I can be candid with the figures, since, come on, who cares about our $500? So, we deposited this $500 into our new account to begin trading. In a little less than two months, we've made an almost 45% profit on that initial investment. Every day or so, I log into our account and see a chart on the home page that graphs the value of our account. I get excited watching it fluctuate up or down, and have been happy to see such a profit in two months, even if it doesn't add up to much money.
So, as of yesterday, our account was valued at $722. Well, Aaron and I had an extra check from work on our hands (which happens twice a year). We decided to go ahead and deposit it into our trading account. Here's what the graph looked like when I logged on this morning:
HOLY SMOKE!, I thought. Look at the jump!
Of course, this huge leap in the value of our account is not because of huge gains in our stock positions, but simply because we deposited more money. But that's when it hit me. We increased our assets in this account by 343% just by not spending the extra money.
I make myself dizzy sometimes trying to think of another way to earn more money for our family. But I could never underestimate the value in saving and being frugal. It is amazing how much money you give yourself by not spending $50/month. It's easy to lose the true value of it. But time and time again, I realize that the best and first thing Aaron and I can do to achieve our dreams is to continue to cook from scratch, buy groceries from the sale ad, have Aaron repair our vehicles, say no to luxuries, etc. It saves (earns) us hundreds and hundreds of dollars in one month.
It may not be complex or sophisticated, but it does make sense. :)
3 comments:
Good advice, and glad to hear your venture is going well.
Keep in mind that there's a lot more uncertainty right now, so the market is volatile: the upswings and downswings will probably be smaller 9 to 18 months from now.
About the volatility: Yup. We've heard people talking about how we can expect large swings up and down (similar to the ones during the Great Depression); so we're not overly excited about our gains. In fact, our account is down 15% today! :)
Oh well. I'm glad we're only in it to learn right now.
And NOW our entire account is DOWN 23%. These swings are amazing. How can anyone really deny how unstable the economy is?
What's your take on all this Norman? What's really going on? We (obviously) have our own opinions, but haven't heard your full take on it...have you blogged about it yet?
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