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investments are an artist’s best friend (and yours, too!)
October 11th, 2007 by Katie McCaskey

Hooray, Geezeo now tracks your investments!

In the last year or so I’ve become a big fan of investing. Yes, you read that right. Self-employed me. (Or you?!)

So here’s a run-down of investing tips I’ve learned:

  • + Make it a priority to save and invest even small amounts. Work to make it a habit.

    • If you are self-employed you can use a SEP-IRA and fill it with any mutual fund you want. Many no-load (ie, “no fee”) funds will let you invest as little as $50/month. You can save up to $45,000/year that way! If your saving pockets aren’t that deep you should at least save into a Traditional or Roth IRA (max this year: $4,000 if you earn less than $99K/year)

  • + Pay this to yourself before you pay anyone else. Preferably, put it where you can’t cash it out.

    • You can cash out IRAs but the tax consequences are steep. Set it and forget it, I say.

  • + If you can make it automatic, do so for reasons of being human (and frequently tempted to spend).

    • Routing a portion of proceeds to your investments automatically helps. It’s really helped me.

  • + Some discount brokerage firms to consider as you build your I-won’t-eat-cat-food-again fund:

    • TRowePrice.com; Vanguard.com; Fidelity.com; USAA.com; Zecco.com (for individual trades)

  • + Resist doing individual trades until you’ve maxed out your IRA. Every year IRA contributions are use-it-or-lose-it.

    • ‘Nuff said. But if you’re keen to get started and put all your money into one particular stock, consider a broker-free DRIP.

  • + Read, read, read – the more you learn the easier it becomes

    • The library is a great (free!) place to start.

    Financial blogs are great, too, because they give real-people accounts (forgive the pun). I like: My Open Wallet, Tired But Happy, MapGirl’s Fiscal Challenge, Frugal Zeitgeist, Moomin Valley, and of course, I have my own, Millionaire Artist.

    To your investing success!

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    This entry was posted on Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at 9:57 am and is filed under Budget, Saving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

    2 Responses to “investments are an artist’s best friend (and yours, too!)”

    1. Les Becker Says:
      October 13th, 2007 at 12:03 pm

      I’m a fairly new investor, getting over being “bad” with money. I have to agree with you that sending out investment payments automatically, even in small amounts, makes a big difference. I don’t miss the money (hey, I’m used to being broke!), and even the little bits add up to more than I ever had before.

    2. suzie Says:
      October 14th, 2007 at 10:50 am

      i have 10000 of these geezeo shirts and they are amazing

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