I thought I should try to be more active with my 401(K), but it turns out those things offer you very little in the way of options. Why can't we just have a tax-deferred account that we can distribute into whatever investments we want and has no restrictions as to who can use it? 401(K), IRA, Roth IRA -- they all SUCK!!!

Baby Steps

I bought my first stock today! Oh, I feel like an adult now. :)

Anyway, the broker recommended the Central Fund of Canada, and I should be able to buy about 50 shares. He suggests buying about 100 shares in CEF before moving on to other things. That will be another month's worth. Then we can start diversifying.

In other news, the G8 is meeting and talking about moving away from the dollar. They're trying to soften the blow, though, by saying it applies to all fiat currency and by saying it will take many years to do this. We'll see. If the US economy continues to decline, the situation could escalate.

In the meantime, I have sent the paperwork to my parents for opening their own account. My dad still needs some convincing, though.

My money got deposited in my account on Wednesday, but by the time I found out it was was too late to contact my broker before he left for the long holiday weekend. I'll call him Monday.

I'm taking the opportunity to brush up on my accounting knowledge and get better at reading and (more importantly) interpreting financial statements. I bought Reading Financial Reports for Dummies which takes a surprisingly real-world (read: cynical) approach. I like it! :)

Meanwhile I keep hoping my mom will get through to my dad on the importance of this. She asked me to send her the paperwork, and I'll do that this weekend.