Please take a minute and let me know in the comments or in the forum why your choice is your favorite  and why.  I am especially interested in hearing from some of those who are using one of the online programs.

“The web’s most realistic trading environment—and biggest investing community. Manage a virtual portfolio. Compete with friends. Follow some of the world’s smartest investors, their trades and their ideas—or prove you’re one of them to earn real fees.”

Basically you start an account with $10,000,000 and try to out invest everyone else. It is very realistic and you can choose to follow other successful investors. On it’s main web page it is listed as an “investment advisor”.

I’ve already started (2 days). Lost about 4% the first day, gained most of it back the second. Wonder what is in story for the 3rd day?

Three ways I have found to become a part of kaChing
Facebook
http://apps.facebook.com/kaching/

MyYahoo
http://apps.yahoo.com/-DnFMcF76

Or if you aren’t a member of Facebook or Yahoo, sign up directly at kaChing
http://www.kaching.com

However you get there, come by and join the “Monty’s Muse Investors” community.

See you there!

John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group, was named one of Fortune magazine’s four “investing giants” of the 20th century. Bogle launched the first low-cost index mutual fund in 1975 and has long advocated indexing for everyday investors. We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Bogle to get his thoughts on whether buy-and-hold investing is dead.

Would be very interested in hearing what parts readers agree or disagree with Mr. Bogle.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2009/06/16/bogle-on-buy-and-hold-and-the-long-of-long-term-in.aspx?source=iedsitmrc0000001

A couple months back I came to the realization that although I had bought a few stocks and I had put a little cash into a mutual fund, that even though my degree had “Business” in the title I really didn’t know anything about investing.  Following a pretty normal pattern for me, when I realize I don’t know something and I want to learn, the first thing I do is head over to Amazon and see what knowledge they have to offer.  I found a couple titles to order, I’ll comment more on them as I go through them, and looking at the bookshelves in our house (at one time we had a little used book business going) I found several other titles that looked interesting and one that even looked quite familiar.  (Note to self, look on bookshelf before buying books from Amazon next time)

So has begun my first real education on investing.  In the process I have started probably no less than 7 or 8 books, made it in a couple chapters and moved on to something else.  Of course along the way I’ve ordered one or two (or five)  more from Amazon.  Obviously this education is going to take a little displine if I am going to get anywhere, I probably need to finish at least one or two of the books I start.

I’ve also been checking out several of the financial web sites.  There are so many to choose from and so many conflicting ideas of how best to make (or just not lose) money.  One of the site I keep coming back to is Seeking Alpha.  They have great new articles everyday and a daily newsletter services that provides tons of links to articles on different investing products and strategies.  One of these newsletters is a great thing to find in the mailbox every morning.  Definately worth checking out.  Now I just need to get out one of those books and find out what Alpha is and why I should be seeking it.

So why investing?  Mainly retirement planning which at my age (40) is starting to appear to be “too little, too late” but at least I can do my best at this point to minimize the pain if I start doing some things right.  A little income generation also wouldn’t be a bad thing and I’ve also got several years of college tuition I expect I’ll be contributing to coming in less than a decade.

Well that’s where I am at and why I am interesting in investing.  Hopefully I can pass along a little of what I learn to help someone else out and also hopefully get some feedback on my thoughts to keep me on the right path and also some good discussion in the forums.

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending
By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: Thursday, September 30, 1999

You really need to read the whole article but a few excerpts.

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets — including the New York metropolitan region — will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans.

Wow, who could have predicted that could turn out badly? Well I guess the NY Times did.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980′s.

The rest of the article is available here.

Certainly can’t say that we were not warned. And just in case you were wondering, who is to blame for our current woes?

Fannie Mae, the nation’s biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

Somehow I doubt we have learned the lesson of our mistakes.