Path to financial freedom and financial independence

23rd and 24th October are declared public holidays for Singapore.
One interesting fact about living in a multi racial society is that you can experience and celebrate the various multicultural festive moods. It is also a great time for many to escape from the busy bustling life of the city to somewhere more quite, serene and cool to experience the late autumn or rather the early winter vacation of other parts of the world.

I loved to hang around bookstores, pickup and browse through articles of interests.
Seems that the personal improvement and business sections of most bookstores are fill with many books touching on specific topics such business strategies and financial freedom tips. I am a nerd and newbie when it comes to topics such as achieving financial freedom and independence through investments, starting homebusiness, network marketing, multilevel networking marketing and etcetra.

Even though I hardly know much about investment and finance, one thing I do know for sure is that keeping your money in the bank with bank interest around 2 to 4 percent would be the least attractive way to increase your wealth.
The best way to get rich quickly is well perhaps to strike the jackpot or the lottery but the odds are againts us though.
Someone once said that it takes money to make more money and this could not be further from the truth. My personal take is that sound and prudent investment is the best way to achieve financial freedom, the earlier you start off with saving money for investment the better. The compounding interest rate gain from mid to long term buy and hold investment strategy is just too good to be true..oh yes it is true..Warrent Buffet is the living proof of how sound investment could bring you wealth; lots of it to last a few generations:):) However you have to be cautious about the compound interest. There is both side to the same coin, remember that.
Take a look at the following:http://investorial.com/personal-finance/einstein-on-compound-interest-rule-of-72/

Homebusiness dealing with direct marketing is another promising way to gain financial freedom and financial independent. Just check out this link.

If you are not into investment then do it is worthwhile to consider direct marketing or better still why not invest and do direct marketing at the same time?


Anyway,here's my take regarding investment portfolio and some other tips that I pick along the way from friends and from the internet and through articles that I read along the way. I stand to be corrected though and would welcome feedback,corrections and advice from the reader.

Considered Warren Buffet's famous advice, Rule #1 : Never loose your money in any investment and Rule #2: Always remember Rule #1.
Sounds easy to grasp but alas how difficult it is to apply the concept successfully.
Said is much easier than done I suppose:)

Many are advocating on long term invesment goals; targeted investment timeline from 5 to 20 years or so. How many of us truly believe or feel confident enough to hold on to the view that a long term investment would benefit investors; many people got their pocket burnt because of the short term investment strategy which they used, namely buy low and sell high within quick turn around time only to realize all not going as expected and thereafter being compel to quickly sell to limit their losses. What about Warren Buffet investment strategy, to buy and hold for indefinite period of time? I could imagine those who invest in Emron, hoping to retire comfortably and what a terrible mistake it was to be. There is no golden rule as far as investment strategy, it depends on individual and personal appetite and ability to take financial investment risks. As a matter of fact stock investment is very much an art rather than science.

Many financial institutions and financial planners are advocating diversify trust fund investment strategy to minimize investment risks. Never mind and do not worry if you knows nothing about stock trading, financial investment and the likes.
Warren Buffet once mentioned that there are 2 choices with regads to investment, 1)Understand and knows what you are investing in or 2)Have the experts to manage your investment portfolio, not the recommended way I guess but better than burning a hole through your pocket due to bad investments on your own.

Here's my own rule of thoughts:

1) Take total control of your investment portfolio. Do not rely on fund managers to manage your money. Remember that the fund manager highest priority is to ensure that the fund company he or she works for makes money no matter what the situation is, even if that means loosing the investors hard earn money. Furthermore, there are the charges that fund managers will collect from the investors.
You need not be a financial investment guru to manage your own investment. There are plenty of tips and information you can get from the internet and books.
http://finance.yahoo.com/ and http://moneycentral.msn.com/home.asp are good sites to pickup some investment tips. Read as much as you can regarding investment strategy and focus on those that fit your investment appetite and risks.
Be an intelligent investor. Be a value investor by taking a long term view.
Ensure you buy stocks at bargain prices, stocks that are already priced below
their value.

However be mentally prepare to spend time to monitor your investments (be it stocks or whatever that you are dealing with.) Smart investors need not monitor their stocks all the time. There are many good software investment tools around which could be use to help automate some of these monitoring, tracking and aiding decision such as selling, holding or buying activities.
Financial management software can automatically track many key performance indicators of a company thus allowing you, the user to monitor how well business is doing.

For newbies, always start with small investment amount to gain practical hands on experience and thereafter to gradually increase your investment amount as you become more familiar and confidence with it.
What kind of business segment or industry should we place our bets on with regards to investment? Technology such as IT where we are reminded of the IT Bubble Burst? Textile, Energy, Health......
I truly believe that the long-term winner will be an investment in oil-field technology. Why do I recommend oild field related technology? Simple, just consider the price of crude oil today.


2)For those who do not wish to spend too much time on investment matters there are other options such as signing up with the fund managers to manage your funds. Good idea? You be the judge though.:) The standard advice from most financial planners and fund managers: Dont put all eggs in one basket. Diversity your portfolio so as to minimize your investment risk. There are various portfolios offer by fund management companies, generally the higher the risks the higher the gains.
So should you invest in mutual funds, index funds or etcetera? I guess it is all up to you. Always remember to avoid overreact to a few choice circumstances. Most of us are by nature short term focused and this is bad, always think about long term investment.

If you are financially risk averse,invest in bonds or mutual funds that are diversify with regards to the various equities. Index funds are worth considering since generally on the whole, index funds are known to outperform the mutul funds.
Still not sure what to invest in? Do your research diligently since it is your money that you are going to meddle with or subscribe to some investment expert services such as the motley fool (www.fool.com) or if you have more money how about considering Steve SJuggerud 'DailyWealth'?

Most of us are by nature short term focused.

As for me I believe that apart from stock investment, direct marketing (network marketing) can indeed lead to financial freedom thus enable us to retire early to enjoy the finer things in life. I am a strong advocator investment for the future as well as doing direct marketing to compliment our monthly or daily income.
Which is more promising? Stock investment or direct marketing? I suppose it is up to individual preferences.


On the lighter side, to all those who are seeking dating advice, here's a great link to a good site which I hope would answer some of your questions and doubts.
You can get it from here: http://www.kissmegoodnight.com/dating-advice-and-tips/index.shtml. Enjoy reading dear friends!:):)

Cheers
Richard