Investing Archives - MoneyWatch101

Motivating People to Reach a Million Dollars

I listen to a podcast called the million dollar plan. It is a 1 on 1 interview style show where the host discusses the finances of a featured guest. The gist of it is to reveal when the interviewee will reach a million dollars. That million dollar day could be 4 decades in the future, but the host (Pete) discusses with them how to speed up that process and reach a million dollars sooner with several action steps. Motivating People to Reach a Million Dollars is necessary to any money coach. Because when clients succeed everyone wins.

Now with this topic about finances fresh in your mind, do you have any idea when you will reach a million dollars, or if you even have a plan to reach it? Many people in the media now days always put off a million bucks like it’s not enough. But believe me a million bucks far supersedes the investment accounts of most baby boomers. The average boomer over 60 years of age has about 2ooK in retirement accounts as advertised in the same media outlets that say a million is chump change.

Continue reading Motivating People to Reach a Million Dollars

What is the Secret to Becoming Rich?

Everybody wants to become rich. Have you ever pondered why this is so? To finally buy that big house, to finally get that new model year car, or to finally keep up with the Joneses I suppose? The answers and the reasoning behind why 99% of all people who want to be wealthy will amaze you. What is the secret to becoming rich you ask? If I knew it I would already be rich, they say in subliminal talks with people who don’t save. If I had to answer this question today or tomorrow, I will continue to say the secret to becoming rich is investing yesterday. If you didn’t invest yesterday, invest today and tomorrow to play the game.

The person with the highest annual income who doesn’t invest will never be rich. Why can’t the dude who works in Wall Street making a million dollars a year be rich? Because he makes a lot and spends more than a lot. The high earner only feels rich, when in reality is not even close to any riches. This is the secret within the secret that people will never openly discuss. They spend more than they earn, and that is no way for anyone to become rich.

Continue reading What is the Secret to Becoming Rich?

3 Tips For Conservative Investing

We recently posted an article suggesting that boring investing is the way to go, and for those concerned with generating savings and avoiding significant losses, that’s certainly true. Generally, a boring, methodical approach is the “safest” way to put away money (though it should be noted that investment is inherently risky no matter how boring it may be). But what does that mean when you get into the details?

In the previous article we provided a helpful list of tips that ultimately amount to “boring” investing. We’re going to follow up here with a few more detailed explanations of how to handle an investment portfolio in a more conservative, risk-averse manner.

1. Abandon Your Emotion

You may have heard before that it’s wise to check your emotions at the door when you enter an investment situation. We came across a full psychological examination of emotion for investors that boiled down to one crucial point. That point was that research suggests that investors are often driven by their emotions to make poor investing choices. This can mean a number of different things, but it primarily comes down to two tendencies. The first is to allow recent gains or losses to dictate activity, and the second is favoring (or ignoring) stocks and companies based on personal preferences for products or services. The conservative investor should ignore all of these things and instead make decisions based solely on market outlook. See Below for the 3 Tips For Conservative Investing

Continue reading 3 Tips For Conservative Investing

Boring Investing is the Way to Go

Did you know that boring investing is probably the best way to invest money? Slow and steady aka long term consistent investing has been proven to realize the best year over year returns. In contrast, people who time the market, buy and sell, look for the hot stock, generally earn 7% less than those who do boring investing like investing in index funds. That is why I say boring investing is the way to go, because it allows a stress free money life. Boring investing is a set it and forget it, with proper allocation long term strategy.

In a recent study done by fidelity’s 401K division, the accounts that performed the best over a span of a decade were the accounts of clients who passed away or forget about the accounts. Just let that sink in my readers. If you don’t touch your investments, move them, time them, guess what you will grow them.

I must admit I am guilty of trying to outsmart the markets too, as in the past I bought and sold funds, based on trying to own the fund with highest paying dividend amounts. If 1 fund paid more than the other fund, I would be pissed that I lost out on the opportunity to get more dividend income. I know for a fact I missed out on a lot of gains because I tried this foolish game of timing funds and would divert some money to go places that didn’t serve me best as far as capital appreciation goes.

Now going forward I am going to do more of the boring investing and instead will just increase the total investing contributions year after year until I can retire. Who wins the race at the end of the tortoise and the hare story?

You guessed it the slow and steady tortoise because that’s usually how it goes as you keep a steady pace. If you rush rush rush out the gate, you will feel burnt out and you might fall short. The markets are no different, and I think that story is a classic example of stock market newbies, who think about get rich quick schemes that rarely work.

Continue reading Boring Investing is the Way to Go

Is XTrade Right For You?

If you want to know more about XTrade this article will tell you who they are, what they do and why you should be interested in trading with them.

What is XTrade?

Although many could think of a sci-fi film when they hear the name XTrade, this company has nothing to do with fiction, only with real facts.

This company is a CFD trading company—If you are not familiar with that term, let me explain it for you (if you are, you can just jump over the following paragraph).

In short, CFD stands for Contract For Differences. It is a type of futures contract which you eventually settle by cash. The main advantage for trading CFDs is that you can take advantage of leverage, and they are also a great way of protecting a portfolio in times of economic uncertainty. This avenue seems to be more flexible than all famous binary options, for example, brokers have added stocks, commodities and indices to trade with. Do you like it so far?

Continue reading Is XTrade Right For You?

Finding Time in Today’s World

So lately I keep hearing the term I need to find more time in random conversations, and I must admit I believe I’ve used the phrase on occasion as well. But I will say it is a bit of excuse to use that expression, as we all can realize as much time as we want. The secret to finding time in today’s world is literally to just take it. If you focus on the time you have to get things done and not waste it, you will always have time. The thing with time many people can’t grasp is, that a simple choice makes all the difference.

By assuming action and not procrastinating you will realize that time is there for the taking. Time is a virtue for anyone who is virtuous enough to say, “I can make time”. I know some of you are tired of the philosophical twist to this post, and want me to get to the point. OK the point is, finding time in today’s world is an excuse we can and should not use, because time is now and we have plenty of it.

Continue reading Finding Time in Today’s World

Why Investing in Stocks is Smart for Retirement

There is no question that there is some risk associated with investing your retirement savings in the stock market; however, there is also a potential for quite a bit of growth. This is especially true if you are willing to invest for the long term. Putting at least a part of your savings into some diversified stock fund can be ideal for growing your retirement nest egg. However, in addition to investing, you will have to take the time to learn how to use the share market update reports to keep track of how your investments are doing.

If you are new to the world of investing, you may wonder what is stock investing. Consider this scenario: you come out of a bank and are approached by a stranger with an idea for money making. The person claims to need the capital to grow their business and that your money will grow by $8 more each year if you allow them to temporarily use your funds. The holdings you have will change day after day, so the person is being up front that it may be a wild ride at times. However, you will have complete control of when you want to get your money back with no questions asked. Getting information on stocks and learning fund facts is a great way for an investor to make the right decisions.

Continue reading Why Investing in Stocks is Smart for Retirement

Online CFD Trading: Why It Is Growing

One of the current trends that’s growing right now is online CFD trading. Here are some of the reasons why this method of financial transaction and engagement is rapidly gaining traction in the world that we live in.

1) Online CFD Trading Allows Leverage and Margin

Probably the best thing about online CFD trading is that your established margin deposit gives you the capability to control and use an asset that’s many times higher than its actual value. When this happens, the impact of trading exponentially grows and the profit for it becomes significantly higher. With a minimal investment, traders can immediately multiply their capital and grow rich.

Of course, that comes with a caveat. The higher the gains are, the higher chances of large losses. However, instead of turning off traders, this has actually become appealing for them, since it requires them to be better prepared and to make better decisions.

2) Users Feel That it’s More Cost Efficient

One of the benefits of online CFD trading is that they are just agreements that were designed to mimic price movements. They are not actual assets. As such, the tax given to them is not that high, compared to real assets. Unlike the more traditional transactions, stamp taxes are not implemented, and since there are no physical assets that change hands, the relative tax is much smaller and the regulatory burdens are minimized.

In addition, there’s virtually no commission, so fixed prices and payments are taken out of consideration.

It is also important to note that since all of these are documents, there’s no transportation of the assets, which is in itself another minimized costs.

Continue reading Online CFD Trading: Why It Is Growing