August 17th, 2009
Many of you are probably wondering if a foreign investment would be wise at this time. Are other countries having the same economic troubles that the US is experiencing? Have you ever been cautious of a foreign investment due to the company being in another country that you know nothing about or that you don’t have easy access to information about the company? These are valid concerns. You may also wonder how the exchange rate may come into play as well.
In the near future there are many economies out there that may help with this global recession. There are emerging economies like in China and India. They are worth looking into especially now with the internet. Information is more readily available. You can find information on Chinese and other foreign companies at finance.yahoo.com. Give it a look. A foreign investment could really make a big return for you someday.
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August 12th, 2009
Any builder who builds a house has a blueprint. Any coach before a game has a strategy. Likewise, all of us should have an investment strategy when it comes to investing. None of us should be flying blind when it comes to investing. You need to first learn the different ways to invest so you have a varied arsenal on how to invest. Once you know how to invest invest in various ways you will be able to be more creative with your investment strategy. You will have more options at your disposal. This will help you in both up and down markets.
Did any of you take money out of the stock market at the end of 2008? Investment strategy is important. Since January of this year several of the markets are up. When you invest is important. It’s all part of investment strategy. Stay tuned for more posts on this topic.
Tags: Investment strategy
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July 8th, 2009
An important step for you to learn to invest money is to know where you can look to learn on investing money. You may not always know everything about investing but you can learn where to look to find answers to your investing questions. You’ve probably heard the saying “It’s not what you know but who you know.” That saying can be applied here too. One good resource to find on investing is somebody who has invested before and has had success. Be careful on who you talk to though. I’d be wary of people that talk a lot about their investing success. One of the best investors I talked to traded on the stock market and traded the Forex market. He was very quiet so I asked him questions to learn to invest money in the Forex market. I went to lunch with him and politely asked him as much as I could. He quietly made $750,000 that year in the Forex market. That didn’t even take into consideration on what he made on the stock market.
Be on the lookout for people that invest money. Not everyone is good at investing in many different things. Be on the lookout for people who excel in a certain area. Keep on learning what you can so you can speak to them intelligibly and also understand what they are saying. A good place to start learning the investing basics is here at www.howtobegininvesting.com. Don’t give up on learning to invest money. Your future depends on it.
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April 19th, 2009
There are many ways to invest money. You need to decide which ways to invest money are right for you. Some involve more risk than others. You can start investing your money in investments that are less risky so you can get into the routine of investing. Investing in CDs, bonds, savings accounts, money market accounts, etc. is a good way to do that. Your money is liquid many times in those types of investments. You can pull money out of them if need be or pull money out after a certain period of time. It is better to keep your money invested so you get into the routine and habit of investing your money.
For an E-Report on the Top 3 things Wall Street doesn’t want you to know, visit www.howtobegininvesting.com. We also have a report available and that will cover many ways to invest money and what is involved.. It’s a great way for you to learn how to begin investing money. It will cover several ways that you can invest.
Tags: invest money, ways
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April 6th, 2009
When I worked at Microsoft some years back I had to go through 1 month of training when I arrived before I was ready to even begin to try to help support different customers that called into our group for assistance. After that 1 month of training I had to do some more training where I was coupled with some veteran support engineers and watched how they supported various customers. Needless to say it was a lot of training which was good. The interesting thing though during that training was that we never really covered any specific problems we could possibly see. We spent 99% of the time learning how applications, operating systems, hardware and software worked and interacted with other things. I learned how things “worked under the hood” so to speak. The idea was if we knew the processes involved on how everything operated we could start using deduction and reasoning when we had to troubleshoot something that wasn’t working properly. We learned how everything functions so when it wasn’t functioning correctly we could go find where the breakdown was. The number of unique problems that occurred varied with the number of unique customers we dealt with. I rarely saw the same problem happen with two different customers. Unique environments created unique problems. When we ask what are some good ways to invest money I believe the answer for every person is somewhat unique.
Why am I telling you this? Well there’s a reason. Many of us just want someone to tell us the best place to invest money or where can I invest my money with high interest or what is the safest place to invest money? People are looking for that silver bullet or quick fix to answer their investing questions or dilemma without trying to think about investing. People in different situations, income levels, and backgrounds will have somewhat different answers on what are some good ways to invest money.
We need to learn good ways to invest money and all the variables and processes involved. We need to learn how different investing vehicles (e.g. IRA, mutual fund, ETF) operate - how they operate “under the hood” so to speak. In the same way different and unique customers had unique problems so too are all of us unique with unique sets of circumstances. One person may invest different ways with success that may not be some good ways to invest money for another person. We need to learn about all the different options out there on investing and how things work under the “investing hood” so we can appropriately invest for ourselves in our situation.
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April 1st, 2009
Have you ever had a dollar in your wallet or purse and thought “oh, it’s just a dollar?” It can’t do very much for me. Maybe it could get you something on the dollar menu at Wendy’s or McDonalds. Nowadays it will only get you half a gallon or less of gas. It doesn’t seem to go too far in today’s economy. What if you had some more of those 1 dollar bills until you had $10 or $25? Do you think if you were to invest small amounts of money like $25 that it could grow into anything significant? Maybe you think investing is only for people with large amounts of money to invest.
Before you can answer the question how do I start to invest my money you need to gain knowledge in the world of investing so you can invest wisely. When it comes to investing and making your money grow there are two big variables to consider – time and money.
In physics momentum = mass X velocity. A slow moving train has a huge mass but it is moving slowly so its velocity is small. It can still have a lot of momentum and be hard to stop due to the mass being so large. Even though the velocity number may be small the momentum comes out to a large number since the mass of the train is so high. On the flip side you could take something with a very small mass like a bullet and it could have a lot of momentum. That’s because the bullet has a very large velocity coming out of a gun. The large velocity number in the equation compensates or covers for the low mass number with its very large number for velocity. It’s really hard to stop a bullet even though the mass is so small. So something with a large mass that moves slowly has a lot of momentum and likewise a very small object with small mass but high velocity has a lot of momentum. Both are hard to stop.
In a similar way to the momentum equation with two variables, investing and growing money has two big variables as mentioned previously – time and money. You may have a little amount of money but if the time you have to invest is large then you can still come out with a large return. In a real basic way you could look at it like this: Investment return = (Interest over Time) X (amount of Money). So that small amount of money like $1 or $25 if coupled with a large amount of time could turn into a larger return. Likewise if you had a shorter amount of time to invest it will take a larger amount of money to come out with the same return.
Now of course you’re going to have to consider the interest rate or rate of return on investment you’re getting. Obviously the higher the interest rate the more you will be able to make over the same period of time. However, the idea of the example above is to get you thinking that even if you have a small amount of money when you couple it with a larger amount of time you can still come up with a good return on investment. It’s something to consider when you ask yourself how do I start to invest my money or when should I start to invest my money and how much? Don’t underestimate a small amount of money. Over time it can become a larger amount of money.
Tags: invest money, start
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March 30th, 2009
Over the years the stock market has proven to be a place where you can make larger returns on investment. There are more risks involved but the reward can be much larger than investing in bonds, savings accounts or money market accounts. Learning how to invest in stocks is a process. I don’t recommend going out and just start putting money into a stock that is lower in share price so you can buy a large number of shares. Also, I don’t recommend going out and buying something like penny stocks just because you could buy even a larger number of shares.
The better way to approach investing in stocks is to set aside money that is basically money you can part with. You should come up with $5,000 - $10,000 that you could invest without needing to use it elsewhere. As you are saving that money and setting it aside you can learn how to invest in stocks at a website like www.thestreet.com. You can start getting your education on how to invest in stocks rather than going out and start investing in stocks blindly. Investing blindly is a quick way to lose your investment. You may make some money on a stock however, do you really know why you made money? Or did you just have some beginner’s luck? You need to know what you are doing before you go out and do it. The website www.thestreet.com is an excellent resource to start learning how to invest in stocks in different sectors, what dividends are, what a P/E ratio is, etc. You need to first invest in your financial education before you start investing. The mentioned website is one of several good tools where you can start doing that.
Tags: invest in stocks, learn about stocks
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March 27th, 2009
Many of you probably have several questions when you begin to think about investing your money. You may have questions like where is the best place to invest money right now, what are the different ways to invest money, how much money do I need to start investing, how do I start investing or where can I learn to invest money.
The purpose of this blog is to create a place where you can begin to increase your knowledge on learning how to invest. Today in the United States many people are plagued with large amounts of debt and most of us have received very little financial or investing education in schools or at home. We always hear how the stock market did each day on the radio, internet or television but how much do we really know what’s going on in the financial and business world. You may have a 401K at work that is managed for you and you check it once or twice a year. Or maybe you’re holding off on contributing to your company’s 401K plan. Have you asked yourself what is the best way to invest money? Is there a silver bullet for you that will get you to retirement or let you retire early?
If you’re not sure how to get to retirement or if you haven’t thought about your future you’ll be able to pick up some good information here to help increase your financial knowledge and get you on your way on learning how to invest. You’ll need that knowledge to not only help you get to retirement but also help support your family or future family, to give to people or causes who need it, to help you get something you need or pay for some large bills you may incur in your lifetime, etc.
If you’ve thought of any of these questions you’re not alone. Many people in America are asking these same questions. Stick around and let’s learn together about all of the opportunities to invest and grow your money.
Tags: learn how to invest
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March 23rd, 2009
What is the safest place to invest money is a question many people ask. We don’t want our money to be lost and we want it to grow. At the same time we want our money to grow as much as possible and get the highest return on investment. If you put your money into your mattress or safe or something safer like a bank that is insured by the FDIC so your money will be safe. However, your rate of return on that investment is typically lower. Therein lies the paradox in investing. The greater the risk - the greater the reward. Less risk mean a lower reward.
Each individual person needs to answer the question “What is the safest place to invest money” for themselves. People who have been investing for years and have accrued money are probably going to be willing to take more risk since they’ve got money already built up. One strategy for beginning investors is to invest in safer vehicles like CDs, savings accounts, or interest accruing checking accounts. Interest on these are lower but interest rates are fixed. It gives the beginning investor the ability to begin the methodical approach of putting money away and accruing money over time. Then once money has built up the beginning investor can begin to invest in riskier types of investments where the reward can be larger.
Some people may always want to invest in the safest place to invest money so they don’t have to face the chance of losing money. However, their rates on return will be lower and as a result it can take much longer to reach their goals.
Tags: place to invest, safe
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March 14th, 2009
You’ve all heard the saying that the journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. Many people are afraid to invest money simply because they feel they don’t have enough money to invest. In other words to invest small amounts of money would be fruitless. However, since we know that if you were to take that journey of a thousand miles you would have to take the first step. Then you would have to take several steps after that but you have to at least take the first step and get going. As you will see from this blog learning to invest is a journey as well. If you feel insecure with investing it’s only natural to feel that if you were to invest small amounts of money that it wouldn’t turn into anything fruitful. That’s a mindset that needs to be changed. When you invest small amounts of money it can grow to more significant amounts.
Here’s a tool that can help you along on your journey so you can take your first step and continue to take more steps in your investing. It’s called the rule of 72. You’re probably wondering what that is. Well simply put it’s one of those general “rule of thumb” equations that will help give you some bearings on an investment. Simply put it’s this: Divide 72 by the interest rate of return you get on an investment. The answer you get is how long it would take to double the money you invested. A caveat to that is obviously you’ll need to keep the interest you earn and not touch it and it also doesn’t consider taxes. However, remember this is a general rule of thumb. Let’s do an example.
Let’s say you have $5,000 given to you at high school graduation. Let’s say you put all of that into an investment that gives you back 8% over the time that you invest it. Take 72 and divide it by 8 and the answer is 9. So every 9 years your money would double. If you’re 18 when you graduate, invest the $5,000 and 9 years later at 27 years of age the $5,000 would double and you would have $10,000. 9 years later at age 36 you would have $20,000. 9 years later at 45 years of age you would have $40,000. At age 54 you would have $80,000 and near retirement age at 63 you would have $160,000. Not bad for putting $5,000 into and investment and just waiting until retirement. I hope that gives you a little hope to take the first step and if you were to invest small amounts of money you can take the first step and several more towards becoming financially independent.
Tags: invest money, invest small amounts of money
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