It is true that one of the best ways to get your money to work for you long term is to invest it in stocks, whether that’s through individual stocks, or some sort of fund. However, many people have rather unrealistic views about the returns they can earn. According to Jason Zweig in The Wall Street Journal, most American investors expect that the stock market will offer an annual return of 13.7% in the next 10 years, and professional investors believe that average long term stock returns will be 11% a year.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Zweig reports that …read more

Yesterday, we looked at four of the eight tips Investopedia offers for thinking like Warren Buffett. Here are the remaining 8 tips for investing like Buffett:

Consider probabilities: Warren Buffett is a fan of the card game Bridge, in which successful players beat their opponents by considering probabilities. Likewise, you can think of stocks in terms of probabilities. The Investopedia article points out that investors who consider the probability of a good return over 10 years is likely to ride out down cycles to find success in the long-term.
Realize that investing has psychological aspects: We would like to be unemotional …read more

Sure, the man we consider the premier investor of our time has lost billions in this recession. But it’s a recession. Everyone’s going to lose money. And even though he has lost several billion dollars, he’s still got $37 billion, and the only guy in the world that is richer is Bill Gates. Clearly, there are things that we can learn from the “Oracle of Omaha.”
Lucky for us, Investopedia took eight valuable tips from the book The Warren Buffett Portfolio and offers them to the world. Here are the first 4 of the 8 tips for thinking like Warren Buffett …read more

Right now, it is no surprise that many people are worried about retirement. The good news is that Terry Savage offers some practical advice when it comes to figuring how much you really need to retire. She calls this the “Savage Number”, and it has been a guide for many. Now, thanks to the changing economic climate and the new realities of finance, Savage offers an updated way to work out how much you need for retirement. Her book, The New Savage Number, provides you with the tools you need to plan for a prosperous retirement.
Be warned: The New Savage …read more

Online video ad revenue is on the rise, and big players are spending big bucks to get in on the ground floor. Google buying YouTube for $1.65 billion was only the beginning. Michael Learmonth estimates that online video investments over the last three years have hit $8 billion.
Before anybody starts talking about a bubble, note that Meryll Lynch wrote off $9 billion in bad mortgages in the first quarter of 2008 alone. If there is a crash coming, it sure as Hell isn’t in tech.