Show Me the Money!
People who teach at small Christian colleges are not known for their wealth; I am no exception. The people I know who have done well have done so through publishing, speaking engagements, and the like. Having blogged a few weeks back about how much I despise the health a wealth gospel, I may sound like a hypocrite in what I am going to say, but I don't think so. I am not against making money; I am against making the gospel about making money. Making money? I'm all fine with that! Which leads me to my topic.
When I speak with college students about "my journey" I usually bring up a few things that I think I would have done differently. One of those things is that I would have taken more chances with my money. I have always thought that I should have gotten more familiar with the stock market and tried some investing. The problem is that when I was young, I didn't, and when we started having kids the little money we had (emphasis on little) I couldn't afford to loose. This year, along with loosing weight and having more fun, I made a New Year's resolution to give investing a try. I am doing okay on the first, I'm not sure about the second, and last week I plunged into the third. I set up and account and bought my first stock.
I don't know what I was thinking.
I have been watching this particular stock for a long time (several years) and it seemed like it was time to buy since it was down. It had always made money before, so I thought I could only stand to gain. To make a long story short, I didn't. I lost a little money, but in the process I found an even worse problem. From the moment I clicked "buy" I could not take my eyes off of it. I almost continuously had to be looking at how it was doing. When it went up a bit I was happy, but when it went down (as it more often did) I sat there and worried about loosing money; not much, but enough to make me upset. I am a cheapskate and I hate loosing money. On top of it all, I have work to do! I don't have time to look at a computer screen all day watching numbers. Finally, this morning I sold.
I'm now questioning whether I'm up to this. I'm not saying I'm out, but I wonder if I have the heart or money for it. Maybe if I had a little more faith . . .