MoneyWatch101

Finding Peace in a Financially Crazy World

I thought I can switch things up a bit and talk about a topic not many people discuss in this space. Personal finance can and should be about finding peace with your money in any way possible. When it all boils down to it, life is either about having peace or living in stress. I think 99% of people prefer peace. This is why I want to discuss how important it is finding peace in a financially crazy world.

Imagine how people feel living life paycheck to paycheck, do you think they live in peace? How would certain people feel if they did not have emergency savings? What about if people have high interest credit card debt that they can’t ever payoff? How about the new graduates who are burdened by 200 grand in student loan debt? These are all the financial worries that do not foster peace with finances. Lets begin to discuss how to find that peace we so desire.

Meditate once a week – prior to or after tackling a financial acitivity, for example when completing the monthly budget spreadsheet. With the myriad of reasons to stress out over budgets. this 1 mental exercise will relieve any negatives you might encounter. If you can meditate more often, I suggest you do it, and it will offer you the ability to tackle any financial problems you are having.

Get help even if you have to pay for it. Having someone guide you who is an expert in the field of finance and more knowledgeable than you will help you avoid stressful situations with money issues. That guidance is worth more than people think, and all you have to do is find someone that charges by the hour. Doing this will help you avoid spending too much on this financial service. A financial mistake can cost you thousands so why not pay hundreds to avoid them.

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What is the Secret to Becoming Rich?

Everybody wants to become rich. Have you ever pondered why this is so? To finally buy that big house, to finally get that new model year car, or to finally keep up with the Joneses I suppose? The answers and the reasoning behind why 99% of all people who want to be wealthy will amaze you. What is the secret to becoming rich you ask? If I knew it I would already be rich, they say in subliminal talks with people who don’t save. If I had to answer this question today or tomorrow, I will continue to say the secret to becoming rich is investing yesterday. If you didn’t invest yesterday, invest today and tomorrow to play the game.

The person with the highest annual income who doesn’t invest will never be rich. Why can’t the dude who works in Wall Street making a million dollars a year be rich? Because he makes a lot and spends more than a lot. The high earner only feels rich, when in reality is not even close to any riches. This is the secret within the secret that people will never openly discuss. They spend more than they earn, and that is no way for anyone to become rich.

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3 Tips For Conservative Investing

We recently posted an article suggesting that boring investing is the way to go, and for those concerned with generating savings and avoiding significant losses, that’s certainly true. Generally, a boring, methodical approach is the “safest” way to put away money (though it should be noted that investment is inherently risky no matter how boring it may be). But what does that mean when you get into the details?

In the previous article we provided a helpful list of tips that ultimately amount to “boring” investing. We’re going to follow up here with a few more detailed explanations of how to handle an investment portfolio in a more conservative, risk-averse manner.

1. Abandon Your Emotion

You may have heard before that it’s wise to check your emotions at the door when you enter an investment situation. We came across a full psychological examination of emotion for investors that boiled down to one crucial point. That point was that research suggests that investors are often driven by their emotions to make poor investing choices. This can mean a number of different things, but it primarily comes down to two tendencies. The first is to allow recent gains or losses to dictate activity, and the second is favoring (or ignoring) stocks and companies based on personal preferences for products or services. The conservative investor should ignore all of these things and instead make decisions based solely on market outlook. See Below for the 3 Tips For Conservative Investing

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Boring Investing is the Way to Go

Did you know that boring investing is probably the best way to invest money? Slow and steady aka long term consistent investing has been proven to realize the best year over year returns. In contrast, people who time the market, buy and sell, look for the hot stock, generally earn 7% less than those who do boring investing like investing in index funds. That is why I say boring investing is the way to go, because it allows a stress free money life. Boring investing is a set it and forget it, with proper allocation long term strategy.

In a recent study done by fidelity’s 401K division, the accounts that performed the best over a span of a decade were the accounts of clients who passed away or forget about the accounts. Just let that sink in my readers. If you don’t touch your investments, move them, time them, guess what you will grow them.

I must admit I am guilty of trying to outsmart the markets too, as in the past I bought and sold funds, based on trying to own the fund with highest paying dividend amounts. If 1 fund paid more than the other fund, I would be pissed that I lost out on the opportunity to get more dividend income. I know for a fact I missed out on a lot of gains because I tried this foolish game of timing funds and would divert some money to go places that didn’t serve me best as far as capital appreciation goes.

Now going forward I am going to do more of the boring investing and instead will just increase the total investing contributions year after year until I can retire. Who wins the race at the end of the tortoise and the hare story?

You guessed it the slow and steady tortoise because that’s usually how it goes as you keep a steady pace. If you rush rush rush out the gate, you will feel burnt out and you might fall short. The markets are no different, and I think that story is a classic example of stock market newbies, who think about get rich quick schemes that rarely work.

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Personal Finance Myths We Need to Ignore

Hello friends it’s the 4th quarter of 2016, and as I get through a tough patch in my life, the blog has suffered without fresh new content. It is hard to find the right balance when you lose a loved one.(Miss you Mom) But I know it’s a part of life and we need to have the strength to move on. Let’s jump back into the topic at hand personal finance myths we need to ignore.

I hear random talks like this all the time and it is unbelievable people still can’t see the big personal finance picture. Why must some of us live with our heads in the sand per say?

If others have done well with money, you can do it to. People of various income levels are doing amazing things, like reaching financial freedom, paying off the mortgage, living a debt free life. These are only a few examples. Let’s not fall victim to the defeatist mentality of some people and please don’t listen to the personal finance myths we need to ignore.

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Why is Time Important

Time is of the essence since the day we are born. But many people do not understand this because when we are young, time feels limitless and abundant. Summers felt like a year and a school year felt like two years. The math quiz felt like 4 hours when in reality it was only 20 minutes. Time in the old days just took its sweet time. Is it a mix of young innocence and more patience, or was it really a slower paced life in the old days. No one really knows and you shouldn’t care, because the past is the past. Why is time important today, because we all need to grab time and use it wisely.

I lost my mom last week and it has been hard on me. I wish I would’ve spent more time with her and talked more. That feeling when you know you will never speak to a loved one again is tougher than I ever imagined. This is why time is important. The opportunity to not waste time is evident every day of our lives. It is right in our face, but what do we do, we just don’t realize that it could be slipping away minute by minute.

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Giving Money is Gratitude Multiplied by Happiness

Did you know that giving away money leaves you feeling great? It means that you can securely give without feeling a sense of fear or lacking in your money life. The one secret that many people don’t understand is that giving unselfishly only comes when you can build a financial foundation for yourself. Granted anyone can give at any moment in time or even if you’re not fully prepared to give, but it makes sense to give when you have your life in order. Having an emergency fund, consistently investing towards the future, not living paycheck to paycheck all of these things will allow you to give generously when the time is right. If you can support a good charity or organization it will leave you feeling a sense of contentment. The truth is giving money is gratitude multiplied by happiness in my opinion. It is how I feel when I give and how you should feel too.

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Is XTrade Right For You?

If you want to know more about XTrade this article will tell you who they are, what they do and why you should be interested in trading with them.

What is XTrade?

Although many could think of a sci-fi film when they hear the name XTrade, this company has nothing to do with fiction, only with real facts.

This company is a CFD trading company—If you are not familiar with that term, let me explain it for you (if you are, you can just jump over the following paragraph).

In short, CFD stands for Contract For Differences. It is a type of futures contract which you eventually settle by cash. The main advantage for trading CFDs is that you can take advantage of leverage, and they are also a great way of protecting a portfolio in times of economic uncertainty. This avenue seems to be more flexible than all famous binary options, for example, brokers have added stocks, commodities and indices to trade with. Do you like it so far?

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