Public Service Announcement - Financial Literacy Survey

[chcknrs]

The stats on the failure rate of people taking that test is scary.

chcknrs - I have never heard of Clark Howard. Is he radio or TV? We can't get very many channels.

miss_thenorth - It is because of me that my husband and I have money in the bank, and because of him that we have enjoyed some of it!

Clark Howard is radio, but he also has a website. He is awesome! I have learned so much from both website and show, and he doesn't talk down to his listeners, kinda like here and BYC.

I'm coming into some money soon, and I will be paying off higher interest debts, investing some and holding some back for emergencies. All due to what I have learned from his show and his website. Consumer empowerment or something like that is his motto.

BTW, my DH is 54 and he found the stock we are going to invest in. Several people he works with are doing the same.

I guess I gotta give it to ya. The FRA (Federal Railroad Admin.) is requiring all railroads to install fail safe devices within the next 15 years. The only company who has developed and tested and had approved any such device is Wabtech (stock ID is WAB). We have been watching them for about the last 4 months, and they have gone from $32 a share, to $52 a share today, even with the drop in the market. They are already contracted with BNSF and UP, two of the largest RR's in the US.

How do I know this? My DH works for the FRA. The ethics attorney who just spoke at one of DH's classes he went to said we could buy, and that it was a "very good investment right now". (We arent' allowed to buy stock in railroads, as it's a conflict of interest.)

So, there's a tip, not insider info, as it's all public info, but I believe it to be sound. DH's boss used to be a stock broker, and he's gonna transfer some of his retirement funds into Wabtech stock.

 

[reinbeau]

I got all three right (and I'm over 50). I knew what they wanted as an answer to #3 and gave it, but disagree with it - I made enough money in the stock market to pay off my house when I got divorced. If you know a company and understand their business model and how they're doing, you can do very well with individual stocks. But you have to do the work, you have to learn how to follow markets, trends, and read reports. That being said, the best stocks I ever owned were Oracle, Harley Davidson (not so much now) and a little venture capital outfit here in Boston called Safeguard Scientifics. In a way I managed my own mutual fund.

 

[krjwaj]

I passed the test without problems, but I listen to Clark Howard.

I listen to Clark Howard on 680AM on my way to work in the morning. He is good.

Our financial goal is paying off our mortgage; which we recently dropped the principal by 22k. We haven't eaten in weeks, but............JK

And maybe then a bigger piece of land somewhere when dd hits college to include guest houses for our families, etc.