The Tortoise Wins

About eight months ago my husband and I both opened an ING savings account with the $25 referral bonus. I had high hopes for our finances this year, and at the time I was working full time. I immediately put an automatic $100 a month into the account, and added more when I could. My husband thought that was too much, so he just put $25 a month in.

In April, my husband and I both had to empty our savings accounts and put the money into IRAs or face paying major taxes. We started again from nearly zero.

Also in April, I went to part-time work and we decided to sell our house.

In June, I cancelled the automatic withdrawal.

Yesterday I asked my husband to check his balance. The entire time he never changed anything, and hardly noticed the $25 that went in each month.

My balance today: $61.52. His balance: $335.26.

In finance, as in many things, the tortoise wins the race. I plan to start automatic withdrawal, but this time, I'm going to follow my husband's footsteps and only put in $15-20 a month.

It pays to just plod along...