I take a short (looooong) nap and Lee goes and kills the thread.

Yeesh.

Nicole is why we can't have nice things.

I have an ING near me. I had never thought of them as inaccessible for that reason, but it occurs to me I couldn't tell you where another branch (with cafe and free Wi Fi, FTR) is.

Good thing we're picking up Brenda tonight. I need more forces of good to fight the evil forces of Lee.

She's simply too much evil for me to fight all by myself.

sooper DOOPER wench head

I am soooo jealous of the Denver girls...!

I normally don't post here, but I wanted to chime in on the student loan questions for P-C.

When you make your payment during the monthly cycle won't really affect the interest you pay over the period of the loan. If you think you are able to pay more regularly, I would highly recommend calling your lender and asking to reduce the overall life of the loan. For example, when I consolidated my loans, they automatically extended my repayment period from 10 to 30 years (which makes your payments much lower, but overall you pay way more interest). I reduced it back to 10 years. Sallie Mae was happy to adjust the time to whatever I wanted and calculate what the monthly payment would be before they switched it officially. If you are on a 10-year plan, consider switching to 5 (see below for tax implications).

7% is a bit high for interest but here are some reasons not to pay off student loans:
1) For the first 5 years you are in repayment, the interest you pay yearly (up to $2500) is tax deductible (that's right off the top, before adjusted gross income--whether you itemize or not has no effect on this deduction).
2) When you are just starting out, having some cash reserves, especially if you keep the bulk of that reserve in something accessible but with a good interest rate (like an ING account!), can be very valuable for all sorts of reasons.
3) Debt payments you make regularly can help significantly to establish your credit rating, and is better than having no debt at all. Your credit rating can be used for all sorts of things, not loan related. I was a bit surprised when I got car insurance and was told that it didn't matter if I had a few tickets because I had such a great credit rating (and I have tons of debt).
4) Also, student loan debt is forgiven upon death. Obviously, not a primary reason to keep the loan, but something to think about if you will be buying a car, house, etc. that might make you incur other non-forgiveable debt.

Also, keep as little as possible in your checking account if it does not earn interest. I've found transfering money back and forth to ING to be fairly smooth if you are worried about sudden expenses that might come up.

IRA issues really vary from person to person, but if your company matches at all, try to contribute as much as you can to their 401K up to the amount of their matching funds, especially if you have a solid savings cushion. At your age, any retirement saving should be primarily in stock (not bond) funds.

Hope this helps!

ETA: to add 401K clarification and because affect is not effect

Also, keep as little as possible in your checking account if it does not earn interest. I've found transfering money back and forth to ING to be fairly smooth if you are worried about sudden expenses that might come up.

Yeah, I've got the bulk of my money in the ING right now, and when I get a little bit more comfortable, I'll figure out how little I need to keep instantly accessible. Because right now I probably have too much that's not earning enough interest.

At your age, any retirement saving should be primarily in stock (not bond) funds.

I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I'll keep it in mind.

Hope this helps!

It really does! Thank you! I think it looks like the best course of action with the loan right now is to increase my monthly payments.

At your age, any retirement saving should be primarily in stock (not bond) funds.

I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I'll keep it in mind.

Well, in a company 401K plan (or certain IRAs), one can usually choose from a variety of mutual funds, which are mostly various kinds of stock or bond funds. Over the very long term, stocks outperform bonds, so, if you are investing with an eye to 30 years down the road, even though year to year the market might fluctuate greatly, you will have a higher average annual return with stocks and end up with more money. Bond returns are more stable, however, so as you move closer to retirement age you should move more money into bond funds.

Hee, Nora. I totally just pimped ING to a friend of mine. How do I get a referral code? She'll have enough money to open an account when she gets paid in three weeks.