The Rocky Mountain Collegian

September 12th, 2007

What Smoking Can Really Cost You?

Everyone, both smoker and non-smoker, has seen or heard the facts and figures that are related to smoking.  A few hundred dollars are lost here, and a few thousand dollars over this amount of time, and you could have done this with that money.  However, I have yet to hear or see anyone replace smoking with investing, which to me see like it should be the on the top of the list.

Let’s say you are an 18-year-old college freshman who has just started to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day.  Averaging out the cost of those cigarettes, I will put the price at $4.50 a pack and the total cost for a pack a day at $135.00 a month.  Now, if you were to place an initial investment of $135.00 into a strong Mutual Fund, say a %15.00 return, and continue doing so throughout your college career, you may be surprised.

This cigarette replacing investment, if continued every month for 4 years, would give you a return of $9,161.00.  On the flip side, a continued smoking habit over this amount of time would cost you just over $6,400.00.  I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that smokers have the potential to make some pretty impressive gains.

Now just for fun, say you were able to remain in said Mutual Fund for 50 years, still somehow giving you a 15% return and you placing your extra $135.00 into the account every month.  Well, after those 50 years, when you are approaching 70 and wanting to vacation or splurge on the grandchildren, you can do both.  You will have now accumulated a massive return of over $19,000,000! 

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September 12th, 2007

One In A Million

On Monday afternoon I found out that having an iPhone only makes me part of a group that now has 999,999 other members, and to the surprise of many other owners out there, I couldn’t be happier.  To be quite honest with you, the more iPhones I see that happier I will undoubtedly become and the more I will applaud Apple for their efforts.  Confused yet?  Good.

Here’s the deal.  You can love Apple or you can down right hate the company and everyone who associates themselves with the white earbud wearing, unique laptop carrying, non-business oriented group of people.  However, it is a lot easier to love a company that can create products to make life easier and if you’re really smart, make you some money while doing it.

If you don’t know by now, Apple Inc. has been a great stock choice for the last 5 years.  In fact, investing in the company just 5 years ago from today would have made you over 18 times your original investment.  Yeah, that’s $50.00 turning into $900.00 in a little over the amount of time it takes some people to graduate.  However, what really surprises me is the amount of people who never saw it coming.

Personally, I always loved the idea of an MP3 player and I searched high and low until the iPod came into the market and solved my problems.  Yet, I gave the company some more time to work on the kinks and really get a market share before I thought about investing, then reality set in.  Here is a company gaining a huge share over the portable music industry and the stock value remains low, what better time to buy?  And now look at their success timeline.

First, you have the introduction of the iPod (no further information is required).  Next, a quieter move, Apple produces more iPods while maintaining their dock-style base to allow an accessory market to emerge.  Apple and Intel become one, thereby making the lovable computers more affordable and faster than ever before.  Finally, Apple begins to set record numbers for themselves in computer sales while maintaining a huge share of the portable MP3 market, selling 3 billion songs on iTunes, entering into the Cell-phone/PDA/Smart-phone market, and on top of all of that they still make incredibly smart business moves.  Think about it, announcing that you have sold 1 million iPhones in just 74 days on an open stock market Monday.

All in all, here’s to you Apple, I can only hope to see more of your products and more outlooks come true, a high price target of $205.00 never looked so sweet.

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September 6th, 2007

Don’t Waste Cash On Brand Names

While I can’t say that I am totally innocent on buying a brand and not a product, I can say that I know I am doing.  However, I know a lot of people out there who throw their money away because Tylenol is more appealing than Target or Vick’s Nyquil is more “effective” than other brands.  Let’s get real here, are you really going to wake up a new person if you use brand names over generic—doubtful. 

So here are the top ways to put cash back in your pocket and not into a name.

Brand name cleaning products.  I realize that eliminating 99.9% of all the bacteria in your kitchen sounds like an ultimate germ-free environment, but get serious.  Even if you killed such a percentage of bacteria, your kitchen could still be housing a few billion bacteria and that’s if you cleaned every possible surface.  I wont go any further into the antibacterial soaps; you can see for yourself what you waste your money on.  Check out the University of Michigan study, here.  So please, save yourself a few dollars per cleaning product next time.

Brand name drugs.  The bottle may be more appealing, the advertising more effective, or the name might even sound more pleasing to the ears, but don’t buy into it.  The only reason your brand name drugs became trusted and stayed around for so long was because of patents on their products.  Now, however, other companies are picking up on the drugs as the patents expire and they too have the money to get around the patents.  Which in no way should discourage you for their practices but you should be relieved that you can save 3 dollars here, 8 dollars there, or even more.

Brand name food.  This may be the toughest one to grasp, but has the potential to save you loads of cash over the course of the year.  What may be even more difficult for you to grasp is that a vast majority of the generic name foods are made in the same facility as their “competitors.”  For example, did you notice that when the Peter Pan brand of peanut butter was recently recalled that all of the Wal-Mart brand peanut butter was removed from its shelves?  Think about it for just a minute.  That’s because the two are made in the same facility.

Overall, eliminating the brand name from these 3 categories could save you a bundle in just one trip, let alone the potential for savings over a year.  The best part of buying generic brand products is that a lot of them will offer you a guarantee, mail-in rebate, and sale-time savings that go beyond the brand name.  Next time you are at the store, see how much you save.

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August 29th, 2007

Salvage Your Electronics?

I hear the same old complaints all the time, most of the time very exaggerated, but complaints nonetheless.  “My iPod is 2 weeks old and they just introduced a new one!” or “ I just bought a computer last year and it is already outdated.”  Well to all you out there who rather complain about the speed of technology and the introduction of new and exciting products, do something about it.  Here are my tips for staying up to date while still getting cash for your electronics.

1)  Save Everything.  There is no easier way to help resell your electronics than having the original packaging and manuals.  Just because you have never opened up a manual or read the box doesn’t mean someone else doesn’t want to.

2)  Decide your fate early on.  You should know , whether you have thought about it or not, whether or not you are buying to run your new technology to death or plan to someday update.  Personally, I prefer the update.  This way you still get a good amount of cash for your stuff while staying on top of the latest technology.  Look at it as getting 80% off a new iPod every time you buy one.

3)  Embrace eBay.  There is no better way to get top dollar on your used electronics than eBay.  What was once an online auction for people to sell their Vintage Collectibles and Sporting Goods, eBay is now a consumer electronics haven.

4)  Take care of your stuff.  Believe it or not, there is a reason your new laptop has care instructions or why there are an endless amount of cases for your MP3 player (iPod).  Think about, would you rather buy a used laptop that has no sign of wear, regularly cleaned parts, and scratch free screen or a laptop with grime between the keys and scratched corners.

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