InvestorGeeks

Why the Poor Will Always Be With Us: Part 2

by Erin

Great conversation about Why the Poor Will Always Be With Us. I wanted to continue that by addressing some of the issues raised from the ’soap box’ I’ve been given. (wink)

Mathew Emmert: Fool of Crap

by Steve

At Motley Fool, bad information and skewed research are the topic of the day.

Good ol’ Mathew Emmert over at Motley fool posted an article this week, which you can read here, that states that “dividend stocks beat the market.” Whoopdie freakin’ doo. We’ve all heard this before, even some people here at Investor Geeks believe in the dividend stocks, which is fine, however, let me explain why this article is full of crap.

Why the Poor Will Always Be With Us

by Erin

The Naked Economist (and no ladies, he is not actually naked in the picture, disappointing I know) in his most recent Yahoo Finance Article made this comment:

The living wage: Wouldn’t it be great if everyone in America earned at least $12 to $15 an hour? I think it would be. The fact that America’s poverty rate still hovers in double-digits is a national disgrace. But requiring employers to pay double or triple the hourly wage they’re currently paying wouldn’t necessarily do any great favor to many of America’s working poor.

The context is about quick fixes. But I think there is a bigger problem that cannot be solved with higher wages or more a more bankable skill set.

The problem is lack of financial education. It doesn’t matter how much money you make if you do not know how to manage it well. I am financially free through investments as a stay at home single mom; conversely, there are extremely high paid people who live pay check to pay check or are drowning in debt.

The divide is getting greater between the haves and have-nots. And if you divided up all the money evenly among the masses, it would end up the same way. Some people know how to make and manage money, but most don’t.

Managing money is a life skill. Until people are more educated about how to make, manage and grow money, the poor will always be with us. The question is, will you be one of them?

New Indicators for Investing

by Christian

Most of you are probably looking at stocks and thinking about moving averages, technical analysis, and probably running some scanner application to find the latest and greatest stock to invest in. Maybe some of you will use fundamental analysis to figure out what the cash flow or earnings per share is. Regardless of what kind of investor you are you will use some kind of indicator.

In the technical analysis or fundamental analysis world there are literally oodles and oodles of indicators. Yet if you thought about it the indicators digest the same data over and over again in different manners.

I’ll discuss why traditional technical indicators and fundamentals can be misleading. Then I’ll give you two macro-economic indicators I’ve been using lately: In-house software, and Remanufacturing.

Cap Rates

by Ken

What is a cap rate? A cap rate (or capitalization rate) is the net operating income divided by the price of a property. If you have a $100,000 property and its net operating income is $10,000 the cap rate for this property is 10%.

What does this mean to you? How have cap rates affected the current real estate boom?

Averaging Down: Playing Chicken With Mr. Market

by Vince

In case you doubt my membership in InvestorGeeks, I love movie trivia! What’s the highlight scene in James Dean’s 1950s cult movie, Rebel Without a Cause? You are right if your answer is the game called chicken, where Dean and his rival each drove a car towards a cliff. There are many variations of the chicken game, but in the movie, the game is won by jumping from the car later than the other player; but still in time to avert the cliff. For investors, it sometimes feels like your rival is Mr. Market daring you to jump out of your car first. The person who blinks first loses, but if you don’t blink, you might lose even more when you fly off the cliff! Sounds familiar?

I bet many investors out there have had the situation where you did all your homework before buying a stock and yet it still tanked 10%, 20% after you bought a position. It happens to the best of investors. What’s a person to do in this situation? Should you buy more? Should you get out early?

Singles Win Games in Baseball and Stocks

by Steve

Sticking with the baseball theme, this article is going to look at the fascination with people wanting to find that ‘home run’ stock. It’s stupid. Quit doing it. It’s unnecessary and a really bad strategy.

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