Hope for your financial life and beyond

Start Investing Your Money Smartly: 6 Common Investment Mistakes to Avoid

Have you decided it’s time to get smart and start investing your money in stocks? For those who are ready, investing is key to building long-term wealth. It’s hard to find another investing vehicle that has produced greater long-term returns than the stock market. 

Maybe you have invested in the past only to make mistakes. Perhaps you were disappointed with the results. But as they say in the investing world, “past performance is no guarantee of future results.” In other words, just because you’ve had one bad experience in your mind, doesn’t mean that you can’t succeed going forward with a different perspective. 

On the other hand, you may be relatively new to the world of investing and feeling a bit overwhelmed. There is so much terminology to learn. And, how do you sort through all the investing options? 

The good news is that you can do it. Millions of people have. The focus here will be on avoiding six common investment mistakes. If you can learn to steer clear of these issues, you’ll be much more likely to have positive results and meet your investment goals. Let’s take a look at how you can invest your money wisely.

[Read more…]

A Beginner’s Guide to National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Real Estate Investing

There are so many new investing opportunities coming into the forefront these days. Most recently has been the rise of cryptocurrencies in the United States and around the world. These new forms of investing give investors a chance to diversify their portfolio. In the end, that is a good thing.  It spreads their money around so that one bad investment won’t ruin their financial life.

But what if your investment also went a long way in helping someone in need? What if you could make money but also help people at the same time? Well, one unique form of investing in this way has popped up in recent years in Australia.

It is known as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). NDIS is an innovative initiative by the Federal Government to provide better housing for disabled tenants (who are themselves known as NDIS participants). With this program, investors can earn up to 16% of gross rental income. You receive the chance at long-term rental returns together with the potential growth of your property value. 

So what is this all about? Here is a beginner’s guide to understanding the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) real estate investing. 

[Read more…]

Is Investing in Collectibles Like Valuable Baseball Cards Worth It?

Like so many young boys, my love affair with baseball cards began in Little League. Each week our coach would give us a $1 to spend at the concession stand after the game. I spent my money on a cream soda and a pack of cards (none of which would become valuable baseball cards).

valuable baseball cardsIn those early days I didn’t have a lot of money so the collection grew slowly. I amassed several hundred cards and kept them rubber-banded together in a shoebox. I shuffled through them a lot so the surfaces became dull and the edges worn.

In 1986, I scrounged up enough money to buy my very first complete set of Topps baseball cards. I bought plastic card pages in which to insert each card and a three ring binder to hold all the pages. So began a decade of collecting the full sets and the update sets each year. By the time I ended college, I had amassed about 20,000 baseball cards.

Then marriage happened and grad school and buying a home and kids and a career and more kids. Through all that, the baseball cards spent years boxed up in the back of the closet rarely seeing the light of day.

My love affair with collecting baseball cards resurfaced about 10 years later in my early 30s. Some life events reinvigorated my love of the hobby. The best part was that I had more money than when I was 8.

I decided to do something different instead of purchasing individual packs or complete sets. My focus shifted to buying individual cards, ones where I could be more certain about their projected value. This can only be done by collecting those cards that are professionally graded.

This change of strategy required me to understand what I was getting into and why I was doing it.

How Do You Define Investing in Collectibles?

The above question is tricky to answer in part because it depends on your definition of “collecting” and “investing.”

[Read more…]

The Easy and Hard Parts to Becoming a Millionaire by Age 65

Would you feel financially secure if you became a millionaire? I’d say most people would. A million dollar net worth provides the cushion you’d need to weather almost any financial storm. Becoming a millionaire should set your financial worries at ease.

becoming a millionaireThat doesn’t mean though, that when you reach that milestone, you can live recklessly and spend money on whatever you want. Do that and you might find yourself broke before you know it.

Nor does it necessarily mean you can stop working. A millionaire at 75 can sit back and enjoy the fruit of their labor. A millionaire at 35 still has many more years of life expenses in front of them that one million dollars may not cover entirely.

Becoming a millionaire is both easy and hard. That may seem contradictory. How can something be both easy and hard? As you can see from the following graphs, the contradictory nature of that statement can best be viewed through three variables:

time, income and choices.

[Read more…]

How to Invest in Stock for Beginners

As I have stated many times on this site before, it is of utmost importance to be invested in the stock market. The earnings you make from your career will be your biggest wealth building strategy. However, second only to that, will be what you invest in. Many people have been able to build significant wealth through investments. 

While you can find many tools and resources on this topic on both online and offline platforms, a beginner may find it hard to know where to start. What should you be looking for anyway? And what are the key things to think about and ask before you even put down money on an investment? This article will give you some tips to get you started as a beginner. Hopefully after reading, you’ll realize that this is not as hard as you may think.

[Read more…]

2 Milestones You Need to Reach Before Investing Money

investingWhen it comes to investing money in the stock market, time is your greatest ally and your greatest enemy. The longer you are investing money the greater likelihood you’ll generate great wealth. Shortening that time period by just a few years could significantly reduce the amount of wealth you’ll create.

That’s why it’s important to get started early – in fact, the earlier the better. Time is the most critical element in the investing equation. It doesn’t matter if you are a high school student making minimum wage at a summer job, a college student figuring out how to pay your way through school or married with your first child on the way. The earlier you start investing, even in small amounts, the more one can maximize big returns in the long run.

Don’t believe me? Read on and check out the following example.

[Read more…]

Tips for Finding a Wealth Management Firm

If you have been investing for a long time, you may be ready to turn over the responsibility of supervising your portfolio to someone else. For individuals who have amassed a good deal of money, a wealth management firm may be the way to go. Having someone take the burden of investing off of you so that you can devote your time and energy to other endeavors sounds really appealing.

However, you can’t just jump into this quickly. It is important to find a reliable firm before you hire someone. All firms are different. So it’s imperative that you find one that understands the goals and objectives you have for your money and will work to achieve those for you.

With that in mind, here are two very important things you want to look for when vetting your firm.

[Read more…]

How to Invest 1,000 Dollars at Age 18

A while back, I had a conversation with a former student of mine who is looking to invest in the stock market. He was in college and had some money sitting around that he didn’t need for school. He wanted to know how to invest 1,000 dollars and whether it was realistic or not at this time of his life.

how to invest 1,000 dollarsHis situation was similar to what many 18-year-olds face. They’ve worked full-time summer jobs since they were 16 and maybe even part-time ones during the school year. Their college expenses are taken care of either through scholarships or the bank of mom and dad. The money they have earned is just sitting in their savings account drawing little to no interest. Does it make sense for them to do something else with it, like beginning to invest?

The answer is “YES…it absolutely makes sense” but with a very big “BUT…”.

Before I get to the “BUT…” though, lets look at some assumptions about 18-year-olds that are going to impact how they invest and where they put their money.

[Read more…]

Is Gold a Good Investment for an Average Person?

There are many people who believe that investing in gold bars could be the best decision you would ever make. But, equally as many people have faced indecision between investing in gold bullion or stocks and bonds as a way of securing their future. Which is the best option to capitalize on?

The truth is you can capitalize on both of them. Both have upside potential.

So, is gold investing a venture the average person should entertain? For those who answer “Yes”, here are the four main reasons they site.

[Read more…]

What is the Dow and Why is it Important?

The words Dow or Dow Jones may not be completely unfamiliar terms. You may know what they refer to, but you may not know exactly how it works. So, this article will help set the record straight and give you the basics about the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

What is the Dow Jones? For starters, it would be correct to say that it is the most quoted financial instrument in the world. That is why it sounds familiar. No doubt, you have heard financial market reports about this on the news every day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a stock index. It was created in 1896 by two financial reporters, Charles Dow and Edward Jones. They were looking for a way to give the public a snapshot of how stocks generally preformed in any given day. To do so, they took the 12 largest companies at the time, added up their prices and divided by 12. That gave the average market price of that basket of companies.

Today, the Dow consists of 30 companies. The Dow Jones today represents the most significant areas of the U.S. economy, namely, financials, technology, utilities, industrials, and transportation. It includes companies like Apple, Caterpillar, Coca-Cola, Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Home Depot, Microsoft, Nike, Proctor and Gamble and Walmart.

Because the Dow consists of only 30 companies, it may lead you into thinking that it does not carry much value. That is not the case. As you noticed, these companies are the heavyweights – the most influential companies in the U.S. As the Dow average goes, so usually goes the rest of the market.

Are there Limitations to the Dow Jones?

Just like most market indexes, Dow Jones has several limitations.

The first issue is that it does contain only 30 stocks. Today there are over 3,000 publicly traded companies which you could invest in. So the Dow may not give an accurate portrayal of what is going on in the rest of the stock market.

Secondly, the Dow’s calculation does tend to favor the more expensive stocks. The index is weighted based on price. So the more expensive a stock is, the more an up or down movement in that stock influences the overall index. The less expensive stocks will not have as much influence on the average.

What are the Benefits of the Dow?

1. The Dow serves as a historical marker

In order to predict or forecast the future of the markets, historical trends need to be observed. Analysts study the past stock market trends to help them reach conclusions about what the future may hold for stocks. This is where Dow Jones comes in.

By virtue of its long history, it offers a valuable information for the comparison of today’s markets and those throughout history.

2. The Dow helps investors make decisions

In the early days of stock trading, there was little information about stocks that was available to the general public. You invested in stocks with the phrase caveat emptor (“let the buyer beware”) in the back of your mind. You were at great risk due to lack of company transparency and information.

This is not so today. There are new rules set forth by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that guard investors from being defrauded by companies. Additionally, news about the Dow and the rest of the markets is widely available through media outlets. It is not difficult for an investor to find the information they need. Knowing the price movement of stocks (for which the Dow is the standard), will help investors know when to invest.

Related Content: The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Investing Money the Right Way

3. The Dow provides a broad view of the economy

As aforementioned, Dow Jones is an umbrella of U.S. most capitalized and influential companies. Because the 30 Dow stocks are spread over different industries, they help create a comprehensive view of the U.S. economy. As those companies perform well, they will contribute positively to economic growth within the U.S. And as the economy goes, so goes the stock market.

If the economy is doing well, the stocks in the Dow will rise. If the economy is doing poorly, the Dow will at best be stagnant but most likely decline.

The Dow Jones continues to be one of the most resilient indices in the world. It has stood the test of time and continues to be the standard for financial markets around the world.

Make a Comment: Do you monitor the Dow on a daily basis? On what do you base your investing decisions?   

What to Invest in When You are Scared to Invest

There are times when the stock market causes real fear for investors. It’s scary to see the markets and your portfolio value go down day after day. This is especially true for those closer to retirement. At times like that, it’s hard to know what to invest in or whether one should be investing at all.

what to invest in

You can’t discount the power of fear. Even the most seasoned investors get it from time to time. However, those who have been investing for a long time know something that perhaps a beginning investor doesn’t know – fear is not necessarily an excuse to stop investing.

But fear could be something that prompts you to reevaluate what to invest in. Market downturns are a great time to look again at your portfolio and analyze your strategy. Every time I’ve done that, it has actually served to calm me down. It reminds me that I am following sound investing practices that will serve me well in the long run.

There is good news if you are scared of the markets and don’t know what to invest in. There are a couple simple strategies to follow that can help you sleep easier at night. Here are several to consider that will help you put your fears to rest.

[Read more…]