Ebay Income Stream Revisited

Earlier this month I posted about my initiative to get off my butt and start selling stuff on EBay.

As they say in baseball, "Swing and a Miss!!!!!" (I could not find any Bob Ueker ML clips)

I have sold things on EBay before, but this time I just dropped the ball totally. Most likely it had something to do with the actual products that I was selling. I auctioned off two pairs of sneakers and a used T-Mobile Sidekick 3. I did sell a pair of knock of Nike Air Jordan XII's for $25, however, the brand new pair of Puma Low Top Casual Shoes sold for $0.99 so i had to re-list them and that is the link that you will see if you click on it.

Bottom line is that this whole EBay thing is a learning process and I have a lot of learning to do! A little bit more research on items that have sold before for higher prices and I should be in better shape. But I am opening up to everyone out there who are experienced, professional, and much more successful EBay-ers than Doctor S to give me a shout after looking at my auctions and yell at me what my opportunity areas (sorry had to throw that horrible work terminology) might be! Enjoy hump day people and start fasting for that turkey dinner tomorrow!

Financial Advice: Stop Looking at Your 401K

I have this annoying habit of always wondering how my money is doing at every moment in time. You may think I am a fool for describing such an act as "annoying". Well if my investments were doing good then it would not be an "annoying" experience. The fact that my 401K is down 54% this year is the part that is kicking me in the butt.

Every time I log into my retirement account and see that number, it instantly depresses the mood that I was in the moment before viewing the information. If I was happy before, I am now sad. For the moments when I was sad before viewing it, I am even worse after the fact.

My advice to you? Stop looking at your 401K! It will only depress you. We all know we are in a recession and the market is going to continue to jump up and down every few days in increments of a few hundred. By viewing these poor performing numbers on a daily basis, it can only have two results on you a) You become a very angry person on a daily basis or b) The depression of the losses you are incurring will lead you to make a brash decision to try and fix your portfolio.

Choice B) is something that you do not want to entertain because the second you sell off some of your shares then you are officially taking on that loss. The only option in this situation is to remain optimistic. Every two weeks when I get a paycheck, a specified amount of money is used to purchase both traditional and Roth retirement shares for my 401K plan. These shares are being bought at extremely lower prices than before so the volume in my account remains high.

Madame X over at My Open Wallet wrote about this last month when she was upset with the market gains that coincided with her payday on a Friday, doesn't everyone want to buy in a the cheapest price? Buy low, sell high, right?

I am 25 and just started my retirement fund 2.5 years ago. I have a ton of time before I even want to contemplate retirement. For those approaching the age where they want to just kick it, I think you are going to have to give it another 5 years for this market to rebound and I believe that it will. Sometimes the best advice is to sit back, do nothing, and just wait it all out.

So go ahead and just forget your username and password for a little bit, when/if the times get better, you can always ask them to reset your credentials!

Introduction to Wedding and Finance 101

I am at the point in my life where I am seriously contemplating taking the next step in my relationship and getting hitched. It has been a long and sometimes bumpy road for me with only myself to blame. I mean would you want to get into a serious relationship with someone who financed the majority of their college undergraduate education using private loans?

We have gone through a lot and I know the future will be bright. We have constant debates about how the future will or should be in regards to many decisions we may have to make. Topics range from wedding plans to where we want to live to how we save money. Debates turn into arguments and arguments lead to friction, however, we always work through it and resolve our issues.

I have been with this wonderful lady since high school, so what the heck am I waiting for right? I ask myself that same question very often and the answer always leads back to my own personal finances. I want to be able to support her and ensure that money is never an issue between us. Am I be unrealistic with such a request?

I come from the school of wanting to enjoy life every minute every day, if we want to do something then we can go ahead and do it. I do not plan things out, I just try and live life and be merry. However, if you have followed my past, some of my living has gotten me into financial troubles. Yet, I have conquered those issues and am credit card debt free and beating up the student loans every single day.

She presents a mindset of always looking ahead towards the future and wants to ensure that every step we take during the present day has a positive impact on the future. A great way of approaching life. We just need to find that common ground and understanding that we can work together to accomplish OUR goals.

Thanks to Mr. Prime Time Money on his post for 6 Ways to Argue Less About Money because after reading that this morning it really sparked me to open up about this topic.

I guess the biggest issue I am having is trying to find that common ground with someone when they are so set on their approach to the future. How do we make people more willing to come over to our side and compromise a little?

Looks like marriage is going to be a new popular topic on here! I'm really hoping it begins to give me better perspective on whatever the heck it is that I am trying to do! Only on a Monday right? Be easy people.

Job Security: I Am Safe... Right?

I am writing this with the hope that I do not jinx myself. I work in financial services. This industry is very bad right now. I have tons of friends who work at similar companies where they are experiencing large amounts of layoffs. This type of uncertainty must be extremely difficult to deal with, especially for those of the younger generation. When you are young, everyone tells you to go to college so you can get a good job and make money. However, they never did mention the notion that our economy is going to plummet when you start working and your early working years will be right in the middle of the first recession in a long long time.

But that is life right? You live and you learn. Challenges of this nature help build strong-minded individuals and character. In such turbulent times, you have to look for positives because if you entire day consists of concentrating on the negative aspects, the terms "miserable" and "depressed" may soon enter you mindset.

I have a few friends that experienced lay offs from very good companies. I have a few other friends who currently hold jobs at some of the big name companies making news for layoffs. I can not even imagine the feeling of waking up in the morning and either a) not having a job to go to or b) uncertain whether it will be your last day or not.

My company brags that it has never had a single lay off in its long history. That statement provides me with a sense of security that keeps me grounded each and every day. Until a few days ago, when I heard that Blackrock is cutting 10% of its workforce. My friend who works there informed me that they never had lay offs prior to this week. They were in the same boat as my company. As you can imagine, this news definitely put me on tilt because it makes you realize that even the calmest of oceans can one day experience storms.

If you are going to take anything from this, realize that you can only control what you bring to the table and what you do on a daily basis at your job. You went to college and earned your degree and accepted the position that you are working at today. The same place where you might be reading this blog post as we speak. Do your job everyday as best as you can, work harder than the person next to you, because you never want to give them the chance to get rid of you because you did not work hard or succeed in you position.

Everything happens for a reason right? Just don't give them a reason to pick do it to you!

Weekend Review: Atlantic City

Monday was insanely hectic, I really wanted to share my crazy weekend so here is the story. Went to Atlantic City this past weekend and had a really good time. I went on Hotwire and got a room for $150.00 that was split amongst myself and two friends. We all met up in Philly and drove down together, still trying to save money even though gas is cheap! We got a room at the new Chelsea Tower right next to the Tropicana.

We went to the Borgata for a few parties as we started at Club Mixx at around 11 PM and then at around 12:30 AM we went to the other side of the casino to Club Mur Mur. This place was the definition of claustrophobic, however, I still had a good time since I got to see a bunch of old friends. I spent about $45.00 at the bar between 2 trips as my friends and I took turns getting rounds. This is something that I have not done in a while so it was all good because we all took care of each other.

We were there till about 3:00 AM at which time we went to the Tropicana and got some breakfast at an overpriced diner. Total bill was $36 that one of the other guys picked up. Then the real fun began!!

I went to the Trop's poker room for some 1-2 No Limit Hold Em Poker at a table with 8 other people. I sat down at the table with $60 in chips and quickly realized that there were some big fish at the table. These guys had multiple stacks ranging from $200-$1000 from what my eyes could count. I played extremely tight early on and got a good feel for the player's betting habits. I won a few small pots here and there, and did not take many major hits at all.

Finally, after about 2 hours, I caught pocket jacks in the big blind and had two people raising in front of me for $50 and then $75. I was sitting with about $85 in chips so I pushed my stack all in. My jacks held up and I took down the pot and was extremely happy. I sat down with $65 and was up to almost $300! I must say it was extremely gratifying.

I played tight for a few more hours and ended up walking away from the table at 8:30 AM with a total of $240. I saw a guy sit down for 45 minutes and lose $1,300! I could never do that, just because I wouldn't walk into a casino with that much money! He should have just took his money out and lit it all with a match, there would have been no difference!

All in all, my poker playing that night paid for my weekend and then some. I spent about $95 between my share of the room and drinks that night, and made $240 on the tables. Giving me a net of $145. Not too shabby. Now I just have to figure out what to do with that cash, ING or Christmas fund? We shall see.

Only drawback from it all was that I got a mere one hour of sleep that night and was out of commission my entire Sunday. But its all good, I have said it before, I can sleep when I am dead. Hopefully between now and then I can play some more poker! Be easy people. Enjoy the day.

Free Book at Work: Enough by John Bogle

The founder and former CEO of my employer, John C. Bogle, came out with a new book this week titled "Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life". Every employee at work received a print out voucher for a free hard copy of this book. He has written many books and I read the last one he gave us titled "The Little Book of Common Sense Investing" which basically preached to invest in index funds, the investment engine that our company has specialized in for the past 20 years.

I am not a big reader of books. I read blogs all day long, however, I am going to give this book an honest shot and try and concentrate to form an opinion on it. You make think I am full of it if you read back to my first post about my first finance read. The answer is NO! I am not done that book yet, its on the back shelf for now!

Anyways, I urge you to take a look at this book by a very intelligent human being. Also, Mr. John Bogle also writes his own blog and has some very interesting posts from time to time, so definitely give that a read and let me know what you think.

Here is to financial literacy by educating ourselves by means of hardback books. Be easy.

Helping Family Out Financially

I have mentioned many times that I live at home and one of the benefits of this is not having to pay rent or utilities. Before you go commenting on my post that I am a mooch off the rents and any other derogatory comments, I do help out my parents financially. If at anytime my parents need anything I am always willing to assist in any way I can.

Would you be able to tell your parents no?

The tough situations are the times in which I am trying to make payments on certain debts in my life and also have to help them out. How is it possible to prioritize your own personal things with or against those of your parents? No one ever wants to tell their parents that they should not be purchasing things or they do not need them, these are our parents! They raised us our entire lives and provided for us during the times when we were so little we did not understand the concept of income or debt.

It definitely creates some sticky situations in the home. There have been times where I have told my parents straight up "I too am strapped right now". In the end, whenever something comes up with the family, I have and am more than willing to rearrange my priorities in order to help out. This does not mean that I do not question when they ask me for something, they are reasonable people and always willing to discuss any situation.

When it comes down to it, I without a doubt would do anything for the family (I am not a Corleone) and the good part is that they are reasonable people who understand each members financial situation. Everyone is willing to make sacrifices for each other and help each other out, which is one of the reasons I still enjoy living at home. They understand that I have a ton of student loan debt and I understand that there are bills to pay.

As long as that is understood with any family, helping each other out when necessary should never be a problem, whether you live at home or not! Be easy!

Year End Bonus to Myself

Working in the Financial Services Industry, it does not look like I am going to get much of a year-end bonus this year. It is the common topic at the water cooler around the office these days. We are a company of 12,000 employees and the holiday season also signifies the time when performance reviews and done and individuals compensation packages are evaluated.

For myself, I am predicting a nice raise of around 0% this year and a generous bonus of $0.00. People have been circulating rumors that many people are going to be disappointed by the fact that you will be receiving a big fat ZERO when it comes to these numbers. I am just happy I hold the job security I do, because my company has no laid off a single employee in its 40+ years of existence. Another rumor even had our CIO telling a group of younger development program members that "If I am not getting a bonus, either are you!"

I did have a feeling that something like this would happen one day, so in preparation, I made some arrangements to cushion the blow! Last year around this time, I purchased an extra 5 Personal Time Off days (PTO). I never planned on using those days because if we do not use them we get reimbursed the amount that they are worth. So come the second week of December pay period, this guy is going to be getting a nice check for a cool $1,000 (give or take $0.24) for what I like to call "My Christmas Bonus to Myself!" Now I know that this money was mine to begin with and I am just trying to fool myself into thinking I got a bonus, but during these crazy times and the volatile financial markets we live in, its the least I can do to give myself a laugh.

So go ahead and find a way to reward yourself this holiday season with a little Christmas bonus that was yours from the start! You won't be upset when you see that direct deposit slip in your checking account! Who knows, if your company does reward you with a bonus out of their pocket, it'll make the first bonus check that much sweeter! You will thank me later. Be easy.

Weekend Spending Review

So I did pretty good this weekend, but I won't lie, it got kinda weird. Friday night I spent the after work hours moving a new clothes washer and dryer from my dad's van into the basement. Before we did that we had to get the old broken one's out and up the stairs and out for the trash. It was just me and a hand cart (Borrowed it from the Wawa down the street!) and I was exhausted afterwards! After that I hit up the gym and then went and played ball from 10:30 PM till 12:45 AM. Not your typical Friday night for me, I felt like I was in high school again.

Saturday morning I went up to New York City to spend the evening with the lady. Drove up to the train station in Central Jersey, parked my car in the overnight lot, and hopped on NJTransit for a 71 minute ride.

Total damage from transportation: $12/parking, $22/roundtrip ticket, $20/gas

I got up to NYC around 3 PM and we relaxed most of the day. We went to Max Brenner's for dinner, but we ended up ordering dessert. It was a great place with a very lively environment! The smell of chocolate was totally invigorating, we had a nice cake and ice cream dessert meal. I had a chocolate coffee and she sipped on a small overpriced glass of pino grigio.

Total damage: $27.00/dinner.

That evening we went out with some friend's at some local bars in the Murray Hill area. I really was not feeling well after eating dessert for dinner and was not in the mood to drink. Everyone kept asking me if I wanted a drink and I politely declined, just one of those nights where I merely wanted to enjoy company and get out for a little bit! People generously got me some beers which I drank at a much slower pace than normal, so many next time I will just buy one and hold onto it all night? We shall see.

So not a bad weekend in NYC really...

Other expenses: $20/various cabs and $10/late night pizza Saturday night.

Grand total for the weekend: $91 (check my math)

So not a bad weekend of being mindful of the pocket and enjoying myself at the same time, however, next time I will avoid the awkwardness and just grad a drink early on to relieve the tension from others. Or everyone could just get off my back and let me live! Happy Monday. Be easy.

Does Politics Affect the Market Directly?

I swore I was not going to talk anymore politics because I am so sick of the past 21 months of this campaigning madness, however, I had to give this topic a little bit of attention.

My younger brother is a freshman in college and sent me a text message this morning that read "Market down again becuz of obamas election?" My initial reaction to him was that to get rid of that correlation between politics and market trends because they are two separate entities in this country. I checked out the cover of Yahoo! Finance to see the headlines and it read Dow Tumbles 400 Points as Economic Woes Mount.

Does the fact that Obama won the presidency effect the value of General Electric or Apple? If McCain would have won a few days earlier would the market reacted different? Maybe slightly, but a change in the election still would not erase the fact that these economic woes still do exist. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is going to be plummeting down and sky rocketing back up in a cycle for a good amount of time till more stability is brought to our financial markets.

How much of a role, if any, do you think politics have played in these market trends?

It can definitely be stated that the lack of government oversight over the financial markets the last few years played a huge role in the current financial crisis we are currently in, but we can not classify that as a constant role in market trends. What do you think? I may not understand our system enough to give an appropriate answer but this is my answer off the surface. Help me out and explain to the young man! Be easy.

Ebay Income Stream

Over the last few weeks I threw stuff on eBay hoping that someone would bid on them. A few days went by with very little action on these items. I am an avid T-Mobile Sidekick user and have a bunch of these devices that are used and broken sitting around my house. I saw online that people were selling used and broken phones on eBay so I posted my items on there and magically, I began getting some action!

EBay is an amazing tool to help generate some extra cash. I have dealt with a few idiots who won my auctions and then decided not to pay, which is fine because I can just re list the item. But I had the idea at work today that I need to just need comb every inch of my home and compile all the items that I could potentially sell online!

What type of experience have you had with eBay?

I am always looking for extra sources of income, who isn't? Sometimes the whole idea of having to create the auction listing is somewhat intimidating, but trust me, it is so easy that once you start doing it, you will be hooked! I am going to pull together all my things tonight when I get home and take some pictures of them with my digital camera. Then I am going to just starting listing these items nonstop and then leave it all alone. These items are not making me any money sitting in my living room, so why not? I will not miss them and either will you!

There is so much information out there on generating secondary sources of income, I must say that Moolanomy's write up on his Extra Income Guide is the cream of the crop! It is a comprehensive look at trying to build extra streams of income aside from your normal day job!

Also, Ramit at I Will Teach You To Be Rich is conducting a challenge on his site called the 30 Day Challenge to Save you $1000, and tip #3 was to Sell Something on EBay Today! Check it out because it really has some great tips and really will get you thinking about your life and how you can cut some corners to save a buck!

Be easy people!

Election Day Links

I would be crazy to try and write about something other than the election today. I have been seeing crazy things happen all over the United States at voting stations. Even the Black Panther's showed up in Philadelphia! Here are a few other good links from across the Blog O Sphere of some insights on the elections.

-Madame X at My Open Wallet shares a bunch free stuff you can get from voting

-My Journey to Millions breaks down the Electoral College

-The Mint Blog describes how each candidate will impact your bottom line

-Deepali at Paradigm Shifted shares a real example of Vote or Die 1848

-The Copybloggers put out the most straightforward and to the point election post today


I am very excited for this election to be decided, either way you look at it, the next President is going to have a ton of work to do and is already knee deep in quick sand. I just can not wait for all these TV ads to be discontinued and for people to start screaming for their candidate. Like I said earlier, if you have not voted yet today, go vote, and I do not care who you vote for...

JUST GO VOTE!

Get Out and Vote

I am not a huge political person at all. I am not going to stand up and tell you that you should vote Democrat or Republican. I am not really interested in discussing "The Issues" with other people, in public places, or with friends. How you vote is your business and I respect that and you should do the same for everyone else. All I care about is one thing...

MAKE SURE YOU GO OUT AND VOTE TOMORROW!

That is all I care about, each one of us has been entitled the right to vote for an elected official. I am 25 years old and this will be my first election I am participating in because in prior years I was ignorant in realizing that my vote meant something. I now know that my vote does mean something and so does each and every one of your votes.

So when you wake up tomorrow morning on Election Day, take the extra time to go out and wait in the long lines and vote. When you are done, go about your normal day but understand that you did a great thing in exercising your right to vote.

Be easy

Making Money at the Parade

On Friday I was one of the 2.5 million people celebrating the World Series victory by the Philadelphia Phillies, I took the day off from work and hopped on the public transportation down to Center City. It was a mad house, imagine being in a night club that was packed to capacity, except it was outside! Every street was stacked with people and their were rows of people 10 deep along Broad Street where the parade was taking place.

Cops were all over the place but they were letting people celebrate and enjoy themselves, as long as they were not damaging property or causing any violence. With that being said, my friends and I were scurrying to find the closest business that was selling beer. People were walking around with 40 ounce bottles and cans of beer like it was Mardis Gras down in New Orleans!

We finally found a little mom and pop store that sold alcohol, so we bought 12-packs of beer like they were the last ones on Earth! We bought five 12-packs between four of us and took to the parade. Many people were without beer and started offering money for a can! Needless to say, we took advantage of this and began selling cans $5 a pop! It worked out pretty well, but we did not sell our entire inventory because we still wanted to enjoy ourselves, after all, we took the day off for this event!

Anyone else at the parade or see this thing on TV? I must say, the last 2 weeks of my life have been absolutely amazing. It has all been due to the Philles going on this run and it has been magical. I am sitting in my cube on this Monday morning wondering "What the heck am I going to do now?" I mean this has been such an amazing high during this run, it is really hard to come down from it.

But it is back to business, back to work, and back to night class this week. More importantly, it is back to blogging and being financially responsible. I was horrible the last few weeks with my spending on alcohol and fast food, but I decided I wanted to enjoy this time, I have not gone off budget majorly but it is time to get back. Holiday season is coming up and it is going to get tight.

Today is step 1 back to the normal life. Not a bad way to start Monday admitting that, enjoy the day.