Need inspiration?

If I am ever losing my motivation or need impetus for productivity, I like to watch this video. It is a true classic.

Getting Real

One of my favorite companies online is 37Signals. The reason why I like the company is that it preaches simplicity in business. They are such believers in their method of succeeding in business they wrote a book about it: Getting Real.

Because it is a software company, they focus mostly on how to properly create, develop and launch a software-as-service product. But their ideas and suggestions can be implemented for various business models to improve creativity and high-return growth.

Since my business involves a software component, I have been trying to use the tactics they discuss in their book during the development phase.

First Stock Purchase

Last Friday, I dabbled in the stock market for the first time. You would think that at my age, I would already have a nice stock portfolio, but you would be wrong. Since I like to do things against the grain of the rest of the society, I invested in a stock at the end of the worst week on Wall Street ever.

As I mentioned earlier my financial situation is very grim and so the amount of investment was fairly low:

35 shares at $9.92 each on MS.

Why did I choose Morgan Stanley? Well for one there were numerous reports stating that Morgan Stanley was not in as bad of a position as was originally thought, and Japan’s Mitsubishi UFG is planning to invest $9 billion dollars in MS later this week. My logic was simple:

1. Seems like people are undervaluing this company only because of some irrational fear that the economic world will come to an end
2. The stock was selling around $40+ for most of the year with a 52 week high of $69
3. Analysts have specifically stated that MS has strong fundamentals
4. Also, I invested AFTER MUFG committed to the continue in the deal of infusing $9bn
   

Overall I feel that the choice I made was a good one. Too bad I didn't have access to more capital as I would have purchased more shares. But I think for the first go, I probably made the right choice.

We will see if this move was one in the right direction in terms of my financial situation.

UPDATE:

MS is now trading at 18.10 -- so far it has proven a great investment with one day return of about 87%. I expect that the price will level off at around $25 in the short term and eventually climb back to about $40. Too bad I couldn't have invested more money in this stock.

Long Road Ahead

Every blog that I have written, had the first post where I try to explain what I hope to accomplish in that particular blog. I figure why change this now.

The purpose of this blog is to follow my attempts at testing the capitalist system of free enterprise to see whether the effort bears fruit and what are the rewards that one can obtain through hard work, creativity and some luck. I will also show my efforts to reduce my substantial school and credit card debt and the steps I take to achieve my dream of financial independence.

I am currently involved in building a legal services company and I will share any resources that I find along the way, inspiring stories and the problems that I encounter in the process.


My current situation:

Education: Law Degree

Financial Position: Net worth: -420,000

Savings: $500

Investment: $400

Salary: $75,000/year