What Your Lifestyle Means To Your Investing Strategy
One of the biggest rewards of long term investing is the
opportunity for you to support the stocks you purchase.
Unlike day trading you are holding on to a piece of a company
that most of the time you can personally support. Here are a few
tips on supporting your portfolio.
The first step in investing to your lifestyle is to make a list
of possible stocks according to the products you use.
Behind many of the products we use every day, there is a company
that may be a great long-term investment, so start with a list
of potential companies to look in to. Here are some idea's to
get you started.
What kind of soft drinks does your family drink? What brand of
clothes do you wear, and where do you buy them? What type of car
do you drive? Who made your TV? VCR? Computer? DVD Player? Cell
phone? Where do you buy groceries, and what brands do you buy
every time you shop? What about entertainment? Where do you rent
movies, or go out to see new releases? Which movie studio has
put our some of your favorites? What's your favorite restaurant?
Fast food chain? Get the idea? Keep going until you have filled
at least one page. Just run through a typical day from
toothpaste to motor oil, you'll probably have at least a hundred
different companies that you buy products from.
The second step is to find out which companies are publicly
traded, and have the stocks have done for the last 5, 10, and 20
years. Use a professional to help with choosing the best
investment choices.
Once you invest in a company, you need to keep up your support.
That's the easy part. If you invest in Coke, why would you drink
Pepsi? If you invest in Chevy, which dealership will you go to
for your next car? If you invest in a restaurant chain, where
would you suggest your friends go to dinner? What other product
does that company make, and do they own other businesses. Even
though you don't own the company outright, it still like paying
yourself every time you buy something from a company that you
also invest in.
Here's the basic summary. Step 1: Figure out what you already
use. Step 2: Check which companies are possible investments.
Step 3: After investing, support your future by using and
recommending that company. That's it in a nutshell. It may seem
like common sense to most, but I always prefer getting more
involved rather then just passively investing in companies I've
never heard of before getting a 'hot tip'.