From reading the posts on a few other blogs, I am finding out how much money people lost last year. Fortunately, the only investment I had until the end of 2008 was a money market fund. I chose to invest only in a money market fund because of its security, which turned out to be very good for me last year. While others lost up to a third of the money they had been saving, I didn't lose any. While others lost their jobs, I still have mine. Personally, the economic situation has not impacted me directly and I am very grateful for that. Since I have a stable, reliable income, I have been able to continue living my lifestyle without the constant worry of spending too much money. Over the past six years, ever since I graduated college and have been holding a job, I have been frugal with my money and tried not to spend too much money, so if I did have to find ways of saving even more money, I would find it to be a difficult task. I can always resort to not heating my house, disconnect the phone and internet or selling the house altogether, but I have enough saved up in reserve to not have to do any of those things until being unemployed for a year, which, hopefully, doesn't happen.
Since I am doing relatively well financially, I decided to expand my investments and take advantage of the current economic situation. While I have enjoyed the security of my money market fund, I am optimistic that I can get a larger and faster return by investing in something a little more risky. After losing a small fortune in the foreign exchange market, I decided that direct trading was not for me and, therefore, I have decided to stay with mutual funds, but try out the riskier mutual funds. I opened a Precious Metals and Minerals Fund at the end of 2008 and decided to put $100 into it each month. After putting in $150 into the fund, the market value of my account was $174.45; a gain of $24.45. A gain of 16% wasn't too bad for three months of investing, so I decided to put an additional $500 into the account yesterday. Hopefully the fund will continue to grow and allow me to make a good amount of money when the market turns around.
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