***BIG CHANGES IN THE WORKS***

***BIG CHANGES IN THE WORKS***

Be sure to stay tuned to this blog over the next couple of weeks. There are some fundamental changes in the works for this blog.

September 22, 2008

Suze Orman is an iddiot...

I have been meaning to blow off some steam regarding the recent near catastrophic meltdown of our nation's economy. I am not going to sugar coat it... things are bad. Things are very bad... for our country and banks. Not necessarily for every average American though. Admittedly we are all paying more for food and gas. It could be worse... 35% unemployment rate and actual soup lines (as in the Great Depression). But if you are smart about your money, you understand how to make financial sacrifices and be disciplined during tough times... do you really need that big screen LCD HDTV that you will be putting on your high interest credit card?

What ever you do, resist the urge to listen to "experts" like Suze Orman. She made an appearance on Lary King and said this (emphasis added):

King: Is this a good time to get into the market?

Orman: No. It's not a good time to get in with brand-new money. I would let these markets kind of wash themselves out. On the other hand, if you're investing in a 401k every month with small amounts of money, that's OK as long as you don't need the money for 10, 15, 20 years. If you just got an inheritance and you have $50,000, should you be putting it in the stock market now? Are you kidding? These are the markets that you just sit on the sidelines and wait on the sidelines and stay away from them until everything works out.
I am no CNN expert, but I do know this... even during the Great Depression the stock market posted an overall gain. And typically in the long term, the stock market delivers a 11% rate of return. So anytime is a good time to get in the stock market... so long as you are going to keep your money there for a while... not until tomorrow, or next month, or even next year. Try 5 to 10 years... or even better a 401k that you are not going to touch for 20 years! And if your 401k has lost a big chunk of its value due to the recent market troubles, and you were hoping to retire in a few years... FIRE your fund manager because they are too stupid to know that your investments should not be in such volatile places when it's so close to your retirement!

As I mentioned I am no CNN economic expert... actually, I am a chemist. But all you need to do (and these CNN experts should do the same) is learn a little history and basic economics.

Watch this video here and get some real advice about what to do about your economic situation. I have been reading this guy's blog for a while. Smart guy... he's no CNN expert though. I( think that's a good thing.)

Breathe in... breathe out... just be smart... everything is going to be alright.

September 14, 2008

I'm likin' a lot of things right now.

I'm likin' the fact that the football season is upon us. I also like the fact that for the first time since 2005 the Bills have opened their season 2-0. NICE!

I'm likin' the beautiful mid-September weather. The weather has been very nice here in Rochester. It has been a very humid, almost tropical day today. Certainly a tough day to run a marathon or half marathon. Chris, my roommate, competed in the half marathon and said the conditions were pretty difficult with a relatively high humidity. Again, I felt rather dissappointed that my body has fallen apart halfway through my training. I have already set my sights on next year. I'm not giving up.

The weather for next weekend is looking good as well. Hopefully it will remain good enough for some golf and wine touring.

I am also likin' that for the second time in 2 weekends I went out on both Friday and Saturday night. Friday night it was to "The Old Toad" for some drinks in celebration of Tim defending his MS thesis. Since Tim was in town (he lives near Boston at the moment) we went out again on Saturday night to "Oxfords". I guess it is nice when you have a job, money and time to actually go out at night on the weekends.

I'm likin' it all right now. :-)

September 8, 2008

So much knowledge to injest!

Any casual reader of this blog has probably noticed the box on the left or right listing my most recent reads. I'm always reading something. What ever I end up reading usually prompts me to ask more questions and seek out a new book recommended by the first book, or a book with an opposing view-point.

It is a vicious cycle that I somehow got involved in and have no means of escaping from until I read every piece of knowledge in the world! O.K. That end does not seam feasible... but that's not going to stop me from trying.

Here's what I have my head buried in at the moment.

The Lore of Running - This book by Tim Noakes is the fourth edition about... you guessed it, the sport of running. It is no light read. It is an exhaustively thorough book on pretty much every aspect of the sport. It is over 900 pages long! I embarked upon this long literary journey in an effort to solve some of the health problems that have plagued my training this summer. I figured that if I can't run, I can certainly learn new things about it and prepare my self mentally for running again. To date I have covered all of Part I and am almost 300 pages into it.

1776 - By David McCullough. "1776" is about George Washington and the American Revolution. I was prompted to read this book by my viewing of the John Adams mini-series and the fact that it belongs to my roomate and was on the book shelf in our living room. I had later learned that the mini-series is based on the autobiography of John Adams also written by McCullough. So now I have another book to read! You now see my problem with these peskey books.

The Federalist Papers - This series of articles (85 all together) was written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. In keeping with the theme of patriotism, the American Rrevolution and the founding fathers, I decided to get into absorbing these as well. The essays advocate the adoption of the constitution and discuss how it should be implemented and interpreted. I have chosen to take this one in as an audio book. It is much easier to do this while on my way to work in the morning rather than finding time to sit down and read them.

The 2008 Democratic and Republican Party Platform - Once again, in keeping with the themes of patriotism and politics I have taken the initiative to read the platforms of both political parties as we lead up to the elections this year. I think it's important to have an understanding of what may happen to our great nation over the next several months. What can I say? I am a junkie for politics and history.

So this is one of the many reasons why I have been silent over the past few weeks.
Peskey books. :-)