Links for Friday

This Week's Links: CNN Money Addition!

• What's the difference between a stock broker and a financial adviser? Consumerism Commentary answers this question in Financial Advisers and Stock Brokers: What's the Difference.
• Thinking about getting 15% by signing up for a store's credit card? Think again. The Simple Dollar explains why these cards are no good in Why Store Credit Card Are A Bad Deal.
  

Links for Friday

This Week's Links: CNN Money Addition!

• I was digging through my links repository a bit when I found CNN Money's Be a Millionare: 5 Ways to Get There, an simple article with supporting calculators.
• Sick of fees? Consult CNN Money's list of the 35 Most Outrageous Fees (and How to Avoid Them) to recognize and reduce common fees.
  

A Post from the Past:

• Understanding that stock price is determined not only by a firm's financial success, but also investor sediment. The intuition behind using of both of these factors is explained in June's Use Behavioral Finance When Picking Stocks.
  

24 Goals to Accomplish in 240 Days - UPDATE

It has been nearly four months since I shared my goals for the rest of the year. I have detailed the status of each of the goals below:

1. Make the maximum contribution to Roth IRA by July 4th ($4,000/$4,000) - Complete
2. Successful open up Hedge Fund account by June - Complete
3. Hedge Fund account value greater than or equal to $10,000 by August ($11,000/$10,000) - Complete
4. Hedge Fund account value greater than or equal to $20,000 by January ($11,000/$20,000)
5. Roth IRA account greater than or equal to $9,000 by January ($6,902/$9,000)
6. Have 150 blog posts by December (87/150)
7. Create Fund website by July 4th - Complete.
8. Read five books by August (5/5) - Complete
9. Create two more portfolio’s in my Virtual Stock Exchange league (1/2)
10. Do 75 push-ups without taking a break (40/75)
    
11. Run 2 miles in 12 minutes - I have been running, but still have not timed myself
    
12. Increase my net worth by 80% this year (53%/80%) - Increased by almost 20%
13. Play a set of tennis without double faulting - 4 double faults is still my average
14. Achieve Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification - Deadline passed; goal failed
15. Secure a full-time job - No progress
16. Convince five people to start investing (3/5) - No progress.
    
17. Establish and record 500 phone contracts (150/500)
18. Establish and record 1000 email contacts (220/1000)
19. Learn how to drive a manual transmission - No progress
20. Achieve 1000 lifetime trades (410/1000)
21. Complete my portfolio management spreadsheet and submit to sourceforge.net - No progress
22. Attend a University of Michigan basketball game for free
    
23. Master double-digit multiplication and division - No progress
24. Give blood - No progress

I really need to start addressing my physical goals. Hopefully with school starting, I will be able to establish a more conducive schedule for these goals. The problem with this new schedule will be its potential impact on my net worth goal. Having a part-time job may only allow me to stabilize my current net worth. We'll see how it works out!