21st Century Academy

Have you considered part time option trading as a way to make money in the current market? Perhaps the biggest key to success with this type of investment is fully understanding how this works and what tools are available to use. While this is considered a risky type of investment, it is also a way to realise some very handsome profits.

About Stock Options

Stock options are basically futures certificates. They are sold at a lower price than the time of purchase value. The investor who buys options does so with the hope that when they are sold upon the maturity date, their value will have increased.

Of course, the option can be exercised before the date of the contract’s maturity, but they will be sold at the issue price. The best hope for making a profit rests in the stocks gaining value over time. This ‘buy low sell high’ concept is a basic one in investing.

Strategies and Tools

Because trading in options requires a great deal of at-risk capital, it is best delegated to 10% of your investment funds or less. In fact, for a diverse portfolio, this rule of thumb applies to nearly any type of speculation. Thus part time option trading is merely a way to supplement a larger portfolio.

There are several tools available to help make good decisions when buying and selling options. Perhaps the most readily available are charts and graphs which indicate the past history of trades for a particular stock. These can be rather difficult to understand. It is probably best to learn from a professional instructor as to what to look for and how to use this information to make successful options trades.

As with any type of investment, part time option trading can be a lucrative way to make a profit. Start with some practice trading and consider taking a course which specifically addresses options. It may be high-risk, but it also holds the potential for high profits.

Besides making Jamie McIntyre aware that he was really living in denial of his desire for money, his millionaire mentor gave him another piece of wisdom.

“If you want to become wealthy, you must not make money your god. Instead you have to learn to master money. If you can learn how to master it and have it work for you as opposed to you working for it, then money will no longer be an issue. Those things that are important to you like family, health, career, and relationships will always be your top priority.”

(from What I Didn’t Learn At School But Wish I Had)

The Turning Point

This conversation was a turning point for Jamie. Having decided that what his mentor said made perfect sense (and it does, doesn’t it?), Jamie started to shift his way of thinking about money. In the book he tells us,

“So I went from denying that I was interested in money to admitting that I was very interested in money because I loved my family dearly and valued my time and wanted to control my life. I decided right then that I was prepared to make the effort to master money, because if I did I could have the freedom I wanted. I learned subtle shifts make a big difference to what is going on inside our heads and this became a huge turning point for me.”

Permission To Care

Jamie and his mentor have put this all in much more understandable terms. It is very hard for people to let go of the feeling that they don’t care about money, mostly because we’ve spent decades in that line of thinking. Having a good reason to admit that you do care about money—like being able to take care of friends and family, and having the freedom to enjoy the important things in life—buffers the landing, so to speak.

When you permit yourself to care about money, you permit yourself to make it enough of a priority to make the other priorities of life top on your list. Caring about money is not equal to not caring about people or anything else; in fact, in truth, it is exactly the opposite. But it’s all in how you master it. Master money, master your life, and don’t let making money be your master any longer.

To Your Continued Success!
Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 – 2009

In the last post we looked at what Jamie McIntyre had to say about looking at our failures as clues to our current financial status. We introduced the concept of denial, whereby people use excuses like saying that money is not important to them, or that there are more important things in life. A lot of people have a hard time arguing against that, but if you read what Jamie and his millionaire mentor have to say, you start to figure out that yes, indeed, most of us are living in denial of how important having money is to each and every one of us.

More Important Than Money

Jamie McIntyre‘s mentor explained it best:

“You know most people would agree with you that there are other things more important than money. A lot of people say they are not interested in money, but can you guess what the people do who usually say that? They go and work for it because they are just like you Jamie. You go off and work your whole life for money and the whole time you say you are not interested in it. Would you not say that is a classic case of denial?”

No doubt, put that way, you can deny this no less than Jamie could. It is entirely self-defeating to say that you do not care about money, but then allow your entire life to revolve around it.

The beauty is that it really does not have to be this way. You can find a balance in which you can create wealth, make money, and live life—and right the balance so that making money by working your life away does not have to rule your life and times.

Think about it. You may say, and certainly believe, that there are more important things in life; things like family, security, and enjoying life. That is even true. But if you spend the majority of your time chasing the dollar by traditional means, are you really attending fairly to those things? No, you are not. And therein lays the paradox. If money is not the most important thing in life, you have to stop letting it rule yours. Easier said than done? For most people, the answer is yes, until they get a real financial education, an education for life.

To Your Continued Success!
Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 – 2009