J.S. Kim asked:


Recently, there was an article on CNNMoney that spoke about the “secrets” of the elite rich in the United States. In turn, several articles were written about this article, including one that stated that the richest of Americans “built their wealth with diversification, wealth preservation and strategic growth.” That is a ridiculous statement in itself because two of those strategies, diversification and preservation don’t help build wealth. Perhaps the richest of Americans use these two strategies to maintain an even keel AFTER they have accumulated great wealth, but certainly they didn’t use them during the accumulation phase. According to this article, a survey of Northern Trust uncovered that the “richest Americans do not heavily rely on high-risk investment vehicles like hedge funds to make money, but are moderate risk takers who put more than half of their asset allocation into U.S. stocks and cash.”

Again, just as former hedge fund manager and multi-millionaire Jim Cramer said that he used certain financial journalists, including ones employed by the Wall Street Journal, as pawns to spread misinformation far and wide to benefit himself, again this is an example of investment institutions using the media as pawns to spread their myths to keep the masses of retail investors ignorant. The CNNMoney article made it appear that the richest of Americans built their wealth by being conservative and slowly growing their money over time. That’s an oxymoron right there. To state that the rich became rich by slowly growing their money over time. Well, if they are slowly growing their money and becoming even richer, then this implies that they were rich to begin with. So how did they accumulate wealth? Surely not by “slowly growing” their money.

Sure, some of the “richest Americans do not heavily rely on high-risk investments” because they ARE ALREADY EXTREMELY RICH. The majority of ultra-rich do NOT build their fortunes by speculating on high-risk investments as is commonly believed. Often they build fortunes utilizing volatile assets and investments but that does NOT mean they were engaging in risky behavior. Many times, investing in a hedge fund can be much riskier than investing in some of the assets that your investment firm will tell you is “risky”. But investment firms will gladly place a portion of your money in hedge funds because the fees they earn from hedge funds are so high even as they advise you not to put your money in a much less risky investment with much greater earning potential. And THIS IS THE SECRET that investment firms never tell you.

Volatile assets that often can be used to build great wealth are NOT RISKY if they are purchased at entry points that are extremely favorable and provide a low-risk point of entry. 99% of investors don’t understand what high-risk investments truly are because they have been misinformed by their advisors and their firms for the past half of a century. Purchasing volatile assets at low risk-high reward entry points greatly mitigates and neutralizes the great majority of risk of volatile assets. If you don’t understand this concept then you need to.

Many millionaires that are wealthy but that could be extremely wealthy fail to build enormous wealth because investment and financial institutions mislead them about certain investment opportunities and describe them as complex and risky and are able to convince their clients of this belief because they never properly explain risk-reward scenarios to their clients. However, those investors that are extremely wealthy are the rare breed that understand this concept. If investors had a choice between allocating $1,000,000 in a historically volatile Investment A that has a 78% chance of returning a 250% gain versus an Investment B that has a 95% chance of earning 9%, most investors would choose Investment A.

However, because Investment A may exhibit 50% more volatility than Investment B, the great majority of advisors would steer their client away from the former investment into the latter one. In fact, this is exactly what even “prestigious” firms that cater to ultra high net-worth clients do because they allow misinformed, uneducated investors dictate the rules of engagement to them, and they would much rather appease such powerful, important people with slow,minimal gains rather than empower and enlighten them and boost their returns like never before. They would choose to steer them away because they present the investment opportunities incorrectly, merely telling their client that while they could earn 350% from Investment A there was also a very realistic probability that they could lose $300,000, and that shooting for the slow but steady $90,000 a year is much better for them.

If you are thinking to yourself, “That makes absolutely no sense?” Why would firms not earn 20% a year for their clients if they could instead of 8% a year? The answer is because the overwhelming majority of investment firms, no matter how prestigious their brand, are merely highly glorified sales machines. They fail to convince clients to invest in phenomenal investment opportunities that sometimes arise like Investment A because in order for Investment A to be a moderate risk, very high reward investment, it must be entered at a low risk entry point so that the probability of being down $300,000 at any give time would be reduced from perhaps 50% to 20%.

And that even if their timing is not optimal, then a firm must educate the client that as long as they don’t panic when they are down, the odds are still extremely high that they will earn a 250% or better gain. However, the greatest factor that determines why firms will not seek this strategy is time. Engaging in much better strategies such as these for their clients would take massive amounts of time in client education and enough time in research that the amount of assets gathered would take a serious hit.

So because it is not in a firm’s interest to engage in activities that maximize portfolio returns (unless it is their own institutional portfolio), instead, we have Chief Investment Officers at top investment firms making statements like, “”Generally they [the richest of Americans] want to see prudently managed growth without a lot of surprises, which is why we emphasize diversification.” Again, this is a sales & marketing campaign statement, not an aboveboard statement about how to make money for clients.

If clients are uncomfortable with strategies that would actually built great wealth for them instead of producing mediocre or subpar returns, their discomfort only originates from the fact that the largest investment firms have been deceiving their clients, just as Jim Cramer had deceived the thundering sheep herd for years, about the realities of building wealth. This discomfort originates solely from the fact that he or she has been kept in the dark for so long. Thus, we have a misinformation-driven cauldron of investors making bad investment decisions that exists today. In 2007, you’ll still find Chief Investment Officers of very well known firms making ridiculous statement that investors need to invest at least 50% of their stock portfolio in U.S. stocks if they wish to grow their portfolios exponentially.

How are they going to grow their portfolios exponentially with more than half of their stocks in a stock market (the U.S.) that has NEVER been the best performing market in the past 25 years (even among developed stock markets)? How will they grow their portfolios exponentially by buying stocks in market that trades in what is quite possibly the worst currency on earth among developed markets (the U.S. dollar)? Yes I know that when the U.S. dollar shows a brief spike in strength as is likely to happen soon (I’m writing this article in April, 2007), that many people will question what I am saying, but this is only again because they are victims to the mass deception mind-games of the investment industry. I suppose if planning to earn better than subpar returns in your stock portfolio is engaging in risky behavior as Chief Investment Officers of various firms claim, then yes, I whole-heartedly endorse engaging in risky behavior.

And because so many people, yes, even those considered quite wealthy, fall victim to the preaching of investment industry demagogues, there is a second mistake that many rich investors will soon make.

Another survey of wealthy U.S. investors uncovered that a large percentage of investors with investment assets of over a million do not employ any type of investment advisor but plan to do so soon giving the increasingly gloomy nature of the U.S. stock markets. To that, this is what I have to say. Making money in difficult markets is ten times more difficult than making money in bull markets. If investors believe that it will be increasingly more difficult to make money in U.S. stock markets, but yet top investment firms in the U.S. continue to preach that more than half of your portfolio should be in U.S. stocks (mostly to cover their respective firm’s inadequate coverage of emerging markets), how is the hiring one of these men possibly going to improve these investors’ future performance outlook?

But there is an EXTREMELY important distinction to be made here. What I’ve written above applies to the behavior and mindset of some of the richest people in America, but not THE very richest people in America. The very richest people in America, those you might categorize as the world’s ultra-rich, possess a very different mindset and behavior set than those that are just rich. The ultra-rich have positioned their portfolios extremely differently from how the rich people discussed above have positioned their portfolios. The reason why articles regarding their behavior and investment decisions are virtually non-existent is because they don’t grant interviews and they don’t want people to know what they are doing. But I’ve investigated what they are doing, and trust me, it is nothing remotely similar to the behavior of wealthy investors described by Northern Trust and other investment firms.

If you would like to find out why the ultra-rich always manage their own money or able to find the 1 in a million consultant truly capable of providing them the returns they desire, consult our resource of “101 Reasons Why Managing Your Own Money is the Only Way to Build Wealth.” Even if the ultra-wealthy have someone managing their money for them, the only way they were capable of finding this 1 in a million financial consultant was due to the fact that if they had to, they could manage their own money successfully as well. Only be first fully understanding the most successful investment strategies themselves could they identify an advisor capable of employing such strategies. However, a great majority of ultra-wealthy continue to handle and make their own investment decisions.



Brittany
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Antonio G asked:


My friend/ roommate says that investing in stocks is the best way to earn residual income, coming form interest, etc. How do I go about doing that? What would be my first steps?

Ray
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hamsterbabies asked:


I have money in a 529 plan and an IRA. I understand those and their tax implications. I don’t understand how you make money from investing in mutual funds just normally and the tax implications. If a mutual fund sells something… then you have to pay taxes on it? I am not quite sure how that process works. I know Vanguard has funds, but I’m not sure how investing in them without the tax benefits from the IRA and such can help me. Thank you.

Stephanie
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mike s asked:


I am starting an investing and trading club at my high school. We plan on having the members of the group invest real money in stocks of different companies and trade, and hopefilly come out with a profit. Since there are a number of investors, would we have to establish outselves as some type of partership for tax reasons? What is the best way to go about this?

Gilbert
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Robert asked:


World wide property investment is also known as International Investment property. The idea is to invest on heartfelt estate or property overseas such as vacation houses and condos, or even land. This class of investment scheme has increasingly become generally accepted as a legitimate and practical trade in recent days. With its development, the international market specifically caters to the investor’s individual requirements, making it one of the key factors to winner. Due to the popularity of international investment property, many websites, devoted to portion international realtors, investors, developers, and property owners to touch and do trade online, have been fashioned.

Markets vary in language of fiscal output. Some investors are necessary to invest a large quantity of money for a particular property, while other properties only expect a smallest quantity. place is the determining factor for the quantity of investment necessary.

The phrase international evidently denotes any place overseas. property investment can be in Asia, Europe, Africa or the internal East. Most international investors do not only take into account the place of the prospective property to invest in, but also the country’s following and economic stability. If the country’s following and economic location is shaky, it is not shrewd to invest in such a country because the likelihood of receiving back your investment is nil; or, takes longer than estimated which is still considered as more of a harm instead than earnings.

Today, worldwide property investment is broadly viewed for the most part as a dependable find of investment profit. Big-time investors choose to add more diversity in its folder by engaging into macro investments. Purchasing properties in different countries does not only add to the class in the investor’s group of investments, but it also gives more opportunity for generating earnings as earnings will come from different countries.

Investors are very important in this class of trade. To protect the welfare of investors and their hope investment likely, The International property Investment interact or IPIN was fashioned. The organization’s levy is to assist investors find steadfast and calm opportunities for investment in investment-friendly areas around the sphere.

Admittedly, the world has a lot of properties for deal. To make it easier, a someone can first originate identifying properties put on deal by country, next display it by place per country, then categorize it by type; such as land, commercial property, flats and apartments, villas and houses, so on and so forward. After doing these, you can now complete the incline you have fashioned and place it on your website.

Over the days, more and more countries have participated in international trade opportunities such as the international property investment. International realtors and international property investors have seen Australia, Bali, Egypt, France, Italy, Dubai, England, and Malaysia as great countries to invest in. While other countries have increasingly participated by creating their own property and investment companies, in which most trade deals are done online.

International property investment is not rocket science. You can just think of it as a heartfelt estate trade on a macro balance with the use of the internet. All you have to do is to take which position to play – an international heartfelt estate agent, or an international investor



Harvey
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Investment - Can You Do Without It?

Filed Under investing | Comments Off

Namsing Then asked:


It is hard to imagine if anyone is living without money and it is equally hard to imagine if humans are living without investing in someway or the other. In plain language, investment means the act of investing or laying out money or capital in an enterprise with the expectation of profit. But at the same time the term investment also means money that is invested with an expectation of profit.

Investment is closely related with earning money and employing it to earn more by its virtue of its inherent multiplication factor. It is this character of money (read investment) which drives people invest in various asset types in which they are comfortable with. As a general rule, it is not quite natural for the novice investors to pursue high return investment categories as they perceive the high element of associated risk is beyond their control.

The Big Question: Could You Do Without Investment?

The answer is rather simple as everyone from top down has wanted to invest in one asset or the other. The more conventional the asset type is more the investors and thus investment. Let me detail this out for you.

Traditional investments like investment on gold and land have never let down the investors although rate at which they appreciated was below par till recently. But come to think of it; the simplicity of prediction matrix and non volatile nature of their class made them the darlings of one and all.

Current Investment Scenario

The current investment arena is extremely wide and intricately interdependent. The simplest investment by far, the savings account, contributes to the pool which bank draws from, for advancing loans to a variety investors. Thus the return on your investment (savings) is connected to the return the bank expects. Floating rate of interest is one of the manifestations of this interdependence.

Investment Options for You

It is impractical to attempt to list out all investment types. However the following are the representative types which apply to all economies.

1.Investment on stocks and securities

2.Investment in money market instruments

3.Investment in mutual funds

4.Investment in ventures

5.Investment in insurance

Speculative Investment

It is difficult to foretell how and why people make investment decisions. Also it is not true that investors play safe every time. Speculating a higher than usual and short term profit is none too unusual tendency with some. Such an investment type is classified as speculative investment. Although it beats logic, it goes by gut feeling of investors. Many stock investment and real estate speculators have made big time money taking tremendous risk.



Stacey
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ultra _ girl asked:


What I mean by right way is the intelligent way - I want to do research and will read books…I just do not know which books are best for me. I am a 19 year old female and want to make educated investments. At this time, I cannot afford a stockbroker or any type of financial advisor….but I am committed to learning and investing my money wisely….any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Diane
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Uchenna Ani-Okoye asked:


In our investment work when we get involved in stock investing, we do hands on stock research. Here are 12 basic stock investing rules that you may follow for successful trading. The stock market is driven by earnings, and a good stock investing course will teach you to judge the emotional state of the stock market.

Basic concept behind stock investing before getting involved in the stock trading, you should be well versed with its concept as this will help you in achieving success every time you trade. Now with all these information presented to you, it is now your choice whether you will get involved in penny stock investing. With ETF investing, you get the best of stock investing (ease of trading) and the best of mutual fund investing (built-in diversification) all in one investment vehicle.

When taking a stock investing course you may learn a few things that your broker may not even be aware of. Unlike stock investing, you need strong credit to use other people’s money to finance investment property. As you might imagine, the ads under stocks generally (which includes broad search terms like ’stock investing’) are seen the most, because most searchers begin with generic inquiries.

So if you are new to investing in the stock market take some time and learn how to by taking a stock investing course. Stock investing is relatively volatile and full of uncertainty. The more forex stock investing trades you make with a high probability of success, the more successful you will be.

Stock investing takes a great deal of research however if you make good investing decisions, it can have a high rate of return. Stock investing is a popular tool that many use for creating wealth. It is not difficult at all to succeed in stock investing.

They don’t know anything about stock investing and they often lose a few thousand dollars very quickly. You have to weigh both the pros and the cons of small cap stock investing before you sink any of your hard earned money into anything. In the real world, the world of stock investing, you should always put money after your best ideas.

It is also the hardest part to master in stock investing. Penny stock investing is a junior level course at least. Fraudsters don’t think twice before developing stock investing, commodity or option trading courses to make a little extra money for themselves regardless of whether or not what they teach helps their students.

Also, online stock investing has opened the door wide for overseas stock trading, giving you more investment opportunities than ever. In this manner, stock investing is much like surfing: spotting when or when not to ride the waves. So, before putting any money into stocks, the first question you should ask is what do you want to achieve with stock investing.

The second richest man in the world, Warren Buffett, has made his millions from stock investing. Social networking has been intergraded into many stock investing courses. When you take a closer look, the alternative means of extra income via stock investing is just a spin-off of earning from a business.

Online stock investing has helped a lot in saving time and money by enjoying the thrill of trade at your convenience in the ambience of your home. What any ‘vexed’ shareholders are forgetting, and he is not, is that Rule 1 in stock investing is, don’t lose money. Penny stock investing can be profitable.



Scott
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Satya Iluri asked:


By understanding the performance of socially responsible stocks, individual socially responsible stock, the socially responsible investor can gain the profits of socially mindful investing, either through individually socially responsible investments, or by engaging with socially responsible investment funds and socially responsible funds. In addition, the article also confers the sustainable investing approach in investing with ethics, green investing, values investing, and socially responsible investments.

Although socially responsible investing has expanded dominance in the last numerous decades, countless socially responsible investors are still under the feeling that to invest in social good, they must decline certain levels of portfolio performance. However, with the confirmation escalating that socially responsible investment funds strictly match, if not surpass, their market counterparts, many socially responsible investors are capitalizing their earnings – and their involvement to social good.

Long-term vs. short-term corporate focus

Socially responsible investing (SRI) takes the long term vs. short term investment discussion to a socially alert investing level. In comparison to countless corporations who take advantage of natural assets and human labor for short-term profits, a socially responsible stock drives under long-term natural sustainability, lending itself well to green investing. For example, the oil magnates such as Exxon-Mobile and Chevron have experienced exponential expansion in the last numerous years. However, where will these corporations be in 10 or 20 years – when the oil rigs are pumped dry and clients have switched over to hydrogen-fuel cars? In stark contrast, green investing stress the long-term sustainability of corporate social responsibility on the environment, society, and monetary well-being.

 

Overarching SRI principles

The extensive investment ideology of socially responsible investing are conceptualized based upon unstable techniques of social investing analysis. The execution of social investing in Europe is usually diverse than in the United States, but the underlying essentials are based upon using a set of foundation values. Depending upon the socially responsible investments portfolio or socially responsible funds, the SRI analysis may be based on one or several of the following criteria:

1. Sustainability Practices : This socially conscious investing perspective analyzes whether a company’s business practices are sustainable in the long term. If the business operations negatively impact the environment, economy, communities, or human welfare, then it is not considered sustainable investing for long term profitability.

2. Corporate Governance : This socially responsible investing component analyzes the company’s policies on employee, community, investors, stakeholder, and environment relations. Social investment’s mutual authority analysis is a separate process from the company’s financial outlook.

3. Religious Beliefs : Considered the original father of socially conscious investing, religious beliefs have screened many portfolios. For example, a Catholic screened socially responsible investing portfolio may divest companies that produce contraceptives. Both Christian and Muslim screened socially liable funds are prevalent, imparting strong religious beliefs onto the social investing analysis of opportunities.

4. Public Policy : Geared for socially responsible stock portfolios that include international holdings, the public policy filter analyzes foreign governments’ actions, either on an individual country case-by-case basis, or based upon an international mandate, such as a ban by the UN or NATO.

Socially responsible investment funds’ performance

Beyond the desire to contribute to social good, socially responsible investors are seeking SRI investment performance. Values investing demonstrate that socially conscious investing can be done quite profitably. In fact, in some market conditions, socially responsible funds outperform their market counterparts.

The Domini 400 Social Index (DS 400), the socially responsible investing industry benchmark, has outperformed the S&P 500 since its inception in 1990. According to KLD Indexes, as of November 30, 2007, the DS 400 has enjoyed 11.75% annualized returns, leading ahead of the S&P 500’s 11.21%. The DS 400 screens its index for socially responsible stocks based upon environmental, governance, and social filters, and within its index, there are 250 S&P 500 represented companies, 100 companies not on the S&P 500, and another 50 socially responsible stocks that have demonstrated significant strength in social investing filters.

With the sustained long-term SRI investment returns in the socially responsible investment funds, such as the DS 400, socially conscious investing can match or outperform its market counterparts – dispelling the myth that a socially responsible investor must sacrifice performance for social consciousness.

 

The risk exposure of socially responsible stocks

However, when comparing SRI indexes against market benchmarks, the question begets: does the performance of socially responsible investment funds come at a higher portfolio risk than its market counterparts?

Considering the rigorous screens of socially responsible investing portfolios, the socially responsible stocks are naturally geared towards companies with smaller market caps. Theoretically, the lower market caps contribute to a higher volatility and beta for the overall socially conscious investing portfolio. For example, the Domini 400 has a weighted average market cap of 83% of the S&P 500.

Beta Coefficient: measurement of an investment’s volatility against the market

However, instead of reducing the overall beta, the socially responsible investments screens minimize the individualized corporate risk. By evaluating a socially responsible stock based upon its governance, sustainability and relationship with stakeholders, social screens reduce the economic risk of the individual corporate holding. For example, by not choosing to invest in tobacco, socially responsible investors shield their portfolios from the negative performance factors of lawsuits. Or, by selecting companies that have good relations with their employees, the negative financial reprimands of strikes are curtailed from the socially responsible investment portfolio.

Risk and volatility are not necessarily synonymous in the world of financial portfolios. Whereas beta may be a good indicator to evaluate the short-term probability that a negative event may occur, this does not specifically analyze the individualized corporate risks. Though socially conscious investing portfolios may have higher betas, the risk of the socially responsible stocks in the portfolios experiencing financial degradation is more limited than the market benchmarks.

Alpha: risk-adjusted measurement of an investment’s excess return over “risk-free” instruments

One of the most compelling factors of socially conscious investing is that despite its demonstrated increased returns, the risk does not necessarily increase. Social investing may be one of the few exceptions to the risk-to-reward ratio. In fact, the performance of the socially responsible funds may not be fully indicative of its true earnings, once the lowered individualized corporate risk is weighted. After adjusting for both short-term and long-term risk, social investing’s alpha may be stronger than the numbers indicate. For more information visit our website http://www.sristocks.com



Kelly
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subalpine2000 asked:


I’m hopeful that I can save $500 every month for the next 3 years in preparation of saving up for a down payment on a house. I have limited knowledge about investing money. What should I do with the money, and how much money could I reasonably end up with at the end of the 3 year period? Thanks!

Bryan
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