Herman School of Business
Where Do You Invest Now?
First and foremost understand that I currently own zero dollars of stock. Zip. Nadda. Oh, I am not a genius who knew when to cut and run…I took a bath from November through January and saw enough and bailed out. Or, I would now have lost even more than I did.
This stock market has been hiding from the truth for a long, long time. People have been trading on “future earnings estimates” of companies, not on current or recent past performance. Trading on fundamentals went out of vogue a few years ago when the computer age brought amateurs into the game with professionals. I consider myself an amateur. A rank amateur. I took my first bath in the early and mid-eighties and got out after losing millions. That’s right, millions. I stayed out for over twenty years by changing my investment strategy to what one of my first Mentors taught me…I started investing exclusively in myself.
I bought companies with the money I had, not stocks. I started a few different business enterprises and watched my net worth grow. I took some money out of the business investments and started buying houses over ten years ago. My “therapy” was working on the renovations in properties that ranged in age from 225 years old, another at 150 years old, one at 120 years old and a few “modern” ones around fifty years old. As the properties were finished they became rentals for awhile and then as I saw the real estate market getting ridiculous…I sold more than half of the houses. Great move.
Then two years ago I felt that real estate was going to fail and I got out of almost all of those investments. Whew, that was a close one. And then I made the Dunderhead play of all times. I went back into the stock market after telling myself for twenty years that Wall Street was full of Hype, not Substance. That as people are getting closer to retirement and want to start taking money out…and no longer putting money in…prices must fall. Many lost dollars later I squealed like the hog being slaughtered I was! As painful as it was to admit I had made the same mistake twice in my lifetime…I did admit it. But if the stock market is stinko and real estate is still crashing…where do we put our money?
Oh yeah, that’s right…invest in yourself!
The best investment I have made in the last three years was the money I put into marketing my books, and marketing my consulting, and marketing my willingness to be a Speaker for events throughout the country. This month I am quoted in an article in INC magazine, on page 58. While the picture is a little small for geezers to see, hey…I am being quoted as an expert in INC magazine! Which came about because I chose to invest in myself, toot my horn about my skills, and grab a following if I could to pay me speaking fees, consulting fees, and make a few bucks selling books.
People need food, gasoline, entertainment and health care…the rest is a want not a need. If you want to make money in the next five years concentrate on what people need, not just what they want. Keep in mind that information is something everyone can use to help them do better than they are…so after they feel their needs, they will seek information to find a way to make enough money to get some of their wants.
And one last thought…what if you pull out all your investments and just sit on the sidelines in cash? Well, if you did that when the market almost hit 14,000 and today it closed at about 11,500 you would still have all of your cash, and probably a few bucks of interest, while those in the market lost twenty percent of theirs. In less than one year.
- Posted: 29 June 2008
- Comments: 0
- Category: Business success
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