stock market survivor online game

We have a pension, but we have also put a small amount in our IRAs. My dad had the unfortunate and costly problem of his company changing the pension plan shortly before he retired, so I don't quite trust pension plans, though ours seems to be pretty good. It still makes me nervous relying on something I have no control over.

Anyway, we go the indexed mutual fund route, so I don't need to pick stocks or bonds. But this week I subbed for a teacher and one of the classes he teaches is a personal finance class and they are just starting their investing section. This is how I heard about Wall Street Survivor. (http://wallstreetsurvivor.com/)

It's an online site where you are given virtual money and can "invest" it in the stock market. You can pay to have investing lessons, but you don't have to sign up for that in order to have a free account. And you can set up competitions. This class is in a competition with each other. I'm on my own.

I decided I wanted to give it a try. I didn't want to spend a lot of time picking stocks, however, like I would have if I were really investing my money. What I did was find a website that told me what the major investing sectors are (basic materials, conglomerates, consumer goods, financial, industrial goods, services, technology, and utilities) and then I tried to choose one stock for each category.

I did not look at returns or anything; I just picked stocks of things I use (well, I confess, I don't use John Deere tractors, but they certainly are around):

AmeriGas Partners (APU)--my propane supplier
Wal-Mart (WMT)--the store I have a love/hate relationship with
Toyota (TM)--brand of 2 of our 3 vehicles
Wells Fargo (WFC)--my bank
John Deere (DE)--everybody around here seems to love them
Cumulus Media (CMLS)--I listen to their radio programs
Dell Computers (DELL)--we have a Dell--I would have chosen Acer first, but it's not traded in the US, so I skipped it
NV Energy (NVE)--they provide my power

I divided up the magical $100,000 dollars (divided by 12 = $12,500 per stock company) and bought however many shares I could. At $3.42/share that allowed me to buy 3,655 shares of CMLS but at $83.08 I could only buy 150 shares of Dell and of Toyota...

In the end, I still had a little money left over, so I "bought" some Wendy's stock (WEN).

Since I signed up after the stock market closed, I think there's a chance that something gets adjusted when my "buys" go through in the morning...if I understand it (which I don't, so we'll see what happens).

I haven't decided how long to play as I'm a long-term investor, but I think it will be fun to see how it goes.  I don't know that I'll really learn anything...other than I might be glad I really use index funds instead of hand-picking my stocks. I wonder if anyone in my family will want to try.

decision making (the book 10-10-10: A Life Transforming Idea by Suzy Welch)

I just finished reading a book the other day called 10-10-10: 10 Minutes, 10 Months, 10 Years--A Life Transforming Idea by Suzy Welch. I saw the book in a bookstore and then came home and ordered it through inter-library loan. The basic idea is VERY simple. The book is not needed except as a pep-talk and to show you examples of how some others have used the 10-10-10 process in their lives. Though I really like chapter 2 which talks a bit about the psychology of decision making.

Basic idea:

When you are making a decision you use your core values to weigh the immediate consequences of your choices (10 minutes, but it could be 10 days...it just means an immediate time frame), the intermediate consequences (10 months or thereabouts), and the long-term consequences (10 years or so).  You weigh the choices and make a decision. Sometimes it only takes a minute to decide and sometimes you have to do some research and fact finding to find out what the consequences might be. Too often we just think of the immediate time frame.

The current small decision where I am trying to use this: do I go to Henderson with Glen and a few of his students in March?

If I went, I would probably do most if not all of the driving in between Fallon and Vegas. But Glen would drop me off at my sister's house and go on to the competition without me. Friday Denise would go to work, so we would have Thursday and Friday evenings and at least part of Saturday (I still don't know when we'd be heading back). My biggest concern is that on Thursday evening that leaves someone else to be carting Eric back and forth to classes...and the others to and from church. Glen's sister did this for us when Glen and I went to Utah for the conference. I hate asking people to do things...especially if I feel I should be doing it myself.

Anyway, using 10-10-10:
10 minutes: my sister-in-law is inconvenienced
10 months and 10 years: no real impact that I can see either positive or negative

So, I guess I will talk to my sister-in-law and see how she feels about it.

I asked my sister if she had heard of this before and she said yes, that she used to use it and then sort of forgot about it and stopped using it. She was glad I mentioned it because she wants to go back to using it again. After a few days it's like a vague memory resurfaced and I believe I remember her telling me about it a few years ago.

So the current big decison where I will try and use this is in deciding what should happen with Eric's education. He is only 6 credits (2 classes) away from having an AA degree. Only the path he is now on is to have an associated in computer graphics...which might take up to 3 semesters more. If he had started on that tract and not just a general AA tract he would--sort of--be mostly done by now. I say sort of because most of the computer graphics classes are not offered locally--only 1/semester is offered in Fallon. I wasn't ready to send him away 2 years ago (don't know if he was ready or not, but I wasn't).

So, does he get his AA and then go for an AAS in computer graphics or does he just switch now and aim for his AAS?...I think the first choice. Maybe.

Do we send him to Great Basin College in Elko or to WNC in Carson City? Or somewhere else? Even though it's further away, I might be leaning more towards Great Basin. But, more research needs to be done. And we need to talk to his counselor at Voc Rehab.

politics

I truly believe that our Constitution was inspired by God. But I really dislike campaigning and the games politicians play.

Yesterday's game was at the caucus. I had to decided between voting for the man I think would be best and the one that everyone tells me is the only one who can beat Pres. Obama. I finally went for the one I think would most closely follow my beliefs. And it wasn't the Mormon candidate. It was Rick Santorum.

Why can't candidates just state their beliefs and what they wish to accomplish and how they wish to accomplish it? Then perhaps they can point out why they think the other candidate's plan won't work as well as there own. No mudslinging, just giving the facts as they see it. No heated discussion. No grandstanding or acting like children. Ahhh. That would be nice.