Search: stock-market

How to Buy Facebook Shares Now

This article was written by Flexo in Featured, Investing. 25 comments.

Update: As of May 2012, Facebook is trading publicly. You can purchase Facebook shares like any other stock trading on NASDAQ, using a discount brokerage or a full-service broker.

I mentioned recently that although Goldman Sachs appears to be trying to come up with a plan to skirt the regulations set forth by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook may be required to publicly disclose financial reports when the number of individual private investors is at least 500. At that point, when Facebook is forced to prepare and distribute these reports to the public, I questioned whether they might as well be public.

I don’t know what happens behind the scenes at Facebook, but there seem to be strong rumors in the media that the company will go public in 2012. At that point, shares of Facebook would be traded on an open market. Currently, the best way to buy shares of Facebook is to be on the list of qualified investors held by Goldman Sachs.

If you believe Facebook is the best investment of the century and you want to be a part of the meteoric rise you expect to come, there are other ways to buy shares. You just have to find access to the secondary market, where employees with company stock can sell their share in the company and take home their cash.

There are online services that will match holders of private company shares who wish to sell with members of the public who wish to buy. Read the full article →

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Carnival of Personal Finance #281: Halloween Candy Edition

This article was written by Flexo in Carnival. 27 comments.

Holidays are about two things: family and food. Halloween is no different. Although families celebrate some holidays with a large meal, with ingredients like turkey, ham, fish, potatoes, and pies, the central food theme of Halloween is candy.

Once a year, everyone is provided an excuse to eat the stuff that parents always told them would rot their teeth, and not feel guilty (or as guilty) about it. The costumes can be entertaining, and I try to reward the better costumes I see with the better candy. For this Halloween edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance, I’m looking at some of the better and more popular candy for the holiday.

The Carnival of Personal Finance is a weekly celebration of the best articles covering a variety of money-related topics from the blogosphere. Consumerism Commentary initiated the Carnival in June 2005 and the event has continued on a weekly basis since then.

Editor’s picks

Twix is the only candy with the cookie crunch — at least it was when George Costanza said it. Twix was first produced in the United Kingdom in 1967 but didn’t find its way to the United States until 1979. The Twix bar was known internationally as “Raider” until 1991 when the brand was changed worldwide.

Here are our favorites for personal finance articles this week:

FT from Million Dollar Journey presents Wealth Tips for New College Grads. Here are strategies for going from a net worth of a negative $160,000 to a positive $500,000 in seven years.

Jenn from Paying Myself presents I thought I was supposed to be rich.. We tend to think lawyers are rich — or at least financially secure — but there may not be much truth to that stereotype.

Ryan from Cash Money Life presents Guaranteed Ways to Get Fired, and says, “It’s easy to get fired. Just follow these tips. Or, if you like your job, do the opposite and make yourself indispensable.”

Neal Frankle from Wealth Pilgrim presents Private Career Colleges – Calculate the Value. Are private career colleges worth the cost of tuition?

Bob from ChristianPF presents 7 Reasons To Rent Instead Of Buying A Home. If you are considering purchasing a home, think through these advantages of renting before you buy.

Nicole and Maggie: Grumpy Rumblings presents Another comment on doing what you love. Should do what you love or go where the money is? This article tackles to age-old question and helps explain the main purpose of a college education.

Betty Kincaid from Control Your Cash presents Debunkery yet again. Brett Favre’s riches are derived from one thing: how much revenue he can generate for his organization.

Continue reading for more of the best personal finance articles from the past week. Read the full article →

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Personal Balance Sheet, May 2010 ($344,474, -2.7%)

This article was written by Flexo in Monthly Update. 34 comments.

After the end of each month, I take a closer look at my personal finances. Although I’ve moved away from tracking every cent I spend, I still look at most of my purchases and expenses to ensure I’m not doing anything I consider financially unreasonable. While my spending wasn’t excessive this month, my reports do feature one major non-discretionary purchase.

As I’ve written before, I’ve been learning more about photography. This month I picked up a used medium-format film camera in great condition. I won’t be developing the film myself, so it won’t exactly be a frugal hobby. The expense of film requires a photographer to give more thought into using the camera. With digital, it’s easy to get into the habit of shooting hundreds of photographs and reviewing them before moving onto the next step, like printing. With film, you don’t have immediate feedback, so if you’re not careful, you could end up spending more than you expect on development.

In terms of my finances, my overall “modified net worth” is down. This is attributable to poor stock market performance. I took advantage of stock market dips to invest in my retirement account, a process that will hopefully pay off more than investing by the calendar each year.

This is a modified approach to dollar-cost averaging where rather than investing at the same time each year (or month, etc.) insensitive to price, the investor chooses to invest in the face of public panic or other downturns, where the chance of seeing an increase is higher. While no one can fully predict the stock market, I believe that returns revert to the mean eventually, so worse-than-average performance will eventually be followed by better-than-average performance.

As of the end of May, this strategy hasn’t paid off, but I still have time.

Here are all the numbers followed by a quick analysis. Read the full article →

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$350 Billion Additional TARP Funds to Go to Banks

by Flexo

It won’t be long before the second half of the original Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds are authorized to be distributed to banks to help prop up the economy. This $350 billion, or even more, is following the first $350 billion that banks received. While the government’s public intent was for the banks to ... Continue reading this article…

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Personal Balance Sheet, November 2008 ($180,926, +6.5%)

by Flexo

It doesn’t look like I’m going to meet the goal I set for myself last year. A net worth of $210,000 is out of the question unless the stock market experiences a miraculous recovery. All things considered, my finances are still in good shape. Every month, I review my account balances and income vs. expenses ... Continue reading this article…

9 comments Read the full article →