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Investments are a Gamble

: Image via Wikipedia

Or a scam.

If you’ve been reading Live Real, Now for long, you’ll know I hate scammers. I particularly loathe scammers who prey on the hopes of the naive. There is a special corner of hell reserved for those who live to steal the futures of the innocent.

For many people, especially day-traders, it is absolutely true that stocks are the same as gambling. For too many other people, investments are an opening for con-men to ply their trade.

People invest their money to secure their futures. They put their life saving into some investment vehicle and, hopefully, it grows to bring financial security. Properly done, it’s not a gamble.

In the worst case, you get investment advice from a slimy, scum-sucking 3-card-monte dealer. These blood-suckers–at best–don’t care about your future. They only care about their commissions. Others will do anything possible to run away with your nest egg.

So how do you avoid the karmicly-destined-to-be-cockroach fraudsters?

First, never invest more then you can afford to lose. Gambling rules apply. If you can’t afford to lose it, you need to keep your money someplace absolutely secure. Your mattress, buried mayonnaise jars, or a simple savings account come to mind.

Do your research. Is the person selling the investment licensed to do so? What is the historic return? Can you independently verify that? If you run across anything that looks too good to be true, it probably is. Run away.

Don’t fall for a time crunch. If something is a good investment today, it will still be a good investment tomorrow. Take you time, do the research, get the details in writing, and get a second opinion. If you are supposed to keep the investment a secret, it’s either a scam or a crime. Always cover your own butt.

Be safe. Keep your money.

For more information, see the SEC, the FTC, the CFTC and FINRA.

Consumer Action Handbook

Finance

: Image by ivers via Flickr

The Consumer Action Handbook is a book published by the federal government for the express purpose of giving you “the most current information on all your consumer needs.” In short, the Consumer Action Handbook wants to help you with everything that takes your money.

The best part? It’s free.

The book covers topics ranging from banking to health care to cell phones to estate planning. It covers both covering your butt in a transaction and filing a complaint if things go poorly. It explains the options and pitfalls involved in buying, renting, leasing, or fixing a car. You can learn about financial aid for college and maneuvering through an employment agency. And more. So much more.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but I spend quite a bit of time explaining scams and how to avoid them. This book has provided some of the source material for that theme.

It’s 170 pages on not getting screwed, either through fraud or ignorance. Every house should have one. Really, the list of consumer and regulatory agencies alone is worth the price of admission, which–if I wasn’t clear earlier–is $0.

To get yours, go to http://www.consumeraction.gov/caw_orderhandbook.shtml and fill out the form. You can order up to 10 at a time, so pick a few up for your friends and family. They won’t complain, I promise.

Shopping Online: The Money-Saving Secret

Finance

I try to do as much of my shopping online, if at all possible. The one exception is groceries. The two local companies that offer online grocery shopping and delivery have a markup that just doesn’t balance out with the convenience of not having to fight crowds at the grocery store.

I buy books, CDs, movies, even toilet paper online. It’s so much easier to spend 5 minutes on a website than to pack up the kids, drive to the store, wander around while trying to avoid coming within view of the toy aisles, get what I need and get out without buying a bunch of crap I don’t need.

For a long time, I’d just accept the price as the price. I’d pay whatever was asked. Eventually, I quit overlooking the magic money-saving option on almost all e-commerce websites: the coupon field.

Here’s how it works: While you are checking out, you will usually see a box marked “coupon code” or “promo code”. Put in a coupon code, and poof! you save money. Magic is fun.

What happens if you don’t have a coupon code?

I crank up my second brain, aka Google. For example, if I’m shopping at the Gap, I’ll type in “Gap coupon code“. When the search results come up, I open the top 4-5 pages all at once and look for the best deals. If a site is trying to charge $30 for shipping, a free shipping coupon is a winner. If I’m ordering $300 worth of Christmas presents, a 15% off code is a real prize. Other times, I will concentrate on the buy-one, get-one type of coupons. Those are handy when I’m trying to buy presents for all of my nieces and nephews.

The real secret is coupon stacking. It’s usually not allowed, but some sites allow you to stack different types of coupons. If I can find a “15% off $300” coupon and a “free shipping” coupon for the same site, I’ll try to use them both. One Christmas, I was able to get $100 of free stuff shipped for $5 by stacking BOGOs, discounts, and shipping coupons. I love to get free stuff. Always try to use extra coupons, if you can find them. This isn’t extreme couponing, just using the system as it was designed.

I search coupon codes every single time I order anything online. No exceptions. How do you save money when you shop online?

Written on behalf of Dealtaker.com

Time vs Money Redux

Finance

Saving money is a good thing

Saving time is a good thing.

Somewhere in between, there has to be a balance. It’s possible to spend far too much time to save very little money.

For example, on September 30th, I left for the Financial Blogger’s Conference. Thinking I’d be frugal and save a little money, I told my GPS to avoid the toll roads. According to Google maps, the cheap route should have added 20 minutes to my trip. Coming into Illinois from Wisconsin on the toll roads, it’s easy to spend that much time waiting to pay the toll, since I don’t own an Illinois magic toll-paying box.

Unfortunately, the little smart-a** suction-cupped to my windshield sent mebthrough every construction zone between Wisconsin and Schaumberg, Illinois.

That sucks.

I went through a series of little towns with speed limits that randomly changed from block to block. Road construction had half of the roads down to just one lane. All told, I saved $3.40, judging by the tolls heading home, but the horrible detour cost me well over an hour and a half of time.

I saved $3.40, but lost 90 minutes. That’s not a good return on investment.

Just a month ago, I was ripping into my mother-in-law for wasting half an hour to save 75 cents. Then I have to go and demonstrate how horrible I am at making that save time vs money judgement.

I need to work on that.

What’s the most time you’ve spent to save a small amount of money?

Little Monster Late Fees

Parenting

Last week, I paid a late fee to daycare. I neverpay daycare late.

little monsters — Image by sekundo via Flickr

Except last week.

As I’ve said before, I work 80 hours a week.

For the last couple of weeks, my three year old has decided that she needs to sleep in every morning. No getting up at 6:30 for her. No way. That little prima donna wants to lounge in bed until 8, then watch a movie while eating breakfast in bed. She’s never gotten that treatment, so I don’t know why it’s become her goal.

Last week, she decided to throw a tantrum when I woke her up.

Followed by a tantrum when I reminded her she doesn’t get to wear diapers during the day.

Followed by a tantrum when I dared to pick out clothes that didn’t have horses, or didn’t look right, or weren’t sweats, or weren’t picked out by Mom, or this, or that or….

I’ve been the one to get her ready almost every morning for 3 years and she has never been catered to that way.

Me: overtired, with 1000 things on my mind.

Her: diva training, trying to wake up.

Her sister: teasing, asking questions, and generally doing her best to stand under my feet.

Her brother: gets himself ready, but tries to avoid combing his hair before school, and can’t be relied on to put on clean clothes.

Me: overtired. Juggling getting three kids and myself ready to leave. 1000 things on my mind.

Daycare: What check?

She finally got paid on Thursday. Over the 12 years we’ve had kids there, we’ve paid late maybe 5 times. I hate late fees.

What’s the fix?

Checklists don’t work for me, when I’m rushing around. I tend to ignore them while I’m herding children.

Selling the monsters to the gypsies is out. They are far too difficult to succeed working in the salt mines.

We need to start picking out clothes the night before, to short-circuit most of the tantrum. We also need to enforce bedtimes better, but that’s hard to do Sunday night if they are allowed to nap too long on Sunday afternoon, which happens when I nap with my kids on Sunday afternoon.

Maybe the best solution is to switch schedules with my wife. I’ll go in to work between 6 and 7. She can herd monsters while trying to get ready for work.

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