Three Investing Myths To Unlearn Before Investing

Posted on by

I am sure you have heard this axiom: If you don’t know where you are going, you will get there. Many folks investing today are on that path: they are investing without proper knowledge of the stock market, of investment basics, and lacking simple, concise, written goals. Later, these folks will experience great challenges.

Among other things, the Federal Reserve’s Quantitative Easing program, a euphemism for pumping money into the economy, is fueling rising stock markets. This could entice even more folks to invest in stocks because they might see opportunities to ‘make money.’ Beware; before investing, at least, ensure you dispel three popular investment myths, and understand the potential investment’s opportunity cost.

  1. Investing in the stock market is gambling
  2. Low priced stocks, especially those at 52-week lows are worth buying
  3. Investment analysts and advisors know how investments will perform

Investing In The Stock Market Is Gambling

Simplistically, investing is just another spending form. You buy a book, a car, a house, and you buy stocks, bonds, or other investment instruments. The key is to develop a solid process to follow instinctively before spending: a spending decision process.

Your attitude will decide how you behave, and so, you could choose to spend on stocks and bonds – invest – with a gambling motive. That’s why I advise folks never to invest unless they fulfill specific prerequisites, such as being debt free with an established process to replace major assets for cash, and having clear, concise, written investment goals.

Then again, even with clear goals, individuals need to know that consistent, solid earnings is the key sustainer of a business’ value, and ultimately, its stock market price.

Low Priced Stocks, Especially Those At 52-week Lows, Are Worth Buying

Here is a trap to avoid. A stock is trading at its 52-week low, falling over 50%, and you think it presents a buying opportunity. Maybe; on the other hand, maybe not! Likely, that business’ products and services no longer have the capability to produce previously perceived earnings. Alternatively, investment analysts and others may have promoted this business because of some fad or other irrelevant reason. Yahoo! and Nortel are examples of companies whose stock prices traded at unsustainable levels; after the expected collapse, their stock prices did not recover. Many other examples exist, particularly on the Japanese stock exchange.

As I mentioned above, as with all spending, we need to follow a spending decision process before investing. This will allow us to use a fall in stock price as a trigger to identify business’ fundamentals and potential investment opportunities.

Investment Analysts And Advisors Know How Investments Will Perform

When you listen to these folks, you might forget that they, like you and I, have no clue about the future. Some are in conflicts of interest, blinded, and pushing particular products. Others might be sincere but are relying on the past. And we know, the past might not be a good predictor of the future.

Can these folks help? Certainly, but each client must try to understand whom his or her advisor represents, and accept that advisors do not know the future. Accordingly, folks receiving investment advice must be fully aware that they, not their advisors, need to decide when and how to act from advice they get.

Before you start investing, dispel the above three myths, learn key investment basics, and learn and make sure you fulfill specific investing preconditions.

This final point is obvious but often folks overlook it. Investing in the stock market has an opportunity cost; it reduces, by amounts invested, funds available for other purposes. Ten thousand dollars invested in the market could buy a car, pay a portion of a college semester’s fees, or be donated to charity. Therefore, as part of your spending decision process, ask these three questions before deciding to invest:

  1. What other alternatives exists to use funds you are about to invest?
  2. Given your present and expected situation, is this the best use of funds today?
  3. Will you need to replenish these funds to carry out other specific goals in the next three to five years?

© Copyright 2013, Michel A. Bell

The Raging Popularity of Internet Sports Gambling

Posted on by

Do you enjoy gambling? A lot of people like to partake regularly. They are attracted to it because of the rush of winning and the hope of scoring big. Gambling is all about the surge of excitement. Fortunately, for gamblers a few nuances have been added to the betting game.

Recently, innovative additions like online poker and Internet sports gambling have entered the betting scene. Gambling just became much more convenient. Those who were not very fond of gambling before may just love its new cyber-experience dimension.

Are you interested in Internet sports gambling? This is a welcome addition for football and basketball nuts all over the country. You will love it if you enjoy placing a bet or two on a big game.

However, since this isn’t the 20th century anymore, it’s now all about computers and the World-Wide-Web. This is the only place where you can find such wonderful activities such as Internet sports gambling and online poker games.

My brother takes full advantage of this concept all the time since he is an ice hockey fanatic. He absolutely loves to place a bet on his favorite ice hockey teams. Nowadays, it has become so easy with Internet sports gambling websites. All you need a personal computer with Internet connection and a credit card, and you can place that bet in a jiffy.

You should hop on the World-Wide-Web right now if Internet sports gambling sounds right up your alley. You can now put that bet, big or small, down on your favorite team. However, you must not place bets that you can’t handle. T

his is always a bad decision on many levels. You can get into serious debt, and seriously disrupt your life and the lives of your family. You have to know when to quit.

If you’re not satisfied with Internet sports gambling, then you can always try a variety of cyberspace casinos. Nowadays, there are online casinos that can satisfy your gambling hunger. In our modern world, there is no need to go to Las Vegas in order to place your bet.

How to Overcome Financial Issues in Your Marriage

Posted on by

Fighting about money in a relationship is one of the leading causes of divorce in the United States. It’s the biggest reason people fight in relationships – more than infidelity, children, or anything else. And unfortunately, talking about money doesn’t seem to help – but that’s because people talk about it the wrong way. Instead of having a heated argument over money where everyone gets defensive, it really helps to plan out a strategy and have an honest discussion about money. Plan on how you and your partner will spend it and save it, and try to stick to the plan by helping each other. It’s not enough that both people agree on a plan, sticking to it is harder, but is worth it.

Start with small changes that you both make, and make sure each person is accountable for them. Examples of small changes are not using credit cards as often or for certain purchases, spending less on travel, taking public transportation, etc. Once you have a few of these small successes under your belt, you’ll be able to make bigger changes that will eventually really help you both and help the relationship.

There are a lot of financial decisions that need to be made with your partner:

Credit Cards — Do you both use the same card and share the bill? Do you keep separate cards and each are responsible for their own bill? What limits are involved?

Bank Accounts — Again, do you prefer a joint bank account where you share all the bills, or will you both continue to bank separately?

Debt — The debt in a relationship can really cause a lot of damage, because a lot of the time embarrassment will cause one person to hide the amount of debt from their partner. So you trade a much smaller problem that you can face together (debt) into a breach of trust in the relationship. This is potentially extremely damaging and can lead to a break up or divorce. Debt needs to be put out in the open, and a plan to pay it off that you both make together.

Savings — Creating a savings plan and sticking to it will also really help in the relationship. While it may seem tough to get through every month with what you have, it’s important to try and save a little every month. This will really help when something unexpected comes up, and the pain of saving a little each month is much less than the pain of not having any cushion when things don’t go according to plan.

Secrets — Out of all these issues, keeping secrets from your partner can be the most damaging. Whether you are hiding a separate bank account, a gambling problem, or holding out on debt – these issues pale in comparison to the continued lying and deception that is necessary to keep these secrets. The worst mistake you can make is to keep a secret – try to put it out there, because trust is much more important than money in a relationship.

Top 10 Reasons To Avoid Gambling

Posted on by

10. The cause of indolence

Gambling affects your life negatively. If you are a regular, you might have missed your work occasionally because of a late night games at the casino. On the other hand, if in case, after a major loss you make an attempt to work you won’t be able to concentrate for your mind will be preoccupied with the depressing thoughts from the loss. Many of the gamblers depend on the “luck factor” and start day dreaming ultimately losing interest in their job.

9. Results in depression and anxiety

Gambling addiction can be the reason of anxiety, depression and a host of other mental problems. The pressure of gambling addiction can generate terrific emotional pain which can only get worse over time. If you are a gambler and you feel anxious or depressed, it is suggested that you seek help right away. Gambling addiction has the highest number of suicide rates. Individuals are overwhelmed by this obsession and become despondent and hopeless, believing suicide is the only way out of the pain.

8. Deteriorates your physical health

If you have been gambling on a regular basis your physical health is at stake. People who gamble impulsively start neglecting their health. Additionally, the stress of the gambling obsession can even cause stress on your heart, particularly after shocking monetary losses. The emotional fall can in fact have an effect on your physical body in negative ways. A sheer game of luck, it will only cause you pain and nothing else. Is it not one of the big reasons to avoid gambling?

7. Makes you selfish, moody and rude

I have witnessed a lot of individuals who underwent a moral transformation to the worse after they got into gambling. The habit destroys the person ethically and makes him moody and rude. The greediness keeps his mind engrossed in the imaginary money, ultimately making him selfish. Inveterate gamblers don’t think about other people. Their only aim of life is to finance their addiction and to win back their lost money.

6. Will make you lose your friends

You might be wondering how this habit of yours will make you lose friends. Well, if you are in a habit of gambling then it is more likely that if not today maybe later you’ll borrow money from them. Chances are you’ll not be able to pay them in time due to frequent losses. This will really cause strain in your relations. In addition, your addiction will make you ignore your friends as you will be preoccupied with gambling. You may then even miss social outings and some very important events.

5. Ruins your family

Gamblers are too tough to reform ultimately turning out to be a loser and having no family. Not a soul wants to be in this world with a gambler who is grumpy, unstable and squanders funds. So the outcome is the spouse filing a case of divorce or just leaving the partner. Many families have been torn apart by this disastrous obsession.

4. Induces crime

Fascination of gambling compels people to commit crimes to support their game. An impulsive gambler never leaves this addiction even when he is left with no money and instead takes on crime to finance his very basic need of gambling. Some people even turn towards domestic violence and torture their spouse on a daily basis.

3. Diverts you from your aim

When your life is all about gambling and just gambling, it then becomes your primary activity. All of your vigor, motivation, energy and inspiration are only gambling related and you tend to lose focus on the main aspects of your life. If you have any special talents or hobbies, it is most likely that these hobbies will not be given priority and you’ll choose to ignore them.

2. Puts on hold all your future goals and aspirations

When you are addicted to gambling, it is obvious to stop thinking about the future. A gambler always lives for the moment and desires only instant gratification to feel what is known as the “gamblers high”. It becomes very hard then to focus on any of the future prospects as they tend to live in a world of fantasy, placing bets and dreaming that big jackpot. Neglecting aspirations and all future goals is living a worthless life and therefore this is one of the prime reasons to avoid gambling.

1. A curse that destroys you financially

It doesn’t take a lot of time to dig up a huge financial hole if you have an impulsive gambling obsession. Gambling can take away hundreds or perhaps even thousands of dollars in no time and add up to your debts. I have seen that people take lots of years to clear the debt and in their endeavor they even become bankrupt, ultimately devastating financial as well as personal life. Money is the reason why we all live and therefore the biggest of all reasons to avoid gambling is to save money.