Breathe...

My cousin and her husband are having a baby. She was induced at 8:00 last night, and is still in labour. We're expecting to hear news sometime this afternoon, so I'm finding it a little difficult to concentrate on mundane details like work.

While my cousin works through her breathing exercises, I find myself breathing more easily as my retirement portfolio continues to recover. My Employee Savings Plan balance is currently the highest it's been since I started tracking its performance in May. Since April 30, I've contributed about $2,700, and the market value is up about $3,600. Since the index funds I've got my eye on are currently down from when I first started watching them, it's looking like I may actually end up buying into them at a good time.

Finally, I find that I've eaten up some of my breathing room this month, as I had a higher-than-expected wireless bill (roaming charges from our June vacation in Illinois), and also had to renew both my vehicle registration and driver's license. The latter two are meant to be covered by my Freedom Account, but since I only began contributions in May, I only had about $30 saved up toward the $149 fee. Next time around, these expenses will be quite comfortably covered. As a result of the hits in August, my debts have increased slightly (by $184.11).

This debt increase is frustrating, but it is mostly a "hangover" from my previous irresponsible behaviour. Had I been contributing to the Freedom Account a year ago, I wouldn't have batted an eye at the license renewals. The roaming charges indicate that we'll need to keep a closer eye on cell phone usage while traveling, but this will be more than reversed with next month's debt reduction payments, so I'm not too concerned.

I'm learning as I go, and as long as I take a lesson from each mistake, I'm OK with making a few here and there.