Archive for July, 2007

by Sarah Russell
If you’re fresh out of college and starting a new career, investing for your retirement may be the farthest thing from your mind. But don’t be so shortsighted! Given the somewhat tenuous state of the Social Security system, you’re may have to rely on yourself to provide for your retirement. And if you’d like to retire sometime before you’re 80 years old, you need to start investing as soon as possible.

There are a number of reasons to start investing early. First, you may be lucky enough to receive matching contributions from your employer. The way it usually works is you commit to put a certain percentage of your salary into a retirement account and your employer rewards you by putting in a certain percentage as well. Now there are very few times in life when you’ll get free money like this, so if your employer offers this perk, jump on the bandwagon immediately!

Second, the longer your money stays in your account, the more you stand to gain. You expect your investment to grow, maybe by as much as 8-10 if you’ve invested in CDs or bonds. But what’s cool is that as your money is growing, you’re earning interest on both the original amount of your investment and the amount of interest it’s earned. This is called “compounding interest.” If you can leave the money in your account for 20-30 years or so until your retirement, you’ll likely find that the amount you’ve earned on your interest is greater than the amount you originally contributed!

So let’s look at a scenario from The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens:

Marge saves up her money and invests $1,000 each year from the time she’s 15 until she reaches age 30, making her total investment $15,000 over 15 years. Homer doesn’t start investing until the time he’s 35, when he panics over whether or not he’ll be able to retire. He puts aside $5,000 each year until he retires at age 65, making his total investment $150,000 over 30 years. Assuming each has earned an 11% return on their investment, Marge will have $1,473,172 in her account when she reaches 65, compared with the $1,104,566 in Homer’s account when he hits the same age.

Pretty crazy, huh? Marge stops investing at age 30 and puts in $135,000 less than Homer and still beats him by $300,000 when they’re ready to retire. That’s the power of time and compounding interest in investing.

When you’re younger, you’re also able to take more risks with your money and chase the stocks that might make you rich. You can take a chance on the next big Microsoft, even if it winds up being a poor investment. If you’re 25 and wipe out your portfolio on a bad stock, you’ll still be able to make it up in the long run. But if you’re 55, you can’t be as aggressive with your investments — you’ll need to keep your money safe for retirement.

Clearly, investing early is a great way to secure your financial future. Ask your employer’s benefits coordinator if your company offers any matching benefits and enroll immediately if they do. If not, you can open up a private IRA account and start saving on your own. It can be a stretch — money can be tight when you’re just starting out and setting aside money for retirement can seem unnecessary. But look to the future and think about the type of retirement you’d like to have. After all, which would you prefer? Spending your golden years still working or slipping away to a tropical paradise knowing that you’re financial needs are taken care of?

This article was published by Sarah Russell on Smart Young Money — a collection of money management resources for teens and young adults. For great information on using credit, managing debt and more for young people, visit www.smartyoungmoney.com.

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by Sarah Russell
Recently, we touched on the importance of investing early in your career. However, as you learn more about investing, you’ll notice that there are several different types of retirement accounts — from 401K accounts to Keogh accounts, and from Roth IRAs to standard IRAs. Each type of account has different rules, regulations and tax implications. It’s important to learn more about each one to choose the best one for you.

401K Retirement Account

A 401K plan (named after a section of the 1978 U.S. Tax Code) is a plan offered by employers that allows you to automatically deduct a portion of your income before taxes are taken out and deposit it into a retirement account. You’ll still have to pay taxes on the money when you withdraw it after retirement, but, in theory, you should be in a lower tax bracket after retirement, so you’ll save money on the taxes.

If your company offers a 401K plan (not all employers do), they may also offer a matching benefit for your contributions. This is the free money we talked about in the previous article and you should definitely take advantage of it if it’s offered. But be sure your 401K plan allows you to control how your money is invested. Some employers invest their 401K plan money heavily in their own company stock, which can be a problem if your company hits an unexpected financial crisis.

Keogh Retirement Accounts

Similar to a 401K, a Keogh retirement account is a tax-deferred retirement plan for self employed people. Some advantages to Keogh plans are that contributions are deducted from your gross income and your contribution limits may be higher than with other retirement accounts. As with the 401K account, you can defer the tax from your contributions until the money is withdrawn after retirement.

Another option for self employed people is a SEP IRA which has less complex filing administrative paperwork and allows even higher contributions. If you’re running your own business, you’re probably already in contact with a tax attorney who can help you figure out the best way to invest for your retirement.

Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA)

By definition, an IRA is “a personal savings plan that provides income tax advantages to individuals saving money for retirement purposes.” You may be eligible to set up an IRA through your employer or through a private financial institution. Like the 401K plan, IRAs operate on the principal that your tax bracket will be lower after retirement, saving you money on taxes in the long run. And you are in it for the long run, since most IRAs have penalties for withdrawing money before you’re 59 ½ years old.

When you contribute to an IRA, you’ll be eligible to deduct all or part of your contribution on your taxes, but you are bound by contribution limits. In 2006, the maximum amount you can contribute to a standard IRAs was $4,000. If you’re interested in setting up an IRA account, read the IRS’s Publication 590 “Individual Retirement Arrangements” for all the nitty-gritty details.

Roth IRAs

Roth IRAs are a relatively new creation with a few distinct benefits over standard IRAs. Although you can’t defer taxes on the money originally invested in a Roth IRA, all the income earned by the investments in a Roth account is tax free when it is withdrawn. Another benefit is that you are not required to take distributions beginning at age 70 1/2 as with other accounts, so if you don’t need the money to live on, it can continue growing and earning for you tax free. Also, a Roth IRA makes it easier to take early withdrawals without penalties in some cases, compared to other retirement accounts.

This article is intended to provide a very brief overview of some of the different types of retirement accounts available. As you prepare to begin investing, you’ll obviously want to dig deeper and find out more about the types of accounts that interest you. The IRS website and a financial planner can be terrific assets in planning your investment strategy and helping you navigate the sometimes tricky set-up processes involved in retirement investing.

This article was published by Sarah Russell on Smart Young Money — a collection of money management resources for teens and young adults. For great information on using credit, managing debt and more for young people, visit www.smartyoungmoney.com.

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by Sam Miller
Traditionally measuring a Return on Investment followed a fairly standard calculation method - look at the profit generated and divide that by the value of the assets being utilized in creating that profit.

Pretty simple until you start applying the calculation to non-profit generating divisions such a HR. Using traditional ROI we would logically conclude that the HR function needed to be cut but we know that HR provides value to the business. So if we know that value is being created by the HR function how do we get to that value and how do we then manage HR activities to maximize that value for the benefit of the business as a whole?

First of all we can start by looking at what the HR department is actually doing. For instance, how many training days are being delivered by the department or how many experienced staff are we keeping within the company? How much are training programs costing the company or what is the cost to the business of retaining experienced staff within it?

Some of these values can be found with a fair degree of certainty; we will be able to relatively easily find the cost of delivering training for instance. Some costs may not be so amenable to identification, for example, what expenses are being incurred in making experienced staff decide to stay with the company rather than leaving for pastures new?

Once we have identified these metrics we can then start looking at how we can ascribe value (as opposed to cost) to these activities. Taking the training costs and the amount of training that is being delivered, it would be useful if we could then identify the value that is being created by this HR activity by increasing sales revenue or decreasing costs by more efficient customer services and order fulfillment. Comparing the sales performance of a sales person A with x number of training days to that of a colleague B with y training days will give an indication of the value of x-y training days to the differential in sales performance of A-B. Performing iterations on this formula will provide a value for a training day in terms of sales value. We now have a KPI that can be used to monitor performance of the HR training activity.

Fine, so how do we get to an ROI?

Actually from here it becomes a more simple matter assuming that we relax our traditional ROI calculation a little.

In this example, calculating the ROI of training would look something like this:

ROI = ((Sales Value per training day x training days delivered) x 100%) / Cost of Training Delivered

How about staff retention, how would we look to calculate an ROI connected to this?

HR will be the first to advise you that there are many factors that determine whether a staff member will leave or stay and for many, financial incentives are only a part of the equation. In terms of managing cost in HR however, you are fairly readily able to calculate an approximate ROI for incurring costs that are designed to contribute to staff recruitment and retention.

An example would be placing an ROI on the value of a staff medical plan. You will know fairly exactly what the cost of the plan will be but ascribing a value to that plan will not be so easy. You can start by asking employees who have the requisite experience with the company for their thoughts on how high they rank the importance of a company medical plan. It’s subjective but it will give an indicator as to how many of your staff think this is important for them. Look at this employee cost to profit metric

(Senior Employee Payroll Expense x Profit) / Total employee payroll

Now you have a value in profit terms that is determined by the value you place on your senior staff by virtue of what you are paying them. Applying the results of your survey on the medical benefit scheme wil give you a further idea as to how much of the value you have identified is being positively influenced by the proposed scheme.

Now consider the cost of replacing senior staff in terms of recruiting costs and you have a direct correlation between the effect in terms of the influenced value of your benefit scheme and the cost saving represented by not incurring recruiting costs. The difference between the two will be the value that the expense of the medical benefit scheme is going to deliver and from there you have a simple ROI calculation based on ascribed value and the scheme cost

If you are interested in learning more about measuring hr roi, check Sam Miller new web-site.

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by Vanessa Doctor
A lot of people consider investing in a Sarasota real estate properties as an advantageous and sound investment to make, especially if you are looking for a real estate property that has a lot of potential in terms of creating a lot business opportunities, or simply in becoming either a permanent or temporary residential paradise for you and your family.

Sarasota real estate properties are some of the most sought after pieces of real estate in the market today since a lot of people consider this to be one of the best places to establish a permanent place of residence or business, or even simply for vacationing only.

Advantages

Sarasota’s appeal to its potential homebuyers and investors is mainly due to the different advantages that they would be getting if ever they decided to purchase a piece of real estate property in Sarasota, one of which is its close proximity to a myriad of white, sandy beaches. Since Sarasota is situated near the Florida keys, which has some of the more beautiful beaches in Florida, residents and vacationers in Sarasota alike are able to get to these pristine beaches, making it easier to find a place where a person can simply relax and unwind.

Sarasota’s pristine beaches has opened up a lot of water-based activities that people can enjoy, such as swimming, canoeing, sailing, fishing, and a whole lot more, giving another advantage for people who plans on investing in Sarasota properties. This means that the beaches offers people a place to not only relax, but also offers them a place where they can enjoy some fun-filled activities with their friends or family. Aside from these, Sarasota also offers a lot of other recreational activities that people can do to fill their time when they are not doing anything, such as the different events and festivals that are being held yearly, playing sports activities such as golf, rock climbing, going to galleries, museums, and the theatre, as well as some other form of cultural extravaganza and entertainment scene. The variety of different activities, lifestyles and cultures that you can experience in Sarasota allows you to find one that will best fit your lifestyle, preferences and needs.

Another advantage of investing in a Sarasota property is that these properties can offer you with a lot of business opportunities and possibilities, allowing you to turn your real estate property into a profit-making machine. Plus, with the right strategy and execution, you can actually feel the return of your investment a whole lot quicker in Sarasota since you have a lot of potential customers within reach. Keep in mind that Sarasota is one of the places that people love to vacation to, which means that people are constantly coming in the city, which means that you have a much better chance at succeeding in your business venture due to the increase of potential customers. A lot of people are always looking to invest in Sarasota real estate, and with a few simple changes and improvement, you can sell your Sarasota property for a whole lot more than what you have paid for it, spelling profit for you.

Vanessa Arellano Doctor
Sarasota Real Estate
http://miamirealestateinc.com/

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by Vagner David

What is your goal? To earn money quickly, get additional income without work. HYIP market can realizes your dreams or makes you bankrupt. Where is limit? Listen to me and you will know how to be rich.

As successful HYIP investor you should know golden rules of sure investing. These rules are very significant and I want you to know them at your finger tips before you actually start your investing way.

Think Long-Term: Never ever think or plan to get rich within a short period of time. It is not reality. Usually good HYIP will never pay quite your principal and interest in less than 6 months.

Do not Quit: Winners do not quit and quitters do not win. It is a law of our life. The next step you take could be the winning step but if you quit, you’ll never know how much you are loosing. Just keep investing and learning better ways to better your situation in life.

Be Prepared to Loose: In everything you do in life there are always times when losses occur. Life is all about ups and downs. Use losses or failures as a stepping stone towards greater success and also as an experience to make better investment plans, ameliorate on your strategies.

Diversify: Never put all your eggs into one basket. This is very important rule in HYIP investing. Invest in more than 5-7 programs to create multiple streams of investment income for yourself.

Research and research again: Always conduct your own research too. Always keep your ears on the ground, join HYIP forums, read the FAQs and Terms, read emails sent by the programs you join, check monitoring sites as theHYIPs.net and write their support if there are issues you are not clear on in their terms or FAQs. Ping their domain to define their IP addresses and use an IP search tool or software to determine their location. Do not forget to do a whois search to define if what the programs say in their “About Us” is the same as it is in the search. When you get this information, compare it with what they say about themselves. Also, NEVER sign up a program that is hosted on a free hosting service or sites that use the same scripts. Never reply to any email asking for a confirmation of your username and password.

Protect yourself, your e-currency account(s) and your investments: This is another very important point to note. Avoid using your real names when dealing with programs you are not sure of except when it has to do with receiving your money via wire-transfer where you have to give your full details to the program to enable transfer of funds to your account. Also use different passwords for your e-currency accounts, your email address(es) and your investment programs. This will prevent fraudulent programs from trying to use the same password you used to join them to open your e-currency account(s). NOTE: If you are using e-gold, make sure you apply the security features as explained by e-gold to protect your account.

Avoid Greed: Do not let the human factor of greed take over your investment decisions. The scammers use the human factor of greed to lure you into investing your money with them. From my personal experience, I lost a lot of money due to the fact that I allowed the emotion of greed to do my investing for me. Scammers offer very high and unrealistic interest rates within a very short time. When this happens, you will know immediately that this will not last but the emotion of greed will always tell you to give it a try and this is where your downfall and failures will begin. These scammers might pay you the first time just to encourage you to invest more and when you do, they disappear.

Please take note of these important rules above and you will enjoy investing in HYIP investment programs.

David Vagner helps other people to be succsessfull on HYIP market. To learn his secrets read his FREE HYIP report here HYIP monitor or visit http://thehyips.net/lessons/

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by Gia Deonne
You know that investing in your 401K is vital to your continued financial security, but you maybe confused by the myriad of investment choices and options currently available. If you find yourself currently in a quandary over how to best invest your 401K, these simple tips can help you to make an intelligent decision, and avoid common investing mistakes.

Always look to diversify your protfolio because it will minimize your risk.
Different types of mutual funds offer different investment options, and your personal financial planner will be able to help you select the ones that best meet your investment needs. When you meet with them, ask about investing in a self directed IRA, which allows you to spread out your 401K investments as you see fit.

Always try to broaden your investment horizonsby doing good research. It may be easy to invest your money in only local or national markets, but if you do, you could be missing out on an investment windfall, since global investment diversification has been shown to increase investment holdings as much as 30 percent annually. A smart, and prudent strategy is to invest about 30 percent of your money in international holdings more if you feel comfortable doing so.

Think carefully before investing your retirement nest egg in company owned stock. While this type of investment may sound like a win win situation, but do not forget about what happened to certain Enron stock holders after the break up of that company. Investing some of your money in your company’s stock, roughly 10 percent, should be sufficient enough, and will ensure your 401K security in the event that the company’s stock values take a turn for the worst.

Always research and try to be aware of any potential hidden fees. The majority of company sponsored investment plans do not contain hidden fees, but there are some that do, and it is important that you find out if yours is one of them. Another thing to consider is whether your plan, like most, offers no load mutual funds. If not, then you will need to be exceedingly cautious when it comes to 401K investment, in order to avoid being charged for investing, and subsequently withdrawing funds.

Always remember that bigger is not always better. Believe it or not, investing in smaller companies usually yields bigger returns than investments made in big company stock. This is because many investors focus in on large cap growth funds only. By diversifying your portfolio, you can invest in rapidly expanding companies, as well as those governed by the S&P, and reap the benefits of a diversely invested retirment account when you will need it the most.

And remember that the choices you make definitely shape your future when it comes to invesmtent decisions. Even if your retirement seems as though it is light-years away, it is never too early to begin investing of your 401K. Retirement should be a time to relax and enjoy the benefits of a lifetime of hard work and smart financial strategies. Prudent investment of your 401K today will help you to achieve the goal of a more secure financial future.

For more information about successful 401k rollover and retirement strategies visit our website.

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by Hendrik Oude Nijhuis
You probably already know that Warren Buffett is the world’s greatest investor of all time. Starting with only $ 100, Buffett made an unprecedented journey in creating a personal fortune of $ 48 billon. A truly unprecedented accomplishment, especially when you consider he never started a company of his own and never invested a single penny in technology stocks. His complete fortune comes from investing in the stock market!

And, as a matter of fact, Buffett’s investment strategy isn’t that complicated: buy shares of quality companies when they are ‘on sale’. That’s all there is! With this straightforward strategy Buffett earned his billions of dollars. But, as we take a deeper look at Buffett’s returns over time something stands out…

The outperformance of Buffett compared with the S&P 500 diminishes over time. Between 1957 and 1966 Buffett outperformed the S&P 500 by a massive 14.5 times. In the most recent decade his outperformance has been diminished to ‘only’ 2.2 times the S&P 500. Of course, Buffett still shows that he is able to beat the indexes. But, now only at a fraction of the outperformance he achieved in earlier decades.

So, what’s the reason for this? Has Buffett’s system of buying quality companies on sale stopped working? Or has Buffett lost his ‘Magic Touch’? Twice the answer is negative.

The explanation behind the diminishing returns
The real explanation for the diminishing (relative) returns is actually quite simple. Nowadays, Buffett has to invest large amounts of money. Even investments of a few hundred million dollars aren’t worth the trouble anymore. Just, calculate along with me…

Buffett’s total investments currently have a value of approximately 110 billion dollar. So, should an investment still have some effect on the performance of the total investment portfolio this investment has to be at least 2 billion dollar. And that’s the problem.

As Buffett’s doesn’t want to influence a stock price too much (buying in large quantities drives the price of a stock up…) and wants to remain somewhat flexible, normally it isn’t possible to buy (or sell) more than 10% of the shares in a certain public company.

And, as the 2 billion equals 10% of the market capitalisation, we are speaking of companies with market capitalisations of at least 20 billion dollar. And, simply put, there aren’t that many companies with market capitalisations of over 20 billion!

And, besides the fact that there simply aren’t that many companies with market capitalisations that big, these companies are much more followed and researched by investment analysts and all kinds of investment professionals.
Because of this these companies are priced less inefficient. And voilà, here we have the second reason for the diminishing outperformance of Buffett.

Maybe you didn’t realize it, but as a consequence of this you have actually a considerably advantage over Buffett (unless you are Bill Gates…). After all, you aren’t limited to invest only in these giant, more efficiently priced companies. You can choose from a much, much greater supply of more inefficiently priced companies!

Buffett agrees with this reasoning:
“I think I could make you 50% a year on $1 million. No, I know I could. I guarantee that.”
–Warren Buffett, Businessweek, 25 th of June, 1999.

Also the returns of a couple of hedge fund managers show that it is an enormous advantage NOT to have too much money to invest. We will look at two of them: Joel Greenblatt and Mohnish Pabrai. Both of these top investors can be considered as Buffett copycats.

Joel Greenblatt
A few years ago, Greenblatt became known to a wider public as author of ‘The Little Book That Beats The Market’. In this book Greenblatt outlines a strategy in line with Buffett’s investment strategy. Greenblatt’s desire for stocks with high returns on invested capital accompanied by high earnings yields is essentially the same as Buffett’s desire for ‘quality companies on sale’.

Greenblatt’s hedge fund earned annual returns of over 40% for over twenty years. In his first ten years he even achieved annual returns of over 50%. And, like Buffett, Greenblatt got the same problem as Buffett: too much money to invest. And that’s why Greenblatt choose to buy out all the external investors in his hedge fund and to continue investing only with his own, private money!

An example of a recent investment of Joel Greenblatt is his purchase of shares of Aeropostale, a highly profitable clothing retailer. Within only a few months shares of Aeropostale had appreciated over 40%. Greenblatt sold his shares already. With a market cap of around 1 billion dollar at the time of Greenblatt’s purchase, such a transaction would be unthinkable for Buffett.

Mohnish Pabrai
Pabrai, like Greenblatt, can be considered as a Buffett follower:
‘M r. Buffett deserves all the credit. I am just a shameless cloner .’
– Mohnish Pabrai

In 1999, Pabrai started his investment fund with only 1 million dollar to invest. Now, only eight years later, Pabrai manages over 500 million dollar. Of course, Pabrai’s performance justifies this enormous growth: an annualized return of over 28% (after all fees and expenses).

An example of a recent transaction of Pabrai is his purchase of shares of Cryptologic, a software supplier for casinos on the internet. Total market capitalisation of Cryptologic at the time of Pabrai’s first investment: less then 250 million dollar. Pabrai, meanwhile, has seen this investment increase in value over 50% in less than 6 months. Again, this would be totally unthinkable for Warren Buffett.

But, like Buffett, both Greenblatt and Pabrai will be confronted with the laws of financial gravity. Also their relative returns will diminish over time. For sure, some will claim that Greenblatt and Pabrai just had some good fortune and claim that Buffett’s investments strategy doesn’t work anymore.

But also in the future new Buffett’s will arise. And they will demonstrate the sceptic, once again, that it’s still possible to outperform the market. Simply by buying shares of quality companies when they are on sale!

Hendrik Oude Nijhuis is the cofounder of www.magicformulastocks.com and is an expert on value investing and a long-time value investor himself. He extensively studied the investment methods of Warren Buffett. More recently, he started studying other exceptional value investors like Joel Greenblatt as well. Hendrik holds an MSc in Public Administration from the University of Twente. The website www.magicformulastocks.com gives (free) reports on the strategy of Joel Greenblatt.

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by Mark Walters -
Many people stand outside of the investing world looking in. They make up excuses for not investing, point to examples, and then turn and walk away. These same people complain loudly because they do not have enough money, their job is boring, and they are not happy.

The American culture grew lazy. For a few decades, they were taught to get an education, and sit back in a comfy job for 40 years, after which the company would pay for their retirement. This scheme collapsed because it was unrealistic. Never in history did any societal model come close to this scheme. In fact, the rest of the world continued to manage their own destiny through the American experiment.

Now, it is time for people to wake up and reclaim what is rightfully theirs. This country was built on investors, and to succeed, people need to start investing again. There is a story told in university business and marketing courses that makes the ‘investor’s mindset’ very clear.

In ancient times, a King instructed that a boulder be placed in the middle of a busy roadway. He hid and watched to see who would remove the rock.

A group of wealthy merchants and courtiers simply walked around, complaining loudly that the King failed to keep the roads clear. But, none did anything about moving the stone even though they had the resources to do the job.

A peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. He laid down his burden and tried to move the stone. After pushing and straining, he succeeded. He then picked up his vegetables and noticed a purse on the road where the boulder had been.

The purse contained several gold coins and a note with the King’s seal indicating that the gold belonged tor the person who removed the boulder.

The peasant learned what many of us never understand! Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.
He also learned the fundamental secret behind investing. You make money by improving the world around you. Yes, you can start a home based business that fulfils your needs, but if it doesn’t help society, you won’t make any money.

There is also another lesson to be learned from this story. The peasant failed, and failed, and failed, but he learned from each attempt. Finally, he succeeded. And, rewards were immediate.

Too many people in today’s world think that only special people should invest. There is no university course , social status, or wealth status, that breeds natural born investors. The peasant in the story was no different than all the other peasants, noblemen, and merchants. The only thing he did different was try.

No one would balk at spending five years in university learning a trade, and investing $50 000 into their education. But, ask a work at home business person to study their market for more than a few months, learning the art of success, and learning why others fail — and they walk away. In fact, many work at home business people refuse to invest any money into their business — they just won’t try. It is all in the mindset of the person. Do you really want to succeed?

There is a saying in the work at home community, “The only way to fail is to quit.”

Mark Walters is a third generation investor who guides others to financial independence through the Creating Wealth Club http://www.CreatingWealthClub.com

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by Mark Walters -
Very few investors have a chance to talk to a stock broker from a large firm. Even if they do find themselves sharing a conversation with a real stock broker, it is unlikely that they will learn any trade secrets. It is not that brokers belong to a secret society. Brokers are often uncomfortable talking with novice brokers because it usually ends up in an argument.

There is so much evergreen, rehashed information on the Internet, that many novices are die-hard fans of out dated investing methods long before they ever learn how the brokers invest.

Avoid Hot Stocks

This is laughable in the investment world, but novice investors are constantly attracted to the hot stocks. Unfortunately, all the big money has been made before the stock became hot.

Cash Flow

The brokers do not worry about the news, politics, or business plans and propaganda of companies. Instead, they look at the balance sheets. Avoid any company that carries a high debt, even if it is in overdrafts and open ended loans.

A company with little debt is capable of losing a massive amount of sales, go through a restructuring, and step back into the market, without loosing stock value.

Avoid Speculation

Long shots are called ‘long shots’ because they almost always miss the mark. If someone walks around telling people about the next biggest boom, then experienced investors wonder how much of a ‘cut’ the sales person is getting.

No company can make a simple change, merger, or restructuring, and then have their stocks shoot up overnight. Seeing stocks head down 80% overnight is quite common, but up? Almost never.

Follow the Gurus

While it is not necessary to follow the crowd, it is important to follow the gurus. Fool.com is one of the world’s most popular investor’s website. While no guru can get it right, most of the time, learning from the gurus can help novice investors stack the odds in their favour.

Avoiding controversial stocks and dark horses is a commandment for most guru investors.

Warren Buffett, who wrote in his 1989 annual letter:

“Easy does it. After 25 years of buying and supervising a great variety of businesses, Charlie and I have not learned how to solve difficult business problems. What we have learned is to avoid them. To the extent we have been successful, it is because we concentrated on identifying one-foot hurdles that we could step over rather than because we acquired any ability to clear seven-footers. The finding may seem unfair, but in both business and investments it is usually far more profitable to simply stick with the easy and obvious than it is to resolve the difficult.”

Long Term Investing

Most new investors watch their stocks float daily. Many investors destroy their opportunities by trading too much. Stocks should be treated like a business.

The daily price of the stock is unimportant. What is important is whether the company will make more money than last year, reduce their debts, and capture a larger segment of the market.

Conclusion

Stock investing is not like trading Baseball cards, and should not be treated as suck. Avoid spam that promises quick profits, secrets to wealth, and insider tricks. Instead, follow the patterns used by real stock brokers.

Mark Walters is a third generation investor who guides others to financial independence through the Creating Wealth Club http://www.CreatingWealthClub.com

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by Andrew Kryzak

You’ve probably heard a lot of hype about different investments. Everyone claims to have the inside track as to which investments are best. So, it’s up to you whether you’re going to believe what I’m about to tell you or not. Tax deed investing is the easiest, quickest and safest way to invest in the world today.

You won’t find an easier or more fun way to riches. Of course, the right information on the subject is mandatory. This article is only going to give you a piece of the information necessary for you to create a fortune from tax deeds. So let’s get started.

There are so many different options available with tax deed investing that it can seem overwhelming. For now, we’ll cover an approach that will allow you to start out with little money and snowball your way to great fortune.

Vacant land offers the biggest potential for upside growth. You’ll face less competition for vacant lots than you will for developed properties. This means you can buy them very inexpensively. The trick is, to locate properties near the outskirts of a growing town.

You could pick up an acre of land at a deed sale for little money and then wait for the developers to come. Or you could turn around and sell it for a profit right after the sale.

The key here is that you’re leveraging small amounts of money and turning it into a large amount of money. You are literally generating money out of thin air.

A word of warning… While vacant lots offer amazing investment potential you must be certain you’re bidding on a good piece of property. If you don’t research the properties you bid on, you’ll be in for an unpleasant surprise. In my comprehensive ebook, Tax Lien Riches, I cover in detail the due diligence procedures for maximum safety, along with many other tactics and strategies. You can see it by clicking the link in the authors box below.

You’re now aware of a little known Tax deed investing secret that carries with it immense power. It’s up to you to implement it and make a fortune! Get started by clicking the link below.

Did you know that you are only seconds away from learning how to achieve consistent 20-300% returns on the money you invest with complete government certified safety? Discover the new and innovative strategies that will take you to heights of investing success you have never reached before. Leave stock, bonds, mutual funds and all other ordinary investments in the dust. Click on: Tax Deeds to start now.

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