Lazy Man and Money

  • Blog
  • Home
  • About
    • What I’m Doing Now
  • Consumer Protection
    • Is Le-vel Thrive a Scam?
    • Is Jusuru a Scam?
    • Is Beachbody’s Shakeology a Scam?
    • Is “It Works” a Scam?
    • Is Neora (Nerium) a Scam?
    • Youngevity Scam?
    • Are DoTERRA Essential Oils a Scam?
    • Is Plexus a Scam?
    • Is Jeunesse a Scam?
    • Is Kangen Water a Scam?
    • ViSalus Scam Exposed!
    • Is AdvoCare a Scam?
  • Contact
  • Archive

Rationally Irrational

October 13, 2008 by Lazy Man 5 Comments

A friend called me up last night. He was open about how spooked he was when he looked his retirement accounts and found that 30% (or more) of his hard-earned money had disappeared – with nothing to show for it. The way he put it, I really couldn’t argue with him. It was a completely rational argument.

It didn’t stop me from trying. He’s probably one of the most logical and rational people I know. The argument that I came up with was, “You’ve got 30 years before you reach typical retirement. Then you may have another 30 years after that. Do you think that over the next 60 years this week’s blip will really impact your portfolio that much?” I’m not even sure if I bought the argument because losing a lot of money at once makes it more difficult for your money to grow. Still, the argument of time should work and if you don’t believe me, Ben Stein wouldn’t lie to you. :-)

Here are a couple of other snippets from the conversation:
My Friend: I feel like I should buy a new television, so that I have something to show.
Me: I actually did buy a new television this weekend. It wasn’t for that reason, but it seems to me that it would have depreciated less than a lot of investments this week [I then laugh as I hadn’t thought about that until now].

My Friend: I’ve realized something in this. I have been paying money to someone to lose my money. I figure I can lose my money on my own.
Me: That’s been my theory for some time now. (Note: What I should have said was, “If you diversify yourself enough, keep expenses low, you probably don’t need a professional to manage your money. In fact, I usually find that they push you towards options that have more fees and kickbacks for them. I’m waiting for Chris Hansen get tired of going after child predators and start going after financial predators.”)

My Friend: So you like this Vanguard Total Index Fund (symbol: VTI)? What about Spyders (symbol: SPY)?
Me: Well the VTI tracks the Wilshire 5000, if I recall. SPY tracks the Standard and Poor’s list of 500 companies they consider important. I tend to think that they are very similar, but SPY might focus on larger companies. Either way, there’s going to be a lot of overlap in the two. I would look into something like Vanguard’s Ex-US (symbol: VEU), which focuses on companies that are outside of the United States.

My Friend: I don’t know how I feel having my money outside the US. Have you seen what happened to Iceland?
Me: Yeah and the Russian markets only seem to open twice a week. Still, what happens if the US runs into a major downturn. You have your job here and your investments here. Seems like a lot of eggs in one basket. (Note: I wish I had read this on the VEU: “The Index includes approximately 2,200 stocks of companies in 46 countries, from both developed and emerging markets worldwide.” That means I would be tracking 7,200 stocks around the world in the purchase of two stock symbols. Would I care much about Iceland?)

My Friend: You know that PowerShares Agriculture Fund (symbol: DBA) sounds decent. People are going to eat no matter what, right?
Me: That’s my theory.

I look back on it and it seems like we were both completely rational. Yet in someways I wonder if we were irrational in a few cases. I hope that I was decently rational here, but you never know. I tried to pretend that I was an actual accredited financial guy, but it’s important to understand that I’m an average Joe without any specific education/training in any financial area. I just do a lot of reading.

Filed Under: Psychology Tagged With: ben stein, child predators, chris hansen, hard earned money, index fund, retirement accounts, wilshire 5000

Weekend Links – Lonely Mickey Mouse Edition

July 26, 2008 by Lazy Man 1 Comment

My wife and I went to Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago and spent a little time in Disneyland. One of the most interesting things I saw was a High School Musical 2 stage that was on wheels. It would come rolling through the park 2-3 times a day and put on a 30-45 minute show at the front of the park. A group of teenagers/young adults would jump off the stage and perform songs from High School Musical. It’s all very good, and it was a fine show.

As my wife was grooving along to the music, I immediately wondered if we were going to be put on some national list. We’re a 30+ couple with no children hanging out at High School Musical show in Disneyland. I kept looking over my shoulder for Chris Hansen. As I was looking over my shoulder, I noticed Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto pacing back and forth looking for child to high-five or take a picture with. I nudged my wife to show her and she wisely surmised, “When was the last time he was in a movie?” It took me awhile to think about it and came up empty. Looking it up later, it seems he hasn’t been doing much film work since 1953, mostly focusing on some Christmas specials. I should probably grant the 80-year old mouse a little slack, but I’m starting to think he’s lazier than me.

Anyway, here are some personal finance links from The Money Writers this week.

  • Stock market diversification works! The proof presented this week by Digerati Life is an excellent post on investment portfolios.
  • Do you do any of the top 12 money mistakes most people make? Generation X Finance writes #11 being naive hinders you””educate yourself.
  • Not keeping a budget was another one of the top 12 mistakes but Google Can Help. This post by the Sun’s Financial Diary is a look at Google’s personal monthly budget.
  • Brip Blap posts on how to give money to charity . Financial, goods, time? Look for qualified charities that are tax deductible!
  • What are the the top 10 exchange-traded funds ? Do you know? Money Smart Life does.
  • Peak oil or oil bubble? – the oil bubble argument by Million Dollar Journey reveals that demand for oil is up 2% while supply is up 2.5%. What does this mean?
  • Have you ever been in a sticky situation where you didn’t know how much to tip? My Dollar Plan poses several situations. Do you know the answer?

And some more from those outside The Money Writers.

  • Mighty Bargain Hunter says you can earn free Visa gift cards for searching the web ! Scour search engine runs on points and allows users to vote sites up and down that show up in the search results.
  • For NCN it is time to request a withdrawal from my Upromise account . Read more to learn how to do it.
  • Five Cent Nickel had two posts I was particularly interested in reading the first was twelve great resources for buying smart and the second was the Federal minimum wage: looking back over time also shown in inflation 2008 dollars and in terms of buying power.

Filed Under: Links Tagged With: chris hansen, disneyland, micke mouse, mickey, minnie, pluto

As Seen In…

Join and Follow

RSS Feed
RSS Feed

Follow Me on Pinterest

Search The Site

Recent Comments

  • Lazy Man on The Google Pixel Watch is an Unmitigated Disaster, but…
  • David on The Google Pixel Watch is an Unmitigated Disaster, but…
  • Mark W. Murphy on What’s My Pension Worth?
  • Mark W. Murphy on Should You Include Your Pension in Your Net Worth?
  • Lazy Man on Artificial Intelligence Changes Everything

Please note that we may have a financial relationship with the companies mentioned on this site. We frequently review products or services that we have been given access to for free. However, we do not accept compensation in any form in exchange for positive reviews, and the reviews found on this site represent the opinions of the author.


© Copyright 2006-2023 · Perfect Plan Publishing, Inc. · All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy · A Narrow Bridge Media Design