investing

 Things do not always go the way you planned and when it does go awry being mentally prepared gives you the courage not to panic. First if you are out there doing something sooner or later you will get lucky and make some money, it's inevitable. On the other hand, sooner or later, no mater how well you planned everything, circumstances will happen that makes the your money making plan go slower, faster, harder, more expensive or something will veer it off course.

 The purpose of this article is to get you thinking about all the ways you can participate in real estate investing. No matter how much money you have there is an entry point for you.

Besides the five or more ways you can make money investing in income producing real estate there are other reasons I like residential real estate investing. (This web site towardswealth.com has articles explaining all the ways real estate investing can make you money.)

 For those of you who want to invest in real estate but do not have the time for hands on there are companies who will make it all very easy. Or Maybe you want to invest in one sate and live in another. These companies are perfect for you.

I was in Chicago last week where I met a lot of people busy making money. It was encouraging to see so many positive attitudes. A limo company owner was using barter to fill the dead times and to help keep his cost down. A bed and breakfast owner was hunting for a loan to expand her business because the prices of houses are down. She is expanding now for when bookings are good again.

 With all the talk about forecloses and getting debt free, I thought it was time to give you some rules of thumb for staying out of mortgage loan trouble. Getting debt free as Dave Ramsey (of radio fame) suggest is an honorable and noble goal. But if getting rich is your goal, I can not agree with leaving one of your “Get Rich tools” on the bench. Borrowing to make money is not necessarily a bad thing.

 I do not often recommend other publications or investment information sources. Here is a recommendation for a news letter that I have found useful and worth reading if you have money to work with. I subscribe to a news letter on investing from Steve Sjuggerud called True Wealth. I would recommend this news letter to people who want better then average returns with low to moderate risk. http://www.stansberryresearch.com/pub/trw/

 Stocks: I am out of the market. The easy money is gone and the next two years will be volatile. I would still make any automatic stock investments in say, 401ks or IRAs and the like, but there are better places for your money.

115% Gain in less then two months. 

The stock market has continued its up trend, my original $18,500 stock portfolio now has a balance of $38,785 after I took out a grand to but a new desk for my office. That is a 115% return in 50 days. 

I am now using Vectorvest stock search tool. I liked their on line training courses as my experience dealing with stocks is limited. I also use Forbes magazine to find stock suggestions and two other newsletters mentioned previously, only less so, now that I have the Vectorvest service.

What you should be doing now to make money tomorrow!

Stocks: I think stocks will be up 20% next year. If you want to make more then the average 12% the market returns over a ten year average time frame, then look for beaten down stocks of companies with strong balance sheets.