21st Century Academy

Particularly in a volatile market atmosphere, many less savvy investors rely on old myths they believe to be true. It is a natural tendency to panic as the market swings downward and begin selling off assets. Other investors take the opposite tactic, developing a laissez faire attitude and failing to act when they should. Both of these tactics are doomed for failure because they rely on some of the commonest investment myths.

When the Market is Bad, Hold

A long-term investment plan is often built on the premise that no matter what the market does, leaving investment dollars where they are is best. After all, the market will rebound eventually, right?

Sure, the market will rise again, but a stock worth little to begin with will almost never rise to a level that makes it highly profitable just because the market turns. Just like buying antiques, items that were originally worth a lot of money will still be the highest valued decades later. Low-priced stocks need to be purged from your portfolio before they result in even greater loss.

Besides that, how long are you willing to wait? Consider this example. Say you bought shares of a top-rated stock prior to the correction of October 1987. How long would it have taken you to regain the same value? The answer is ten years. Still other stocks have yet to reach the same level of value they once enjoyed. Obviously this is too long if you are ever going to attain financial independence in this lifetime.

When the Market is Bad, Sell

At the opposite end of the spectrum are those investment gurus who maintain you should withdraw from a declining market immediately and place your remaining investment capital elsewhere. This could be just as bad a mistake as holding onto your all your stock certificates in the hopes they will regain value.

Highly valued and strongly performing stocks are always a good investment, no matter the whims of the market. This is just one part of a successful portfolio that will create wealth in the short and long run. Diversification is important. Assess the performance of each investment and make decisions to sell based on more than just the recent activity in the stock market.

When it comes to creating wealth via investments, there is one principle that always holds true and that is to buy low and sell high. Forgo rash decision making and stick to your financial goals – but only when it makes sense to do so.

Motivating ourselves to achieve our goals is not an easy thing to do. Somehow, as conscious as we think we are of our plans and goals, we continue to lose sight of them as we go about our lives. Sometimes this is the result of not having set solid goals and not having planned for action on them, but sometimes it is just the result of too many other things getting in our way—of life happening.

We need all the tools we can get to help us stay focused and achieve the end we desire . Since we so often are putting ourselves last, one tactic that works (usually without your even realizing it) is to help others.

Intrinsic Assistants

If you think about, most people are intrinsically motivated to help one another. If you need an example of that, think about how quick you are to drop what you are doing, even though it may derail your plans, and help someone else out. Think how eagerly you will share your knowledge with someone who asks for your help, even though it is often a case of “giving away the goods.” As you think about that, think about how painless that feels for you to do.

Your Reward

Now think about how you could apply this same painless concept to creating wealth, or motivating yourself to create wealth. Even though you might find it difficult to attend to the tasks at hand, think about how much easier that might be just by sharing your knowledge, plans, and resources with someone else.

This is a great reason not to keep your plans and efforts at wealth creation to yourself; going public with your goals so that you can share that knowledge with others can have many return benefits. Not only do you get the satisfaction of helping another, but you also get the benefit of living, being what you want to be. Your selflessness becomes your reward, in more ways than you would ever have thought.

Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 – 2009

It probably goes without saying that in order to build wealth you have to invest in your own financial empowerment. That’s true in terms of what you do with your money, but it’s true of other related aspects of building wealth. Investment, however, can mean many, many different things. Let’s explore.

Financial Investment For Creating Wealth

At some point you have to make a financial investment in some form in order to build financial prosperity. That probably sounds very simplistic. The reason that I bring it up is to point out that there are many ways that can be done. Stock market or share market investing may seem like the most obvious, and is often what people think a financial education program will teach, and nothing more. Realistically, though, financial investment can refer to others forms of investment such as real estate and property, insurance investing, businesses and much more. You will need some type of vehicle, but it does not necessarily need to be stocks, or not only stocks.

Personal Investment For Creating Wealth

The other form of investment that is imperative to building wealth (and it is the one the 21st Century Academy is really all about) is personal investment. Investing the time and energy, and yes money, in yourself so that you can learn to be wealthy and take wealthy actions.

Personal investment is the much more important of these two. When you invest in yourself you invest in something with unlimited potential. You invest in an investment vehicle with innumerable opportunities for replication.

Investing means that you put something in to get something out. The more seeds you plant, financially, but more importantly personally, the more you get out of that investment. It’s a must if you will succeed and be wealthy, but investing, especially in you, is the best return you will ever enjoy.

Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 – 2008