Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

A while ago, I wrote about saving. I'm curious if you thought about it. Did you do anything?

I'm not a stock picker -- in fact, my past experience is pretty lousy. I took a different approach this time. First of all, I decided to diversify (yeah, that's obvious, I know) and I decided to lean toward the Warren Buffett approach to holding. He's quoted as saying, "Our favorite holding period is forever."

So back in May I started investing $25 per week in stocks using Sharebuilder. The nice thing about Sharebuilder is that you can buy stocks for $4 or less based on the investment program you choose. There are no account minimums (I started with $25) and you can buy fractional shares of stocks. My first stocks were Google (GOOG), Apple (AAPL) and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG).

Back in May, a share of Apple cost $103. I bought 0.0482 shares. I also bought 0.0107 shares of Google at $466 and 0.0655 shares of Chipotle at $76. Today Apple is at $186, Google is currently $695 and Chipotle is $133. Overall I've had a 25% gain on my investment in just under six months.

Realistically I don't expect to see those kinds of gains, but I'm excited that I'm finally doing something and it's such a small amount ($25 per week) that we haven't even noticed it in our budget. I'm planning on holding for the very long term and look forward to increasing my investment amount over time. I'll pick different stocks as it makes sense, but I'm not day trading or moving in and out of stocks quickly. Slow and steady with a little bit going in every month.

Thoughts?

Posted by Blake Schwendiman at 08:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out this optical illusion. Interestingly I expected to fall in the left-brain category. I'm a computer programmer with a fairly large mathematics background. However, I've been trying to see the dancer turning anti- (counter-) clockwise for some time now. No matter how much I concentrate I can't do it. I always see clockwise.

What about you?

Posted by Blake Schwendiman at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This week was supposed to be a relaxing week. By this week, I was supposed to be done with my most recent large work project. This week didn't turn out that way.

However, today things are looking up. The project seems to finally be wrapping up and it's quiet around work again. Lots of things are changing for the better at home. The weather is getting so nice and we've just planted our winter grass and our garden. The kids have been out of school for fall break and both of their birthdays are within the next four days.

Sometimes the longest, toughest days are the ones that just precede change. These have been those days, but now it's really starting to feel like life is turning normal again. Whatever normal is.

Posted by Blake Schwendiman at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember two weeks ago when I posted about Brandon Mull's book, Candy Shop War?

I finished reading it long ago (and I've read a few other books since then, but I've been working on something to simplify my reviews, so I haven't said much). I loved the book, so I was happy to see that New Regency has already picked up the rights to the book. I've heard rumors that the Fablehaven series also has some movie workings in progress, but this is the first official Brandon Mull-to-movie news I can report.

Congratulations to Brandon on this!

Posted by Blake Schwendiman at 09:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did you know that since the 1960's the United States has had the lowest net savings rate of any of the G-7 countries (with one or two very minor exceptions)? That means as a group of people (US citizens) we personally save less money than any of the other six countries that make up the most powerfully economic countries in the world. In fact, we save a lot less in many cases.

I've been thinking about saving for a long time and I've come to the simplistic conclusion that we're too complacent. We have an economy that's great, plentiful credit and even in recent bad times, nobody seems to have a long-term memory. I've heard the following quote many times in my life (incorrectly attributed to various influentials):

Those who understand interest collect it; those who don't, pay it.

It's only been recently, however, that the phrase has had much personal interest to me. For me the honest reason that I've never saved much is that I've been looking for a faster investment -- not appreciating the value of compounding interest, I recognize. I've had the mindset that if I could find the right investment that would double or triple in a year or two (yeah, right) I'd put all my eggs in that basket, then diversify after that.

So far that hasn't happened. So this year I decided to start saving the way it's supposed to work. That is, I've taken a little money each week and put it away. I have diversified in three places:

• ING Direct
  I've mentioned ING Direct a number of times in the past (see here). ING Direct is so simple. Just set up direct deposit from your employer or transfer money from your bank account (ING Direct allows you to automate this) and earn at a much better interest rate than your bank offers. ING Direct even has interest-bearing checking accounts!
• Prosper
  I've also mentioned Prosper before (see here). Prosper is a person-to-person lending and borrowing service where you can literally set your own interest rate. I've been an active lender at Prosper for a couple of months now and I've helped fund a few loans. My commitment to each loan is about $50, so my exposure (the chance of losing money) is lower than if I had lent the total amount to a single loan. Prosper provides detailed information on each loan being offered including the borrower's credit grade, current liabilities, debt load and other risk factors. You can fund loans with as much or as little risk as you prefer. One very cool thing is that until the end of the year, if you sign up at Prosper (using one of my links) we both get $25. You get $25 after your first loan is funded -- same for me. If you're at all interested in Prosper, take advantage of the free $25. That's an infinte return on investment.
• Sharebuilder.com
  Sharebuilder.com is a traditional stock trading account, but with minimal investment levels and fees. Sharebuilder.com allows you to start for next to nothing and make small, gradual investments over time. Right now, I invest about $100 per month and I have selected a plan that costs about $12 per month and provides 6 free trades. I then have Sharebuilder.com automatically purchase six stocks that I have selected on the first Tuesday of each month. At $100 per month, I'm not buying whole shares of stocks (for example, I own about 1/5 share of Google right now), but Sharebuilder.com pools the actual stock purchases allowing individuals to buy into the stock market a little at a time. Sharebuilder.com also has a referral program (click any of the links in this article) that pays $25. If you join, you'll get your $25 four weeks after your first trade goes through. I get trading credits if you join, just FYI.

Posted by Blake Schwendiman at 02:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)