bad debt. I am 32, have 30K in student loans (4% interest) and 32K in credit card debt (avg.9% interest). I have slashed my budget and sticking to it. I also am contributing to my 401K up to my employer match (5%); putting roughly 5% of my take home pay into ETFs/ mutual funds and another 10% in savings/ IRAs. With my current payment plan, in which 20% of my pay is towards my bad debt…with this plan… all of my debt is paid off in 2014 with paying $10,700 in interest (if interest rates stay as they are). I still have decent credit despite the high amount of debt…and can pay my mortgage/ bills with the remainder of my pay. I want to de debt free quicker…I can be more aggressive and pay off my cc debt in 29 months and student loan in 44 months (if I snowball my cc payments into my student loan). To do this, I would have to stop saving. I have approximately 2K in savings, 20K in my IRA/ 401K/Stocks. I am going to still put the 5% into my 401K, and want to continue to put 5% into the stock market…but stop my emergency fund savings etc until after the 29 months that it takes to pay off my cc debt. I have a VERY stable job with steady income. Is this the best move right now given my circumstances? Paying off the debt will also improve my credit score much quicker.