April 19, 2008
It might only be twice over, actually. I was geeking it up gamer style on the train the other day, as my friend and I were giggling over this Photoshopped but oh so appropriate image from Joystiq:
SO TRUE.
And since I’ve been in the mood for the stocks and bonds side of PF geekery, it occurred to me that it’d be awesome to own some Nintendo stock. I discovered that Nintendo (NTDOY.pk) isn’t even on the NYSE! They’re traded on the Pink Sheets, which I’d never even heard of. So now I’m trying to figure out just how difficult it is to get on the Pink Sheets just so I can own a few shares of NTDOY. 😀 I think they’re trading at approximately $68/share, unless I totally misread the Sheets. Can anyone understand why the company that put out the DS and the million iterations of it isn’t even on the NYSE? Is it just because they’re foreign, or just because they don’t want to make their budgets/accounting public? Hmmm….
November 19, 2007
Could it be, I have no unclaimed cash? Why, yes! Duh! Typical, I get all excited about the idea of expanding my financial horizons, broadening my exposure to different investment and saving options, and exploring the great NASDAQ. And forget that I’ve not a penny to put in place of my mouth.
Silly girl. One great reason I shouldn’t be redirecting my cash: the plan to buy a rental property next summer with my friend.
Another great reason: my e-fund’s still not up to par yet.
Another: I still haven’t a clue what’s going on in the stock market, beyond the basics. In fact, I might not really grasp the basics thoroughly, either.
Instead of becoming discouraged, this is what I’ll do.
1. Research the brokerages. Scottrade, Ameritrade, Charles Schwab, etc. Compare and contrast their products, services and fees. Decide on a brokerage by Christmas. Research and pick a couple of stocks I like.
2. Clear up my financial messiness: round up the credit cards from last year’s AOR, transfer the credit limits to the cards I plan to keep and cancel the losers. Decide if I want to pay off the BroDucky fiasco 0% BT two months early so that I can take advantage of my last 0% BT for about 8 months.
3. Call in the $5000 personal loan from a family friend and deposit that into my savings. It’s convoluted, but the end result means that the money will now be working for me, and not for my dad.
4. Sell the truck. Maybe I will take the “easy” way out and use a car selling service. Carmax, maybe? Things are sufficiently busy and complicated that I don’t relish the idea of investing a lot of time, but neither do I want to lose a lot of money selling that way. If they’ll pay $10k, then I’ll just do it.
5. If I get a good Christmas bonus, set aside $1000 for investing. That’s assuming the brokerage I pick doesn’t have a higher minimum balance.
November 18, 2007
Confrontations: My brother took the car, seeking permission from my enabling father instead of me, on Thursday. I’ve had it out with both my parents for their enabling behavior and finally got a hold of my brother today to give him a piece of my mind for his selfish, thoughtless behavior. I’m taking away his car keys this time, like I should have last time. I’ve also taken away my parent’s keys. How has my family life come to this??
Discoveries: I can probably bid on a one or two year subscription to the Wall Street Journal on ebay and NOT spend $100 on it. The seller requires at least a 30 day history on ebay and have positive feedback due to “non-payers.” I have no recollection of using ebay to purchase anything, but because I had ordered books on half.com 6 years ago, that history translates to ebay! Turns out I have a 6 year history on ebay and 100% positive feedback. NICE. That’s useful IF I win this auction. In the meantime, the website has a pop-up offering me a two-week free online subscription.
Also, I found a stock-conversations friend. Never had one of those before. It’s all very new, but it was good motivation to finally bite the bullet and start investing a little. It’s not that I’ve done all I can with regards to the “less technical” (as I see it) personal finance, it’s just time to expand my horizons. My eyes did start crossing a bit when the conversation got more technical than I’m accustomed to: dividends, divestitures, equity …. oy! My understanding of how stocks work is still shaky. Time to do some research.
Delivery: My ETS check came in the mail on Saturday! +$98! Will have to put that into the Expense account, though. Projected expenses through the end of the year are higher than I’d originally expected.
Acquisition: All the doomsday predictions about Comic Con selling out their 4-day passes even earlier this year got to me. I bought my pass.
Difficulty: BoyDucky’s father took yet another turn for the worse this weekend.
May 4, 2007
After I published that last post, I saw my empty Roth 2007 meter. I’m not a total hypocrite, I have $1200 in savings waiting for 1800 more friends so they can go to Contribution Heaven together.
Waaaait a minute!! I’m an idiot. No really, I’m an idiot!! I was thinking of my 2007 IRA as a wholly new IRA, independent of last year’s, so that meant I had to meet the $3000 minimum again. What? Well, I would, if the investing world were run by idiots like me!! That logic is completely illogical.
*sigh*
I really hope that this is just a product of my sleep deprivation, and not a general indication of my financial intelligence. Do we have such a thing? Financial IQ?