We just bought the kids "new" bikes this week at a yard sale, and we were more than happy to get a deal. Their old bikes had gotten too small, and Dad has not taken to time to properly teach his children to ride (insert guilt trip here). The new bikes, awesome September weather, and excitement from the kiddos has encouraged me to get them out riding this fall.
I've been equally excited to pick up common stocks at uncommon prices over the past few weeks. I'm no day-trader, just a regular contributor to my retirement plan at work. And as stocks get cheaper, it seems to me I'm getting more and more for the money. Granted, if this truly is the "worst financial crisis since the 1930s," there could be issues. But even if that's true, I think regular purchases of stocks over the next few years will pay off in the long-term.
It'll be another 30 years before I need the money, and I'm sure we'll have the "worst financial crisis since 2008" sometime between now and then.
Simultaneously we're attempting to pay off a car loan early. It's a 6% loan, so I know that every time we make an extra payment I'm earning about 6% on that money. It's the best savings plan we have going at the moment.
Am I missing something here? Should I be following the crowd to bonds and my 0.3%-earning savings account before our nest egg hits zero? Anyone with an actual financial background (I just count cars for a living) with insight?
3 comments:
No financial experience unless you count the summer I interned at Edward Jones, but I don't see any faults in your plans. Everything is basically on sale if you want to think of it that way. When you look at the huge losses, 1.2 Trillion (more than the size of India's whole economy) the other day, I find it hard to believe that John Deere, Microsoft, Cisco, etc. are worth that much less because a bunch of bankers screwed the pooch.
Same could be said for real estate as well. We have a limited supply of land so that value will come back eventually. You really have to have a long term mindset these days.
We are also paying off credit cards now and viewing that as paying ourselves and helping out our retirement by not having burdensome credit debt (the van is next).
But then again, as I said, no financial expertise.
You may want those smaller bikes back for teaching purposes. This website describes how I taught Aaron to ride a bike and it worked perfectly: http://www.ibike.org/education/teaching-kids.htm It was absolutely amazing how coasting down a hill with his feet just inches from the ground worked. Good luck.
Great tip! Think the story will be convincing to the Salvation Army?
I'm also hoping I can lower the seats to their lowest position to get a similar effect. We'll see how it works.
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