(•tider s forum

Moped Driver

Money Matters The Value of Time

Tired of Being Pushed Around By G.W. Dye I get sick when reading about people who go out of their way to jump on the moped driver's back. I refer specifically to your lead article Mopeds A Problem, In the Sept 10 issue. I never owned a moped until our beloved president fumbled and fooled around with the gas situation. Now I know the other side of the coin about who causes the most problems. Drivero do their flarndest to actually push us off the road. I’ve had it happen twice, then they sped away; both times I bled. So, I can tell you about mopeds. I enclose a letter to the editor of another paper which tells you what we are entitled to and what we aren’t Some of the statements issued in the article aren’t correct G W Dye is a Wildwood resident. • ••• » Editor's Note The enclosed letter mentioned these points about mopeds and/or moped operators; they: * aren't bicycles or motorcycles; • are entitled to a full lane. • aren’t to be operated on the shoulder on the road; • may not be operated on any roadway where the speed limit is above 50 mph, or on any 4-lane highway with a divider • must be licensed and carry liability insurance

When we established our long range goal last week of $4,000 for education expenses, we figured that simply saving $67/month for five years would give us the $4,000 required. What we did not include in our calculation is the most important factor to consider in all of our financial planning — money hat time value I If you were offered the choice of paying the $4,000 for tuition five years from today or paying $3,136 today, what would you do? • M

.Step III How Do I Get There?

ASK YOURSELF: "If I put $3,136 in the bank today at five percent interest, how much money would I have in five years?" The answer is $4,000.

If instead of using a passbook savings account, we were to use a 10 percent interest bearing investment such as bonds or certificates of deposit maturingin exactly five years, we would find that only $2,484 need be invested today to achieve the desired $4,000 five years from now. While if interest rates temporarily return to 15 percent, as they did earlier this year, we would only have to invest $1,988 at 15 percent to have the $4,000 required at the appropriate time.

THOSE OF YOU who are

one step ahead of me already have three objections: (1) What about the taxes I have to pay on the money that my money earns? (2) How about inflation? (3) If interest rates don’t go back to 15 percent, how can I earn that rate of return or more if need be?

To answer those questions: (1) There are appropriate methods of investing on a tax-free or tax-deferred basis that can increase your nominal rate of return to offset the effect of taxes. (2) Inflation is not a new phenomenon. It is a part of your planning and a reason to update your plan annually to adjust for the effects of inflation. (3) No one in business should survive on a pre-tax rate of return of between 5 to 15 percent. 1 don't believe you can either. THERE ARE SO many investments available that no one could possibly meet every need you may encounter in your investment plan. Answering these three questions is really not over yet. The rest of this series will be devoted to looking at various investments, their tax advantages and disadvantages, their usefulness as a hedge against Inflation or lack thereof, and the risks and rewards associated with each investment medium.

EACH INVESTMENT has its own qualities concerning degrees of

safety and liquidity, but so too does each investor have his own investment personality that makes his selection of investments different from his neighbor who may still have the same goals. Someone once stated that there are only three kinds of people in the world: (1) (hose that make things happen; (2) those that watch things happen, and (3) those that wonder what happened. I believe there can be a fourth category: those of you who watch and react accordingly for your own benefit.

our own psychological investment strengths and weaknesses: Have I ever invested before? Which investments do I understand? Am I willing to learn about the ones I don't know anything about? How much time can I devote to managing my investments? Which is most important to me — safety, liquidity or rate of return? Next week, we look at tax-free money, where to g« it and how not to lose it, as well as how selling at a loss can create a profit while staying in basically the same investment.

JUST AS WE did a Statement of Personal Net Worth a few weeks ago, so too do we need to inventory

account executive with leading Investment broke