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The Best Investment You Can Make Now

Written on November 24, 2009 by George Krueger & Mary-Lynn Foster in Money

finance_maze Stocks are up significantly from their low in March of this year. Of course, they still haven’t clawed their way back to the level we saw in 2007. However, you have to ask yourself if stocks are the best place to put your money right now.

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Treasuries – bonds issued by our government – have also had quite a run as investors have fled to safety. If interest rates go down, the value of the underlying note goes up. Interest rates are incredibly low right now. How much lower can they go?

Even if you hold it in cash, savings accounts are paying a paltry amount of interest right now. It would take you about 144 years to double your money on a 1-year CD, given the best rates posted on Bankrate.com. We don’t know about you, but we’re not sure we’ll live that long!

We’re looking at generalities here. You should discuss your specific situation with your financial planner. But our point is that it’s hard to look into the future right now and see an obvious place to put your money.

As we were talking about this, we realized there are some good places to put your money, even now.

Your own debt

If you have any debt, you can earn a decent return by paying it down. Let’s say you have a car loan on which you’re paying 6% interest. You can earn a guaranteed 6% per year return by paying it off. That’s pretty hard to beat right now.

Of course, if you have credit card debt, your returns may be as high as 30%!

Durable goods

You can still get a good deal on durable goods. Think cars, appliances and those sorts of things.

Some dealers are still hungry, although not as much as they were six months to a year ago. So you may be able to strike a good deal by buying a little bit prematurely.

Non-perishables

Think canned goods, household supplies and such. If you see something that you regularly use priced at half its normal cost – and you know it doesn’t go on sale very often – you can get a good return by stocking up.

Energy-efficiency

This is one of the few outlays you can make that will pay you back month-after-month. For example, if you have inefficient windows, you can seal up your home better by replacing them.

Energy prices are relatively low right now compared to what we will probably see in the years ahead. So getting a good deal now may very well give you a decent return.

These are good places to invest. But we haven’t discussed the best place to invest right now.

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Yourself

Invest in yourself! It’s the best place to invest now. Does that surprise you?

You may invest in more education that you know will make you more marketable in the future. Your investment of time and money may pay handsome dividends.

You may make a lateral move to beef up your resume or invest a little extra time to learn a new skill related to your current work.

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marylynn That’s how I learned to do audio production. When I was in the early years of my career in radio, after I got done with my on-air shift, I would go into the production room – where the commercials were being made – and soak up all the information I could get. The only investment on my part was my time, but I have to tell you, it continues paying dividends to this day!

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george If it weren’t for that, The Bigg Success Show may have never happened!

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You may want to dip your toes in the entrepreneurial waters, even just part time.

First, you may invest time – and perhaps some money – to hone up the skills required to run a business.

Then, you may invest money in samples of the product you want to sell and test it with potential customers.

Next, you may make a small investment in the infrastructure of the business (e.g. a web site) to see if you can attract enough customers to make it worth your while.

By keeping your costs low while you test a concept, you’ll be able to keep testing them until you find one that makes you money.

Invest in yourself – it’s the best investment you can make right now. Let’s face it – it’s the best investment you can ever make at any time because it leads to bigg success!

What are you doing to invest in yourself?

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(Image in today's post by svilen001)

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Making Money Multiply Magically

Written on September 8, 2009 by admin in Money

magic money We often romanticize about what life would be like with more money. We may think we would have more leisure time. We may picture ourselves spending some of that time in front of our new plasma TV. We may assume we would be happier.

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But then the reality kicks in.

Research shows that we tend to quickly spend our new found cash. It also shows that new material possessions make us happier for a very short period of time.

More importantly, we make an incorrect assumption about what it takes to make more money. We often have to spend more time working and commuting. So we actually have less leisure time.

We end up in the rat race.

We work more to make more money. Then we spend more money so we have to work more to make yet more money. Then we spend more so we have to work more and on and on.

There are two lessons here for us:

Be careful how you define bigg success. If it means more money, understand that there is a price. You’ll almost certainly have to invest more time.

Our definition for bigg success is life on your own terms. For you, that may mean more money. But it may not. We focus so much in our society on money. It’s important to remember that money is the means to an end, not the end itself.

The funny thing is that you often end up with more money when it’s not the center of your focus. Here are four ways to make your money multiply magically:

Focus on your whole life.

Find work that you love. Take up a hobby if you don’t have one already. Build strong relationships personally and professionally. You’ll find that it often doesn’t take much money to spend your time doing the things you love with the people you love.

So your money will multiply magically!

Spend less than you make.

Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? But we all know that it isn’t. It isn’t simple but it is necessary.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking life would suddenly be much better if you just made more money. Make the best of the money you make now and your money will magically multiply.

Avoid consumer debt.

If you have it now, pay it off aggressively. Get used to paying for purchases with cash. This is a timeless principle that applies to all economies and all people. We’ve recently relearned this lesson.

Here’s a question to ask anytime you’re tempted to buys something with borrowed money:

“If I can’t afford it today, what makes me think I can afford it, with interest, tomorrow?”

Many people assume they will make more money in the future. They don’t factor in that their costs will likely be higher in the future. That’s how they end up in the rat race and debt just compounds it.

Note that we didn’t say avoid all debt. It may make sense to borrow money for a legitimate investment. You have to prove out the opportunity, but a lot of people have made their money multiply magically by using leverage.

Invest wisely.

As we learned last year, stocks don’t go up forever. As we’re seeing this year, they don’t go down forever either. So invest in a diversified portfolio of assets. One of the best ways to do this is through no-load mutual funds as part of a qualified retirement plan.

Don’t let your money control you. Control your money and watch it multiply magically! That’s bigg success!

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Thank you so much for checking in with us today. Please join us next time when we’ll look at the first win entrepreneurs must achieve. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00476-090709.mp3

Want to be a Millionaire? Here's How to Think Like One

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