Search Results

There is much confusion about which foods are healthy, and which are not. Coca-Cola was invented by a doctor and pharmacist and today it leads to weight gain, diabetes, and cardiovascular conditions. To help you out, here is a list of 15 foods that are unequivocally not good for you and some healthier alternatives. 1) Sugary drinks When people drink sugar calories, the brain does not register them as food. This means that when we pull into Mcdonald's and order a Big Mac with fries and a tall coke, we don't realize that you are ordering a calorie bomb. A large Coke should cause us to compensate by eating less. However, we often don't see all the sugar in the beverage. When consumed in large quantities, sugar can drive insulin resistance in the body and is linked to a fatty liver, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. The alternative is to drink water, tea, or coffee. 2) Pizza This is the world's most popular junk food. The dough is most often made from highly refined wheat flour and the meats are highly processed. The alternative is to make your own pizza with healthy ingredients with a thin crust and healthy toppings like avocado, arugula, and olive oil. 3) White Bread Most commercially available breads are unhealthy because they are made with refined wheat which is low in essential nutrients and leads to a rapid spike in blood sugar. The alternative is whole-grain bread. 4) Most Fruit Juices Most people assume incorrectly that fruit juice is healthy. The reality is that fruit juice contains almost the same amount of sugar as a Coke. The alternative is to look for fruit juices that have overwhelming health benefits notwithstanding the sugar content such as blueberry juice. 5) Industrial Vegetable Oils There has been a dramatic increase in our consumption of soybean, corn, cottonseed, and canola oils. They are cheap and versatile. However, they are also very high in omega-6 fatty acids that cause oxidative stress in the body. They have also been linked to an increased risk of cancer. The best alternative is extra virgin olive oil. 6) Margarine This used to be considered a healthy alternative to butter. It is a highly processed pseudo-food that has been engineered to taste like butter. It is full of artificial ingredients and to make matters worse, it is loaded with vegetable oil. The alternative is to use real butter - it does not spread as smoothly, but will make you look and feel a hundred times better. 7) Pastries, Cookies, Cakes, and Donuts They are filled with refined sugar, refined wheat flour, and added fats. One alternative is the consumption of rice cakes. 8) French Fries and Potato Chips Potatoes in their natural form are healthy. Fries have been deep-fried in vegetable oil. Potatoes are best boiled or baked. 9) Bacon and Sausages Who doesn't like bacon for breakfast? Bacon is incredibly unhealthy and not only because of the fat. As a result of the curing process, bacon and sausages contain nitrates and nitrites, which transform into nitrosamines, which are highly carcinogenic when exposed to high heat. It does not matter how you cook them, the heat transforms them into cancer bombs. Unfortunately, there are no healthy alternatives. 10) Sugary Cereals Cereals tend to get a free pass and manufacturers have done a great job in masquerading their products are "healthy". I am not talking about Fruit Loops because everyone knows they are junk food. I am talking about Blueberry Clusters, Special K Protein, and Cheerios Multigrain. If you read the labels you will see that are packed with added sugar. They are selling health but not giving it. The alternative is oatmeal but you want to stay away from instant oatmeal because it is full of sugar and colorants. 11) Deli Meats There is nothing more harmless than the traditional ham sandwich, right? Deli meats are not good for a number of reasons. Firstly, they may contain traces of bacteria, especially if not stored properly. Secondly, they contain bucketloads of sodium. If you have to consume deli meats, you should look for low-sodium options. 12) Dried Fruit This is another snack that is believed to be healthy. Yes, they are still fruit but they often contain added sugar and contain vegetable oil. They are often coated with this oil to prevent spoilage and preserve the taste. The oil lightly deals the fruits from losing their natural aroma and original flavour. It also prevents mildew from infesting the fruits by sealing their pores from fungal spores. Eat nuts and seeds instead. 13) Fruit Yogurt Fruit is good and so is yogurt - however, when you combine them the result is not great. Firstly, fruit yogurts are packed with sugar. Secondly, the beautiful colouring in the yogurt often does not come from the fruit but from fruit juice concentrates so there is more sugar again. But that is not the worst additive. The worst thing is carrageenan. It is an emulsifier that can cause inflammation. The best alternative is to buy unflavored yogurt and add natural fruit. 14) Granola Bars Here is another food that is supposed to be healthy. However, they generally contain large amounts of sugar, corn syrup, and sorbitol, and this is a lethal combination that will make you gain weight. They also contain soybean oil. Finally, they contain BHT, a widely banned carcinogen. A good alternative is to make your own granola with oats, nuts, and seeds. 15) Frozen Fish Products Most fish is healthy. Most manufacturers, however, use STPP (sodium tripolyphosphate) to retain moisture in various frozen fish products. The problem is that this is a pesticide. Enough said. Stay away from these products and eat fresh alternatives. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

Not all foods are created equal. Some foods will keep the hunger pangs at bay and feed you up, but on the nutritional scale, their score is low. Other foods are so packed with nutrients and vitamins that not only will they fill you up, but they will make you feel stronger and more vital. These foods are known as superfoods. The superfood trend dates back over a hundred years ago and is believed to have been started by the humble banana. Let's dive into the list of 10 best superfoods along with their health benefits. Your goal is to consume at least three of these superfoods on a daily basis as a gateway to a healthier and stronger lifestyle. 1) Avocados They are packed with magnesium which is important in regulating blood pressure and blood sugar. The avo is also packed with fiber which is good for your heart. Serving suggestion: avocado on whole wheat toast with black pepper and sea salt. 2) Berries Any fruit ending in -berries is great for your brain. You want to include either blackberries, blueberries, cranberries (the fresh, not dried or juice variety), strawberries, and raspberries, to name a few, are low in calories, high in fiber, and packed full of antioxidants that help fight against cancer-causing free radicals. Serving suggestion: include berries in your morning smoothie. 3) Seafood Fish is full of protein and rich in healthy fats and Omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 can help play a role in reducing your risk of a heart attack and stroke and alleviating depression. Seafood with the highest concentration of omega 3 is salmon, sardines, mackerel, and herring. Serving suggestion: you want to have seafood at least twice a week. 4) Garlic and Onions Although a little smelly, both their foods deliver potent health benefits, and if well cooked, a lot of the after-smell can be avoided (although it has to be remembered that most food is healthier great uncooked). Garlic and onions are part of the allium vegetable family. They play a role in preventing cancer, and garlic in particular may benefit people with diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. Serving suggestion: throw some garlic and onions into your egg omelets. 5) Nuts and Seeds Health gurus say you should eat almonds for your heart, cashews for your brain, and Brazil nuts for cancer. Seeds like chia are easy to add to smoothies and are packed with vitamins and minerals. Both nuts and seeds fill you up quickly and are perfect snacks when you are feeling peckish and you are watching your weight. Serving suggestion: grab a handful and throw them into your mouth. 6) Dark Leafy Greens The darker the colour of a vegetable, the more nutrients it has. The darkest leafy Greens are kale, arugula (also known as rocket), spinach, lettuce, and Swiss chard. Kale is one of the best sources of vitamin C. One cup of raw kale contains more vitamin C than a whole orange. Serving suggestion: throw your leafy greens into a large bowl, cut in an avo, and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. 7) Ancient grains Brown rice and oats are packed with fiber, antioxidants, and vitamins. So why are they called ancient grains - these are grains that are largely unchanged over the last several hundred years. Serving suggestion: raw oats, banana, and apple dusted with cinnamon makes for a super breakfast. 8) Citrus Fruits The sweet and sour bite of citrus fruits like grapefruit, oranges, lemons, and limes are low in calories and high in water. You want to consume these fruit in their raw natural state and not in juice form which may contain added sugar. Fruit must be consumed in moderation because even in its natural state, it has high sugar content. Serving suggestion: Throwing lemon slices into a cup of hot water first thing in the morning on an empty stomach helps in improving digestion, and metabolism and increasing energy levels. 9) Sweet Potatoes Root vegetables are a solid source of health. Carrots, beets, parsnips, and potatoes are packed with healthy carbs and starches that provide energy. Sweet potatoes in particular are believed to help prevent diabetes, obesity, cancer, and other health conditions thanks to their anti-inflammatory, antioxidative and antimicrobial properties. Serving suggestion: bake sweet potatoes with a few blobs of butter makes for a perfect snack. 10) Dark Chocolate The cacao in dark chocolate is full of antioxidants that may play a role in cancer prevention, heart health, and weight loss. But it has to be dark. Serving suggestion: rip off the foil and chow down. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

How much time do you spend on your phone? On average, people spend 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phones. They check their phones 58 times a day and half of these checks are during office hours. Philippinos are on average the heaviest users (5 hours and 30 minutes average) and Japanese are the lightest (1 hour and 39 minutes). South Africans are tied for fourth with Colombia with 5 hours and 9 minutes. So what are we doing on our phones? During the COVID pandemic, the term doomscrolling was penned. It is the act of spending an excessive amount of screen time devoted to the absorption of negative news. It wasn't just the pandemic that got us hooked on negative news, it was also the US Presidential Elections in 2020, the George Floyd protests, the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, and the 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Putin. So why this obsession with negative news? Humans have a negativity bias. This goes back to our caveman origins where our brain was wired to be on the lookout for things that could kill us - such as hungry saber-toothed tigers. Social media algorithms are programmed to cater to this negativity bias. For example, common searches on Google are related to medical conditions. When you have a medical question - for example, you are worried about a strange-looking mole on your finger - and you assume that the answer will make you feel better. You keep scrolling and scrolling, and before you know it you come to the conclusion that you have skin cancer and going to die in 6 months. So what is the impact of doomscrolling? As you can imagine, the impact is not positive. It will not help you from being consumed alive by a large hungry animal. It makes you anxious, stressed, fearful, depressed and isolated. You will be more vulnerable to panic attacks. Another problem is that this fixation on doom can be addictive. It can disrupt sleep patterns and cause overeating. One way to liberate yourself from the evil claws of doomscrolling is not to throw your phone away. We all know it is a powerful tool in our business and personal lives. The best solution is to avoid negative news altogether. In a Washington Post op-ed, journalist Amanda Ripley admitted to avoiding the news, writing that people producing news themselves are struggling, and while they are unlikely to admit it, it is warping their coverage of the news. She also identified ways she believes could fix the problem, such as intentionally adding more hope, agency, and dignity into stories so readers don't feel so helpless which leads them to the out entirely. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

Impatience (noun) - the tendency to be impatient; irritability or restlessness. What causes impatience? Impatience is triggered when we have a goal and realize it's going to cost us more than we thought to reach it. Impatience is the single biggest obstacle to financial freedom. We are living in an age of instant gratification, same-day delivery, and super high-speed internet. We complain about being forced to wait for 40 minutes for takeoff on a transatlantic flight. We have lost sight of the fact that modern-day air technology allows us to travel from New York to London in 6 hours. In the old days, it took weeks by boat and there was always the chance that if you did not die of scurvy, you were attacked by pirates or crashed into icebergs. I Googled “long-term stock investing” and came up with 269 million results. I then Googled “stock trading” and came up with 4 billion results. Why is it that trading yields 1,400 percent more results than investing? This is no surprise because trading is sexier than investing. The objective is the extraction of short-term profits. Day trading or scalping has taken off over the past ten years. To answer this question, you need to answer the following: when it comes to money management, do you want sexy or do you want boring? Do you want Marilyn Monroe in the Seven Year Itch or Fred the accountant? In a perfect world, you want your chef to be French, your sports car to be Italian, the driver in the lane next to be non-Italian, your watch to be Swiss and your policeman to be British. What about money management? There is a great quote from Paul Samuelson. Investing should be more like watching paint dry or grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas. This is not to say that you should invest in the money market, but I would suggest that there is greater merit in investing in the long-term, stable, and boring companies that are growing predictably than looking for short-term wild swings. Mark Twain had the following to say about speculation: “OCTOBER: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February. There are two times in a man's life when he should not speculate: when he can't afford it and when he can.” Now for the facts. Two of the greatest long-term investors are Warren Buffett and the Swiss-Brazilian, Jorge Paulo Lemann. Both men made their fortunes making long-term bets on companies like Coca-Cola, American Express, Kraft Heinz, Bank of America, and Anheuser Busch. As of the beginning of October 2022, according to the Bloomberg billionaire index, Buffett was the 6th wealthiest man in the world with a net worth of $94 billion and Lemann was 66th with a net worth of $19 billion. We now move across to the hedge fund billionaires. Hedge funds are unconstrained funds that tend to have shorter time frames and therefore are more often associated with trading. According to Bloomberg, the richest hedge fund manager was James Simons, the founder of Renaissance Technologies. The fund has delivered annual returns of 40 percent since 1988 and has paid him more than $9.5 billion in cash distributions since 2006. Second on the list is Ray Dali, the founder, and co-chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, a hedge fund firm that manages $160 billion in assets. Simons was worth $24 billion and Dalio $16 billion and were ranked 45th and 88th respectively. So, let's do some averaging. The average wealth of the top two investors is $56 billion while the average wealth of the top two traders is $20 billion. The universe is clearly saying to us that long-term investing is more profitable. This is a random exercise but let me tell you one thing for sure – it is easier to replicate the strategies of Buffett and Lemann than the strategies of Simons and Dalio. Financial freedom is achieved by making small incremental changes. If you set the goal of doubling your income in six months, I think there is a high probability that you will fail – unless you become a drug dealer or a YouTube influencer. Your objective should be to make small, incremental, and consistent changes to your spending patterns. Dramatic and radical changes seldom work over a long time when it comes to financing. It is the same as a crash diet – you may succeed in dropping a bunch of pounds in the first few weeks, but after a couple of months, you have added those pounds and then some. You should compare your finances today with how they were yesterday and focus on small incremental changes. Set numerous small achievable goals. A fraction of a percent changed every day, compounded over many months and years will yield outstanding results. Compounding is the key to financial freedom. If you are still not convinced, let me close off with a quote from the great Warren Buffett: “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient." #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

We make hundreds of decisions daily. For example, what time to get up, what to wear, what to have for breakfast, what route to take to work etc. For most of us, it takes a few seconds to decide. For others, the decision-making process is longer. Regardless of how much time it takes for us to make the decision, we all go through more or less the same process. We make a decision best aligned with our values. In other words, we decide based on what we believe will be best for us. Most of the time, the decision is made on a subconscious level. For example, bacon and eggs for breakfast because I also have bacon and eggs for breakfast. What happens when we face more important decisions that could potentially change our lives? Do we want to leave this to our subconscious? Maybe you are thinking about breaking up with your girlfriend because the relationship is not ad hot as it was when you started going out. It could be that you felt abandoned by your mother your entire childhood and breaking up with your girlfriend is a preemptive one in anticipation of her abandoning you. Big decisions require more work and digging deeper to make the optimal decision. You can try this exercise. Most decisions have two outcomes - yes or no. Do I take that new job in a foreign city? Do I move in with my girlfriend? Do I switch careers? The outcome is binary - you either decide to do it or you decide against it. You want to take each outcome and list 3 things you will get out of each outcome. You now have 6 outcomes. Rank these 6 outcomes from highest to lowest in terms of how they align with your values. What are your values? I will give you a few examples: courage, kindness, patience, integrity, gratitude, forgiveness, love, growth, loyalty, humility, compassion, empathy, and selflessness. Let's run through an example. You are a corporate lawyer. You have been working at the firm for 5 years and you are a couple of years away from being made a partner. Your passion has always been to write. In your spare time, you have been writing a self-help book and you have submitted it to a publisher. The publisher loves it and wants to pay you an advance and publish your book. You now face the decision of whether you should stay working as a lawyer, or quit your job and pursue a career as a full-time author. Outcome 1: Stay in Your Job 1) You continue to receive a monthly paycheck with benefits 2) You will potentially be made a partner in 2 years 3) You continue to enjoy the esteem of your friends, family, and colleagues Outcome 2: Quit Your Job 1) You pursue your passion 2) You are happy and fulfilled 3) Your father will disapprove of your decision Not everyone will rank these six values in the same order. The simple answer is that the highest-ranked value will decide the outcome. In this case, you are torn between two extremes. On the one hand, you have the approval and esteem of your family, friends and colleagues. You are also well remunerated with the potential of being set for life when you become a partner. On the other extreme, you follow your dreams but in an uncertain world with less security. At the end of it all, the biggest driver of your decision is your most powerful value. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, it is the ability to understand the basic principles of business and finance. This is a little vague and general. Let me flesh this out for you. In my opinion, to classify yourself as being financially educated or literate, you need to have a basic understanding of the following concepts: Concept 1: Banks have no interest in educating you The financial industry does not want you to be free or educated. Just like the medical establishment wants to keep you ill and coming back for treatment, the financial system wants you to consume like an imbecile. Through marketing and advertising, it sells you an almost unattainable lifestyle that if you reach, you simply become another one of greed`s whore. It is never enough. Banks want to keep you ignorant and coming back to buy their products. They say they want to educate you but nothing could be further from the truth. They want to sell you their rancid products with a new shiny wrap. They want to skrew you again and again, and you get to smile while they`re doing it. Concept 2: Credit drives the economy Economic activity is generated through the buying and selling of goods and services. Every year the total monetary value of goods and services bought and sold is known as the gross domestic product. If the gross domestic product in year 1 was 100 and then in year 2 was 109, we say that the economy grew by 9 percent. If GDP in year 2 was 100, it means that growth was zero. Let's now imagine a cash economy. Let's assume that there are 100 dollars in circulation. I have 50 and my friend has 20 and the bank has 30. My friend sells widgets at 10 per widget. I buy 1 widget and sell that to the bank for 15. I now have 55, my friend has 30 and the bank has 15. I deposit 40 of my 55 with the bank. We are going to move that money around between the three of us and the economy is not going to grow. The only way an economy can grow is by way of credit. The central bank needs to increase the money supply and get the cash moving through the economy by extending credit. The government will do everything possible to facilitate credit because with more growth there is more tax revenue. The government, however, knows that too much of a good thing is not good. If there is too much credit, the economy could overheat causing inflation. The government, therefore, allows the central bank to control the cost of money through interest rates. If the central bank feels that there is too much money being printed it will increase the cost of that money. Governments, in association with the central banks, will also allow people to start their own banks to facilitate the granting of credit to take some of the pressure off the central bank. The governments will allow these banks to take money from depositors and lend that money out as credit. This is the basic banking model. These banks make their money on the spread between what they pay the depositors and what they charge the lenders. Central banks and use interest rates to regulate the temperature of the economy. This is known as Goldilocks economics. The central bank does not want the economy to be too hot and does not want the economy to be too cold. They want the economy to be just like the oatmeal of Goldilocks- just right. If the economy gets too hot, it means there is a risk of inflation. If too cold, there is a risk of deflation. In the old days, banks were the only source of credit. Today, that is not the case. The monopoly of banks over the credit awarding process is being challenged by technology in a trend known as fintech. The Millennial Disruption Index reports 71that % of millennials would rather go to the dentist than listen to what banks tell them. That is a monumental kick in the nuts of the banks. Millennials would rather lie flat on their backs, open their mouths, and have sharp needles and drills perforate the soft vulnerable skin tissue around their teeth than interact with their banks. You do not need to be Alan Turing (the genius that cracked the German Enigma code) to decipher the takeaway of this nugget of information. Banks suck, and technology will drive many of them out of business. Why has traditional banking not captured the hearts and imagination of the average man? The answer is simple. In 2008, banks lost their biggest asset and which is trust. They lost the trust of their clients and technology companies moved rapidly to fill the gap with sweet sweetness. As of 2019 Facebook boasted numerous banking licenses and was experimenting with its ow cryptocurrency. Amazon was experimenting with student loans. Alibaba was running one of the largest money market funds in the world and WeChat (the Chinese version of WhatsApp) was doing 820 million wire transfers during the Chinese New Year. If you trust Facebook with photos of your newborn baby, will you not trust them to handle your finances? Concept 3: You need to have a basic understanding of how businesses are funded When businesses are started, they need to be funded. They need cash, they need capital and they need it fast. Without cash, the company will shrivel up and die. Companies are funded in two ways – equity and debt. This is best understood by way of a simple example. On January 1, I start a guitar restoration business where we buy old guitars, restore them to their former glory and sell them at a profit. To start, we would need cash and/or credit. My first call is to my banker, Slim Shady who is gracious enough to offer me a loan. Slim, who is a musician when he is not ripping off unsuspecting clients, understands guitars and lends me 25,000. I now have 25,000 in debt but need more. I inject 40,000 of my own money and my friend Wayne Kerr invests 20,000 for a 30 percent stake. I have the remaining 70 percent share. We now have 25,000 of debt, plus 60,000 capital resulting in total liabilities of 85,000. I can now go out and look for axes to buy and refurbish. This is our balance sheet as of 1 January Current assets (cash): 85,000 Equity capital: 60,000 Long-term liabilities: 25,000 In a simple formula: Total Assets = Total Equity + Total Debt There are two key points that you need to understand from this. Firstly, if you own equity in a company, you are the owner of that company. In this small guitar restoration business, I own 70 percent of the business and Wayne Kerr owns 30 percent of the business. The owners participate in the fortunes of the business. Secondly, the bank is simply a lender of money – it is not an owner of the business. Loans are also known as debt and liabilities. Concept 4: You need to have a very rough understanding of the stock market The stock market is one of the greatest generators of wealth on the face of the earth and the more you know about it, the better. Having said this, you do not need to be an expert in stocks to become financially free – a basic understanding will suffice. This is what you need to know. The stock market is a place where you can invest in thousands of public companies. In the world of finance, you have two different kinds of companies – private companies and public companies. My guitar restoration business is a private company because it is funded by myself, Wayne Kerr, and anyone else that we invite to invest in the business. At what moment does a private company become a public company? Normally, as companies grow, they need access to more money to fund their expansion. They have two options – either ask for more loans from their bank or find new shareholders to invest equity capital. Assume that Wayne Kerr is my only friend and my only source of funding. I could decide to list the company on the stock exchange and invite anyone to invest in my company. For this to happen, I need to make my financial information public and update it regularly so that my investors are kept abreast of how. The stock market provides you the opportunity of investing in thousands of companies and sharing in the fortunes of these companies. To understand the wealth-generative capabilities of the stock market, consider the following examples: If you had invested $1,000 in Amazon when it was listed on the stock market in 1997, it would be worth almost $1.6 million today (May 2020). Concept 5: Know How to Buy the Whole Market Not everyone was lucky enough to recognize Amazon as the next greatest thing back in 1997. You do not need to be a great visionary to make money from the stock market. You do not need to be a genius. Sure, it helps if you are prepared to spend the time to analyze individual companies, but the majority of people do not have the time, interest, or inclination to do so. For these investors, their investment vehicle of choice is known as an ETF or exchange-traded fund. An exchange-traded fund is a fund of shares that trade on the stock market like a single share. So instead of buying a share in Amazon, you can buy a share in an ETF that invests in technology companies. In this way, you will be investing in Amazon, but also in companies like Microsoft, Apple, Tesla, Google, Facebook, Tesla, and Nvidia. I am talking about the Invesco QQQ ETF. So this is what you do – you apply a common-sense approach to investing. I walk you through the mechanics. I will profile three different types of investors based on their level of interest in the stock market. Investor 1: No Interest Let us assume you have no interest in finance, business, or investing. This is not a death blow to financial freedom. You will want to invest in a broad country or global ETF. The most globally diversified ETF is iShares MSCI World ETF and trades under the ticker symbol URTH (Jargon buster: A ticker symbol or stock symbol is an abbreviation used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares of a particular stock on a particular stock market. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers, or a combination of both. "Ticker symbol" refers to the symbols that were printed on the ticker tape of a ticker tape machine). URTH will expose you to a broad range of developed market companies around the world. It provides access to the developed world in a single fund. If you had invested $100 every month into this ETF when it was first launched in 2012, your investment would be worth a little under $15,000 today (June 2020). Investor 2: A Little Interest Here I assume that you have a marginal interest in finance and the stock market. You know that CNBC is a business news channel and not a recreational drug, you have heard of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and you know that the FTSE 100 is the benchmark index of the London Stock Exchange and not a pesticide. You would invest in a more specific ETF. Instead of buying the whole world, you would refine your investment in a specific region or country. For example, you may be a fan of Taiwan. You traveled there a couple of years ago and were impressed by their bustling economy and you want to participate in the fortunes of Taiwanese companies. You could invest in the iShares MSCI Taiwan ETF (ticker symbol EWT) that trades on the New York Stock Exchange. Another great feature of ETFs is that most of them trade on US stock markets. In the case of Taiwan, there is no need for you to open a brokerage account in Taiwan – you can participate in the fortunes of Taiwanese business from the comfort of your own home (provided you have a US brokerage account). Over the past 10 years, $100 invested every month in this ETF would now (June 2020) be worth almost $19,000. Investor 3: Above Average Interest You have a real interest in investing as a hobby. You are curious about financial trends that are shaping the world. You are an avid reader of financial blogs and if you were waiting for your dentist appointment, you would rather thumb through a copy of The Economist than Men’s Health. Your interest does not go so far as to take you into analyzing specific shares, but you are interested in trends – such as clean and renewable energy, the rise of China as a global economic power, the sharing economy, fintech, and cryptocurrencies, the future of health and wellness, robotics and artificial intelligence, driverless cars, cybersecurity, etc. ETF issuers such as iShares are aware of the rising interest in global trend investing and have started to launch ETFs to tap into this market. Take for example the iShares Exponential Technologies ETF (ticker symbol XT). This ETF seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of developed and emerging market companies that create or use exponential technologies. The ETF wants to access global companies with significant exposure to exponential technologies, which displace older technologies, create new markets, and have the potential to create significant positive economic benefits. As of June 2020, the ETFs biggest holdings were in the following companies: TESLA, ADYEN, SQUARE, ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES MERCADOLIBRE, NVIDIA CORP, PAYPAL HOLDINGS, WUXI BIOLOGICS, AMAZON, and MEDIATEK. A monthly investment of $100 in this ETF would currently (to June 2020) be worth almost $8,500. Concept 6: Know How to Choose a Stockbroker In the old days, stockbroking moved at a different pace. You would park your Rolls Royce and take the elevator to your broker's office. He would open up a box of Cubans, offer you a glass of single malt, and talk about the World Series. You would instruct him to buy 1,000 shares of Bethlehem Steel. He would write the order on a ticket and hand it to his errand boy. The errand boy would jump on his bike and pedal over to the stock exchange. He would walk over to the floor broker who would ignore the kid for five minutes as he finished dictating his lunch order to his assistant. The floor broker would then saunter over to the pit and gesticulate to the market maker and execute the order. Today, the barriers to entry into the stock market are low. Any mammal with opposable thumbs, a smartphone, and a few dollars to its name can open an online brokerage account with Robinhood. Robinhood is a U.S.-based financial services company headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and requires no minimum balance. The address of Robinhood is revealing. This is not a regular broker filled with stuffy old men in pinstriped suits, Gordon Gekko suspenders, and unmatched dayglow socks with a copy of the Financial Times tucked under their flabby untoned arms. Robinhood is a fintech company, filled with kids in hoodies, looking to democratize the stock market. Most discount brokers offer commission-free trading and zero minimum deposit (they make money off your cash balances and margin lending). The top dogs are Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, TradeStation, Charles Schwab, E*TRADE, and Interactive Brokers. In choosing a broker, you want to look at the following: quality of order execution, depth of research, technological quality of their platform, trading tools offered, customer service, non-trading fees (wire and bank transfers), availability of options trading and margin rates (where brokers make most of their money). Concept 7: Understand the Most Important Concept in Finance – Compounding The world is full of wonders. You have the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, the Temple of Artemis, and the Colossus of Rhodes. In finance, there is one single wonder that stands out head and shoulders above the rest – and that is COMPOUNDING. The reason why the majority of humans are not aware of this modern wonder is that it is built on a trait that most humans do not have – PATIENCE. Post a video on Youtube entitled “How to Become a Millionaire in 30 Years”. How many views do you think it will get? I would wager that a video of a dripping tap would get more views. We are impatient. Everyone wants to get rich quickly. The reality is that getting rich requires compounding and patience. Let me explain. If investing $100 per month at a return of 10 percent will deliver $226,048, how much would I have if I found an investment that yields 20 percent? The human brain in all its feebleness would reason like this – if I am earning double the return (20 percent instead of 10 percent), it should earn double the return. In other words, I should be the proud owner of an investment worth $450,000. What would you say if I said that by doubling the annualized return you would earn TEN times more? You would say that I have gone bonkers – that I have donned a bright red honker and size 75 loafers, and am bouncing jelly beans off my belly and pulled live pigeons out of my ear. Your $100 investment at 20 percent per annum will yield $2,297,783 in 30 years!! Albert Einstein said that compound interest is "the most powerful force in the universe" and went on to say..." he who understands it, earns it; he who doesn't, pays it." The reason you earn 10 times more with twice the return over 30 years is simply that you are reinvesting your returns. You are earning returns on your returns. This may sound like Greek, but let me explain with a simple example. You invest $100 on day 1 at 20 percent. In one year, that $100 has grown into $120 which means you made a $20 return. In year 2, again you earn 20%, but on $120. This means that you made $24 which is 24 percent of the original $100 invested. Look at how the returns take off the longer you invest. Year 1: $20 (20 percent on $100) Year 2: $24 (24 percent on $100) Year 3: $28.8 (28.8 percent on $100) ……. Year 10: $103 (103 percent on $100) ……. Year 20: $638 (638 percent on $100 ……. Year 30: $3,956 (3,956 percent on $100) By year 30, you are earning an astronomical return on you’re your initial $100 because the investment has snowballed as you reinvest your returns. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

In 2009, a New York Times journalist Rob Walker embarked on an experiment to see if storytelling was a powerful commercial tool. He wanted to do a controlled experiment where success could be measured in monetary terms. He called it his Significant Objects Test (www.significantobjects.com). He bought two hundred objects on eBay each object costing approximately $1. He then sent an email to 200 writers and asked if they wanted to participate in the test where they would write a story about each object. One object was a snow globe that had the state of Utah on the base. The snow globe cost 99 cents. Blake Butler wrote a story about a box that his grandfather's grandfather kept under his bed…you will need to read the rest. The snow globe was sold for $59. A total of $129 was spent on the 200 objects. The total proceeds raised from the sale of these objects were $8,000. The total return on investment was 6,101 percent. Storytelling releases dopamine. This is the same chemical released into the brain when you fall in love. Most men can testify how after watching a James Bond movie, you want to go out and buy an Omega watch and a Saville row-tailored suit. This makes absolutely no sense. We all know that Bond is the ultimate escapism. We know that a fancy watch and a tailored suit are not going to lure a Russian goddess into your car, but dopamine and suspense make us do crazy things. When you first meet a prospective client, there are three things they ask themselves: 1) Who are you? 2) What do you have? 3) Why do I care? Storytelling is a powerful way to raise that dopamine and build trust and confidence as you answer these three questions. Use this opportunity to tell your story. The key ingredients of a good story are the following: be clear, be authentic (bullshit does not fly), have a clear outcome, be consistent and make it relevant. Telling a story about how you stapled your small toe to a barstool during a drinking game may not be relevant or appropriate. So why should you become adept at telling stories? 1) Breaks down barriers When you tell stories about your life and experiences, you show a human side of you that deepens your connection with the recipients of the story. You can tell them how you started your business or what brought you to a new city. These stories make you human and help you build connections. 2) Simplify complex ideas I understand things through examples. When people tell me what they do, I ask them to describe to me their typical client or normal day in the office, or who their competitors are. I think in terms of real-life examples or stories. It helps me to understand complex and unfamiliar things. 3) Entertainment Everyone loves a good story because they are engaging. The reason we love going to the movies is because we love being transported into a different world that is removed from our current reality. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

Maximilien Robespierre, before his head was separated from his body by the guillotine in the French Revolution, said: "The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant". The world is financially ignorant and the tyrants are exploiting this ignorance. The financial industry does not want you to be free. Just like the medical establishment wants to keep you ill and coming back for treatment, the financial system wants you to consume like an imbecile. Through marketing and advertising, it sells you an almost unattainable lifestyle that if you reach, you simply become another one of greed`s whore. It is never enough. Banks want to keep you ignorant and coming back to buy their products. They say they want to educate you but nothing could be further from the truth. They want to sell you their rancid products with a new shiny wrap. They want to skrew you again and again, and you get to smile while they`re doing it. According to a Standard & Poor's Global Financial Literacy Survey, only 33 percent of adults worldwide are financially literate. The bar on this survey was not set high. Respondents were not asked to build complex econometric models or use Markowitz to find the efficient frontier on an investment portfolio. Simple questions about inflation, compound interest and diversification were asked. The notable laggard in the survey was a rising economic power. China's citizens recorded an abysmal financial literacy score of 28 percent. Moreover, literacy scores were not going up. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.'s Investor Education Foundation's 2016 report found that 37 percent of individuals correctly answered four out of five financial questions. This was below the 42 percent reported in 2009. Humans are getting financially dumber, not smarter. Low levels of literacy are alarming as governments incentivize banks to make financial services available to a wider audience. Moreover, in the last 30 years, the retirement savings landscape has shifted. Decision-making responsibilities have been transferred to financially illiterate participants who previously relied on their employers or governments for financial security and guidance after retirement. One question that vexes me is why the formal education system has never focused on financial literacy? At school, I was rewarded for translating Livy’s report of the First Punic War from Latin to English and memorizing the difference between igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. This education system is engineered to produce uncreative and loyal employees, not free-thinking entrepreneurs. As in most systems, however, imperfections exist. A minority fringe exit the system before graduating with their entrepreneurial fire unextinguished. Some spend their lives checking in and out of rehab, while others set up multi-billion dollar companies. The latter list includes Steve Jobs of Apple, Bill Gates of Microsoft and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. They succeed in business not because of formal education but in spite of it. The architects of the system need these drop-outs, the one percent world, to perpetuate a system in which a handful of crusading pioneers employ the institutionally educated masses. So what is financial literacy and what does it take to become financially educated? According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, it is the ability to understand the basic principles of business and finance. This is as useful as advising a death-row inmate to reduce his dietary intake of trans-unsaturated fatty acids. My definition is different. To be financially literate, and to use this literacy to achieve financial freedom, you need to do two things. Thing 1: Unlearn EVERYTHING you know about Money and Finance Robert Kiyosaki, the financial freedom pioneer, in his book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, says that from an early age we are taught to go to school, get a safe job, save money, live below your means, buy a house, get out of debt and invest for the long term in a well-diversified portfolio. These precepts are the biggest load of bull since Joseph Goebbels launched his massive campaign that Germans were the superior race. These lies cause financial bondage. The only way to free yourself is rebellion. When I joined the derivatives trading desk at a large European bank in 1997, I asked a colleague for advice on how to trade options. He told me to take my gut instinct, and do exactly the opposite. Financial freedom requires this same "contrarianism". Thing 2: Dominate FIVE Key Disciplines The pentathlon was one of the original sports in the ancient Olympic Games. Five sports were contested over one day: long jump, javelin, discus, a foot race and a wrestling match. The pentathlete was the most complete and skilled athlete at the games. Their training formed part of the military. The ability to run and hurl yourself into a pit of sand and wrestle your enemy armed with a sharp object and a disk superseded all other abilities. To attain financial freedom, the five disciplines you need to dominate are less physically demanding. They are investments, tax, accounting, business law, and selling. Exercise Go out and buy a leather-bound journal. The first step in the journey to financial freedom is to describe the most important relationship in your life. It is your relationship with money. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), money is the top cause of stress in the United States. I want you to answer the following: 1)​What does money mean to you? a.​Is it a goal in itself or a means to something else? b.​Do you believe that it will make you happy? c.​Is it a measure of your self-worth? 2)​How do you see rich people? a.​Do you aspire to be like them? b.​Are you envious of their success? 3)​What is your happiest money memory? 4)​How important was money in your family? 5)​Are you a saver or a spender? 6)​Do you feel guilty when you buy an item of luxury? #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

It has been a rough year so far in global equity markets. Global shares as measured by the MSCI World Index are down 26 percent which means we are officially in a bear market. The Nasdaq is down 32 percent, Bitcoin is down a whopping 60%. There is a war in Ukraine that has caused commodity prices to spike and thrown us into an upward inflationary spiral, and markets are expected to get worse. Here are two things you should be doing in these complicated times. 1) Don't be Scared When people look at the performance of the stock market they tend to look at the 1-month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12-month graphs. You need to go out 10, 20, 30, and 40 years to understand where we have come from and how far we can call. In the last 40 years, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gone from 1,000 to 30,000 - that is a gain of 30x. That is a phenomenal run. That gain was fuelled by cheap money and low-interest rates. Interest rates cannot stay low forever. Easy money is not a viable long-term strategy. The cycle has to turn and we are heading into higher rates as the threat of inflation increases. Equity markets need to correct this - this is healthy. What do most people do when staring down the face of a loaded barrel like this? They start selling because there is blood in the water. As the panic increases, they sell more and by the time the market reaches the bottom they have cashed out. This is typical caveman-like behaviour known as flight or fight. When a 200kg saber tooth tiger is breathing down your neck you are going to run for your fucking life. What you should do is stand your ground. You need to go against everything your instincts are telling you and keep buying into this falling market. Investing is a long-term game and you need to better understand dollar cost averaging or rand cost averaging depending on your base currency. The secret to getting rich is making small disciplined monthly investments into the market. You never skip a beat. Every month you invest a fixed amount. If you have surplus cash you invest more, but you must always adhere to the minimum. The strategy is easy when the market is going up - not so easy when the market is going down. The secret is to be fearless. Look fear in the face and keep investing regardless of the market. That is what high-value men do. 2) Look for Opportunities Lots of money can be made in moments of crisis. While high-value men are brave in the face of danger, most other people do not share this characteristic. They panic in the face of fear and they sell assets - good quality and bad quality. Fear is not rational. So what assets are sold in these bouts of panic? They sell shares, they sell real estate, they sell capital assets such as machinery, and they may even sell their businesses. These assets then go on sale and this is when you can find wonderful opportunities. During the dot.com crash, Amazon fell 90%. In August 2001 it was trading at 45 cents. This was at a time of extreme panic in tech stocks. Twenty years later it was trading at $180. If you had bought 1,000 shares of Amazon in 2001, it would have cost you $450. That investment would have been worth $178,000 twenty years later. That is a 400x investment. You would have increased your money 400 times. That is not a gain of 400% - it is a gain of 40,000% which is stupendous. Since its high in 2021, Amazon has come down and as of the time of writing this was trading at $114 per share which means it is almost 40% off its maximum highs. Does this mean that Amazon is cheap? Probably not. What you can say with 100% certainty is that it is considerably cheaper than 12 months ago and could get even cheaper in the weeks and months ahead. Warren Buffett said the secret to success in financial markets is to buy when everyone is selling and sell when everyone is buying. This is contrarian behaviour and is difficult to implement because you need to override your natural fight-or-flight instincts. The bottom line is that you want to keep your head and not panic like the masses. Panicked markets like these present wonderful money-making opportunities. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

Inflation is raising its ugly head for the first time in decades. The war in Ukraine has caused global energy prices to skyrocket. This has forced the price of petrol and diesel in many countries to double. Given that transport is such an important component in the price of goods, and to a lesser extent services, inflation is moving higher. We could be heading into a scenario similar to what we saw in the 1970s when stocks did nothing, while tangible goods such as gold and other commodities duplicated, tripled and even quadrupled in price. In this inflationary environment we could also see Bitcoin bottoming from its precipitous slide and head back to $50,000 levels. Amidst all this uncertainty and chaos, there is one investment that is perfect - it beats inflation, it is tax free, it has unlimited upside potential and is completely within your reach. It is an investment in yourself. But don't take my word for it, listen to the words of one of the greatest investors that has ever lived - Warren E Buffett. At the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder's meeting, Buffett urged listeners to invest in themselves, arguing this is the best course of action when inflation is surging: “The best investment by far is anything that develops yourself….whatever abilities you have can’t be taken away from you. They can’t actually be inflated away from you." Here are 5 great ways to invest in yourself. 1) Continuous Education Albert Einstein said “I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious”. What do curious people do? They are always educating themselves. Their minds are filled with questions. Curiosity is linked so closely with success because it drives you into the unknown, which is where you make discoveries, develop relationships, uncover opportunities, and experience growth. Curiosity drives continuous education. A good place to start in 2022 is understanding the current global financial situation. We are living in fascinating times and it is likely that very compelling investment opportunities will emerge. You also want to learn about things you are not traditionally interested in. If you love sports and finance, take an online course in art or wine tasting. This forces your brain to adopt and process new information on a foreign subject. 2) Prioritise Physical and Mental Health We all know we should exercise, eat well, get plenty of sleep and be more mindful. Yet, on a daily basis we fall into the trap of taking the path of least resistance. It is easier to pound the snooze button than pound the gym at 6am. It is easier to crack open a Snickers bar than make a kale salad. When Netflix asks you at 11pm if you are still watching after three episodes of Breaking Bad, it is easier to click “continue watching” than it is to brush your teeth and hit the sack. First thing in the morning it is easier to grab your phone and watch a YouTube video than to meditate for 15 minutes. The reason why these healthy habits are hard is because they are worthwhile and the returns are astonishing. If they were easy the returns would be low or zero. 3) Experiences over Possessions A new pair of designer jeans or a music concert with your friends? Buying a new video game or inviting your best friend on a surfing weekend? What investment will deliver you the best returns? The novelty of the new jeans and video game will wear off in a couple of days - the memory of the experience will last for a lifetime. To my mind, this is a no brainer. Studies have shown that the happiest people are not those with the most stuff - in fact these people tend to be the most miserable because their stuff owns them. The happiest people are those with the strongest human connections to others, and there is no better way to build connections than through shared experiences. 4) Learn a Foreign Language We live in a global village where the ability to connect has never been easier. Learning a foreign language opens your horizons to new people, cultures, and cuisines that will enrich your life in more ways than you think. It will also sharpen your brain - every new language your learn is believed to delay dementia by five years - it will automatically make you sexier to members of the opposiute sex, it will sharpen your discipline skills, and will provide you with new persepctive on life as you realise that the world is not exclusively populated with people that talk like you. 5) Be Grateful You could argue that there has never been a better time to be alive. Agreed, the last 20 years have been a little rough. We had the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the 2008 financial meltdown, the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, and we are now living through a global pandemic. But look at the positive. Between 2000 and 2015 the number of people living in poverty has halved. We have access to the best healthcare ever. We are better off than the richest man in the world in the 1920s. John D Rockefeller was the richest man in the world, but for the first 28 years of the 20th century, he did not have access to antibiotics. We live in an age of democratization of knowledge and education. The 1980s and 1990s recorded the highest rates of economic growth ever in history. There is an abundance of food, it has been 75 years since the last world war, democracy is by far the most dominant political system and commodity prices have fallen. There is widespread availability of high-speed internet, the internet itself has made the global market open to everyone. Ethnic minorities, women and gay people have never lived in a more tolerant and acceptant society. Things are pretty fucking good! So follow the wise words of the world's greatest investor, a man who has delivered returns never seen before. His advice to you is invest in yourself and he gives one specific example and that is communication. If you can't communicate, it's like winking at a girl in the dark--nothing happens. You can have all the brainpower in the world, but you have to be able to transmit it. And the transmission is communication. Buffett says that investing in developing your communication skills can "improve your value by 50 percent." #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

To understand the stock market, you need to understand how people buy stocks. People don't buy stocks with cash.  They use credit. The only people that use cash are drug dealers and pimps. Since June 1970, NYSE member organizations needed to report aggregate debits in securities margin accounts, as well as aggregate free credits in cash and margin accounts.  In 1970, the total debit balance of member firms was $4 billion.  As of the end of September 2022, that balance was $687 billion having almost reached $1 trillion in 2021 (see the chart below). How does a margin loan work? It uses existing shares, managed funds, and cash as security. These existing assets are used to calculate your Loan to Value Ratio (LVR), which determines how much you can borrow. Most brokers work on 50%. This means that if you have a portfolio worth $1,000, the broker will lend you $500 to buy more shares, Once your borrowing limit is established, you can use available funds to purchase further approved investments (shares, managed funds, etc.). Your new and existing investments are combined to form your total portfolio. Margin rates are low and money is easy. Interactive Brokers were offering margin loans as low as 2.2 percent in 2021. Is that high or low?  As of the end of 2021, there were 15,326 public stocks domiciled in the United States. Of that total, 1,138 had a dividend yield above 2.2 percent. If we weed out the rats and mice and only focus on stocks with a market capitalization of more than $1 billion that number goes down to 621 which is still a decent universe. The market-weighted average dividend of these 621 stocks is 4.98 percent which means that there is a positive carry of almost 3 percent. You can borrow money to buy these stocks and the market pays you just under 3 percent to hold them because your cost of carry is negative. You pay 2.2 percent for the margin loan but you receive a weighted average dividend stream of 4.98 percent. Your net cost is negative 2.78 percent. The market is pouting her lips and fluttering her eyelids. She is offering to pay you 2.78 percent to step inside her boudoir for some carnal excitement. Only Catholic priests and blind men would turn her down. The U.S. stock market is on steroids – the rally that started in 2009 was not driven by fundamentals. It was driven by loose money. How long can this orgy last?  In 2022,  we are moving away from the bright lights, diamond-studded roulette wheels, and young showgirls, into the smokey back rooms, sweaty croupiers, and middle-aged cocktail waitresses that look better in the shade. Credit makes the world go around. If money remains cheap, the party continues. When credit starts to tighten, we will see how many investors are caught with their boxers around their ankles and their testicles flapping in the breeze. And credit is starting to tighten as inflation raises its satanic head. If you relook at the chart above, you will notice the strong correlation between the performance of the market and margin lending. Also, if you look very carefully, the red line moves before the red line. As investors start to unwind their margin trades, they need to sell stocks and this forces the market lower. And why are investors starting to unwind their margin trades? Because they are anticipating higher interest rates, For more on the relationship between stock markets and interest rates see (https://www.millionman.net/post/financial-education-why-you-need-to-understand-interest-rate-cycles) So let me summarise. The majority of stock markets around the world have been in a 40-year bull market since the early 1980s, Sure, there have been crises, crashes, and corrections but the overall trend has been to the upside. Look at the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average: Over the past 40 years, the index has risen from 1,000 points to 30,000 points. That is an appreciation of 30x. Also, notice how both the 1987 crash and the dot.com crash are hardly noticeable on the chart. These appreciations have been fuelled by low-interest rates and an almost zero threat of inflation. Inflation, however, is now starting to raise its head for the first time in decades (thanks to the war in Ukraine and high oil prices) and the response of central banks is to raise rates. The market has already started to react to higher rates which means we could be in for a rough ride in the stock market for the next 6-12 months, #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business

One of the key differences between a high-value man and a low-value man is education. The former understands the power of education and he uses that to transform his relationship with money – instead of working for money, money works for him. And how does he do that - he becomes a master investor. We are living in unprecedented times. Stock markets are close to their historic maximums. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (see below), was trading at around 1,000 points at the start of the 1980s. In 40 years, it has rallied to 30,000 points which are compounded return of a fraction below 9% per annum. We have never seen this before, So what has fuelled this exponential return in stocks over the past 4 decades? Most people would say it has been a technology-driven increase in productivity. That has played a role, but by far the strongest driver has been the interest rate cycle. When money is cheap, a lot of this cheap money finds its way into stocks for obvious reasons. Take IBM for example. This stock pays a dividend of more than 5%. If you can borrow money at 2%, you can buy IBM stock and the dividend pays for your borrowing and provides an additional 3% for good measure. The market is paying YOU 3% to buy the stock - you would be an idiot not to enter the trade. The chart below tracks the Federal Funds Rate which is the Fed’s main benchmark interest rate that influences how much consumers pay to borrow and how much they’re paid to save, rippling through to influence yields on certificates of deposit (CDs) and savings account to credit card rates and home equity lines of credit. This rate is very powerful because it determines the cost of money in the United States and because the United States is the most important economy in the world, this rate indirectly impacts the economy of the world. Whenever there is a crisis, central banks print money. They cut interest rates close to zero and they run the printing presses hot. The belief is if there is more money in the system, people will spend more and there will be a consumer lead recovery. It happened with the dot.com bubble in 2000, the subprime mortgage bubble in 2008, and COVID in 2020. Look at the evolution of the Fed Funds rate since 1955. You can see that there are two clear halves of the graph. From 1955 to 1980 interest rates were on an upward trend. From 1955 to 1972 interest rates went from 0.80% to 3.30%. Then we entered the tumultuous 70s when rates when from 3.30% to 19% in 1981. This decade has become known as The Great Inflation. The Federal Reserve panicked and raised interest rates through the roof to control inflation. What happened to cause this spike in inflationary pressures? To understand what happened in the 70s you need to go back to World War II. We all know that this war helped the United States come out of the Great Depression. However, when the war ended, the US did not want this momentum to be lost, so a new law was passed known as the Employment Act of 1946. The act declared that it was the responsibility of the Federal Reserve to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power. The government wanted to do everything in its power to prevent another depression. During World War II, Bretton Woods was signed. This pegged all currencies to the US dollar and the US dollar was linked to gold. The problem with this was that as global trade grew after the war, so too did the demand for US dollar reserves because the majority of global trade was indexed to the US dollar. Soon there were not enough gold reserves. This is when the Philips Curve comes into play. This curve says that there is an inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment. The theory claims that with economic growth comes inflation, which in turn should lead to more jobs and less unemployment. Phillips said there was between unemployment, which was very damaging to economic well-being, and inflation which was sometimes thought of as a mere inconvenience. Another issue that had to be taken into consideration was the Bretton Woods Treaty. This had been signed in 1944 pegging all currencies to the US dollar which was in turn pegged to gold reserves. As global trade grew after the war so too did the demand for US dollars because the bulk of the trade was done in this currency. Soon, there was not enough gold to back the dollar. As inflation drifted higher in the latter part of the 1960s, US dollars were increasingly converted to gold until the system could no longer be maintained. In 1971 Nixon unlinked the dollar to gold and all hell broke loose. The US dollar and global currencies were no longer anchored. In the 60s, President Lyndon Johnson announced the Great Society legislation. Remember the collective paranoia of another depression. These spending programs addressed education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, and transportation. Then the Vietnam War started so government spending was high. The government was spending more than it raised in taxes and had to borrow. Then you had the Arab Oil embargo that began in 1973 and lasted five months. Over this period, oil prices quadrupled and held those levels until the Iranian revolution brought a second energy crisis in 1979. The second crisis tripled the price of oil. During this period we realized there were two kinds of inflation- demand-pull when high demand pulls prices higher and supply push - where supply disruptions push prices higher. The Fed pushed rates higher to combat inflation and we entered into a period of stagflation which showed that Phillips was an idiot. So why is all this relevant? You need to understand the relationship between inflation and interest rates. When inflation goes up, central banks do their best to increase interest rates to put the brakes on these higher prices. They make money more expensive in the hope that demand for goods and services will decline and this will bring prices down. The opposite is true when prices are going down or when there is deflation. Stock market crashes and other financial crises tend to be deflationary. Whenever there is such an event central banks print money. They cut interest rates and they run the printing presses hot. The belief is simple - with more money in the system, businesses and consumers will spend more and this will lead to a recovery in the economy. Let us now bring this back to the modern-day situation. Interest rates are back to the same levels we saw in the 1960s, but notice how in the last few months they have started to rise sharply. This is because inflation is raring its ugly head again on account of higher oil prices thanks to Putin's war in Ukraine. The question therefore is are we heading into the same scenario as we saw in the 1970s? It looks similar, So what happened to the stock market in the 70s? The market gained a grand total of 5% in 10 years. However, when adjusted for inflation, stock market investors were down almost 50% over the decade. With borrowing costs close to 20%, stocks were no longer so attractive. The Fed's effort to tame inflation came to zero - they were powerless in trying to tame soaring prices. Inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980. Living standards declined. In 1979, only 19% of Americans were satisfied with the way things were going in the US, and peaked at 71% in 1999. By the way, the percentage in April 2022 was only 22%. Gold was the best-performing asset class. People who invested in real assets did well. Beef prices almost doubled - corn prices tripled. Wheat prices quadrupled. Real estate also did well. California real estate tripled in value. Silver did better than gold rising from less than $2 in 1970 to more than $30 I'm 1979. That is a gain of more than 15x over the decade. Now may be an opportune time to start shifting into physical assets. #lifecoach#motivation#lifecoaching#coaching#love#mindset#coach#inspiration#selflove#life#success#selfcare#lifestyle#mentalhealth#mindfulness#personaldevelopment#entrepreneur#goals#happiness#meditation#loveyourself#healing#motivationalquotes#lifequotes#positivevibes#fitness#businesscoach#motivationalspeaker#business