Everyday Investors – Tell Me Your Story!

I’m going to run a regular series on my Examiner.com SF column on “Everyday Investors” – investors with no formal business or investment education. Success, failures, what you would do again, never do again, or do over. Email me if interested barbara@upsideofmoney.com Hope to hear from you! -Barbara Bryn

Top Three Current Giveaways

Giveaway #1: MoneyCrashers January Extragavanza MoneyCrashers.com has put on a very ambitious giveaway this January. They partnered with finance companies and PF bloggers to give away (at last count) over $7,900 in prizes – including $2095 in cash, Apple iPods, Amazon Kindles and gift cards, and a whole bunch of finance books, among other things.
To enter:
–REQUIRED: Sign up for the MoneyCrashers email list (free). After the contest, you can opt out of getting the weekly email, but you have to stay on for the duration of the contest.
–OPTIONAL: There are many possible options to collect more entries, increasing your chances to win both cool free stuff AND cash (your odds of winning also depend on the number of participants, of course). You can subscribe to the RSS feed (collect 15 entries), comment on MoneyCrasher posts (collect 2 entries), tweet about the giveaway (collect10 entries), etc. – go here to see the giveaway rules and restrictions about gathering more entries.
Date: Enter by January 31, 2010.

Giveaway #2: $100 for Holiday Debt
Popular PF bloggers Steve Rhode (@GetOutofDebtGuy) of GetOutofDebt.org and Jabs (@MattJabs) of DebtFreeAdventure.com are GIVING away $100 to one lucky person who is unlucky enough to have holiday debt. Here’s what you have to do:
1. Post a comment about how you plan to deal with your holiday debt in these two places:
– On Steve’s article, “Giving Away $100. Tell Us Your Plan For Dealing with Holiday Bills”
AND
– On Matt’s article, “Dealing with Holiday Debt and a $100 Giveaway”
Date: Do this by Friday, January 15th, 2010. Winner will be announced January 16th. Funds to be distributed via Paypal.

Giveaway #3: Savings.com Weekly Friday Giveaway
This week is for the ladies – a free Glambox from Smashbox Cosmetics. Go here for details.
–How to enter: Add a comment on the prize announcement blog post at savings.com. One winner chosen randomly on Friday, Jan 15th.
–Date: Enter by end of today, Thursday, Jan 14th.

Construction Ahead!

Please bear with me as I move my blog to its new (permanent home) at www.upsideofmoney.com. Sorry about the dust! – Barbara Bryn

UPSIDE: The Fully-Baked, 60-Minute, 5-Second Keep It Simple Investing Plan for 2010

[This article is part of the Finance Blog Network Investment Advice for 2010 series.]

Happy New (Financial) Year! The beginning of the year is a good time to re-think your investment strategies, but unless you are a dedicated full-time investor, many good ideas will go untested, or worse, fall flat. I used to think… if only I had a quicker, better computer system… a sophisticated options strategy, or… [fill in the blank]. Instead of thinking how you can overload your already full plate with yet more conflicting investment advice, newer more complex half-baked trading strategies, or a new way to gild the old lily, get real. Here is my best all-around advice, as true for 2010 as anything really is.

The Fully-Baked 60-Minute, 5-Second Keep It Simple Investing Plan
1. Turn off CNN and MSNBC (time: 5 seconds)
Do you really want to buy a stock some mad man recommends?
2. Find a good low-cost index fund at a discount broker or set up a DRIP/DSPP account (time: 30 mins)
For a good index fund with a low ER, see The one-size-fits-all index fund
To find out more about DRIPs and DSPPs, see The magical sound of DRIP
3. Invest an amount you can afford (setup time: 15 mins)
Review your budget – don’t play with your lunch money. The best strategies go to bad when you have to pull a trade early.
4. Make it automatic – set it up and let it grow (5 mins)
Shave off the top of your income each month electronically.
5. Check every quarter or less (time: 10 mins)
Check your investments online if you want to smile.

Getting a sudden windfall or bonus? Rinse and repeat.

Still Thinking Bull or Bear?
Once you have built up 100 shares of any one stock or index, consider trading covered calls and protective puts, depending on which way you lean – and sleep like a bear in winter. See Investing 101: What is a Call Option?

UPSIDE: 4 Simple Questions to Start Your Year

Kelly Rigotti over at AlmostFrugal.com is running a series called This is What Frugal Looks Like, highlighting different ways people can be frugal in their lives.

Each respondent answers the same four questions:
1 – What does frugality mean to you?
2 – What is something you do that is typically frugal?
3 – What is something you do that is unusual?
4 – What are some of your long term goals that being frugal will help you accomplish?

If you like, try answering these questions. My answers to #1 and #2 are below, to be published on her site in March.

1 – What does frugality mean to you?
…I started out a compulsive saver. When I was in my twenties, I lived on half my income because I was dead-set on buying a house in the Bay Area (no small feat). Eventually I learned I had to loosen up; it was too much. I was unhappy always checking prices and worrying. You have to have fun once in a while when you are saving long-term. But it set me up for some good habits later on, like going to thrift stores and things like that.

2 – What is something you do that is typically frugal?
I still roll coins and take them to the bank. I feel like a little kid when I do that but I still do it anyway. At least I don’t still have that pink plastic coin sorting machine I got for Christmas when I was eight.

UPSIDE: PF Bloggers Share Top 2010 Financial Resolutions

The end of the year is a chance to look back at our successes and failures throughout the year and also gives an opportunity to look at what we’d like to change. Jason Topp, of RedeemingRiches, is a financial planner who writes about a wide range of topics including retirement, taxes, investing and insurance, to name a few. He has compiled an inspiring and varied list of New Year’s Resolutions from top Personal Finance bloggers. Take a look here.

UPSIDE: The DebtBuster Challenge: Debt-Free in 3 Years

This holiday season, Sunnyvale-based Lending Club is offering a DebtBuster Challenge to help you get a jump on that debt – you know, the debt you can’t seem to get rid of: the old lingering student loan, the big credit card purchase you now regret, the car loan that’s upside down, or even new debt from your latest Cashmas escapade.

I’ve written about Lending Club before in previous posts (go here for a run-down on the company and here for an interview with two LC members).

The 3-Year Payoff Debt Plan
Peer-to-peer loans at Lending Club are set for a three-year payoff (the usual timeframe for peer-to-peer loans) and for most people, three years is a reasonable horizon for most consumer debt. Here is what they suggest you do:
1. Take your credit cards or outstanding loans and find out their balances and rates.
2. Check your rate at Lending Club (it’s free to do this ) and compare with your current rate.
3. Join Lending Club and commit to the monthly payment and pay off your debt in three years (all LC loans are set for three years).

For full SF Examiner article, go here.

UPSIDE: Faith and Finance

The concept of tithing has long been associated with religion. But couponing?
Ann Haney recently ran a Beginner Couponing Workshop at a United Methodist Church in Tennessee. She began her Living in Abundance couponing this year as a need first for her own family, but it quickly grew into a ministry to others.
Combining faith and finances has worked well for Peter of Bible Money Matters and his wife. One of his favorite verses talking about the dangers of debt is from Proverbs: The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender (Proverbs 22:7). He also likes to quote Luke on planning ahead and has found that giving away 10% of his income has made him “happier and more prosperous” in the long run.

For full SF Examiner article, go here.

UPSIDE: And Now for Some Shameless Self-Promotion

If you are so inclined, I would appreciate it if you nominate my San Francisco Personal Finance Examiner blog for Best New Personal Finance Blog of 2009 at the 2009 Plutus Awards site.

Here’s the URL to nominate: http://www.examiner.com/x-4836-SF-Personal-Finance-Examiner
SF Personal Finance Examiner Barbara Bryn Klare
Thanks!

DOWNSIDE: Dreaming of Retirement? Dream On!

You might want to sit down, especially if you are a female baby-boomer and thinking – or dreaming – of retirement. The Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) released a study in June of this year saying that 65 year-old women retiring in 2009 will need an EXTRA $30K to 69K over and above the amount men the same age will need to cover health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket health expenses in retirement (retiring men will need anywhere from 68K to 173K).

Oh, and did I mention? The numbers I have mentioned so far are only if she (or he) wants to have a 50-50 chance of having enough money to cover health bills. Want higher odds? Try needing between $164 and 450K – that is what the 65 year-old woman retiring this year will need to have a 90% fighting chance of paying her health bills in full while retired.

To see the full Examiner.com SF article, go here.