Solar Panel Savings

So, I've mentioned in the past that I intend to start saving for a solar array. Well, I've officially started the savings. But even more than that, I've taken some of my own advice and hunted for new opportunities to earn a bit of money. I'm putting my savings into the stock market.

I've always wanted to try stock trading, and I figured this would be a good time for it. The stock market is way down, but there have been hints that the economy may be starting to recover, and the market should as well. So I signed up for one of those stock trading websites.

Don't get me wrong; I haven't put anything in that I can't afford to lose, but it turns out that I may have some pretty good instincts as far as stocks go. I started out putting in a small amount and investing them in three stocks. All are companies that I know at least a moderate amount about because their products carry a big interest with either me or some of my friends. One is a company that I consider to be grossly undervalued, one is a company where I believe the value will increase this summer, and one is a little of each. I intend to pick out one or two more stocks when I put a bit more in later this month. Not to toot my own horn, but all three stocks I picked have increased by significant amounts since I bought them, and I believe they'll continue to increase.

In fact, I had even more fun with it this morning. After carefully observing the ups and downs of the market for the better part of a month, yesterday one of my stocks jumped over 15%. I was of the belief that while the stock will continue to increase in general, that particular jump wouldn't last. So I sold the stock yesterday just before the market closed with the intent to buy it back this morning. This was a gamble, especially because I have little enough invested that trading fees are a significant concern for me when messing with stocks like this. But this morning, it paid off. The stock dropped 5%, and I bought it back along with one extra share. I even had few bucks left over after the trading fees were paid.

We'll see if my luck continues.

Disclaimer: none of this is intended as advice. If you trade stocks, you're on your own. Don't come whining to me if you aren't as awesome at it as I am.

Update: I haven't updated my trip to space savings bar in a while, and since it has actually increased due to the recent stock market behaviors, I'm updating it now! Also, I'll probably be updating these numbers more often, because I feel like it.

Trip to Space

Progress: 4.28%  Flight Time: 0:06:26

Solar Array

Progress: 2.6%  Power: 39W

The Economy is Falling! The Economy is Falling!

...Or so says Chicken Destitute. But the point was recently nailed home to me when I received my quarterly investment summary.

The first thing I noticed was they helpfully put it in yearly format instead of their usual quarterly format. "See? You still made money! Since 2007."

But yes, it turns out that even with my monthly contributions, my trip-to-space fund has been losing money. I'm going to have to shrink that little purple bar a bit. I'm not too concerned, though, because I'm still really just starting out, and this just means that I'm now buying stocks cheap.

Optimism!

Progress: 3.93%  Flight Time: 0:05:54

A Bit More Progress

Inch by inch, penny by penny, I am slowly making progress toward my goal.

I haven't updated my progress bar in a while, so I thought I'd catch up. After a bit of math, I've reached 4% savings toward my trip to space of choice (and for real this time, I checked)! That puts me at a flight time of 6 minutes 5 seconds and some change out of the two and a half hour total time. And I remember getting really excited when I hit 30 seconds.

Progress: 4.03%  Flight Time: 0:06:05

Not as much progress as I thought...

Well, I was able to do some recalculations, and it turns out that I did some pretty poor math earlier; I'm not quite as far along toward my trip to space as I thought. Turns out, I've only saved 3.73% toward my goal, putting me at a flight time of 5:35. But I'm still at tasting distance of 4%, and I will make it back there soon enough!

Progress: 3.73%  Flight Time: 0:05:35

I'm back! (Really!)

Yeah yeah yeah, I know I've been gone for two weeks without a word. Well, I don't have an excuse, but I do have a reason. My reason can be found behind this link, but do not click on it if you wish to have free time for the next couple of weeks.

Yeah, it's a game. And a dinky flash game nonetheless! I mean, I've played huge games like Horizons, Vanguard, and Eve Online with incredible graphics and dozens of programmers constantly looking for ways to make them more fun, and yet I got so addicted to a silly little game like Desktop Tower Defense that I've basically wasted my free time for the past couple of weeks! Hats off to its programmers.

Well, no more. I've finally managed to tear myself away from it, so I'll be able to spend way more time on things like: this website! Also, I've been reading a great new book lately called The Getaway Special by Jerry Oltion. If you like the sci-fi genre, or even if you are interested in what the effects that surprise interplanetary travel might have on our society, I highly recommend it. A mad scientist invents faster-than-light travel from (basically) parts you can buy at Radio Shack, and so the book is about how.. um.. stuff hits the fan. Very fun.

Fortunately, nothing too major happened in the world of space tourism while I was on my two week leave of absence, but I will catch you up on a couple of things in the coming days. Oh! And this month's contribution to my space tourism savings bumped me past 4% and the 6 minute mark! Very exciting. That's all for now!

Progress: 4.06%  Flight Time: 0:06:05

Another Bump Toward my Goal!

Well, my regular monthly contribution toward my space tourism savings went in today! Based on Virgin Galactic's expected suborbital offering, that puts me up to 3.89%, or a hair's width from six minutes' flight time!

I think I'll take the opportunity to talk a little bit about saving money. I understand that different people work a little differently, but for me, I find that the easiest way to save money is to have some put away automatically, so that I never see it. That way, I'm not tempted to use it. So every month, I have a certain amount automatically deducted from my bank account and put in a separate place. And the amount I'm saving each month really isn't enough; at this rate, it will take me over 50 years to save what I need, assuming I only put this same amount away every month. I fully intend to increase the monthly amount when I have the ability (and I have a couple other things going for me that I'll talk about later), but my point is this: I'm saving. And that's rule 3 for getting into space:

Rule 3: Save a little money each month.

That's it. No big secret here. Do it every week if you like, or every other month, but keep saving! Those little bits add up, and with them, you'll be a lot closer to your goal, whatever that may be!

Progress: 3.89%  Flight Time: 0:05:50

Tax return bumps me above five minutes!

Well, my tax return arrived, and I promptly stuck over half of it into my 'trip to space' pot; that's by far my single largest contribution to date! Now granted, it's stuff I had taken out temporarily in December to handle some expenses, but I'm excited anyway. Based on Virgin Galactic's expected suborbital offering, I've now saved up for over five minutes of a flight on SpaceShipTwo!

Of the other half of the tax return, some of it went to fixing up things around the house. The rest went straight into my solar panel savings.

Wait, I haven't mentioned that yet, have I?

Yes, I've kind of been on an environmental kick lately, and I'm trying to save up for a solar array for my roof! I've already bought a couple of solar panels, and I use those to recharge all of the rechargeable batteries that I bought for all of my battery-powered gizmos. My goal is to have saved enough by the summer of 2009 to put a full scale array on my roof and power my whole house. Yeah, it cuts a little into my space tourism savings, but it's for the best. Besides, with the country's population growing with no sign of tapering off, energy prices have nowhere to go but up. If I save enough, maybe I can get a big enough array to start selling some of my own power, and that will only help my space tourism savings over the long term. In your face, Halliburton!

YYRRRAAAHHH!

Actually, while on the subject of politics, I think I'll write about a moral quandary that I recently resolved. The government wants to hand out these $600 checks to everyone to "help fix the economy". Now, I know that a lot of people could really use the money, and I don't mean to slight them; they deserve it. However, most economists say that the checks will do little to stimulate the economy, and it seems like more of a political gesture than something that will actually help. In the meantime, these checks are going to increase are already bloated national debt. Did you know that this country is now over nine trillion dollars in debt?

That's Trilion. With a T.

To put that in perspective, each citizen's share of that debt is over $30,000. That's you, me, guys in retirement homes, newborn babies, everybody. That's right; our babies are born $30,000 in debt. That's sad.

To give you an even better idea of the gravity of the situation (har har), 9 trillion is about the average distance from the Earth to Mars. In inches. Yes, that's inches, from here to Mars. That's how much national debt we have. And we're about to increase it by spending a bunch of money to (essentially) make people feel better about the government without creating any significant improvement.

So here's my quandary: If George W. Bush came up to me, gave me $600, and told me that this was to fix the economy, I believe I would be morally obligated (based on the above statements) to throw it in his face and tell him to shove off. And that's if I was feeling exceptionally, unusually polite. But since it's coming in a check in the mail, how could I possibly accept it and look myself in the mirror the next morning?

Well, I pondered this for a week or two, until I realized, hey, I can drop the entire amount into my solar panel savings. They're giving the money to us in the hopes that we will spend it. So by doing this, I will both go against their wishes by saving it, and stick it to Bush and his big oil buddies by saving it toward solar power for my house.

And that, my friends, is poetic justice.

Progress: 3.74%  Flight Time: 0:05:36

Progress Bar!

Well, I've been meaning to do this, and now I've found the time. That progress bar down there represents the progress I've made in saving toward my trip to space! This is, of course, more to motivate me than for your information. I'm basing the progress bar on the cost of a flight on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (though I reserve the right to change that in the future). So far, I've managed to save 3.24%, and I'm putting a little more away every month. If I've done the math right, I have enough for four minutes, fifty-one seconds of SpaceShipTwo's expected two hour, thirty minute flight time! Wooo!

Anyway, I'll be updating this bar continually throughout my journey.

Progress: 3.24%  Flight Time: 0:04:51