Most crises ultimately turn out to be outstanding times to invest. There are obvious exceptions to this rule: buying shares in St. Petersburg in 1917 or Shanghai in 1949 in the hope that the situation would improve did not work out.
But assuming that the entire economic and political system in which you live is not going to be turned upside down, in which case the best investment may be some gold and a ticket to somewhere far afield, people usually look back in admiration at those who kept calm and bought at the bottom.
There are two barriers to being one of these investors. The first is identifying when you’ve hit the bottom. The second – which is often underestimated – is the sheer psychological difficulty of investing when all the news is bad, other investors are selling and everything is telling you to do so as well. There is no easy answer to either of these problems, but pound-cost averaging is one of the simplest strategies we can use.
Pound-cost averaging, also known as drip-feeding, is less sophisticated than the name sounds. It simply means feeding a sum of money into the market at regular intervals rather than in one go. So if you have £1,200 to invest this year, you might invest £100 per month. If you have £12,000, you invest £1,000 per month. The advantage of investing this way is that it reduces the risk (and pain) of buying just before the market drops.
If you put all your money in UK shares this month and the FTSE 100 drops steadily over the next year to end up down 30%, your portfolio is also down 30%. If you invest equal amounts monthly, your portfolio may end the year down half that – making it easier to hold your nerve and wait for the recovery.
Obviously if markets rise rather than fall over the time you are averaging your investments, you will make smaller profits than you would if you bought at the start. And the outcome can never be as good as it would be if you somehow invested everything right at the bottom.
Motivational Quote Of The Day
“Success is falling nine times and getting up ten.”
Jon Bon Jovi
Alternative Quote Of The Day
“I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman: ‘Where’s the self-help section?’ She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.”
Steven Wright
Upcycling Opportunity
I was reading about a business run by Scott Hamlin in Portland Oregon, and wondered how many other people might be able to cash in on something like this.
Hamlin’s company, Loop works buys up end-of-line, unwanted fabric from warehouses in Asia which is destined for landfill or the incinerator. It then turns it into shirts, skirts, laptop sleeves and backpacks. The company is very much for profit, but has a strong environmental ethos.
Any enterprise that has a positive environmental impact will be well received by prospective customers and the media. Upcycling (converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality) is environmentally friendly and can be highly profitable if done well.
Are there upcycling opportunities in your sphere of expertise? Do you know of any waste materials that could form the basis of a new upcycling opportunity?
Today’s National Day
NATIONAL BATH DAY!
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Dear Streetwise Customer
I hope that you and your family are well.
I don’t have to tell you that the Coronavirus outbreak has changed everything, and nowhere more so than in the world of sports betting. With almost all our regular ‘go to’ profit makers like European football, horse racing and golf on hold, you might be excused for thinking that the opportunity to make a lucrative extra income from sports betting was gone – at least for now.
That’s what we thought until we heard from a guy called Craig Russell and how
he was…
Making an extra £150-£250 a week exploiting the ‘invisible’ betting opportunities exposed by the Coronavirus mayhem.
You see Craig isn’t your typical sports bettor. Long before anyone had heard of coronavirus, he was shunning the sort of events most of us bet on in favour of little-known sports, events and fixtures taking place in obscure locations.
Why did he concentrate on those?
Because he figured that the less ‘pro’s’ there were looking at these obscure markets, and the more time he spent studying them, the greater edge he’d have over the competition.
Obvious when you think about it.
So why this message?
Because it seems like now is the perfect time to bring this to a wider audience…but not much wider!
You see, in conjunction with Craig we’ve put together a totally unique service which is tailor-made for the times we find ourselves in. But there will only be 100 places available. Ever.
For full details on what’s involved and why the limit, take a LOOK NOW.If an extra couple of hundred pounds tax-free income would be worthwhile to you right now, I’d urge you to get in touch without delay. These places are really going to go fast.
For full details CLICK HERE
Very Best Wishes,
John Harrison
Streetwise Publications
P.S Almost forgot…you can get started with this for just £9.95. I’m pretty sure that makes it our cheapest service ever. Why? Well take a look now and all will be revealed.