What I learned from scratchers…

Investing in the stock market feels a lot like when I played scratchers when I was 19.
The first time I got a $5 scratcher I won $50…so I got about 10 more scratchers…and sometimes I would get $2 back and other times I'd lose.

When I opened my Roth IRA, I purchased an auto-pilot fund that went up about 15%.
Well, since then I opened a separate brokerage account, and my investments have gone down a lot…like everyone else's.

So, I've been rethinking some things…
My natural reaction is to cease investing, but that's driven by emotion. I think if I look at things with the bigger picture in mind, this is what happens…this is part of the pattern to overall growth. I have some things that I know I should do. I should probably stick to a discount broker and purchase at least $1000 worth of stock each time. If I make a market order, it will typically cost about $20 to buy or to sell. So, if I buy some stock at $20 and then sell it…it will really cost me $40…which is what most people earn in savings interest for the year.

I've been building up a CD ladder for the past quarter…and this month I sent in my check. I forgot to transfer money from my savings to checking before the check went through. I think I had thought that the CD would be drawn from my savings directly. So, I got an insufficient funds fee of $30. That totally blows…stupid things like this piss me off. Why didn't I transfer that cash right away?!

Also, one last thing…no matter how much time and effort you spend ito analyze and understand the market, cds, savings, retirement programs, in the end, the best return you get is from your career. I've talked about this with boy a lot…and he feels strongly about investing in one's career. I can see his point; I've paid attention to the market closely over the past half year…haven't made much return…I sure have learned a lot and saved a lot of cash, but what makes more money is my two hours of Photoshop lessons that I give to the sculptor. Also, I've picked up work from our freelance creative director and one of our flash designers…so spending a few hours on that gives me much more than I can from buying and selling stocks. Maybe if I had more dough the return would be greater, but right now…I think I can allocate only up to 15% of excess income to investments. The rest would be split between my long-term savings/cds & retirement.

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…

=( 

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… 

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

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!!!

One of my stocks went up 42% today.

I bought the stock for my Roth IRA acct in March, and it's up 50% since then.

I didn't make too much since it's a penny stock, but the performance has been way beyond my expectations.

I also opened a TD Ameritrade brokerage account today. I deposited $2010 so that I could get 15 free bonus trades.

My penny stock jumped 22% today!

It jumped from $0.84 to $1.03 today. Yesterday, it went from $0.80 to $0.88.

I bought the stock for $0.77 x 100 shares in March.

This is great!

My $77 turned into $103! Yay!