FOBlog

Sharebuilder

I made an account at sharebuilder last night. I have been hearing a lot about the simplicity and how inexpensive it is. So I decided to make the jump and commit to a plan.

Sharebuilder is an online brokerage, that makes it easy for beginners (such as myself) to start investing long term. Sharebuilder also provides a program for the more savvy investors.

One of the thing that hooked me to sharebuilder is their Automatic Investment Plan. The plan Allows you to set a schedule of monthly or weekly money transfer so you can invest that money. From there you can buy partial stocks. The plan will help you build your portfolio which then will accumulate wealth over time.

There are different plans for different type of investors. It ranges from beginners all the way to the experts investors.

The 4 dollars per investment is pretty steep, but if you're just starting (like myself) or if you're not going to be doing a lot of manual trading; I reccomend the basic, since the subscription is freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Sharebuilder also offers different type of accounts. Ranging from individuals to joint accounts, even retirement accounts. Here are some of the accounts examples:

• Individual account - for yourself..duh.
• Joint account - for yourself...and another...double duh?
• Education Savings Account (Coverdell ESA) - investing for your child's education
• Custodial account - account in behalf of a minor
• Traditional IRA - retirement investing with opportunities for tax deductions
• ROTH IRA - Retirement saving with tax free growth potential

I have set up a monthly investment schedule of $50 a month, investing every first Tuesday of the month.

 

No matter what type of investment it is, it will take time. Long term investments are the best kind of investments. Be patient.

Again, I will always keep you guys updated with all my investments, so you guys can see what works and what don't.

-Ed

"Money grows on the tree of patience."

 

Extra money? YES SIR!

Winter  break is nearing and for many of us, its already here. What are some your plans for winter break? How about starting a side business? Nothing big, just something small and enough to generate a little pocket change. Here are a few "mini" business ideas:

1. eBay
Face it, eBay is pretty cool. Many of us have probably bought stuff from eBay before. Well, you can try sellling stuff that you don't need on eBay. Look around your room, there's got to be some useless junks. If not, look underneath your bed. If that doesn't work, visit a garage sale, and buy some old books for a dime/ quarter each. Many of the books that they have at garage sales are usually worth more. If you can find books that's in series, they'll worth more if you sell them in packages. Children books are also a good buy, especially the older editions.

2. Car Wash
Yea I know, it's cold outside. THAT'S why you should do car washes. It's winter, no one is going to want to go outside to wash their car. You can. Round up a couple of friends and visit your neighbors. Ask your parents, ask your friends, ask your uncle, ask your-- heck ask me! I need my car washed, BAD.

3. Tutoring
This one is pretty simple, use your expertise in the subject that you master and tutor someone else. College students, tutor high school students or fellow college students. High school students, tutor middle school students or a fellow student. You get the idea. Make flyers, not a lot. Maybe 5-7 pages; put your name, phone numbers, e-mail, and area of expertise. Then ask few teachers if he/she can post the a flyer in her classroom and maybe make an announcement to the class. You can also e-mail me, or give me a call and I'll try to set you up with a tutor or a tutee. When it comes down to it word-of-mouth advertising is the best.

4.Babysitting/Petsitting
Good old babysitting. There's not much to say about it. The concept of gaining clients is the same as tutoring. Make flyers (you know what to write), but instead of asking the teachers, you can ask parents that you've known or at least familiar with you. It is common sense; they need to trust you to be able to trust their children to you.

5. Editor
Winter break assignment anyone? Use your editing skills to, well... edit papers. When I write a paper, I can not edit it by myself. I can't spot my own mistakes. I need a fresh eyes, to look at it and give me feed back. Chances are, I'm not the only one. Heck in fact, I need an editor for this blog, If anyone thinks they qualify, please contact me!

Those are just some ideas that came from the top of my head.  There are a lot more  business ideas out there. Keep your eyes peeled for ideas, because they come from anywhere; your experience as a consumer, your work experience, life experience. Be creative!

If you need more information about getting started or advise on what to do, contact me. I'll be glad to help.

"The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas."
-Linus Pauling



Good luck everyone~
Ed

Lend-da-wha?

Most of you guys know that I'm very into business. I like finding ways to make extra change, automation investments, start-ups, retiring early, IRA, ROTH IRA. etc etc.

This is my current investment interest: LendingClub

Lendingclub is a P2P lending. P2P lending lets you borrow/lend money directly from other people. Which takes out the middleman-the banks. By bypassing the bank, people are able to lend at a higher interest, and borrow at a lower interest.

"We can provide a 3% better return by cutting out the middlemen activities that money banks spend on their supply chain: security, bank, real estate, marketing to get the deposit and then to spend the loan."
-Renaud LaPlanche, CEO of LendingClub.

Here is a little comparison of lending rates.

These are if you borrow:

Yea, looks great huh? butttttt there's a catch. I know, there's ALWAYS  catch. Well the catch is, Lendingclub is NOT...I repeat NOT a bank. Therefore, they don't offer FDIC insurance. Meaning, there's a chance that you might lose your money. However, they do a very thorough credit check on each one of the borrowers, and only let people with a credit record of 640 and higher to borrow. They also report to credits bureau)

To show you that  I'm willing to try new things and experiments on  investments,  I loaned $100 through lendingclub.

I managed to loaned my  $100  with  an  interest rate  of  16.28%. Which  earns me a monthly  receivable of  $3.52 !  3.52 x 36 (3 years)=  126.72.  So in three years, I will get my money back plus interest of $26.72! Not bad for doing nothing.  Imagine if you loaned a bigger amount $1000, $10,000?

Investments such as these, can provide a nice steady passive income.  The key  is automation (I will explained  "automation"  at a later post)

-Ed

p.s lendingclub did not pay me to write this, and I also did not get any affiliate benefits what-so-ever. All links posted are default links, and did not make me any  money.