LEAPS AND BOUNDS

Today’s post is part of the Christian Writer’s blog chain. This month, our theme is “leap.” Please visit my friends’ blogs by clicking on the links in the right-hand column.

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One of my personal goals for 2012 is to return to trading the stock market. After more than a year on the sidelines. 

I was doin’ hecka good as long as the market was going up. We all were.

But sometimes it goes down. That’s when I nibble my nails and hold my breath. 

What does this have to do with the February Christian Writers’ theme of “leap”? One of the options strategies I like is LEAPS—

Long-term Equity Antici-Pation Securities.  

Whoever named the strategy didn’t follow the rules of “proper acronym creation.” But that aside, the strategy is this: 

You buy an option that won’t expire for over a year. Then you sell shorter-term options against that long-term option, month after month after month. Or you simply exercise your option to buy the stock at that (by then discounted) price when it makes sense to do so.   

Some options trading strategies are less risky. LEAPS is one of those. “Conservative” even.  

I like that. A lot. 

God has given us people, things, and blessings and the responsibility to take care of them. The difficulty in finances for me is to not dig a hole and stuff it in the ground. When you do that, you don’t get a nametag that says, “Good and faithful servant.” 

Rather, you’ve gotta dig the talents out of the ground. Be a good steward—not only by not spend, spend, spending; but also by making money work so it can grow and flourish. 

There's a point somewhere in between burying finances in the ground and tossing it into the wind. The task is to find that point. The point might just be reached by a cautious, tiptoeing in LEAPS.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be stewards of your world and everything in it. Please help us be good stewards and let it be for your glory. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Are you a bronco-riding cowboy when it comes to finances? Are you a slow and steady plodding turtle? Or something in between?