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Investment

My Two Months Personal Experience With Forex Trading As A Beginner

In the last two months of 2011, I took on a personal adventure to take on a new Investment Tool – Forex Trading. I started out with a US$100 mini-account from the start and at the end of the two months stint, I ended with only $4 and decided that it should be the end of my Forex Trading journey till the date I mastered what’s necessary to really make the money work harder with this tool…

But meanwhile, if you do have intentions to take on this Investment Tool and you are also starting off like a Beginner… maybe I can personally share my experience and what you can expect (if you are going serious on this)…

Can You Make Money With Forex Trading

The answer is definitely yes! And if you are really experienced with it, you can make money during the Good Times and Bad Times regardless on the economic conditions – though this still play a part in influencing the movement of a particular currency.

Despite the fact that you can really make money with it, the other side (= losing money) will still apply to anybody if you are not careful and when you trade without any considerations.

And as compared to other investment tools like Investing with Stocks or Property, you can see Profits (and even) Losses in a matter of hours or even minutes (of which I have seen traders making a quick 100% profit gain in 2 minutes – and this is the effect of doing their homework and timing the market well).

What You Need To Take Note When You Are Trading As A Beginner (From My Point Of View)

1. Read The News And Understand The Market. In Forex Trading, understanding the news will help you to become a Better Trader. And if you can take a piece of news and decipher what it means to a particular currency, for e.g. the news you just hear is sort of negative for a particular currency and thus will people think that it’ more profitable to exchange that currency to hold onto others, etc. If you can relate this well, I believe you are off to a good start being a Forex Trader.

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Are You Financially Planned In 2011 And Prepared For 2012?

In just a few hours, we will be saying goodbye to Year 2011 and welcoming 2012… how are you, in the financial planning aspects?

Some Questions To Reflect Back In 2011

If you are not too sure of your current state, here’s some general questions that you can ask yourself and it’s also a good reflection of what you need to focus on in the coming 2012…

Ask yourself:

– Did your savings grow, remain the same or shrink?

– How’s your investment portfolio?

– Do you feel more ready for your Retirement?

– In terms of any unforeseen circumstances – are you prepared?

– With the weather so unpredictable, are your precious assets well protected (or well-insured)?

– In terms of educating yourself in the area of finances, have you done so?

– Your health – is it well maintained?

If you feel that there’s a big shortfall in terms of your planning for any of the above mentioned, I will always say that it’s still not too late – if you sit down, set your mind and draft out some plans to really tackle them in 2012. Likewise, with the financial planning industry gearing up (the recent regulations being that Planners would need to take up more investment credentials to better advise for their clients – it’s a good time to arrange for a discussion with your Financial Planner!

What You May Need To Pay Attention To In 2012

– Unforgiving Economy

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How To Self-Manage Your Own Money With A Six Accounts Strategy

Would you like to have better self-management of your money so that you have enough to save for retirement, invest, play & pamper, and at the same time doing your part to contribute to the charity on a regular basis?

If you do, you can actually make sure of this Six Account Strategy that I have learned from T. Harv Eker’s brilliant book called, The Secrets Of A Millionaire Mind.

Why Should You And I Make Use Of This Strategy?

My personal experience from what I learned from most people, who have just received their bring-home income and including my own, is that the money will be used to pay off most of outstanding bills and loans, settle and pay for any necessities and the rest is kept in the bank account (if any is left, of course).

All these are usually done on a irregular amount and inconsistent basis, do you agree as well?

– For Investment And Education Opportunities

For example, if there’s a good (as in really, really positive and good potential) investment or education opportunity that may just come up to you, you may keep asking yourself whether you should go for it and leave a slight cut on your bank account or use it for other personal uses… For most people after this much of pondering and thinking that using the money for other personal uses is better, this one chance may just slip away and never appear!

Such case did appear to me, in one particular case of stock investment where there’s a strong potential growth of at least 20 – 30% capital gain. I do have the money to invest but… I wanted to use that money to spend on some latest Tech Gadgets. So at the end of the day, I did not invest or spend on any Gadgets (because the better ones are coming up, again!). The stock grew and it was too late for me to go into it!

– For Retirement Planning And Charity Giving

Likewise for Retirement Planning, most people do not concentrate much on this particular section of planning and rather spend most of their money on other areas. They only plan and invest towards the last few years of their working life and hope that miracles will happen at the end of it! Usually, such things will never happen to the mass majority!

I am a believer of Charity Giving and I would try to donate to my charity choice once I have the spare cash. I would like to do it on a regular basis but I am, like any other normal person, that these donations should be spent on other uses. And to side-track, do you know that by giving away a bit of what you have to help others, you will get “rewarded” (not just in monetary sense) many times back? That’s why many millionaires are requesting people to step out and do their part in charity giving.

So if you did face such situations before (which I did) and you would like to have a way out, you should try on T. Harv Eker’s Six Jars System today!

How Does T. Harv Eker’s Six Jars System Work?

In general, you need to have so-called six accounts (i.e. actual bank savings accounts or some form of Excel Sheet tracking) to separate your bring-home income.

And under the Six Jars System, you should have these accounts and the percentage of your bring-home income in it:

1. Financial Freedom Account (10%) – This account is meant for your Investment Purposes. Making sure your money works hard for you! Please do not try to use this money to try on the lottery. The money in this account is meant to go into good investments like Stocks, Unit Trusts, Properties or any assets that will give you a significant rate of return as compared to the usual bank savings account rate. Any dividends can be re-invested or to go into your Long-Term Savings Account.

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How To Plan With $200/month If You Just Started Working

If you have just started work, around the age of 25 and holding a monthly salary of around $2,500 (Gross, before CPF contribution, bringing home around $2000) onwards, then you would love to appreciate this post as I will be sharing with you on how to plan well (coverage in almost every aspect) with just 10% of your monthly “bring-home” income ($200/month).

Note: If you are finding it hard to set aside this 10%, please read my Financial Planning Tip #1 – Paying Yourself First…

Note #2: The plans discussed below are mostly offered by the Insurance Company that I am representing and should not be served as a direct guide. Any queries, please do contact your Financial Planner.

How To Plan With $200/month?

How To Plan With $200/month?

The premiums are derived based on a Male, age 25, and a non-smoker. Rates for Female may differ accordingly.

1. Medical Insurance (Compulsory) With Rider (Optional)

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What You Need To Know About Dollar Cost Averaging In Today’s Market

Been a week since I have last posted, to my readers here, my sincere apologies as I was preparing to get my papers in General Insurance done. Luckily for me, I was able to clear the Basic Insurance Concepts and Principles (BCP) and Personal General Insurance (PGI) in one sitting!

What this mean is that I can recommend other range of products (Motor insurance, especially) on top of the usual life insurance products. 🙂

Beside that, I have been consulting a few clients in the area of investment and was able to convince them on the importance of Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) in today’s kind of market (down, down, down and hoping for a up soon?).

So are you using this concept to your advantage or are you still scratching your head over the meaning and significance of Dollar Cost Averaging? I hope to clear this with this post.

The Meaning Of Dollar Cost Averaging

To explain the meaning of Dollar Cost Averaging to my clients, I will always explain in simple terms like when prices are low, you buy more units; when prices are high, you buy less units. With this kind of constant buying, you bring down or average the value of prices down, e.g. Price of $5 and Price of $3, the average is $4 now and when the market is at $4.50, you are already in profit of $0.50 per unit share.

If this is still confusing to you, then think of this “Fish-Ball” concept:

Imagine that you like to buy fish ball every month and is willing to set aside only $1 per month to buy. The current price for a fish ball is also at $1 each. Therefore with your $1, you can buy only 1 fish ball.

Therefore your $1 = 1 fish ball

But suddenly due to an economy downturn, the prices of everything start going down and your $1 fish ball is now $0.50 each. Whereas with your usual $1, you can get more fish balls like in this case:

Your $1 = 2 fish ball (at $0.50 each), so total invested is $2 for 3 fish balls

When the economy starts picking up, your $0.50 fish ball is restored back to $1 each.

So you $1 = 1 fish ball, so the total invested amount is $3 for 4 fish balls.

If you are to sell off your 4 fish balls at $1 each (please disregard the acutal possibility of selling fish balls at your own accord), your actual return from this sale is $4. From the initial investment of $3, you have made a profit of $1 ($4 – $3).

If you are clear about this fish ball concept, you are slowly grasping the real meaning of the benefits behind Dollar Cost Averaging.

With this in mind, will you like to take a personal test to see if you are ready to tap on the concept of Dollar Cost Averaging to help you make your money work harder?

There are three graphs that are very typical of an investment chart below:

Share Prices Are Going Up, Up and Up...
1. Share Prices Are Going Up, Up and Up
2. Market is Going Down and Up
2. Market is Going Down and Up
3. Varying Market Trend
3. Varying Market Trend

Take your pick and decide for yourself, in which investment chart will you be able to fully utilize the concept of dollar cost averaging and make your monthly saving work to the full benefit?

If you like, you can work it out on your own, based on $100 per month, for a full 12 months, prices varying (you can click on the image to get the different prices), and based on your total investment, how much returns will you be getting. If you are ready to for the answer… read on..

The Analysis

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