Spend some time thinking about why you are considering investing in stocks. Are you investing to build an emergency fund for the future, to buy a home, or pay for college expenses? Are you investing for retirement? It's a good idea to write out your motivation. Try quantify it in dollars, considering how much money you need for your goals. For example, purchasing a home might require a down-payment and closing costs of $40,000. Retirement might cost $1 million or more. Most people have more than one investment goal. Those goals often vary in priority and timing. For example, you may want to buy a house in three years, pay for a child's education in fifteen years, and retire in thirty-five years. Documenting your investment goals will clarify your thinking and help you focus on the goal. Your investment goals will determine the time during which your investments will remain in place. The longer investments can stay in place, the greater the probability of positive returns. If your goal is to have money to buy a house in three years, your time frame, or "investment horizon" is relatively short. If you are investing to fund your retirement 30 years from now, your investment horizon is much longer. The S&P 500 is a collection of 500 of the most widely held stocks. There were only four ten year periods between 1926 and 2011 where the S&P 500 as a whole produced a loss. For holding periods of fifteen years or more, there were no losses. If you bought and held these stocks over the long term, you would have made money. By contrast, holding the S&P 500 for just a single year would have produced a loss 24 times in the 85-year period between 1926 and 2014. Over a short period, stock are extremely volatile. As a consequence, investing for short time periods is riskier than investing for longer time periods. You can gain more if you've invested well. You can lose everything if you've invested poorly. All investments have risks because there is always a possibility that you will lose some of your money. Stocks are no different. How much risk you are willing to take is called your "risk tolerance." Before making any investment, ask yourself, "How much money am I willing to lose in the short-term in order to make more money over a long period of time?" In most cases, the more risk you take, the higher the potential return. But, there is also a greater likelihood of loss. One of the first rules of investing is to avoid losses when possible. Do not take on investment risk when it is unnecessary to reach your goals. Use one of the many free investment or retirement calculators found on the internet. Calculate the rate of return that you must earn and the investment needed to reach your goals. For example, imagine you need $30,000 in three years, but can only invest $500 per month. You will need to earn a whopping 38.2% on your investment each of the three years to reach this goal. This means that you must accept an extraordinary amount of risk. Most people would consider such investments a bad decision. A better choice would be to extend your time horizon to four and one-half years. This would require a much more achievable and safe return rate 0f 4.8%. You could also increase your monthly investment from $500 to $775. This would let you reach your $30,000 goal with a realistic rate of return of 5.037%. Or, you could reduce your financial goal of $30,000 in 3 years to $19,621 in three years while investing the same $500 a month. To reach this goal, your return would only need to be 6% each year.

Summary: Set your goals. Determine your time frame. Understand your risk tolerance. Calculate the investments needed to reach your goals.

A split can occur in a variety of locations on the frame depending on how it was damaged. The middle of the frame is a common area to become split, particularly if the door is forced open or shut with too much force. This is most often encountered during burglaries or other forced door entries. A kicked door can cause a split lower on the door frame (including damage to the door itself). Use a chisel and hammer to pry the door stop and molding away from the frame. Start at the bottom of the frame and work your way up. Take care not to damage the stop as you remove it from the frame. Place the claw end of the hammer on the side of each nail to support even removal. Remove any remaining finishing nails left in the molding. Mark the measurements with a pencil. If the damage is at the bottom of the frame, mark just above the damage. Use a small hand or power saw to make an accurate cut. Apply screws just above and below the marked measurements to help hold the frame tight and help guide the cutting process. Be careful not to cut too deep into the frame. You don't want to damage the structure of the house. You want to cut the timber of the same length and width as the damaged portion removed from the frame. Use the same type of timber as the rest of the existing frame. Weather-treated pieces of 2x4 timber are the most commonly used type of wood used for door frames. These are available at DIY stores such as Home Depot and Lowes. Never use pressure-treated materials as they will twist once they dry out. Door frame/jamb replacement kits are available for purchase that feature pre-cut selections of timber in various sizes and thicknesses. These can be further modified to suit your needs. If you believe your door frame is made from a non-standard wood, take the damaged portion to your local hardware store. Experts there can help you identify the type of wood that was used and supply you with the necessary materials. Use wood or carpenter's glue to affix the replacement timber into place. Once fit, allow the glue to dry. Wood or carpenter's' glue sets thin, minimizing gaps between wooden parts. This glue also comes in waterproof varieties, making them ideal for wood-based projects. Hammer two nails into the top and bottom of the new timber for a more secure fit. Use sandpaper to sand away any glue residue or imperfections between the new and old frame. Mix enough body filler, also called bondo, to cover the entirety of the repaired areas. Apply and smooth with a putty knife. Allow to dry. The filler will fill in any gaps in the glue and help maintain the repair. Most brands of body and wood filler are similar in the tasks they can handle. The eventual hardness, natural color, and malleability of each filler will differ depending on brand and ingredients. If pricing is a concern, body filler tends to be cheaper than wood filler. Sand the applied filler smooth with sandpaper. Once smooth, finish with one coat of primer and two coats of paint.

Summary: Identify where the damage is located. Remove the door strip and molding. Measure 6 inches (15.2 cm) above and below the frame damage. Carefully cut the damaged frame away at the marked measurements. Measure and cut timber. Glue the new timber into place. Sand the repaired area smooth. Apply a body or wood filler. Sand the filler.

In the days and weeks after the funeral or memorial service, you can pay your respects by visiting the graveyard or crypt where the deceased was laid to rest. It is generally acceptable to bring flowers or other mementos of the dead. This is a great way to privately honor the deceased. If you are close to the bereaved, it may be comforting to you and others to talk about the deceased. Do this on a case-by-case basis, as some people may want to talk about the person and others may not. Talk about the great times you had with the person, and relay the qualities about them you will miss. If you want, you may try to keep it upbeat by telling funny stories about experiences you shared with the deceased. You might also consider writing down your memories of the deceased or even making a journal of notebook of these remembrances. Include things like their traits and qualities as a person, things you did together, happy memories you have of them, or reminisce about funny stories that involve them. Creating a journal can be a useful grieving technique for people who process things visually rather than verbally. It can also help you explore why you might be so affected by a person's passing. If you want to continue to pay respects to the deceased after their memorial service, you can implement a ritual that helps you keep the person's memories alive. For instance, if a teacher who loved chocolate chip cookies died, you might bake them each month on the anniversary of their death. You might also ask other mourners to join you. For instance, you might go to lunch every other Friday at the person's favorite restaurant.
Summary: Visit the burial site. Reminisce with others who knew the person. Write down your memories. Start a new tradition to honor the person.