Continue reading »]]> I was looking online for the software to read my CPAP data and I found SleepyHead.  It’s open source software and can be downloaded for free at http://sourceforge.net/projects/sleepyhead/  It was easy to install the software and read from the data card.

Below is a screenshot that shows in the second graph that between 3:10:55AM and 3:11:05AM I had an obstructed airway event.  With my old machine, I never had access to this kind of data!

Click image to view full size.

Continue reading »]]> This is a follow up to my previous post.  My student loans can be consolidated with a new interest rate of 5.125% over 25 years.  The cumulative annual growth rate for the S&P 500 over the last 23 years is 9.34%

Assuming $50,000 in student loans at 5.125% over 25 years:

Regular payment of $295.95 = $39,079371 in total interest.
Regular payment of $295.95 + $200.00 extra per month = $15,532.03 in total interest and paid off in 12 years.

Now let’s see if we don’t pay the loan of early, but instead put that extra $200/month into an investment that earns 8% on average every year (remember S&P 500 cumulative annual growth rate over the last 23 years is 9.34%.)

Regular payment of $295.95, and $200.00/month invested for 25 years.  Using the future value formula in Excel =FV(8%/12,25*12,-200,0,0):

Investment value $190,205.28 (over 25 years)
Interest paid on loan $39,079.71 (over 25 years)
Net Gain =  $151,125.57

In order to compare apples to apples, let’s take our early payoff of 12 years, and deposit what we were paying on our loan (payment + $200/month) into a new investment for the next 13 years, which will give us a total range of 25 years.

Investment value $135,354.87 (over 13 years)
Interest paid on loan $15,532.03 (over 12 years)
Net Gain =  $119,831.84

Well, I’m not a financial accountant which means I could be totally wrong, but it looks like I would be about $31,000 richer, even though I’m paying more in interest!

OK, but student loan interest is TAX DEDUCTIBLE!  Well, yes, but there are income limitations where it gets phased out to not being deductible at all.  I will be starting my career in the range where it is not 100% deductible and I expect my income to increase, so I am not taking into account the tax deduction on the interest for my analysis.

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I got a new CPAP machine on Friday. It’s a ResMed S9 Elite. It’s very similar to this model RESMED S9 Autoset CPAP.  I used a SleepStyle 600 for the last three and a half years.  I’m seeing a different sleep doctor now and she wanted me to have a machine with memory card.  When my old doctor wanted to check my compliance or how I was doing with the machine, I would have to physically take the CPAP machine into the office.  Now, I can just take either the memory card, or zip up the file son the card and email them.

Continue reading »]]> Graduation is quickly approaching and soon after that student loan payments will begin.  I’m looking at a consolidated loan with a rate of 5.125%.  I’ve been looking into whether it would be better to pay extra on the principal with each payment, or to invest what I would have made as an additional payment.  If you think about it, when the loan payments are computed, it’s only done one time and your payments are fixed.  If you invest the money, your return will be variable, odds are that the market will increase over the next 25 years, and your return is based on not only the monthly contribution, but the overall balance as well.  I’ve run some preliminary numbers and even though paying the loan off early looks good because I’d pay less interest, I’d actually have more money if I didn’t pay off the loan early and instead invested the extra payment every month.

More to come…