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TossFloss
Canada606 Posts
1. Keep your portfolio diverse. Do not invest more than 15-20% into a single company.
2. Your broker is your enemy. He makes money on a per-transaction basis. Don't believe his lies. Make sure you get a load down on the per-transaction fees so that you are not eaten alive by them.
3. Lots of older books talk about investing for dividend. There used to be a time when dividends were very popular. But that's no longer the case.
4. Keep 3 months worth of living expenses in the bank.
5. By the time you graduate, you should have more experience investing. Contrast your typical % return from investing with the % interest rate of your student loan.
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if you are in college, i suggest you not worry about investments and focus on your studies. 10% is considered a good investment. 20% is considered an amazing investment. That means if you start with 1000, in a year, if you have 1200, you've done great! I don't know how much you are starting with, but it probably wont be that much. So that few hundred bucks you MIGHT make, is not worth you doing "less" well in school.
focus on your grades and invest later.
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TossFloss
Canada606 Posts
On June 28 2010 09:16 TunaFishyMe wrote:
if you are in college, i suggest you not worry about investments and focus on your studies. 10% is considered a good investment. 20% is considered an amazing investment. That means if you start with 1000, in a year, if you have 1200, you've done great! I don't know how much you are starting with, but it probably wont be that much. So that few hundred bucks you MIGHT make, is not worth you doing "less" well in school.
focus on your grades and invest later.
The investment learning experience itself is substantial. Also, doing something well does not mean you have to do it to the exclusion of everything else.
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I agree. Investment learning experience is very important. At least for me, when I first started to invest, I would spend so much time worrying if my stocks went up or went down throughout the day, I couldn't concentrate. I'd feel sick to my stomach when I check in the morning and saw my stock feel 5%. Now that I've gained more experience, I realize that this is just facts of the market and I don;t let it get to me. But it definitely affected my performance at school a bit.
Also, investing take a lot of time. Fundamental analysis, you need to know whats going on all the time, and know how it might affect the market. technical analysis, you could read hundreds of books. If you just do whatever floats your boat, expect to lose money lol. but thats my opinion.
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I went to borders but didn't actually end up getting that book. An employee helped me and they supposedly had one in stock but neither of us could find it, but I did get another one I was planning on which was reccomended to me via pm. And I realized that:
1) I should get experience as soon and cheaply as possible. I wasn't placing a value on my own brain as an asset. I've been using my economics courses and learning all kinds of new terms and developing my own stock investment strategy over the past week. It'll be another two months before I'll have a realistic amount of money to buy stock so by this time it'll work or I'll know whats broken and fix it.
2) I should look for opportunities which I can pursue right now. I've already started drafting plans for a potential asset which wouldn't cost me more than $20 + spare time in a year. And it will be fun either way.
3) I'm gonna need a lot more technical books and to find a mentor-like person who I can ask questions.
I also learned about dutch ovening today. who knew
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money is total shit... when you have it yoy have to constantly thibk of what to do with it, when you dont have it, getting sime is huge worry
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even prior to my sudden interest in financial intelligence I've always thought money is a means of being able to do the things you want. I don't even know what you mean you can't think of what to do with it
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On June 28 2010 14:51 JohannesH wrote:
money is total shit... when you have it yoy have to constantly thibk of what to do with it, when you dont have it, getting sime is huge worry
spoken by someone who doesn't have any.
money isn't everything but it is financial freedom. To be able to buy things without having to worry is a great feeling.
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To not have to worry about finding money to buy groceries or pay your credit card bill is a great feeling
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If you think investing in stocks is a good thing to do when you are living off loans then you should play a stock market game instead. Pretty fucking dumb to risk your money to learn and get experience when you have no money. And its not like you can invest a substantial amount at this point for it to have any benefit for the risk.
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On June 27 2010 15:07 KurtistheTurtle wrote:
4. What's generally a good amount to have in the bank just in case?
6. Any other money management tips would be much appreciated.
4. A great amount of emergency money to have is 6 full months salary. This takes 10-15 years to save up, so it's not too much per weekly paycheck. These are for big emergencies you may have later in life. If you begin to put away emergency savings now, when you really don’t have any emergencies that may come up, when you’re in the position of owning a home, having a full time job, maybe even a family, you have a base already of emergency money so you don’t have to start from scratch.
It may sound like too much, but my parents learned the hard way. They had several thousand dollars saved for a housing renovation. Then my dad's union went on strike for 8 weeks. They tried to live off the renovation savings, but it wasn't enough. In that time, with living expenses, insurance, and mortgage payments they fell so deep into debt that they declared bankruptcy less than a year later. I grew up with a lot of money problems. I watched the family van get repossessed and the bank foreclosed on the house I spent most of my childhood. These were real emergencies that a good emergency fund could have made MUCH easier.
6. Keep track of everything you spend and work it into a monthly budget. Prioritize what you really need with savings for food, housing, a vehicle, and other needs. Spreadsheet programs like excel make budgeting a million times easier than previous generations. It's like pulling nails at first, especially with assuming everything is more expensive than it is, but after a few hours of negotiating values with yourself you will have a template that lasts a long, long time!
Also, when saving money, make sure you're saving it in the right place. Any amount over $1000 needs to be in a money market or interest-bearing checking. Any amount over $3000 needs to be in a mutual fund. Interest is a wonderful, wonderful thing...just make sure your money is somewhere you can immediately access.
Credit cards are more trouble than they're worth. Everything that you used to need a credit card for you can also use a debit card. Go with them.
Also, start putting miniscule amounts of money away for retirement. $10-$20/paycheck. You would not believe the number of people in their mid-thirties that wished they did this!
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On June 28 2010 14:51 JohannesH wrote:
money is total shit... when you have it yoy have to constantly thibk of what to do with it, when you dont have it, getting sime is huge worry
lol u got a lot to learn buddy
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Thanks for the answers. I've ordered a bunch of books at ridiculously low prices (just had to trade in an old textbook for a class I switched out of) so I'll be reading through those soon.
Basically, investing w/ student loan money is a dumbass idea unless you can make a guaranteed 20% with no risk. In that case I should be taking out as many loans as possible.
My focus has turned to my organization and time management along with personal finance. I went out, bought a personal planner and organized all my financial files, online accounts, etc (this was like 15+ hours in the past 2 days). I set to-do lists and tasks for each day all with the ultimate result of being done at ~5-6 and making extra $$ on the side. Weekends off. Basically I make my own 10-5 job when I'm not working. I've learned that if I give myself set amounts of time to do things (like write an important paper in 24 hrs ^^'') I'll just somehow know exactly what I need to do and not dawdle around. If I give myself extra time, I'll actually get less done. Weird, but I've come to realize its how I am.
I have a new question. As a full-time college student, what are some ways I can make money on the side? I've got some answers I'd like to share but please let me know if you think of anything else or have other related advice
1. get a job (duh)
2. sell things online (ebay, craigslist, etc)
3. Freebie Trading (time-consuming & chump change but a dollar is a dollar)
4. Affiliate marketing (haven't explored this yet)
5. Start a website (in the pipeline, I'll get around to this when I have time)
6. Odd jobs
And more specifically, what are some ways I can do it with my remaining 1.5 months of summer? My plan right now is to put up flyers at local grocery stores advertising me to mow lawns, and another one involving house-sitting flyers (I've got references and I'm an eagle scout so its a matter of getting them to call me and scheduling it)
I'd also like to get better at negotiating, networking and figuring out opportunities. Even with just a little bit of research and practice, I have kind of a filter through which I view situations now and react accordingly. It's different than just social aptitude, its like a subconscious thing but I'm very aware of it. Ramit Sethi's website is a great place for that, but its in a distinctly business setting. If you've gone through a similar process, how do you recommend I do this? Any other good resources on this?
I might make a new blog. My quest to buy a ps3 is turning out to be self-improvement month.
Oh, one other thing. My thirst for knowledge somehow turned back on. The reason why is still beyond me, maybe its just because I'm starting to connect everythign I've ever learned, but I've been missing it since...4th grade. I remember the first day I genuinely didn't want to go to school. But now I'm looking around for free classes and seminars to attend, new opportunities to learn things...theres SO much I want to know. I go through such massive amounts of information each day but I can't remember all of it. I need a system. This isn't school anymore and I'm so friggin excited
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EPT
