TiMe: "Dring, Dring, TiMe to wake up sheeple"
THE.FuTuRE: "Shussssh! They are sleep walking towards a cliff. We are providing wonderful
CoNTeNDeR: "Oi you evil B****** we the people will not stand for your bull****. We are waking up in our droves, turning off the entertainment and thinking about what you are up to. Financial freedom from your tyranny. We are lemmings no more and are turning away from the cliff - watch out below FuTuRE"
In Part 1 of this post we had a look at Paper Money, E-currency, Commodities, Real Estate and bonds. Today we are looking at Stocks, Land and investing in oneself as additional wealth preservation options worth considering.
Stocks - Growing Profits?
What value can you give to a company, let alone picking the winners in the stock market? This issue has flummoxed investors for years.
Owning part of a company gives you an interest in that company's profits. Provided the profits keep rolling in due to a competitive advantage, the company should have some longevity.
Perhaps looking for companies that have a distinct brand, product or advantage such as extremely difficult barrier to entry are the place to be. Those companies will grow in value along with their sales and / or return some of that profit back to shareholders through buybacks or dividends.
Companies generate wealth - can you pick the right ones? THE.ConTeNDeR is trying see the Screener for Value and Dividend Stocks Here
For a seasoned professionals take on stocks for the long term, check out some articles by Alex green from InvestmentU and I am a fan of his book The Secret of Shelter Island: Money and What Matters
Warren Buffet even has a cartoon series for kids on investing.
Tribe's opinion - Stocks allow the building of a diversified set of businesses. If stocks were not available it would probably be difficult to invest in diverse ideas such as graphene, new drugs and technology companies such as Google. Core holding.
Arable Land
An interesting investment class in THE.CoNTeNDeR's opinion. Precious renewable resources can be harvested from arable land year after year making it a very profitable investment class.
Invest in woodland and you get free winter fuel and can sell the excess. Farmland can be planted for delicious fresh vegetables to be sold down the market.
THE.ConTeNDeR likes the idea of some arable land next to his house. From a purely financial independence perspective 'free' heating, vegetables and eggs would reduce our living costs substantially.
The Transition network are keen on this concept to help preserve the planet and combat resource depletion. They do a good bit on supporting communities as well.
Tribe's opinion - We really think owing a bit of land even if it is used by someone else is a good idea and something we are looking at for THE.FuTuRe
Yourself - Sell-able Skills?
THE.CoNTeNDeR used to classify himself as a specialist. Trained and practicing a given professional field.
Being a specialist has a few drawbacks. If the speciality is not timeless such as a hair dresser or surgeon, it could become obsolete. Constant re-training required. A lot of specialisations require the person to be close to work and are non transferable to the home or local community.
Steven Covey's The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness is a good starting point for self development - focusing on continuous improvement and learning new skills.
In THE.CoNTeNDeR's opinion it is worthwhile learning some marketable skills such as building, metalwork, gardening, forestry etc that can be put to personal use to save / make money.
Mr Money Mustache is big on DIY in his blog about financial independence.
Tribe's opinion - Wouldn't life be dull if we stopped having a go and learning a few things....we must GET ON WITH IT.
True wealth
Wealth is derived from the word health so what real true wealth? Being here on this planet is great for starters, let alone healthy and having an amazing family and group of friends. Add to that a roof over our heads and food on the table and you can count your blessings.
Is this ultimate true wealth and everything else is just a bonus for which we can give thanks. Investments in these areas will reap the greatest source of happiness for everyone around us and it will be with you forever (which the same will not be true for any financial investments).
How is Our TRiBe Insuring its Financial Independence?
We like a bit of PROTECTION, 6 months savings, some food in the pantry and wood in the shed - we now live in the countryside so this is a sensible precaution.
We want to spend less than our INCOME.....we are working on this one - being able to save a bit will keep us financially independent and give us options.
We have an interest in some real estate but we want to own a bit of land - growing some of our own food and wood will free up scare capital for some adventures - we are actively looking for a house with land to buy.
We use fiat currency and see no way to opt out so we hedge it via multiple currencies and 'alternative' equities - we will keep at least six months of living costs in cash.
We have investments in the stock market, individual companies for income and global funds for our pensions - Our pensions provide the diversification where as our investments are more focused on businesses that provide for real needs. We can follow the companies to learn about the investment classes and make decisions in case they need to change........BUT.......We are going long cash at the moment. We are not adding to any stock investments. If anything we are in the process of reducing our exposure because we are concerned by a highly priced stock market which is a red flag for this token value investor.
We want to GROW our skill sets to bring in alternative sources of income - we will setup self employed enjoyable work and aim to learn something new each week
THE.FuTuRe: "I will huff and puff and blow your house down!"
CoNTeNDeR: " Little Red Riding Hood screamed and the woodcutters in the forest came running to the cottage. They beat the Big Bad Wolf and rescued Grandma from the cupboard. The Big Bad Wolf ran away never to be seen again. Little Red Riding Hood had learnt her lesson and never spoke to strangers ever again."
We are All Investors Now
We live in a world that seems more uncertain than the past thirty years. Odd financial experiments are taking place with funny misleading acronyms such as LTRO, QE. They are just the old tricks of money printing / debasing under different names.
Wealth continues to concentrate in the hands of the few who know the game. The middle classes are left to work. Both parents have to work to pay for the necessities of life, the days of the homemaker are disappearing fast.
Add into the mix 3 billion people in Asia who are gaining access to a middle class lifestyle. Compare that to around 700 Million people in Europe and North America, it is clear things have to change.
Perhaps investing in a refrigeration factory or fertiliser manufacturer in China will make you massively wealthy all things are worthwhile considering with all this new demand for the necessities of modern life.
What investments will help us financial independencers thrive in the coming years? Keeping an eye on the trends will hopefully keep us one foot ahead of THE.FuTuRe. Positive FuTuReS laid out by Zeitgeist Addendum or difficult trends laid out by people such as Gerald Celente and FuTuRe looking studies such as such as The Limits to Growth. To be sure THE.FuTuRe will not follow their scripts maybe just a few paragraphs but is that enough to give you the edge?
Will that edge give us the free time to direct our energies on citizen projects, projects to make everyone around us happy instead of being a stressed out husband and father, commuter, and wage slave. Financial Freedom - BRING IT ON!!!
THE.CONTENDER
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