Investment Project

I've started a little investment project to demonstrate how, no matter what kind of income, a person can save up and meet modest goals to help secure their financial future. This is how I currently have everything setup. I created a stock portfolio about six months ago. I used the company Sharebuilder.com because of their low trade prices. I received my first six trades free. I put $100.00 in, and it's now valued at $110.69(as of this article.). Not a lot of money, but that's a decent return on $100.00, let's hope it keeps going. I also have $30.00 of each of my paychecks direct depositing to this savings account. Once again, not a large investment, but it will build over time, and trust me you won't miss the $30.00.

I also have 6% of each paycheck being taken out and going into my 401K and it's being matched @ 50% by my employer. Many companies offer a 401k(even matching dollar for dollar!), and if you turn it down, you're turning down free money. That's how I'm currently investing in this project. If you notice to the right I have a little graph to keep track of everything. If you'll notice to the right, I also have an area for CDs. These are very conservative investment vehicles offered by banks and credit unions. I will most likely be purchasing some soon, so be sure to watch that category over the coming months. See my below article for a neat way on investing in CDs, it's called "laddering."

My hopes are to get to $1,000 dollars by the end of December. I set a modest goal as to not become discouraged. This is a discipline that many do not try to refine. I'll keep this updated so you can see how things scoot along. Depending on how fast things move, I may change goal dates to make things a bit harder.