I don't need to tell you how hard it is right now to find a good place to invest your money. Yet every day you're probably staring at a great investment when you look in the mirror. If you're like most people, you are your greatest asset, and investing in yourself and your career are your greatest investment opportunities right now.
I’ve been telling you it’s a bad time to invest in the stock market (even in index funds for now), so exactly where and how should you invest your money for the time being? Retirement money and other savings should basically be in very short term fixed income investments right now. But let’s break this down and understand where to (and not to) invest your money while returns are so painfully low, while still protecting them from unstable markets and likely to lose investment opportunities. I know it’s rough to even contemplate returns so low they don’t even make up for inflation, but most of the successful investors I know personally are doing what I am right now and are holding out until better returns can be achieved and most importantly keeping our money secure. We sit here waiting for the game to shift and the next opportunity to arrive, as they always eventually do.
I've been asked that question a lot, especially in the last month or so. Over the past year I have consistently advised against investing in gold and that advice has been pretty good as the price really hasn't changed much. I do believe there will come a time when owing some gold will be a very good idea, but I don't believe we've reached that point as yet for a variety of reasons.
Earlier this week, a New York Times article came out that really caught my attention. It was disappointing to see the typical economic spin that encourages people to invest with the financial services industry NO MATTER WHAT taken to such great lengths, but was also encouraging to see that the article was in response to a terrific new trend by their customers. People are really starting to catch on that it’s not a good idea to invest in the stock market, especially not at this time, and have been pulling their money out. Now, that’s great news.
Did you see what happened this week on Wall Street? It was quite a story! Last Wednesday, an executive director at Goldman Sachs resigned through an op-ed article in the NY Times. It was really something, the guy just unloaded about the toxic work environment where doing right by clients was not even a topic at sales meetings. The focus was on ripping clients off in a variety of ways including by persuading them to invest in products left on the books that the company was trying to dump. He even shared that he had seen no less than five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets” in emails. It’s shocking and yet somehow it’s also not a surprise, right?
For the past two weeks the mainstream media’s year-end spin has been, "2011 was a break-even year for investors." Break even? I don't think so. Not even close. As we start the new year it's a good time to stop and look at the truth and at a successful investment strategy.
