Misrelate

What is my investment goal?

How much time do I have to attain this goal?

Methods of saving for a down payment on a house differ greatly from saving for retirement. The reason for this lies in the factoring of time. Over short periods of a few years, individual companies and the stock market as a whole can experience dramatic fluctuations which in no way represent longer-term trends. Because of this possibility, a smaller percentage of your portfolio should be allocated into stocks as the time for cashing in your investments draws near. Conversely, the longer the time period you have to invest, the more aggressive your portfolio should seek higher returns.

How much do I initially have to invest?

How much can I afford to consistently add later?

Einstein described compounding as “The Eighth Wonder of the World” and for good reason. Being able to earn interest on your interest allows investments to increase exponentially faster than with simple interest. A one-time investment of $5000 earning 10% interest compounds to a total of over $54,000 after 25 years. Using simple interest, it would take over 95 years to reach the same amount. Naturally, the larger your initial investment and the more you can afford to add later on, the more you can expect to gain in returns.

Am I carrying any high-interest debt, such as on a credit card?

Before saving for future events, you should consider your present finances. Paying off any high-interest loans function as an “automatic” return. Writing a check to Visa to pay down your debt may not feel as satisfying as starting a nest egg, but by eliminating those 22% interest payments, you have effectively “made” a 22% return. Although you need not completely eliminate your debts, getting such payments into a reasonable area should be a more pressing priority.

This fiscal reckoning is also a good time to examine budgeting and expenditures. Look for unneeded or overpriced purchases, and consider the feasibility of paring them down and saving the extra money. Unused gym memberships, that $5 whipped mocha-hazelnut cappuccino, and extra cable channels all add up. The true cost of these and all other purchases involves understanding the “time value of money”, but for now it should suffice to say that $5 added to the previously mentioned investment account compounding 10% for 25 years turns into $54.17.

What is my risk tolerance?

What will my investing style be?

These questions lead us to selecting individual investments. Consider your investment timetable for when you’ll need the money, recognizing that more conservative selections should be made the shorter the window. Everyone’s risk tolerance is different; while one person may feel comfortable with small-cap biotechs another may need a blue chip to feel equally sound.

Analyzing the risk to reward ratio here is a good first step. The more risk you take on, the more you should expect to get in return if your investment pays off. The inverse is also true: the more stable an investment, the less return one should expect. Government-backed I Bonds pay over 6%, but involve tying up money for years in order to fully benefit from them. While this gives you one target, the average return of the broader market indices is about 11% per year. There are two primary schools of thought about investing: growth and value.

Growth

Growth investing is a higher-risk strategy which focuses on finding smaller companies poised to rapidly grow earnings. Stocks here tend to be micro-caps or small-caps, and the occasional mid-cap (under $10 billion). In their younger lives, many of the well-established companies of today found themselves considered here (Think of Apple Computers (AAPL) or Starbucks (SBUX)). Growth companies can be found in many different sectors, although such companies often have similar traits. A growth company usually has a unique product or service to offer which can fundamentally change how business is done. When found early enough in their growth cycles, these companies have the potential to return enormous profits to investors.

Value

Value plays usually are found in larger companies, although the strategies used to find them can be applied to smaller corporations as well. Looking for value stocks is similar to looking for values in a store: find a good product at a price below what you would normally expect to pay. These bargains are often found in the form of companies which have been unfairly beaten down through overselling. Finding value stocks usually involves using a discounted cash flow model (DCF) to find a company’s intrinsic value. This is the form of investing advocated by Benjamin Graham, and popularized by Warren Buffett.

GARP

GARP, or Growth At Reasonable Price, is a combination of the above forms. As the name implies, the focus is finding growing companies trading at reasonable prices. Quick measures of this include the PEG ratio (Price to Earnings to Growth) and Forward P/E. Although not a specific style, GARP is utilized by many investors because of its flexibility. The average, diversified portfolio will have many GARP-type stocks in it.

Once you know your goals, the amount your going to invest, your relatively debt free and know your risk tolerance it’s time to look at the market and start thinking about selecting stocks.

Getting Started: Learning the Market and Selecting Stocks

If you were going to spend several thousand dollars on a refrigerator or television, you would thoroughly research the market for those goods to find the product which best suited your needs. Investing is no different. Before buying into a company, you should be well-acquainted enough with it to give a short presentation. Knowing the basics of how a company operates, what it sells, how it makes money, how much money it makes, and what kind of growth the company is expected to experience are all crucial questions that any investor should be able to answer.

Developing a better understanding of the stock market is a long, but hopefully rewarding, process. Immediately investing in stocks with real money, however, is equivalent to taking a test without being introduced to the material. Formerly called “paper trading”, beginning investors would normally spend several months tracking their stock picks without having real money on them.

Thanks to technology, you can now find sites that automate (for free) the process of tracking price changes for you on the internet. Simulated investing is a risk-free way of beginning to understand market fluctuations and the forces driving them. Examining these trends will payoff in the future, as an increased understanding of the stock market can only help you on your path to building wealth.

Once you become comfortable picking your own stocks, you can still continue to “paper trade” online, as it offers the opportunity to explore and experiment with other investing styles. Gordon Gekko, the famed villain in Wall Street played by Michael Douglas, said “Information is the most valuable commodity I know of”. Ignoring for a moment that the movie ended with indictments for insider trading, the statement is true: you will not regret being an informed and intelligent investor.

The market is constantly changing, but by learning the ropes of investing you too can pull off a “One Up on Wall Street”.

Jim Stevenson, AKA:”Im Not Warren Buffet” is a staff writer and can be reached on the forums of http://www.eInvesting.com an Investing forum and Stock Market Simulator.

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There are many of us who are working on our wealth creation strategy. Wether it be working another job, starting a small home based business or seriously building knowledge on the share and property markets, those that are serious are looking.

Many wealthy people we read about seem to have a certain skill for creating large amounts of money. Many in this group of wealth builders follow a few simple rules in their wealth development strategy, and I have listed some here.

Learn to work with people

The biggest fortunes are made when people work with a group talented people. Knowing which group to work with and how to work with people is one of the most important tools in your wealth building strategy.

Persistence

Often the difference in creating wealth is a few more hours, days or weeks of work. Those in the wealth creation group never give up easily. They pursue their wealth creation strategy until they achieve it! Don’t give up!

Make decisions quickly

“He who hesitates is lost!” Sort through the facts and make a list of pros and cons and evaluate that list. Speed every decision you make and then you will be training yourself to take advantage of wealth creation situations before somebody else can.

Seek new ideas

Utilise every task you perform to seeking new wealth development strategies. Study financial pages for hints that may lead you to create wealth. Jot down these ideas and review them regularly. Opportunities to create wealth will suddenly appear from everywhere.

Take risks

The more risks you take as part of your wealth creation strategy, the greater the chances of you building your wealth. Look at speculative ventures and invest a portion of your funds. Risk taking is an integral part of a wealth building strategy and will put you far in front from those playing it safe.

Borrow money

The largest fortunes are built on borrowed money. Understand how to use credit and other people’s capital to expand your profits and leverage your investments in your wealth development strategy.

Time is money

Be conscious of your time in your wealth building strategy. Evaluate your time in terms of the financial return to you and don’t procrastinate or spend large amounts of time on non wealth creating tasks.

Learn to be creative

Developing your creative powers is an excellent strategy to create wealth. Start doing activities which may be outside of what you usually do, learn some creative skill, like learning how to paint or sketch. This will give you ideas to think outside the square in which you can develop to create wealth.

Alvin Narsey uses a unique wealth building strategy utilising cutting edge AUTOMATION SYSTEMS and Resources which allows him to put his business on AUTOPILOT. Take a F-R-E-E TOUR to learn how YOU can use this wealth creation strategy the same way. CLICK HERE FOR FREE TOUR! http://www.parttimeincome.org

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On Friday evenings I look forward to closing the week by going twilight racing on a friend Alan’s 30 ft yacht on beautiful Sydney Harbour. It’s a wonderful experience, with some spectacular sites of the city skyline and the many sails as we return to base in the setting sun. We have a handicap of about half an hour, which means we start about half an hour after the first boats.

Yet week after week we manage to overtake the other boats and arrive back at or near the front…..

At the start of the season the club organisers decided to challenge us further by moving us into the next category of yachts - to race against the 40ft yachts which are designed to be faster due to their increased sail area and length…… yet a few weeks ago we took out line honours there too!

What’s the secret? Is it a special purpose built lightweight boat with secret features built for speed? Do we have a special winged keel like Australia 2 had in 1983 to win the America’s Cup?

No. None of these. It is a standard yacht built over a decade ago.

Our hidden gem as to why we do so well is the experience and leadership of our tactician Jim Vaughan.

His many years of sailing on board many owners’ boats in all conditions means that he is totally in tune with all the parameters needed to win. He plans each race before we hoist a sail.

He checks weather forecasts, current weather conditions, tides, winds, competition, skill levels and weight of those on board…. the list goes on. Then, once we cross the starting line Jim watches for every slight change that may come our way.

For nearly two hours Jim checks every detail around him on the boat, what the crew are doing, the surface of the water for tide and wind changes - to make sure he sticks to his plan or makes fine changes to suit if any unexpected changes occur.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of helping him and a few friends sail the yacht about 20 nautical miles in the open sea from an inlet called Pittwater (North of Sydney), past Sydney’s northern beautiful beaches, before re-entering Sydney Harbour.

While this was not a race, Jim and Alan still planned the trip down to the smallest detail.

For this one we had charts; Global Positioning equipment to check not only position but also our actual speed relative to the ocean floor bed and extra safety equipment in the form of personal EPIRB - so that satellites could track us if we fell overboard …………

This time we were due to sail south into a south west wind. For the benefit of non sailors, let me first explain that you can’t sail into a wind head-on. This means that you have to ‘tack’ back and forth in a series of steps in a zig-zag pattern to progress forwards.

For our journey yesterday Jim eluded to us that in addition to the wind coming almost face on, we also had an opposing tide to slow us down too.

Jim’s solution? He also explained that a few miles off the coast there were ocean currents which contained warmer water - travelling southwards in our favour. The weather forecast was for slight seas and no storms forecast so his risk assessment was that he felt safe heading straight out to sea.

So rather than do a series of multiple tacks backwards and forwards close to shore, Jim’s plan was to sail a few miles out to sea until we found these warmer waters and then to alter course to take only one more tack straight in through Sydney Heads.

Sure enough, when we found the ocean current, the colour of the sea turned a magnificent shade of blue; we watched the sea temperature climb from 23.8o C to 26.3 o C within an hour and the GPS measured our real speed over ground increase by a few knots.

The result of Jim’s contrarian approach? We clipped almost an hour off the overall sailing time taken by other yachts as they went to and fro close to shore, trying to make headway against an opposing wind and tide.

In comparison, our experience miles off the coast was to me one of those magic moments to be treasured forever.

As we achieved our goal and safely rounded North Head at the entrance to Sydney Harbour, I reflected on what had made the difference to our success - to making it appear simple:

* Having a mentor - being able to follow Jim who has several years of experience, knows what he’s doing and can handle the simplest and most difficult conditions

* Calculating our risk exposure in advance and having safety equipment and safety procedures in place

* Taking the time to make a detailed Plan before we cast off from the safety of the yacht club mooring.

* Including within that plan, the ‘what ifs’ - to know what we would do if conditions didn’t go our way.

* Having the right charts, with indicators, tools and skills to monitor and review our progress

* Having made the Plan, the decision then to stick to it with discipline.

My mind then turned to successful stock trading - and the parallels sprung out as being so very similar. The activity of sailing vs trading may appear vastly different at first sight.

Look a little deeper and we see the principles of success remain the same.

John Atkinson is the co-editor of the world famous ‘Investing & Online Trading’ stock market newsletter, featuring weekly stock trading education for novices & experienced traders & investors by high profile trader authors Jim Berg, Daryl Guppy, Dr Brett Steenbarger & Dr van Tharp.

His previous ebooks include ‘7 Secrets to Profitable Online Stock & Share Trading’ and the ‘Atkinson -Guppy Articles’ - a series of articles written for Daryl Guppy’s newsletter ‘Tutorials in Applied Technical Analysis’, previously voted no 1 trading newsletter in Australia by ‘Shares’ & no 4 in the world by ‘Stocks and Commodities.’

John’s co-authors the new ebook The Stock Trading Template which shows traders how to build their Trading Plan, with input from Tim Wilcox Jim Berg, Daryl Guppy & Dr Brett Steenbarger.

A free copy will be given to all ‘Investing & Online Trading’ stock market newsletter Members when released in February 2006.

For a Free trial membership & Free sample ebook chapters visit & join the free stock market club at http://www.sharetradingeducation

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Investment decisions are generally run on the same issue as the quarterback making the big decision in the big game, risk and return. Are you trying to win the championship right now? Or are you simply looking to stay in the game for a chance to win it later? Decisions based on your sense of urgency and potential are what drive risk and return decisions. What should you think about when making these decisions?

For what length do you expect to be investing?

Those who are planning to invest for something that is 30 years down the road should consider a high risk, high reward type of situation. Contrastingly, those who have a major event right around the corner should look for less risk, even if it means less reward. Money markets and mutual funds are a better choice for those who don’t want to risk much, whereas stock investing offers a better risk/reward scenario for those who have time to whether the storms. Don’t lose your retirement or education funds because you went a little further than you should have!

Have an idea of your expected returns.

It is very simple, the more you want to risk the more you can possibly be rewarded. If you want a big return, like 10% then you will take on quite a bit more risk than someone looking for a 5% return. You should know what type of return you want to get because it greatly impacts your investment plan. If you are looking to become wealthy and get large returns on whatever type of investment you want to do then you will have a more aggressive investment plan. If you are older and just looking to supplement your income a little bit or keep your retirement in good shape as the time nears, your investment plan will be a little more conservative.

What level of risk are you most happy at?

This level will rise and fall from person to person and is a very unique aspect of investing. The faint of heart should not partake in the stock market, it will fluctuate and so will your heart rate! Go with bonds or money market accounts that can make you a solid return with little to no risk. The biggest element in working out how much risk you are willing to take are more geared towards your personal situation, specifically how old you are in relation to your end goal and what level of income you can currently get.

If you feel that you’d be hard pressed not to have a need for your money over the next 10 years or so - then you probably need to avoid investing in stocks and shares which gain maximum return over a long investment period.

But if you can leave your money invested for long periods, look to the market to give you a healthy, higher return - on average, a return better than you’ll find with most other investment opportunities.

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