Archive for April, 2010

Being A Freelancer Is A Great Way Of Life, But There Are Times…

April 27th, 2010

I go to the bank to apply for a home mortgage loan
I love being a freelancer. I sleep until 8 or 8:30, grab my electric razor and weave my way down the passage of our apartment towards the study to check my emails. Perhaps a major client is about to launch a new project which will bring me steady writing work for a year?

The other side of freelancing
If you are a freelancer you may have had a situation similar to the one in this article. If you are considering becoming a freelancer this article might provide you with a bit of insight into the financial world of the freelancer. There are many benefits to leaving the traditional workplace, becoming your own boss and living on your own terms. No more traffic jams. No filling up the gas tank twice a week. No workplace politics. No obnoxious bosses. No superiors stealing your ideas and passing them off as their own. Yes, there are a whole lot of plusses and benefits. But financial stability?

Change comes
It was my wife who first raised the subject of our apartment. “It’s too small and crowded what with the two of us and your office. Let’s think about buying a house.”
I swallowed, breathed deep and said, “Okay, we need to start by getting a mortgage. Once we have that we can look for a house.” I changed out of my work clothes, meaning tee-shirt, shorts and flip-flops and we headed for the city and the granite clad mortgage banks.

The mortgage interview
This is where you bare your soul. The mortgage man liked my wife and was impressed with her long-standing job at the legal office where she worked. He also thought she earned a good salary.

The matter of my income
“Tell me about your salary,” he said, looking at me. “I am a freelance writer and my salary varies from month to month,” I explained. “In November ’09 I earned $4,000. In December, always a bad month with the holidays and end of year activities, I pulled in $800. January was better $2,200, February almost $3,000, March the tax month, $900 and we here we are, still in April, which is looking good.”

The no-mortgage mortgage
Bad news comes quickly. “I am terribly sorry but I cannot help you. Your wife has a steady salary and you always know what she is bringing in. But your occupation and income is a feast or famine affair from month to month. I’m sorry, it is not mortgage material. Perhaps come back next year if your situation changes or you find steady work”

Financial stability
If you are looking for financial stability, the life of a freelancer may not be for you. It can be an economic roller-coaster ride. It is a life of not knowing what your income will be from one month to the next.

Posted in Employment, Finance | No Comments »

Are stocks still trading at attractive prices?

April 26th, 2010

Is this the time to start buying seriously?
It seems I’m always asking questions like this. When the stocks were at their lowest point, I asked, “Is this a good time to buy?” I suppose I thought they would all go down to $1. Then when they bottomed out and started rising, I asked, “Is this a good time to buy? Perhaps this is just a fluctuation and they will go down again?” Now that the stocks are back to expensive I’m still asking the question – “Is this a good time to buy? Perhaps they are overpriced and won’t go higher?” Of course, no one has the answer to my question. And that leaves me hanging, again.

The answer
There are probably many answers to the question. If you are a serious investor, the hours you spend on your investing homework will tell you if a stock is reasonably priced, sky high, or very low. If you a gambler, you should have a short list of speculative stocks and you probably know all they critical figures by heart. If you are, like me, a “Sunday afternoon” stock market player, whatever you decide will be wrong.

The stock exchange is a mug’s game
Some of the world’s most successful traders and great fans of stock markets admit that the stock exchange is volatile and risky. They have faith in long term investment, but then stocks have to compensate investors for the risk they’re taking and they have to outperform other investment avenues, such as government bonds. Investment managers keep saying if you hang in there, stocks will win.

How about selling stocks?
I have a few stocks and I’ve had them so long they’ve developed sentimental value. I hung onto them through the recession and I was right – they are all up on the prices I paid. If I sell now I will make some money – not enough for a new car, but enough for a short holiday in Europe, say. Nah, think I’ll wait until they reach a car.

The main problem
As far as I can make out, my problem with the market is my lack of market education. I don’t really understand the stock exchange and how it works and why it behaves as it does. My knowledge was gleaned from guys in the office, my parents – who hated it passionately – and odd newspaper articles that I manage to read to the end. But I have no formal market education.

Gambling
I guess I like the gambling aspect. I may not be able to hit a $2 or $3 million jackpot on the progressive slot machines, but then I am also not at risk for huge amounts of money. A stock I buy for $2 or $3 may go up to $10 and I make myself a few hundred dollars, but if the company crashed I would lose only a couple of hundred dollars. This kind of gambling appeals to me.

Posted in Economy, Finance | No Comments »

I’m going into business – I need a Payday Loan

April 25th, 2010

I’m finally going to bring my project into the open
When I read the papers and watch the science channel on the TV, I get really depressed. It seems that everyone in town has some pet project that they’ve been working on in secret in the garage or under the bed. All of a sudden they leak a bit of publicity about it. Then they go to the “market”, wherever that is, raise millions in seed money and venture capital funds, but a new car and half dozen laptops and the next day they are listed on the NYSE and drowning in money.

What have they done?
At first it looks like nothing, but then the facts start emerging. They have developed a new kind of a hole for a bagel, or a thin candle for a cake that burns for 2 years without changing the battery – you get it, an unwanted, impossible non-saleable item and they are rich, rich, rich. So why can’t I do the same?

Here’s my secret plan
You and I look at it everyday. The difference is that I laugh when I see it. It’s called solar energy, green energy, non-fossil fuel energy, clean energy; it’s all the same stuff. It’s made from the sun. Somehow you have a scheme to capture the light or the heat of the sun, and convert it to electricity. Sounds easy and it actually is.

Solar energy
If you are lazy, you buy some solar PV panels which are made in different countries around the world, and you fix them to the roof of your house so they are facing the sun for as many hours as possible. These panels will convert, without you doing anything, the sunlight to 12 volt electricity. The panels are expensive but a series of Payday Loans will take care of that. You then take another couple of Cash Advance Loans and buy an inverter, connect up the wires and you will convert that 12 volt electricity to 120 volts and be able to run your household lights and appliances off it.

The problem
Now we get to the gritty part. The sun will set at the end of the day and that electricity that you were so excited about when the sun was shining, is no more. And now we have arrived at my project – the one I am taking Cash Advance Loans for – I am going to develop a storage system for the solar energy so we can use it at night and on cloudy days.

I’m not the first
I am certainly not the first person in the world to tackle this problem; it’s been going around ever since solar energy was first thought of. But someone has to crack it – why not me? What’s involved here is some really creative thinking, like beaming the solar energy up to the moon, keeping it there during the day and bringing it back at night. Simple, huh?

Posted in Finance, Loans | No Comments »

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