Goal Setting & Wealth

To be successful in this life, either personally, financially or otherwise, you have to have goals. It’s not just something our parents and counselors have been babbling about our whole lives; it’s a fact. Even those who aspire to be successfully lazy must set a goal to be adequately lazy each and every day! So as in any other endeavor, being an investor requires a little goal setting.

“If goals are imperative, then what goals shall I have?” you may be asking yourself. Whatever the goal may be, it must have some purpose, and it must have smaller sub-goals so you can consistently have small victories (a very real morale boost). I often run across people who choose $1 million dollars as a goal because they want to be a millionaire. But really what does that mean? A millionaire today is not the same as a millionaire in 1905, and will not mean the same thing in 2055. With an annual inflation rate of 3.5% for the last 80 or so years, a million dollars looses half its value every 20.2 years.

It’s frustrating to see such a purposeless goal — floating about without any foundation — because without a purpose a goal is just an arbitrary target that is too easily changed at a whim. A goal must have meaning and a foundation on something real. Fear not though, for I am here. I present, for your consideration, my milestones…

My Milestones
1. Total Investments of $150,000
2. Total Investments of $500,000
3. Total Investments of $1,000,000
4. Every-day Wealth
5. Uncommon Wealth

Some thoughts on emerging markets

Below is an excerpt from a conversation that Chris and I had last night. It concerns emerging markets, and some thoughts on how best to enter them. I’ve just posted the conversation as is, not even bothering to modify for typos and mispellings. In a few weeks, I’ll post more thoroughly on this topic, as it interests me, and deserves my full measure of attention. Also, this is just an aside, and not a substitute/cop-out for my weekly article, that will follow sometime tomorrow.

Know Thyself: Short-term vs. Long-term

Frank presented some great short-term and long-term stocks in Tuesday’s post. It’s important when investing to differentiate between short-term and long-term plays. You should always know why you are buying a stock, and knowing when you plan on selling the stock (in the short-term or long-term) is an important part of that equation.

But what do you do if a company looks good in the short-term AND the long-term? I’m going to address this topic using one of Frank’s picks as an example: SIRI (Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.)

Why we’re here

I don’t believe it is our job to just provide stock picks.

What I do believe:

  • I believe it is our mission to help educate a generation of geeks on how to build wealth and secure a worry-free retirement for themselves through investment and personal finance. No compromises, no apologies, no holds bar.
  • I believe every investor should practice discipline, research, and a dialectic (dialouge based) approach to choosing investments. Wealth is built over a lifetime and I believe every investor should have the courage to encourage others to supress their desires to gamble.
  • I believe that we must walk before we run and in the same manner we should expect lower returns as we learn how to successfully invest.

There are thousands of investments out there, from bonds, to stocks, to starting your own business. I want to cover all of them on this site, and every investor should think carefully about his full range of options. Every investors’ circumstances are different and every investor has a personality — a certain ability to take on risk, and a certain lifestyle he would like to lead. Not every investment is suitable for each investor, and it is every person’s duty to himself to figure out what kind of risk and effort he’s willing to make with his investments.