Learning Investing by Fire

Several years ago I learned about  ‘day trading’ on the stock market and how much money can be made doing so.  I figured I could learn how and do the same.  They forgot to mention, in the article I read, that 98% of those who try, fail.  I am sorry to say that I am one of those 98%.  I admit that I am just a regular, average person and it did not work out well.  I tried for several years but I am too emotional or whatever, to make a success of it.

But I caught the bug and have been trying to find an answer to how I might make money investing in some way or another.

There are many investment vehicles available, ranging from zero risk to significant risk.  Putting your money into bonds, bank GIC’s (guaranteed investment certificates) and such are virtually zero risk for losing your initial investment.  The problem often is that the interest rates in such investment vehicles are lower than the rate of inflation and in actual fact you may be losing actual buying power over time.

I tried mutual funds through an investment brokerage only to lose more money.  I would have to rank mutual funds as a medium risk vehicle.  Not as high as day trading, by any means, but still a risk and I do not seem to do well with risk.  I was never very good at games that require luck with dice or cards or whatever.

Next I decided that maybe I would just try to make some extra money by having a website to sell something.  I took a course how to get it set up but the course was not very clear or complete and I was not able to get it started or find anyone willing to let me sell their products.  I have not given up on this idea yet but it is on the back burner at the moment.

While I was doing my learning and searching on the web, I discovered forex trading.  I took some courses on that and tried it.  The results were similar to my day trading efforts.  They really mean it when they say that forex trading has ‘significant risk of loss’ and is not for all investors.

Then there are many websites that are HYIPs, otherwise known as high yield investment programs.  Have not really had the courage to try these as I kind of think that they are here today and gone tomorrow but you never know when tomorrow is here.

Recently I learned about trading options.  I think I have found one vehicle for my investing.  Trading options can be both high and low risk.  So far I have learned some of both.  Currently I have 2 favorite strategies that have been successful for me for the past 4 months.  I realize that that is not a long time to be able to really endorse them but I feel really good about them.  I think the test drive is over and I am on my way to owning this vehicle.  It is not a get rich quick plan but according to some rough calculations, I think I can take a $10K investment and turn it into $300K in about 15 years.  That would make a nice retirement with the monthly earnings.

Unfortunately retirement is here and so I am still looking for more vehicles.  Will keep you posted on what I find.

Cheers,  Jenny Wren

Making Money Online; How Easy Is It?

Why do some people succeed at making an income online while others fail miserably and many others just bring in a few dollars a month at best?  Is it talent?, knowledge?, courage? persistence? or what?

I have been working on the Partnership to Success program with John Thornhill and it has been very easy to follow.  Up until I got to the product creation.  At this point I have become stuck and have been practicing procrastination in a big way.  The idea is to create a product in the ‘online marketing’ field and then he would help you market it.  My problem is that I do not feel like I know enough or have enough experience to create such a product.  I am failing at getting more than a little chimp change from monetization and as of now, do not even have a list to offer a freebie to.

I recently saw a Hewlitt Packard (HP) add that had the statement: “If you’re going to do something, make it matter”!.  This statement hit home and caused me to stop and think about a lot of things.  One being, what am I trying to accomplish with online marketing?  If I am going write an ebook that matters, then it should probably matter to me as well.

I previously took the One Month Mentor program, again with John Thornhill and got ‘stuck’ at the same spot.  Though I did get underway with a product but not one in the area of online marketing.  It is a health related product, which I feel much more at home writing about.  I have decided that this getting ‘stuck’ is going to become a habit if I do not do something soon.

I think the best choice is to finish my first product, though it is not about marketing.  It at least will be a start.  I will have actually created a product I can try to sell and can learn from it and then maybe use that experience to build on and even transfer to the online marketing area.  I have way more knowledge and experience at trying to lose weight and become healthy.

I think this will be a good start and this is something that matters to me a lot and hopefully to others as well.

Jenny Wren