Every time we tune into our favorite radio station or TV channel, eventually the financial and business news broadcast comes on.
Lately, most of the reporting has been about a recession; are we there yet or has it already begun, the housing market collapse due to the sub-prime mortgage fiasco, the stock markets continued decline despite some random good days, the federal deficit reaching record proportions and for that matter, the NJ deficit at over $34 Billion; Unemployment figures are rising, consumer confidence is falling, the demise of the US Dollar around the world, oil at $105 a barrel, gold at $1000 an ounce, taxes that are going up and tax rebates that are going away.
Most of the headlines are financial and businesses related so that the overwhelming percentage of the news broadcasts we are listening to are just plain doom and gloom.
What's interesting to me is that while some people have lost a fortune since the summer, others have found it.
Even during economic times such as we are experiencing today, there are opportunities to make money and find success.
It is imperative to protect and preserve the family fortune from a decline that would reduce its ability to provide an income for the rest of our lives with the balance at death designed to infuse our children with the capital they will need for their retirement and so on.
This can be done! For the young people reading this article today and the parents of young people, please share this article with your kids, it is my goal to motivate you to become a share holder in a quality mutual fund or a series of stocks that you like, either with the help of a financial advisor or motivate you to do it on your own.
Your financial future will be based in part, on the success of your commitment to acquire shares, which in my opinion, is even more important than which shares you decided to acquire.
Systematic purchases, normally through a dollar cost averaging investment program directly from your checkbook into a mutual fund, will enable you to automatically acquire shares every month.
Assuming you invest the same amount every month, you will be buying varying amounts of shares due to variations in the share price each time you make a purchase.
As soon as you acquire shares totaling $5,000 -$10,000, open a second fund and shift all or a portion of your new purchases to this new fund to diversity your portfolio.
When you own one fund you have a fund; own two or more funds or stocks and now you have a portfolio!Repeat this process frequently and increase the purchase amount as your income increases and you can afford more.
Regardless of good times or bad, the trials and tribulations that will affect you during your life, never abandon your mission of paying yourself first and maintaining your share acquisition goal.
When starting your third or fourth fund and subsequent monthly contributions to them, make at least one of these accounts an IRA for tax-deferred accumulation and growth!You will soon learn the joys of having an investment portfolio that one day will produce greater annual returns than the annual sums you are investing.
Dollars invested are like employees that work for you 24 hours a day.
If you have enough employees working for you, you can throw your feet up on the desk and feel like you've made it in this world.
Actually, if you are successful with this routine, one day you will be able to stop working and have your employees (investment dollars at work), provide you with a handsome retirement income for the rest of your life.
I challenge you to do this and if you would like some help as to fund choices and an allocation strategy, just let me know through the contact info that appears at the end of this column.
For those of you who are asking yourself, what did he mean about young people, how old is young?My answer is simple, as soon as you get your first part-time job up until you get your first Social Security check, you should still be acquiring shares every month! For my readers and friends who are already retired or are about to retire, you should be looking for ways to remove money from your portfolio every month to supplement the lost income due to retiring or perhaps for philanthropic purposes, whether for your children or another entity.
This goal is best accomplished by initiating a systematic withdrawal plan that pulls the same amount of money from your portfolio every month, liquidating shares and fractional shares.
Liquidating shares in a down market can be detrimental and potentially devastating to a portfolio.
For this reason, one should seek out an investment program or product that guarantees* at least the return of your total investment and in some cases, if that is exhausted, offers an income for life for both you and your spouse.
Yes, there are investment products that have these insured features and there are many more that, in my opinion, are worthy of your investigation.
We started out this week's article by talking about the negativity of the headlines in the press and concluded that depressed markets offer tremendous buying opportunities.
You have heard the expression, ''One man's trash is another man's treasure.
''A truer statement has never been stated, especially when you apply it to the recent pricing of the major stock market indexes.
Stocks are currently on sale 10, 15 and more than 20% off their summer 2007 levels.
Now may be a good time to reevaluate your current way of thinking and learn about some new techniques, products and strategies to gain and maintain a secure retirement income for the rest of your life.
We can help you with this task and I encourage you to call for a free consultation, of course with no obligation.
Remember to pay yourself first and consider current market levels as a major buying opportunity.
Remember that markets don't go down forever or up forever either for that matter.
Go for it!