Stock Market Game Final Results and Hot Links for the Week!

The table shows our final results from our year-long stock market game.

These are our closing Stock Market Game Results. Starting with 10,000 this is how we turned out. So if you kept 10,000 under a mattress last year, you may have made out pretty good. And if you invested in a Treasury bond or ING account, you made off with 10,300 since this time last year. Thanks to all who played, and if you’re down for another game or would like to play this year (for those who missed us last year), let me know.

As for what’s up around the personal finance blogosphere:

Free Money Finance tells you how to make sure your church is properly managing money.

Five Cent Nickel talks about timing the stock market, even in this unstable time.

CNN Money has an expert explore foreign CDs as investments.

And The Motley Fool tells you how to stretch your employee benefits (with some nice worksheets).

So take a look and get some knowledge!

Join Our VSE Stock Market Game!

Join Our VSE Stock Market Game!

Dear readers of Wealth Weekly,

When it comes to stock market investing, we always encourage you to look at directly purchasing stocks only after getting your financial foundation in order. That means eliminating (bad) debt, establishing an emergency fund, fully funding your 401(k) and IRA (using index funds wherever possible) , and THEN look at investing in individual stocks. It's a guideline that will ensure the most success, so you can follow or ignore as you wish. Later this week I will be posting a conversation from a talk given to the NSBE Chapter at Columbia University, which I thoroughly enjoyed. So this week I will actually be posting 2 articles (well, only if you include this one).

So we wanted to get people's minds wrapped around the concept of what investing in the stock market entails, so that when the time comes, you will know what you're truly getting into. Unlike most games where you start with a large sum of money and manage it over a couple months, our game will run for 1 YEAR—this will show us just how readers, fellow bloggers, and others endure the ups and downs of the stock market for 1 year. You will be given $10,000 (fake money) and will invest it for over a year.

Click [here] to register for the game and join in.

When the page loads, look in the lower right-hand side of the screen for a box called "Create or Join a Game" and enter the Game ID: PF_Investors. If you haven't been registered, you should register (its free) and follow the instructions to join our game.

The game officially begins on April 1, 2007 and runs through April 1, 2008. I haven't discussed any prize information, but I may try to come up with something to spur participation as we move on. Take a moment to register at MarketWatch and join our game. I'll be sending reminders for the next week encouraging you to get involved.

Good luck!

--Charles J