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Before you think about what your next investment is, make sure your finances are in order. More people now than ever are in debt, and deeply in it. As far as debt reduction goes; Debt should be your number #1 priority. Get rid of it! Reduce Debt!

Start with high interest debt; debt like credit cards and store financing can have interest rates up around 26%. After working on paying off that kind of debt (even if it has to be a little at a time, maybe cutting down on eating out and shopping thrifty, etc.), the relief will come much sooner than you'd expect.

Avoid car loans if you can; paying interest on a big-ticket item that depreciates is hard to justify. Think about it. If you agree to pay 14% interest for 5 years on a new $30,000 car, you could expect to pay under $700 a month. Not too bad right? Wait, over that 5 years, you will have paid close to $42,000 for the car because of the 14% interest. On top of that, a week after you bought your car it lost 28% of it's value. That's $8,400! A week after you bought the car it was worth $21,600, and you ended up paying $42,000 for it. You have to think about other costs like gas, car insurance (auto insurance). Try to budget out the costs of your car; get auto insurance quotes and estimate gas usage before even looking for a car. With that said, try to avoid car loans.

Credit cards are a whole other bear. Some credit cards will charge 26% or more on the balance you don't pay off for each month. 26% interest can put you in the hole faster than you can say "I'm in debt". Once your balance starts to grow beyond your means, what you owe will stack up quickly. If you have credit card debt, you first have to stop spending more than you can pay for each month. Pay the balance of that month in full. Then, alot an amount of what you make each month to pay off a part of the credit card debt. If you follow that plan, you'll be fine. To add to that, no one needs a credit card; you can use your debit card just like a credit card.

The Plan to Financial Prosperity

On to more positive things, you should develop a financial plan if you haven't already.

-A good life plan to follow is 80-10-10. Make a budget following this plan, and you will retire wealthy, happy, and debt-free.

• Learn to live off of 80% of what you make (incudes ALL expenses: food, house payments, clothes, taxes etc.).
• Give away 10%. Give it to a charity you believe in, a church you are a member of, or a family member/ friend that needs help. Not only will this help others and make you feel better about yourself, but also it will bring you connections to people that will appreciate what you're doing. Those people can bring you more business or even get you into a better job.
• The other 10% is strictly for saving and investing for retirement.

Even if you just invest in mutual funds or ETFs, your investment will grow in a compounding fashion over time (which means over time that small amount you contribute each month will turn into a huge amount). Set up a budget that dices up the pieces of your income in that fashion. The 80-10-10 is just a starting point. Living off of 80% is the maximum; if you can do 70-10-20, then by all means do it. That way you will have more room to pay for life insurance, pay off that equity loan, and cover your mortgage (home loan) easily.

Get these ideas into practice, and you will be thanking me when you retire rich and worry free.

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Stocks are down, way down, but there has to be at least a few stocks picks that can make you some money still. While stocks are on the decline for the most part, there are some companies in the stock market that are worth investing in now.

Stock investing may seem too dangerous during these times of volatility and price declines, but there are always stocks that are going up in the stock market. It is my mission to find 3 Very Good Money Making Stock Investments just for you:

• One stock that you may have heard of is the ever-gaining fertilizer company, Potash (POT) priced at $236. Analysts just raised price targets from $300 to $340. A 100 point gain on this stock pick would be a helpful investment addition to your portfolio. They are profiting from worldwide demand in fertilizer for farming/landscaping in developing countries. Beware of the high P/E ratio though, a P/E of 52 is much higher than most companies that are similar. It is a fast-growing company, so it deserves a high P/E, but when its run is over the P/E will come down, bringing the stock price down. Great investment for the next 1-2 years!
• El Paso Corp. (EP) is a natural gas transmission, exploration, and production company. The stock keeps breaking through its high prices, and the demand for natural gas (as well as the price of natural gas) will continue to go up. Priced at just above $21, this stock will continue to go up for years to come.
• A Mexico-based cellular and fixed-line phone company is profiting from their Central and South American market share. American Movil (AMX), currently priced at $53.50, has a one year price target of $73.64. This is a stock holding by William Landers' BlackRock Latin America Mutual Fund (MDLTX) that I featured in The Five Best Mutual Funds.

By now, I hope you have a few investment ideas for your portfolio, and you should believe that there are always stocks making money no matter how bad the stock market is. If you see any patterns or trends in the stocks I have given you or similar stocks, investigate and make your own trades. Finding your own way to trading stocks is the best way to make money in investments. Stock investing is still one of the best ways to increase your wealth, so keep at it, and make some money!

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This Bloomberg video discusses how oil may be headed to over $200 a barrel! Matthew Simmons, chairman of Simmons & Company International talks about the oil crisis.



Simmons, "Our usable inventory is the United States is at record low levels." He goes on to say the world supply is now in a definite decline. Although this supply squeeze is bringing Americans to our knees, Simmons stated that the rest of the world is "laughing at us" because they are experiencing astronomical prices. In Istanbul, Turkey, there was a report of $11.67 a gallon for gas!

The stock market is at odds with oil prices. Every time oil prices advance, the stock market takes a dive. This inverse relationship is driving most of the volatility we see in the financial markets, making it difficult for investors. You can make money from this situation. How to Profit From the Oil Run is an article about getting returns on this wild oil boom. Through stock investing, different investments can yield great returns with oil prices going higher and higher. I'll show you how.

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With waves of investing developing every few years, it seems money managers and sophisticated speculators are the only ones making big bucks when the markets boom.

How do you know what a developing trend looks like? Will you invest in it when you find a wave beginning? Why can't you make money off of these huge opportunities? Well... you can...

There has been research upon research, more studying, and more books written than you can imagine on how investing waves / trends develop and how to identify and invest in them. So how do we find them? What is my magical stock market investing advice?

Image courtesy of thoildrum.com

There is no magic secret. However, there are many ways to foresee a possible trend. You could spend weeks learning different ways to find these market waves, but I will give you some significant clues to discover them.

Clues for Developing Investing Trends

• New or Reinvented and made public
• More frequent findings in trade journals, magazines, and newspapers
• Haven't been exploited already by Wall Street
• A Hype or following begins to develop

Examples of some of these are easy to see in hindsight. Apple came out with iPod (huge) and then iPhone; the stock skyrocketed. Industry/ idea that developed and became pricey is the whole group of nanotechnology stocks/ companies. eBay and Amazon- you can buy anything in the world online.

What you should be looking for:
-There are trends on small scale all the way to colossal scale (all of which can make you colossal amounts of money).
-Micro-trends are similar to what happened with the iPod- it affected one company (Apple) and a few other mp3 player manufacturers.
-Colossal trends are like oil, it has been making boat loads of money for people for over 100 years!

The next colossal trend will be a mixture of smaller trends all working together, and that is GREEN! Everyone wants to be green. Green this, green that; it's on TV. There are magazines just for green: Green living, cooking, cleaning, building, organic food, etc. Everything that being green incorporates will make money, so you have to think about what green means.

Clean energy will be the massive breakthrough, and General Electric (GE) has already invested billions in creating alternative energy. Who knows if that energy source will be hydrogen, solar, or a mixture of every possible alternative. Either way, institutional investors will be pouring billions into these stocks over the next decade or two. So find companies that are going green, and especially find companies that are carving out a niche in our new "Green World." Invest and let these companies bring you loads of green (cash)!

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Financials are almost as low as their 52-week lows, so is this a time to stay away from them or a time to buy them? Investing in financial stocks right now may seem scary for some of you. That is why I want to reiterate the same type of thinking I expressed over a month ago in Financials Maimed, Pick 'Em Cheap.



Although we hear so much bad news from every news source out there, investing in the stock market right now could could be one of the best investments you make. Once we pull out of this recession, valuations are going to go back up and beyond what they were before. These low priced stocks will not stay forever. Take this piece of investing advice as a 3-5 year path to great wealth. If you heavily invest in stocks, especially financials, right now; you will become much richer than you are today.



Some of the best stock picks for the financial sector are:

• Citigroup (C)- one of the most beaten down, highest potential for returns. Today priced around $20-21, in three years could be priced at $60-80!
• Merrill Lynch (MER)- with a stock that almost hit $100 a year ago, $36 is not a bad price at all. The stock can easily double once they cleanse their hands of all bad debt.
• Bank of America (BAC)- one of the strongest banks in the sector. They had much smaller subprime losses than most banks, but the price has dragged down alongside the rest of financials
• JP Morgan (JPM) and Goldman Sachs (GS)- these two stocks have not gotten hit as hard as other financials because they made smarter investments, and they are the cream of the crop. Goldman is probably the best investment bank in the world, whereas JP Morgan received the special blessing of financial backing from the Federal Reserve. Bottom line: safer, strong investments, with good earning potential, but not as high as more risky bank stocks.

As with any investing idea, investing strategy, or investing tips; do your own research on these companies and the stock market. The best stock market investing advice I can give you is: If you are going to invest in any strategy, stick with it, don't deviate or let emotions get in the way, and it will make you a lot of money.
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Images courtesy of thelightisgreen.com, businessweek.com, and ml.com

With markets having flat days, to 300 points up, to 300 points down. Aren't we just ending up right where we started from? With all of the hype and then panic happening so often, we have a volatile yet neutral market. What does that mean for you, the investor?

In a recent article in Active Trader Magazine, a very successful money manager named Vitaliy Katseneleson states his case on why he thinks the market will continue to be range-bound. A range-bound market is where stocks bounce up and down quite frequently, but overall the market does not largely advance or decline (neither a bull market or a bear market). In other words, a volatile stock market that lacks direction.

As an active value investor, Katseneleson has done extensive research on the markets over the past century, and he has found that there were three major, long-term range-bound markets in the 1900s. All of those periods of time lasted 13 to 18 years. Many people that take note of this potential situation cite the 1970s' lack of significant growth/momentum. Vitaliy sees a beginning of one of these historical periods brewing right now.

What is some good investment advice or stock advice if this turns out to be a range-bound market?

• Volatile markets are a good thing if you can learn how to capture a swing in one direction
• Invest in Low-PE stocks. Stocks with a low-PE historically outperformed high-PE stocks in every range-bound market.
• Short High-PE stocks. High-PE stocks tend to tumble during range-bound markets.
• Look for stocks that continue to have strong earnings and prioritize the earnings number.
• Buy stocks that analysts hate (this one I caution, but it is one of Vitaliy Katseneleson's strategies that has made him a lot of money; you really have to understand what you're getting into)

I believe if we are facing a range-bound period, it won't last all of 13-18 years; the world just doesn't move that slow anymore. We now have systems and speed of technological advancements that can turn around a range-bound market much quicker than in the past. A range-bound market is likely for the next few years, but with our fast-paced society, something will spark a new economic growth story.

Believe me, when you Google for investment advice while the market is going crazy like it is, you won't readily find answers about what is going on in the market like here. People will debate over and over again. If you take these few tips on investing in this stock market, you will do much better than the majority of investors.

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People are worried about making their mortgage payments and where the housing market is going, so why even think about a second house as an investment?

As was mentioned in When to Buy a House, right now is the opportunity of a lifetime to buy real estate. Home prices are low, and one of the most important factors is that interest rates on mortgages are still very low. Interest rates will probably not go any lower than they are over the next 5-10 years.

There is a lot of money to be made in real estate, even though the news has scared the pants off of home-owners and investors alike. It's a matter of value-investing; when you know an asset has more value than its actual price, you buy it. You know that over time that investment is going to appreciate at a faster rate than other investments.

Before you go out looking for an investment property, make sure your own mortgage payments are under control. If payments are getting difficult, try to either sell your house and downsize or buy a new house and rent out the old one. To have that investment property, you must be comfortably paying for your home. If you want to learn more on personal finances check out the article Get Personal Finances In Order.

-> Investing in a property is great because you can increase your net worth, have someone else pay your mortgage payments (maybe even making a profit with their payments), and get a very good return when you decide to sell it (especially if you spruce the place up during your ownership).

What you need:

• Financial Planner/ CPA (accountant)- to discuss the tax advantages and advise on certain financial aspects of the deal (whether you want to form an LLC, S-corp, Partnership, etc.)
• Find a good real estate agent to find you a home with a lot of income and appreciation potential
• Have a plan of how you will find tenants (through your real estate broker, yourself with a sign or ads, or a property management company)
• Someone to handle small repairs around the property
• Keep track of all the money spent and all of the rent income (although your CPA will tell you that and help you)

Make sure your investment generates a positive cash flow!
-The NUMBER 1 Rule of Buying an Investment Property


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With a volatile market like this, stocks swing way up one day and way down another. As soon as the market starts to look bullish, a report comes out about oil, inflation, consumer confidence, or some other economic report, and the market gets knocked down again.

If the stress of this volatility is too much for your body to handle, stick to a more constant stock that will yield good returns year after year. The stocks recommended in 3 Stocks That Can Make You Rich are more vulnerable to the ups and downs of this market even though there are much larger potential gains, so I'm offering you a more conservative investment for those who don't want to deal with the unpredictability of the markets.

We all know that Warren Buffett has an impeccable talent for investing (hence being named the richest man in the world by Forbes at an estimated $62 billion), but how can you make returns like Mr. Buffett year after year? You can hardly imagine matching his 60+ years of investing experience. It's hard enough just to track all of the investments Buffett makes in a year. He really is somewhat of a fund manager, so don't just try to chase down all of the same stocks Buffett has.


Picture Courtesy of About.com

An answer to this is to buy into his investing strategy. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company for the companies that Buffett finds great value in and invests in. Berkshire owns a number of companies including Geico, Helzberg Diamonds, Fruit of the Loom, and many others. They also have major holdings in Coca-Cola (KO), American Express (AXP), Anheuser-Busch Companies (BUD), and the list goes on.

The only problem is Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) is priced around $134000! Not many people can pay that much money for one share of a stock. There is an alternative that is an equivalent in earnings and growth because it's the same thing;

• Berkshire Hathaway B (BRK-B) priced near $4490. Although that is still a lot of money for one share, it is a great price for a stock that will earn you great returns. Out of all the stock investment tips, this is truly a stock pick of a lifetime. This is a perfect stock to have and to hold, and to buy more when you can. The B shares of Berkshire offer a more affordable way to get a solid, recession-resistant, constant earning investment. The only difference between A and B is B has less voting power for shareholders, which will make no difference in what you make from the stock at all.

How would you like to have the world's richest man and arguably the most intelligent investor managing your money for free?
The average annualized return of Berkshire has been above 18% for almost 20 years! This is probably one of the most valuable pieces of stock investing advice you can find. Do your own research and check out other companies, but Warren Buffett has one of the greatest minds for investment ideas. He has a clear investment strategy, and you can learn more about his strategy by reading his annual shareholder letter if you want to really get inside his mind.

This article should be found also in the Carnival of Personal Finance.

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