lightning bolt
The idea just hit me: instead of being jealous of a teenager who has her very own Sharebuilder account, maybe I should take that stimulus money and just start my own little stocks account. I think that would make me even happier than making those improvements on my car (which I’m likely to do one day anyway, and which won’t cost me any potential earnings).
I could start my research now (I have already had some stock purchases in mind) and create a fake portfolio online. For a while, I can just watch it to see how it performs between now and when I get the check. That will get me excited in the meantime (even if the value drops, because I’ll think the prices have gone down and I can recoup the losses I’ve seen once things pick up).
Wouldn’t investing with that money be contributing to the economy in a way? It’s buying, ain’t it?
And wouldn’t investing with that money be contributing to my own bottom line in a way? It’s adding to my assets column, ain’t it?
Instead of asking myself from time to time whether or not it’s time for me to jump in, I can dedicate a certain amount to an existing account and just purchase. It’s that dollar cost averaging I’ve been hearing so much about, combined with a little bit of knowing that continued hesitation will continually get me nowhere.
That’s a great idea! If you find a place to have a fake portfolio, would you let me know about it or post about it? I would like to do the same thing
Actually, Yahoo and Google Finance each have places where you can set up fake portfolios for free. I set mine up on Google.
Comment by ms. m&p — March 24, 2008 @ 9:37 pm