Personal Finances Posted August 30, 2004 at 12:00 am

Bills are starting to come in as August nears a close. Titus has passed rent and utility management onto me, so I get to learn all about the joys therein. Comcast has already screwed up by hitting us with a $44 charge for “unreturned equipment” on a cable modem that they did pick up. Well, I’m trying to get it cleared up now.

At the same time, I’ve turned to Microsoft Money to help me manage all the new bills and payments. The number of options is daunting at first, but I feel like I’m starting to get a hang of it. Money looks like it has some neat features, like expense tracking and reporting, that will come in handy.

I’ve also got some money earmarked for investment that has been idling away for far too long now. Investing has always daunted me, even more so following the market volatility in the past five years, and I’ve been putting this off for a few years now. But I also know that idle money isn’t good, so I’m finally trying to get enough of a feel for things to start putting my money somewhere. I’ve gathered a list of stocks to look at and I’ve also started looking at options with mutual funds. The plan is to get something going within the next week or two.