As many of you know I am getting married April 25th 2009. My soon to be wife is just awesome, she is just the best.
When it comes to money we are very different, usually when two people are getting married one is a spender and one is a saver. We actually have a different problem. We are both savers but different styles!
She tends to hoard money in low yielding savings accounts, me on the other hand I tend to put money in mutual funds and individual stocks.
After much discussion I finally convince her to open her first Roth IRA that is in a mutual fund, I think she understands the importance of investing but doesn’t really understand it enough to be comfortable actually doing it.
One this she IS awesome at is looking for deals while shopping. One of our first real money fights was when we both went to the grocery store and I just grabbed something without looking for the cheapest brand.
Overall, I think out financial styles will merge quite well and things will work out great, but it goes to show it is hard when getting married because you are also merging two different financial styles.
Since food prices have been going through the roof lately we have decided to plant a larger backyard garden this year. Last year we planted sweet peppers, hot peppers and tomatoes.
This year we are planting lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, oregano, basil and broccoli. In previous years we only planting seedlings, this year everything other than the tomatoes with be started as seeds, we bought a little indoor green house kit from Burpie. I will place this in my dining room window(it gets the most sun), until they are ready to be planted outside.
I have been composting for about a year now and have a bushel basket full of compost(also known as black gold), that I will use to hopefully grow a nice rich garden.
To be honest I don’t know if I saved and real money by doing it this way but I enjoy it and it gives you a sense of accomplishment and the stuff just darn taste better.
Welcome to the first installment of “Stocks I Like” Segment that will be a regular topic on AutomaticPersonalFinance.com.
**Disclaimer** – The information here is for informational purposes only, please do not invest your hard earned money into a stock I highlight here without doing your own research and consult a professional financial consultant or broker. Never ever go by what someone writes on a blog or talks about on one of those crazy financial shows on CNBC as something that is good for your personal finances.**
Ok now that we gave you the “warning” message, lets talk a little HOG.
Warren Buffett says: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful”?
Is this the time to be greedy with Harley Davidson?
HOG’s 52 week low according to Yahoo Finance is $34.10, right now the stock price is at $38.05. This is just about the lowest Harley Davidson has been since prior to 2003.
1st Qtr results were posivtive(this is taken directly from the Qtrly report):
“2008 first quarter net revenue of $1.31 billion was up 10.8% compared to the first quarter of 2007 driven by a 6.1% increase in shipments of Harley-Davidson® motorcycles over the same quarter last year”
In the same report the company notes and understands the economic downturn in the United States right now. They also state that they expect to ship fewer motorcycles than in 2007.
I think given this news the price will fall down to about $34-$36 per share and may be a good time to buy if it fits into your personal financial picture.
Please let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
Personal finance blogs are awesome reading. Some of my favorite blogs are ones where people are deeply in debt and working to pay it off all while detailing the journey on a blog. This really puts the personal in personal finance.
The one thing I find lacking is they very rarely determine what got them into debt in the first place. Sure they may be out of debt now but if they did not determine what was the cause of debt they very well may find themselves back into debt once again down the road.
Personally I have never really been in debt. Sure I have a car payment and a house payment but I could pay off the car right now if I needed to and my house payment is less than most people’s rent in an apartment.
I should be debt free including the house in roughly 3 years maybe 4. Not bad for a 26 year old. Likely I could slow down the 401k and IRA contributions and become debt free much sooner but I like knowing I am putting money away for when I retire.
Just remember know what got you into debt to not have to face the same issues later in life.
Last night my fiancee and I were at the grocery store and we actually got near the end of our trek through the store and we realized we spent a lot more than we planned to. True we did buy 4 Rib eye steaks for $25(hey we did have a $1 off coupon). I was having trouble justifying buying steaks that cost so much when the economy has been struggling lately and many of my investments are down right now.
How did I rationalize this purchase? Well I did save $1 and the coupon was expiring(I know not a very good rationalization), also I haven’t had a good steak in about a year and a half. I was planning on making one today, but of course it was raining outside. Will have to wait for a nice sunny day.
Anyways, how can you save money at the grocery store?
This will even work if you hate budgets!
1) Buy In Bulk
When possible buy items that will not spoil in bulk quantities. We belong to a local wholesale club and we buy plenty of items that make the membership worthwhile. Make sure you know your prices as not every item is a better deal.
We usually pick up large packages of paper towel, toilet paper and a lot of our meat products(ground beef etc)
2) Buy Clearance Items
Often many grocery stores will discount perfectly fine items that we not selling that well to make shelf room for top sellers. I often pickup very inexpensive TV Dinners this way, and other items like hot sauce and salad dressings.
3) Comparison Shop
It really does pay to know your prices, I visit 3 grocery stores in the local area and save money on products at each one. Some may ask about the extra driving, I usually do not make special trips and stop when I am heading in that direction anyways.
4) Plan Your Meals
If you plan out your meals you can save a lot of money. If you know you are going to be using ground beef twice this week you can buy a larger package which will be cheaper than if you buy a small package at the beginning of the week and another one mid week.
5) Check Out The Farmer’s Market
Again you must know your prices but shopping at a local farmers market is great on many levels. You are supporting local farmers, the items are fresher and often times you can find great deals on produce.
Check back in a few days for our 5 Tips To Save At The Gas Pump
One of the most difficult things to see is when a fairly young person 18-25 gets a large(or large to them) sum of money. For example a 19 year old kid getting $50,000. Now in the grand scheme of things that really is not that much money, but to a broke college kid that is like hitting the lotto.
What would the average kid do?
1) Buy a new car
2) Buy a nice sound system for the car
3) Buy a bunch of clothes
4) Take friends out to eat or pay for other things.
How would the smart kid handle $50,000?
Assuming the kid has no debt(I would payoff any or all debt first).
I would recommend putting at least $25,000 into a good growth stock or growth and income mutual fund with a long track record. Second I would put another $15,000 into a Roth IRA that was in a good growth mutual fund.
Finally $1,000 would go towards a spending fund, where the kid could buy a few things, with the understanding once it is gone it is gone. If we do not allow any fun money the kid will likely find a way to blow the rest of the money.
The rest of the money would go into a 12 months CD, I know the interest rates are terrible but it would force the kid to have a “cooling off” period where the money would be hard to touch.
Obviously at 19 the kid can do what he or she likes with the money but hopefully they realize what $50,000 could amount to with compound interest and time on their side.