Day 153

I have a dilemma. I think I wrote about this but my tuition is going up for classes beginning on or after 1 July. I can prepay for all my classes at the current rate or I can continue to pay for them as I start them but that means I will pay more for the classes.

I'm going to have to look at my finances. I know I can pay for all of my classes now because I have the money, but I don't know if I have the money to pay for all my classes and max out my Roth IRA contribution for 2008 and
pay for my new computer. I think I will be able to contribute to my Roth IRA for 2008 as long as I do it before I get my taxes done for 2008.

Decisions, decisions. I thought about paying for the rest of my classes except for the last two. I can pay for the last two next year and claim them for my taxes for 2009. The only problem is if I wait, I'll be paying over $4,000 for those two classes. Right now, I get a military discount on my classes but after August of this year, I will no longer get that discount.

About my computer. I don't really need a new computer other than I'm tired of reading off of a 15-inch monitor. I also don't have anymore hard drive space on my laptop and I don't want to wear out my poor laptop. It's held up great for the 3 years I've had it. I've been doing really good at deleting files off my computer when I complete a class but between pictures and music, eventually I will run out of room. Plus, when I'm done with school, I'm going to want to pick up on photography and video blogging. That is of course, after I finish submitting my application for that writing fellowship I've had my eye on for the last 6 months.

According to MacRumors, Apple will be doing the education promo starting 3 June. Last year, if you bought a computer, you got a free iPod nano. This is another reason why I want to buy a new computer before I graduate because I get an education discount and an iPod nano. If I wait until after I finish school, I don't get the discount on the computer or the software I want to buy for the computer. That's over $2,000 in savings on a new computer and software!

I won't be doing any traveling abroad until after I find a new job. I'm not exactly in a hurry to find a new job because I would rather wait until next year unless the new job pays significantly more money and is closer to home.

How much money do I want to save? Let's see....