On Charity Giving

I thought this post from Mint was interesting:

budget planner – Mint.com

Caritas In Veritate

Hello readers! It's been a while. I've been busy changing roles at work and planning a young adult retreat for my deanery. It's interesting to work on the retreat since our theme is about using our time, talent and treasure to get closer to God. I especially like the treasure part. :) It gives me an excuse to hunt in the Bible for passages that give us nuggets of wisdom regarding money.

Not sure if you all knew, but here is the link to the new encyclical addressing economics and life: Caritas In Veritate, Latin for Charity in Truth.

I also have some gem quotes from Lowenstein's book on 'Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist':
-It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it.
-Any amount of capital bears the seed of future trillions. To squander or misdirect it is a sin.

The book also makes reference to these bible passages:
-Turn in the account of your stewardship Luke 16:2
-He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. Luke 16:10

Some Catholic Links On Economic Life

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has a site on economic life, which is more relevant and directs us in these trying times: http://www.usccb.org/jphd/economiclife/

In particular, they released 10 statements on what a Catholic's economic life should look like: http://www.usccb.org/jphd/economiclife/pdf/a-catholic-framework-for-economic-life.pdf

Also, my friend K informed me that Pope Benedict XVI will soon be releasing an encyclical on finance/economics. Can't wait to read it!

New Direction Of Blog

So, it's been many a month since I last posted. The S&P500 has been gaining steadily from it's low of 666.79 in early March to over 940 in mid June. That's over a 30% gain. Sadly, I didn't go all in at around 700, but bought small quantities steadily during this time.

Anyways, I've been thinking that it might be easier to keep writing if I combine both faith and my interest in finance. Something that I've wanted to do for some time is to start looking at what the Bible says about money management and how to handle your finances. Which is why I want to start hunting for passages and tidbits around the net that could shed light on how we are to act regarding this world of moolah.

Another mudslide down?

I didn't realize that it's been about 2 months since my last post. My extreme apologies to anticipating readers, if I have any. I would love to hear your comments or suggestions if anyone's out there. :)

So, the markets are just painful to look at. Up and down, but down all around. I'm thinking that this next phase can be likened to a mudslide. The mud comes slow and engulfs and destroys, but it does it slowly. No more of the crazy volatility +-10%, at least for now while the news has been quiet. Just some ups and downs, with a downward trend for who knows how low? 

Things just can't get better right now. People don't just change their behaviors in a split second. Holiday sales were weak, with stronger post-Christmas shopping. Nevertheless, we won't make this economy go up unless everyone starts doing their part and buying more. Of course, manage your debt while consuming, but we need to eat, don't we?

Oh Woe, Things May Keep Going Down

I sold all my positions by yesterday morning except for everything in my retirement funds. Why, after I talked about holding for the long term? To be honest, my nerves couldn't handle seeing the markets in such wide swings, potentially depleting my most liquid assets that I'll need to pay rent, insurance, and bills. Also, the news from the past few days has been all negative. Yes, lower interest rates may help ease the economy's pain, but do you really think all the suffering of individuals and companies are over? Maybe it's still only the beginning. Regular people are reducing their spending...I plan on giving handmade presents this Christmas. Who knows when the blood will stop spilling? I think that I'll take this time in the next few days to envision my ideal portfolio and delve into the specific purchases I would want to make in this or an even worse environment down by 20-50%. 

By the way, I don't count retirement investments such as 401(k), 401(b), IRA, or Roth funds with long horizons as part of my liquid funds. In fact, in my mind, they're untouchable until age 59 1/2. So, I could lose greatly on these assets, take great risks, and be ok. Therefore, I still definitely have stocks there.

I think I'll write an entry on taxes and fees associated with stock selling and buying by the end of this week. Would you find this useful?

Negativity In The Air

Headlines containing words like bloodbath, meltdown, and chaos rule the headlines this morning as overseas markets performed very poorly last night due to fears of worldwide recession. Things are looking bad, but I think they may only get worse as utter despair hasn't yet seemed to hit Wall Street.