Good deal Seig. Get them started early so that they can take advantage of their age and hopefully when they start making money on their own you can point to the account and say remember what we started with and see where it is now. I think a lot of young people don't get into investing/saving simply because they don't see an immediate return on that effort. Why save your money and earn a few more dollars on it when you could have bought a cool new car or gone on that overseas vacation etc? Good job in starting him early.

Thanks Trey - He's a sleeper when is comes to rat-holing his gift money. I could see his wheels turning last night so I'm looking forward to the watching the project over the next few months.

Great idea Seig! My 5yo daughter asked me if when she turns 7 can she help me pay bills and "do that stock stuff" with me. I was checking out some of Schwab's training classes the other day, and they offer a workshop called "Raising Money Wise Kids". I've taken a few of their workshops on options, and they are pretty good.

Here is their link:
http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/...nch_workshops#

...and here's a list of their Financial Essentials workshops:
Behavioral Finance: How Emotions Impact Financial Decisions
College Savings Options
ETFs Explained
Get Started With Investing
Put Schwab to Work for You
Put Your Investment Plan Into Action
Raising Money-Wise Kids
Spend and Manage Debt Wisely
Take Charge of Your Money: Savings Fundamentals
Understanding ETFs
What Works: A Time-Tested Approach to Investing
Why Everyone Needs an Estate Plan

Unfortunately we are not going this year, wasn't in the cards. Hope you guys have fun, take lots of pictures. Congrats on you hot rod!! Enjoy driving it. We will catch you next time you are down here. Dinner on us.

NO -- Someone else is already doing that for you.... the renter!

Take the write off.... let the render spend his money paying down your mortgage... eventually the property will be cash flow positive and hopefully will also increase in value. Meantime your cash should be earning money at a separate rate...

This question may of gotten over looked....

anyhow.. what's people opinion on balance? and/or diversity? not diverse enough? too reliant on "consumer purchase"?

List of good Div Stocks
 

I was told for dividend investment you should spread out over industries...

MCD fast food
IBM Tech
COKE Bev
XOX Fuel...
JNJ Goods..

Anything else One should consider? Was hoping for like a to 10 that you might invest in equally...

Some I am considering.. Chevron, Microsoft,

What about the next big thing... Yelp? facebook... REDBOX... could they be the next GOOG

Looks okay to me.

But yes... you don't have enough diversity... so I'd put new money to work in other areas than where you are now. You don't have any utilities - financials - industrials - healthcare... etc.

Lists of sectors are "everywhere" if you just google - or look on Schwab etc. and then see where you're at and what you're missing. Diversity DOES NOT mean you have to be in everything or ALL sectors -- just don't pile in all tech or all healthcare etc. You're pretty tech -- although I'd call MSFT and CSCO and INTC - "old tech"...

These "underwater mortgage" questions got me thinking about all the variations etc that must be out there... and I came to an interesting "investing 102" parallel....

Buying a house is a big deal. Huge. We sometimes don't treat it that way - but it is a MAJOR investment and commitment. So maybe the parallel is that a home is like buying a stock. You have to really like it before you buy it - it might not always go up - just because it did so in the past.... so, like a stock, you need to want to love it and want to be in it through good times and bad.

The Sector we mention all the time could be thought of as the city or neighborhood.... better think about the "hood" because you might be there awhile! And like a house -- you don't want to have to sell it in a down market -- so don't put all your cash into something that clearly might not be so "liquid".

In fact.... You may choose to (like a stock in a down market) add on to the house or remodel it because you're in it for the long haul and know that eventually it will pay off. And the dividend in a home is that you are living "somewhere" - regardless of the cash value at the time --- just like the dividend will pay you every quarter regardless of the stocks daily price.

All of this -- of course -- is based on having made a good purchase in the first place. So if you were in love with the home and city and neighborhood when you bought - then you don't mind living there for awhile. If you bough just based on you thought the house would immediately double - and you hate the place... and it didn't double... Well... then you're a weak holder and will sell at a loss the first chance you (you - being anyone, not a particular "you") get.

Thanks for the feedback guys. :thumbsup:

I will look on Schwab to see what the show for the different sectors.. :)

i was looking at utilities, and they seemed so up/down. I wasnt sure if i would be better off diving into a more "steady eddie" (ie. PEP) vs what i seen in the utilities sector (PG&E, Edison, etc).