Investing and Stocks

Money & Investing
As much as I hate it, I worry about money. And although in some respects I am not a typical college student, I do have the money problems of one. Like most of my friends, I am usually cash-less or pretty close to it. And to pay for things I've had to apply for scholarships, take out loans and work a couple of part time jobs. I'm know I'm not the only one who had to slave away for minimium wage,working at fast-food restaurants, malls, and daycares after school and throughout the so-called relaxing summer vacation.

Basically I don't want to have to worry about money. Is that too much to ask?? Alright so maybe it's a little unrealistic for now, but I'm working on it. Currently it's not going to well. Right now i only have stock in two companies and of course I'm doing my best to promote them.

and

I want to invest some more, but unfortunately bills come first. Coke is a household name, but Annie's is a relatively small, somewhat new company. I bought my Coke stock through the Jack White & Co investment company. And I bought Annies through a direct public stock offering. This is a technique that is being used more and more and seems to working well for some companies. Last summer I worked two jobs seven days a week. Basically I was up at 6 and didn't get out of waitressing until midnight. It was and I was close to burning out when the fall semester resumed.

But I survived and classes resumed and I discover my love of Finance. I happily declared myself a Finance major and preceeded to take classes like international finance and investments.
My investments professor is great. Even at eight in the morning he manages to be wide awake and very quick to ask how the market was doing. He's definately influencing me to turn on CNN at 7:00am and CNBC. And my roommates, who obviously aren't buisness majors think it's odd that I look forward to seeing Lou Dobbs on Moneyline on weekday nights.
At least my Dad would be proud.
My professor has any amazing memory. He rambles off stock symbols and their last price, high price and p/e ratios like a little boy shouting out his favorite football player's stats. It is rather impressive. I, unfortunately don't have that memory and am forced to constantly look up stocks.

A little advice never hurt anyone- this is some I've found:
Assess the situation first
The first step is to review 1998. Ask yourself these five questions:

Is my net worth (assets minus debts) at year-end 1998 higher than at the end of 1997?
Is my total credit-card debt lower than at the end of 1997?
Am I satisfied with my level of control over my spending and my knowledge of where my money is going?
Do I know what my long- and short-term financial -- and personal -- goals are, and am I taking the right steps to meet them?
Am I making sure that my personal life is not suffering because of my financial situation?

Hopefully, you breezed through questions one through three, but question No. 4 may have stopped you dead in your tracks. The majority of Americans have not set financial goals, and surveys show that the likelihood of achieving your goals goes up dramatically once you've taken the time to think about them. Do you want to retire at 55 or 65 or 70? Do you want $30,000 or $300,000 of annual income in today's dollars? Decide on the year that you want to achieve your goal, measure it in some way, look at the trade-offs you'll have to make in order to meet that goal and then list the steps to make sure it happens.

I've put together nine steps that I've found helpful when working with clients. I used the retirement example above because it includes all of the components necessary to make decisions about how you want to live your life in 1999:

Use your computer to get organized. If you’re not using your personal computer and online banking to help handle your finances, it’s time. Buy a personal finance software package, use the one that probably came pre-installed on your machine or download a free trial version of Money '99.

It’s one of the best ways to track your spending, which is the first step in taking control of your finances. Set up your accounts for online banking and bill-paying.

With online banking, you can download your transactions directly from your bank to your personal-finance software. Then, it’s a simple matter of clicking the mouse to assign each transaction to a budget category.
Do a budget. No matter how you do it, budgeting is the first real step toward taking control of your finances. You’ll find out where your money is going and you can identify ways to trim your spending without much suffering.

Budgeting also allows you to set aside money for major expenses, so that you can pay for the genuinely important things rather than fritter money away on impulse purchases. Are you planning to buy a house? Do you want to have a child? A budget allows you to look realistically at the financial impact of these events and to start saving for them.
Prepare for the unexpected. Set aside at least three months’ worth of income in a highly liquid account, such as a money market fund. And if you’re in a specialized field, you may need even more than that in case you lose your job and need extra time to find a similar position.
Review your will and estate plan. Do you even have a will? If not, this is critical, particularly if you have children. Speaking of children, have you had a child since you last reviewed your will? If so, he or she could be left without a dime from your estate if your current will lists your other children by name.

Does your estate plan specifically cite the $625,000 exemption from taxes allowed under federal law? Guess what? It changes (again) in 1999 to $650,000, and is scheduled to increase gradually over the next several years. You could end up costing your heirs unnecessary taxes, so you might as well eliminate that provision now. Change the wording so the exemption is tied to the maximum allowed by current law, rather than to a specific amount.
Get a better handle on your credit. Check out how much you owe -- and whether it’s too much percentage-wise -- with our debt-evaluation calculator. Consider a debt consolidation strategy that uses a home equity loan. The interest is tax deductible, so the actual rate you pay is often as low as those 5.9% introductory rates offered by many credit-card companies (which then balloon up to 14.9% six months later).
Establish some savings goals. Whether it’s your retirement, a house, a car or that dream vacation, you have to set up a savings plan to achieve your goal. Goals help you focus on your priorities and offer a vision of what you really want out of life. If your goal is to kick back and travel once you’re 55, you’ll need to start saving. (As an example, if you’re 35, you’d need to start with $50,000 and save $11,000 a year for 20 years to have $1 million by the time you are 55. Check out the Savings Calculator to see for yourself.) By using our Retirement Income and Retirement Expense calculators, you can learn what it will take you financially to achieve your goal.
Create an investment strategy. It’s time to figure out how to achieve that goal. The place to start is with your employer. Put all you can into your company’s retirement plan, whether it’s a 401(k) or 403(b), or if you’re self-employed, a Keogh plan. Whatever, you’ll need to know a little about yourself to know which mutual funds are best for you. If you can’t stand the market’s ups and downs, you’ll need a relatively conservative investment portfolio that historically hasn’t provided returns as high as the market overall. Take our Risk Tolerance Quiz to assess your queasiness quotient.
Build and track your investment portfolio. Investing requires discipline and one of the easier and more efficient ways of doing this is dollar-cost averaging. Each month, you set aside $50, $100 or $200 that’s invested in the mutual fund(s) of your choice. Once you’ve got a portfolio started, track your funds online with investment tracking tools like the Portfolio Manager offered by Microsoft Investor. It makes the investing game more fun as you watch your money grow (hopefully). If you’re a subscriber, you can also use its Investment Finder tool and search for mutual funds or stocks that fit your investment strategy.
Assess your insurance needs. Do you have enough life insurance? Use our Life Insurance Needs Estimator to find out. If the answer is "no," you can start your shopping with MoneyCentral’s list of sites that offer online Insurance Quotes to shop around for the best rates and to get additional information.

Let's look again at retirement, since it is the most important goal cited in surveys of American adults. If the amount seems overwhelming, just start with a small amount in 1999 and each year it will be easier. But to save that amount, let's assume that you have only two options: Take an extra job and see less of your children or cut back on your budget substantially. It sounds painful, and it may be at the beginning, but if you set goals and go through this process, you gain control of your future and you can begin to plan for it instead of feeling as if you are controlled by it.

You can have other goals, too
Retirement is a financial goal, but non-financial goals can be just as important. So maybe one of your other goals is a regular exercise regimen. So three times a week (or as many times as you can squeeze in) you plan to hop on the treadmill or stair machine. The trade-offs would be that you have less time for other things such as family and work, but you will probably be much more relaxed, more productive and a lot more fun to be around.

Realistic action steps would be to join a health club and set aside an hour for your workouts in your appointment calendar. Do it now for the whole year as a regular reminder of what you're supposed to do.

Any good financial planner will tell you that doing financial planning without having set goals won't work. So set aside a few minutes and create your financial (and non-financial) goals for '99.