Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Planning financial futures

Successful people save in prosperous times so they have a financial cushion in times of recession. Brian Tracy

Well the snow has melted it was actually gone by noon yesterday. Yay! I got hit with 15 leads yesterday which was great and I am waiting on my new leads today. I actually have a follow up appointment in a few minutes, but I wanted to add a quick blog post.

Carmen, is going to set up a Roth IRA today. I am not certain if that is the very best thing she can do right now. I would prefer to see her setup some sort of a self directed retirement account with greater tax advantages. Maybe something like my brother and my buddy Wayne Jones keeps telling me about. I am not quite ready yet but I need to start my research on each of those and the differences. I will likely post my finding during my research on this blog.

Anyway, Carmen asked me what she should invest in. I hate giving people specific advice about their money. It bothers me because Carmen is clueless about finances outside of her personal finances. In other words she can live on a budget from day to day and week to week. She can stay out of debt. However, she has no clue about investing and financial planning for her future outside of her immediate future. I have just enough Emerald in me and that drives me nuts. I have tired to explain to her that her business is only a vehicle and only a small part of her financial life. She is not only the President and CEO of her current business "Clean Air Concepts" but, she is also the President and CEO of her finances. Clean Air Concepts just happens to be the best investment vehicle to get immediate cash for her financial life. However, just as the CEO of a large corporation is always looking to grow and expand she is responsible for figuring out how to effectively grow and expand using the resources (money) that she gets from Clean Air Concepts.

She did ask me this morning what should she invest in and I briefly told her Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) for a very risky investment and Vanguard S&P 500 mutual fund for a much safer investment. Sirius, is a high risk investment with potential for a huge reward. I also like XM radio which is their competitor. In a few years this stock with either disappear in a paperwork of bankruptcy or it will be the one people will be wishing they would have been in now. There is no good fundamental reason to like that stock unless you are like me and you just believe the Satellite radio industry will succeed. The reason I told her about Vanguard S&P 500 index fund is because it is one of the lowest cost mutual funds you can invest in. In other words very little of your investment is given to management of the fund and you have more investment dollars working for you. It is also a very stable investment compared to Sirius it typically follows the S&P 500 which is the largest 500 companies on the stock exchange.

Carmen, just has no interest in this stuff but I truly wish she would take an interest in it. I think the problem is that Carmen is a hardcore Ruby. She feels she has to be the best at everything she does. Since she is unknowledgeable and uncomfortable learning about investing she feels that she will make mistakes along the way and will not be as successful as she feels she should be. Therefore, I think she finds it easier to just avoid having to learn about it all together. I think it really is just a personal growth issue. If she ever takes a serious interest in her financial future then I believe she will be a really savvy investor. God, I love her.

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