A New Focus

First off, I want to thank everyone who has commented or messaged me with suggestions. You are awesome, and you’ve given me a lot to think about.

Second, I’ve been burning the midnight oil as I try to work out a way where I, the Shoestring Girl herself, can build up some sort of passive income stream that will support me in the future so that I won’t have to worry about working should I become unable to.

I’ve temporarily ruled out real estate, though it is something I would like to explore once I get my income in a higher range. As it is, with Katie planning to move out at some point in the future, the expense of acquiring a vehicle to attend any real estate purchases is a bit more than I feel my current finances can handle. The insurance alone (since I haven’t had any for several years) would destroy my budget.

My research has revealed that the stock market has a very low entry point; you can start an account with no minimum deposit; a variety of stocks trading there go for a pittance. Did you know that Ford Motor company is currently trading for around $12 a share? I was floored at some of the prices listed. I thought you had to be rich to even enter that arena.

Thanks to Carla for recommending that I read about Derek Foster! I’ve got two of his books due to arrive any day now. In the meantime I’ve acquired several books on the stock market to read while I’m waiting. Here is a list of the titles:

• Buffetology
• Investing for Dummies
• The Intelligent Investor
• Get Rich Carefully

This is going to be interesting. I know nothing about the stock market except for the fact that my dad invested in it when I was a teen and lost a small fortune. Since he invested with Merrill Lynch I decided to sign up for an account with Merrill Edge, their online brokerage. They have no minimum deposit to start, they have a ton of information available to help beginners, and they charge a flat rate of $6.95 a trade. I found cheaper brokerages out there but sentimentality won out.

Let’s see if this old bird can figure this out.