Getting Started in Forex Trading

Well, I made $30,000 in the Forex market today! Yeah right, wouldn't that be nice... Actually I have no idea what I'm doing, but Forex trading is sounding kind of interesting. So, I figure I'll learn a little about it.

If you don't know what Forex is, it's the Foreign Exchange markets where currency is traded. Basically when currency needs to be exchanged for different kinds (like dollars to euros), it's done through Forex. The idea here is to take my U.S. Dollars, trade them for Euros when I can do it 'cheaply' and then convert them back to dollars later, and make a profit doing it.

Here's an example (not entirely accurate given current exchange rates): I take 100 Dollars on Monday, and given current economic conditions, trade them for 75 Euros. The next day, economic conditions change, and I can trade 75 Euros for 125 Dollars. I do so and, in turn, pocket a 25 dollar profit.

Now, this really happens on a much smaller scale, fractions of a cent (called pips), and much faster, minutes or seconds apart between trades.

There are all kinds of sites for learning, practicing, and brokering Forex trades. I'm going to begin learning how, right now. Hopefully by the end of the month I can begin practice trading. And, by the end of the year, I'll be the richest person on earth, owning my own private island (or at least be up $50).

If you're interested in learning how to trade on the Forex market, check out these sites that I'm looking at:

http://www.forexpeacearmy.com
http://www.babypips.com

Let me know about any experiences you've had with the Forex.

Credit Score

As the new year begins I've decided to take a more active interest in my credit rating. Especially with the economic conditions the way they are.

I've also been receiving notices in the mail lately telling me that my credit line for card x or card y has been lowered. At first I just figured we'd finally spent ourselves too far, but a quick search on Google reveals that plenty of others are getting their credit limits cut too. It hasn't had an impact so far, except for one card. I had to make an extra payment to avoid going over my limit.

Normally, I don't care what my credit score is. I don't need it, unless I'm buying on credit. My eventual goal is to get the point that I don't need to buy on credit ever. Not everyday items, luxury items, cars, or even our home. But, as ambitious as I am, I realize that I have at least a few more years of needing credit. So I better keep that score high. Right now, it's a chilling 650. Before we did our last big credit card refinancing (which didn't work out very well), it was 720+. I'm quite disappointed at the huge drop. It's up from last month, where it was only 644. Hopefully our recovery will happen quickly.

Beginning next month (or the month after), I'll post a nice graph showing the change from month to month.

Goals for 2009

In the past, I've set complex goals with various requirements that had to be met for the goals to be achieved. This year, I'm going to go the opposite direction. I have two goals this year:

1. Grow our savings to $10,000.
2. Reduce our debt by $15,000.

These two simple goals should be achievable within 2009. I'm going to focus on them for now. If good financial discipline should prevail, I will likely come up with some additional goals for the remainder of 2009.

I truly believe we'll achieve both of these goals ahead of schedule (hopefully October time frame). This will help give the ego boost we both desperately need. Then we can set higher goals!

Getting started in '09

Okay, The last run with this was fairly disappointing. Now, after a few months hiatus it's time to kick this thing into high gear. We've had a financially draining holiday season and a growing desire to move the hell away from where we are. Unfortunately, we're still lugging around debt that is pulling us down emotionally.
We'll start this year off with my next post, our financial goals for 2009. Good luck to everyone hoping to make 2009 their year of financial freedom!