Sell Stocks in May and Go Away: Update May 23, 2007
Posted by pf in Expenses and Savings.1 comment so far
I had intended to write about this during my net worth update at the end of the month, but came across an article today from CNN Money entitled “Uh oh. The individual investor is back” which make me think to go ahead and do a post now.
You may recall at the end of April, I had decided to go a bit more defensive with my mutual fund allocations (“Sell Stocks in May and Go Away?) in anticipation of a summer swoon. Appropriately, the market has done exactly the opposite and continued to reach new highs. Fortunately, I did not exit the market and so continued to enjoy some of the gains. However, probably not quite as much as I could have if I had remain invested in the more risky issues such as my international funds (for example).
Frugality: Garage Sale May 22, 2007
Posted by pf in Frugality.2 comments
As part of our preparations for the purchase of a new home, we recently had a garage sale. Of course, I am no stranger to the garage sale as my wife seems to have one at least twice a year it seems. Generally, I don’t have a problem with it, except when “her” sale becomes MY work… “could you please bring up those boxes from the basement?” or “I need you to clean out the garage to make room for the tables”.
What gets me more than anything is when our garage sale becomes a community event where her mom and friends are bringing their stuff as well to create the “mega garage sale”. The annoying part of this is that once the garage sale is over, my garage then becomes a storage warehouse for the unsold goods from these other people! Why the heck do I want to have someone else’s grandma’s old punch bowl stored in my house!???
Auto Expenses: Trying to Keep It Slim May 21, 2007
Posted by pf in Expenses and Savings.3 comments
Currently, I own an SUV and a sedan to ferry the family around. They are both paid for. We are soon going to be having our 4th child and it has dawned upon me that the 6 of us will NOT fit into a little 4 door sedan. Heck, even with the 5 of us, we look like one of those clown cars when we get in and out of the sedan.
So, for the last couple of months I have been starting to look at larger vehicles in anticipation of purchasing a new car so all of us can fit. However, I have dreaded this as I really enjoy the freedom of not having a car payment. Also, the sedan gets considerably better gas mileage which is no small thing with today’s gas prices. Nonetheless, I had been resigned to a new $300+ car payment…until now.
My Personal Finance Odyssey 