Advice from Dostoevsky

“…a youth of our last epoch– that is, honest in nature, desiring the truth, seeking for it and believing in it, and seeking to serve it at once with all the strength of his soul, seeking for immediate action, and ready to sacrifice everything, life itself, for it. Though these young men fail to understand that the sacrifice of life is, in many cases, the easiest of all sacrifices, and that to sacrifice, for instance, five or six years of their seething youth to hard and tedious study, if only to multiply ten-fold their powers of serving the truth and the cause they have set before them as their goal–such a sacrifice is utterly beyond the strength of many of them.”

Every day, I am more and more convinced that all of the worthwhile things in life, I mean the really worthwhile ones, take hard work, discipline, faithfulness and TIME. Dostoevsky, back in like 1890, understood something he wished the young people would: sacrificing time now will mean gain later.

In other words:

THE NOW: Working hard, putting my time and effort into a 9-5. Hiring, managing, working, learning. Giving a few years, maybe five or six, to really growing as a writer, editor, manager. Setting aside large amounts of money from every paycheck. Not having my own house or a new car.

MEANS, THE LATER: Skills and experience, and the accompanying benefits. Character. Huge financial savings. The ability to buy my own house or start my own business or whatever (i.e., more options, more freedom).

Inspired by the speaker who shared this quote and who advised the audience to be its own worst boss (setting higher standards for your work quality and job performance than your employers), I am inspired for the future. I’m encouraged that, no matter what I have or haven’t already accomplished, if I’m willing to sacrifice, other things are possible.

New Reason to Use Mint

I got an e-mail today that Mint’s beta version of investment tracking is available!

Previously, I could see my balance in my portfolios, but I couldn’t track the individual stocks without logging into my Scottrade accounts. Now, Mint does it for me, complete with color-coded charts, etc. (Note to self: the experts are right, over time, my portfolio has gone up, up, up.)

Yet another reason to use Mint!

emergency fund

Through the pf world, I’ve been reading for months about emergency funds. A lot of bloggers have sections in their sidebar that track their progress. I’ve decided it’s a good idea and want to start one.

Help!

If you have an emergency fund, what are you saving the money in? An ING? Something else? I want it to be something that gains interest and something that I can liquidate easily. Any advice/suggestions are appreciated. If I can get you a referral bonus or something, let me know.

investing advice

My company doesn’t offer a 401K or any other investment aid.

In my budget, I’ve set aside a chunk of money every month for investments, but I’m unsure about what to do with it. Up until now, I’ve put money into my Scottrade account and purchased stocks. That’s done well for me, but I’d like to have an additional resource—preferably one that promises a high return.
What’s your favorite way to invest?

High-Priced Stocks: I’ll take one, please.

For a long time now, I’ve been saying I should buy Google stock. Have you noticed this company is taking over the world—blogging, e-mail, searching, Earth, maps, on and on—and, personally, I use it every day. It’s cool, I think, when you can invest your dollars into a company you believe in and profit from.

The only thing stopping me, of course, is that Google (GOOG) currently runs for $506.72 a share. Ouch.

Jim Cramer, on last night’s special Family MAD Money show, actually recommended going for it with stocks like these. He prefers buying one share of an expensive stock over using options or other complicated systems.

So here’s what I’m thinking: I have $600 coming my way next week, as payment for a magazine article I wrote, and I was already planning to invest it. Maybe I’ll buy one GOOG and see what happens. The way I look at it, whatever it does or doesn’t make is money I earned over my regular income: it’s money from a fun article I actually had to write for a class anyway.

Anyone have experience with this? Opinions on high-priced stock picks? Do tell.

decision-making

When I was in college, I heard a presentation I’ll never forget, probably because the speaker handed out candy. At the beginning of his talk, he passed around, to a crowd of several hundred people, boxes of dum-dum lollipops. “You don’t have to take one,” he said. “But they’re free if you’d like one.” So I took one, sucking on the fruity flavor while he continued.

His message was about waiting for the right thing: specifically in relationships. He wanted us college kids to not rush into anything, but to be willing to patiently wait for the person who would be right for you. Then he pulled out another box: packs of jolly ranchers. This time, you could only take a pack if you hadn’t already eaten a dum-dum. Of course, I thought. Well, if I’d known about this, I wouldn’t have had the sucker. He never said anything about choices.

He talked about Ruth, in the Bible, and how God brought her together with Boaz. He said in the middle of Ruth’s story, you (and she) wouldn’t have known what the end would be: so with life, he told us.

Then, you guessed it, he pulled out the final candy: Reese’s Peanut Butter cups. You could only take one of those packs if you hadn’t had either of the previous choices. Now, the very few (a handful, seriously) were left: they probably wondered if something better would still be coming. But then again, if they loved PB cups, they probably wouldn’t care. I think that was his point: when you go for something, make sure it’s worth it, make sure you want it.

To me, that’s the difficulty with decisions: sometimes I’m just not sure what’s worth it and what I really want. There are pro-con lists, flow charts, advice from friends … but, in the final analysis, I have to just choose, and that can be daunting.

Today I logged into my stock portfolio, ready to buy shares in a company I really believe in. I watched the ticker go up, down, up, down. I passed on buying because it was up $0.05, then watched it rise another $0.20. Buy it then? What if it goes down? Well, what if it goes up?

You just never know, with decisions. You don’t know if there’s something great—or not great—round the corner, and so it’s scary. All you can do is research, plan, and hope. Hope your investing and budgeting and controlling brings what you’re hoping for, and hope that what you’re hoping for is worth it.

the stock market

My dad started a stock portfolio for me a few years ago, with a smallish sum of money. Then, when I worked at the insurance agency after college, I lived at home, so I was able to save chunks of my paycheck to deposit. $1000 here, $500 there… and the money kept growing.

Recently I read an article about inflation and how leaving money in a bank account actually makes you lose money, over time (!) and I decided to move another chunk of money into Scottrade account: $1000. My bank account has much less in it now (a lot less), but I have income I’m expecting, so if I watch my spending for the next few weeks, I should be fine.

Now all I have to decide is where to put the money. I’d love to buy Google, but at $500-something a share (last I heard), that’d be silly.