The first resolution or goal I want to accomplish is to
write more, hence the blog. I want to be
a better writer and like all skills the more you practice the better you get…hopefully. Grammar has always been a struggle for
me. Choosing the correct word, figuring
out where a comma should go and where one shouldn’t go, and proper sentence
structure has always been an issue for me.
So, if you are part of the Grammar Gestapo, take it easy on me.
The other goal I want to accomplish and plan to write about
is my venture into investing…again. I
have always had an interest in investing and dabbled in it a few years
ago. Outside of investing in my 401k,
this will be my third go at Mr. Market in the past 10 years. My first attempt I was blindly throwing money
at the market. I would watch TV shows
like Mad Money and Squawk Box and thought that I could do it. And I couldn’t. I started with $500 and lost most of it by
being a sheep instead of a Shepard. Every
day when I would come home I would turn on my TV shows and follow the talking
heads’ advice on the next “hot” stock.
With poor stock choices and multiple transaction fees my “portfolio” was
soon whittled away. This blow to my ego
cost me roughly $250 and almost made me leave the market for good.
My second go at Mr. Market was slightly more calculated and
happened roughly 2 years after my first departure from the market. At this point, I started to read online
articles from MorningStar, Motley Fool, and Yahoo Financial. Somewhere along the way, I read that Warren Buffet got his start by reading books like the “Intelligent Investor” and “Security
Analysis” and studying under and working for the author of the books, Benjamin
Graham. I am sure I was like most people
and thought “what can a book written so long ago teach me that I don’t already know
and no way is this information still relevant.”
Boy was I wrong. Like they say, “history
repeats itself” and the information contained in these works of art will in my
opinion always be relevant. My starting
amount was the same as my first attempt at the market, but this time I was
armed with a better understanding of what to look for and how to better process
all the available information I had on these investments. Within six months I was starting to see some
real gains. I had turned my $500 into
roughly $700. At eight months, my wife
and I decided to move and needed to cash out the investment to help pay for our
moving costs. So, we exited the market
for the second time.
This brings us to the present day and my third attempt at
the market. This time I want my visit to
be a permanent one. I am starting with
$400, which isn’t much, but I do plan to invest all found money (birthday
money, extra money from any future raises, and any other funds I happen to stumble
across) and an automatic investment of $50 per month. My short term goal is to turn this investment
into $10000 by the time I am 30, which is 13 months. Yes, I know this may seem unrealistic, but I have
always been a person to set high goals.
To paraphrase one of my favorite quotes, set your goals high and even if
you don’t accomplish them you will still be a lot better off than when you
started.
So, what to expect from this blog? The first thing you should see throughout the
year by reading this blog is my grammar and writing skills getting better. I plan to update this blog at least every
week and for sure when there are significant changes in my investment
portfolio, so I will have a lot of practice writing. The second thing you should take from this
blog is a better understanding of what it takes to start investing and to grow
a little bit of money into a small fortune by "following" a plan.
With that, I will end this post and all future posts with my portfolio
statistics.
Portfolio Statistics:
Cash: $400
Stock Investments: $0
Bond Investments: $0
Real Estate Investments: $0
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