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RE: Investing - where do you start Part 2

Postby montyloree » Thu Sep 06, 2007 05:16:48 PM

Jack25bc: Quote:
Stop Dreaming - Start Planning
There are three stages in making your money work as hard as you -
1) Save
2) Invest
3) Retire


I am going to start to preach hard core that people start creating a reserve of cash... I'm starting to really fear that Canadians are going to become like the Americans with A record amount of foreclosures..

http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/06/real_estate/mortgage_delinquencies_climbing/index.htm?postversion=2007090613

If you develop a 3 month reserve as step one of your financial plan, you'll start to more comfortably think of saving money for retirement.

Many people spend themselves into the floor and can't conceive of saving money to create a cushion reserve for themselves... This has to stop.. people need money in the bank... NOW!!
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Investing - where do you start Part 2

Postby jack25bc » Thu Sep 06, 2007 05:05:33 PM

The best plan in the world - to save, invest and retire will come to grief if you are injured or if you become so ill your income is severly reduced or stops altogether.

" The definition of a fate worse than death is an evening spent with an insurance agent ."
Woody Allen

Before you embark on investing money not required in your budget you must consider insurance.

Life insurance is often promoted as a savings vehicle - but our series and purpose is to teach the basics of investing . Stick to the real purpose of insurance - basic protection.
Spend the minimum dollars by using inexpensive term insurance . The annual cost for a young person is measured in hundreds not thousands of dollars in premiums.. Fifty dollars a month protects your family when you are young at a time when the loss of you and your income is the most serious.

Study the various policies offered and do some research - don't simply rely on a salespersons advice.

Secondly, you must consider diability and accident insurance. It is no joke that an injury and long term diability is a greater burden then losing your spouse altogether.

How much insurance is a function of calculating what you require to replace your net income over a period of time.You may have to settle for what you can afford now - and add insurance when funds are available - but start now.
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RE: Investing - where do you start

Postby Raymond » Mon Sep 03, 2007 06:25:32 PM

The sky's the limit, all the money in the world is available to you - all you have to do is earn it. You give 'em all you got and they'll give you all you want; the only limitation is a self imposed limitation!

Now there are certain people who criticize this notion, and in fact they become very good at criticizing this - and everything else; but as for accomplishing anything: forget it!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The above exhortations come from Bob Proctor, motivational speaker to many corporations and groups; sort of a scaled down local Tony Robbins.

I noticed your last admonition about the imperative of saving, which is apparently no. 29 in your series of blogposts or infomercials, I dunno which. Irrespective, not much to argue with there except for the part about "Your success is guaranteed." I'm not sure if the guarantee refers to the fact that if people put a small pile of money away regularly, they will inevitably come up with a big pile - not too much too argue with there. But if you mean that once they have a big pile of money and then invest it, then their success is guaranteed, I don't know about that.

Of course, the best way of getting ahead financially is to invest in "something," but every investment has its risks or it wouldn't be an investment. No risk, no return.

One aspect you leave out is that most investors have little inclination and or ability to pick wise investments and generally leave it up to their advisor or broker. Not usually a bad idea, but from my observations and experience with a lot of brokers, not the best one either. I get the news letters from Zacks and various other publications, and despite their hype, if you follow their recommendations and note the results months or years later, it's well known you're in for some real eye openers. Much better to stick with investments whose fields you are familiar with rather than relying on shallow sales effrontery. Wasn't that the first rule of Buffet or just plain common sense? Equally important is keeping up with the company you anticipate in investing in, it's industry and the MOOD of the market by reading DAILY papers like the Financial Post and not assuming your advisor will do it for you. Even if the advisor did, they're often more likely to be wrong than a well read investor from my experience.

I mentioned this to a couple of friends who recently lost perhaps $70,000 on 2 stocks. One store manager spent $60,000 on a pharmaceutical "hot tip" he got from his broker/(ex)friend and another lost over $8,000 on derivatives from a high tech company
.

In the first case, the hot tip proved to be like most others - hot air. And so this fellow, if you can believe it, spent $60,000 of his retirement money on 10,000 shares of a pharmaceutical stock without knowing a single thing about the company he was investing in or the products it makes.

In the second case - my best friend actually - despite having a sophisticated job in financial services himself, bought the derivatives on the advice of senior manager of a high tech electronics company, who he's also friends with (or was). Unfortunately, the tech manager neglected to tell him the company had just announced that day, it had been served with a major lawsuit (which they lost big time). I noticed that strong rumors of the impending lawsuit were mentioned in the National Post the day before. I was at a complete loss as to why neither one had checked this out. My buddy, along with myself, had taken the stock broker's course some time previously. In fact, he did so well in it, the IDA gave him an award for having the top mark. And yet, he neglected to perform even the most basic groundwork before putting down his money.

I could go on "ad nauseum ad infinitum ad absurdam" about dozens of these cases to illustrate that relying on someone else to do your homework for you can have unfortunate consequences. Yes, investing in the market is surely the way to go; but without due diligence (which many don't have), your success is NOT guaranteed.

As you may have noticed, this website doesn't tend to attract a financially sophisticated demographic. It's mostly people who are having trouble making ends meet and they need help dealing with unconscionable bill collectors who are pouncing all over them looking for financial roadkill. Surely, you realize that since you mention in a previous incarnation that you were a bill collector yourself.

It's a free country with free enterprise; however, I'm not sure how admirable it is using the forum to troll for business using sales pitches and financial jargon that would be ill suited to the majority of its participants. One of the first rules taught to an investment advisor or broker is to know your client and not induce them to make investments that are inappropriate for their situation. An investment may be inappropriate for them, not only because of it's attendant level of risk, given their financial state, but also may be inadvisable because they're out of their league when it comes to understanding what they are getting into. So firing a lot of technical investment jargon trying to cajole them to purchasing stocks in industries about which they know nothing and probably never will (I think) crosses the border of conscionability.

Ray
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Investing - where do you start

Postby jack25bc » Sun Sep 02, 2007 04:45:03 PM

Stop Dreaming - Start Planning
There are three stages in making your money work as hard as you -
1) Save
2) Invest
3) Retire

STOP DREAMING
Too many people never get to step one because they are only

" dreaming " about wealth. Like a driver without a road map they think if they simply get in the car and travel they'll reach their destination.
You can create your own road map to wealth.
Start with a written plan. Dreamers have no plan.
Start your plan with a budget that includes a per centage of income dedicated to savings.
If you are creating a budget for the first time , you are going to find that you cannot account for the last ten per cent of the money you earn each month.
That ten per cent is the difference between moving towards to financial freedom and staying in the never- neverland of unfulfilled dreams.
THE LAST 10 %
You are going to discover that the few dollars that disappeared on junk food or impulse purchases could have - over time bought you freedom. Now plan on saving ten per cent - or what you can - but start.
SUCCESS IS CERTAIN
It is a mathematical certainty that a small amount of money , invested and earning interest will result in a great amount of money. Just as certain is a failure to save will produce a financial failure. You can create your own better financial future.
This is not brain surgery.

To start - a pencil and a piece of paper.
1) Your budget
2) a savings account
3) if you have savings in excess of needs , open a brokerage account.
You can start the brokerage account at your local bank.

Basic information is available at every bank and credit union - and it is all free.

The most important step - determine today to take command of your own future.Stop dreaming and start working on your plan.
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Wall Street Volatility - what to watch

Postby jack25bc » Tue Aug 21, 2007 07:39:31 AM

C. The Dow Jones Volatility Watch

The market held up well despite more bad news on the mortgage front - Capital One is shuting its mortgage unit. A KEY indication of a market turn is the ability of the averages and investors to take bad news in stride and go higher. Watch for the market reaction - this is more bad news but are we past plunging into dispait because we hear more of the same bad news? If there is not a major reaction that would be a sign of the market regaining its strength.

All eyes are focused on the U.S. Fed for a rate cut . In the meantime it continues to add liquidity . This is a delicate act . A big rate cut could add to inflation but that may be the lesser of two evils if they believe their discount rate cut and liqiudity attempts are not effective enough.

Watch Target - the store operator reports earnings and that is important for the Company itself - but more important is the " tell " it gives on the american consumer. If Target gives an upbeat story /outlook it well help investors believe the consumer is still spending. A free spending consumer supports the economy and the market.

http://www.amprogram.com Aug 21
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Top Performing Stocks in the Toronto S& P Index

Postby jack25bc » Mon Aug 20, 2007 06:56:27 PM

. Top Performers on the Toronto S & P Index
- beaten down and ready to resume a run

What would a $1000 invested a year ago be worth after Friday , August 17th
( - this list is posted each week in the AMP )

Rank Name Symbol Price $1000 today

1 Thompson Creek Metals TCM $ 16.65 $ 5842

2 Sino- forest TRE 13.97 2880

3 InterOIl IOL 40.00 2640

4 Research In Motion RIMM 77.57 2594

5 Equinox Mineral EQN 3.14 2397

6 Aur Resources AUR 39.45 2277

7 Potash Corp POT 80.23 2178

8 Canfor Corp CFP 11.57 2110

9 Martinrea MRE 15.57 2051

10 Alcan AL 100.26 1965

11 Major Drilling MDI 41.45 1946

12 Petrobank PBG 29.10 1940

13 FNX Mining FNX 24.82 1845

14 Cogego Cable CCA 43.91 1764

from the blog http://www.amprogram.com August 20/07
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RE: sub-prime primer - Small investors are out of the market

Postby jack25bc » Sun Aug 19, 2007 07:14:13 AM

WEAK HANDS - a theory that :

1) a crisis produces panic selling from the small unsophisticated investor
2) they sell out at the bottom - to sophisticated investors

( i.e the shares go from the weak to the strong )
3) with no small holders left to seel out on the cheap - buyers cannot obtain stocks at bargain prices
4) the new owners -" strong hands " demand more for their shares and prices rise.

We should see this play out in the next few weeks of trading.

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A sub-prime primer

Postby jack25bc » Tue Aug 14, 2007 07:09:14 PM

: What is a subprime mortgage?

A: It's a mortgage given to a home-buyer with less than stellar credit, or who lacks the paperwork to prove an income that can support payments. While such mortgages may not seem like the greatest idea, lenders flush with money were making loans in the U.S. to almost anyone who asked and charging a little more in interest for riskier loans. The bet was that rising U.S. house prices would paper over any mistakes.

But when U.S. housing prices started to fall, and interest rates began to rise, many borrowers ended up in trouble and lenders started to become insolvent (at last count about 50 have been wound down).

Q: How did the problem spread from subprime lenders into the rest of the financial world?

A: Many of the companies that were making the subprime loans weren't holding onto the loans, but instead sold them to other parties, including hedge funds and pension funds looking for higher returns. Often, the loans were packaged together (think of a mutual fund holding thousands of individual loans) and sold to investors.

When those loans started going bad, suddenly lots of people all across the financial world were affected. Concerned about losses, investors and lenders started demanding higher interest rates to make loans, or stopped doing so entirely. Thus began the credit crunch.

From consumers, who are finding mortgages have now become more expensive and tougher to get, to massive buyout funds such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., which are having to pay more for loans to carry out takeovers, tougher credit terms are slowing purchases and that's slowing the economy and hurting stocks.

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Warren Buffet - in the midst of turmoil - he is buying

Postby jack25bc » Tue Aug 14, 2007 04:44:10 PM

Warren Speaks - WWWD ( What Would Warren ( Buffett Do ?)

direct information from the Oracle of Omaha

from the market blog http://www.amprogram.com

Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the investment firm run by Warren Buffett, bought stakes in Dow Jones & Co. and Bank of America Corp. and more than quadrupled its holdings of health insurers UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint Inc.

Berkshire hadn't previously disclosed the stakes in Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal, and Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank, though it's unclear when the company acquired the positions. As of June 30, Berkshire held 2.78 million shares of Dow Jones and 8.7 million shares of Bank of America, the Omaha, Nebraska-based firm said in a filing
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RE: Safe Harbor in Insurance Broker

Postby montyloree » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:44:41 AM

Western Financial Group
http://www.westernfinancialgroup.net/

Western Financial Group
Corporate Office
1010 - 24 Street SE
High River, Alberta T1V 2A7

Toll Free: 1-866-THE-WEST (843-9378)
Phone: 403-652-2663
Fax: 403-652-2661

Email: info@westernfinancialgroup.net
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