Fortune Watch

I was involved in a discussion some time back and we were discussing this and all of us thought it was ridiculous that they don’t teach a personal finance class in high school, at least not when we were in school. Is it any wonder that when kids go off to college they rack up so much debt? According to some statistics I read that the average undergraduate has credit card debt!

The logic behind teaching children and teenagers about personal finance is pretty obvious. Just think of all of the finance clichés that you’ve heard: start investing as early as you can, the most important factor in investing is time, don’t get into credit card debt, etc. – all things that are best to learn sooner rather than later.

And because many basic aspects of personal finance currently aren’t taught in school and are left to be learned at home, this current system seems to nurture the fact that wealthy people tend to stay wealthy and poor people tend to stay poor. I don’t think it takes a giant leap of faith to see the possible correlation.

A simple personal finance class with discussions on retirement, the negative impact debt can have on a person, automobile financing, and saving for the future instead of buying for the now should be implemented in every single high school across the country.

The best long term solution is educating people so that they want to save by making financial capability a compulsory part of the school curriculum and embarking on a public awareness campaign to show the potential hazards of not saving.

Did I really need to learn Chemistry if I had no interest in any fields that would need it? I would think that learning how to control one’s money would be of more help to most people. Thoughts? Did you have finance classes in high school? If you did, did they help? I would love to hear about your experiences!

A man explained inflation to his wife thus: “When we married, you measured 36-24-36. Now you’re 42-42-42. There’s more of you, but you are not worth as much.” – Lord Barnett.

“A man can never have enough of socks, women and cigarette lighters. Did I forget money?”
– Zakman

“Money isn’t everything but it sure keeps you in touch with your children.” – J. Paul Getty

“Some people get so rich they lose all respect for humanity. That’s how rich I want to be.” – Rita Rudner

“Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.” – Woody Allen

“When you’ve got them by their wallets, their hearts and minds will follow.” Fern Naito.

“All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.” Spike Milligan.

“Money is something you have to make in case you don’t die.” Max Asnas.

“It’s better to give than to lend and it costs about the same.” Philip Gibbs.

“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.”
– Dorothy Parker

Financial Joke: The Stock Report

Helium was up. Feathers were down. Paper was stationary. Knives were up sharply. Pencils lost a few points. Hiking equipment was trailing. Elevators rose, while escalators continued a slow decline. Light switches were off. Mining equipment hit rock bottom. Diapers remained unchanged. Shipping lines stayed at an even keel. Balloon prices were inflated. And batteries exploded in an attempt to recharge the market.

Fear is a huge issue with a lot of traders. And interestingly, not just fear of failure but also fear of success.

I think there are two keys to taming fear, you can never eliminate it so don’t even try. The first and most critical is the one noted above – action. Action can tame fear in an instant. But it needs to be the right sort of action.

____I personally have a fear of heights; so going bungee jumping may not have been the best way to address it! But that’s exactly what I did. There I was on a platform 250 feet above water, cursing why I got into this, but the only way to conquer fear was to jump and that I did. Do what you fear and the death of fear is certain.

In the same way, if you have a fear of losing your trading account, trying to face it down by putting it all on the line in one trade is not the best sort of action. But taking considered, appropriate action, like the strict use of stop losses is a way of taming fear and getting past the paralysis stage that fear can create.

The second key is focus. By this I mean keeping in the moment and concentrating on the immediate action that is required to move you forward.

If your focus is too broad you can become overwhelmed by the possibilities. Or you might start to worry about things that are beyond your control or simply don’t matter – like whether interest rates are going up or not.

But when you narrow your focus and remain “in the moment” in regard your trading, fear will be sidelined. The simple reason for this is that you can’t concentrate on two things at once!

And again, this will help overcome the paralysis that can be created by fear. So if you suffer from fear in your trading – action and focus are the only keys!

There is an old saying on Wall Street that the market is driven by just two emotions: fear and greed. Although this is an over implication, it can often be true. Succumbing to these emotions can have a profound and detrimental effect on investors’ portfolios and the stock market.

Hold on a second Read (more…)

Approximately eighty percent of our investors are male. But I am willing to bet that eighty percent of the most successful investors are women.

I have read many stories and I began to wonder why is it that women tend to be better investors than men. I thought about it over and over, and I could not ignore the facts that women make more successful investors than men.

While this recent research shows that potentially women are naturally talented investors, many are still put off by the macho image of the stock market. Men tend to let their egos make their decisions for them. They hold when they should sell and vice versa. They buy in for fear of missing out on that one big opportunity. They refuse to ask questions or to ask for help in fear of looking silly.

In other words, men are more interested in looking strong, knowledgeable or successful than they are in making money. They invest not to get the best deal out of the market but invest so that they look good.

Women on the other hand, are much more likely to ask questions until they fully understand what they are learning, and they are usually more interested in the goal, (in this case making money) than they are in impressing the people around them.

This quality makes women great investors from all that I have read are that rather than investing according to what will make them look good, women will invest according to a plan—not according to what mood they are in or whether they will be “right” or “wrong”.

Investing is not about being right or wrong. It’s about making money. Women are able to put their egos aside in ways men have trouble doing. This ability to set their ego aside makes women great investors.

Need proof? Ask yourself this: if a man and a woman are lost on a trip, which is more likely to stop and ask for directions? Being involved with Financial Services since a long time I have noticed women are more likely to ask investment questions until they completely understand the concepts. Men, on the other hand, can be too afraid to ask the necessary questions because he may look bad doing so.

Women tend to come to investing with a mind to learn. And when they learn, they execute solid plans. Men can be heard saying they “know that a company is good”, whereas women can usually tell you why the company is good.

“Are women better investors? As the expression goes ‘Men are from Mars and Women from Venus’… in the case of investing in shares it looks like Venus just might be a more sensible place to follow and put your money!”

Investing in conservative blue chip stocks may not have the allure of a hot high-tech investment, but it can be highly rewarding nonetheless, as good quality stocks have outperformed other investment classes over the long term.

Historically, investing in stocks has generated a return, over time, of between 10 and 15 percent annually depending how aggressive you are. Stocks outperform other investments since they incur more risk. Stock investors are at the bottom of the corporate “food chain.” First, companies have to pay their employees and suppliers. Then they pay their shareholders. After this come the preferred shareholders. Companies have an obligation to pay all these stakeholders first, and if there is money leftover it is paid to the stockholders through dividends or retained earnings. Sometimes there is a lot of money left over for stockholders, and in other cases there isn’t. Thus, investing in stocks is risky because investors never know exactly what they are going to receive for their investment.

What are the attractions of blue chip stocks?

Good long-term rates of return. Unlike mutual funds, another relatively safe, long term investment category, there are no ongoing fees. You become a part owner of a company. Very actively traded so, easy liquidity.

So much for the benefits – what about the risks? Some investors can’t tolerate both the risk associated with investing in the stock market and the risk associated with investing in one company. Not all blue chips are created equal.

If you don’t have the time and skill to identify a good quality company at a fair price don’t invest directly. Rather, you should consider a good mutual fund.

Selecting a blue chip company is only part of the battle – determining the appropriate price is the other. Theoretically, the value of a stock is the present value of all future cash flows discounted at the appropriate discount rate. In reality supply and demand for a stock sets the stock’s daily price, and demand for a stock will increase or decrease depending of the outlook for a company. Thus, stock prices are driven by investor expectations for a company, the more favorable the expectations the better the stock price. In short, the stock market is a voting machine and much of the time it is voting based on investors’ fear or greed, not on their rational assessments of value. Stock prices can swing widely in the short-term but they eventually converge to their intrinsic value over the long-term.

You’re young, you just landed a new job and you’re going to be getting a decent pay check. You also have bills and student loans to pay and there are also a few items that you’ve always wanted so now you can finally afford them.

Investing for your retirement may be the last thing on your mind at the start of a new career. Especially being so young. Take some advice from those with a little more experience: Start investing early in your career. Start from day one and you will never miss that money you’re setting aside. Even if it’s only a few dollars a week. They add up to millions by the time retirement age rolls around.

It really does make a difference when you start contributing. It is important to invest in your retirement account early in your career for two reasons. First, if you’re fortunate to receive matching contributions, you don-t want to miss out on those added contributions that are a significant part of your benefit. Second, the longer contributions stay in your account, the more you stand to gain. Your money makes money in the form of earnings, and those earnings in turn make money, and so on. This is what is known as the “miracle of compounding.” As money grows in your account over time, the proportion resulting from earnings will become larger compared to the proportion resulting from contributions. And the best part is you don’t have to pay taxes on the earnings until you with draw them.

By investing the money wisely, typically starting off with investments that build slowly but steadily, you are able to better ensure you have money for your later years. And just because your later years are far away doesn’t mean you should wait to invest. The thing is that the best investments are the ones that take time to pay off. The ones that make you rich over night are few and far between and are also the ones that are risky enough to make you broke overnight as well.

The size of your account balance is going to depend on how much you (and your company if they match funds up to a certain percentage) contribute to your account and how your account grows as a result of earnings on your investments. To get an idea of what your retirement account could be in the future, look at the following projection.

A starts putting away $100 a month when she’s 22. Her money grows at 8 percent a year, and after ten years she stops contributing – and lets her stake grow. B waits until he’s 32 to set aside $100 a month, also growing at 8 percent a year, and he keeps it up until he hits 64. When they both retire at 64, she will have $234,600, and he’ll have only $177,400. Need I say more?

Looking at the numbers, it’s hard to imagine why someone wouldn’t start investing immediately!

You will need to make a clear plan of how to get where you want to. The financial plan needs to be broken down into realistic achievable goals with a clear deadline. The plan needs to include how much you are currently using to pay off debts, how much you are currently using to cover all living expenses and how much you are currently saving.

When you have that clear you need to look at where you are going to cut costs.
What can you live without?
Do you subscribe to magazines or newspapers you do not need?
Do you have memberships you do not need?
Is your rent or mortgage very expensive?
Are you spending a lot of money on driving where you do not need to go?
Do you rather eat out then cook yourself?
Do you pay too much for electricity, telephone, Internet connection and TV?
Do you have the best credit card, insurance, rent or mortgage and bank account deals you can get?

The meaning of these questions is that you should not settle with what you have now. Then your situation will stay the same.

Always shop around for better deals and always look at how you can cut costs.
Maybe you find out you need to move to another place where it is less expensive.
Maybe you need to eat more canned beans.
Maybe you need to use your bike, or your feet instead of the car.
Maybe you need to read magazines only when you go to the dentist or to the hairdresser.

Whatever it takes to improve your financial situation; decide to do it.

Write down both the longer term goals, medium term goals and the short term goals and what you will do to achieve them.

You need to set time limits for when you want to achieve the goals you worked out in the previous step.

Write down exactly what you are going to do to achieve them.

Last month I had made a post “Needs and Wants, getting REAL about Money” which attracted a great comment by Althea. I immediately thought that the comment itself would make a good post, so here it goes.

“I liked your article and it’s so true. The following information was taken from the book “The Insider’s Guide To Saving Money” by Michael Ellenbogen. “Cutting back does not necessarily mean giving something up all together, but rather finding a less expensive way to do it. Let us say, for example, that each morning you stop by your favorite coffee shop and buy a cafe latté. It costs $3.00, or $15.00 per week. Another option is that you could stop by a local convenience store and buy your coffee for $1.00. You would save $10.00 per week or $520.00 per year. Not bad for a minor adjustment. If you took the $10.00 savings each week and invested it at a 5 percent return, after 20 years you would have over $17,600.00. Not bad for altering one buying habit. Most people have more than one cup of coffee a day. Just think of those savings. You could even make your own coffee at work, which would save you even more.”

This book was a real eye opener, on the amount of money I have been wasting on cigarettes and so many other things. The savings added up quickly. I will be saving over $86,000.00, over 20 years because I stopped smoking 1 ½ packs per day”.

“Money isn’t everything…but it ranks right up there with oxygen”. – Rita Davenport

“It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money”. – Albert Camus

“Poverty is a blessing hated by all men”. – Italian Proverb
_______

“If God only gave me a clear sign; like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank”. – Woody Allen

“More and more these days I find myself pondering how to reconcile my net income with my gross habits.”- John Nelson.

“I wish that dear Karl could have spent more time acquiring capital instead of merely writing about it.” Jenny Marx

“Women prefer men who have something tender about them – especially legal tender.” Kay Ingram

“Asking a blogger what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp post how it feels about dogs” Lamp Post (not a Money Quote…just for laughs).

“When running out of amusing quotes, ask readers to contribute and offer a free link back”. Robin Bal (Old Chinese saying)