I'm a fan of the last psychiatrist, and this post is about attaining wealth. Anyone want to discuss?
I'm going to do a step-by-step reply for this. 1. Roth IRA: As a college student I absolutely cannot afford 4k per year into it. Not yet anyway. However, I have wanted to open a Roth IRA for a while now and plan to do so as soon as I can. At the moment I only have about $500 of investment money, which I don't think is enough to start one anyway. 2. This one doesn't apply to Engineering. Residencies aren't really a thing. 3. I'm actually hoping to start on this one this year! As a Chemical Engineer, there's a lot of science that goes into brewing. I'm also taking a course called "Beers of the World" (yes, it's a real thing). Many people take it as a joke class but I'm taking it to enhance what to look for taste, color, and for every other aspect. I'm considering it a more practical application of Chemical Engineering, and also plan on doing some home-brewing this year. Hopefully one day I'll be able to apply this knowledge on larger scales for food and drink in general. 4. I already know French and have a very, very basic proficiency in Russian. Wish it would fit in my schedule this semester :( 5. This one I would need to use somebody who already knows a lot about stocks, and also have the money to do so. Neither of which are happening in the near future. Maybe 3-4 years from now though.
Actually, here are my bookmarked, favorite posts by this author. His thing, if I had to try and typify him, is anonymous commentary on the New Narcissism and America in general. http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/04/im_not_the_one_you_sh... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/08/this_is_why_the_ameri... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/08/the_worst_thing_that_... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2012/11/temper_tantrums_in_th... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2012/02/the_father_that_shot_... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2006/09/how_to_get_rich_in_ps... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2006/11/post_2.html http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/10/one_way_our_schools_a... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2008/10/those_five_days_matte... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/04/the_abusive_boyfriend... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/06/the_epidemic_of_menta... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/11/the_terrible_awful_tr... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/10/marc_marons_mid-life_... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2009/01/can_narcissism_be_cur... http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2006/12/if_this_is_one_of_the... Please tell me what you think. I never have anyone to discuss these ideas with. :)
Maybe you could make a post once a week or so with one of these links, might be better than dumping them right here and more people might see them and join in on the discussion. Plus, I have no idea where to start with these.
You sound like you've got a good game plan. Once you have the resources, max out your annual contribution to that Roth and you'll be on a good path. Good luck with the Chemical Engineering.
Hopefully. Paying back student loans while simultaneously trying to pay for everything and start up retirement funds is going to suck. Fortunately I have a cousin who's a C.P.A. so I'm hoping to use his expertise to help budget everything and figure out how to best make this work. ChemE is a blast! Except for this past job, but that was Environmental so it's a bit different........glad you think this is a solid plan, it's nice hearing that from someone who has already been through this kind of stuff.
Hmm, as a total aside: I was a humanities major in college because I liked a cluster of professors and I just took their classes. My philosophy in school when I didn't know what I wanted to do was to just find interesting professors and take their classes, didn't matter in what. But three teachers left in one semester, and I dropped out because I realized I have no fucking idea what I want to do now, and I wasn't going to pay for school while I was figuring myself out. I wanted to know truly before I committed to another major. And honestly, I want to give the harder sciences a shot. I think I have a good mind for it, and I like knowing and learning technical knowledge. It's rewarding. It's great to hear someone describe their engineering studies as fun. I love that! edit: also, at the bottom of the link I posted, there's another link for the second half of the list. http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2006/12/how_to_get_rich_in_ps... Read that maybe? Actually, read everything this guy writes. He's brilliant, my favorite online personality.
I have to be honest, my wife handles all of our investments and does a great job of it. I make the money and she turns it in to more money. But the Roth is a no brainer. It's a first step though. My advice is to enjoy your spoils but take saving aggressively seriously. I for one love my life and simultaneously look forward to retirement. The best things in life really are free, but traveling the globe in early retirement costs money :-) Edit: I was recently talking with b_b and mk about the whether its worth paying a financial planner the typical 1-2% and I think we decided that the answer was dependent on your available time to commit and know-how. You're lucky to have a relative that can advise you for free.
That's a very good system. She has experience/schooling in investing, accounting, or what have you then? Mhmm. I've put roughly 50% of each paycheck directly into my savings account over the past two months, which has almost tripled the amount of money I had in it. This isn't a substantial amount of money, but it looks a lot better than it had before. Traveling is the best, would much rather spend money on that than anything else. You can buy a car, but you can't buy a memory. Did you talk about this somewhere on Hubski? I'd love to hear more about how you reached that conclusion. I'd even be more than willing to pay him! Especially since I know he's good at what he does.
The only advice you really need is to live below your means. The rest is just about optimizing and accounting. In the end, if you're saving, you're probably going to make money one way or the other. Time value of money is potent, even at a slightly below average market return.
That said, if your cousin is good at these things and is willing to help, then let him/her. But, that 1-2% isn't of earnings, it's of total capital invested. So, even if your portfolio earns less than 1%, you owe them 1-2% of your total investment. -Not cool. edit: Also, that conversation wasn't on Hubski it was at a bar in Michigan :)That's a very good system. She has experience/schooling in investing, accounting, or what have you then?
No, she's just brilliant. No kidding, she really is. She likes research, she's analytical and she can pick out trends. The thing is, you're probably just as capable as most financial advisors, it would just take some time for you to research the different investment vehicles out there. But, given the time I am sure you could do it.
That's doubly impressive. That's the difference, it's their job and they're supposed to be devoting their time to it. thenewgreen and glitchinthematrix, any good places to start for researching? I already have a handle on how IRA's work and a very basic understanding of stocks but that's about it.
To be completely honest, I learned much about investing while I was jailed for about a month, due to refusing breathalyzer test. I had a cellmate who straight up looked like a thug, tattoos and attitude to match. He was there for violation of parole, but before that he had been in prison for about 7 years for armed robbery! In that time he read books and books and even more books on investing and finance. He even got so far as to reading into currencies trading, according to him. It seemed he still retained some of that knowledge when he got picked up again and passed some of down to me. Things like mutual funds, bond funds, stocks, interest rates, high frequency trading, day trading, and strategy were topics covered during our very long conversations. Much of it flew past my head because at the time I had very little experience with finance and technicals, however. I took what I learned while in jail, and just sort of went with it. My advice to you is to read. I like Google Finance, but Yahoo! Finance is also very popular. Go to those sites and just try to figure out what the numbers mean. What the symbols mean. Look it up! Check out http://www.investopedia.com/ There you will find definitions to the many terms used by financiers. Go to reddit.com/r/investing and look through what people have discussed. Research, reading, and asking questions is what I recommend. Currently these are my positions: 3D Systems (DDD)
Corning (GLW)
Vale SA (VALE)
Exone (XONE) Two those are 3d printing technology stocks. Corning is the maker and supplier of Gorilla Glass, and Vale is a Brazilian mining company that I think is incorporated here in the U.S.
I'm well aware of Corning, it's a great company that's based in NY. The Corning Museum of Glass is very cool, would recommend if you're traveling through that area for whatever reason! If you're going to end up in jail that's the way to do it, come out with something you didn't know before. That's impressive. Just added /r/investing to my subscriptions on Reddit, I think that will be a good starting point. Thanks for the help!
To add to this: I have very little college, and work for what I consider low pay. Either way, I can't complain too much because my job affords me quite a bit of downtime. That said, I used that time somewhat wisely, and spend a lot of time researching the companies I am invested in. Along with that, I research technicals and read a lot. I'm still nowhere near a technical investor, and many of my stocks are long holds. I find it fun playing around with money and managing it -- I've always been a poor saver. As for someone who started less than a year ago investing I've seen almost 27% returns overall year-to-date. I don't consider this too bad, but I'm sure I could do a little better. I don't live beyond my means, and am very frugal.
I'm glad to discuss. First thing that pops in to mind is that every single one of these steps is relevant to most professionals except step 2.