How To Be Successful by Tyler Perry!

Powerful message! I love his inspiration...

Investing 101: Sector Trends (pt 5)

I know I still owe you guys a pt 4 of my Investing 101 series on 'Performance Metrics' but since I haven't been investing any new money in a while I kinda forgot about it altogether but when I seen this Edelman’s 11th annual Trust Barometer survey showing the tech industry is a clear 10 percent ahead of the rest of the corporate world in terms of trust it got me to wake back up.

The results come from the polling of 5,075 “informed” members of the public from 23 nations, so that means that the entire world is in on this and the poll is not just expressing an american sentiment.

Nonetheless...the main point here is that when investing, the electricity of a particular sector can generate just as much if not more revenue growth than the products or business stories that you are aware of themselves. Often there are many company stocks that have tremendous run-ups while their overall sector often lags behind so it is important to remember that in these cases these are individual stories rather overall market ones.

How do whole sectors improve you ask? Well honestly the same way sectors simultaneously go down...in this case the knowledge of current events and situational awareness of whats going on is everything. In retail, during the holiday season is obvious, during wars defense spending goes up, when the economy is flourishing home ownership, governmental regulation, etc. However to take the ultimate advantage of this and to get ahead of the power curve you've just got to be able to anticipate the "next thing" or identify the trend for whats coming up next so you can buy the stocks low and sell high. So it is construction in China? mobile and wireless technology? health care reform?...well you tell me but ultimately the key is to stay on the grind, do ya homework, and invest in stories that you believe in...think about it..technology makes sense doesn't it?

Part 1 : The Basics | Part 2: Buying/Selling | Part 3: Know the Ledge |
Part 4: Performance Metrics (Coming Soon)

Student loan debt exceeds credit card debt in USA

Sad but true, but whether some people know it or know student loan debt has now exceeded credit card debt at a rate if $850 billion withstanding. So just to give you an idea of the magnitude, credit card debt is designed to be paid off within a couple of yrs if minimal payments are made whereas student loan payments are engineered for a 10yr payoff...so do the math considering that now we owe more money in student loans....meaning the longer the payoff period the more interest being accumulated! My theory: because of all these goofball for-profit schools like the University of Phoenix that have predatory marketing techniques that target lower income students or minorities to receive millions of dollars a yr in Pell Grant funding, have high degree costs, yet produce graduation rates of less than 9% for 1st time bachelors degree students or quite simply a lot of people who are trying to counteract the financial stress of the recession by either staying in school longer or attempting to go back to school to use student loan returns as supplemental income to handle their basic costs of living.

Excerts from USAToday:

Total student loan debt exceeds total credit card debt in this country, with $850 billion outstanding, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and FastWeb.com, websites that provide information about student aid and scholarships.

With tuition far outpacing inflation for the past 20 years, student borrowing has continued to grow — a whopping 25% last year. Some students who are borrowing never expected to, but their parents have lost jobs or suffered other financial setbacks in the recession

So here are some tips/important questions to ask to get your head stuck out of the sand....

• What are the graduation rates?
• Find out the median debt-level ratios for your degree field to set realistic expectations for yourself
• Request a listing from the school of the occupations associated w/ each program
• Shop around for the best tuition programs
• Job placements rates?
• Default rates of all students? 
• Expected amount of debt?

Investing 101: Know the Ledge...(pt 3)

Damn...well I really didn't mean to comeback with my 3rd installation this quickly but I tried to turn my mans on to the stock game a long time ago abut like all bench warmers always do.... now he wanna try and come off the bench and get in the game in the middle of the 3rd quarter shooting 3 pointers LMAO but nonetheless,  he called me the other day talking obviously oblivious to the game which I told him was only gonna get his pocket snatched, so now here we go...I can't let the homey go out like that!

In no particular order....

#1 - Have a game plan
Instead of just jumping in and playing yourself, try and have some clear and set goals on financially what you

Investing 101: The Basics pt 2 (Buying/Selling)

Ok so as I explained in part 1 - exactly what a stock is, what a holding a position entails: both long and short, and gave an overview of what a catalyst is, however in part II I am going to make an attempt to take a little deeper dive into buying and selling and just the overall fundamentals of how stocks are traded themselves.

Buying stocks: Typically when you buy any stock or publicly traded assets you have a couple of options worth mentioning which include Market orders and Limit orders. Market orders are an order to buy or sell a stock immediately at the best available current price or essentially buying it at its next best price. Typically when someone places a market order its because they are attempting to get into a stock quickly before it rises and they've identified a range in which they are willing to purchase the stock at, that being said because the caveat of placing market orders is that you are essentially agreeing to purchase a stock at its next best available price so if the stock shoots up to an additional $1.00 - $2.00 than you'll be paying 1-2 dollars more than what you expected for a stock. As I recommendation I would never buy stocks on the opening of the market or on the heels of a company announcement using market orders simply because you are unable to predict either what the opening value of the trade will be or the adverse impact the announcement will have. From a managment perspective using market orders to buy into a stock are a forbidden fruit so use w/

Investing 101: The Basics pt I

     OK so being that its a recession and I have several friends that ask me all the time about how to invest or what to invest in, I figured why not go ahead and create what I'll be referring to as an Investing 101 series just to give out the tips and secrets that I've used that has allowed me to come up and see a little paper and on the inverse, even throw out some of the lessons that I've learned over time that have gotten me burnt a time or two.  Disclaimer: At no time will this be/or will ever be any attempt to ever try to convince or persuade anyone to start investing (or at least buying stock anyway) because personally I could care less, this will just be an civil attempt to swagger splash (and allow myself to be swagger jacked) people with a perspective of the opportunities involved in trading. Roger? Alright, so first off lets start out with the basics... oh and anything that gets marked w/ a "**" means if the terminology hasn't been defined already then it will be on the next installation or you can just do your homework on it!

     What is a stock and where do you go to buy them? Well first, a stock is a type of security that signifies ownership in a corporation and represents a claim on part of the corporation's assets and earnings, or basically its owning a stake in the business. The investment rationale is in exchange for companies being able to allow people to buy/pay into a company or corporation to seek an income opportunity, any companies that participate in the stock market officially becomes a public traded company which now means that it is owned and governed by it shareholders, meaning me, you, or anyone who holds a current position in the stock. Anytime you hear that a company remains privately owned...it means that shares of there stocks cannot be bought or sold on the stock market because there isn't any and conceptually it just means it is funded and managed by the original owners or people who have been delegated to run it.