The problems in the banking industry have led to enormous losses in share value for anyone holding Northern Rock or Bear Sterns shares. It may have been your life savings and it may have been invested in what you believed was a solid and safe investment but the value of your investment is negligable right now compared to what it was a while back. You would be rightly angry and upset. Unfortunately investing in stocks and shares is not without risk and we should all take what has happened to those small investors, who did invest their life savings in these companies, as a warning. It could happen to you!

These investors were not stupid, not even ignorant. They had a misplaced belief they were doing the right thing and investing in safe and solid companies. The fact that the share values were so high a year ago shows that they were not alone in thinking that these were strong companies with good prospects. You would have found plenty of knowledgeable people saying the shares were a good buy but it is your money you are investing and only you can decide.

Let us suppose you are at a small a dinner party or a wedding reception and you are chatting to some friends and relatives. You get onto the subject of money and investing and in the course of the conversation your relative suggests a particular company he thinks you should invest in. He thinks it’s a sure thing and you could make a packet. You have a few options, what happens next?

1. You invest a little in the company and it does very well. You then proceed to kick yourself for not mortgaging your home and investing all the proceeds in the company.

2. You invest heavily. The company does really well and you are set up for life.

3. You decide not to invest and watch as the shares soar, so you kick yourself.

4. You decide not to invest and the company collapses. You are thankful that you chose not to follow the advice you were given.

5. You invest a little and the company collapses. You put it down to experience and your friend/relative is most apologetic when you next meet.

6. You invest heavily. The company collapses and you lose a lot of money on the investment. If you mortgaged the house to buy more shares it could even mean you and your family are out on the street and homeless.

Whichever scenario were to develop who should you congratulate or commiserate with- you or your relative who suggested the investment? It would make for difficult relations in the future with your relative if you had lost your house and you held them responsible.

The important point here is that they are not responsible. It doesn’t matter where the advice comes from it is ultimately you who takes the investment decision. It may be some whiz kid from a ‘Big City Firm’ or it could be a guy in a bar, it doesn’t matter. They may point you in the direction of a particular investment but it is your money and your decision.

So many people have been hoodwinked into buying investments because of a glitzy brochure or a glowing description of an investment. We hear of people giving hundreds and thousands of their hard earned savings to ‘boiler house’ investment scams. How can people fall for that?

You can bet the sales pitch will be terrific. Before you know it you will be salivating at the prospects for making a huge profit and eventually you will be asked to transfer the funds — your money – to the company for investment. That should be the point where anybody gets a bit scared. This sales person has phoned you up, completely out of the blue, and offered you a ‘superb’ investment opportunity. Why? Don’t they have any previous investors, business contacts or friends they would rather share this information with? How come they chose you?

You should always be suspicious of unexpected investment advice, including any from me. Nobody knows the future and even the most careful and knowledgeable investment expert is only speculating about what the future might hold for a company and it’s likelihood of success. Ultimately, it is a gamble with your money. The risks for some investments will be fairly low but with others the risks are significantly higher and with some the risks are huge. When a guy phones you out of the blue, from a company you have never had dealings with before, and he is offering you a ‘terrific’ investment opportunity you should be very wary indeed.

Unfortunately there are a lot of sharks out there. They will eat you up and spit out only the bones. They don’t care about you, they just want your money. If they leave you homeless they will not care at all. They will be enjoying their millionaire lifestyle while you sink into the gutter. So beware of scam artists, sharks and thieves. It isn’t entirely paranoid to think they are all out to get you because it’s true. They are all out to get you.

So, don’t go blaming the messenger… ALWAYS make your financial decisions yourself. Get the best advice you can. Employ the knowledge and experience of qualified financial and investment advisers but remember. The decision to invest the money is yours alone so if it all goes wrong don’t go blaming your friend, relative, colleague or financial adviser. They may have suggested the investment but it was YOU who chose to invest. Do your own research and try to establish whether the advice you have been given stands up to further examination. If you remain convinced it is a good investment then go ahead. It will be entirely your own decision that led to your great investing success or disappointing losses.

Money Magic: Seven Simple Steps to True Financial Freedom (Quick Reads)

An interesting if not quite productive day. I sat down with the best of intentions to get a bit of work done but ever since have been distracted and whizzing all over the internet but I am pleased I did. I just happened across a very interesting blog by a Dane who lives in the uk and is a speaker, educator and Author in ‘Happiness At Work’ but prefers to go by the title Chief Happiness Officer. His book Happy Hour From 9-5 is available via his website and no doubt an interesting read and apparently can be read online for free. I’ll take a look presently.

So what has this got to do with money? A happy worker is a more enthusiastic, more productive and, almost certainly , a more successful worker. There is a lot more to life than simply money and you probably spend a large part of your life at work so why not enjoy it? However, as a happy worker you will very likely achieve more success in your work and money as a result and very likely enjoy a far happier private life too as matter of course. It’s a win, win situation and who can resist one of those?

One thing that can create resentment and spoil the working environment is job titles. Alex argues that they are a waste of time and he makes a good case for it. Does a job title ever change anything? It may look good on a CV but hopefully there will be more important things than job titles on your CV for you to be judged by. It’s an over rated concept developed by people who want to sound important even if they are not. Read more about one example of a reader of Alex’s blog who took action to do away with pompous job titles here…Â Chief Happiness Officer and have a happy and productive day.

Money Magic: Seven Simple Steps to True Financial Freedom (Quick Reads)

We sometimes talk about money as though there is nothing else that matters but there are far more important things than money. There is no limit on the amount of money in the world. Banks conjure up more all the time and we have seen the downside to that in recent months but they can produce more as and when they want to.
Some things are more real and more limited. There is only so much oil in the world and one day there will be no more gold to dig out of the ground but for now there is enough to go around.
There is one very valuable resource with a very limited availablity – Time. Time may go on for ever but your time is limited. You have just 86,400 seconds every day and nobody knows how many days you or I have. Your time is the most valuable commodity avaialable in the world today. Certainly the most valuable commodity in the world as we know it. So, are you making the best use of it? Are you investing your time wisely?

The richest billionaire has just 86,400 seconds every day as has the poorest man on the planet. We are all equal when it comes to time but some make more efficient use of it than others. You can spend some time today which may save you wasting time tomorrow or you can buy the time of somebody else.

Most of us work to earn the money we need to live. We need the money so we spend our limited time travelling to work, working for hours and then travelling home again. We spend time shopping for food and other goods and spend time planning for the future but are we making the best use of our time?
Only you can know the answer to that question. If you think that working eight hours a day so you can buy new tv to watch reality shows on it is worthwhile then so be it. Only you can be the judge of that. Take some time, a few more of those precious seconds, and think about it.

There is a famous saying that, ‘Nobody lays on their deathbed wishing they had spent more time in the office.’ Will anybody wish they had watched more reality tv shows or spent more time shopping?

We all have different interests in life. We all see things differently and our priorities in life are different but the one thing we share is a limited amount of time each day. However much money you have, no matter how many toys and gadgets you possess you have the same 86,400 seconds every day. Are you making good use of every one of them? You will never get a single one of those seconds back and once they are gone, they are really gone.
Make every second of your life a second that was worthwhile and invest your time in what really matters to you.

Money Magic: Seven Simple Steps to True Financial Freedom (Quick Reads)