a bit about connection and some beginner investing advice

i am absolutely dumbfounded how people can be apprehensive to talk to people when they know that they have been screened by rrusted friends, yet freely, and easily are willing to meet people irl from online dating scenes. i have this friend (let's call norma), who is very much outgoing and is invited to the company outing. i suggest she ride to the event with another individual (we'll call him duke) who lives in her area. duke is known to be a quiet, to himself guy, not real big on random interaction. norma on the other hand, is the absolute queen of doing so. we once stood in line for the tilt-a-whirl and she hit it up with the carny running the ride. a trashy carny! norma also is willing to meet random guys on dateme.com, talk to them on the phone, and spend a day by the pool with them. yet, when i ask her to call duke (whom i know to be decent and with whom she will travel with to the game), she doesn't want to break the ice through phone, email is best. how logical is that. random dude at pool who turns out to be sort of creepy vs. my good friend. i think i'll tell them both that the other wanted to do email and not call, so that it'll make for an akward (yet interesting) ride. HAHA.

marv has begun investing and recommends a stock index mutual fund to beginners. specifcally, the vanguard 500 investors index fund (VFINX). these funds are passively managed as they follow the stock market indexes. the vanguard 500 tracks the s&p 500, the index of the 500 largest large-cap companies. the expense ratio is really low (0.18%), making your investment stay your investment. the risk is low, hedging on the fact that the stock market has always gone up in the long-term over the last 75 years, despite wars, depressions, recessions, oil crises, and other events that make the markets volatile. what's cooler is that the vanguard 500 has outperformed most managed funds over the long-term, posting a whopping 2630% ROI since its inception in 1976. tax incentives are good because there's little turnover in what the funds hold, since they track the stock market indicies. this makes the capital gain tax on your investment as low as it can be! over the long-term, you can about a 10-12% ROI, depending on when you start. sure beats the 0.5% currently offered by the um credit union. for those of you a part of marv's generation, start investing now... social security won't be there when it's our turn to retire.