It's true for any kind of investing. I did stocks/bonds 15+
years ago and yeah, diversifying holdings is key. As more things
come out as potential investment material, invest carefully for
the bulk, have some reserve for speculative investing, including
international monies and such. Having a single source can be
trouble, although it's USUALLY safest to invest the Indexes...
even now, the indexes usually end up outperforming any single
investment. = I was a contrarian investor and so, survived the
bubble shit. I spent it all now, but I did "long term" - DRiP
investing. I mean, it was _supposed to be_ long time - like 25+
years, but it was strong enough for me to pick off of for 12 yrs
'til dry and made enough $$$ that, well, I won tongue emoticon =
If you're gonna invest, don't worry about everybody else. If you
let fear drive it, you'll just be herd. Find the forgotten bits.
The rules for investing HAVEN'T changed. Same stuff that made
ppl rich in 1930s, made ppl rich in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s,
90s, ,00s, 10s, and will in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and
beyond. Rules are simple. Don't invest more than you can afford
to lose. Invest for your age. etc etc... all true. == I never
stuck it out for the long term. I planned to, just needed the
money 'cause I moved to a house in the woods with family instead
of staying with the Pharmaceutical job. But the thing is:
diversifying itself is fine *if* it's done wisely. You _are_
subject to the market's whims to some degree, but you can't do
"all speculative" diversification. Some things never change.
Things that don't change are solid, go up and down less, and
also don't net you as much. You have to get the percentages of
solid investments vs speculative investments in order. Of course
there's no guarantees: Berkshire Hathaway bet on the weather.
Reinsurance companies. Solid for a long time. But, a few years
of bad weather and big payouts reduced the profits by a large
margin. Yet, they didn't give up on their safe bet. Even though
they had a few years of losses, weather improved, homes weren't
getting destroyed by hurricanes anymore, and the reinsurance
industry came back just fine for their portfolios. Of course
that's an extreme example. But that's the key here: diversify
wisely. You want to put all your money in gold bricks under the
mattress you can.... but that's a one-stop shop, one stop loss,
all eggs in one basket scenario. It's also ruled by fear. Gotta
have some risk taking, even if minimal. == And the thing is: the
world's financial woes don't have to rule yours. SOMEBODY is
gonna make money in EVERY market. Gotta figure out how. See what
THEY'RE missing and grab that. == Debt trading is big $$$. Of
COURSE it's all a fantasy. But enough people invest in the
fantasy, you find your corner and use it without being stupid
about it. Anybody who invests knows it's all fictional. That's
Investing 101. Investing 102 is working with it. == Overall debt
doesn't make any difference. Bubbles come and go. If you're
looking for absolute stability, plant a turnip. Watch an ant eat
your turnip. I'm not sure what you want _instead_. It's the
system we have. Bartering doesn't work on a large scale. Some
investing SOMEWHERE in the world will be functioning just fine
as long as there's trade. Cut off trade? Well, I don't see it
happening. Anybody want to spent $8000 for their $400 laptop?
Nope == Mind you, I *do* lean towards Protectionism over
Globalism. But, I'm also a grownup. == I wish wed get out of
other countries affairs and focus on our issues here too. Thing
is, with protectionism, we may end up with mercantilism - which
actually I tend to agree with GENERALLY.... ...but we wouldn't
be watching the world burn. That's the thing. We'd get burned.
If we lose the existing treaties and financial agreements, it's
WWIII except it's us everybody will be after. We won't be in a
safe little bubble. We're too big to pull a Japan. Maybe if we
were the size of Japan we could pull a Japan. We're just too big
to hide. Russia's trying to hide. They're not doing a very good
job of it either. ==
