Topics
|
Written by Mark Ford: Wealth Coach - The Palm Beach Letter
|
|
Thursday, 25 April 2013 08:45 |
|
I grew up relatively poor, the second of eight children. My father earned $12,000 a year as a college professor. As a teenager, I was ashamed of our small house, my hand-me-down clothes, and my peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.
I dreamed, literally dreamed, of living like a rich man.
And so, when I got my first job at age nine as a paperboy – and then at 12 as a lackey at the local carwash – I would spend my money on luxuries, like a pair of brand-new Thom McAn shoes.
I worked every chance I got through high school, and then worked two or three jobs during college and graduate school. I spent 80% of my money on necessities: food, clothes, and tuition. But I always spent a bit on little niceties. Even back then, I had the notion that I didn't need to deprive myself now for some better life later.
I tell you this to emphasize a key part of the simple money-management system I've used to generate more than $50 million in wealth…
 I don't believe in scrimping severely to optimize savings. I believe you can live a rich life while you grow rich, so long as you are willing to work hard and you are smart about your spending.
Think of the typical earning/spending/saving pattern of most wealth-seekers…
During their 20s, they spend every nickel of their modest income to make ends meet. At that age, it is nearly impossible to put aside money for the future.
During their 30s, their income increases. But this is also when they start a family. Expenses soar. There are more mouths to feed, a "family" car to buy, and the dreaded down-payment on a first house. They manage to save a little during these years, but not nearly as much as they thought they would.
If they work hard and make good career decisions, their income climbs much higher in their 40s and early 50s. They have more money to put aside for the future, but they are also tempted into buying newer cars, nicer clothes, more exotic vacations, and – the biggest wealth-stealer of them all – that dream house.
In their later 50s and 60s, their income plateaus or even dips… and they may have to start shelling out for college tuition. Aware that their retirement funds are being depleted rather than enhanced, they invest aggressively to try to make up the difference.
Finally, sometime in their mid- to late-60s, they realize that they don't have enough money to retire. They have spent almost 40 years working hard and chasing wealth, but they never managed to attain it.
It's sad, but it's the reality for most people. And it is just as true for high-income earners (doctors, lawyers, etc.) as it is for working-class folks.
There are two lessons to be drawn from this:
First, it is very difficult to acquire wealth if you increase your spending every time your income goes up.
Second, setting unrealistic investing goals means taking greater risks. And taking more risks, contrary to what many pundits say, will almost always make you poorer… not richer.
The truth is, there is only a marginal relationship between how much you spend on housing, transportation, vacations, and toys, and the enjoyment you can derive from them.
My spending strategy is simple: Discover your own, less expensive way to live a rich life. By a "rich life," I mean a life free from financial stress, but also filled with things that give you pleasure.
For example, good, restful sleep is essential for a happy life. Ideally, you're going to spend around one-third of your life sleeping. So rather than "pay up" for an expensive car or an expensive necklace, buy a great mattress. By getting a great mattress (which can be had for less than $2,000), you'll sleep as well as any billionaire… and be just as happy.
Your family can be just as happy in a house that costs $100,000 or $200,000 as opposed to one that costs $10 million or $20 million. Likewise, a $25,000 car will get you where you want to go just as well as a car that costs 10 times that amount. There are dozens of ways to live like a millionaire on a modest budget. If you learn those ways, you will have a tremendous advantage over everyone else at your income level.
Make smart spending decisions. Stop thinking that because you're earning more money, you should be spending more. Your future wealth is determined by how much you save and invest, not by how much you spend.
So here's what I'd like you to do: Figure out how much you need to spend every year to live your own personal version of a "rich" life. It might help to spend a few minutes thinking about all the things you truly enjoyed last year. If you are like me, you'll find that almost all the things you enjoy require very little in the way of money. (Those are the true luxuries.)
Keep the biggest wealth-stealing expenses – like your house, your cars, and entertainment – to a necessary minimum. And eschew any expenditure that has a brand name attached to it. Brand names are parasites that gobble up wealth.
Don't nod your head and promise to get to it sometime in the future. Do it today. Estimate, as well as you can, what you need to spend each year to have the life you want.
This is a number you must have firmly in your mind if you intend to be a serious wealth-builder.
This simple system for managing money can work for you if you commit yourself to it. As I said, it's part of the system I used to build a net worth of more than $50 million – and it's still working for me and everyone else I know who has tried it.
So today, spend the time it takes to establish your own approach to "living rich" now… and in the future.
Regards,
Mark Ford
Editor's note: Last year, Mark formed a small group at The Palm Beach Letter to teach subscribers how to live rich while building wealth. The results have surpassed all expectations… Shaun Hansen wrote in to say he made $20,000 in less than 60 days – from home – with Mark's techniques.
Mark has agreed – for a limited time – to open his complete "playbook" to DailyWealth readers at a generous discount. To review the full details and access this "life-changing material," click here.
Further Reading:
Find more of Mark's strategies for growing your wealth here…
A Three-Year Plan to Achieve Financial Independence
"Becoming a multimillionaire takes years. But breaking the chains of financial slavery can be done relatively quickly."
How to Get a Little Bit Richer Every Day
"By following one simple rule of getting richer every day, I was able to do better than I ever expected… without a single day of feeling poorer than I was the day before." |
|
|
Written by Business Insider
|
|
Thursday, 25 April 2013 07:21 |
|
Gold is the biggest loser in this snapshot of the financial markets since the beginning of the year (and the beginning of the month) via Deutsche Bank's "Equity House View" report.
Thanks to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo "Abenomics" Abe, the Nikkei is the top performer and the yen is a major loser.
Click HERE or on the Chart for a Larger View
ALBERT EDWARDS: Stocks Will Crash, Hyperinflation Will Come, And Gold Will Go Above $10,000
This is always reassuring. SocGen strategist Albert Edwards remains an ultra-bear, and predicts everything will go to hell.
In his new note he writes:
We still forecast 450 S&P, sub-1% US 10y yields, and gold above $10,000
My working experience of the last 30 years has convinced me that policymakers’ efforts to manage the economic cycle have actually made things far more volatile. Their repeated interventions have, much to their surprise, blown up in their faces a few years later. The current round of QE will be no different. We have written previously, quotingMarc Faber, that “The Fed Will Destroy the World” through their money printing. Rapid inflation surely beckons. But that will not occur without firstly a Japanese-style loss of confidence in policymakers as we dive back into recession and produce dislocative market moves.
So yeah, it goes on from there. Lots of doom. This is why everyone loves Albert Edwards.
 Marc Andreessen Is Blown Away By Google Glass: 'Oh My God, I Have The Entire Internet In My Vision"
....read about them HERE
|
|
Written by Tony Sagami: Uncommon Wisdom
|
|
Thursday, 25 April 2013 06:55 |
|
Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Bentley, Lamborghini, Porsche, Aston-Martin, Maserati, BMW, Jaguar, Audi, Alfa Romeo
When I was a teenager, I dreamed about owning a Porsche or Ferrari. Of course, that was when I had no cash and even less in the way of brains.
Alas, I will forever be the son of a frugal farmer. So, a Ford or Chevy pickup will do just fine for me, thank you.
But hey, a lot of people feel very differently. Wherever I go in the United States, I see a lot of BMWs, Mercedes, Range Rovers, and other expensive luxury/sports cars.
What amazes me, however, is the number of luxury cars I see in Asia.
The streets of Tokyo, Taipei, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Shanghai, and Beijing have just as many — if not more — of those high-priced luxury/sports cars as any city in the United States.
That’s quite a change from 20 years ago when the primary mode of transportation in China was a bicycle. Those days are long gone, and a whole new era … and the whole new set of investing opportunities that come along with it … is upon us.
Today the streets of major Chinese cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, are so clogged with cars that it can take hours to travel just a couple of miles.
In fact, China is now the largest auto market in the world, and car-makers from all over the world are tripping over each other to get into China.
Those carmakers gathered at the 2013 Shanghai Auto Show, the largest event of the year for the automobile industry.
Yup, you read that right — with 1,300 cars showcased this year, including the debut of more than 100 new models, it’s even bigger than the Detroit Auto Show!
The World’s Top Auto Market
Aims to Keep Ruling the Road
China has been the leading auto market in the world since 2009. But consulting firm McKinsey & Co. predicts it is going to get even-bigger.
Some 200 million Chinese have driver’s licenses, and McKinsey expects auto sales there will grow by an average of 8% a year between now and 2020.
But even though the typical car buyer is about a decade younger than his or her U.S. counterpart, as the CEO of Jaguar Land Rover told CNBC last week, they’re not intent on buying old beaters or simple models to get them from Point A to B.
Instead, they want something that screams “status car,” to reflect their growing incomes and the place in society they’re increasingly occupying.
That’s why China’s luxury-vehicle market is where the big bucks are being made. And that’s a market you can easily tap into without putting a single mile on your own car!
Big Price Tags,
Bigger Potential Profits
Every carmaker in the world — including Rolls-Royce, Porsche, Ferrari, Bentley and Lamborghini — from 20 countries flocks to Shanghai for good reason: to get in front of China’s growing pool of potential buyers.
McKinsey expects luxury cars sales to grow by an impressive 12% a year over the same period.
This leaves the potential for them to go even-higher because “Demand outstrips supply for our vehicles,” said Klaus Maier, the president of the China Mercedes-Benz division, as he recently told Bloomberg.
If you want to tap into the luxury auto boom, there are several ways to do so. Here are four “options” that could pick up some serious momentum …
Option #1: BMW (BAMXY.PK). BMW are extremely popular in China. Last year, sales there soared by an amazing 40% to 326,000 vehicles.
BMW, by the way, also owns the Rolls-Royce and Mini brands.
Option #2: Porsche (POAHY.PK). The younger Chinese millionaires prefer speed over comfort, and Porsche is making a killing in China.
Not surprisingly, Porsche just announced that it enjoyed its best March EVER in company history.
The company sold 37,009 cars in the first quarter, a 21% increase, but a big chunk of that gain came from China. There, Porsche sold 8,844 cars in the first quarter, a 25% bump from the same period last year.
Plus, Porsche has a nice kicker in that it owns 18% of Volkswagen, so you get both VW and Audi exposure when you buy Porsche stock.
Even though these higher-end vehicles may cost a pretty penny, that doesn’t mean they won’t require some serious upkeep over the years.
And so, you may want to look toward a pair of Chinese auto parts stocks that are traded in the United States on the Nasdaq that could benefit from China’s car-buying boom:
Option #3: Chinese Automotive Systems (CAAS), a leading supplier of power-steering components and systems for Chinese passenger automobiles and commercial vehicles.
Option #4: SORL Auto Parts (SORL) is a leading supplier of automotive brake systems and other key safety-related auto parts to automotive original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs.
Of course, as we discussed earlier this week, China’s economy “only” grew by 7.7% in the first quarter. So all the doomsayers are keeping a close eye on whether consumers are saving or spending their money.
But when it comes to luxury items like cars that many newly affluent citizens crave, I expect any potential shift in sales figures to be a mere pothole on the way to higher stock prices.
In fact, my Asian Century subscribers recently closed out a 100%-plus gain in just about eight weeks in an Asia-based car-maker. And just this week, I recommended another name that caters to a wide variety of Chinese and other global car buyers.
This stock is already in positive territory, and my research tells me it’s on the right track to zoom higher!
As always, if you’re doing this on your own, you need to do your homework and decide whether any of these securities are appropriate for your personal situation.
But as you know, timing is everything when it comes to investing. And there’s still time to get in on this new position in my trading service, The Asian Century. Click here now to claim your risk-free trial membership today!
Best wishes,
Tony
 Related: Supercars.net & The 2013 Shanghai Auto Show, the largest event of the year for the automobile industry.
P.S. To get all the names of my favorite stocks — what’s working today AND what to buy as Asia’s growth continues to explode — get on board with all the profit opportunities The Asian Century offers today. Click here to get started right away!
Tony Sagami is the editor of The Asian Century, a trading service designed to help investors profit from the seemingly unstoppable Asian consumption machine. He helps his subscribers tap into this potential through a variety of easy-to-execute strategies on global companies that trade on the U.S. exchanges that also do big business in Asia. For more information on The Asian Century, click here.
Tony is also the editor of International ETF Trader, where he shows members how to make money from trends taking place all over the world in areas like natural resources, gold, oil, commodities, tech, consumer goods and even in individual countries themselves.
|
|
Written by Rick Ackerman
|
|
Thursday, 25 April 2013 06:39 |
|
"Gold futures & the Gold Bug’s Index (HUI), have turned higher"
Our friend
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, a gold timer with a proven gift for knowing when to bet against the crowd, phoned the other day with urgent advice. Almost no one sees it coming, he said, but bullion is getting ready to explode. “It’s time to jump in head-first!”
Chuck has been wrong before, and we’d all but tuned him out for the last eight months or so, since his bullish drumbeat went against the asphyxiating weight of bullion charts that have shouted “lower” since last October. Now, he says, the winning bet is to be short stocks and long gold and silver. Will he be right? From a technical standpoint, it’s still too early to tell. To be sure, some key vehicles, including gold futures and the Gold Bug’s Index (HUI), have turned higher from levels that coincide with Hidden Pivot correction targets of our own. But the bounce so far, especially in Comex quotes, seems tentative at best. Moreover, this is occurring at a time when the juggernaut of deflation is threatening to overwhelm the central banks’ desperate efforts to thwart the collapse of a quadrillion dollar financial-asset bubble.
All things considered, we’re inclined to give Chuck the benefit of the doubt right now. Here are some persuasive points that he makes:
- Sentiment indicators suggest that gold is the leper of the investment world, with Rydex bulls currently at an astounding 2%.
- Shares of mining companies with real gold and silver in the ground, juniors in particular, have collapsed beyond the point of despair.
- As the price of paper gold has fallen in recent weeks, physical supplies have tightened sharply.
- Mining-share options are trading at giveaway volatilities.
IN ADDITION, CHUCK NOTES SOME TROUBLING SIGNS ON WALL STREET:
- Bull-mania has been brazenly flouting weaker corporate earnings, stagnant incomes and fizzling retail sales.
- With the Dow in record territory, institutional buyers have turned defensive, focusing on health care, big pharma and consumer staples.
- Ominously, the banking sector has turned weak even though it is by far the biggest beneficiary of a global money blowout.
- With respect to seasonality, the month of May has typically been anything but merry.
- Europe’s deepening recession has become intractable.
- China’s economy is turning down as well.
A MAJOR TURNING POINT?
All of these factors suggest that stocks, bullion and financial assets could be at a major turning point. If this proves to be the case, and it leads to the epiphany that quantitative easing isn’t working, a stepped-up response by the central banks could be the signal that bullion markets have long awaited.
In the meantime, we’ve been recommending bottom-fishing in gold futures, GDXJ, HUI and some other popular bullion vehicles, since we know how difficult it will be, psychologically speaking, to buy these erstwhile dogs after they’ve exploded for 15%-20% gains in mere days. That is how great bull markets often begin, and the only way to avoid being shut out is to be aboard before they begin. This is the lesson we learned when stocks took off in August of 1982 with a burst of ebullience and power such as we had never before witnessed. It’s going to happen in bullion sooner or later; but even if not now, with shares and T-bonds wafting ever higher on a sea of brazen lies, our gut instinct is telling us that this is no time for bullion bulls to throw in the towel.
|
|
Written by Mike Campbell
|
|
Thursday, 25 April 2013 02:26 |
|
 About six months ago everyone on TV and across the web was pretty much saying Apple’s stock would never go down. They said $1,000 for Apple shares was a foregone conclusion. And Apple shares certainly wouldn’t go down under $400 a share, that would be absurd to even consider. Well, yes, Apple shares most certainly have gone lower than $400 a share, and Apple shares are still hanging around $400 even after increasing their share buyback plan to $60 billion and raising their dividend.
And The Goofy Goes To:
Jim Cramer: “Thinking of Apple as a $1,000 stock is not “irrationally exuberant” as some have claimed, but likely a foregone conclusion.”
Andy Zaky: “Apple will reach $1,000 in late December or early January 2014″; His Apple hedge fund – yes he only bought Apple shares for his fund - lost millions.
James Altucher: “Apple is definitely undervalued. It could easily find its way to $1,000.”
Gene Munster: “Now Munster is upping the ante, calling for Apple to reach $1,000 a share by 2014 and become the first U.S. company worth $1 trillion.”
Steve Wozniak: “People talk about $1000 stock price. At first you want to doubt it, but I actually believe that, and I don’t follow stock markets. Apple has that much growth left.”
Shebly Seyrafi of FBN Securities: “AAPL continues to be a strong new product story,” the analyst writes. “It has the iPhone 5 shipping soon, it is expected to have a new iPad mini shipping in FY Q1, China Mobile is a large opportunity for AAPL starting next year and the iTV is generally expected to be launched over the next year or so
Brian White of Topeka Capital: “Driven by an ever expanding portfolio of innovative products, a growing integrated digital grid, unmatched aesthetics and a brand that is able to touch the soul of consumers of all backgrounds, Apple fever is spreading like a wildfire around the world and we see no end in sight to this trend.”
........And so many more |
|
|
<< Start < Prev 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 35 of 386 |
|
|
