Peter Grandich wrote Confessions of a Wall Street Whiz Kid in 2011 to talk about his journey from humble beginnings to riches and from material wealth to spiritual wealth

In continuation from part 2 are the final four biggest investment mistakes:

4. Trusting financial institutions – there are very good reasons to use them, however behind the big columns also lies deceit and fraud. Blind trust should not be given, check your statements, find good people.

3. Hope is not an investment strategy. If you invested in a stock and the price went down, hoping it will come back (unless the company is profitable) is similar to buying a lottery ticket and hoping you will win. It could happen, but stocks usually go down in price for a reason.

2. No written financial strategy at all – write it down, it helps. You can also look at the  piece of paper on a semi-annually or annually basis to see how you are doing. One of the first things a person should do is record where you spend every dollar for a month. Add up the amounts in various headings – food, mortgage/rent, car, entertainment, clothes, etc. If you want to change, start making a change. 3 months later write down all your expenses , have you changed? Two overriding principles should be pay the fewest fees possible (fees included interest)  and live on less than you make.

1. Procrastination – putting off dealing with your finances is the single biggest investment mistake. The most powerful investment tool is compound interest working for you. As the years go by, the money will keep multiplying but you need to start early to get the greatest effect. Start early, stay out of debt and let your money for you.

Things to Do

Diversify, seek Good Counsel and Be Ethical in Your Investing

Linking to dividend producing stocks, although much of the information is available to everyone, people do many things very well, but when it comes to money, the simple information is the best information. It is the opinion of this author that dividend producing stocks can fit well into your investment needs. You can easily diversify and have good yields; you number one counsel is whether the company paid a dividend, if not sell, if yes do you wish to continue to hold? and with a range of companies that do pay dividends, you can fit your ethics to suit as long as your ethics remain on the right side of the law.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions