THE FATHER BLOG

I could just include this stop on our trip into one post but it truly deserves it’s own. The Corning Museum of Glass is a pretty cool place to visit if you find yourself in that area of NY state someday.

On a previous vacation (long story about getting stranded in Dallas for a couple days) we got hooked on watching the Netflix glass blowing show “Blown Away”.

Emily has always been fascinated with the show especially and since we were passing directly through Corning, NY on our way to some hiking, it seemed like the perfect stop and we spent one night there. We obviously visited the museum, but the highlight was scheduling Emily some time with one of the master glass blowers to make a vase. Not only did she have the time of her life doing this, we were both amazed on how much they actually let her do on her own! Though the master glass blower was there to assist and guide, he allowed her to do probably 75% of the glass making on her own.

Let’s just say the experience is a 10 out of 10! I didn’t want to be responsible for breaking the vase so they also allow you to have them ship it home…..we can’t wait to see the final product which should be here sometime this week!

Getting some work done today among other things to prepare for the long 4 day weekend of fun. Remember this: when the end of life arrives, no one has ever said they wished they worked more! Enjoy!

How does one take the emotion out of some investing when it’s YOUR money involved? Let me share….

Your retirement investments, the kids college funds, etc….I would certainly label those as ones you should be emotionally invested in. But what if you are already comfortable with those and where they sit and some dividends come in and you have a few hundred bucks to play with within your portfolio?

This is the emotionless part. Say I have $500 to play with and these are my options: go to the casino, buy some lottery tickets, or invest in a small stock that has potential.

Your best odds may actually be going to the casino and throwing that $500 down on black or red at the Roulette Wheel. Win and have the power to walk away with a $1000. However, lose and it’s bye-bye $500. That’s why it’s called gambling.

Lottery tickets: $500 can buy a lot of lottery tickets. Maybe you get some $5, $10, or even a $50 winner. Odds of you coming out ahead with more than your initial $500 investment is probably slim at best.

Invest in a small stock that has potential: even with some due diligence, you could still fail here. But if you set up an exit strategy, things could work out either way. Say you buy $500 worth of stock that’s trading at 20 cents. You buy 2500 shares. All the sudden there is some catalyst and the stock goes up to 25 cents. Not a huge jump but you just made $125 profit. Sell and get out and be happy. On the other side, if the stock goes down and you sell at a loss, you can declare the losses on your taxes (tax harvesting) which is easy enough because it’s already part of your tax forms from your brokerage account. You can technically declare gambling losses as well but have fun dealing with those forms from the IRS.

Just more things to think about on a Wednesday regarding what you’re doing with your money.