In-Class Exercise: What is "General Welfare"?

Here is the preamble to the U.S. Constitution:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. [as quoted off Cornell University Law School's website]

What does general welfare mean? How can we adequately define it?

Consider, for example, how politicians fighting for the upcoming U.S. presidency are promoting or fighting over a new concept for America: "Universal Healthcare" (UH). Can the preamble's goals be tied to UH? Which candidate do you think supports the preamble most closely with regards to health care or what you have come to define as "general welfare"?

Where Does This Piece of Writing End?

The Waiting Game

So by now most everybody within a 100-foot radius of me at any moment knows that I've started my dissertation. Proposal round three is with my director, and I'm sure I'll get it back after the Thanksgiving Holidays. For rounds one and two I was suspicious of any large white packet that came in the mail. Is this the one with the feedback? Is it a sweepstakes offer? Could it be quarterly losses from my 401(k)? Any of the above would have been depressing. I was waiting (am waiting still) to jump through this last hoop on my way to finishing my Ph.D. work. And it still feels like the beginning.

For starters, here are all the places in which any graduate school can waylay the best of educational travelers (or gatekeeping mechanisms, as they are):

1. Acceptance to any graduate program (GPA, letters of recommendation, work histories, other experience, writing samples);



2. Introductory courses/grades;



3. The "qualifying portfolio": a place in which, midway through coursework, students must put a portfolio together that's considered academically viable work;



4. Finishing coursework (both required and elective) at a steady pace with acceptable grades (mostly "A"s);



5. Getting somebody to chair your dissertation committee;



6. Getting the proposal passed;



7. Signing up other advisors/readers to be on your committee;



8. Passing the 3-chapter defense; and



9. Passing the final dissertation defense.

And so, three years in, I am only at step 6. I guess it feels like I've done more than that, but there is so much left to do. And where does this writing piece end (the theme, of course, of my dissertation)? Through rounds and rounds of submission, feedback, frustration, rewriting, and resubmission, I have gotten this far. And I guess that's pretty good. But this piece of writing will then blend and merge into my dissertation itself (mostly part of the prologue and chapter 1), continue to change, and not be anything at all like I thought it would be.

I am a stranger to my own written voice. I never sound on paper like I do in my head, or when I speak. It is as if there are three writers here, and each voice is distinct; yet I never know who will show up for the final version. I just hope that I don't have to wait too long to know whether I can take that next step. I mean, I know it's coming, but the waiting is excruciating.

And this reminds me: this is exactly what it feels like for my ENG 111 students to wait 8 weeks for a grade (I'll never do that again!).

Photo Courtesy the Yoga gurus.

Week 5: In-class exercise

Blogs and reporting...

How do blogs and "legitimate" (depends on how you define it) news outlets report on the same issue?

Take a look at the recent Hollywood writers' strike. Here are two bloggers different interpretations of issues surrounding the strike: Writer's Blog or Lowrychris's "Is the Writer's Strike in Hollywood just Gold Digging by the WGA?" and how media (newspaper and online news outlets) are reporting on the issue: "Bad Day at The Office" from MSNBC.

Questions to consider:
1. How do these different types of Internet "reports" handle the issue of the Writers' strike?
2. What are the writing style(s) shown? Are they similar?
3. Based on what you see here, where do you go to get your news?

References Cited (Thus far)

Here is a copy of my growing References Cited list. Not all the pieces are used in my proposal, but I believe I will be actively using them (99%, at least) in the main project.

Baynes, Kenneth, et al., eds. After Philosophy: End or Transformation? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986.

Berlin, James. Rhetorics, Poetics, Cultures: Refiguring College English Studies. Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1996.

Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives. Cleveland: Meridian, 1962.

Carter, Michael. Where Writing Begins: A Postmodern Reconstruction. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

China Daily. “Archaeologists Rewrite History.” China Daily, June 12, 2003. 29 Sept. 2007 http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Jun/66806.htm

Dobrin, Sidney. Constructing Knowledges: The Politics of Theory-Building and Pedagogy in Composition. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.

---------. “From Writing Processes to Cultural (Re)production: Composition’s Theoretical Shift.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, 22 March 2002.

Faigley, Lester. Fragments of Rationality: Postmodernity and the Subject of Composition. Pittsburgh: U. of Pittsburgh Press, 1992.

Fish, Stanley. “Being Interdisciplinary Is So Very Hard to Do.” Profession 89, 15–22, 1991.

Guthrie, W. K. C. A History of Greek Philosophy. 6 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 1962.

Haldane, John. “Philosophy, Death, and Immortality.” Philosophical Investigations 30(3), 245-265.

Hawking, Stephen. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Toronto: Bantam, 1988.

Hyers, Conrad. The Interpreter’s Bible. 12 vols. New York: Abington, 1952.

Joyce, Rosemary. The Languages of Archaeology: Dialogue, Narrative, and Writing. London: Blackwell Publishers, 2002.

Journet, Debra. “Writing within (and between) Disciplinary Genres.” In Thomas Kent, Ed. Post Process Theory: Beyond the Writing Process Paradigm. Carbondale, Ill: Southern Illinois University Press, 1999.

Klein, Julie. Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice. Detroit: Wayne State U. Press, 1990.

Knoblauch, Cy, and Lil Brannon. Rhetorical Traditions and the Teaching of Writing. Upper Montclair, NJ: Boynton/Cook, 1984.

Lucas, Gavin. The Archaeology of Time. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Luce, J. V. An Introduction to Greek Philosophy. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992.

Lukacs, John. At the End of an Age. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002.

Lyon, Arabella. “Interdisciplinarity: Giving Up Territory.” College English 54 (1992): 681–93.

McIver, Tom. “The Alpha & the Omega.” Skeptic 7(3), (ID # 10639330), 1999.

North, Stephen. The Making of Knowledge in Composition: Portrait of an Emerging Field. Upper Montclair, NJ: Boynton, 1987.

Plato, and Albert Keith Whitaker. Parmenides. Newburyport, MA: Focus Publishing, 1996.

Preucel, Robert. Archaeological Semiotics. London: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.

Said, Edward W. Beginnings: Intention and Method. New York: Basic, 1975.

Vandenberg, Peter, Sue Hum, and Jennifer Clary-Lemon. Relations, Locations, Positions: Composition Theory for Writing Teachers. Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English, 2006.

Vitanza, Victor. “Three Countertheses: Or a Critical In(ter)vention into Composition Theories and Pedagogies.” In Harkin and Schlib, eds. Contending with Words: Composition and Rhetoric in a Postmodern Age. New York: MLA, 1991.

Whitehead, Alfred North. Adventures of Ideas. New York: Macmillan, 1933.

Class Exercise: Blog Genres

In small groups, present your topic and discuss the blog leaders in your field. Come up with a list of reasons (a rationale) as to why these might be the bloggers you discuss for your final paper. For example: What makes them a leader? site popularity? Current on issues? Writing style? Technical prowess?

Break apart from groups and write a “review” of one of these bloggers (you can use this as one of your posts next week).

Note: If there are no other bloggers on this topic, you can either broaden your genre (from Colbert to politics in general, for example) or you can write about why you’re the lone blogger on this topic.

The Dissertation Process ...

In this blog post I'm going to outline the process of getting through my particular Ph.D. program in English composition. Each university’s academic program has different requirements for the degree, so this one is particular only to Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

What Happens Before the Dissertation:
Students who have survived the application process should select a focus for their studies pretty soon upon entering (by about 12 hours into the program). In our program, a student could focus on English (composition) or English (Teaching English as a Second Language). We also have a sister department that is literature based. The courses themselves cover everything from “Quantitative Research” to “Teaching Writing” to “Second Language Literacy.” After taking the first 9 hours, students are required to submit a qualitative proposal (QP) that is a packet of documents including new writing, samples of previous coursework, etc. After passing the QP, students move to candidate status, continuing their courses, selecting appropriate electives, and finishing required ones. What's good about this is that the variety of professors, feedback, and coursework should prepare most students for the longer, sustained project of the dissertation.

On average, dissertations are approximately 205 pages in length (Hearther, 1998). During a recent conversation I had with my dissertation director, Dr. Claude, he asked me in all seriousness, "do you think you can cover all this in 200 pages?" He had been reviewing my proposal section that outlined the project. In the back of my mind, I was wondering, do I have enough to make 200 pages? But it seems that with the actual writing itself, the text flows. That's another great thing about directors. They can see the forest through the trees, definitely highlighting potential pitfalls along the way. What I thought was not enough content was becoming a content flood.

Clarifying the Content
So I'm about to start the third round of this proposal, hopefully my last. My job now is to show how my dissertation project both relates to English compositionist and NCSU professor Michael Carter's Where Writing Begins while standing on its own. The similarities are probably clearer than the differences: My text will complete the cyclical nature of the question Carter's book ends with: if the next question is where writing ends, that's what I plan on exploring. My chapters will mirror Carter's chapters, too; however, I'll have less "room" to maneuver because Carter's manuscript probably closed in on 350 pages. I have about 60% of the space to theorize.

But it's in the differences and details that I'm getting stuck: Carter uses the Greek archê (beginning) to deconstruct how we view beginnings, and then to apply that meaning to reconstruct how we envision beginning writing and how we can teach that, knowing what we know now. He uses a break-down/build-up method. I want to move from Carter’s conception of archelogical to my understanding of archaeological; the differences are not just temporal mor the addition of an extra "o" in the word. As Carter sees "beginnings"; I'm looking to "endings." I want to view the “end” of writing through the lens of writing as an artifact. This is a huge departure from his work, and justifying this transition is getting tough.

My next step is being able to articulate this difference, submit it as a new proposal, and get that approved. Then, I can work on convincing two other professors to sit on my committee. And, then, over the next two years, I write, and research, and theorize, and make corrections, get feedback, and repeat. I have two defenses to prepare for, and then when all that is said and done? I’ll have 200 pages of writing that probably only 4 people will ever read. What a strange process academia is ...

References Cited
Hearther, N. K. (1998). Dissertation Abstracts Database Now Tops 1,500,000. Retrieved October 29, 2007, from http://www1.umn.edu/oit/newsletter/0398-itn/abstracts.html

Post 3

Analysis Paper Overview & Checklist

Things that’ll get you ready to write your analysis paper:

1. What is your topic?
2. Who are the other bloggers on your topic? What are they saying?
b. How do you fit into this crowd?
3. A good selection of your blogs--Aim to have 8-10 blogs completed by the time of your beginning this paper
4. At least 3 references (excluding your blog)
5. Comfort in formatting a paper in MLA or APA style (see dianahacker.com/resdoc)
6. Accurate documentation standards (quoting/paraphrasing)


What to cover in your paper:

This paper is an analysis of your blog community (including you!).
It should cover the following points:
1. What is the background on your topic?,
2. What are bloggers saying about this topic/issue?,
3. How you have become part of this community? (Have you?),
4. What’s good/bad/working/not working about writing about this topic?
5. Suggestions for future bloggers on this topic.

Remember, this is a 4-5 page document.

Keep your text focused (on topic), full of details, accurate with documentation, etc. I want you to see what the issues have become in your blogging community. This is were the analysis comes in.

Fall Semester 2007

New Topic Brainstorming

And so we start another round of blog writing. And I wonder to myself, what do I write about this time? The first round was about politics, the second round about finances. I suppose I could discuss why the Broncos are doing so poorly this season or why Florida State just can't crack the top 25, or I could write about home improvement, the improvements I just finished and my plans for more, or I could write about my dissertation, or that marathon I keep gearing up for while letting injuries and school get in the way.

All of these topics require research on my part: for the Seminoles and Broncos I have to become an arm-chair coach of a game I've never played. For home improvements I have to really evaluate costs, home values, and the market. For my theoretical dissertation, which is in the hands of my director, I have to keep reading, writing, and exploring on a variety of topics related to compostion. For my running, I have to figure out why everything gets in the way of training, and come up with a new training scheme. All of these things can become part of my blog experiences for the next 8 weeks. However, I can only choose one.

Although all these topics are related to me personally, they're scattered as such and I must narrow the field. A blog on everything would have no sound structure, no overall development on one topic that can really enhance both my writing and my experiences with(in) the world. Thankfully I have a few days to decide.

To Summarize ...

It's actually quite hard to summarize my experiences blogging about finance. Certainly I think I've learned a lot about myself as a money manager, what I should invest next, how I can save to invest. There are a lot of life lessons in seeing how one functions, and I've realized, quite frankly, I'm a bit sqeamish when spending money. I can live with that.

We're still in the process of getting our life insurance taken care of. Funny or not, this is one of those major things I had to do to get my finances straight. Because part of investing is preparing for the future, and life insurance does that. Just this week we had a home nurse come and check our weights, heights, blood, urine (urgh), etc. and infinitum, to make sure we don't smoke, don't overdrink, don't drug, don't have HIV or diabetes or any of those other million risk factors that will cause our insurance company to lose out on their investment in us. It's kinda creepy to think this much about the potentialities of death when the whole idea of investing is to prepare for a comfortable, financially secure future. There's a whole lot more to this than just the stock market.

So what have I learned? I've also learned that being financially smart means doing a lot of little things in preparation for the glory days of retirement, and it also means giving up some of the frivilous things now. I'll pay off my car next March and then drive it, literally, until it implodes, hopefully in 4 or 5 more years. We'll keep updating this fixer-upper to add value to our property. And I won't skydive, because that makes my life insurance null and void if I die from it. And who wants that?

As an investor, I found out that I'm moderately risky, like to watch money grow, and I can do it based on dollar-cost averaging. Maybe that's investing in moderation, but because I don't make a killing as a teacher, so what? It's something. My goal has been to highlight my assets, protect them, and grow them, while marking down debt like mortgage and student loans. It'll take time, and that is probably the one thing I find frustrating the most. It takes time to both grow money and get rid of debt. For those of us who are impatient, this can be excruiating, like Chinese water torture. But I think the reward is worth the wait, right?

Final Paper and Presentation Considerations

Touch on the following points:

1. What your blog is about (highlights)
2. What is your blog community? What are the similarities and differences among blogs? (give a few examples)
3. What are the issues that arise in writing a blog about this topic? (the how and why questions)
4. Where to go from here? Suggestions for future blogging…

Week 7 In class discussion

Here are some links for our International blogs discussion:

Salam Pax's blogs
Where Is Raed?
Just Zip It

Peter Maass's Slate article
"Salam Pax Is Real"

Or this article from the British newspaper The Guardian:
"Salam's Story"

What else did you find?

Privacy on the Net

I think dealing with issues of privacy are certainly important for this kind of writing venue. Let's face it: we're taking our discussions and moving out of the normal, safe writing sphere of the classroom, in which only a few selected students and a professor or two generally have access to the texts we create. That in itself allows for a kind of writers' vacuum to develop around us all, a shield of imperviousness that makes writing on the net somewhat of a hazard.

So, in some respects, we're brave individuals. This was a strange, scary, odd sort of project, but one that can certainly pay dividends in the future (thinking back to my topic). For me, the privacy afforded me in writing on finance is controlled by a few factors: not using my full name; my husband's request that I severely limit my listing personal financial data in a public place, like listing my actual bank or yearly salary; the knowledge that students of mine will read my writing and respond; and a bevy of other concerns. Of course, being a newbie on the financial front is never something that's easy to admit, as much as it's to admit that while I do not balance my checkbook on a daily basis, I do track my investment/retirement accounts quite obsessively. With all this information floating out on the information superhighway ether, I've actually felt quite insulated so far.

Well, until I read this ominous article today from MSNBC: Threats stifle some female bloggers: Sexual harassment on the rise in blogosphere. And, of course, a concern that stems from a previous post of mine (where are all the women in finance?) reaches cyberspace. This is the place that we're generally getting our most updated information. The Internet, of course, is not a magic balancing act, a place in which equality rings perfectly true each time. But there is a good lesson in all of this craziness. There are always limitations that are not only placed on our writing (by the school, by a professor, by a boss) from outside but also those from within. You'll notice in the article above that self-censorship seems to be the fall-back position people take to protect themselves. Certainly, I've done it in previous posts by not discussing particular details in this investment game I've joined, and I have been frustrated by my inability to be perfectly honest.

But can we ever be perfectly honest? In academia, certainly not. Students are limited by the parameters of the assignment, the time and energy needed to write, and the goals of the assignment, teacher, school, class, etc. There are sometimes too many variables to count. Hopefully the main thing is that we learn context, the ability to self-censor when it is advantageous to us. There is nothing wrong with positively manipulating the situation as long as self-censoring doesn't lead to lying. Think of it as the "sin" of control. Sometimes people don't deserve to know everything. And that includes your professors! However, there are always things they should know, or the readers of your blogs deserve to know: your agenda, your goals, your details as pertaining to specific topics. They all deserve to know where you researched, and what words are yours versus what words/ideas can be attributed to others. There are certain rules to play this blogging game just as much as there are to write a paper or send an e-mail. It all depends.

I've just about done it!

Ok, so impulse investing works kinda like impulse shopping (well, it is shopping, right?). I've stayed on track, tackling about 150 pages of Charles Schwab's New Guide to Financial Independence (2004), and I decided to jump in. Well, here's the plan. When I get a small financial windfall in about three weeks, all that money will be routed directly to my new investment account that I created yesterday through USAA.

Reading this last book has been even more empowering, and based on all these voices demanding action, I'm taking it. Schwab's advice has been a good balance to Orman and Astre (and, interestingly, it's Orman who provides the back-jacket blurb that praises New Guide). Of course, the section "getting started" suggests that there is no better time than now. And Schwab is right. Investments must be done as soon as possible to take advantage of compound interest, the earnings monster that turns a yearly investment of $4,000 into a cool million in about 40 years. When the interest rolls into the principle, and that keeps building, the pot grows, and grows, and grows. That's why I have to start now. And I figured out a way that I can do that without taking too much risk. It's always smart to ease oneself into the shallow end of the pool. I can dive deep later.

Because I belong to USAA, and they have my retirement accounts, I took Schwab's advice (p. 47) and did the prework to investing: creating an emergency fund, ordering 30-year term life insurance for my family, maxing both my work 401(k) and a Roth IRA, and, finally, investing with a lump sum ($3,000) and adding to that $200 monthly, which will be automatically deducted from my checking account. This is Schwab's "pay yourself first" goal, and I know that by signing up to do automatic investing plans (AIPs), I can actually have my money working for me long-term, without having to actively write a check.

The next step was setting up the investment accounts at USAA. I would suggest that anybody who has access to free certified financial advisors take advantage of the service. USAA, for example, has a 1-800 hotline whose agents helped me reallocate my IRAs (to make them more aggressive), set up the term life insurance, and plan for my investments, all in one phone call.

I'm starting with two mutual funds (a collection of stocks, bonds, and sometimes cash assets that allows for diversification across industries, sizes of companies, etc.) that can either be managed by a group of people (more potential but more risk) or set on auto-pilot thorough pacing by the "indexes" like the S&P 500. My two funds will be managed. I also realized that I am not going to be a day-trader; this knowledge that I am gaining does not make me comfortable enough to by individual stocks. To do that, I'd have to also set up a brokerage account. I might in the future, but the great thing is that I'll be investing now regardless of whether I work with individual stocks or bundles. Schwab calls me the "Validator" investor type (p. 66), and that's somebody who's interested in the market but who also wants advice from experts to manage the minutia of my portfolio. Of course, this portfolio will consist of at least 80% stocks (I hope for 83%), 12% bonds, and about 5% in cash assets. I have the profile of a moderately aggressive investor, and this should work because I don't need the money next year, and since I can sit on the investments, the volatility of the market (the big up and down swings) won't affect me if I hold throughout the storms.

Schwab also notes that the stock market has grown, on average, approximately 10% a year; that's a lot of return for our money. My hope is that in a few years, as the compounding grows this money far beyond the principle payments, that I can do something good with it. I see now how important investing is, but it's not the first step in money management. It's really at the tail end of getting out of bad debt, purchasing security (home, insurance), and recognizing that we all must plan for our futures because, at this rate, the government certainly isn't going to have solvent Social Security forever.

References Cited
Schwab, C. (2004). New Guide to Financial Independence. New York: Three Rivers Press.

In-class links, week 5

Hey y'all,

Here are the links to the workshop items for today

Newspaper article, from CNN.

Blog, from Dave Nalle at Blogcritics Magazine.


References:

Associated Press. (2007). Brownback pushes flat tax rate plan: Several details of plan would be set in the coming months [electronic version]. Msnbc.com. Retrieved April 19, 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18151229/

Nalle, D. (2007). Tax day: The bureaucrat in the bedroom. Blogcritics Magazine. Retreived April 19, 2007, from http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/04/17/072651.php

Clearing the Way...

Note: I realize this will come across as a selfish, another "me" posting. But, hey, this is my blog, and this is about me learning how to grow my money! Don't you hate it when people (especially those in the academic sphere) tell you your writing isn't supposed to be about yourself, and that you should be objective? There's usually no such thing as objectivism. (Not Ayn Rand's "Objectivism," of course, but an author's right to a well-written and researched, honest opinion). Be a bit selfish. It can't hurt your writing.

I'd like to step away from planning my big, great investment coup and discuss a point mentioned a few blogs ago: what to pay off first? The advice varies. Suze Orman says high-interest loans and home. Patrick Astre states that keeping the house for tax purposes (and setting up a "mortgage buster" with the help of annuities) is good, so go with the high-interest debt. This seems to be a 50/50 split. Most advisers agree on that debt that negatively affects a credit score: credit cards, car payments, etc. So here's my plan:

1. Car Note: I have just under $4,000 left on my Jetta. Interest is at 1.9%. I should probably pay it off (make me feel better), but since the rate is pretty low, it isn't sucking any of my wealth away. And anyhow, interest was paid up front. I'm now riding the principle payments, with only 11 to go.
2. Student Loans: these vary between mine at around 6% to my significant other's, much lower at 4%. This debt is more significant. Alone, I have about $13,000 out and growing. Getting that terminal degree is anything but cheap.
3. Mortgage: Fluctuates with a first and second between 5.3% on the first and 7% on the smaller second. We're riding an interest-only 5 front on a 30-year for 3 more years, which means that 5.3% will feel a lot bigger because we're not required to pay it at the moment. We expect to move between now and 2010, so hopefully the interest on the first will not kick in. Because of our age (early 30s), Orman suggests that we don't need to move to a shorter loan (15-year) until we find the "retire in" home (pt. 4, "Buying a Home," 2002).

To free up money to invest, paying off my student loans first makes sense. Orman suggests, however, that it's feeling trapped or financially stressed that makes people crazy. So, if you feel the pinch, pay off the mortgage. I like this option, but student loans seem, in the end, the more reasonable option. With the car paid off next spring, and a good dent in student loans made, I see no reason not to start investing in the market now, following Orman's "dollar cost averaging" (DCA) scenario. Then, next year, I'll have that $2,000 to really dabble with. I might not make as much with DCA in the short run, but it will be less risky until my feet are wet enough...

References Cited
Astre, P. (2005). This is not your parents' retirement: A revolutionary guide to investment for a revolutionary generation. N.P.: Entrepreneur Press.

Orman, S. (2002). The courage to be rich: Creating a life of material and spiritual abundance. New York: Riverhead Books.

Strategizing Investing

A recent article in Forbes Magazine titled "The Obesity Index" highlights just one of many strategies that investors make when playing the market. In this scenario, James Altucher of Formula Capital has taken a personal position, that obesity is bad, and translated that into a possible investing scheme (with scheme not being a negative connotation).

Altucher has taken a personal interest in finding companies that fight obesity, and then investigating how they perform for investors. His article highlights the fact that an investor can be both focused on philanthropy and smart investing. I wonder, however, how NutriSystem (as one of his highlighted stocks), with its prepackaging, would affect my environmental stance. Of course, the balance comes with which pull is stronger: I want to help support getting rid of obesity, but I also want to support the environment. Prepackaged meals create much waste. But saving U.S. dollars by fighting the obesity epidemic might just help those same people eat less red meat, which would lessen our support of fast-food establishments, which certainly create waste and pollution and tear down rainforests through the creation of cattle grazing land. The permutations are endless!

Picking emotionally tied investment choices reminds me of how I play-invested as a child. I would use our local Fayetteville Observer newspaper and follow all the companies that advertised during NCAA basketball season. Jefferson Pilot was the one that immediately comes to mind. During 7th-grade investing class (we only had it two days stretched over a month, if I recall), I "bought" all those stocks of companies who supported my TV viewing habits. And I lost money horribly. It might have been because I had no idea what investing really meant. It might also have been because I wasn't being logical with the choices. Or, maybe, it was because I wasn't really investing any money and my short attention span was too busy watching Duke and NC State basketball.

Glenda is right--had my school actually spent more time on investing and less on catechism and home economics, more of us would be quite comfortable with where our money goes and how to invest.

Taking Worth into Account

Here's where a focus on finances gets brutally honest. In This Is Not Your Parents' Retirement, Patrick P. Astre asks readers to do a realistic evaluation of assets (those things we own that have value) versus current liabilities, both good debt (a mortgage) and bad debt (of the credit card variety), and all things we "owe." Subtracting liabilities from assets comes up with our net assets, what we're truly "worth." This was a shocking exercise. Here are the sobering results:

Our assets: $373,750 (take into consideration with this figure a home's total worth, not just what I have invested in it), 401(k) and IRAs, savings, car values, valuables, etc. Seems like a lot, but now look at the liabilities: $354,213 (mortgages, a couple's student loan debts, final year of a car payment, etc.). Our net worth comes only to $19,537. The good news here is that we are worth something, that we own property, and that I'm maxing an IRA and 401(k), and planning to build our savings. The bad news is that I have a few years yet to work my way out of those student loans, and I'll probably need more before I'm done my terminal degree.

In one way, I haven't yet gotten to how much to invest, and when to do it. I'm still laying out my financial realities. Astre is right in that knowing where you are is a good start to taking you toward a satisfying end goal: those beautiful 30-plus years in retirement (I know I'm going to live a long existence) when I can live off investments and portfolios while drinking mimosas and reading tawdry paperbacks in my chaise lounge.

One caveat: The book itself is written more for my parents' generation (the baby boomers). This hearkens back to my last entry, when I was complaining about the lack of volume of investment tomes written by women. Now the focus seems to be that those who really need to worry about this stuff are at least 20 years closer to retirement than I am. Hopefully more of us will get interested in our financial futures.


References Cited

Astre, P. (2005). This is not your parents' retirement: A revolutionary guide for a revolutionary generation. No City: Entrepreneur Press.

The Laundry List

I've decided that I want to go beyond the Internet with my quest to learn more about investing. My first post-Web stop was the local (Reston) library, where I picked up these gems:

1. Charles Schwab's New Guide to Financial Independence, by Charles R. Schwab;
2. Straight Talk on Investing, by Jack Brennan;
3. The Smart Investor's Survival Guide, by Charles B. Carlson;
4. This Is Not Your Parents' Retirement, by Partick P. Astre; and
5. Personal Finance Planning, by V. Victor Hallman and Jerry Rosenbloom

Here are some things that struck me while picking out these books, and maybe this says something about the state of finances in our county: hardly any of the authors for the books I was interested in (investments and retirement planning) were written by women. There were many books out there by women, but they fell into a few categories: "You're newly single!" or "Girl, get out of debt!" or even, and I say this will all honesty, "Picking the right money man." What?

I get the impression that money is and has been, for a variety of reasons, that finance has resided within the den of men for most of modern history. Of course there are exceptions, certainly I was drawn to following Suze Orman's CNBC finance show, and I also read her books. That's a start. But where are the rest of the women? Why are books on money for women focusing on debt management mostly, and those for men generally about "getting rich"? Is it true that men are just more monetarily inclined? This is something that I'll definitely be thinking about as I attempt to absorb this data. And there's a lot of it (Personal Financial Planning itself has 626 pages). I've gotta go read now...

An Attempt to Recover Information...

Note: Starting this blog with research is akin to finding a needle in a haystack: where to begin? Using the NVCC libraries for academic papers is generally a good place to start, but it all depends on the context of the writing. In my case, I’m writing about investments here, so while the library does have good information, using a search engine like Google to hunt down active, legitimate investment sites is not a bad action either.

Beginning with Basic Research
One of the websites I've found is Investopedia, and I like it for its diversity: its name is a play off “encyclopedia,” as other sites like Wikipedia have done on the Internet. But don’t confuse it with anonymous tidbits of cultural trivia. It’s much more dynamic than an encyclopedia: Investopedia has tutorials and training links, “ask the expert” functions, financial articles from taxes and investing to retirement, stock quotes, calculators, and quite a bit more that I haven’t even qualified yet. I'm still reeling over how much there is for me to learn. I think it's good that I start with some definitions and then place myself as a “newbie” within those terms depending on my future actions.

So here are a few useful definitions: Stocks are actually part of “debt investments” (Orman, 2002), in which people like me give their money to corporations (buying a share) As defined by Suze Orman in The Courage to Be Rich, using the stock market is a must to build wealth: "invest in the market for growth and to use as your approach ... dollar cost averaging" (2002, p. 317, emphasis mine). So what is “dollar cost averaging” (DCA)? It is investing small amounts of money, say $25-50 per month, in the markets without starting off with a lump sum. Tim Middleton, in his article "The Costly Myth of Dollar-Cost Averaging" disagrees with this position, describing DCA as similar to what we do with our monthy contributions to a 401(k) but it is slightly different when working the markets. He provides samples of DCA and lump-sum investing in the same fund, with lump-sum approaches netting an 11.7% return and the DCA only 9.8%. That doesn't seem like too much of a difference, but with the right amount of money over the long term, this could be significant.

My goal is not a small one: I want to get confident enough to invest in the stock market. Hopefully this will happen within the next month and a half. Londo Carver, another blogger in our group, suggested that a $2,000 start is a good one for stock investment purposes. I'm going to see how this pans out. According to Chad Langager, an Investopedia advisor, investing with a sum as small as $1,000 is certainly possible, but it's pretty hard to build that base into something much bigger quickly. He falls between Orman and Middleton. Langager states that the intitial money investment isn’t even the only thing to worry about, because

One of the biggest considerations for investors with a minimal amount of funds is not only what to invest in but also how to go about investing. Not long into your investment journey you may find yourself bombarded with minimum deposit restrictions, commissions and the need for diversification, among a myriad of other
considerations. [Langager, 2007]

So, on top of managing my basic needs, like bills and creating a 3-6 month “emergency” cash stash, and now debate between having an initial fund for additional bonds investments. Orman might get us in the game earlier, but Carver, Langager, and Middleton suggest starting with a bit more to lose. The research continues...

References Cited
Langager, C. (2007). Start investing with only $1,000. Investopedia. Retrieved April 2, 2007, from http://www.investopedia.com/articles/basics/06/invest1000.asp

Middleton, T. (2007). The costly myth of dollar-cost averaging. MSN Money. Retrieved April 3, 2007, from http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P104966.asp

Orman, S. (2002). The courage to be rich. New York: Riverhead Books.

Frustrations!

Just a note: when I went to the new Blogger functions, I lost my last post. I was wondering why this happened! Please make sure that, for your own records, that you print your posts out, or save them in Word, so that you don't lose valuable writing and ideas.

Now what was I saying about money?

What I know about finances, generally speaking:

What I know about my finances is tempered about what I don't know. Here's an example:

Today I checked my money market account and was dinged a $15 "maintenance fee." What was that? I called and it just so happens that that account has a $2,500 set bottom limit, and I went below it. I thought it was $1,500. What I don't know about my finances #1: my limit on my money market account. Wait, I know that now.

Another thing I don't know about my finances is investments, specifically stocks and bonds. I get my 401(k). I understand the principle of my ROTH IRA. What I don't know about my finances #2: How do I invest in the stock market? Do I need a broker? How much is a trade fee? How often should one be active/trade?

And here's what I know: I am not a typical woman when it comes to money (ask Suze Orman). I don't cosign for friends who need loans. I have, in the past, given loans, but then immediately regretted it because I knew they'd probably reneg on the money. I don't do that anymore. I also don't overshop. In addition, I don't have kids, who supposedly cost a fortune.

So that's what I think I know, for now. As you can see, there's a lot to learn. I'm currently reading Suze Orman's The Courage to be Rich. Do I have the courage? I don't know. Does it actually take courage? Maybe. There's a lot to consider when planning for the future. Is this whole thing a bit of hooey? Who knows.

My Rationale for Working on Finances

This entry will "defend" the topic I have now officially chosen for my blog: working on my finances. I'm not going to go into every sort of detail here, but let's just say I realize that I am not 21 anymore, and that had I started some serious savings back then, I'd be in greater shape now. And for some strange reason, I'm starting to love money. Is that such a bad thing?

This blog is not about debt, as I am thankful I don't have multitudes of credit cards or a nasty shopholics addiction. However, I am now addicted to following my 401(k) and my ROTH IRA around almost daily, and I've taken to reading how-to finance/investment books, and so I want to know how to realistically (not on a rock-star's salary) keep my IRA and retirement accounts filling up, test the stocks/bonds markets, all the while handling a mortgage, car payments, school loans, and the always frustrating house repair without pulling my hair out.

I think I have a plan: keep reading and researching, mostly with investments and retirements, while trying to figure out how to pay off student loans/mortgage without losing hundreds of thousands in dollars in interest and fees. And what about financing a vacation in here somewhere? Everybody needs to take a vacation once in a while.

So here are some specific topics I'll attempt to discuss as the weeks progress:

1. 1. How I'll invest (do I use a broker?);
2. What to pay off first, and when (car, house, student loan);
3. How much will home repairs get me in this market (is it even worth it to try?);
4. How much money do I have to start with to do something with the stock market or the bonds market?; and
5. How much do we really need to know to be financially successful?

I'm sure more ideas will come my way. I plan on using Money and Smart Money magazines; the The Motley Fool website; USAA, my investments and insurance group, for advice and help from a financial planner; The Wall Street Journal; and a myriad of other sources to really give me sound beginnings here. I also hope to take "lifelong learning" classes through Fairfax County Continuing education (pretty reasonable fees!) on investing, financial planning, etc. I don't know if I can start those classes before this semester ends, but a plan is better than nothing, right?

Welcome, Spring semester ENG 112

It's now that time again to start blogging. What about? I've been wondering that myself lately. Of course, issues surrounding politics are always on my mind, and the environment, travel, and being in school again also make me think I can write for 7 weeks about those topics, too. There are so many things I think I want to write about, and now that we're not in the middle of midterm voting, it's a bit harder for me to buckle down and choose a topic.

I'm sure you'll feel the same way. My suggestion is to make a list of the things that interest you most: music and bands, maybe, or becoming a doctor. Maybe you've traveled a lot and want to explore writing a travel blog. I've recently gotten into "finance" and think I'll probably write about how I can learn and start investing in the stock market. The options are quite open, and so take some time to check out previous student blogs, the blogs listed in the writing parameters handout, and other sensational texts on the Web.

Julie