Admin

Let us talk about the types of investments we plan or are currently investing in right now. But before I start, I was surprised to know that some of my friends that have graduated from college barely knew how the U.S. stock market works, how real estate appreciates in value, how the mortgage business works, and the factors that affect their FICO credit scores.

Personally, whether you have taken any financial classes at Cal Poly or not, college graduates should learn the basics of personal finance. Personal finance includes how to reconcile personal checking accounts, learning what affects your credit score, how to obtain and repair your credit report, credit management, knowing what and how to apply for a 401(k), health, life, and auto insurance policy, and etc.

And for those that read the newspapers, the stock market shouldn't be foreign to you. Soon or later, you'll be advised by maybe a relative, colleague, or even a financial adviser on why you should allocate a percentage of your investment portfolio in stocks and different investments but this alone is a whole new topic.


I'll occasionally post new posts in this thread that I find helpful from the WSJ paper and other financial sources. Feel free to post your own experience and personal advice that would benefit students and alumni alike. Thank you.

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skate

I totaly agree with you on knowing investments, but its harder to learn about something when a person really doesn't want to invest at the moment.

I think the main problem with students and even entry level workers is the whole money situation.
What I mean is that in order to do investments it requires money. Not necessarily a whole lot of money, but it's money. At the same time i'm sure students, workers, californians find it hard to let go of that money due to the fact that every penny counts and would rather spend it on things that they may need or want.
I think this is why most people have a hard time investing money, because it's hard to put money asside when you would rather spend it on something else at the moment. Even knowing that it would benifit you in the future.

This is my guess on the lack of knowledge and interest toward investments with the younger adults.
I think also that finding a proper course or class may be hard, due to the fact that finding someone highly educated in every aspect of investing is hard to find. Also possible getting the feeling that someone is trying to get you to use a particular program. I've know a lot of smaller programs and even TV commercials that pretty much guarantee's success and money, but over all they are the ones gaining the money because you used thier bank, program, or what ever it is they were trying to get you to use.


I do very little investing myself 401k, company stock, and other things, but it's mainly due to the fact that I have very little knowlege myself on the best way to invest. So hopefully this thread will get bigger with great advice from people with solid knowledge or real world experiance on the topic.

G0ldenchild

What are some classes that I can take at CPP, that teaches stock investments?

Admin

skate, you made a valid point. I guess it all comes down to priority. When you're in college, the majority of students don't need to or want to bother worrying about investments such as a pension retirements. They have other worries and places to spend their money (i.e. credit card debt, car loans, food, etc.).

When you're out of college, you are advised to invest in the company's 401(k) plan (if offered), reduce the debt ratio, and invest in the stock market. You also have a student loan, credit card debt, living costs, and additional payments you are financially responsible. Who has the time or money to invest!

By the time you get married and are planning to start a family, your interest may be in purchasing a home which requires you to get a trust of deed (California term for a mortgage) which is another financial obligation in addition to a dozen other payments.

The point is, unless you take charge of your own financial goals and planning, you'll never know when to start and how to start saving and investing your hard earned money.

Everyone has their own financial goals and priorities. There is no right or wrong way to where and how you invest your own money. Some people believe purchasing their own house and owning it "free and clear" (mortgage paid off) is their best investment strategy, others living a debt free lifestyle, or being a real conservative investor and reserving all their capital in the US Government bonds is the best investment, good for them. By achieving their short term and long term financial goals, only they can decide where to invest.

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Admin

Try visiting one of the advisers in the College of Business Administration department to see if they have a strong recommendation. It will be one of the classes from the Finance, Real Estate, and Law (FRL) or the Management and Human Resource (MHR) major. The internet along with some good books in the local library can be a great stepping stone to learning personal finance.


I can personally recommend Dr. Gail Waters' MHR 425 Emergent Ventures class. Dr. Waters teaches upper division MHR courses and also one of the MBA professors. The MHR425 has a prerequisite: MHR 320 or EBZ 306. I was in that class temporarily (about two weeks) but boy did I regret not taking Dr. Waters for MHR425 (took Dr. Abraham). In that short time period, Dr. Waters covered a great range of topics relevant to personal finance and emergent ventures. The course page has the complete list of topics being taught for the course.

You can visit the course website (recommended): http://www.csupomona.edu/~grwaters/mhr425/

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Admin

And for those that have interest in investing in the stock market or are already in it for personal gains, Prophet.net is an excellent tool and resource for personal use.

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MandyMindy

I been using Quicken for 3yrs now and helped me alot. I know how much I'm saving, spending in both checking and credit cards. Since most of us don't have much money saved up, it is smarter to learn how to manage our money and be good at that!

Admin

Good investment. Microsoft Money is another great tool to manage your personal finance as well as personalized Excel spreadsheets. A little investment that helps you save a lot in the long run.

If you guys decide to purchase one of the softwares, wait until August for the next 2008 version for both the Intuit Quicken and the Microsoft Money software.

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Mike

I don't like amazon reviews for both microsoft money and quicken, seems there are lot of bugs with the program.

skate

I don't think your decision should be based on what people on amazon says. I searched around for things and have come across amazon and thier review. So needless to say a lot of things mentioned on thier site is worthless and have no merit or value to the product being described.

Thier both great programs, and even though I have come across the software for free, I would definetly buy it because I know they work like they are supposed to.

Mike

I got put off when I saw more negative reviews than positives. I dont think ppl would be bashing the software if it didnt have that much bugs and file corruption And I think lot of the financial software users are educated and financially responsible individuals that wouldnt waste time writing negative reviews if the software was not that bad.

We'll wait and see for the next 2008 update if the problems still there.

Admin

I'm assuming that a lot of us do not have complex investment portfolio, maybe a 401k, few stocks, and small loans. If so, you guys could take advantage of your Microsoft Excel software to create easy-to-manage spreadsheets in which you can update your savings, investments, and expenses to know your financial health.

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