Stock Market, or 5$ Biotech! (SALE!)

Over the last year I have been investing in the stock market. some in Israeli stocks, and some in the NASDAQ.

I haven't got rich just yet, but I am learning a lot about the importance of patience, and the belief in what to come.

There are two types of investors, and this is not my idea (it's quoted from many other texts):

The first type is the one that's in it for the quick buck. He buys stock, waits for it to rise by a few percent, and sell fast. To be referred to as "The gambler".

The second type, is the one with the long outlook. Meaning, a year or more into the future. These investors are not deterred by the stock value going down, even by high percentage. They look further ahead than the 5 percent revenue.

I belong to the latter. And I must say, it's scary. Even though I am (by no means) not a big investor, over time my portfolio grows, and these days, value changes are more difficult to ignore.

The temptation to sell is great, and the losing stock pose the biggest tempt. You want to stop bleeding money, and the fastest way to do that is to severe the bleeding bit. But it's not necessarily the smartest way.

The desire to make a profit over time gets you thinking and weighing many times over - in which company to invest your money. Check it's history, make sure that even a company that looks good on paper today, is not bound to tumble due to bad management in the future. Stock market investments come before casino gambling in their level of risk (generally speaking), but the difference is that the house does not always win. Also, you can put your money on the chance that a company's stock will lost money (what's called "Short").

One of the stocks I bought, made about 60% in the first week after purchased. By face value, logic dictates that you should take the money and run.. but if you look a bit further than your nose, It's worth keeping this kind of stock over time. Even if the stock will fall from that value (and it did), in years to come the profit will be significantly higher.

Someone did the math, that a person at his thirties, who invested a percentage of his salary, since 2003, each month buying Mcdonalds stocks, would, after about 25 years be a Billionaire. (about 3.1 Billions to be exact). This has been calculated by the stock true figures that shows an average 30% rise a year, every year since 2003.

This is, of course, assuming that he would not spend some of this money before retirement, and that he actually has the money to invest in the first place. Many find themselves needing available funds at one time or another in their lives, and that's why their financial planning is flawed to begin with, or even non-existent.

When you have money in the bank, the temptation to make use of it is higher the less you are used to the fact of having money in the bank. And even when you are used to having a positive sign next to your bank statement, the higher the number is, the bigger the motivation to use it.

When you raise a family, the needs are obvious, and the ability to put money aside and save, is small and under constant pressures.

When you don't have kids, the ability to save is higher, but the need to fill your life with things (maybe as a replacement for the need of kids) is bigger and that also makes it difficult to save.

In short, create a habit, and stick to it. Just like brushing your teeth, or wearing clothes. If you got used to something, there's is a good chance you'll stick with it over time.

So, we might not all become millionaires, but this raises the chance to retire in a respectable and maybe earlier way than expected - many folds over.

Making a buck (online)

Even with my recent pay raise, I'm on the quest for more money. That includes taking private jobs, and also looking online for things I can do from home or work.

As I cannot spend too much time on it, and I want the flexibility of choosing when to work, I started looking at PTR (Pay-to-read), PTC (Pay-to-click), and survey sites.

All those give you small amounts of cash per email read, links clicked on, and surveys filled.

Also, I found a product testing site, that lets you test products (daah..) and get paid for it, as well as (optionally) keep the product (not every time).

It's small things, but now at least I started. Moved from research to actual work.

Wish me luck!

Air Lines

I love traveling. When I used to travel in the past, the airline I chose was of no real consequence to me. As long as I got there in one piece, I was happy.

It's either my age that made me more picky or it might be that the quality of airline service that decreased with time. Either way, even big airlines have dissapointed me in my last flights. No matter if it was far off destinations, or shorter 2-5 hours flights.

Thing is, my choice of airline is limited more by the price than by anything else. I choose the cheaper ones, and I get lemons.

I hope that in my next flight I'll be able to use some frequent flyer miles to upgrade and have a more enjoyable experience.

Lacking Money sucks.

Make Money (FAST) Schemes/Plans - Part II

Basically, most of the money on the world wide web flows through ads. Selling stuff over the internet. Whether it's loans, houses, cars, or a pen - they all need to advertise in order to get customers to come in and maybe buy some of their merchandise.

So, they put their ads wherever they can. All those pop-ups everywhere, and especially on high-traffic web sites such as news websites, search engines, and popular blogs are their to catch the eye of the right customers.

Google perfected this system with its Ad-sense system. They use text only ads that are not intrusive, and are not of the pop-up kinds. They also specialize according to the context of the text in said page. If a post or a search is about cars for instance, you'll see only ads that are related to cars, such as cars sales, car loans, and so on.

So, in order to make money online, you have to connect to the advertising business somehow. whether it's to promote your business or product, or someone else's. Either way, you'll need to get the word out there and do it in a broad and yet precise way.

You want your message to reach the people who will want to buy your product. That's why context ads are so good for business. Sure, you can bombard a massive mailing list with your ads, but even if that provides you some business (a small percentage would like your product or service) you will get so much more people who'll simply hate you for spamming them with ads for stuff they neither need nor want.

The whole advertising business is going towards that direction. They can see where the wind is blowing even if spam kings refuse to. Also, it's cheaper in a way. You don't need to show your ad to everyone all of the time, but just to some of the people, some of the time.

Make Money (FAST) Schemes/Plans - Part I

Money!

I've been rummaging through my e-books, net articles, and google to find money making schemes or plans that actually work. I didn't come out empty handed, but It's obvious that finding stuff that actually work, or at least sounds like it actually work is no simple task.

The amount of information and words about the subject is staggering. Google "money" for instance, and you get 98,400,000 results. Google "make money", and you get a whopping 203,000,000 results!

It's an ongoing quest, and I'm going to post about it in parts.

As these posts will become a part of this massively gigantic interest of people, I naturally hope more traffic will be generated here and more guests will come to read and respond.

I started with audio books. Reason being that it's more convenient for me to absorb on my way to and from home in my car. I listen and take pointers from those lessons. For me, its much easier than reading the stuff, especially as my attention span is pretty short. Being in the car makes me partly a captive audience, and it's comfortable too.

The first thing I noted to myself was this: If all these people who make the audiobooks/cassetes/ebooks really know how to become mega-rich or millionaires, why do they bother with writing or recording this material? As they're already millionaires, unless their philantropist side is over-developed, they should be jetting around the world, or relaxing in their vacation home of choice. No?

I accept that there are people that do want to give back to their fellow men (and women) and share their insights, and in general do good. But they are not too many.

So, why do they need to sell their ebook, or course package with 3 free gifts for 79.99 dollars?

Did you get to this line okay? :) good!

Naturally, they're not millionaires, or maybe they are, but are always hungry for more. I know that human greed is a very powerful and ever-hungry incentive.

Do they know the secret to becoming a millionaire? possible. If enough people believe them, they'll buy their merchandise, and someone will become rich. (although it might just be the seller)

A week or so ago, a friend of mine had her email account hijacked and mail forwarded to her address book contacts telling them all that she's stranded without a air ticket, passport, or cash, and would they please send her 2500 dollars to this and this address (in Nigeria by the way) so she can come back home..

That's one way of making money. Very dishonest and ugly, but possibly effective. Out of, say a hundred contacts, there's a chance that at least one or two would send some money to help a friend or a relative in a bind.

It's all really a numbers game. When you try to sell anything from a book to a broken toy, you try to throw your net as wide as possible. The bigger the net, the more chances someone will get caught in it. And when the numbers are really big, you don't need a terribly big percentage of "biters" caught.

The internet is the classic example. It's the first time in history that a single individual has been able to reach millions of people, and not only that, but it's cheap, or at times even free of charge (other than internet connection charges)!

The first example of way of thinking that I came by is "Multiple Streams Of Income". The idea being this: In this day and age, of financial instability and a world depending even more on a capitalistic way of living, relying on just one or two streams of income is not enough any more.

One needs more. more ways of making money, that will provide support in case the main streams are cut off. In other words: what happens if you got cut back, and cannot find a new job for over a year?

Nothing good I suspect. You may just find yourself out on the street once your savings are gone.

The idea is not to hold multiple jobs at the same time. that would rob you of sleep and defeat the purpose. What's the purpose? To be financially free and clear.

More to come..

Lottery

People all over the world try to change their luck every day. Luck for many seems to be associated with how much money you have or how much property you amass.

One of the most common ways of luck changing seems to be lottery. It's not expensive, you control it (to a degree), and you get a piece of paper that gives you hope that your dreams will come true (mostly until the draw that is).

Lottery seems like a easy and fast way to achieve prosperity. The enormeous odds, the chance that you're throwing your money away and making whomever is running the draw rich with no actual compensation - they don't negate the element of hope that you actually pay for when you buy a lottery ticket.

I buy hope too. There's an old joke about a guy who cries to god and whines about never having any luck and never even winning a small sum - god replies by a bellowing voice that says "you have to buy a ticket first!". That's the thing - if you don't give the universe a way to help you - how can you expect it to happen?

Things the world throws on you

It seems that when your life goes into accelerated activity, the universe tends to throw some more activity your way, and it's not always the good kind.

E.g.: You prepare to go on a vacation which will cost you some, so the universe/god/murphy thinks this is a great time to throw some overdue bills your way, break down the fridge (which will make you buy a new one), and have just a few more bits of expenditure - just to make things more interesting.

Is that what they call "The law of attraction"? go into action, and action shall come upon you..

Someone told me once that it's always better to be in motion rather than stand still. Even if you encounter bad luck or other misfortunes, the momentum would always keep you moving and finding new things, meeting new people and living your life to the fullest.

I'm an optimistic fellow, or so I like to think most of the time, so I simply put my trust in the powers that be, and continue with my plans while making the necessary monetary arrangements, because the world will keep on moving to the same place its going no matter if I get pissed and frustrated or happy and content. I choose happy (even if not always content)

:-)

Fighting WindMills

After fifteen years at the same bank, I decided to take initiative and fight at least one of the wrongs.

One thing among the many that this bank (and since it's the largest one in Israel, most of the rest as well) is inflicting on its customers, or money cows..

The thing I'm fighting is the fact that once you have money in your checking account, you get no interest for it. When you have a debt to the bank, you'll pay a handsome interest, but when the bank enjoys your balance, you see not even a penny (or agora, as the case may be).

I already contacted my bank - their response was that this is how things are. Naturally this is not a viable answer.

So, I'm using other channels. Bank of Israel, and various other institutions and offices that may have the power to change this wrong doing.

I am hopefull, but I also know this is a long howl run. It won't be over in a couple of months. But the banks should re-grasp the notion that they are here to serve US and not vice versa.

As soon as I gather enough paper/email trail, I'll start publishing it online and try to get the media to delve and follow this. The more noise I generate, the more chance I have to be heard and supported.

The amounts involved in this are staggering. estimations run upto 100 billion shekels a year (about 27 billion USD) from the interest they (all the israeli banks) gather from our money.

Wish me luck! :)

Money Money Money

Every once in a while, me, and now my girlfriend too, like to imagine what it would be like when we get rich.

What kind of things we would buy, which places we would visit, how we'll act upon becoming rich and how else it would affect our lives.

I realised This "what if" game is pretty common after asking around.

People always like to go on dreaming about things they wish to attain.

How many of these people actually take the dream from the mind and turn it into a reality?

Not many it seems.. and why not?

Is it really that difficult to become rich? or is it the risk taking that most people rather avoid?

Maybe the reason is that the easiest thing is to dream, and on the other hand, elbow grease and running around and doing hard work and sometimes going on a limb without being sure of the actual consequences is what keeps most people away from that pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow..

You read everyday about rich people. They buy this, they go there, they seem so distant when in reality they're quite regular folks. Most of them anyways.

Another thing is that people don't really like rich people. Or maybe it's just in my country. Being rich here seems to be a good reason to be apologetic and to be looked at with suspicion and distrust.

If they donate - it's probably for tax benefits or to push something to do with their hidden agenda. If they don't donate - they're evil scrooges that do not deserve a second pittying glance.

However, if you ask any average Joe or Jane on the street (Alon or Noa in Israel) if they rather be poor, average or rich in income, the answer is always clear. They (and us) all want to be rich.

How do you want to spend your life? rich or poor? does poorness makes for a better person? does money instantly makes for a less moral one?

Food for thought.