Jess Smart Smiley's Blog, page 8
December 10, 2019
Micro Investing (Part 2: Robinhood App Basics)
My wife has been asking what I want for Christmas this year, so I asked for permission to use a little money toward investing. She said it was a boring present, but gave me the go-ahead.
You know what this means? It means the micro-investment party just started, baby!
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The app I’ve heard the most about is Robinhood. I’ve seen and heard the app mentioned on podcasts, YouTube videos, and from professional business people and investors I’m already following.
Here are some basics about Robinhood:
The Robinhood app is free and easy to use (with–surprise!–the option to upgrade to a $5/mo Gold account).Stocks and bonds can be purchased and sold without the usual broker fee (I should probably figure out what the h*ck a bond is).Investments can be started for less than $100–and often for less than $50.Most of my friends have never heard of Robinhood and they think I’m talking about the Disney animated movie (which is, oo-de-lally, most excellent).
Day 1 ($222.29 Free)
I did it! I downloaded the app! Setup was a little more involved than I thought it would be, but it was quick and painless. I had to enter my social (because the app functions as a legal broker), but then I was greeted with this screen:
Wait–what’s this? Free stock just for signing up? That can’t be real…can it?
According to Wall Street Survivor, “scratching off” a free stock image lotto-style, affords the user the following:
1 in 90 odds of getting Facebook, Apple, or Microsoft1 in 150 odds of getting Ford, Spring, or GoPro100% chance of getting a free share of stock98% chance of getting free stock with a value between $2.50 and $101% chance of getting free stock with a value between $10 and $501% chance of getting free stock with a value between $50 and $200
I received 1 share with biotech company ImmunoGen at $3.39. Nothing crazy, but it’s a free share that has the potential to grow without me doing anything.
Robinhood users can invite friends to join Robinhood and BOTH of you will get a free share of stock! A friend messaged me about the app and I sent my referral link. Within 10 minutes, they were signed up and we both had a new, free share!
This time I got a $218.90 share with Berkshire Hathaway! Wow! That’s a total of $222.29 in shares in a single day–all without spending any money of my own.
Investing might not be so boring, after all.
More Than Money
It’s pretty fun to scroll through Robinhood and see which companies are available to invest in. It turns out that Apple, Twitter, Tesla, Disney, Walmart, and GoPro are available. There are tech, entertainment, health, and apparel companies available. Even Popeyes’ parent company, Restaurant Brands International, is on Robinhood!
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…which made me realize that investing in a company brings into play the same ethics as buying from a business. Do I really want my money to support this or that company? Do I really want to risk profiting from the way X company does business?
When I started thinking about investing, I was really only thinking of it as money that had the potential to grow. Now I can’t think of investing without being at least a little bit mindful about what the company is/does, how they treat their employees, their mission, values, etc. Even if it’s just in small ways, my money will be making a difference in the lives of people working for/with the companies I invest in. I want it to count for good.
Using Robinhood
Robinhood’s search and reports interfaces are easy to navigate. I mean, this is information that even I can understand! In fact, the way the information is presented as graphs, percentages, timelines, and lists makes the information accessible and easy to process.
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[image error][image error]I realize this is a very simplistic overview, but it’s helpful to pull up a company profile and immediately see their stock activity over the previous day, week, month, 3 months, 1 year, and 5 years! If I see that a company’s stock value has been consistently increasing over time, then I’ll be much more likely to buy a share.
From these reports I can see that the value of ImmunoGen stocks has increased in the last day, week, month, and 3 months by as much as 32.10%! But I can also see that they’ve dropped 37.87% over the last year and 64.72% over the last 5 years. Good to know, right?
Having the short- and long-term views is valuable for deciding whether or not to buy from the company. Because my ImmunoGen share was free, and because the value has increased consistently over the last 3 months, I feel much more willing to let my money sit in the hopes of growing. (It might be worth watching for the next 3 months to see if it continues trending upward.)
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Another note on Robinhood’s activity graphs: If I scrub through the stock activity over time, I can see the stock value changes for most days in each month over the last 5 years. This is the kind of information that actually gets me excited about the idea of investing, and I can’t help but wonder if the fluctuations in value are direct results of a new marketing approach/product from the company, or if they’re due to nationwide changes in the economy, or something else entirely. (I have a lot of questions, and have been looking for answers, but I’m trying to keep this experience as simple as possible to start with.)
Day 5: My First Investment
After exploring the Robinhood app for a few days (and going down an inexhaustible rabbit hole of YouTube reviews and videos about Robinhood), I decided to just take a step into the great unknown and make an investment.
Remember: this is micro-investing. I'm not looking to swing thousand-dollar deals or hunt down the latest from Wall Street or anything like that--I'm looking to invest a little money in the hopes of gaining a return over time (as opposed to saving with my bank at a .10% - .15% annual yield or paying fees to invest through my bank).
For the sake of keeping things simple for myself, I decided to make my first investment based on the most basic information available to me via the Robinhood app: the timeline and cost per share. Yes–there’s a lot more information available through the app, on YouTube, in articles, etc, but this is new for me and I don’t want to do too much too soon.
While searching through Robinhood’s categories (Tech, Health, Food, Energy, Clothing, etc), I decided for myself the following criteria for potential investments:
Share must cost $10 or less (I told you I’m starting low—I’m new to this whole thing and nervous!)Company must have existed for at least 5 years (so I know they’re in business for the long-haul and so I can see their track record over a good chunk of time)Company must have an upward trend for the last year (bonus points if their stock value has increased over the last 5 years)
It didn’t take long to find out Robinhood has a search category just for me! “Most Popular Under $25” afforded me 44 options with companies that include Under Armor, Pinterest, DropBox, Slack, and Aurora Cannabis.
I bought 2 shares: 1 with Yamana Gold and 1 with Vivint Solar.
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Yamana ($3.75)
I paid $3.75 for 1 share of Yamana Gold stock. The price was right, the company has been around for 25 years, our values seem to line up at a glance , and their stock value reflects a strong uptick over the past year, resulting in a nearly 63% increase. (Were their stock to increase at the same rate over the next year, my $3.75 today could be valued at $1M in 12 months! Just kidding. But even if I doubled over the next year, I’d still be making money without doing anything to grow it.)
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Vivint Solar ($7.31)
I paid $7.31 for 1 share of stock in Vivint Solar. My biggest reasons for investing with them have less to do with their 31.95% increase over the last year and more to do with the fact that their headquarters are just a few miles from my home and that I know several people who work with Vivint Solar and really seem to enjoy the work, their team, and the Vivint culture/environment.
Vivint Solar started in 2011 and has been noted several times as one of Utah’s “fastest growing companies”.
It’s not all good news, though—Vivint Solar stock has dropped 27.05% over the last 5 years. Has the company simply been working out how to thrive in the fairly new industry of consumer solar energy? Have there been changes in their products or marketing approaches? Were these changes in stock value projected when the company first launched or has the company been caught off-guard by the 5-year decline?
I’ll have to do a little digging to see what the future might hold for Vivint Solar. But, at $7.31, I’m not too worried about it.
Doing More with Robinhood
The idea behind micro-investments is clearly not about getting rich quick. It’s about making small-to-modest investments to play out over long periods of time. It’s a great option for someone like myself (a cartoonist stuck in bed with no investment experience whatsoever) to spend a little money now in the hopes of growing it over time without much (if any) additional effort.
That being said, I can see the benefit in buying up a bunch of $3.75 shares in a company or buying a bunch of inexpensive shares in several different companies. It’s easy, the share cost is low, and it costs nothing to purchase the shares.
Cryptocurrency
Did I mention Robinhood also offers (as of the writing of this post) 17 different cryptocurrency investment opportunities? Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Zcash, Stellar, Monero, Stash, NEO, and Dogecoin (among others) are all available on Robinhood.
Of the 17 cryptocurrencies, 9 are currently available at a cost of less than $10 per share.
Maybe I’ll dip into crypto next month?
Resources
Robinhood also includes information to help potential investors make informed decisions. Aside from the ability to search for investment opportunities, Robinhood also provides:
Analyst ratings as to whether to buy, hold, or sell with a given companyInvestment-related news articlesCollections of the “100 Most Popular Investments”, “Top Movers” and “New On Robinhood”Watchlists for keeping an eye on companies you’re considering an investment withA portfolio report for viewing your investments in real time
More to Come…
Thanks for checking out my first foray into the world of micro-investing!
In less than a week, I went from knowing nothing about investing to owning 2 free stocks totaling $222.29 and investing $11.06 in 2 additional companies.
Have you started micro-investing? Have you tried Robinhood or other investment apps? Do you have all the answers I’m looking for? Am I doing it wrong? PLEASE share your experience in the comments section and let’s help each other!
I’m just getting started! Subscribe to learn with me about additional investment opportunities like Acorns and cryptocurrency, and be sure to claim your free stock with Robinhood here.
Related Reading
Micro Investing (Part 1: I’m Scared)
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December 7, 2019
Can a Cartoonist Make Money Micro-Investing? (I'm Scared)
Hi! My name is Jess Smart Smiley and I work as an illustrator and graphic designer.
I’ve created 18 books for young readers (including picture books, a #1 bestselling comics activity book, a hidden object book, chapter books, and graphic novels), and I have helped thousands of children, teens, and adults in creating their first comics.
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Words and pictures are my passions—but I’m entirely new to the idea of doing anything other than spending or saving my money.
I’ve decided that it’s time I started investing.
Investing With Zero Experience
I’ve thought about investing in the past, but I’ve always been intimidated by the idea–mostly because I don’t know much about it and because it’s always seemed like an elite sort of gamble where one has to give up lots of money at the risk of losing it all.
Enter micro-investing.
I’m not into gambling and money has never excited me, but I have a growing family, I’m stuck in bed with a consistent influx of medical bills (maybe more on this later? Everyone loves a good medical mystery), and I freelance without any kind of retirement plan. It really doesn’t leave much to the future—and that needs to change now.
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December 6, 2019
Better Than Secret Santa?
If you think Secret Santa is rubbish, take a look at this ‘ungifted‘ green solution courtesy of Pentagram.
Ungifted Secret Santa is a free platform where you and your workmates can gift each other nice surprises instead of stuff that’s destined for landfill – it could be anything from a month of memes to a surprise burrito. There are lots of suggestions to help inspire people, alternatively, you can make up your own gift ideas.
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Read more
December 5, 2019
Look at This. Look at It!
Check out these stunning photos of Cormorant fisherman Lao Huang by photographer Peter Yan.
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His last name is Huang, and he is 86 years old. The locals call him Lao Huang (meaning old Huang in Chinese). He told me he’s been a fisherman ever since he was a kid, and both he and his brother learned to train cormorant from his father. Nowadays, this is just a hobby, and apparently, he makes a good living from donations, as well as breeding the birds.
Interview: Travel Photographer Highlights China’s Traditional Cormorant Fishing
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Story Time
When I look at Peter Yan’s photos, I can’t help but think of the gritty, futuristic sci-fi story I’ve been working on for way too long (not to mention all of the other projects I’ve started but haven’t finished; may they rest in peace).
This particular story features a criminal on the run who ends up stuck with a pelican that refuses to leave his side. It’s a sprawling, episodic sci-fi adventure and I can’t wait to get back to it.
The Good News: I’ve recently accepted a book project I’ll be able to share more about in the next month or so.
The Bad News: There is no bad news! I’ve been stuck in bed for 14 months and I finally have contracted work coming in! Of course, this does mean my pelican story will have to wait–but I’ll do everything I can to make it worth the wait.
In any case, I’m able to fill sketchbook pages with pelicans every now and then and dream of finishing this story.
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Abandoned Project
Do you have a project that could use a little more attention? What are you working on? Please share in the comments.
December 2, 2019
$1 Cyber Sale!
Happy holidays! This is my first holiday sale and I’m excited to share some brand-new artwork, including my $1 Elves of Christmas Coloring Pages and custom Stick Figure Portraits.
Get a closer look at each sale below. (NOTE: portraits are limited and first come, first served!)
$1 Elves of Christmas Coloring Pages
I have a habit of drawing elves each Christmas season and this year has been no exception. Meet this year’s 12 Christmas elves, who can only be found in this pack of hand-drawn coloring pages.
Each of the 12 elves is packed with personality and stuffed with sweetness. (There’s also plenty of room for you to add snowflakes, backgrounds, and your own elves and characters!
For $1, you get a high-quality, printable PDF that includes all 12 elves in a ready-to-color format.
Print 1 copy of each, or make copies for the whole family! (Did I mention it’s just $1?)
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Limited to just 15 spots, these Stick Figure Portraits are perfectly suited for your new avatar, a framed picture on your desk, a gift for your enemies, or a…well, you know…it’s a tiny picture of YOU! What’s not to love?
You can also order group portraits of friends and family, or request a portrait of your favorite movie/comic character.
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Years ago, I worked as the Creative Director for an education company. I loved the people and the work I was doing, but my heart sank when I learned I would need to create illustrations digitally, rather than on paper, like I was used to.
I had avoided working digitally for years and now I was worried that the job I loved would be ruined by ditching paper completely and forcing myself to think in terms of pixels.
I try to make the best of things, so I started drawing digital portraits of family and friends as a way of learning the new software and drawing tablet. Because I loved the subject matter and was focused on drawing technique, I learned to enjoy the digital drawing experience.
Today, I enjoy periodically creating digital portraits for others, with a focus on likeness, texture, and a variety of drawing qualities. I’m happy to open 10 commissions at a 33% discount here.
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Find More at Jess-smiley.com
December 1, 2019
Handmade Work Apron
That’s it! As soon as I’m up and out of bed, I’m getting myself a handmade work apron from Lisa Bennett. I mean, just look at them!
I design and make workwear for artists, makers, home and garden – in my sunny studio, in hilly-leafy South-East London. ‘In The Making- Aprons’ are worn by printmakers, potters, ceramicists, painters, glassmakers, woodworkers, jewellery makers, weavers, art restorers, antiquarian booksellers… and quite often worn for baking, housework and gardening too! My apron designs are developed in close partnership with artists and makers. Aprons very much embody the makers work ethic – put on an apron and you feel ready for work and ‘in the zone’, equally wearing your favourite comfy apron also makes chores a little more bearable!
I am passionate about contemporary craft, visual arts, and the idea of ‘counter-industrial’ handmade, which ‘In The Making – Aprons’ embraces – carefully designed, made to last, with meticulous attention to detail and finish.
Lisa Bennett
How deluxe is that golden ochre denim?!
I’m telling you, I can’t wait to order one of these. I think I’d like to have something embroidered on the hem or on the front, but I’m not sure what. And don’t you think these would also look great in white?
I should mention that Lisa’s shop has a 100% 5-star rating from 53 customers. When’s the last time you shopped ANYWHERE with a 100% 5-star rating?
May 20, 2019
Please Vote for My Comic
Please take 2 min to vote “Let’s Make Comics” by Jess Smart Smiley for Best Cartoonist & Best Non-Fic Comic. Thank you!
May 9, 2019
Can You Draw the X House?
Draw a square base with an ‘x’ inside and a triangle roof on top, using a single continuous line (no retracing existing lines).Do not lift pencil until finished.How many different ways can you draw the x house?
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Now Do It Again. And Again!
I wish I could remember who taught me the X House. (Was it Grandpa, with all his novelties? Dad, with his paper-and-pencil puzzles? Whoever watched me in nursery that one time and taught me how to play a space version of Battleship on a blank sheet of paper?) It’s possible that I’ve passed this drawing game onto more people than any other drawing exercise or technique.
If you haven’t yet tried drawing the X House, please do so now. It takes less than 30 seconds. Go ahead—you can draw it on any old scrap of paper.
Did you do it? Yay!
OK, now do it again—but this time, start your drawing at a different point. (If you started on a side wall, maybe start with the bottom or the roof.) Try this 5 different times, even if you aren’t able to properly complete the house.
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The Game
By now you likely either love the X House or you hate it. Either way, you’ve probably noticed that this “drawing” is more of a puzzle—a game. That’s what I love about the X House.
For me, this simple little game sums up so much of what I love about drawing:
How one can create meaning (a house) using only a handful of lines.How creators often have their choice from dozens of approaches toward completing a drawing with the same end result, but that the creator’s choice of approach actually changes the creator’s experience with the drawing.How mindful, meditative, thoughtful, and relaxing drawing can be. How the low stakes of pencil on paper afford the creator opportunities to learn, grow, solve problems, complete a task, and look like a complete loon.The importance of means that harmonize with the end—finding or making a process that is just as satisfying as looking at the end result.
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Your Turn!
I guess what I love most about the X House is that it makes me think about drawing in a different way: a drawing doesn’t have to be a perfectly rendered portrait in order to “count”. A drawing can “work” in different ways or serve other purposes.
What are some other drawing games you’ve played? Have they helped your drawing or helped you think about drawing in new ways? Can ”non’artists” play drawing games?
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May 2, 2019
A Fish of Earth: New Music From Emily Brown
As your friend I am telling you: go to Kickstarter and grab Emily Brown’s forthcoming album, A Fish of Earth.
Why are you still here? Seriously, click the link and get the music! You will thank me for it.
OK. If you absolutely must, then watch my visit with Emily Brown, where she talkes about her 2018 release Bee Eater, as well as discusses her newest release, A Fish of Earth, which is funding for the next 6 days only on Kickstarter. Emily also took the time to play a handful of her signature warm, thoughtful songs in our visit, which you can enjoy below.
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April 29, 2019
In Bed with Jess Smart Smiley
For 18 months I’ve been in worsening, debilitating pain…
9 months ago I started using a cane to help me get around. After only a couple of months I could hardly stand or walk. I’ve been in my bed since, while 15 doctors and specialists have attempted to diagnose/treat my condition.
[image error] “Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.” -Arthur Ashe
While doctors have identified multiple issues with my spine and informed me that I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, they haven’t been able to treat either, and think there is more to the situation. Every day is a new opportunity for my wife and I to do a little more research on our own, and to try to piece things together while we await the next referrals / injections / medications / procedures / etc.
Many friends—even strangers—have helped in countless ways, including: sharing their own health challenges, offering information on different medical conditions and/or specific doctors/treatments, as well as making the effort to visit me at home.
Relief
The only relief I’ve had has been from these visits with family, friends, church members, and neighbors. There’s something about the visits that instantly lifts my spirits in ways that nothing else has, so I decided to start a series of video visits with friends and creators I follow online. (Kind of like a FaceTime call that is broadcast live to followers.)
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Illustrator Lauren Lowen had the hilarious suggestion of calling the visits
