Personal finance thread

[NASSIR]

^that info is money No I am not self-employed at the moment.

[Nehanda]

^ come now don't be xasid in the name of walaltinimo do share what you know.

Take a risk, you never know if my business pays off I might even remember you and send you some chillings.

[Skipper]

Lazygirl i didnt know that you contribute to other major topics other than jokes and politics. what a pleasant suprise. I am like wooow and your threads is very educational. Goood work.

 

 

Awooowe Bashi the fact that you say invest some money in East Afica or Asia is just a bit rushed statement i would hope. Who in their rght mind can trust another individual nowadays? You cant even trust a member of the extended family, so if you give away your money then remember to kiss it goodbye because you may never get it back forever. The best way to quadrauple you money is by buying real estate. Has anyone read Rich dad poor dad by Robert Kiyosaki? If so do share what you learned from it because i couldnt get it in the book shops.

[me]

Nice topic Kashafa.

 

LSK....how about that Finance section?

[Pujah]

Forbes Gurus: Best Investment Ideas For 2008

Joshua Lipton 12.21.07, 4:40 PM ET

 

Back in January 2007, Jim Stack, editor of Whitefish Montana's InvesTech Research and Portfolio Strategy, surveyed the U.S. economic landscape and didn't like what he saw. There was a growing risk of a recession, he thought. The residential real estate market was unwinding. Stack shared his worries with readers that month.

Click here to download a free report on 50 stocks, ETFs and funds that top-performing Forbes gurus are buying for 2008.

 

"If complacency breeds danger," Stack wrote, "then we might be sitting on a powder keg heading into 2007."

 

Stack positioned his portfolio in a defensive crouch, believing that the degree of risk out there, in his opinion, warranted higher caution. He avoided the financials and real estate-related sectors. His cautious bets have payed off. His managed accounts, year-to-date, are up 8.1%. That beats the 5.6% gain of the Dow Jones industrial average and the 2.2% increase of the S&P 500.

 

For worrywart Stack, its vindication of his "safety first" approach.

 

"We were called doom-and-gloomers," he says. "But we felt there would be a serious unwinding in the housing market. There is now some feeling of comfort at this point, if no other reason than we haven't lost money."

 

The year 2007 probably left a lot of investors feeling financially seasick, with its dizzying ups and downs. The blue chip Dow surpassed historic milestones, but market turbulence returned with vigor. U.S. markets were choppy and volatile as investors worked through a web of concerns: oil prices kissing $100 a barrel, a busted housing boom and ugly write-offs by big banks.

 

In Pictures: 12 Recession Beaters For 2008

 

As the year comes to a close, there is a lot of worry out there on Wall Street. For evidence of that hand-wringing, just check out a simple stat on stock market volatility: the CBOE Volatility Index--a literal measure of volatility reflecting the premium that options traders are willing to pay on the S&P 500 Index options--spiked 250% from January through mid-December. This was one of the quickest and most dramatic increases in volatility since early 1994.

 

Heading into the New Year, Forbes.com checked in with a few market pros to see where they're putting money in 2008. These gurus had some wide-ranging opinions on how they plan to position their portfolios, which sectors they like and which ones they're planning to avoid. These big-picture professionals were at odds over which areas of the market had the most prospects and where they would counsel investors to commit capital.

 

Let's start with a sector that has made headlines this year for all the wrong reasons: the financials. Wall Street heavies like Citigroup and Bear Stearns suffered big losses due to risky mortgage-related holdings that went bad. The Financial Select Sector SPDR (amex: XLF) is down, year-to-date in 2007, about 20%.

 

But are these financial companies ready to turn around in 2008?

 

Stack isn't buying primarily because he expect "extreme volatility" in the financial sector in 2008. He cautions investors to avoid the companies until they see at least three to four months of bottoms in stock prices. Only then, Stack says, should investors start to think about pushing money into the sector.

 

. . .

Forbes

 

 

[Skipper]

I have to admit that Bashi`s aspirations to one day become financial independent is pretty much contagious. I went to see my accountant and asked him about what my chances are of becoming "financial independent" in the near future. He looked me straight in the eyes and said: "If you retire today you will live very very comfortable and be financial independent untill 3:00 pm tommorow" I was disaponited to hear that and also abit excited. Here was a chamce to travel to my dream destination mainly Bahamas, but i wont get to spend much time on the beach before i have to file for bankrupcty. And what better place to be a bankrupt than in Bahamas where the number of banks registered outweights the population, its like becoming a muslim in Saudia arabia.Dream on malis

[ElPunto]

^I bet that 'accountant' was also your mother

[LayZie G.]

lol@skipper, just until tomorrow?

 

I think you are what they call "one cheque away from being homeless" in your case, its few dollars short of being homeless.

 

LOL@my contributions in the joke section. I think thats one section that I hardly ever went to, maybe to read.

 

I have a dilemma. Its about my tax preparer

 

dowlada wants me to snitch against my tax preparer, give them examples, documents on how he has prepared my taxes over the years, in turn, there is a chance I might have to testify against him. Heck, I know if the roles were reversed, he would sell me in a heart beat. The guy is good guy, gives me back a decent return come tax season, and I have used him only for the past 3 yrs, so I really don't know what to do.

 

On one hand, I want to fulfil my duties as a tax paying citizen of my adopted country by doing the right thing, on the other hand, its not as thought they are offering me any incentives to rat on my tax preparer.

 

What I am trying to say is, I am torn, but I gotta give them an answer sooner than later.

 

PS:Baashi, this tomboy thing is getting old awoowe

[ElPunto]

^'On the one hand....' - weren't you the one who wanted to rat out the welfare moms? I can't believe you're actually having qualms about this scenario.

[Skipper]

Quote by The point:

I bet that 'accountant' was also your mother

 

Regardless of what that was supposed to mean i will take it as a compliment. Lazygirl i guess we are all people who live from paycheque to paycheque, and if we skip one pay cheque then then the outcome is quite bad. So lazygirl do you consider yourself as financial independent? By that i mean you dont depend on your monthly salary to live a very good life.

[Yaabka-Yaabkiis]

:confused:

[ElPunto]

^About what?

 

Skipper - it was a joke.