Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Investing

Self-taught investor tripled his money ELLEN ROSEMAN

Jim Chuong has been reading investment books since he was 14 years old. Now 32, he's a successful self-taught investor.

"I avoided the tech crash because I invest only in businesses that have demonstrated consistent and predictable high returns on equity capital," he says.

"My worst year was a 5 per cent loss in 1999 and my best was a 33 per cent return in 2003."

Frustrated with mutual funds, Chuong started picking stocks for himself in 1998. He's had an average annual return of more than 20 per cent and his portfolio has more than tripled in value.

He holds only five U.S. stocks, two of which he's owned since 1998, and keeps them as long as their fundamentals are sound.

"I spend a long time determining whether I want to buy," he says, "and after I do, I don't like to sell."

I sat down with him this week to see what investment books and websites he likes best.

His first pick, widely regarded as a classic, has a seductive message. Peter Lynch, a U.S. mutual fund superstar, says average people can outsmart the pros by using information picked up as employees or consumers.

One Up on Wall Street: How to Use What you Already Know to Make Money in the Market (Simon & Schuster, $21) is better than Lynch's later books. That's because co-author John Rothchild adds much-needed humor and a breezy writing style.

Chuong also likes The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, a book that has sold a million copies since first published in 1949. There's an excellent revised edition (HarperCollins, $29.95), which is updated by Money magazine columnist Jason Zweig and uses examples current up to 2003.

Chuong uses the Internet to screen stocks and check on earnings growth. His favourite sites are http://finance.yahoo.com, http://www.morningstar.com, http://www.motleyfool.com and http://www.moneycentral.msn.com.

His number one resource is the Value Line Investment Survey, which shows sales and profits for 1,700 stocks over a 10-year period. It costs $598 (U.S.) for a one-year subscription, but Chuong copies the pages he wants at the public library.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

It's good to know if I am ready for success

The Sign That You’re Not Ready for Success

By Mr. Self Development on May 20, 2010 in Finances, Goal Achievement, Life's Purpose, Success

What would happen if you went to your mailbox today, and there was a check for a million dollars in it? What would happen if you checked your bank account balance, and there was an extra $100,000 in the account? What would happen if all of your goals for this year were achieved tomorrow?
You’d probably be very shocked, right? You might even call all of your friends to tell them about it. But your excitement is a sign that you’re not ready for these events to take place in your life.
What would happen if you went to the mailbox and found a check for $1? What would happen if you got on the scale and you were one pound lighter than you thought you were?
Nothing would happen. Why? Because these are things that you might expect to happen, and what you expect, you get.
The reason you’re not going to get the additional $100,000 in your checking account is because you’re not ready for it, and you know it. The proof that you’re not ready for it is “your surprise.” When you believe success is coming your way, when you really believe it, you expect it, and you position yourself to receive it.
If a woman is nine months pregnant, she acts differently from a woman who is not pregnant at all. Why? Because she’s “expecting” something, she’s getting ready for what she knows is about to come.
What are you getting ready for? What are you expecting? You will only get in this life, what you expect! If you’re expecting little things, then you’re going to continue to get little things. I wrote this article today, because I want to encourage you to expect big things.   Big things!
You can’t rise any higher than your expectations. If you’re a balloon, then you’re expectations are the string that you’re attached to.
I remember when I purchased the home I’m in now (you can read about it here: How I Manifested a 7 Bedroom Home at 24). I was excited, but I wasn’t nearly as excited as I thought I would be. I had vividly imagined living here for so long, that I had lost some of the excitement. It wasn’t the first time I had purchased this home, I had purchased it dozens of times in my head.
I’ve reached other goals, and to be honest, I wasn’t really excited about them at all, because I had already been there so many times in my imagination.  Currently, I think I’ll be excited when this Web site gets 2000 subscribers, but the truth is, I’ve seen 2000 subscribers so many times in my head, that when I get there, I probably won’t be as ecstatic as I think…I’ve seen it in my imagination for so long, the day it happens I will most likely be imagining 3000 subscribers.
My goal for this year was to lose 9 pounds and weigh 160 pounds, I thought I would be excited when I reached that goal this year. I weighed in at 159 pounds last month, and while I am grateful that I reached the goal, I’m not ecstatic about it, because I arrived to the goal first in my imagination.
Whatever your goal, you must begin to see it in your mind, take time daily to visualize your goal. Nothing is more important than this; you must see who you want to be. If you can’t see it, you can’t have it! If you can’t believe it, if you don’t think you’re worthy of it, you will never get it. So let me encourage you to see what you want to be today. You have the ability to see it, you deserve to have it, you just have to commit to changing your thoughts. Decide to spend a few minutes in your mind where you want to be in reality, and the directions to get you to your goal will become clear to you. It’s a matter of raising your expectation through meditation.  When you do this, you will arrive at your dream destination, …and you won’t even be surprised.

Reasons of procrastination

The 4 Reasons You Procrastinate

By Mr. Self Development on Apr 4, 2011 in Goal Achievement, Success

Procrastination is a killer! It’s a killer of your most critical and limited resource, your time.
You can always get more money, but you can’t get more time, so it’s of crucial importance that you protect your time with everything that you are. Your time is your life!
I’ve never met a successful person who didn’t value their time, and I’ve never met an unsuccessful person who did.
Today I want to talk about the four reasons people waste time, the four reasons you procrastinate.
The 4 Reasons You Procrastinate:
1. Fear of Failure
“He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat” – Napoleon Bonaparte
Sven Goran Eriksson said “The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure,” and because we fear failing, we procrastinate. We don’t want to fail, we’re scared of failure!
Because we don’t want to speed up the “failing process” we subconsciously desire procrastination because it postpones and/or eliminates failure.
But failure is okay, it’s inevitable, and it’s necessary.
You are going to fail; failure is the path to success. However, when you fail, be sure to fail forward! Les Brown said, “If you fall down, try to fall on your back, because if you can look up, you can get up.”
Don’t fear failure because failure is necessary for progress.
2. Lack of Self-Discipline
“In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves…self-discipline with all of them came first.” – Harry S. Truman
Do you have self-discipline? You need enough self-discipline to setup the habits that will move you beyond procrastination in to progress. Self-discipline isn’t omnipotent, it won’t solve every problem, but it will put you on the right track until your habits take over.
To change your life, you have to change your habits.
If you want to accomplish something you have yet to accomplish, it will take a new habit to get you there. Mike Murdock said, “Your habits will take you further than your desires.” So muster up enough self-discipline to create the right habits, and procrastination will disappear.
3. Perfection Paralysis
“Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it.” – James Stephens
Instead of ready, aim, fire, we must adopt the mentality of ready, fire, aim in order to move from procrastination to progress. Nothing is ever going to be perfect!
If you wait for the perfect moment to do something, it will never get done. Go ahead and do it now, make mistakes, learn from your mistakes and get better.
You want things to be “great,” but save absolute perfection for the procrastinators, not you!
4. Fear of Success
“Procrastination is the fear of success.” – Dennis Waitley
Perhaps Dennis Waitley said it best, he said, “People procrastinate because they are afraid of the success that they know will result if they move ahead now. Because success is heavy, carries a responsibility with it, it is much easier to procrastinate and live on the ‘someday I’ll’ philosophy.”
Success carries with it a heavy burden, it carries much responsibility. To whom much is given, much is required.
Consciously you may not consider the burden of success, but subconsciously you know it exists, and so you avoid progress. You procrastinate.
Today I want to tell you that you don’t have to fear success consciously or subconsciously. Say with me: “I’m ready for success, I’m ready for all that it brings, I can handle success!”
Say this every time a negative thought comes to you, and soon you will move from procrastination to progress, and from progress to success.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

Sir John Lubbock