Tag Archives: Yourself
Cut yourself? Save your blood, and a life
The next time you cut yourself, take a minute before you run for the bandages. Because that painful cut may help someone suffering from blood cancer.
HellaWella.com
8 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Retiring
NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Pulling the trigger on retirement can be a costly mistake if your finances aren’t in good shape.
“It’s a very uncertain time for people,” says Doug Kinsey, a certified financial planner with Artifex Financial Group. Luckily, there are steps you can take to make yourself feel more secure as you approach retirement age. How can you tell if you’re ready to retire the way you imagined? Here’s a checklist of questions every pre-retiree should examine.
Pulling the trigger on retirement can be a costly mistake if your finances aren’t in good shape.
What kind of lifestyle do I want in retirement?
Several studies have tried to pinpoint how much money people should specifically have on hand before they retire. The truth is, though, that this amount is going to vary dramatically depending on what type of lifestyle you’re looking to lead once you’ve left the workforce.
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Are We Headed for QE3? How to Protect Yourself (and Profit)
The U.S. economy has seemingly turned the corner, thanks to a string of positive reports since the start of the year. Yet a surprising number of economists simply aren't buying it.
[block:block=16]Their concerns include:
• A belief that economic reports have been skewed by an unusually mild winter.
• The recent spike in consumer borrowing is unsustainable and will need to reverse course.
• The economic problems in Europe will still wash up on our shores.
• Much of the recent strength in the industrial segment of the economy is due to inventory rebuilding, and inventories are now back to normal levels, eliminating the need for any further inventory stocking.
These economists anticipate a downtick in the tone of upcoming economic reports, which would raise fresh concerns at the Federal Reserve that the economy still needs a boost. Unsurprisingly, these folks have begun speaking about QE3, or a third round of Quantitative Easing, the set of monetary measures conducted by the Federal Reserve to stimulate the economy. (Here's a handy primer on quantitative easing.)
If events play out as these economists suspect, then investors have reason to be bearish in the very near-term, but bullish in the intermediate term. Any action by the Fed, perhaps as soon as the late April FOMC (Federal Reserve Open Market Committee) meeting, would likely help fuel a rebound in stocks.
If history is any guide, then the next round of quantitative easing should help pour liquidity into the market, which in turn would help ignite a range of asset classes. During the most recent round of QE, or QE2, gold, stocks and commodities fared well, as you can see in the chart below.
The Two Most Important Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before You Make An Investment
Legendary value investor Benjamin Graham was insistent that investors should not ask, “Is this a good stock?” or “Is this a good bond?”. Instead, they should focus on two questions that could change their financial life:
- At what price?
- On what terms?
That may sound overly simple, but putting it to work in your own portfolio can revolutionize your life. Find out how using this approach can help you manage your own money …
The Two Most Important Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before You Make An Investment originally appeared on About.com Investing for Beginners on Saturday, December 31st, 2011 at 18:02:00.
Don’t Fool Yourself Into Thinking You Are a Long-Term Investor If You Aren’t
Just as everyone likes to fancy themselves middle class (the facts: unless you make between $ 2,894.83 and $ 4,335.75 per month, the middle quintile for the American population, you are not middle class), everyone likes to talk about how they are long-term investors. Unfortunately, the facts don’t show that to be the case. While the average American stays in their home for seven years before selling it, many investors think displaying the same patience and horizon with a partial ownership stake in a company such as Pepsi or Johnson & Johnson is unfathomable. To them, six months is a long-term investment!
This begs the question: How can you be sure you aren’t just fooling yourself into thinking you have the right time perspective? To help answer, I wrote a new article called How Do You Know If You Are Making a Long-Term Investment?, which includes a checklist to help you determine if you are in it for the long-haul or trading stocks and fooling yourself.
The article also explains that not every company should be a long-term investment. Typically, you only want to own so-called “excellent businesses” that have very specific financial characteristics. (For more information on that topic, instead, read Getting Rich By Investing in an Excellent Business).
Both should be good places to start for new investors who don’t consider a good time to be chugging Pepto-Bismol in front of a trading screen, afraid to go to the bathroom for fear of losing their nest egg due to a change in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Don’t Fool Yourself Into Thinking You Are a Long-Term Investor If You Aren’t originally appeared on About.com Investing for Beginners on Saturday, December 31st, 2011 at 22:12:26.
The Sad State of Financial Journalism Illustrates Why You Should Think For Yourself
This morning American Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In this Associated Press news clip, the reporter makes the statement, and I quote:
“American is the only major U.S. airline that didn’t file for bankruptcy protection after the 2001 terrorist attacks”
Anyone who has any knowledge of the airline industry – even a cursory, passing knowledge – knows that this is demonstrably wrong. It is inaccurate. It’s lazy journalism. Following the September 11th terrorist attacks, the United States airline industry collapsed and at least 5 of the 10 major carriers had declared bankruptcy by 2004. However, Southwest Airlines, had remained so successful that at one point in the years following the attacks, its market capitalization exceeded that of the entire remaining United States airline industry combined! This was widely reported in the press and discussed by industry analysts.
Not only has Southwest not filed bankruptcy, over the past 35 years, it is one of the single greatest investments in stock market history, ranking up there with Berkshire Hathaway, Wal-Mart, and Microsoft. The low-cost business model and operating philosophy meant that it was capable of earning money when the rest of the airline industry was running losses, such as fiscal year 2004. It almost always pays to be the low cost producer in a commodity-like industry.
Those competitive advantages may or may not turn out to be sustainable. Personally, I don’t think any airline stock is a suitable long-term investment (short-term speculation, sure, but not investment). I have no idea which airlines are likely to be in business 25 years from now, meaning I have no interest in becoming an owner in any of them. None of that matters because it misses the point, which is that you should not solely rely on someone else’s judgment or research. It is your responsibility to protect your own best interest and grow your family’s net worth.
This includes sources that you admire and respect. Recently, I wrote about how I disagreed with Morningstar’s intrinsic value calculation for Berkshire Hathaway, a stock that makes up a significant portion of my long-term investment holdings outside of the family businesses. Morningstar is one of my favorite research institutions. I generally agree with a lot of their methods. In this case, I think the analyst isn’t nearly as versed in the complexities and economic reality of the firm as he or she should be. Perhaps I’m correct, perhaps I’m not. In any case, because I study the data for myself, I’m able to compare the methodology and determine whether or not I concur.
One of the biggest advantages you can have in your life is independence of mind. If you had independence of mind, it would have been easier to avoid the real estate bubble because you would have known your family could only afford a $ 250,000 mortgage instead of the $ 500,000 the bank said it would lend you. Independence of mind would have let you avoid the dot-com bubble more than a decade ago because you knew basic math told you it is impossible to pay 150x earnings for the stocks in your portfolio and expect to do well.
