DavidB

** Online Assessment #3 **
 * Link to Online Assessment #3 **

** About Me ** I am returning to school after retiring in December to learn about computers. When I was an undergrad, we used slide rules. Once I am familiar with computers and PowerPoint and Excel software, I want to present, hopefully by 2012, a financial planning course at The Learning Exchange to help people with their investment decisions. The course will address topics not normally covered in financial planning presentations. Sample topics include compound interest (not touch on it but a full discussion), the disadvantages of mutual funds, the difference between a financial planner and an investment advisor, the pros and cons of IRAs and Roth IRAs, factors to consider when establishing an investment objective, and how to read an investment prospectus. Given the article in Sunday's (April 3) //Sacramento Bee// about high school students learning some basic financial planning, there may be a need for that information.

** Computer Terminology ** This is just a small list (words starting with "a" and "b"), and by no means inclusive, of computer terminology: access time - The performance of a hard drive or other storage device - how long it takes to locate a file. active program or window - The application or window at the front (foreground) on the monitor. alert (alert box) - a message that appears on screen, usually to tell you something went wrong. alias - an icon that points to a file, folder or application (System 7). application - a program in which you do your work. application menu - on the right side of the screen header. Lists running applications. ASCII (pronounced ask-key ) - American Standard Code for Information Interchange. a commonly used data format for exchanging information between computers or programs. background - part of the multitasking capability. A program can run and perform tasks in the background while another program is being used in the foreground. bit - the smallest piece of information used by the computer. Derived from "binary digit". In computer language, either a one (1) or a zero (0). backup - a copy of a file or disk you make for archiving purposes. boot - to start up a computer. bug - a programming error that causes a program to behave in an unexpected way. byte - a piece of computer information made up of eight bits.

The largest storage capacity term I have heard recently was in IBM's 2010 annual report. It refers to global data volume storage requirements in a decade: 35 zettabytes, or 35 sextillion bytes (a zettabyte is a 1 followed by 21 zeros).


 * Favorite Web Places**
 * [|eBay]:** I help people sell their stuff on this website. My feedback is now more than 2,020 and I am a top seller. But I am nothing compared to another seller who's ID is "buy." They currently have 2,284,676 auctions listed and their feedback numbers 1,850,028 with more than 40,000 posted in the last month.
 * [|CNN]**: A great place to get news. We tuned to this website, and their televison channel, all the time in the trading room.
 * [|Yahoo Finance]**: A decent website to review companies, especially comments on their message board. This was particularly helpful to monitor companies that have operational units nationwide (Wal-Mart, Waste Management, etc.). Many of their employees would post messages that you would not normally hear about in a normal news setting. Yes, there's a lot of garbage messages too but, with practice, you get to know which posters are valid.
 * [|SEC's EDGAR]**: With the Internet, the playing field has been leveled significantly for investors. Anyone can visit this SEC website and get financial information about companies by inserting the name of the company or its stock symbol. The big institutional investment firms still have advantages, but its been narrowed considerably with the Internet available to all.

My favorite picture would be one of my wife. However, the one I really like of her is still packed away when I retired in December and can't find it right now. And she wouldn't let me take a new picture of her with her hair disheveled.
 * Favorite Pictures**

This picture begs the question: Inquiring minds want to know.

This picture reminds people of one of the most iconic dances in filmdom.

This picture refers to the movie with the best car chase scene in filmdom. //French Connection// is a close second and //The Seven Ups// is third. The chase scene in //Bullitt// is presented at normal camera speed. They reached speeds up to 110 mph on Bay area freeways. The scene is on YouTube, but the full impact is better presented on TV. The film was made in 1968, before CGI (computer-generated imagery) was invented. Other notable movies by Steve McQueen include //The Thomas Crown Affair// (the chess game scene with Faye Dunaway is classic) and //The Great Escape// (based on real events during WWII at three POW camps; this movie made him a superstar). He died of cancer in 1980 at age 50.  To keep us humble, here are two photos showing how we fit into the big picture:

And there is probably something bigger than Antares we haven't discovered yet.

This is a picture of my new car I obtained on Friday, April 1. Now that the time-consuming process of buying a new car is over, which took six weeks to accomplish after my other one was totaled three days after this class started, I can start studing more! Note the dealership's registration notice on the passenger side of the front windshield and no license plate. It may take up to six months to receive the plates! The car-buying process was eventful in showing the incompetence of auto sales people at numerous dealerships. I honestly believe they could not hold down a regular job.

If you think California is earthquake country, Japan has had more than 200 aftershocks in one month after the March 11 quake they had. Notice the name of the plate to the northeast of Japan. Geologists say there is new stress on a fault east of Tokyo as a result of the March 11 earthquake.



A final picture is of North Africa. See that yellow area? It's desert. General Electric, who people are complaining about because it paid no taxes in 2010, is working with the nations of North Africa to do something about it. The plan is to build solar panel farms out in that desert to generate electricity. That electricity will be transmitted to water desalinization plants on the Mediterrean Sea to make potable water which, in turn, will be used by people and also returned to the desert to grow food. Just like the Imperial County east of San Diego, North African countries will be able to have three crop-growing seasons annually, providing food for Europe and the rest of the world and jobs for their people besides nourishing flora, including trees, that will consume carbon dioxide. North Africa could eventually be forested!




 * The importance of saving early**

Youngsters fail to appreciate compound interest because it does not provide immediate results. But as the table below indicates, it can provide magic just at the time one is ready to retire--if they haven't started already. That's why Baron von Rothschild, a 16th century French banker, called compound interest the eighth wonder of the world and Albert Einstein called it the greatest invention of man. A $2,000 annual contribution to a Roth IRA is equivalent to $167 a month. Notice that in the year Investor A is 29 their portfolio increases by less than $2,000. But when they are age 65, with no more contributions during the previous 38 years, the account grows by nearly $30,000 in the last year. That's the magic of compound interest. The importance of saving early can be seen by the net earnings line near the bottom of the table. Investor A has earned more than Investor B even though Investor A contributed only $16,000 to their Roth IRA while Investor B contributed $74,000. How much does one make if they contribute to their Roth IRA from from age 21 to 65 and earn 8 percent annually on their money? Just add up the value of Investors' A and B Roth IRAs when they are 65: more than $830,000. That's not a bad way to go into retirement. Investing is like planting a tree. The best time to plant it was 20 years ago; the next best time is now. If anyone wants to talk about it, let me know.

Benefit of Saving Early  ﻿David, nice page, and nice car! TomM.
 * Investor A |||||| Investor B ||  ||
 * Age || Contribution || End Value || Age || Contribution || End Value ||  ||
 * 21 || 2,000 || 2,160 || 21 ||  ||   ||   ||
 * 22 || 2,000 || 4,493 || 22 ||  ||   ||   ||
 * 23 || 2,000 || 7,012 || 23 ||  ||   ||   ||
 * 24 || 2,000 || 9,733 || 24 ||  ||   ||   ||
 * 25 || 2,000 || 12,672 || 25 ||  ||   ||   ||
 * 26 || 2,000 || 15,846 || 26 ||  ||   ||   ||
 * 27 || 2,000 || 19,273 || 27 ||  ||   ||   ||
 * 28 || 2,000 || 22,975 || 28 ||  ||   ||   ||
 * 29 ||  || 24,813 || 29 || 2,000 || 2,160 ||   ||
 * 30 ||  || 26,798 || 30 || 2,000 || 4,493 ||   ||
 * 31 ||  || 28,942 || 31 || 2,000 || 7,012 ||   ||
 * 32 ||  || 31,257 || 32 || 2,000 || 9,733 ||   ||
 * 33 ||  || 33,758 || 33 || 2,000 || 12,672 ||   ||
 * 34 ||  || 36,459 || 34 || 2,000 || 15,846 ||   ||
 * 35 ||  || 39,375 || 35 || 2,000 || 19,273 ||   ||
 * 36 ||  || 42,525 || 36 || 2,000 || 22,975 ||   ||
 * 37 ||  || 45,927 || 37 || 2,000 || 26,973 ||   ||
 * 38 ||  || 49,602 || 38 || 2,000 || 31,291 ||   ||
 * 39 ||  || 53,570 || 39 || 2,000 || 35,954 ||   ||
 * 40 ||  || 57,855 || 40 || 2,000 || 40,991 ||   ||
 * 41 ||  || 62,484 || 41 || 2,000 || 46,430 ||   ||
 * 42 ||  || 67,482 || 42 || 2,000 || 52,304 ||   ||
 * 43 ||  || 72,881 || 43 || 2,000 || 58,649 ||   ||
 * 44 ||  || 78,711 || 44 || 2,000 || 65,500 ||   ||
 * 45 ||  || 85,008 || 45 || 2,000 || 72,900 ||   ||
 * 46 ||  || 91,809 || 46 || 2,000 || 80,893 ||   ||
 * 47 ||  || 99,154 || 47 || 2,000 || 89,524 ||   ||
 * 48 ||  || 107,086 || 48 || 2,000 || 98,846 ||   ||
 * 49 ||  || 115,653 || 49 || 2,000 || 108,914 ||   ||
 * 50 ||  || 124,905 || 50 || 2,000 || 119,787 ||   ||
 * 51 ||  || 134,898 || 51 || 2,000 || 131,530 ||   ||
 * 52 ||  || 145,689 || 52 || 2,000 || 144,212 ||   ||
 * 53 ||  || 157,345 || 53 || 2,000 || 157,909 ||   ||
 * 54 ||  || 169,932 || 54 || 2,000 || 172,702 ||   ||
 * 55 ||  || 183,527 || 55 || 2,000 || 188,678 ||   ||
 * 56 ||  || 198,209 || 56 || 2,000 || 205,932 ||   ||
 * 57 ||  || 214,065 || 57 || 2,000 || 224,566 ||   ||
 * 58 ||  || 231,191 || 58 || 2,000 || 244,692 ||   ||
 * 59 ||  || 249,686 || 59 || 2,000 || 266,427 ||   ||
 * 60 ||  || 269,661 || 60 || 2,000 || 289,901 ||   ||
 * 61 ||  || 291,234 || 61 || 2,000 || 315,253 ||   ||
 * 62 ||  || 314,532 || 62 || 2,000 || 342,634 ||   ||
 * 63 ||  || 339,695 || 63 || 2,000 || 372,204 ||   ||
 * 64 ||  || 366,871 || 64 || 2,000 || 404,141 ||   ||
 * 65 ||  || 396,220 || 65 || 2,000 || 438,632 || 834,852 ||
 * Less contributions || (16,000) ||  ||   || (74,000) ||   ||
 * Net earnings || 380,220 ||  ||   || 364,632 ||   ||
 * Assumptions: Contributions made on Jan. 1; || annual return = || 8.0% ||  ||