Aging Demographics – The Other Super Secular TrendWritten by Henry To, CFA
The Dow Theorists (and yours truly) have always emphasized that most profitable way to invest in stock market for average American is to invest in harmony with primary trend. In Dow Theory terms, this would mean investing in a period of severe undervaluation and holding on to your stocks (or dollar cost-average into your portfolio) until end of bull market – such as September 1999 when Dow Theory bear market signal was given -- and then stay out until primary bear market has fully asserted itself. I myself sold all my stocks in January 2000, and since then, I have maintained that we are still in a secular bear market, despite fact that I am still bullish in intermediate term. When current bear market bottoms, I believe that we will be seeing new lows in major stock market indices -- such that stocks will be attractive from a valuation standpoint once again. Dear readers, this particular commentary will be a little bit different. In previous paragraph,
| | The Easiest Most Effective Saving MethodWritten by Jeff
Over time, a little bit of money can be turned into a nice wad of cash. The beauty of being a teen in this day and age is that you have plenty of time to that. The key to getting this money is to make it and save it. Make money any way you can think of. One easy way is to ask your parents for an allowance. Do chores around house that your parents are too busy for. Offer to clean pool, mow lawn, pull weeds, go to grocery store(if you have your license), wash cars, etc... If you want to make more money, then get an actual job. Look for "now hiring" signs. Work at grocery stores, food places, at your parents work, golf courses, surf shops, mall, etc... With money that you're making it's important that you don't blow it all on clothes, video games, and other "stuff." Buy things that you need, not stuff that you would be cool to play with for a couple of days. Also, don't buy expensive versions of everything. Here is a great saving method: You don't need to buy most expensive skater shoe brands for $80. Buy older on-sale versions that are just as comfortable, work same, but only cost $40-50. Or you could really save and buy shoes at a sporting good store, or a regular shoe store and get shoes for $20-30. Think of it this way. Let's say in a year you buy 4 pairs of shoes. If you buy four $80 shoes, that's $320 a year. That's almost a $1000 dollars after three years. What's point? What if you buy 4 pairs of $40 shoes. That's $160 a year, and $480 after three years. What if you went all out and bought 4 pairs of $20 shoes. That's $80 a year (the price of one expensive pair of shoes), and only $240 after 3 years. You save $160 a year if you buy $40 shoes instead of $80 shoes. If you really want to save and buy $20 shoes instead of $80 shoes, you save $240. Hmmm, which one should I buy? If you don't think you can do that, then control limit yourself to only one or two pairs of expensive brand of shoe, and buy discount price shoes other times and you're still saving money.
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