Things I've Learned About Investing

So, I've pretty much have had to learn about investments in the stock market all on my own.  At first it is pretty intimidating.  Why wouldn't it be?  It involves your money and the potential for loosing it!

Here are a few things I have learned over the not-so-many years that I believe are important:

1. Be logical; don't be emotional.  Being emotional is one of the biggest pitfalls that happen to investors. When the economy looks bleak and there seems to be no path to recovery, people bail and sell their investments to get their cash to avoid loosing more money.  It is like some sort of survival instinct.  However, the economy always does recover.  Even when there seems to be no hope, it comes back.  Every time.  Despite politicians in all their stupidity.  Now the real kicker for me is to see this happen over and over again.  People never do learn.  But there is a catch, and I'll cover that in a minute.


2. Be consistent.  You need a plan where you put money into investments on a regular basis.  Like once a month, or every other week.  And you need to stick to the plan no matter what the stock market does.  This will help you from acting on emotions and historically you will fare better in the long run.  I currently employ one variation, but I'll also explain that in a minute.


3. Don't put all your eggs into one basket.  This is the catch I mentioned in #1.  It is very risky to put all your money into a single company's stock.  One problem I have with individual stocks in general is that it seems you must know a lot about that company to choose it.  True, you have great potential to earn a lot if the company's stock does well, but you also have a great potential to loose a lot of money as well.  This is why I would go with funds instead.  It generally protects you from significant drops (and also true it prevents you from reaping major increases) in one company's stock.  They are diverse.  And hence lower risk.  So when the next Enron goes belly-up, you won't be caught loosing everything.  It is better to choose some fund that tracks the total stock market, like an ETF such as VTI.  Or choose a variety of funds that cover different aspects of the market.  I won't go into more detail on that now.


4. ETFs are cheaper than Mutual Funds.  I actually started with mutual funds until I realized that ETFs (Electronic Traded Funds) were cheaper and not based on the skill of some random guy playing with your money (mutual fund manager).  I still have my mutual funds, but when I sell them I probably won't buy more.


5. The market is schizophrenic.  I'm not even sure what that means, but my point is that the market will react drastically whenever something in the news happens that "might" impact the market.  Getting all excited causes the price of stocks to be either undervalued or overvalued.  I'm trying to be consistent (see #2), but I also can't help notice that there are always bad days and good days in the stock market.  Since I usually buy some ETFs on a monthly basis, I just wait for the first "bad" day of the month and buy then, because the overall stock market is probably undervalued in the short-term variations.  There is always a bad day.  Just don't get caught up into trying to figure out on a given bad day if there will be a worse day later that month.  You never know.

Alright, now that I've shared, I'm sure there are things wrong with my strategy and the way I approach things.  That's OK with me.  I'll continue to learn and refine.  If you have a comment, please share!

Free Concert of Insanity

On Saturday evening I took all 4 kids by myself to the annual free orchestra concert at Freedom Park.  The theme of the music was the Wild West.  Before the event started, we played with the soccer ball in the field, which was fun.



I'm sure the music was great, but I didn't get to hear any of it.  When the concert started, the kids were not interested.  It was fairly dark, but Henry was insistent on wandering around.  When I made him sit still he flipped out in a tantrum, which meant others couldn't hear.  While chasing down Henry who had stolen some random guy's sunglasses case I looked over to see Benjamin wrapped up in the blanket and Mo carrying the bag of popcorn upside down with popcorn dropping onto the ground.  After about 40 minutes of this I had enough and took the kids home.  It made Emma cry.  I actually felt bad.  But not bad enough to stay.  It was miserable.  Maybe when the kids are older and will sit, behave, and listen I will go back.  Until then... I think we'll stick with sports instead.

Family Fun Fair

We attended the annual Family Fun Fair / Scout Show yesterday.  The kids had a great time going around and doing all of the activities.



I thought it was pretty cool that Emma got to hold a snake.  I didn't get a picture but Emma also got to hold a desert tortoise.

Car Damage

Our 13 year old Ford Escort has been through a lot.  This morning it suffered a little more as I backed out of the garage and caught the driver side mirror on the side of the garage door.  The mirror completely came off.  Since the mirror did not crack, the superstitous out there can sigh a breath of relief that I will not suffer 7 years of bad luck.

Fortunately we have duct tape to save the day!

Landscaping More

As a follow-up to our landscaping on Labor Day, we did some work on the other flower bed in the front yard.

Here we just started:



We cleaned up some of the old wood chips and started digging out a ditch to put in bricks to make the boundary.  Then we started putting in the bricks.

Rachel did most of the work.  And she did a swell job!





And here it is!



For the next few days we need to get some water into the soil and add some manure before we plant some flowers.

Lookin' Good!

While waiting for Emma's soccer game to start, I was able to take some exceptionally good pictures of my little boy Henry.

Happy Birthday Honey!

Happy Birthday!





You got some good presents too!

Homemade Yogurt

Rachel bought me a yogurt maker some time ago.  I believe I have mastered the art of yogurt making and I'm willing to share my secrets.

The first secret is to acquire a yogurt maker.  This is mine.  It was cheap (under $20) from Walmart online.



All a yogurt maker really does is keep the milk at the right temperature so that it will actually form yogurt.  I know of others who have struggled to use other devices.  It is hard because the optimal temperature range is rather small and not a normal cooking temperature.  This is why a so-called yogurt maker is nice:  it is optimized to maintain the right temperature.

Another key item is sanitation.  After all, the process of making yogurt is to get certain types of bacteria to grow, and we don't want any bad bacteria to also grow!  This is why you will see in my process that I take sanitation very seriously.

First, I get all the equipment out.  My yogurt maker comes with 7 glass jars with corresponding plastic lids.  I also use a funnel, a spoon, prongs, and a beater.  I put them on a cloth like I'm going in for surgery.  I will also use two pots (one that fits inside the other), a wooden spoon for stirring, and a candy thermometer.



I also need plain cultured yogurt.  This is essentially the yogurt starter by providing the bacteria cultures you need.  Generic brands seem to be the best.  The further away the "sell by" date, the better.  If the "sell by" date is only a couple days away, it may not even work; I've had problems with that.  Better quality yogurt comes from a fresher yogurt starter.



Next, I get the two pots, one that will fit inside the other with room to spare, to use as a double-boiler.  In the larger pot I add a little bit of water and put it on the stove-top on high heat, and later turn it down so the water doesn't boil over the side.  Then I put the smaller pot inside and add 4 cups of milk (my glass yogurt jars amount to 4 cups).  I put a candy thermometer in the milk, careful not to let it touch the bottom of the pot.



I use whatever milk we have in the refrigerator, usually 1% milk or non-fat milk.  I don't know how the type of milk affects the yogurt.

I stir the milk every so often.  It needs to heat up to 85-90 degrees CELSIUS (185-195 degrees F).  The purpose is to kill all the bacteria already in the milk, so it doesn't compete with the bacteria we want to grow to make our yogurt.



Then I take the milk pot out and set it aside to start cooling.  The milk will need to cool to about 100 degrees F.  In the meantime, I sanitize everything.  I add more water to that larger pot and get it to a boil.  Then I use my prongs to dip everything (spoon, funnel, glass jars, lids, everything).



Once I have sterilized everything, I then dump the water, cool down the pot in running water, then use that pot to help cool down the milk even faster by putting in some cold water and ice and using the double-boiler method to cool down the milk.



I usually take the milk down to 100 degrees F even.  But I'm told anywhere between 90 degrees and 110 degrees will work best.  Too warm and it will kill some of our good bacteria.



Then I add about 2 tablespoons of my plain yogurt into the milk and mix it up with the beater.  Sometimes I just add the whole container of yogurt because what's the point in only using half the container?  I also don't beat it for very long.  I'm told it is suppose to be bad to agitate it too much.  I'm really just trying to get it mixed in well with the milk and not clumps at the bottom.



Finally I poor my milk through the funnel to fill each of my glass containers.



And then I put my filled containers into my yogurt maker.





It sits in my yogurt maker for about 7-8 hours.  I find that is about the right amount of time so the yogurt isn't too tart, but it will be firm.  I also put it on the counter where it won't get agitated by vibrations.  Putting it on top of the refrigerator is a bad idea because the vibrations will agitate the mixture and make it harder to form good yogurt texture.

After about 7-8 hours, I first turn off the yogurt maker and let it sit for about 1 hour to start cooling down.  Then I put the lids on and put the jars into the refrigerator and let them cool in the refrigerator for about 2 hours before consuming.

I don't keep around homemade yogurt in the fridge for more than 10 days, just to be safe.

I only make plain yogurt.  I have heard (never tried it) that making flavored yogurt doesn't work very well.  Instead, I just add frozen or fresh berries or fruit to my yogurt at mealtime.

That's it!

9/11

Yep, it has been 10 years.  Hard to believe.  When it happened, I was dropping Rachel off at her work (an Elementary school) and then I drove to my work in north Provo.  We were listening to the radio, and we couldn't figure out what was going on.  We thought it was some weird joke that the talk show hosts were doing.  Very lame jokes.

When I got to work, the TV was on and then I understood what was really happening.  I was kind of in shock at the whole thing.  Especially since nobody really knew what was happening or to what extent more things were going to happen.  It was like we were under attack, but from some unseen non-obvious enemy and we didn't know how to protect ourselves.

I was initially worried about people I knew that lived in NYC, but later we found that they were all safe.

After work I still went to classes at BYU.  They didn't cancel school, although they probably should have because nobody was focused.

I am from New York, but not New York City.  But I have been to the World Trade Center, and even today it is strange to see the New York skyline without those two towers.

For us as a nation, I think it was a wake-up call.  However, it is evident that the long-term reactions of our nation haven't always led to the best choices.  It is sad how quickly we as a nation forget our reliance on our Maker.

In the years that have passed, I have come to appreciate how the Lord our God can make terrible circumstances into something good.  Usually through small means does He accomplish great things.  Like how on 9/11 the small heroic actions of normal citizens, such as those brave firefighters, that moved an entire nation.

Here is a photo from the Parade of a 1,000 Flags in our patriotic community, a symbol of unity in pride for our great nation.  I'm glad to be an American!

Soccer Season Has Begun!

This morning Emma played her first soccer game of the season.  She did very well!  I'm excited to see her progress and hopefully continue to enjoy the sport.



I used to play soccer a lot with friends after school or just whenever.  I never played for the school team, but I always loved playing.  Hopefully Emma will enjoy the sport just as much as I did, or even more!

¡Fiesta!

Last night we hosted a ¡Fiesta! at our home.  It was a huge party!



We left the invitation open to anyone who wanted to come with a special emphasis on getting together with the hispanics that we know and anyone who loves hispanics and good food.  We didn't get as many hispanics out as we had hoped, but we still had 115 people come to our fiesta!  We know quite a few hispanics in this town.  In addition, we also know a lot of gringos who speak Spanish.  And of course we know lots of good people in who don't speak Spanish but love the opportunity to get together.  One guy at our fiesta originally from El Salvador was pleasantly surprised that so many gringos knew Spanish.

We asked that people bring a Latin inspired dessert to share.  The food was amazing!  Unfortunately I only took 2 pictures of the food.  One is the Latin-inspired "Rice Krispi-O's" that our friends Levi & Ashley Baker brought and the other is a Peruvian dish I made called mazamorra morada, which is basically purple corn pudding.



We had two piñatas at the fiesta.  The kids absolutely loved it!  I was happy that nobody got injured considering the gusto those kids have with a stick in their hands.



Unfortunately our friend Maria couldn't make it.  She helped us out a lot by getting some of the supplies together.  However, Maria's daughter, Yoselin, and her fiance, Casey, came and helped us with the kids and the piñatas.

Last time we had a Latino party like this at our house was about 4 years ago.  We had over 70 people come, which we thought was a lot!  At one time during this fiesta I counted 101 people in our house all at the same time.  Then I added those who left and those who showed up later and I had a total of 110.  After the fiesta was over, Rachel and I made a list of everyone who came, and we got a total of 115! While that makes us feel so blessed to have so many friends, everyone knows we didn't hold a fiesta to see how many friends we have.  We did it to help strengthen bonds with one other and provide an atmosphere where we could meet some new people and strengthen relationships with others.

Thanks to everyone who made our fiesta a great one!

Crampons

I love this sign!  Seriously, how many places do you know that would need a sign to remind you to remove crampons before entering a building?!



This is from Ouray, Colorado; one of the most awesome places I've ever been to.

Slow to Landscape

A long time ago I was active in landscaping our yard.  No more.  Until Labor Day.  This year I fixed up the front bed.  I previously made a dry river through it, with drip lines to water some plants.  As of this morning, all the plants but 2 had died, and the "river" was covered in dirt from a previously blown-out water line.  We had also used wood chips in the area.  They look nice for a couple days, but the wind blows them around and the sun bakes them.

We started by removing all the rocks, boulders, and giant pine cones.



We decided to completely remove the wood chips.  Even the neighbor kid took pity on us and helped out.



We added some bricks to create a boundary.



Then I recreated a "river" bed with the boulders and rocks.



And we planted flowers to make it pretty again!  Imagine that!  Flowers in a flower bed.

Flowers

Just a couple recent pictures of flowers.  I don't know the real name of this first one, but I've always heard it referred to as "Shooting Star".  You will find it in the high sierras.



As will you find these dandelion-like flowers at high altitudes.



As well as these only found at high altitude:



This flower is from my dad's cabin in New York.  Not high altitude, but still pretty.



 

Pet Relief Area

Yes, they really do have a pet relief area in the New York City JFK airport.  I love the sign!