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Networking & Market Timing

February 29th, 2008 at 10:24 pm

You know, things have been going good, but yesterday was hell.

The good side is, and I hesitate to say it, but this year feels rather CALM. (knock on wood???) 2007 will go down as the tax season from hell for sure. It seems like last year all my clients came in with deaths in the family, brain tumors, and other horrid/complex tax issues. It just never ended. We lost a manager so the workload was insane, and we just didn't have enough management to catch mistakes.

Likewise, I thought most of it had been cleared up but I Was very frustrated yesterday to catch my own mistake. Grrrrr. This is why I work for a firm; why I am not a fan of being out on my own. So a second set of eyes always looks at my work and catches my dumb mistakes before they go out the door. IT's very frustrating to me. Likewise, I am happy the pace is much slower this year. I am not rushing as much; which helps.

So anyway, crisis averted. Life goes on. But I have been a little preoccupied.

On the flip side, this year has been kind of boring and most of my tax returns are done. It isn't even March! Hey, I might have time to care for my Corporations. Those are really our bread and butter, and they really get the short end of the stick this time of year. I keep wondering if I am forgetting something. I think a bulk of my tax appointments ended up in February, and I think that is awesome. Since March/April is a very busy time with our Corps.

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This morning though I did reply in the forums about a question from someone who "had to" pay $130k to go to film school. He has to network after all. I started choking when I read it; particularly knowing a large pool of unworking film students with FANCY degrees. Hehe.

Anyway, I have heard it said many times you can't be an engineer without the fancy degree and the connections. I just roll my eyes. My dad is actually an engineer and he just has a bachelor's from state. It is from him I get most my attitude about money; I must admit. But who can argue with success?

Anyway, I know networking is a huge part of my dad's career. I couldn't tell you how many times he has been laid off. HE is usually hired on for a project and let go. That's the nature of the industry. Maybe he's worked for 30 companies and been laid off 30 times. I honestly would not be surprised. I don't know.

Likewise, with the networks he has made in the WORKING WORLD, I never have known him to be out of work for more than a week or 2. The only exception was back in 2005 I think - he hit 55 and had a hard time finding a job, for about a year. We attributed it to age. However, he thought his current job was in danger and took on a side job recently this year. Now he is working 2 jobs. Sometimes when it rains, it just pours. Now that he's almost 60.

From my experience, networking was really key to helping me land a good job right out of college. I was in the networking clubs and familiar with all the CPA firms in the area. However, I have to say, I don't talk to any of those people today. I run into them here and there; mostly at seminars. I know how to look them up. But my career network is far more solid with the people I have met at various jobs. Once you get to your first job, your college and your college experience suddenly doesn't matter so much. You get your foot in the door and you move on.

Likewise, my husband has a pretty large network of friends in the film industry. He didn't have to go to an expensive school to network with the people who went to the expensive schools. Wink

I just had to cringe when I Read that post though because most of my dh's friends in the film industry work minimum wage jobs. It might be a little different if we lived in LA or NY. But for the most part, seems to be a thankless/volatile career. I would put it akin to the music industry. My dh is lucky he has me, but I ain't shelling out six figures so he can hob nob with the best. LOL. He'll just have to meet them outside of college. His friends are pretty talented and are starting to land jobs. & I think that is awesome for dh. The friends he has will make or break his career. I agree. He just didn't have to meet them at school.

My point is, yes, networking is key. But no, it doesn't have to cost 6 figures to network with the right crowd.

I mean, if you believe that, be my guest. I rather keep that money in my pocket, personally.

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Anyway, that was my rant-y post of the day. Now for something more interesting.

I have totally noticed with a good 18 months of tracking my investments that the market seems to behave similarly on a monthly basis. For example, the market is ALWAYS up on the last day of the month. From what I Can tell anyway. It tells me that the last day of the month is probably a horrible time to invest. Of course that is probably a big chunk of why investments up on the last day of every month. BEcause everyone gets their paycheck and funds their 401ks??????

So I did a web search on best days of the month to invest. Just curious. For now I dollar cost average in on the 10th and the 20th. Not to be different. It's just I get paid on the 1st/16th and it gave me a decent grace period to get my paycheck to the bank. I don't have direct deposit and I don't always rush to the bank on payday. So I had been doing one deposit a month, on the 10th. This year I added another one on the 20th. Just sounded nice I guess. My account is usually pretty flush on the 16th, paycheck or not. So I gave myself less time on the second half of the month.

Anyway, if I read this article correctly, it says about the 27th/28th is the best day to invest.

Of course, it goes on to briefly explain a plan to buy and sell certain days of the month, which reduced volatility by 45% (? I think that is what it said - you can read for yourself). This was an elaborate market timing plan to keep your money in money markets most of the month and jump into an index before the end of the month for the run ups, then sell back to MM. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Don't worry, I am not going to bother doing that. But I found the concept rather intriguing all the same.

Anyway, didn't see much else on the topic. Will have to research more. Maybe I should just put my money in my money market every month until the 27th/28th and then invest. An idea! But more practically, I may invest on the 27th instead of the 20th. Of course, I am not sure that feels very settling. I generally fund my investments from my interest-free checking. So it seems to me I just want to transfer when I get it. & I think in many regards that just makes the most sense.

Text is http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/value/archive/2004/va0525.htm and Link is
http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/value/archive/2004/va0525.h...





1 Responses to “Networking & Market Timing”

  1. monkeymama Says:
    1204385972

    LOL. I obviously didn't look at the stock market yesterday as I posted this.

    Yikes!!!!

    I'll take that as a sign.

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