slice of koh

As the first day of 2010 is about to come to an end, I have spent some time today thinking about new year’s resolutions for 2010.  I don’t really recall past new year’s resolutions or whether I have fulfilled them or not, so this time I want to have something concrete and actionable for 2010.

Rather than resolutions, I should call them goals because I’m not drastically changing my personality, morals or lifestyle.  I want to have a set of actionable goals that I can meet in 2010 and feel proud that I accomplished then in a year.

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I’m facing the same question myself.  The Dow Jones Index has reached levels not seen since I was in seventh grade.  Who thought that would happen?  The investor mantra is to buy low and sell high.  One would think this is a great opportunity for a young investor like myself.

Before you ever consider investing in the stock market especially if you recently graduated, there are five questions you should ask yourself before making committing your precious cash to this investment decision.

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Now I know why people turn conservative once they start earning money.  It’s pretty shocking how much gets taken out of one’s paycheck from taxes of all sorts.  The new stimulus package includes about $790 billion in spending.  In other words, they will be spending about $2600 per person  assuming that there are little more than 300 million people living in the United States.  

Here’s the fun part.  It looks like I will only get some part of the $400 tax credit per year for 2009 and 2010.  So what happened to the rest of the $2200?  According to WSJ and AP, It seems like it will be funneled to the following items or people:

1. Unemployment benefits

2. Subsidy for someone else’s health insurance

3. One-time extra Social Security payment

4. People who buy new cars

5. First-time homeowners

6. Higher education and Public Education

7. Infrastructure

8. Alternative energy research

9. Environment

10. Police

Am I bitter?  A little bit.  There is really no incentive for me to help stimulate the economy.  It looks like I’ll focus on paying off my student loans.

It’s a pretty bad time to graduate from college or any form of school.  Unemployment is hovering at 7.6% and continues to climb.  More people are in line for their unemployment benefits.   Since I was curious, I walked into a  McDonalds one morning to ask for an employment application.  The employee apologized and said that they ran out of employment applications and too many people applied.  You know times are pretty bad when McDonalds start turning away people.  This is especially challenging for recent college graduates who are just starting out and learning to live on their own paychecks.  The majority of those recent college graduates will have some sort of debt from student loans (private and federal) and credit cards.  I just graduated from college in June 2007, and I am still fortunate to be employed and paid pretty damn well for just having a bachelors degree.  Nonetheless, I am still cautious with my personal finances and definitely had a few missteps of my own in the first 12 months.

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