Archive for March, 2009
Investing - Know Before You Buy
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 | investing | 1 Comment
A while ago I was talking to my boss and the subject of the stock market came up. She said that she used to buy stocks, so I mentioned that I own some stocks. Her eyes got really wide and panicky and she said “Stocks are too risky, I only buy mutual funds now.”
Why Do We Destroy Kids’ Dreams?
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 | motivation | 2 Comments
When I was a kid I wanted to be various things when I grew up: astronaut, mailman, dinosaur rancher, President of the USA. My friends typically had the same ambitions and our parents usually responded by telling us that we could be anything if we just set our minds to it. However, somewhere along the way we all encountered some snarky pessimist who shot our dreams down by telling us “Hey stupid kid, you’ll never be president! There’s millions of people who want that job!”. Poof! Our dreams are popped. Is this really what we should be telling our kids?
6 Bubbles
Thursday, March 12th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Apparently I need to check my comments and email more often. If you get the chance, check out 6Bubbles - another promising blog. The title references the six bubbles that built America (hint: one of them was the recent real estate bubble)
Failure Isn’t Permanent
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 | motivation | 2 Comments
I’m trying to help a co-worker find a date. She had the wonderful idea of joining Match.com but got cold feet and chickened out before joining. I’ve been trying to motivate her for the past week to just take the plunge and join but she’s been putting up a lot of lame excuses. Her worst excuse is “what if I go on a date with somebody bad?”. It’s this kind of thinking that makes me want to hit her with a stick. You don’t stop because of one bad date - failure isn’t permanent.
The Fear Response
Monday, March 2nd, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Can you imagine what Batman would’ve been like if his butler Alfred had been a chronic worrier? Every time he’d try to go out and fight crime he’d have someone behind him going “oooooh, what if you get hurt?” or “maybe you’d better let the police get the Joker this time.” It would’ve been a real drag on Batman’s dreams. The same thing applies in personal finance (and life in general) - you need to have good, positive people on your side.