No, it is not for me.
A friend called me this weekend and asked me how I treated brokerage margin account interests on the federal tax form. I told her that I don't know anything about it since I don't trade stocks on margin, but I told her that I think it is deducted as Misc Deduction, so she can only deduct any interests expense amount over 2% adjusted gross income.
It kind of shocked to me learn that they (my friend and her husband) use margin. It is not a bad thing per Se, of course, but very dangerous to use if a person is not savvy enough to handle it. Basically if a person use margin in brokerage accounts, that means he/she is borrowing money from the bank/broker to buy stocks, it is a leverage tool that enables one to buy more shares of securities without having to put in huge amount of money. One plays the market using other people's funds. It can significantly increase one's profit. On the other hand, it can also multiple one's loss as well because if the security goes down in value, you must use your own money to pay back the margin loan while losing money as well. It magnifies both profits and losses.
For that reason, I only trade with my own cash. I trust my friend to tread carefully around margin since he has a master in Finance although there is no guarantee things will always be peachy.
Monday, March 26, 2007
House Didn't Work
We did go to see the house on Saturday.
No go. Too run down.
I guess I shouldn't expect too much for that price. It is cheap for a reason.
Oh well, keep looking!
No go. Too run down.
I guess I shouldn't expect too much for that price. It is cheap for a reason.
Oh well, keep looking!
I Bought Johnson and Johnson
Yeah! I am so excited! I have been sooo looking forward to buying this stock and watched it like a hawk! So finally today, I bought 150 shares at $59.91 per share. I am very happy with my decision to wait to buy it at below $60 a share. Hopefully I will be rewarded handsomely for my trade. Micron and Sandisk are still going strong with around $1200 of profit between this two.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Stock Update
I bought Sandisk and Micron several weeks ago when their respective RSI index went below 30 for daily, weekly and monthly charts.
As of today, Sandisk is up $1160, and Micron is down $100. So I net about $1000 in just several weeks. If I have bought more shares, I would have done even better. But I wanted to go slow and horn my stock trading skills before I go big and lose significant amount of money.
So far, I have been very happy with my purchases and am looking for more opportunities to buy more quality companies' stocks at bargain prices. I am monitoring Johnson and Johnson right now, if it dips below $60 a share, I am a buyer! But the problem is I may have to buy it in our taxable account instead of IRA, because I don't have much cash in IRA accounts and I don't want to sell any of my positions. So we will see...
Another thing, we saw a house in our neighbourhood that we are quite interested in for sale, so we asked our realtor to set up an appointment this week for a showing. Hope we can see something we like!
As of today, Sandisk is up $1160, and Micron is down $100. So I net about $1000 in just several weeks. If I have bought more shares, I would have done even better. But I wanted to go slow and horn my stock trading skills before I go big and lose significant amount of money.
So far, I have been very happy with my purchases and am looking for more opportunities to buy more quality companies' stocks at bargain prices. I am monitoring Johnson and Johnson right now, if it dips below $60 a share, I am a buyer! But the problem is I may have to buy it in our taxable account instead of IRA, because I don't have much cash in IRA accounts and I don't want to sell any of my positions. So we will see...
Another thing, we saw a house in our neighbourhood that we are quite interested in for sale, so we asked our realtor to set up an appointment this week for a showing. Hope we can see something we like!
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Ebay Auction Update and 2006 Tax
EBay sales went really well. All sheets got much higher bids than we anticipated and after fees to EBay, we probably ended up with $30 profit. It is not much, but every little bit helps!
With this success, I think I will post more for sale this weekend, some shoes and other odds and ends. Just to keep up the momentum :)!
I also did most of our tax filings this weekend while P was out playing disc golf.
I hate doing taxes. Yeah, I am a CPA, but I hate taxes. Really do, with a passion too.
Ever since we got married, we have to pay taxes every year, big time too, in the thousands. I don't understand!
I think the reason is marriage bumps our income to a much higher level with two income and since we earn pretty much the same salary, and we don't have a huge mortgage, and we don't have kids, our tax obligations go through the roof. One year, we even had to pay penalty for underpayment! Most likely this year too although I did pay extra tax end of last year. I guess it is still not good enough.
So I change P's payroll to pay $200 extra per payroll, that should cover us pretty well come April 2008 assuming I don't sell any mutual funds/stock for huge profit in our taxable brokerage account. I learn my lesson, now I trade stocks mostly in our retirement account so as not to incur any tax!
I will need to look more at our tax situation this weekend. NOT looking forward to it. UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUgh!
Can you tell I am really P***ed off?
With this success, I think I will post more for sale this weekend, some shoes and other odds and ends. Just to keep up the momentum :)!
I also did most of our tax filings this weekend while P was out playing disc golf.
I hate doing taxes. Yeah, I am a CPA, but I hate taxes. Really do, with a passion too.
Ever since we got married, we have to pay taxes every year, big time too, in the thousands. I don't understand!
I think the reason is marriage bumps our income to a much higher level with two income and since we earn pretty much the same salary, and we don't have a huge mortgage, and we don't have kids, our tax obligations go through the roof. One year, we even had to pay penalty for underpayment! Most likely this year too although I did pay extra tax end of last year. I guess it is still not good enough.
So I change P's payroll to pay $200 extra per payroll, that should cover us pretty well come April 2008 assuming I don't sell any mutual funds/stock for huge profit in our taxable brokerage account. I learn my lesson, now I trade stocks mostly in our retirement account so as not to incur any tax!
I will need to look more at our tax situation this weekend. NOT looking forward to it. UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUgh!
Can you tell I am really P***ed off?
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Ebay and Flannel Sheet
We bought two sets of flannel sheet last month, each set comes with two pillow cases, one fitted sheet and one flat sheet. We bought them online at Linen and Things for $11 each. Good deal!
The original price of each set is 24.99, I have a 20% off coupon, so that is 20, then I used Google Checkout in which for each new account, one can have 10 off the first purchase. Since we have two new accounts, we got two 10 off, so each set is 11 with tax.
We love the flannel sheet. They are so warm. First night we used it, my husband was sweating and kicked off his covers. And that was back in cold Feb days.
The only thing is we don't use the fitted sheet since we already have several other fitted sheets. I don't want to keep them, taking up extra storage space. So, we decided to sell them, separately.
I listed them on eBay, asking a bid price of 4 each, shipping will be another 4, so I will make total of 16 for both fitted sheets that we don't use. Considering we only paid 22 (including shipping) for both sets, I think we do pretty well!
Don't you think?!
Oh, I love eBay.
The original price of each set is 24.99, I have a 20% off coupon, so that is 20, then I used Google Checkout in which for each new account, one can have 10 off the first purchase. Since we have two new accounts, we got two 10 off, so each set is 11 with tax.
We love the flannel sheet. They are so warm. First night we used it, my husband was sweating and kicked off his covers. And that was back in cold Feb days.
The only thing is we don't use the fitted sheet since we already have several other fitted sheets. I don't want to keep them, taking up extra storage space. So, we decided to sell them, separately.
I listed them on eBay, asking a bid price of 4 each, shipping will be another 4, so I will make total of 16 for both fitted sheets that we don't use. Considering we only paid 22 (including shipping) for both sets, I think we do pretty well!
Don't you think?!
Oh, I love eBay.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Bought Two Stocks
Despite the significant recent market slide, I bought two stocks today. I sold Whole Food Market for about 900 profit and as a result, raised some cash. Today, I used this cash to buy 200 share of Sandisk and 300 share of Micron Technology. Both are tech stocks whose price now are at 52 week low and Relative Strength Index (the main criteria I use on buy/sell decisions are below 30s. Right now, I am already up $100. Not big profit, but I will take it.
Tuesday's 3% drop on all stock market indexes caused me to lose (on paper) about $10,000. It hurt, of course. But I think long term, I will recoup the loss over time. And let's don't forget, I have made a lot more than this with stock market over the last four years. Realistically, I can't expect the market to always go up, defying gravity :)
I am still learning about stock market and buying stocks. I love this game and I firmly believe, over time, I won't make a killing, but sizable profit can be expected. Besides, it gives me tremendous pleasure, that, is priceless.
Tuesday's 3% drop on all stock market indexes caused me to lose (on paper) about $10,000. It hurt, of course. But I think long term, I will recoup the loss over time. And let's don't forget, I have made a lot more than this with stock market over the last four years. Realistically, I can't expect the market to always go up, defying gravity :)
I am still learning about stock market and buying stocks. I love this game and I firmly believe, over time, I won't make a killing, but sizable profit can be expected. Besides, it gives me tremendous pleasure, that, is priceless.
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