Laughed and laughed...this was surely written by a pagan!

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/area_pagan_dreading_big_family

"Area Pagan Dreading Big Family Vernal Equinox Celebration"

The Onion, March 12, 2007 | Issue 43•11

Health and Learning, Religiously-Inspired Investing, and Spring

So I'm working out again. It's hard to make myself do it, even though I love it once I start and feel so much better afterwards. I must keep reminding myself of these facts.

I am also slowly but steadily making my way through Morningstar's Stock curriculum. Finished the Fund curriculum last week---there were around 50 classes in that one. Each was brief, but they required a surprising amount of attention and effort, perhaps because this is a very new area of learning for me.

I'm also learning about how to set up investment portfolios for infants and children who will be attending college via Morningstar's current array of articles. With the explosion of parenting in my life (Trent, Zach, beloved family members who will be parenting, Sarah, Dorothy, and of course, Cat) I figure that our community will need this knowledge soon. Additionally, I am finally creating a general Watchlist of stocks that I am interested in holding over the long term.

There's an article on the Morningstar site that talks about religious investing and reviews the biggest Catholic, Protestant and Muslim funds. It inspired me to add a Muslim mutual fund to my 'intriguing funds' watchlist, as well as a socially screened fund that screens according to classic liberal values. It was a useful article, enabling me to spot a potentially interesting 5-star stock sold by one of the Catholic (?) funds because it began offering domestic partner benefits to its employees.

I hadn't thought of using the portfolio rejects of conservative Christian mutual funds to target my own interests, but there you go. If they've already done the homework for me, I should use it.

Also, I saw Suze Orman on TV recently and was disappointed. She was so overly animated that I wondered if she were drunk or high. She also treated her guests in a very patronizing way. In past programs, this was not the case. Whatever's wrong is detracting from her very useful message. I hope she fixes it.

Spring seems to be here. Hurray! Joyful happiness!

Michael and Trent continue to rock. : )