Are you investing right now? You probably should be. In fact, despite all the fear about the stock market and people's 401(k)s tanking, investing is one of the few areas I think people should be cutting back on now.
Why? For the same reason I tell people (at least young people), they shouldn't stop contributing to their 401(k) retirement accounts: the stock market is on sale and the bargains are better now than they have been in years. A few examples (disclaimer -- these are EXAMPLES, not stock-picking advice. Choose your own investments carefully based on your own financial situation):
- On Jan. 20, shares of PNC Financial Services Group Inc., which last year bought National City Corp., closed at $22 a share. Nobody liked bank stocks then (most investors still don't). But yesterday PNC closed at $40.93, meaning if you bought then, you'd have doubled your money.
- Last October, I interviewed an investor who told me he thought he was getting a bargain by buying Procter & Gamble stock while it was trading in the $57 range. Right now, PG is trading at about $49; it's worth less than it was then, but it's a strong company (everybody needs toilet paper and detergent) who's shares are going for a bargain.
This month's Black Enterprise magazine has a cover story on investors in their 20s who have picked up on this and are taking the opportunity to make long-term investments while stocks are cheap. What about you? Are you investing now, or sitting on the sidelines until the market picks up.
I wrote before about why it's still important to open snail mail, even though it's an antiquated way of communicating. Last week I got a lesson in why that's important.
I got an envelope from my bank, National City, a few weeks ago. I let it lay around because I figured it was just a bank statement, which I check online anyway. But before I shredded it, something told me to read it first. Turns out, it was a letter telling me that the National City Visa card I'd applied for was denied.
There were several problems : 1) I never applied for a National City Visa, or any other credit cards for that matter. In fact, I have only one credit card and that's the only one I plan on having. 2) I've never been turned down for credit for any reason. This part was tertiary to the fact that it appears someone stole my identity, but it bruised my ego nonetheless: not only did somebody get me for my credentials but now I wasn't even worth their time in victimizing me. WTF?
So I called the bank. A guy in customer service told me to call their credit department. The credit department told me my application came from a branch, which turned out to be the branch on the same block as my office. When I called, the woman who processed the application said it was a "referral" from a teller -- in other words I'd been asked if I wanted a card one day when I was in the bank and the teller sent my application over. Except that I'd never been asked. And that I wasn't present when the application was done. And that there was no signature from me on anything stating that I wanted the card.
Nice.
So now I'm looking for a new bank (I'd switch back to my old one except they just bought National City), and fighting to get a negative inquiry off of my credit report. Do yourself a favor: open your mail!!!
