Live & learn.

Well, I suppose getting the Vonage stock upon IPO was a mistake.

Although I believe in this company & their services, it's dropped a lot since yesterday.

Fortunately, I got it at the lowest price yesterday and didn't lost too much.

Oh well…this & these past weeks' stock market's patterns seem to be telling me, "Chill out. No more buying stocks & focus more on improving situation with work. Build emergency fund more."

Dilemma dilemma.

So, work is a downer.

Yesterday, my beliefs about my boss and company were confirmed when our creative recruiter came to meet us at our office.

We occassionally farm out work to freelancers when projects get loaded or when we need someone of special expertise.

Our recruiter came to meet us, and my boss did most of the talking. And, he mentioned a few things that gave me the red flag.

1. He's not interested in growing the business

2. He's not confident about the business

It was had to keep a straight face during that meeting because I felt disappointed by my own boss. I want to be able to contribute something to my work – to have some ownership of the company, to steer it in an upward direction. I'm interested in exploring new ideas & ways of doing things whereas my boss likes to stick with the old ways of doing things even if it means patching it up with gum & tape and glue. I hope you know what I mean.

This is a real problem for me because I'm not satisfied but I feel guilty if I leave since we're such a small company. I guess I do have a major role in the projects, and it would be a blow to them if I left.

How do I secure a new job while maintaining good relationships with my current employer. And be able to leave them so that they can manage on their own? This is really difficult…

I do need to save some more money though.

Even though I have about 6 months worth of living expeneses in my emergency savings acct, I don't feel secure. I'll feel better if I have 9-12 months.

So, maybe I can work for a couple more months?  Even if my morale goes down?

What to do? What to do? 

Vonage IPO.

Vonage opened at $17/share.

I just purchased 50 shares at $14.95 for my Roth IRA.

It's now at $15.15.

I might add this stock to my dollar-cost-averaging brokerage account.

Let's see how it does… 

Stocks recovering…a bit & more of life’s expenses.

I'm no longer $150 under. I'm now at $100 under.

I went to the dentist today.  I need to get the last of my wisdom teeth pulled out.

Well, I didn't take them out today because I wasn't sure if my health insurance would cover it. I called, and I have passed the 3-month waiting period, and they will cover most of the cost. I scheduled another appt in 2 weeks.

I'm happy about the health insurance news but am worried that I'm becoming too absent at work.  But, these are things that I need to do! Ugh…I dunno what to do and what to feel.

Anyway, no savings for this month & next because I'm still trying to pay off last months bills of new furniture, mom's day, friend's wedding gift, and now my dentist stuffs…

=( 

How we changed from savers to spender (Yahoo! article)

Insightful article from Yahoo! http://biz.yahoo.com/brn/060518/17503.html 

Down and more down – my stocks just going down w/ the rest of the market.

=(

I lost $150 in less than a week.

I know this doesn't sound much…but, I only invested $2500 in my brokerage accounts.

I guess that's a good thing, too. I ONLY have $2500 invested… 

Opinions on the 17″ Macbook Pro Laptop?

Has anyone purchased this laptop?

I'm considering purchasing it. My company will pay for half of it…it's kinda like a mid-year bonus. This computer would be my personal laptop but also used for work.

Does this computer still have the buzzing/humming problems? Any other weird things going on?

Does this computer work well with Graphics applications? I know that the Macbook Pro 15" performed terribly with Photoshop…Has Apple fixed this issue with the 17"

What do you think about adding on all the extras now rather than later? These include and upgrade in memory and an extended warranty plan.

Any insights are much appreciated…

Irregular expenses.

I'm taking close watch of my expenses this month.  There are a lot of things pinching my wallet:

Mom's day – I'll be taking out my mom, sis-n-law, and her children to a brunch at a restaurant with a fixed menu that day. My brother's on a business trip…how could I leave my sis-n-law behind? This will roughly cost me $150-180. I made the reservation through opentable.com. The service is cool because you can easily make a reservation, and they give you point every time you complete that reservation. After a few times (maybe about 10 reservations through opentable), you get a voucher for $10 on a meal.

Furniture for my room – I went cheap. I bought a desk, some sheets & duvet cover, a lamp, a couple of hanging closet shelves. Came up to be $370.

Mexico gone wrong – Last weekend, my bf and I drove down to the border with my roommate and her friends. We were going to party in Rosarito. Until we go to the Mexican insurance station where I realized I didn't have my registration and insurance in my car. (I forgot to return it when I got into that car accident) We drove two hours for nothing…so we stopped by San Diego, spent the money we were going to in Mexico at The Fish Market…drove another two hours home.

Random work expenses – I participated in a celebrity golf fundraiser on Monday. In order to sharpen up on our golf skills, my company went to the driving range and a 9-hole course. I paid for half of it…I think I spent about $50.

I signed up the HSBC billpay service to pay portions of my Amex cards and my mobile phone bill. I had to transfer some money from my savings to my checking in order to do this. Feeling bad about my savings going down, I deposited the bills amount and an extra $10 from my main checking to my HSBC savings so that everything would normalize.

So, I'm left with about $150 in my checking. =(

Lastly, my stocks have been performing pretty bad these past two days. I'm under about $40. =(

I believe in these stocks…I just hope they go up soon… 

Playboy girls results.

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/stock_picking_contest/index.cfm

TD Ameritrade up.

All but one stock closed higher. I sold the one stock (MOSS) as it was dropping mid-day.  I don't know what I was thinking buying that one. It would have made more sense if I purchased it a month ago.

Current balance is 2049. Yay!

Since I have about $500 balance from selling MOSS, I'm thinking of investing it into a media distribution stock. 

Get my TD Ameritrade brokerage account going…

When I opened my TD Ameritrade account last week, I deposited $2010. I wanted to get the 15 free trades and also cushion myself with $10 for any unexpected fees. Not much of a cushion, but I did it "just in case…"

So I bought stocks with my balance. I spent nearly all of it less $5. I purchased two retail stocks and two Internet service stocks. Well, now that the day is over, I'm under. I lost $9. 

=(

Other than that, my Roth IRA is up. I feel really good about this because I have contributed $4500 and have a balance of $4700. Not bad for a few months…

I'm thinking of signing up for the $25 bonus HSBC billpay service. Maybe in a week when I have more cash flow…I still owe rent!!! Oi!!!