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 . . .
Comments
I know the feeling. Last year in Dr. Hall's class we did a mock stock market game. We all couldn't help but obsess ourselves with the rising and falling numbers on google finance... And it wasn't even rewarding because it was only a game.
Posted by: Kris | February 7, 2008 7:04 AM
In response to your first paragraph, I find it interesting that the middle class is always trying to downplay its wealth, while the lower class does the opposite. No one wants to appear too rich or too poor so neither group portrays an accurate version of itself. Why doesn't the middle class try to make itself look better? Then we could have the perks of the upper class that we are secretly jealous of. That really doesn't have much to do with your post, but it is something that I've always wondered.
[REPLY FROM DS: Amelia! if I couldn't complain about not being rich then what would I have to complain about;) Although there are exceptions, I think most people downplay their income (rich and poor). I would never say that I was poor, I'm not at all. I just think that there are a lot of opportunities out there of which most people never take advantage. I think I have been one of them. Who knows, though, maybe I'll find out that I've been better off staying out of the markets. I'm beginning to believe that some people just don't have the stuff for it.]
Posted by: Amelia McCown | February 13, 2008 2:07 PM