The Meaning Of Wealth

February 25, 2011 Leave a comment


wealthymatters.comFollowing is a very interesting article from the WSJ on what wealth actually means to people from different countries round the world.It’s interesting reading why people might actually want wealth in the first place and what they choose to do once they have it.The most interesting question is ,of course ,why people  choose to do what they choose to do?

Wall Street Journal by Robert Frank
Monday, May 24, 2010

We like to think the reasons for seeking wealth are universal. Humans, by nature, like to be comfortable, like to have power and like to have the choices and freedoms offered by lots of stuff and money.

Yet it turns out there are some regional variations in the meaning of wealth around the world.

The new Barclay’s Wealth Insights study, released this morning from Barclay’s Wealth and Ledbury Research, finds that the emerging-market rich view wealth very differently from the older-money Europeans and the slightly less nouveaux Americans.

The study surveyed 2,000 people from 20 countries with investible assets of $1.5 million or more. They shared some common themes: a vast majority of rich people from all regions agreed that wealth enables them to buy the best products and that wealth gives them freedom of choice in their life. Most also agreed that wealth is a reward for hard work. Read more of this post

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Psychology of Wealth

February 24, 2011 1 Comment


wealthymatters.comThe question why some people accumulate substantial wealth and others struggle so much in this field has attracted the attention of  quite a few psychologists.There have been many studies to correlate various personality traits and behaviour patterns, cognitive patterns , self motivation habits, moods and emotional behaviours and social behaviours with the wealth a person accumulates.

The results of these studies have been used to construct the various quizzes here http://www.marketpsych.com/personality_test.php .They are free and a pretty good way to get to know both one’s strengths and weaknesses as an entrepreneur , investor and/or speculator.

Taking these tests is a great way to get to know the strengths we can play to and the weaknesses to guard against.The results sheets also have many good psychological  tips to work around our individual weaknesses.

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I’ve Joined Tne RandomBlog2011 Challenge

February 24, 2011 1 Comment


wealthymatters.comI’m a bit late, but I’ve decided to join the RandomBlog2011 challenge I found at http://whatsbuggingmetoday.wordpress.com/randomblog2011-challenge/. So here is what I’ll do :-

1.    I will read a minimum of 2 new blog posts every day from any of the tags on WordPress.com at a blog I have never visited before.

2.    I will look outside of my comfort zone and read something totally different from what I normally would. In this way I will expand my horizon.

3.    I will go “Tag Surfing” on the Hot Topics page.

4.    I will follow a “comment trail” – starting with a comment on a friend’s blog from someone I’ve never met and see how far it takes me.

5.    I will try and find new bloggers looking for readers and leave a “like” and a “comment”and ssk them to join in the fun and check out the RandomBlog2011 Challenge.

6.    I will tag my own posts with RandomBlog2011.

7.    I will visit the Daily Post and read through the comments and see if I can find someone looking for readers.

8.  I will specially visit and comment on blogs that may have recently joined the WordPress PostADay2001 or PostAWeek 2011 Challenge.

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The Right Approach To Long Term Investment Success In The Stock Market

February 24, 2011 2 Comments


wealthymatters.comThere are many ways to make money in stocks. But not every way works well over longer periods of time.There are people who never make any money from stocks and there are others who make significant amounts of money in the stock market only to lose it again.To understand how to make money from stocks and keep it the long term we need t0 study the habits of investors who have remained successful over a long term.Such an exercise shows that the odds of long-term investment success are greatly enhanced with an approach that embodies most or all of the following characteristics:

  • Thinking about investing as the purchasing of companies, rather than the trading of stocks.
  • Ignoring the daily noise of  the market. As Graham wrote in his classic, ‘The Intelligent Investor‘, “Basically, price fluctuations have only one significant meaning for the true investor. They provide him an opportunity to buy wisely when prices fall sharply and to sell wisely when they advance a great deal. At other times, he will do better if he forgets about the stock market.”
  • Only buying a stock when it is on sale i.e. available at a discount to its intrinsic value.
  • Focussing first on avoiding losses, and only then think about potential gains. “We look for businesses that in general aren’t going to be susceptible to very much change,” says Warren Buffett “It means we miss a lot of very big winners but it also means we have very few big losers…. We’re perfectly willing to trade away a big payoff for a certain payoff.” Read more of this post

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Have You Got It In You To Be A Good Stock Market Investor ?

February 23, 2011 5 Comments


wealthymatters.com

Can you honestly say ‘YES’ to the following questions ? If so, you are cut out to be a good investor if you have good systems in place,cultivate good investing habits and gain sufficient experience.

  • Are You A Businesspeson ? Warren Buffett has been known to say”I am a better investor because I am a businessman, and a better businessman because I am an investor.”A businessperson understands how his/her own companies work and respond to their environments.He/she can then extrapolate this experience to look beyond the numbers of other companies.And this makes them better investors.
  • Are You Sufficiently Brainy ? Being a top notch investor requires a certain amount of brains-the sort of IQ that the average college graduate might have.But EQ is equally important.Too much IQ and a person will handicap himself and too little might make the constant learning associated with investing a drag.Warren Buffett has been know to say that”Success in investing doesn’t correlate with I.Q. once you’re above the level of 125. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing.”
  • Are you good with numbers ? Advanced math such as calculus is irrelevant  to your success as an investor.But you do need to master pre-university math concepts and constantly apply them in daily life while thinking about your investments.Also you should be able to seize on the most important nuggets of information in a sea of data and act upon them 
  • Can you remain confident and humble at the same time? You need the confidence to act on your independent analysis,literally put your money on the line despite what the world round you might be doing.But on the other hand you need to be able to accept that you are not above making mistakes or missing out on something that’s obvious to others.You need the humbleness to listen to others,to stick to stocks and businesses that you understand,to stick to investing methods you know , to avoid excessive leverage and to diversify sufficiently to avoid being wiped out by a wrong call. Read more of this post

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