Gentle prodding from Newsweek/Newman

My name is Christine, and I suffer from analysis paralysis ... when it comes to investing.

After a few days of itemizing new expenses and old ones that won't go away, I realized I had not been working toward the goal of my economic stimulus lately. Once again, that goal is to learn about investing with a small amount of money ($600), make a few mistakes and hopefully financial gains along the way.

I learned from an article in this week's Newsweek that I'm also battling loss aversion. That's what the behavioral economists say anyway. (BTW, is this a real profession? Or a made-up job a la sanitation engineer? Check these others out. I'm partial to fridge poetry arranger. Probably because I LOVE magnets!) To me, loss aversion means that my fear of losing my $600 does not equal my desire to double my $600, and thus, I don't take risks. The article also reminded me that I'm one of millions of financially illiterate Americans.

Funny because adult literacy is one of my causes du jour.

A good friend also reminded me of such this week with this question: What's the difference between Class A and Class B stocks? I wondered the same a few weeks ago and forgot to look it up so thanks for the prodding! Seriously.

A company usually breaks stocks into Class A and Class B categories to attract smaller investors. Those smaller investors pay less for a highly-desired stock but gain fewer voting rights than the other upper crust's stockholders.

According to this USA TODAY article, "The owners want to tap the public markets for capital without relinquishing control of the company."

Google and the Washington Post are among the many companies that do this. Each company decides which letter belongs to the upper crust. Google's Class B shares are owned by its big wigs. Class A shares are for folks like me. The famed Graham family owns Washington Post's A shares. Its class B shares are available to the general public. I'm told the ticker symbol will end in an A or B to indicate which Class the shares belong to. I can't seem to find an example right now. Sphere: Related Content