Heros and mentors

I want to talk about inspiring mentors today. There are a few people in the world that we strive to follow, and too some extent become. Ofcourse a lot of who you are is influenced by your parents, and you could argue some days that you are just like your dad or react exactly like your mother. Even though as a kid you promised yourself to never become anything like them or you would do this and that different.

A few of the people I listen to and follow closely is Warren buffert, Richard Branson, Jeff Jarvis, and Guy Kawasaki. Warren Buffert hardly needs any introduction, but he is one of the wealthiest men on the planet. He is an investor who made his fortune by owning stocks for longer periods. Richard Branson is one h*ll of an entrepreneur with his Brand Virgin. He is breaking most business models out there and he is doing it by saying "Screw Business". I would love to follow the bravery this man sometimes show. Then there is Jeff Jarvis who is a journalist whom I think you should follow on Google +. Finally there is Guy Kawasaki, an marketing entrepreneur from Hawaii. He is a person that pushes and inspires you to do things you wouldn't dare to do.

Ofcourse there are many more that inspires me in one way or another. Some days I would say my girlfriend inspires me by having so much patience with me *Smiles*.

So who inspires you?

My strategies and goals of investing

We all have different goals in life, and usually these changes during the years. However, the investment goal has been one of mine for quite a while now. My goal is to be financially independet of my work. To free myself from the "I have too's" and start with the "I want too". I have to enlist the help of Robert T. Kiyosaki and his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. to explain the end goal of mine. You should really read the book for some inspiring ideas and life views. Also if you are looking for some healthy critic to this book their is an article on Slates webpage challenging the views in the book.

Getting back to the point and be a bit more concrete with my goal, I will start by creating an investment portfolio that beats the stockmarkets atleast 80% of the time. It shall increase in value a few times over during the coming 10 years since I am in it for the long run. The quick fix doesn't work for the majority of people. Only one out of a million is that lucky and you have a bigger chance at winning the lottery. It is the interest on interest in solid companies that increases in value that will get me there.

The companies I want to invest in will be, without any numerical ranking.

• Independent from the economical cycle
• Avoid dependency of one resource or raw material
• Long-term with high growth potential
• Low debt and a strong cashflow
• Good track record with a proven managemet team

I find these in a company I am interested. 

So what is your strateg? How will you make money and what is the end goal for you?

PS. What do you do when you are bored in a Hotel room?

First time investing.

So today I would like to talk about one of my favorite topics. Investing, particularly investing in stocks and my first tries at it. There are ofcourse many more options to consider when you want to invest your hard earned cash and we will hopefully touch upon these subject later on. However, my choice of poison is investing in stocks. I am fairly new on this and I have had sporatic success/failures with it before. This have luckily changed.

My initial encounter with stocks was when I was young (probably 9-10 years old) and I had recieved some extra cash from relatives during my birthday, we are talking very small sums but in that age and in my head everything over 100 sek = 15 $ made me into a very rich man. My parents wisely told me to invest this money and brought me to the local bank. I can only speculate that the thought proccess of my parents was to teach me how to save money. I sat down with a "bank man", not knowing much about investments or savings in general, asking the nice man to give me some stocks. He kindly told me that buying stocks were expensive and that it was easy for me to lose all my money (scare tactics anyone?) and that I should start with something easier and "cheaper". So he gave me a list of some funds they had, and asked me to pick one or two.

A fund is in simple terms a portfolio of stocks that is owned by many investers and controlled by either a bank or a company claiming to know what they are doing.

I had no idea what to pick, but I knew I wanted something cool. So I ended up with two funds that invested in Russia and Japan. Somehow I thought Russia was on the way up since the fall of Berlin Wall, and a fund investing in Japan just sounded cool. Well, here is where I learned my first lesson, never pick an investment on the basis of it just being cool. The Russian market shoot up during the late 90's and beginning of the 21 century. The fund investing in Japan only made marginal movements. The Russian fund was sold off and allowed me to have some extra cash during my studies at college. The Japanese fund was worth about the 15 $ I put in and with the inflation it was worth actually less then before.

It was during my studies I made the second attempt at investing in stocks. A friend of mine and myself that were studying economy was interested in buying some stocks, which turned into a "get rich quick" plan for both of us. The strategy was more of a daytraders strategy, yet without the hard work of actually investigating the companies we would invest in. No we made the choice yet again in companies that sounded cool and had a history of large jumps in value. I got a company that made digital movies, anyone seen the movie Happy Feet? Absolutely nothing happened to that company. Thinking back, how smart was it to pick a company that was years from releasing a second movie? Not very.... Anyhow, I got bored and figured I could spend the money on drinking/partying more important things, since it was college  my priorities where never really solidified in getting rich. I mean I could always do that "later". So i pretty much lost some money for the transactions and spent the rest on....ehum books....for studies. Atleast that is how I remember it *cough* *cough*.

Today, with EU in risk of heading into another recession, I have invested again. But this time it is not because it seemed cool, or that I want to get baseball rich. My goals and strategies have changed recently and I will talk about this tomorrow.

So how was your first time with investing money? What did you invest in and why? Was there someone telling you to start investing or was it initally you yourself who wanted to invest?

Keeping the mondays coming.

It's Monday! For some it's the fresh new start of the week, while others hate the day and miss the weekend already. I admit to sometimes having a rough time getting up in the mornings and cursing myself for not going to bed earlier the day before, these days more often then not. But I have the privalage of liking my jobb, so I can't complain too much.

How did I get a job I like? Well, I've always been the type that promotes working hard to get the rewards you seek. I credit my parents for this work ethics and I admire and emulate them quite a lot. The fact that most of us have to go to work and put in atleast 8 hours every day (most days this number is much higher) is a suprise to some. Don't you all remember the students in the university who didn't really put in the effort? Who didn't really care and frustrated the hell out of you when you did a group project with them? The collegue that started to come in late every day and is out the door 5 sec after work stops? What do these people do today? Where are they? Where are they going?

I see a few of my friends, being stuck. The don't even have the chance to get into the work life. I blame their slackability, a self explanatori ability to slack whenever possible and the entitelment of these people. "I need this, I want that and I should have everything." To no suprise, they are still a few steps off their dream path.

So where am I going? What's my goal in life? Well, the simpel answer would be to get out of the rat race. I want to be able to live of invested money and work for myself. But to get there it will require hard work and sacrifice. Still doesn't mean I can't enjoy the ride.

So what's your goal in life? Does your monday treat you well today?

The first of many.

Dear readers,

So this is my first try at using a blog. It will hopefully be a joyful ride that will interest you as well as me ofcourse. The key for this blog will hopefully be communication. I want to have discussions with potential readers about subject that are of interest for this blog. My passion ofcourse is finance. I really enjoy the system and its functions interest me alot. However, the details will be of varying dephs since I want this blog to bring up other interest of mine. It can be everything from politics, new funny gadgets, and passionate people to the travels I'd like to do, shows to see, etc etc.

Since this is the first step, be patient. There will be many more, and hopefully the steps will bring us forward. Although Murphy's laws still applies.