WHIRLWIND!
I have been in a whirlwind. A world of whirlwind. That’s hard to say outloud.
I am working full time now. I already completed the first half of the program I’m in in Winston-Salem. I miss Winston-Salem a lot. My corporate housing was paid for (along with utilities) so I am eternally greatful for that - living by yourself is hard with student loans and all that. I’m in Wilson, NC now, which is basically “King Metro” or something along those lines. It’s a metropolitan version of King, NC. It’s also really hot. I liked my corporate apartment. It was furnished and everything was basically paid for me. Now that I am permanently in Wilson, I realize I really took Winston-Salem for granted. I don’t mind Wilson, but it sucks having to drive to Raleigh to be anywhere near an urbanized community.
I bought a 2004 Dodge SRT-4. I was going to go with a GTO (see below) but I couldn’t find one anywhere near here for a decent price. My gross income doesn’t support me enough to buy anything more expensive than the SRT-4 (used), and it was the fastest car available for that price. I like it a lot, it’s definitely the fastest car I’ve ever driven - but the seats are uncomfortable for long trips, and I have to travel a lot with the company. Anything more than an hour of driving is annoying. It’s a good car though; I may replace the seats with the regular Neon seats if I can find some. The SRT-4 was developed by the same team that made the Chrysler 300 SRT-8, the Viper SRT-10, and whatever truck they did (another SRT-10). I think they may have made a Crossfire SRT-6 as well. The newest SRT-4 is going to be Dodge Caliber. Those things are pretty cool. But my car will absolutely FLY if you let it. It’s a gas guzzler, but not as bad as a GTO. Sometimes I still wish I bought a GTO, but I know I wouldn’t have been able to afford it. Ah well, once I get my loans paid off I can always get a used one down the road. That’s right!
I made some calculations using some sophisicated software at work and I came to the conclusion that paying off my student loans ahead of a 401k is a bad idea. I wanted to pay them off in 5 years, but after some amortization schedules and other figures, it would be MUCH more benficial to pay them off at a steady rate over 8 or 10 years while feeding funds into an IRA, mutual fund, or 401k account. Compound interest for the win.
I wish I won the lottery.
Right now I’m in a hotel in Charlotte. Another business trip to have meetings with people in my division. I’m all over the place! First I went to Louisville, Kentucky; then to Gloucester, Virginia; then to Virginia Beach, Virginia; then to Whiteville and Wilson, NC; then to Richmond, Virginia; then over to Charlotte, North Carolina; Raleigh, North Carolina, and another tour of Whiteville, North Carolina. Whew.
