Money and finance is more important to most Americans now than ever before. Our economy is in flux and investment options wax and wane. People who invested heavily in the stock market found themselves burned a few years back. The real estate market is in the well and mutual funds have become more details than I can ever remember.
It’s important to do as much research on your preferred investment strategy before you actually put the money into play. I have always invested in mutual funds and had decent luck with them, until about five years ago when I began having trouble keeping track of how my fund was investing and then it suddenly started to leak like the Titanic. I was going down and pulling out was the only way to save the little money I still had left in the investment.
A fantastic way to get tabs on any mutual fund is by using the tools at Stock Tips - TheBuyList.com. They can show you which fund bought or sold any given stock, analyze all of the funds buying a stock or what percentage is actually invested in funds in general, and give you a comparison of your portfolio based on transactions on the stocks in your portfolio, among a host of other tools and the ability to set up watch lists and full stock reports.
Their accounts are free, so there is no risk at all and what you gain is valuable information about your money matters.
Posted in Finance January 17th, 2008 by Angie | No comments
In a culture where over 50% of all marriages will end in divorce, I am merely a statistic that is so very common that nobody bats an eyelash over my pain and emotional trauma that resulted from my own divorce. When I was in college, my own parents divorced and I took it very hard. I never saw divorce as something in which I would willingly participate, but in Florida there is no recourse. If one spouse wants a divorce, it is simply granted without fault.
Yikes.
So, it makes me all the more angry to see how many public figures bandy about marriage and divorce as though they were as meaningful as a the commitment you have to make to a temporary tattoo. The entertainment industry is fraught with such examples. One of the latest is Eddie Murphy and his two-week marriage to Tracey Edmonds. She is, of course, the woman that Murphy told the world fixed everything and made his life all better after his previous divorce – the one where he left the mother of his multiple children.
What a frightening world we live in when people are not able to commit to family and relationships. Marriage is WORK, hard work. Anyone who tells you different has either never actually been married or is lying through their chemically bleached teeth. Loving, respectful, supportive relationships take nurturing and a willingness to change and learn continuously. Sacrifice is a given.
And so, that is my rant. People ask me why I may choose to not marry again in the future. Just look around and see all of the cavalier attitudes toward marriage and then tell me why I should risk my current contentment for all of that.
Posted in Family & Parenting January 17th, 2008 by Angie | No comments
