foreclosure auctions

You've undoubtedly seen all of them or study them. Glossy advertisements or four-color advances in magazines and newspapers promising to instruct you all of the juicy information regarding successful real-estate investing. And all you have to do to learn all these real estate investing surface encounters chuck russo secrets is to pay a rather high sum for a one-or two-day seminar.




Often these types of slick property investing workshops claim that you could make wise, profitable real-estate investments with absolutely no money down (other than, of program, the significant fee you buy the seminar). Now, how attractive is in which? Make a make money from real estate investments you made with no money. Possible? Not most likely.




Successful owning a home requires cashflow. That's the type of any type of business or perhaps investment, especially real estate investing. You put your money into a thing that you hope and plan can make you more income.




Unfortunately not enough newbies to the world of property investing think that it's any magical type of business in which standard enterprise rules will not apply. Simply place, if you want to stay in property investing for more than, say, a day or a couple of, then you're going to have to create money to make use of and commit.




While it might be true in which buying real estate with absolutely no money down is simple, anyone that is even made a basic real estate investment (such as buying their particular home) understands there's a lot more involved in property investing that can cost you money. For illustration, what concerning any essential repairs?




So, the number 1 rule people not used to real estate investing must remember would be to have accessible cash stores. Before you decide to actually perform any property investing, save some cash. Having a little money inside the bank when you start real property investing surface encounters chuck russo can help you make more profitable real estate investments in rental properties, for example.




When real estate investing inside rental attributes, you'll want in order to select just qualified tenants. If you might have no cash flow when real estate investing inside rental qualities, you might be pressured to take a a smaller amount qualified tenant because you need somebody to pay for you money so that you can take care of maintenance or attorney at law fees.




For any type of real property investing, meaning rental properties or perhaps properties you buy to re-sell, having cash reserved can enable you to ask to get a higher price. You can request a increased price from your real estate investment because you surface encounters chuck russo won't feel financially strapped as you wait for an offer. You won't be backed into a corner and forced to accept just any offer because you desperately need the money.




Another downfall of numerous new to real-estate investing is actually, well, greed. Make the profit, yes, but do not become so greedy that you ask with regard to ridiculous rental or second-hand rates on many real est investments.




Those a new comer to real est investing must see real-estate investing being a business, NOT an interest. Don't believe real est investing will make you abundant overnight. What company does?




It takes about six months to decide if real estate investing set for you. If you've decided in which, hey I love this, then offer yourself a couple of years to really start making money. It typically takes at the very least five years to get truly successful in real-estate investing.




Persistence is the key in order to success in real-estate investing. If you've decided that real-estate investing is for you, surface encounters chuck russo keep plugging away at it and the rewards will be greater than you imagined.

You wouldn't think Apple and Indonesia have much in common. On the surface, they don't, but they can still teach you a lot about investing. Let's start with Apple.

Apple made the news recently with two major events. It is locked in a battle with Exxon over which is the most valuable company by market capitalization -- a remarkable turnaround. Apple has a market value of over $344 billion. Then Steve Jobs announced his resignation at Chief Operating Officer for health related reasons.

According to a thoughtful blog by Weston Wellington of Dimensional Fund Advisors (not available online), it was not so long ago that the financial media was trashing Apple. In February 14, 2005, Robert Barker, in an article in BusinessWeek stated "...Apple doesn't tempt me..." I wonder what did. Maybe Lehman or Bear Stearns!

Steven Gandel weighed in with an article in Money on March 24, 2004. He quoted Transamerica portfolio manager Chris Bonavico who opined that Apple stock is "...crap from an investor standpoint."

Many analysts credit the remarkable sales of its Apples Stores as the key to Apple's success. In a quote attributed to David Goldstein, Channel Marketing Corp, which appeared in an article in BusinessWeek on May 21, 2001, Mr. Goldstein gave Apple "two years before they're turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake."

What can you learn from these comments about Apple stock? Read the financial media if you find it entertaining. It's useless (and potentially harmful) as a source of reliable financial advice.

What about Indonesia?

The financial media was preoccupied with the downgrade by Standard & Poor's of the credit rating of the U.S, which lowered its rating from AAA status to AA plus. The new rating places the U.S. below the United Kingdom, Canada and even the Isle of Man.

Many investors viewed the lower rating with alarm and considered it a precursor of low stock returns for decades to come. The data tells a much different story, and may indicate there is no better time to invest in U.S. stocks and bonds.

In another blog, Wellington notes that Standard & Poor's rated the credit of Indonesia a "B" in July, 2001, which placed it in the "junk" category. Over the past decade, its credit rating has never risen to investment grade.

Investors in the Jakarta Composite have earned a total return of a whopping 29% per year over the last decade, ending June 30, 2011. According to Wellington, "If the Dow Jones Average had kept pace with Indonesian stocks over the past decade, it would be over 104,000 today."

Here's the lesson to be learned from Indonesia: A low (or reduced) credit rating on sovereign debt does not necessarily correlate to lower stock market returns. This is the opposite of what many investors and financial talking heads believe.

Most investors get their financial information from the financial media or brokers. As Dr. Phil would say: How is that working for you?

Dan Solin is a Senior Vice President of Index Funds Advisors (ifa.com). He is the author of the New York Times best sellers The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read, The Smartest 401(k) Book You'll Ever Read, and The Smartest Retirement Book You'll Ever Read. His new book, The Smartest Portfolio You'll Ever Own, will be released in September, 2011. The views set forth in this blog are the opinions of the author alone and may not represent the views of any firm or entity with whom he is affiliated. The data, information, and content on this blog are for information, education, and non-commercial purposes only. Returns from index funds do not represent the performance of any investment advisory firm. The information on this blog does not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice and is limited to the dissemination of opinions on investing. No reader should construe these opinions as an offer of advisory services. Readers who require investment advice should retain the services of a competent investment professional. The information on this blog is not an offer to buy or sell, or a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell any securities or class of securities mentioned herein. Furthermore, the information on this blog should not be construed as an offer of advisory services. Please note that the author does not recommend specific securities nor is he responsible for comments made by persons posting on this blog.

D I V O R C E the Fed.

Now. Uncontested. Just cut the ties that bind us to the slavery.

 

but then the idiots in congress, and the "Current Resident" on 1600 Penn Ave, would have full control, in which case, the skids would be greased even more. Well, that might not be entirely true, since most of those bastards are nothing but mere marionettes, with their strings being yanked at every move, by the likes of soros et al, you know the ones ...."new world order" lovers who are aiding in the dismantling of the once Great US, and serving it piece by piece to china, however, the same zealous ideologues and true enemies of the US, fail to notice that that marvel called EU is crapping out, approaching the full blow-out point, at which time most of their 'contents' gleefully ingested as ingredients of the delicious EU, will be excreted, and when the end result will hit the proverbial fan .... duck and cover.

Unfortunately, what Gross has become is a splendid specimen of the 'grownup hippies' who in the 60's and 70s were raising hell, in the name of a better America, while now, a decent number of them, to varying degrees, having become 'fat cats', forgot how they were able to amass their fortunes, and instead of uniting and contributing however possible to returning the country on the path to prosperity, are now, continuing to chase an easy buck, by financing our adversaries, and most likely our enemies, based on their propaganda they already consider us their enemy - all to the detriment of the quality of life during the 'golden years' for some of us, as well as the quality of life (or lack thereof) for our children and future generations.

Once Heli-Ben got rates to 4% yet the economy continued its tanking trajectory, the politicians should have pulled their heads out of their asses, and begin serious work on policy intervention aimed entirely at rebuilding the domestic manufacturing base, which is all but gone, as well as ensuring that any fed provided liquidity remains 100% - or close to it - in the US.

Given the facts revealed by the Bloomberg recently released Fed back-door loans, makes me wonder if Uncle Ben himself is not among the facilitators of the "new world order"?!

So me thinks anyway.

Duck 'n cover everyone.

foreclosure

You've without doubt seen all of them or read them. Glossy adverts or four-color spreads in magazines and papers promising to instruct you all the juicy details about successful property investing. And all you need to do to learn every one of these real estate investing surface encounters chuck russo secrets is to pay a rather high sum for a one-or two-day seminar.




Often these kinds of slick real estate investing classes claim you could make wise, profitable real estate investments with zero money lower (except, of course, the significant fee you pay for the workshop). Now, how interesting is which? Make a make money from real estate investments you created using no cash. Possible? Not most likely.




Successful investment requires cash flow. That's the nature of almost any business or investment, especially real-estate investing. You put your hard earned money into a thing that you wish and plan is likely to make you more income.




Unfortunately too little newbies for the world of real-estate investing think that it's a magical form of business exactly where standard enterprise rules don't apply. Simply put, if you would like to stay in real-estate investing for a lot more than, say, a day or two, then you are going to have to create money to utilize and make investments.




While it could be true in which buying real estate with no money down is simple, anyone who is even made a fundamental owning a home (like buying their very own home) knows there's a lot more involved in real-estate investing that will set you back money. For example, what regarding any essential repairs?




So, the number one rule people not used to real property investing should remember is to have obtainable cash supplies. Before you decide to actually perform any real estate investing, save some cash. Having slightly money within the bank once you begin real est investing surface encounters chuck russo can help you make more profitable real estate investments in rental properties, for example.




When real estate investing within rental attributes, you'll want in order to select just qualified tenants. If you have no cash flow when real-estate investing inside rental properties, you may be pressured to take a less qualified tenant as you need somebody to cover you money so that you can take treatment of maintenance or lawyer fees.




For any type of real est investing, meaning leasing properties or properties you get to re-sell, having funds reserved can permit you to ask for a higher cost. You can request a higher price out of your real estate investment because an individual surface encounters chuck russo won't feel financially strapped as you wait for an offer. You won't be backed into a corner and forced to accept just any offer because you desperately need the money.




Another downfall of several new to real estate investing is actually, well, greed. Make the profit, yes, but do not become thus greedy that you ask for ridiculous rental or resale rates on all of your real estate investments.




Those not used to real est investing need to see real-estate investing as a business, NOT an interest. Don't believe real est investing will make you wealthy overnight. What enterprise does?




It will take about half a year to figure out if real estate investing in for you. If you might have decided which, hey I really like this, then provide yourself many years to really start earning profits. It typically takes at the very least five years being truly productive in real estate investing.




Persistence may be the key to success in property investing. If you've decided that real-estate investing is for you, surface encounters chuck russo keep plugging away at it and the rewards will be greater than you imagined.

Ashton Kutcher probably gets more pitches in Silicon Valley than Hollywood these days.

The movie actor and technology investor turned up the star power at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference this week in San Francisco, where start-up companies competed for his attention. Michael Arrington, fresh off his own Hollywood worthy drama, interviewed Kutcher on stage Tuesday.

Kutcher plays a tech investor in real life and in CBS' top-rated "Two and a Half Men" on TV. His character, Walden Schmidt, is an Internet billonaire who sold his company to Microsoft and now backs other entrepreneurs.

"There are some parallels to my actual life," Kutcher said.

On the show, Kutcher said he covered his character's laptop with stickers of his "dream portfolio" companies but CBS balked at giving exposure to companies that hadn't paid for the privilege.

Kutcher told Arrington that his investments were a "witch hunt" for the next big thing "that is so magic you can't understand how it works."

"I wonder what would happen if a pilgrim would have seen a computer back in Massachusetts 200 years ago. They would have killed the person as a witch because the computer would look like magic. That's the essence of being a good investor, they're on witch hunts," he said. "That's what I’m trying to do."

Kutcher is not your typical celebrity investor. He was a biochemical engineering major in college so he gets technology but, because he was a model at 19, he says it's nice to be appreciated for "something substantial."

On TV Kutcher is in the funny business. But in technology he's hunting for happiness. Kutcher says he picks technologies that have the greatest potential to create more love, friendship and connectivity in the world.

He has made 40 investments in companies such as AirBNB, Path and Skype but does not disclose many of them.

"I think sometimes for the early-stage companies that I've invested in, disclosing that I'm an investor can be detrimental to the story of the company," Kutcher said.

RELATED:

Ashton Kutcher: Entrepreneur, investor

Star investors (and other stars) come out

Ashton Kutcher at TechCrunch50: Blah, blah, blah

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Hollywood actor and Silicon Valley investor Ashton Kutcher and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington at TechCrunch Disrupt. Credit: Araya Diaz / Getty Images

The manic depressive market wildly swings up and down on each new news story: The Fed is meeting at Jackson Hole on August 27 possibly to discuss QE3 (or not), and that news may pump up the stock market. But China's banks seem to be using Enron's accounting manual, Europe's banks need liquidity and are loaded with bad debt, and U.S. banks only temporarily TARPed over trouble. Gaddafi's regime in Libya appears over, but Libya's oil output may not fully recover for years. Venezuela wants banks to open their vaults and send back its gold, but Wells Fargo says gold is a bubble. Pundits say gold is a barbarous relic, but exchanges and banks are now using gold as money. The U.S. is headed for hyperinflation with skyrocketing stock prices, but on the other hand, we seem to be deflating like Japan and doomed to a deflating stock market for another decade. Whom do you trust and what should you do?

No one knows where the stock market or U.S. Treasury bonds are headed tomorrow, but in my opinion, here are some fundamentals to consider.



The Bad News Isn't Going Away

Until we have real global financial reform and restrain the banks, we won't have sustained growth. The stock market hasn't hit bottom. There's a crisis of confidence in banks and all currencies. We haven't taken effective steps to tackle the U.S. deficit through productivity. We haven't examined spending to eliminate fraud and waste, and we haven't addressed our need for more tax revenues by eliminating the Bush tax cuts (for starters).

Savers are punished by "stranguflation:" negative real returns on "safe" assets, declining housing prices, and rising costs of food, energy and health care. The Fed touts the falling cost of I-Pads, but how often do you buy one of those, and how often do you eat?

Good News (for Now)

The USD is still the world's reserve currency. Even though we devalued the USD, there has been a global flight to U.S. Treasuries pushing down our borrowing costs (yields). No one in the global financial community feels the U.S. has done its best to correct our problems, but severe problems in Europe, China's inflation, and Middle East unrest has money running to the U.S. Since we've devalued the dollar, we appear to be a bargain for foreign investors, even though they are terrified by our money printing presses and the potential for inflating commodity prices in the long run.

How did I play this? My own portfolio is currently more than 20% gold with some silver, and I bought out-of-the-money call options on the VIX when it was in the teens with maturities of 4-6 months. This is "short" stock market strategy, one could have also done well buying puts on the S&P a few months ago. In the first big stock market downdraft in August, I sold the options when the VIX hit the high 30's, and I'll buy more options again if the VIX falls again. Many investors are not comfortable with options, and this strategy isn't appropriate for everyone. The rest of my portfolio is chiefly in cash or deep value opportunities.



What Happens Next?

No one knows for sure, and anyone who tells you he or she does is selling snake oil. The situation is fluid. We tried to reflate our deflating economy. Our massive dollar devaluation may encourage investment, because it's protectionist. It reduces our cost of labor, among a few other "benefits." The problem is that the Fed has printed money, and we haven't done anything to position the U.S. for greater productivity. We're trying to inflate our way out of a problem without investing in productivity. This is a very dangerous way of attacking this problem. Even more "stimulus" would just be an attempt to inflate our way out of our long-standing deep recession. That's the foolish and unsuccessful strategy we've adopted so far. That could lead to runaway budget deficits (our deficit already looks intractable) and bring us to double-digit inflation. Even the European flight to US Treasuries may not save us from a deeper recession in that scenario.

If we don't overreact -- and we may have already overreacted -- our dollar devaluation results in our foreign trade situation first getting worse (as it has now) before it gets better. Now is the time (actually, we should have started years ago) to spend capital to increase U.S. productivity. The dollar's plunge relative to other currencies will eventually make us more competitive. This will be good for blue chip companies, in particular those that own real assets and manufacture items. The Fed and Washington may do anything, however, so one must watch the news.

What does this mean for the U.S. stock market? In my opinion, it is currently not good value and feels like the 1970s when we experienced a recession followed by inflation. One should consider staying mostly in cash and expect stocks become cheaper. One might miss an interim rally, especially if the Fed announces QE3 (more "stimulus" and money printing) or more bank bailouts, but that is like using Kleenex laced with sneezing powder. We will see stock prices even lower than they are today. The old paradigm dictated that stocks were a buy when P/E ratios were 13 or less (and many are well above that), dividends at 4%, and book values at 1.3 or less. (This excludes oil companies, which tend to trade at lower P/E ratios in general.) I believe we'll see much better deals in coming months. In 1978/79 P/E ratios sank below 7 for blue chip companies.

Should one buy U.S. Treasuries with long maturities? The long end of the bond market doesn't reward investors due to the potential of rising interest rates. If interest rates spike to double digits, then one can reassess the situation.

Long term investors should consider buying commodities or companies that own physical commodities. We're running out of key commodities especially related to agriculture and fertilizer. Washington's brand of the latter isn't the type we need.