Online Banking

[bushido_man96]

Yeah, I agree (with it never being too early). I've been watching the stock market since I was 10 and have had stock since I was 11. So, although I'm only 22, I've been following the market for 12 years.

That's pretty cool! I have never had a knack for the stock market, or the money! My dad has followed the stock market some, and I think he has invested some as well. I think he has money market account, or something like that.

[Patrick]

Yeah. Investing in general is a good thing to get into, I think, even if you don't have any money to invest. Knowledge is power and all that. Whatever you can put in place for the future, not neccessarily stocks which are a riskier form of investment, but maybe mutual funds and that sort of thing. I remember when I got into the stock market, what got me into it was my Dad. He was into it, I wanted to do what he did and we started having stock competitions where we'd pick 3 stocks (no money invested, just pick 3 stocks) for a month or 3 months and see whose portfolio performed better. And that's how my interest started.

I didn't put any real money into the market for many years. My first stock was Atari - my grandfather bought it for me for my birthday because I said I liked it. I sold it for a 300% profit and just played with that money ($300ish) for a while, adding maybe a few hundred more. I didn't get too deep money wise into the market until the last couple years. But, I had been watching it for so long that that certainly helped my comfort level and confidence. i.e. as a long term investor, I know not to stress over day to day fluctuations. So, if I buy a stock and it sinks... I don't get all freaked out. I invest in solid companies and I believe that, long term, they'll make me money. Whereas someone who is just getting into it might be thinking "what have I done?!?" At the end of the day, you never invest money that you can't lose.

[bushido_man96]

So by investing in long-term companies, how long do you wait before you sell any of the stocks? How do you determine if you want to sell, or buy some more? How long do you usually ride a stock for?

[Patrick]

I don't usually have any set time frame in mind. You can, though, and some people do. It probably depends on your goals and situations. Sometimes I have, but I don't really have a reason to do so most of the time. But I buy when I think it's a good time to get in and sell when I think it's time to sell. Pretty general.

My thinking is that if you invest in good companies, their prices will go up... and up and up over time, if they are truly good companies. You should watch to see if anything sours, but you don't want to be too impulsive. There will be peaks and valleys, but the progression and trend will hopefully be up. To that end, I could keep a stock until I retire or longer, if I don't need the money. I'm not saying it's gonna happen, but I wouldn't be shocked if I have some of the stock I have now when I'm 60, which is 38 years from now.

Consider that if you bought 100 shares of Wal-Mart 38 years ago ... well, scratch that... they only IPOed 31 years ago, so let's go with that... it would have been an investment of $1,400. You'd now have 51,200 shares of Wal-Mart. That's $2,355,200 at the current price of 46. And that's not even counting 31 years worth of dividends. This year, for example, Wal-Mart has declared dividends of around $0.15 in each of the 4 quarters. A dividend of $0.15 x 51,200 = $7,680. Over a year, $30,720 in dividends alone - per year. Most people could live off of that alone.

If you had sold in the 90s, you would have been a millionaire and no one would have blamed you. But, if you held on, you doubled that and the dividends just keep accumulating.

Of course, Wal-Mart is certainly a special example (and one that is used pretty regularly, I think) as one of the most successful companies ever. But, there are a lot of successful companies out there. The point is, if you believed Wal-Mart was a good company and you bought 100 shares and held onto it... you're all set now. I don't think it's crazy to have that sort of mindset. Maybe you won't make millions, but hundreds of thousands of dollars. In any case, it all adds up. At the same time, you do want to have money and enjoy life when you're young, so that's a factor, of course. You can't put a price on happiness.

Generally, though, I work for my present and invest for my future.

[bushido_man96]

Thanks for the info, Patrick. I really would like to get into some investing; I just need to budget for it.

[KarateK]

We use it both at work and I use it for personal use. I arrange all my bills to be paid, obvioudly get my wages paid straight in. Fantastic revolution if you ask me, although luckily have never had any fraud cases (probably cos theres nothing in there!)

[Patrick]

No problem, Brian.

[username8697]

Aha a subject down my field of expertise. I work in IT security and I use internet banking from home and abroad if necessay.

In terms of security Internet banking does have it's flaws but they can mostly be avoided by few simple best practices. If anyone has questions about this I will be more than willing to answer them.

[A_Train]

My question would be: what are those fest simple best practices that you made note of?

[karatekid1975]

hehe. Yeah, the main thing for me is maximizing my money. It's easy to keep all of my money in the high interest account and keep only the money needed to pay a bill in the checking account. You don't need to use online banking to do that, but it is so much easier. And it amounts to more money.

Laurie, have you taken a look at Amazon.com Grocery? http://www.amazon.com/grocery-breakfast-foods-snacks-organic/b/ref=gw_br_gro/104-7123092-2443105?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=16310101 I haven't done sat down and done the research, but Amazon.com's prices are generally very good on most everything (either the cheapest or very competitive), so I don't see why they wouldn't be on groceries. Granted, there are some items you can't buy and some items you must buy in bulk from them, but it may be worth a look. Free shipping if you spend over $25 (or if you have Amazon Prime, which costs $79 a year, it's free 2 day shipping no matter how much you spend). Might be worth a look if you're serious.

Good idea, bud, but I'm vegan. Do they have vegan stuff?