10 Best Investment Tips for 2007

Investments in 2007 will be your opportunity to make significant gains in your financial portfolio. Taking control early in your investment planning will maximize your returns and you'll create groundwork that will allow you to establish investing guidelines for all future investing as well.

Investing is all about placing your best researched intuitions where you feel comfortable about what will take place regardless of the expectations of others or the status of the nation's economy. Money is made daily and if you place your investments wisely, determines if you are in fact, master of your investments.

There are some misconceptions of what type of investments are the best to follow. If you do not have any real insights on the stock market, don't jump in with a large percentage of your investing capital. The keys to success are about learning as much as anything and never replaying a bad strategy.

History, self made history, is or should be your best friend for all your future investments. It's not a perfect world and neither are you, so put aside any thoughts that you can maximize every trade or other investment, make your moves slowly and consistent.

Let's say you are new to investing, you can take advantage of several courses or mini-trade routes, outlined by someone who's found consistent patterns that produce successful trades. Investing can be in a totally unexpected direction, such as applying yourself in online sales from an affiliate program. This is a very popular investment since it takes very little money to get started and you have a ready-made product already established. The commission split to you is very appealing. There are a number of programs that pay as much as 75% to you.

Investment Planning is really as simple as, where you think you can actively participate with your money and or time, that will yield you a positive return on your participation.

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1. - Know your talents, what are you good at, then think of ways to make it pay you for your efforts

2. - How much time can you devote to your investment, this is where you don't want to become sidetracked and lose sight of your goals

3. - Invest your time or money where you understand the risks and won't become shocked or surprised if it develops a slump or setback

4. - Choose an investment that you enjoy, this makes investing a pleasure and this will give you drive above all other distractions

5. - Make predictions or goals that can be obtained in the short term, don't set yourself up to finish the year before you've made your shorter range goals. Life is about living, not retiring.

6. - Read about the previous years wins and losses, in the field of your investment plans and see where to make small changes that could correct for the losses and avoid pitfalls that history provides

7. - Consider forming a team of investors, family, friends, or co-workers who are serious about taking control of their financial futures.

8. - Put all your financial plans in writing and keep them at arms reach at all times. It's very wise to make notes as you have certain thoughts from day to day and reflect, then decide if you need to make adjustments. Don't become overwhelmed with the " I should have done . . ." thinking process. This will make you miserable and you can loose focus very easily.

9. - Track your progress and determine if you should increase your investment of money, time, or both in order to see a positive return on your investment. This is not always easy to decide, but you are the controls of your investment, don't let yourself down.

10.- Find a mentor that can advise and encourage you to continue, seldom will you find a success story that didn't have contributors, regardless of their role in the success story. You may be pleasantly surprised how much others can actually affect your investments in a positive manner. ____________________________________________________________________

Investing for 2007 can be your new-found goldmine to becoming self-sufficient financially. Take the time to decide your personal plan of action and follow through with it. There are so many possibilities, it's not a question of if, but rather how you will succeed. For more investment tips:

http://wealthsmith.com/investment-tips-insights-2007.htm

Jim is an online writer and netpreneur that has a knack for current trends and topics that his readers enjoy absorbing for their personal enrichment. Today's topic is investments;

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Sane Prediction

The reasonable way to find undervalued investment is to find the fair value of the common stock. This requires us to predict into the future. The stock that seems cheap on the trailing basis will not rise if future earning is in jeopardy. An example of this is General Motor Corporation (GM) which had been trading at a trailing Price Earning (P/E) Ratio at single digits for years. Nobody rush to buy GM because investors realize that the future of GM is still shaky. Cost is high while revenue per vehicle is $ 3500 less than its Japanese competitors, Toyota Motor (TM).

To find undervalued investment, we therefore need to have a good predictive tools. This is mainly a quest of learning by doing. The more you do, the better your prediction power would be. Experience can teach you a lot of things about the proper way of predicting future earnings. Aside from that, you can follow the guidelines below to improve your earning prediction.

Be Conservative. Lean on the cautious side. After all, not all predictions are accurate. We would like to be in the position where our investment would not lose money even when the performance of the company misses our expectation.

Be Realistic. Lets assume the company has a gross profit margin of between 40-45% for the last three years. If you are predicting a gross profit margin of 75% next year, do you think it is realistic? Nope. Unless the company is changing its line of business entirely, I dont think such drastic change is possible within a year. For example, if Walmart Stores Inc. (WMT) is expected to be in the retail business, it is unwise to predict a significantly higher gross profit margin even when it branches out to higher margin industry such as credit card or insurance. Its profit margin might be up but it will not be shooting up from 30% to 60% in one year.

Be Reasonable. Use a reasonable judgment to justify your prediction. For example, you need to justify the cause of your forecasted gross margin of 40%. Perhaps, the company is moving its production to places where the cost is significantly lower. Perhaps, the company will see increased pricing pressure due to new competitions in the marketplace. Whatever it is, every elements in the pro-forma income statement should have some justifications behind it.

Be simple. There are a lot of uncertainties in pro-forma income statement. By simplifying the elements of income statements, it will be easier to decide whether a stock is a good investment or not. For example, if a company is paying different taxes rate at different states, it is better for us to simplify it and use the combined average tax for our calculation purpose.

Get your free investing idea by visiting our commentary section at http://www.noviceinvesting.com

Franchise Opportunity - Questions To Ask The Franchisor - #36

Finding The Right Franchise

Whether its hamburgers, pizza, telecom, coffee, Internet, muffler parts, or seniors services, there are Franchise opportunities available to evaluate. There are great Franchise systems, good Franchise systems, and bad Franchise systems. The challenge is to ask the right questions to find the right system that will fit your goals and dreams. The key is to ask the questions and listen closely to the responses. Only then can you determine if the Franchise opportunity is the right fit for you. So whether its food services like burgers or coffee, professional services like telecom or IT, or manual services like cleaning or oil changes, ask the questions and record the answers.

What Are The Franchisors Growth Plans?

You may think that a Franchisors growth plans are not important to you once you become a Franchisee. However, there are a number of factors that illustrate that a Franchisor that has continuing growth plans will increase the value of your investment.

The opposite of growth would be shrinkage. That doesnt sound too good does it? The middle point would be stagnation. Thats not too attractive either. So why is growth important?

One important factor is related to the penetration goal stated above. If there is room to penetrate, and the Franchisor doesnt have strategies to meet that market, guess want will happen. Yep, competitors will penetrate, and through their growth strategies, they might eat some of your lunch. It is logically better for you that the Franchisor has growth strategies that will address that market need, and grow value in the Franchise system, as opposed to rolling out the welcome mat for competitors.

A second factor is that a normal phenomenon in Franchising is that each Franchise that is added to the system, and each new customer that is added to the system, and each new employee that is added to the system, will increase the value of the brand. Volume carries clout in price negotiation. Messages are carried by more lips. More signs, more transactions, more bank deposits, more customers, more vendors it all translates to increased brand recognition. Increased brand recognition should translate to more business for each Franchise.

In addition, growth strategies will generally drive up the Franchise Fee. That means that if you pay $2 as a Franchise Fee, and growth strategies drive the Franchise Fee up to $5, then that becomes the base value for your Franchise because the market will pay that price. Thats a nice return on investment if its achieved over a reasonable timeframe, which of course is driven by the Franchisors growth strategies.

O.K., so there are lots of good reasons that growth is important as opposed to shrinkage or stagnation. However, you must also feel comfortable that the strategy is sensible. Thats why you need to ask the questions, and you should expect well thought out answers that makes sense to you.

To receive a free copy of an E-Book titled Franchise Opportunity Making The Right Decision by Dennis Schooley, email that request to corp@schooleymitchell.com.

Dennis Schooley is the Founder of Schooley Mitchell Telecom Consultants, a Professional Services Franchise Company. He writes for publication, as well as for schooleymitchell.blogging.com and franchises.blogging.com, in the subject areas of Franchising, and Technology for the Layman. http://www.schooleymitchell.com, 888-311-6477, dschooley@schooleymitchell.com.

FOREX Trading Systems - How to Pick One with Big Profit Potential

Forex Trading systems can give you a ready made way to make profits from FOREX trading.

The problem is 90% are junk and are not worth the money.

This article is about choosing a FOREX Trading system with the potential to make big gains.

Lets look at some things that you need to consider:

1. Never pick a day trading system!

FOREX day trading systems are very popular, but they simply dont work and the logic is totally stupid.

Why?

Because all short term volatility is random and therefore you cant trade it.

If you dont believe the above, then ask for a real time track record of profits and you wont get one.

2. Pick a simple system

Its a fact that simple systems work better than complicated ones as they are more robust in the face of brutal market conditions.

There is no correlation between how complicated a system is and how much money it makes.

Simple systems are also easier to understand and this makes them easier to follow through inevitable losing periods.

3. Make sure the logic is revealed

Never buy a black box system where you dont know how it works.

The reason for this is like in point 2, if you dont understand it, you wont be able to follow it through losing periods with discipline.

4. Beware of optimization

Never consider a system that uses different parameters to trade different currencies.

The logic should work on all currencies or not at all.

Many vendors simply tweak the parameters to curve fit the data to make a profit.

This is similar to shooting at a target and drawing bulls eyes around every shot afterwards.

5. Track record

Ideally you want a track record that is real time and has made real dollars for the vendor.

Be wary of hypothetical track records which of course are done in hindsight, knowing the closing prices.

Anyone can make a profit this way!

Look for a track record of 2 years or more, that is real ie has been traded live without the benefit of hinsight - Either with money or done in a simulated fashion but audited by an independent ratings agency.

6. Study the peak to valley drawdown

Look at the worst drawdown on the track record and its time to recovery and decide if you are comfortable with it.

Always assume your worst drawdown is ahead of you.

Some traders can take drawdowns of 50% or more others cant, so get one your comfortable with.

7. Support and money back guarantee

Reputable vendors will give you good support and will normally provide a money back guarantee, as they have confidence in their product.

Do some research on the vendor and never buy a FOREX trading system without a guarantee.

Finally

There is no free lunch with forex trading systems so use common sense when buying one.

The above tips will help you pick one of the small percentage that make big gains.

Doing the above research will save you from potential losses and could see you make some great profits.

MORE FREE TRADING INFO & A SYSTEM WITH A REAL TIME TRACK RECORD

On all aspects of becoming a profitable trader including info and for an exclusive Gann Trading Course visit our website at http://www.net-planet.org/index.html

What Are Your Wealth-Building Goals?

The money is out there. No matter how many people tell you that we are in the midst of a starvation economy, that the market is doing this or that, and that it's too risky to play the game, so to speak, people are getting rich every day. That is the reality.

The trick, of course, is to become one of those people.

Yeah, you might say. That guy was just lucky. What are the chances of that happening to me? Well, absolutely zero if you don't do anything about your dreams to build wealth. If you walk around thinking that you have only a snowball's chance of hitting the big one in the financial game, then you are right. That's because you are depending on chance.

Becoming wealthy is not about chance. Oh the guy you just read about may indeed have been luckybut he was not just lucky. Because fortune favors the prepared mind, you have to lay the groundwork in order to take advantage of opportunity when it arises. You have to be able to not only recognize those opportunities, but to actually have the resources to take advantage of them.

Laying the groundwork involves having a plan for your financial future. What is your plan for building wealth?

If, like most Americans, you don't have one then, like most Americans, you will retain the status quo. But if you recognize that you, and only you, are in charge of your destiny, that is an entirely different matter.

According to Robert Kiyosaki, author of the Rich Dad series of books, you have to get a grip on your financial philosophy. You don't have a financial philosophy, you say? Sure you do, even if you don't realize it.

In his book Cash Flow Quadrant, Kiyosaki outlines the four philosophies as they were outlined for him by the man he calls his rich dad. You can recognize your own philosophy by noticing how you tend to make your money. On the left side of the quadrant, are the E's and the S'sthe Employees and the Self-employed. The philosopy of the E is based around security while the philosophy of the S is based around doing his own thing. While there is nothing wrong about either philosophy, neither is likely to help you build much wealth.

On the right side of Kiyosaki's quadrant, are the B's and the I'sthe Business owners and the Investors. The difference between a B and an S, Kiyosaki says, is that the B has built a system which he can rig to run itself, freeing him for other financial or personal pursuits. An S simply owns a job, as Kiyosaki says, and is such an integral part of the operation that he is essentially a prisoner of it. The company he has created is his baby. But we all know how demanding babies are, and if a business never matures into an adult that can survive without your mothering, it will eat most of your time.

The trick, then, is not to build a better product. It's to build a product bettermore efficiently with regard to your own resources. Build a system, not a job. Then you will have the money that will take care of your personal needs and allow you to invest.

If you already have loads of money to work with, then you can go ahead and jump right to the I quadrantafter investing in your own education and learning how it works. Investing is risky if you jump in blind, but if you know what you're doing, it is a whole different matter.

So lay the foundation with education and then build your wealth as though you were constructing a structure. Don't skimp on materials, but instead do it methodically. Eventually you will find yourself staring at an impressive building that will help you weather any storm.

About The Author: Investment Property Specialist Alex Anderson Helps Investors From All Across America To Buy Investment Property. Residing In Minneapolis Minnesota, Alex Also Assists Buyers Who Are Seeking Minnesota Investment Property. Alex Has Also Recently Launched A New Site That Features Minneapolis Minnesota Real Estate.