Only the good invest young

I’m sure you know a responsible investor. The one that puts money away each month into an IRA, and watches his or her net worth the way my dad watches my sister’s boyfriend. That investor is not me. I’m generally more concerned about my deadlines than I am about my retirement. If I was concerned about my retirement, I wouldn’t be a journalist. Let’s be serious.

But because I live in what seems like the most expensive city in the U.S., I need to plan. I don’t want to be penniless in a few months and have to live in a cardboard box, so I’m getting serious about personal finance. And I know I’m not the only one that’s new to this, so I’ll share what happens along the way (along with my clips, which have been the focus of this site before now).

Step 1: Figure out what you have, and how you spend it.

It seems self-evident, but it’s important, and it doesn’t have to be tedious…

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Will there be too many lawyers in 2013?

If you practice law, or know someone who does, mark May 2013 on the calendar. That’s when the legal job market could get a lot more competitive.

A record number of people are ready to opt out of what Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has called “a weak job market,” and wait it out in the halls of America’s law schools.

More than 60,000 aspiring attorneys sat for the LSAT this fall, more than any year kept on record by the Law School Admission Council, or LSAC. That’s about 20% more than fall 2008. And because the American Bar Association, or ABA, gives accreditation to a few new law schools a year, there are more places for them to go.

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Review: Loads of advice in a little book

The Little Book of Smart Money – By Jason Zweig

From SmartMoney.com

This is a little book with big advice. Jason Zweig, who writes The Wall Street Journal’s weekly “Intelligent Investor” column, doesn’t promise investors the moon, but in language that everyone can understand, he offers solid, common-sense steps to protect and improve their portfolios.

In “The Little Book of Safe Money,” Zweig breaks down the specifics of broad investment areas — financial assessment, types of investments and investment psychology. But his broad theme is that the single most valuable holding in an investor’s financial arsenal is his or herself. Investors’ potential income will outperform all of their other holdings or investments, Zweig emphasizes. That means investors should hedge against themselves; bankers, for example, shouldn’t invest mostly in financial stocks.

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Is Wall Street culture to blame for the crash?

How should we reform Wall Street? The conventional wisdom is slash the mega-bonuses and bring on the regulators (not to mention taxpayers). But what about the culture of Wall Street itself? The Ivy Leaguers who work 11- and 12-hour days, seven days a week? The insistence on shareholder above all else? What role did those things play in the meltdown? And are they fixable?

Karen Ho, an anthropology professor at the University of Minnesota, sets out to answer these questions in her recently-released book, “Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street Culture.” Originally a dissertation that Ho started as a grad student at Princeton in the mid-1990s, “Liquidated” approaches investment bankers much as Ralph Linton approached the hill tribes of Madagascar. She goes to work at Bankers Trust (which was subsequently acquired by Deutsche Bank) for a year to observe her subjects (sleeping under desks, refusing to be seen brown-bagging lunches), debriefs them and once the economy begins to unravel in 2007, updates her material to make it timely.

Ho’s main finding: Coddled investment bankers, who come from privileged, educated backgrounds, don’t or can’t empathize with the people whose lives are affected by layoffs, mergers and economic downturns.

[keep reading at SmartMoney.com]

Stop SuperFreaking out, please

Unsurprisingly, “SuperFreakonomics” has made a splash.

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner are up to their old tricks, but this time, it’s environmentalists they’re pissing off.

They question basic ideas behind climate change science in the book, and activists are angry. If they’re wrong, then fine – plenty of authors make mistakes – but why the vitrol?

I wrote a review of the book for SmartMoney magazine’s Web site a few weeks ago, then a longer piece about the differences between the sequel and its predecessor, Freakonomics.

The most striking thing about the climate change chapter is that the authors write at length about the religious fervor with which people talk about climate change.

Looking at the reactions from many bloggers, it seems they’ve been proven right.

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Dow Jones Newswires & WSJ stories

In my time at Dow Jones this summer, I have had the privilege to be published on the wire and in the Wall Street Journal. Most stories are searchable on the web or on Factiva, and I’ll work on getting the Newswires stories up as well.

In-depth 2009: health care and reform in Rockbridge

My senior capstone project was an intense six weeks of reporting, filming, and website-building, all centered around health care.

The subject turned out to be timely, and even helpful – I just graduated, so I’m going to have to figure out health insurance of my own soon.

But anyway, six weeks’ worth of sweat and caffeine can be found below. My two fellow group members and I built the site from scratch (with plenty of help from the wonderful M. Todd).

Health Care’s Heartbeat:  Health insurance in the Rockbridge area

Update on Vietnam P.O.W. Story

My story about Jim Berger, a Vietnam war veteran who was held as a prisoner of war for 6 years, won a SPJ Mark of Excellence award in Region 2, which includes Delaware, Washington D.C., Virginia, and North Carolina. I placed first in the category for a magazine non-fiction article.

Berger’s story was so compelling that it almost told itself, and I really owe the award to him for sharing it with me.

I posted it a while ago, but you can check it out here.

Follow-up: Goshen Jamboree plans prompt many questions

By Alexandra Scaggs – The Rockbridge Report, 3/19/09

A civil engineer working with the Boy Scouts of America tried to reassure local residents about the impact of putting the Boy Scout Jamboree in Goshen pass at a recent meeting.  But not everyone was convinced.

Isaac Manning spoke to the Rockbridge Partnership and members of the community Mar. 10. Manning said he was there to update area residents and to correct what he said was misinformation about the Jamboree, a national gathering of Boy Scouts.  The organization is considering a move to a Scout camp in Goshen for the 2013 Jamboree.

Manning assured residents that the organization wants to reinvent the way the event is run.

“We’re basically scrapping everything the Scouts have done for the past 35 to 40 years,” he said.

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Boy Scouts eye Goshen for future Jamborees

By Alexandra Scaggs – The Rockbridge Report, 2/26/09

The Boy Scouts of America is eyeing the Goshen area as the permanent home for its  national Jamboree, an event that could bring more than 200,000 people to the area and an estimated $100 million in initial capital investment, according to the organization.

Mike Webb, director of the Rockbridge Partnership, which promotes local business and industry development, has a vision for how that might work.

“Campers could stay on the site and the parents could mosey down to Lexington and spend some money,” Webb said.

If chosen, Goshen will be a permanent part of a National Scouting Center that includes a permanent site for the Jamboree and a wilderness camp in Fayette and Raleigh counties, West Virginia.

The Jamboree, scheduled next for 2013, brings together thousands of Boy Scouts nationwide. The organization also expects the proposed site to include year-round facilities. The Goshen Scout Reservation, a 5,000-acre summer camp currently owned by the National Capital Area Boy Scouts based in Washington, D.C., would host the event.

But some local environmentalists are concerned about possible harm to the new site.

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