Money on the Road

Christi and I have decided to start investing in the stock market so that our money can grow for our future needs, whatever that may be. Since the moment we decided to change our lives, and take a different approach to life, we have started thinking a lot about reducing the amount we want and need. We paired down our belongings - ex. clothing, furniture, books, electronics, etc. We also looked into ways to cut down on our expenses such as changing our cell phone plans to reflect the number of minutes we use instead of buying a sales price mega plan that we didn’t even come close to using. Once we finished reducing all of our belongings (including expenses) it hit us a bit harder, we have reduced our belonging but we have also reduced our income. Now we have a challenge of finding ways to inflate those numbers so that we won’t be living paycheck to paycheck and so we don’t stress out our selves. We wanted to do that without having to work an extra job while on assignment, and with minimum effort so that we could enjoy what we set out to do (explore this great nation). We took the first step by doing what we always do, and that’s hit the computers and pore over all the information that’s readily available to us that’s free and somewhat unbiased. We looked at other peoples blogs to see what they have done and if it had worked out well for them. Then we looked at financial websites to see what wisdom they can part on us. To be very clear, most of the reading on these topics are very dry and boring, it’s not like reading a Dilbert comic strip, or watching a bloopers video. At times I just wanted to beat my head into the wall, but I had to press on and get the info that we needed.

After fighting boredom for a couple of days we found some options that were interesting enough for further review. We looked at some CD's, high yield savings accounts, p2p (person to person) lending sites, treasury bonds, and the stock market. We didn’t want to tie up our money into anything that would be difficult to pull back out, and possibly lose some of the principal. After looking at p2p site we were quite intrigued with the concept of becoming a lending institution but we ruled it out. This is something for people who have built a bit more of a safety cushion with their money (it’s not to say you need a lot of money, this type of investing has a higher rate of risk especially with people losing jobs, homes foreclosing, and markets being shaky. We decided on sticking to the basics - Wall Street. Although the economy is a little tough it will bounce back, and there are tons of great deals out there now for all you bargain hunters and sales shoppers. Plus if you do a little research and stick with companies that can weather the storm because their principals are good and their balance sheets are healthy, you should be able to make gains on the day to day and be happy when the market turns.

We looked at a few online investment sites and ended up choosing to do our investing with E*TRADE. They have easy to understand and use features for research, trading ideas, and execution of trades. Easy account following - seeing balance, where you invested, live gains /losses, and analyzers. We liked what they had to offer. We took advantage of a promotion and signed up while they were running one hundred commission-free trades. And already in this market we are seeing returns and we couldn't be any happier with our experience with E*TRADE.