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?
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Thursday, May 03, 2007
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…
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?
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?
Monday, April 30, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
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
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
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
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.
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