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Master Budget

Nagel — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 12:00:37 +0000

I keep a master budget for our family spending in order to track all the money that comes in and goes out.

It is not easy to remember to keep all the receipts for each purchase made or remember when you have paid cash for something. Equally as difficult is to remember to post income that is extraordinary, such as gifts or reimbursements. However, in the end, if you keep track of everything in a master budeget you can see month-over-month and year-over-year trends in spending and this information can go a long way in helping you spend you money wisely and on things that matter.

Stock Market Down?

Nagel — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:11:00 +0000

The stock market has been behaving a bit erratically, and is very sensitive to bad news as of late (not that it is not always erratic and sensitive). The week or so there have been some huge intraday swings in the performance of thew stock market. At points it will be a half-a-percent down and all of the sudden it will be even, or ahead for the day, and vice versa. This performance has made investors that are already jittery, even worse. I am beginning to sound like Chicken Little, but I see this as more evidence, piled on top of mounds of current evidence, that something big is going to happen to the stock market soon. It simply cannot sustain all of these factors that it has for so long now, mainly because it never has before.

Will history repeat itself or will the market continue to roll along?

Computer Black Screen

Nagel — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:52:49 +0000

My computer went to a black screen a couple weeks back. I had never had a computer crash on me before so I was not prepared for the remifications, especially the ramifications of not being prepared for a computer black screen.

Obviously, my wife and I lost a lot of important data, but nothing that was make or break in nature. But we did lose my family budget numbers I had been copiously keeping for a couple years. I was always hoping to be able to compare those years’ numbers versus future ones. But now I will need to start our budget again from scratch, and as soon as I have some information included I will need to save it and BACK IT UP!

Stock Market Keeps Moving Along

Nagel — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 11:14:00 +0000

Terra Nitrogen (TNH) and Mastercard (MA) are the both recent investment mistakes I have made. This is not because their price dropped like a safe, they didn’t; they skyrocketed. That was my mistake, it sold one too early and misses out on buying one on the way up.

Terra Nitrogen (TNH) was a winner for me. I bought it and it had a 7% yield. I watched it rise and fall, sometimes 5% a day. It was up 20% and I was concerned that I was getting greedy by holding on, especially since it showed extreme volatility. Therefore, I dumped it mid-day on last Thursday. Since then it is up another 26%, ooops! I still got my 20%, right?

Mastercard (MA) is a miss. I had a limit order for it at around 143 over a week ago. It was there, but literally jumped 2 points and I missed the limit order. At 145 I did not want to take the short-term risk because I thought I might have missed it. Well, since then it has hit the mid-160s. Yikes!

We all make mistakes, especially in investing, and let’s hope these are as bad as it gets.

Best Buy (BBY) Stock

Nagel — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:04:33 +0000

I bought some Best Buy (BBY) shares the other day because I saw a huge dip in price. The price drop was brought on from a disappointing earnings report. Best Buy did disappoint in earnings. However, revenue was up as were same-store-sales. The price might suffer short-term, but it has great long-term potential. Investors often overreact to bad news, and I think with BBY they did just that. The price is down 8% since the earnings news was revealed. Keep in mind that the PE for Best Buy make sit a value buy. For a growth retail company, Best Buy is ridiculously cheap. It might take a quarter for the price to recover and show gains, but long-term it looks great.

Chase Freedom Visa Card

Nagel — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:33:13 +0000

Credit cards are not created equal. It gives you an introductory APR of 0% for six months, and after it is a 12.24% variable rate. For regular purchases you get 1% cash back and then an extra 2% cash back for supermarket, gas stations and fast-food restaurants. However, after you charge $600 during a billing cycle, the rewards goes down to 1%.

Credit cards used to give away the farm, but now deals like the Chase Freedom Visa card is a good deal. Credit cards are pulling back all this cash back benefits so shop around if you are looking for a new credit card with a low APR.

Savings: Money Tips III

Nagel — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:32:11 +0000

This piece is a continuation of our series on how to save more money.

Try to live on a smaller percent of your income, even if you do not have to
Try to avoid using your credit card for all purchases, paying with cash hurst a lot more
Don’t pay ATM fees, go to the grocery and use it as a debit card to purchase goods and withdrawl cash
Go fishing, umm tasty!?
Camp out instead of hotels?! Questionable, but if you have no one to impress it might work

Savings Money Tips

Nagel — Tue, 29 May 2007 12:02:33 +0000

Let’s face it, Americans have a big problem saving money. The saving rate in the U.S. has recently become negative for the first time in recorded history. So we need some help. Periodically, I will list some examples of potential methods to use to save money.

Save Money Tips

Load up on necessities at the dollar store
Load on on non-perishable often-used items when they are on sale
Buy generic if you can
Try low cost entertainment alternatives such as: walks, tennis, go to the park, etc.
Eat out less often

These are just a few of the many to come.

Why Save Money?

Nagel — Fri, 25 May 2007 12:45:48 +0000

Why save money? Seems like a simple straight-forward question, but you can have a long discussion on the benefits of saving versus not saving money. My wife and I make a genuine effort to save as much money each month as we possibly can. We want to have an emergency fund, a hefty retirement account balance and be able to travel.

Here are some reason why you should save money.

Saving money can . . .

Give you an emergency fund when times are not so good
Give you a sense of accomplishment
Help you reach life goals
Allow you to splurg on something you always wanted without the worry
Make your future brighter
Help you family’s future be brighter
Mean retireing early
Working less, not more
Free you from wanting to keep up with the Jones’s
Help you sleep at night
Keep the bill collectors away
Help give you a positive attitude

Why save money? These are just a few reasons why.

What are your reasons?

Ever bank

Nagel — Tue, 22 May 2007 12:19:40 +0000

Everbank.com has been my bank for almost a half-a-year, and it is a time for an update.

I had a very high level of problems at the beginning; it seemed never-ending. My level of frustration was to the point to withdrawal all my funds and go to a different bank. My wife even said she wanted to take it out because she was worried about the future of our money.

Months have passed and things have improved dramatically, mainly because I no longer need to contact them for anything. I received the 6.01% introduction APR and I could not pass that up.