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How to become rich (note1), at no cost to you or profit to the author (2), guaranteed (3) !!! (note 1) Rich, not “beyond your wildest dreams”, but merely wealthy, comfortable, and happy (2) I am selling nothing, costing you nothing (except your time and effort), and not profiting from this in any way. (3) A guarantee of “money back” will not work since you are paying nothing for this, but my reputation is at stake and I therefore guarantee it in that way. This method is far more likely to work than any other on a risk versus reward basis. I will discuss in greater detail my ideas under each of the following headings:
Although you are free to copy anything I wrote from these webpages, the material is copyrighted and owned by me and is definitely not for sale by anyone to anyone.
TEMPORARY NOTE: THIS PAGE IS VERY MUCH "IN PROCESS" and CERTAINLY QUITE INCOMPLETE. I expect to be adding to it as soon as I get more time to do so. Other priorities exist today.
1-what about this guarantee and risk versus reward (other possible methods as opposed to this one)? -- The guarantee is a tongue in cheek eye-catcher (after all, this is FREE to you and money-back IS guaranteed). But I can tell you that my own personal experience and a lifetime of observing all of the financial and management disciplines that I talk about lead me to guarantee that if you follow my advice, you will become as rich as any average person might become. If you are lucky or especially brilliant or you are "very disciplined", you will do even better. The key is discipline. Stray too often from the path I advise and you will not succeed. There are other methods, of course, but the main part of my suggestions is that every LITTLE BIT is part of the solution. It is not merely good investing, or higher earnings, or lesser spending, or proper tax planning, or anything else like that, it is the fact that ALL OF THESE "little bits" are heading in the direction YOU wish to go. Trying to get rich quickly could work but probably won't. Taking "tips" is not a great idea as any great tip is best kept to oneself; most likely, the "tipper" is merely trying to pump the prices up for himself. You might wish to gamble on the horses or the like, but gambling is at best a 50/50 thing and most likely less than 50/50 since the "bookie" (legal or otherwise) takes a cut. And betting on the lottery is the worst gamble that I know of (albeit many times for a good and charitable cause).
No, none of these will do as well as the boring (remember that you're not looking for excitement here - you're looking to be wealthier) slow, steady, advancement (with dividends reinvested) in good, boring, companies that have a long history of boring increases in profits, in which you will share. That last part is not boring, but it is not exciting either. What you are looking for a long term (think in the range of a minimum of 5 to 15 years), diversified (think in terms of different industries - don't put all of your eggs in high tech, or oil, or communications, or any one thing - think in terms of at least 5, preferably 10, completely different industries) investments, that will do "just fine" (don't chase high flyers, you are more likely to buy them at the wrong time, just before the fall) and not make you rich immediately. But into companies that are listed on the New York Stock Exchange or are very well known companies if not so listed. Diversifcation might also include companies in other countries, but if you feel the USA will do well in the next 25 to 50 years, that is a country that you are most familiar with. Don't invest in any company that you don't understand what it is that they do (thank you, Warren Buffet, for that idea). And I would not invest in any company that does not pay a dividend of some sort (minimum of perhaps 1% and some maximum that makes sense at the time you invest. In normal times, 6% is fine but just after a "huge market decline", dividend percents must be looked at carefully as there is no reason to think that the dividend might not be reduced.
2-what IS an investment? -- an investment is buying a share of the ownership of a company wherein you take a risk just as the company itself is risking its own future. Loaning money to a company, to a bank, or to anyone is not an investment, it is a LOAN. While loans (that you judge to be secure from default and will get re-paid on a definite schedule) are OK for a complete financial plan, we are talking here about a long-term investment plan. (see more about this at #6 below. On the other hand, loans, for which you get paid interest, do not appreciate in value (if anything, they depreciate as a 10-year loan gets repaid with cheaper money, or less purchasing power than the money you started with. Therefore, the interest is partially your compensation for the loss to inflation and may, in the long run, be considerably less than you would otherwise think at the time you make the loan to someone.
3-how to reduce the costs of an investment. - People who sell investments to other people get compensated for their work. They are called "salesmen" and they do not have your best interest at heart. Seldom have I seen "sold" investments pay off as well as "non-sold, merely purchased" investments (the difference being mainly YOUR involvement in the decision). Remember that for every $1,000 you invest, only the amount that you can get back the next minute is the investment, so realize what the cost of the investment is and reduce THAT cost as much as possible. Discount brokers, mutual funds, ETFs (see ETFs), and the like can reduce the costs of investing. When you consider gold (or other hard assets) (and I do not advise buying gold or even gold stocks), remember that not only does it not pay dividends, you have to take care of the hard asset (it costs to do so) and the commission, in the case "the spread" between buying cost and selling proceeds, is quite great. The details of the cost is a great part of any decision for any investment.
4-what about loans to banks or companies? -- As I pointed out (see #2 above), a loan to a bank or other company is not an investment. It may (or may not) be a part of your financial plan, but I think that in the long run, these loans should be kept to a minimum and long-term investments should be your main plan. See also #10 below regarding tax planning. One part of that plan should be to minimize your tax refund. No, I am serious. When you get a refund, all you are getting is a return of a previously paid, non-interest-earning, loan to IRS. You are better off, assuming you use this money wisely, holding onto your tax money and paying IRS only when it is due (i.e., by April 15th).
5-You must be strict insofar as focus - all efforts should be headed in the same direction and then they ADD UP - If you read this web-page carefully, and if you follow every bit of advice I give you, your plan will more likely come to pass. Every little bit helps. If every little bit (all towards the same end) is added, the final result will be much better than doing (for example) 11 of 12 ideas but offsetting all of the little good things with the ONE BAD exclusion. As an EXTREME (I don't mean for you to follow THIS ONE unless it is comfortable for you to do), with this particular paragraph in mind, I tried an experiment. Whenever I use toothpaste, I don't put more than a little bit on the brush (my dentist's idea of sufficient quantity) and therefore don't waste toothpaste (TP from now on). But I also flatten and continue to roll up the tube so that I dont waste TP that way too. And since I was born during the depression and my family was at the opposite end of "well off", I learned at an early age not to waste, so doing this (all of my life) was not a problem for me and so I did not waste TP. Where is the experiment? Hold on, I'm getting there. Anticipating this paragraph, last week, as I neared the end of a TP tube, I decided to push this savings thing a little further and I squeezed just a little more TP out of the tube. And surprisingly, each day for a week, I did the same thing until the effort (my thumb and pointer finger hurt a little when I did it this final time) was no longer worth it. I saved only one-week's worth of TP but I now have one additional free week of TP for every tube I need. Not worth it? Maybe, it's your decision, but the basic point here is to get in the habit of not wasting. Little by little, you continue to have more wealth. I estimate that TP (and any other non-wasters) are worth well over $2,000 a year in savings. More about this later when we talk about compounding (see #12) and spending (#13).
6-what is a safe investment (diversification, good and less risky, long term)? A bunch of cliches come to mind. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket, don't try to get rich quick, don't let your emotions run away with you, and long-term in not one week or one year. But all of these are good advice. You'll find that various parts of the economy prosper when others are somewhat less prosperous. And, as I said above, boring is good in investing, excitement is best left for gambling (which I do not advise), keep your head on straight and don't do anything emotional. This is the time for thinking and not reacting. And pursue a buy and hold philosophy. I've held securities in my own portfolio (I calculated this on June 19 2010 -- on which day I had 159 separate purchases in my current portfolio - and I have held one as little as 54 days and another as much as 33 years) for an average of 13 years each (and still counting). This is a buy and hold philosophy. It has been proven to almost universal acceptance that although timing your buying is much easier than selling, neither is really possible. Accepting that (see #7 below) means that no one knows what tomorrow will bring and how the price of any security has not already been determined by others and that you can not out-guess the timing. With that in mind, buy good stuff, hold it, keep the dividends (see #1 above), and sell it only when you need the money for some purpose or (and this is a good tax planning tip - see #10 below) when you need "for tax purposes" a capital gain or a capital loss or some other tax planning transaction. I say this, contra to what most other people say ("do not sell for tax reasons") becuase unless you have some other GREAT non-tax reason to buy or sell, timing should not be a factor as it is impossible to out-figure everyone else who is trying to do the same thing. You can't beat them.
One other thing that might be useful in buying or selling. If you are disciplined sufficiently to ALWAYS (pick one day of the year, every year, to do this) re-allocate your portfolio, reallocation might prove useful to you (but I'd rather just buy and hold AND ADD to my portfolio whenever you find yourself LIGHT in some particular category.
One last thought about Buy and Hold. Depending upon when you are reading this, this may be new or old history. I've owned BP (think Gulf of Mexico oil spill - 2010) for 18 years, 18 years of receiving huge dividends and a lot of appreciation. I held it through all of that. Then the "spill" and the stock diminished in value some 50%. Well, there was no way I could have known that so as to sell it before it went down. But buying and holding meant that even after the spill and the 50% decrease, I still had all of those dividends plus a remaining $35,000 unrealized capital gain. I honestly wish the workers, entrepreneurs, land owners, and tourists around the Gulf did as well and I also wish that the management of "my" company would have been more careful and prepared for this spill. My point is that even in this catastropic event, buy and hold worked out pretty well.
7-How does your emotions effect investing? Buy on bad news, sell on good news.
8-what about credit? Do not a borrower be.
9-Insurance - depending on your risk situation, insurance is an expensive luxury
10-Taxation and tax planning - accepting your tax position without planning is a huge waste of money The esteemed jurist, Learned Hand, ruled "there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. ... all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands” Planning saves money probably more than most other ways available to you Notes for my comments Tax-advantages RothIRAs, etc etc etc
11-Estate Planning -- not just in saving money for your heirs, but other ways
12-Other planning, budgeting, control, and re-evaluation - make written plans or goals (as specific as possible), quantify these goals with (at very least) an annual budget (using 365 times daily costs, and 52 times weekly costs, and 12 times monthly costs, etc.) so that you have a budget for the next 12 months. Make all estimates/goals as accurate as possible taking into consideration your realistic expectations of what you want to (and can) accomplish. Review your annual plan (including each category of income and each category of expenditure at least quarterly and update it when necessary. This was your plan. Only you can make it happen by sticking to the plan. Usage of credit should not matter as using credit, for this purpose, should be considered no different than using cash. The budget is your plan's control. Staying inside of your expenditure limits is part of your focus and should be part of your discipline and is definitely part of your control. There is nothing wrong with having a category called "unplanned pleasures" or something like that BUT staying within your plan applies here, too. At least once a year, make up a list of net liquid assets (what you own that can be quickly liquidated for the value you currently place upon it, less anything you owe, whether credit cards, mortgages, taxes, etc.). The net of all of these things should be presented in a sise by side comparitive (by years) listing so that you can see if the "net liquid assets" are increasing or otherwise keeping pace with your long term plan (or goals).
13-start early in life In the first days of life, if possible including compounding
14-invest in yourself but treat yourself to a good life a budget or projection of cashflow
15-what is "rich"? - this is something YOU must define for yourself. For some, it is able to live comfortably without many financial concerns; for others, it is just being "not poor".
16-My grammar and spelling leaves a lot to be desired. Credit it to low overhead and my desire to "just make the meaning clear"
17-I have no editorial support and this is free to you (so I probably will not answer emails)
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“Underpromise and Overdeliver” Some, but not all, pages on this web-site were selectively modified as recently as the date shown at the bottom of the MPWC Foundation web-page. This entire web-site is copyrighted © 2000-2012 by The Michael Paul Wein Charitable Foundation, Inc QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS about this web-site? E-mail us at mpwcfoundation@gmail.com. SPECIFY EXACTLY (using copy and paste) (and include the page name, i.e., the URL link) what your question or comment refers to. |