Archive for August, 2007
Take ownership of Precious Metals…
Dr. Russell McDougal is someone who knows what he is talking about when it comes to commodities. He has dedicated years of study and investing in the natural resources exploration sector. During that time he has closed out DOZENS of gains of 500%… 1,000%… 2,000% and more! Currently he is sitting on multiple thousand percent winners, including one stock that is up a whopping +5,000%.
So, when I read the latest article by Russell in today’s Investors Daily Edge I was very pleased to see that he is trumpeting the need to hold physical gold and silver as part of a portfolio. He, as many other commentators, believes that the US policy of printing more money is a road to inevitable disaster. Holding physical quantities of gold and silver provides some defence against the problems to come.
He recommends buying metal in the form of coins where you pay a premium over the spot price but this should easily be compensated for as the value of the underlying metal rises.
Interestingly he makes the point that the current price of precious metals is being manipulated by the market to keep it low. Future predictions see the price rise significantly as the currency woes unwind even further. I’m probably beginning to sound a bit like a broken record about this subject but I feel that everyone should hold some gold and silver in their portfolio (actually I hardly have what could be called a portfolio, more a varied collection of investments that I hope will flourish when I need the funds!).
I purchase gold from BullionVault where your metal is held in vaults of your choice (London, Zurich or New York). As this is a way to buy gold directly the cost is very competitive and you can rest easily knowing that your investment is held securely. I prefer this over buying coins for two reasons. Firstly I don’t have to worry about keeping them safe and secondly the price I pay is less than I would have to pay for the equivalent amount of gold in coins.
To my knowledge there isn’t a similar service for silver bullion so I have to purchase coins. Again, this is done on a monthly basis and my collection is beginning to grow nicely.
So, it’s good to note that my liking for precious metal is endorsed by an expert in the field. I’d encourage you to read the article as it contains some very useful insights into why precious metal should be a key element in your investment strategy. I’d also recommend signing-up for the Investors Daily Edge daily newsletter as it provides an excellent source of reference for anyone interested in learning about investing in a range of markets.
Fair Review – Creating a Blogging Community
In the world of blogging there is a sense of community that is expressed in several ways. Rhys Wynne over at Fair Review is pioneering a new service. Just by reviewing one of the blogs listed on the site you are able to submit your own blog, hopefully to be reviewed in turn. I chose to have a look at The Prize Blog as it gives you a chance to win prizes or make some money.
If you are someone who enjoys taking part in competitions then The Prize Blog by Brian Aldrich will definitely be of interest. The concept is simple. Rather than you having to search the Internet looking for great prizes to win Brian does the work for you describing the potential prize and a link to the site to enter.
I found one that was of interest and immediately hopped over to the website to take part.
Probing a little further I did notice that a lot of the competitions would only be open to residents of a specific country (US in general). It would help if Brian could use some form of symbol on each post to let readers know whether there are specific restrictions on who could enter (a US flag icon for example where only US residents are allowed). I appreciate that this might take a little longer to research but it would be helpful to readers. Perhaps a footer showing a disclaimer might also work.
There is a useful list of categories that make it easy for users to find the type of competition that they are interested in. I enjoy holidays and headed for the Vacation category. When I got there it occurred to me that in a blog like this many of the posts become redundant once the closing date is passed.
So what does this mean for the blog?
Perhaps it might be useful to add a category that lists competitions that will be closing in say the next two weeks so readers won’t waste time in trying to find competitions that they can enter.
The BetonMarkets Trading Portal…
One of my preferred online investing methods is Fixed Odds Trading. The website BetonMarkets provides the platform for this service. Today I want to delve a little deeper into this service so you will be able to appreciate the type of opportunity that BetonMarkets offers.
The company behind the website is located in Hong Kong and trades as Regent Pacific Group Ltd. They report increasing business with a turnover of £200M achieved in the UK achieved recently. The US gambling laws prohibit the company trading in the US but this does not seem to have slowed the growth that the company has experienced.
For those who know little about BetonMarkets the best way to describe it is as a trading portal where you as an investor place trades where you know both the potential amount you will win and also the maximum amount you will lose if the trade fails. This means that trading can be controlled in a much more relaxed manner.
There are many types of trade to choose from, No Touch and Barrier Range trades are amongst the most popular. They run for a fixed period and depending on how long this is will determine the potential return from the trade. You can trade on market indices and forex currency pairs. There is a lot of choice so if you believe you can predict how your favoured market or currency will move then there is good potential for profit.
Whilst BetonMarkets provides a user friendly platform they also allow you to open a dummy account where you can practice your trading to see if it is successful. Once you are confident you can fund your account and trade for real. As with all types of trading you should only use money that you do not need for everyday living. There is clearly a risk of loss if your trade fails and given the nature of fixed odds trading you often have to wager a proportionately large amount of money to win, and it doesn’t always work.
One of the convenient things about BetonMarkets is that it can be funded in several different ways including credit card, bank transfers, bank wires and e-bullion.
Now, if you don’t feel confident enough about making your own predictions you can click on the Community tab followed by the Web Ring link. This will bring up around 30 different options of services that claim to make you a profit. If you’d like to know the ones I recommend then drop a comment on this post…
The Incredible Effect of Compound Interest…
About 18 months ago I was working in California and my daughter and her boyfriend visited me from the UK. As my daughter was twenty years old I thought it would be an ideal time to help her to plan her financial affairs so that in the future she would be able to reap the rewards.
As readers will know I’m a subscriber to the Early To Rise daily newsletter as it contains very useful information. One of the articles I found of most use was by Michael Masterson. It was about the effect of compounding funds. This I thought would be an ideal primer for my daughter so I printed off a hardcopy and decided to give it to her.
When I did, my daughter looked at me rather strangely. I asked her to read it and to tell me what she thought. After about ten minutes of reading she looked up and I could see that she was struggling somewhat. Clearly her understanding of the concept would take a little time. On my return to the UK I gave my other two daughters a copy and hoped that they would absorb what it had to say. I’m still waiting for their enlightenment but I will keep trying.
Thinking about this today I wanted to let other people know of just how powerful the concept of compounding is so I’ve decided to reproduce the article below. If you need to see just how powerful compounding can be then I heartily recommend that you read it. The great thing is that the earlier someone starts the greater the result in years to come. Make sure everyone you know gets to see this article:
“Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.”
– George Bernard Shaw
Starting Young – The Miracle of Compound Interest
By Michael Masterson
If you take a penny and double it every day for a month, how much would you end up with? A hundred dollars? A thousand dollars? How about a million dollars?
Not even close.
If you start with just a single penny and double it every day for 31 days, you end up with … $21,474,836.48. More than 21 million dollars in a single month!
This is an example of the power of compound interest.
The original penny turned into two, but then those two turned into four, and the four turned into eight, and so on. The growth of your money sped up because not only was your original penny collecting interest – but all the pennies you received as interest also began to earn interest. And so the growth built up … or compounded.
That’s how you get the term “compound interest.”
And that’s how, by saving and investing over a long period of time, you can get rich.
I wrote Automatic Wealth for people who want to get wealthy in a relatively short period of time – seven to 15 years. But not everyone needs such an accelerated program. If you’re young and just starting out on your wealth-building career, you can take the leisurely approach by putting “the miracle” of compound interest to work for you. That’s the idea behind my latest book, Automatic Wealth for Graduates.
As I explain in Automatic Wealth for Graduates, there are three components to compound interest:
1. How much you invest.
2. What return you get on your investment.
3. How many years you stay invested.
For the miracle of compound interest to work its wonders, you need 30 or 40 years of savings. So, today, let’s assume that you are in your twenties (or that you know someone who is that you can pass this information along to). And let’s take a look at this “automatic” road to financial independence.
Start Saving Right Now
To take full advantage of the miracle of compound interest, you must begin to save and invest immediately – as soon as you start earning an income. I recommend that you set an aggressive goal for yourself: to save 15 percent of your pre-tax income.
Saving 15 percent of your income when you are just starting out might seem like a challenge. And it is. But if you are willing to make some reasonable sacrifices (such as sharing an apartment, driving a used car, and shopping for bargains), you’ll be able to do it.
What you earn on your savings depends on what type of investing you do. If you invest in the stock market – which is the way most people invest – you can expect to make between 10 percent and 13 percent on your money. (Stock market historians will tell you that if you go back to the beginning of the 20th century, the average ROI – return on investment – of the market has been about 10 percent. But there was also a long stretch – from 1950 to 2000 – when it returned 13.2 percent.)
Now let’s say that, with your first job, you start earning the average salary made by all college grads when they get out of school. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, that’s $30,337 a year. And let’s say that you are good at your job, so you get a consistent annual raise of 4 percent. So you’d be making $43,179 a year 10 years from now, and $140,046 in 40 years. This means that you will not only be making more money, you will also be saving more money.
If you consistently – that means every year – deposit 15 percent of your income into investments, compound interest will begin to accumulate like you wouldn’t believe.
Just by investing 15 percent of your income and having a very ordinary income-earning life, you’d be worth about $5.5 million at 65 when you are ready to retire. If you decided to work an extra 10 years, till you were 75, you’d be worth $15 million!
Now let’s take a look at the same situation with only one difference: Let’s assume you are able to get that ROI of 13 percent. That would bring your net worth up to $15 million by the time you are 65. And if you keep saving till you are 75, you’d be worth 50 million bucks!
I know these numbers seem incredible, but we are just warming up.
Now let’s assume that you become a savvy investor and earn 18 percent on your savings. In that case, you’d be worth a million at 41, $6 million at 51, $15 million at 56, $35 million at 61, and $200 million by the time you are 71!
Mindboggling … but True
I’m presuming you are blown away, as I am every time I look at numbers like these. The skeptic in me jumps out and challenges the assumptions as they apply to the three components of compound interest:
1. How much you invest.
Are the invested amounts realistic? In my opinion, they are conservative. Anyone with discipline can learn to save 15 percent of his income.
2. How long you invest.
That is not a debatable point. It’s simply a matter of mathematics. Compound interest becomes miraculous after about 30 years of investing. That’s why it is so important – and why you have such a great advantage – when you start young.
3. What ROI you get.
You may not be able to earn 18 percent on your stocks throughout your career. But if you learn how to invest in local real estate – which is something you can do even now in a highly overvalued real estate market – you can expect to earn about 30 percent on that. And if you start your own successful business one day, you may well see investment returns of 50 percent or more over time.
Putting aside, for the moment, the 50 percent-plus returns you could hope to get by starting your own business, let’s see what would happen if you (1) invested a portion of your savings in stocks, and got only a 10 percent return, and (2) invested a portion in real estate, where you averaged, with leverage, the expected 30 percent ROI. (Again, we will assume you start with an ordinary income that increases at an ordinary rate and that you save 15 percent of it.)
If we add the interest of both investments together, you will reach $2 million dollars before your 41st birthday. If you still choose to continue to work and retire at 65, your investments will have bloomed to approximately $1.1 billion. And at age 76, you will have over $21 billion in accumulated interest.
Right about now, you may be wondering, “If it’s so easy to amass such a fortune, then why isn’t everyone rich?”
The answer is: Almost no one does what I suggest. No one puts away a consistent amount of their income. Nor do they start young. Nor do they stay invested in a consistently conservative portfolio of stocks and real estate. But the people who do it DO become this wealthy.
The Snowball (or “Doughball”) Effect
As your income increases, if you maintain your lifestyle (increasing your spending but not by too much), you’ll get wealthier faster because you will save more. By taking steps to drastically improve your income and consistently invest 15 percent or more, you will retire a multimillionaire.
Compound interest begins to work right away. The second year, you’re already making more interest than the first year … even though you’re always receiving the same interest rate. The third year, you’re making more than the second year. And so on. As a result of the compounding, your investment grows geometrically over time – like a snowball rolling down a hill, becoming bigger and bigger.
The longer you stay the course, the greater the wealth build-up becomes. And the sooner you start, the better.
Time Is on Your Side
With a beginning salary of $30,337, you’ll see about $22,500 in after-tax income. Before you do anything else, put 15 percent of your gross income ($4,500) into conservative stock investments. That leaves you with about $18K to live on – about $1,500 a month. Not a lot. But if you are careful about curbing your spending, you won’t have any trouble.
<You can pay $750 for rent. You may have to split an apartment, but living with other people can be a great experience. You may end up living with a friend who is in much the same position that you are. Maybe you work at similar jobs. Maybe your friend even makes a few thousand dollars more than you do. He might wear fancier clothes. He might spend more on entertainment. He might have a new car. But you’ll be the one who is able to retire comfortably at a relatively young age. And he may be forced to continue working long into his old age.
How can two people who make the same income end up in such different positions? The difference is, your friend isn’t saving anything. The difference is, you’ll be able to retire $13 million richer than your friend … because, when you were young, you began to consistently, religiously invest 15 percent or more of your income.
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.
Is A3Union really a scam?…
Writing a blog about online investing is something of a two-edged sword. Like many others who make recommendations I try to validate any programme that I write about. In this way I hope that others who are either new to this form of investing or alternatively have some experience but haven’t had much success will learn about ways to receive higher returns on their money.
Clearly, this form of investing does carry with it much higher degrees of risk and the potential for loss can be quite high. In fact it often seems that as soon as a programme appears to be a stayer and it gets featured something happens to it that brings it down.
I mention this as I read mixed reports about A3Union where it is alleged that they are not honouring withdrawals and have raised minimum amounts for investment in their various accounts. The specific post I’m referring to can be found at the NoBS blog. The post goes on to call A3Union a scam and warns people not to invest.
Yet when I look at the site itself I see something different. They say that they are introducing new products, they are carrying out training sessions in various countries and soon they hope to make their trading platform available to ordinary investors.
So who do we believe? My personal experience has been somewhat patchy. They have not been great at answering questions by email but they have completed the transactions that I’ve placed with them. Having said that I have not yet made a withdrawal as I’ve chosen to re-invest my funds directly.
Referral Post 008…There’s gold in them thar hills
Markets are tumbling across the world as problems unwind in the USA caused by the sub-prime mortgage market. Both the US Fed and the European Central Banks have waded in to prop up the markets by providing liquidity in the form of US$38 billion and ‘unlimited’ funding in Europe.
A recent article at BullionVault made some very telling points about the current situation and I quote:
“The fact that it (FED) went out of its way to accept mortgage-backed bonds as collateral shows you what the real intention of the Fed’s actions was: to avert more panic selling and liquidation of mortgage-backed securities, especially by traumatized hedge funds. Even though the Fed bought the market a reprieve, it didn’t solve the fundamental problem facing the $2 trillion subprime mortgage market.
No one really knows what all these mortgage bonds – and mortgage derivatives – are worth, because there aren’t any buyers (although that might give us a hint of what the market really thinks the bonds are worth). It is one thing for the Fed to accept them as collateral for short-term loans. It is quite another thing for real buyers to emerge in the market”.
You can read the full article here.
The Yen carry trade is also weighing heavily on traders as they liquidate their positions so that they can pay back their debt on the strengthening Yen.
So, it’s no real surprise that the price of gold (and in fact all precious metals) is seeing a decline during these turbulent times. Should we be worried about this as we’ve always been told that gold is a ‘safe haven’ when markets fall as investors seek the relative stability of the precious metal. Personally I believe that the heavy liabilities being met at the current time are depressing prices and once things settle down then gold should again rise.
This is then probably a good time to look at buying gold as the price lowers. The whole process is very straightforward at BullionVault and the high security levels of the site provide added comfort that transactions are safe. As the banks continue to literally print money to prop up the markets the case for holding a limited commodity can only grow and dealing at BullionVault is a simple way to do that.
Social Networking helps create strong relationships…
Because I travel fairly regularly I tend to use the Internet to socialise. This way I can be a long way from home and still feel that wherever I am I’m contactable.
The trend for what is called social networking is growing at an alarming rate and sites such as MySpace and Facebook are examples where I know my daughters spend a lot of their time. For me these sites aren’t so relevant (mainly because I don’t understand half the things they talk about) so I’ve tended to look for sites that cater more for the business person.
My first entry into this world was at LinkedIn as it allowed me to connect with work colleagues and the like. As I’ve developed my interest in online investing and network marketing I’ve expanded into other groups. The main ones are Bizpreneur and Rotatrix both of which offer many ways to connect with people of similar interests.
Also, the owners of Rotatrix are making it possible to earn money by contributing to the growth of the site. For example they have the Golden Matrix that only costs $0.10c to join. As new members join up the matrix grows. At the end of each month the fee to continue rises slightly so that as time goes by you begin to see some good returns on your money. They also have other ways to make money by using novel rotations of the various matrices that you can join. Combine this with the opportunity to promote other opportunities to members by way of banners and text links and you end up with a vibrant community that has plenty of potential for establishing long lasting relationships.
Aimed at a slightly different market Mentoring For Free aims to help anyone and everyone who wants to succeed in network marketing. The idea is to provide training and guidance on what really matters in recruiting people and how it can be done without pestering your friends and family. All the training is generic as no companies or products are mentioned and I am very happy to have found this resource. I believe that Network Marketing is a very viable business model as long as you approach it in the right way. In order to help people understand more about the pitfalls there is an e-book download called Success in 10 Steps that is a real eye-opener into the whole world of network marketing.
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The number of social networking sites like those mentioned in this post will probably increase with greater niche targeting being one way to differentiate, which I feel is a good thing as it introduces us all to a much wider audience with whom we can interact.
Update to Referral Post 002…Paying
I’m very pleased to report that my investment in the programme referenced in this post has paid out exactly on schedule. I chose to invest in plan 2 which promised a 250% return (includes principal) after a 60 day period.
The admin has recently provided an ‘August Special’ where they will offer slightly better returns than the existing plans so you should find out more as soon as you can. The new plans last for 80 days and offer returns of 400% for sums of between $100 and $5000, 450% for $5001 to $10000 and 500% for $10001 upwards (all percentages quoted include the principal).
As posted previously there is a private element to this programme so I will not post any links here. If you wish to find out more you will need to contact me here.
Given the turbulent times we’ve experienced over the last few months it is very pleasing to be able to report some good news.
PS I’ve made a re-investment myself and am looking forward to future payouts.
Summer here’s and the time is right for making…money!
Seems as though the summer heat is hotting things up in the online investing world. You may recall my post on 27 June about Imperia Invest. Well our man with his finger on the pulse, Donald Mills, tells me that membership is growing fast and there are only 2,000 spaces left.
For those who’ve never heard about Imperia Invest let me explain some more. Your investment is $50 and your potential return is $134,000. Sound too good to be true? Maybe but for a small outlay the chance of a significant return is very tempting. The company are using Traded Endowment Policies (TEP) to create the return.
After you make your deposit the company will credit your account with $80,000 (the actual period to credit the account can vary so don’t panic if it’s not there in a couple of days). With this money the company then trade for six months making a 1.2% return on investment every day. After the six months you then wait a further six months and you should then receive the $134,000.
I mentioned above that there are only 2,000 spaces left and as I first wrote about this just over a month ago it probably won’t take long to fill the remaining slots. You can join Imperia Invest for free and you then have 90 days to fund your account although as I say slots are filling quickly so the advice would be to fund as soon as possible.
Please note that the Imperia Invest link contains Don’s referral code so you would be signing up under him.
In a somewhat similar vein Global Pension Plan has been screeching towards the finish line. Recent increases in membership now mean that there are over 90,000 members. The rapid acceleration of people joining should see the 100,000 member target reached very soon so if you have been keeping this on the back burner then now is definitely the time to take action.
For those new to Global Pension Plan you invest €30 and receive a return of €55,000 if you are over 27 and under 67 years of age (this sum is €110,000 if you are below 27 years of age). The trigger is reaching the 100,000 membership and as I say this is rapidly approaching. To add even more drama the load on the site recently has been very heavy with new signups so if you try and don’t make it initially keep trying as you could be saying goodbye to a significant sum of money.
The Global Pension Plan link in this post has my referral link as you will not be able to join without having a referral link to reference.
So, the time for real action is now as the window of opportunity for both these programmes is rapidly closing.
