I still have a soul (HBO Boxing)

Gave me the chills. Don't watch too many shows nowadays but this clip is definitely worth watching.

Successor to Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet's Company)

FORBES MAGAZINE : HOW TO INVEST IN.....

This is big news, don't really now how I feel about it yet, what do you think?  I'll keep this post short for now, but will discuss in depth soon, I suggest you read more about it yourself, this will have a big effect on the world of finance as we know it.

Philosophy of Warren Buffet

Hey everyone, I will be working on this blog a lot more in the near future, first going to comply to Mutefox's request and write a post about the systematic failures and shortcomings of the modern financial system, but right now I am extremely tired, just wrote a new post on my principles of power blog and going to update my awesome blog with the regular awesome content.  In the meantime I'm republishing my earlier article on Warren Buffet to prepare for future articles ahead.  I got great feedback on this post from last time, and I will soon be delivering interesting and thought provoking posts that may help you keep more money in your pocket.

P H I L O S O P H Y   O F   WA R R E N   B U F F E T

I'm confident that many of you have heard of Warren Buffet, the most successful American investor of the century which earned him the nickname: "Sage of Omaha"

I'm not going to bore you with his life story, but instead focus on some of his key philosophies that made him into such a successful man.  He is still well known for his frugality despite of his incredible wealth, and even though many of us will choose to walk paths where we end up splurging from time to time, it is still important to try and be in control of money instead of it taking control of us.

 

Warren Buffet is the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway which has stock holdings worth around 125,000$ per share currently.  This may seem like an insurmountable amount of money for a single share of a stock, but the point i'm trying to show here is that disciplined investors over time can actually grow their portfolio to a point where they can consider purchasing monstrously expensive (or potentially inexpensive) stocks.

“

I don't have a problem with guilt about money. The way I see it is that my money represents an enormous number of claim checks on society. It's like I have these little pieces of paper that I can turn into consumption. If I wanted to, I could hire 10,000 people to do nothing but paint my picture every day for the rest of my life. And the GDP would go up. But the utility of the product would be zilch, and I would be keeping those 10,000 people from doing AIDS research, or teaching, or nursing. I don't do that though. I don't use very many of those claim checks. There's nothing material I want very much. And I'm going to give virtually all of those claim checks to charity when my wife and I die. (Lowe 1997:165–166)

”

From a NY Times article: "I don't believe in dynastic wealth", Warren Buffett said, calling those who grow up in wealthy circumstances "members of the lucky sperm club".  Buffett has written several times of his belief that, in a market economy, the rich earn outsized rewards for their talents:

“

A market economy creates some lopsided payoffs to participants. The right endowment of vocal chords, anatomical structure, physical strength, or mental powers can produce enormous piles of claim checks (stocks, bonds, and other forms of capital) on future national output. Proper selection of ancestors similarly can result in lifetime supplies of such tickets upon birth. If zero real investment returns diverted a bit greater portion of the national output from such stockholders to equally worthy and hardworking citizens lacking jackpot-producing talents, it would seem unlikely to pose such an insult to an equitable world as to risk Divine Intervention.

”

This was the first book I read related to investing early on in my high school years which introduced me to the underlying theory of investing.

NEVER LOSE MONEY

General rules

• Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.

• It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.

• You're neither right nor wrong because other people agree with you. You're right because your facts are right and your reasoning is right—and that's the only thing that makes you right. And if your facts and reasoning are right, you don't have to worry about anybody else.

• Our favourite holding period is forever.
  
  
  • Letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, 1988

• When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the reputation of the business that remains intact.

• Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.

• If you don't know jewelry, know the jeweler.

• If you don't feel comfortable owning something for 10 years, then don't own it for 10 minutes.

• There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult.

• One's objective should be to get it right, get it quick, get it out, and get it over... your problem won't improve with age.

• A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

• In the insurance business, there is no statute of limitation on stupidity.

• If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.

• The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect... You need a temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd or against the crowd.

• The future is never clear, and you pay a very high price in the stock market for a cheery consensus. Uncertainty is the friend of the buyer of long-term values.

• We will only do with your money what we would do with our own.

• Occasionally, a man must rise above principles.

• It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.

• Of one thing be certain: if a CEO is enthused about a particularly foolish acquisition, both his internal staff and his outside advisors will come up with whatever projections are needed to justify his stance. Only in fairy tales are emperors told that they are naked.

• When asked how he became so successful in investing, Buffett answered: we read hundreds and hundreds of annual reports every year.

• "I never buy anything unless I can fill out on a piece of paper my reasons. I may be wrong, but I would know the answer to that. "I'm paying $32 billion today for the Coca Cola Company because..." If you can't answer that question, you shouldn't buy it. If you can answer that question, and you do it a few times, you'll make a lot of money."

• You ought to be able to explain why you're taking the job you're taking, why you're making the investment you're making, or whatever it may be. And if it can't stand applying pencil to paper, you'd better think it through some more. And if you can't write an intelligent answer to those questions, don't do it.

• I really like my life. I've arranged my life so that I can do what I want.

• If you gave me the choice of being CEO of General Electric or IBM or General Motors, you name it, or delivering papers, I would deliver papers. I would. I enjoyed doing that. I can think about what I want to think. I don't have to do anything I don't want to do.

I hope this helped you get an idea of what the nature of my blog will be in the next couple of posts.

Ideally I want to talk about the different tools investors use to achieve success when starting their portfolios, and maintaining them after they have achieved some level of success.

I hate to admit that I myself have not been especially prudent with handling my money, and thus I am writing this blog for myself as well as anyone who is interested to help them keep focused and actively make their money work for them instead of working so hard for it.

Again thanks for all the positive comments and to all new followers, please feel free to post your own opinions and things you would like to see me blog about in the future.

Happy blogging

Question to all my Blog Readers!!

Hey everyone, I would like to get this blog alive and kicking again like the golden days last month.  I noticed my viewership in this blog has dwindled as of late, and I will soon remedy that, but first I need to ask you this:

What do you want to read and learn about in this blog?


I'm open to all ideas, I have been having a bit of a writers block regarding this blog since i'm not 100% sure in which direction I want to take it.  I'm not a guru or anything, but I do spend a lot of time reading and studying a broad selection of financial topics, business, and macro/micro economics.



Some ideas I have but not limited to are:


1.) Discussing select stocks, from penny stocks to large-chip stocks

2.) Discussing currencies, commodities, and futures


3.) Real Estate/Property Investments

4.) Select Discussions on Companies e.g. My Apple post

5.) ?????????????????????????????????


Thanks in advance, happy blogging

Warren Buffett: How to Read Stocks

Hey everyone, here are some Warren Buffett videos that I found to be fairly interesting to watch.  There are a tremendous amount of videos on YouTube, and I believe that even though there is information overload, if you are focused and direct in your learning, you can basically do anything nowadays.

The difficult part is managing your priorities, getting organized, and following through.  I share these videos because I have read many of Buffett's annual reports, watched his interviews, and also read his biography, and am always impressed by his investing style and constant success.

I hope you find these videos interesting, i'll be updating this blog more so after my midterms are done!

Sex Sells, and The Future

Hey everyone, haven't gotten the chance to update this blog due to the busyness of school, and usually this blog takes the most thinking for me, so i'm sorry to say that i've neglected it a bit.  Make sure to check out my other blogs if you haven't already, i'm going to try and spend some more time on my blogs and getting the website up and running in the near future.

Now, tonight, i'm going to make up for it by writing an interesting post on my personal views on how the concept of "sex sells," is going to change in the next few decades.  This is of course, a very broad topic, but one that I am sure you are all interested in.  If life is a game, then the winners are the ones who "have sex" and have kids, and whatever else that makes you happy.

S E X   S E L L S ,  A N D   T H E   F U T U R E 

Sex In Advertising

It's no secret, sex sells, and companies have been exploiting this fact for over a century now.  Since the late 1800's, companies began to realize that they could throw in sexually provocative messages in their products and it would start selling even more.

Whether it be beer, fast food, cars, electronics, Japanese anime, you name it, sex sells, always has, always will.  Sure you don't NEED sex to sell your product, you can find another gimmick or utilize a different strategy to generate your sales, but there is  no doubt that it is one of the most effective strategies being used over and over again in most societies.

The Ironies of Sex in Advertising

It may be slightly ironic to imagine the advertising campaigns a few decades ago, that featured a nurse smoking a pack of Camels.  It is even more ironic that a product specifically designed for women would become even more popular with men, revolutionizing a whole new niche in product advertising.  Smoking has been attributed with a lot of terrible, cancerous diseases and maladies but somehow, with the help of sex, millions of people around the world became addicted to this small cylindrical product.

Sex In Advertising Today

Today, sex is used to sell beer, books, bongs, Benz's, and any product from any letter of the alphabet that you choose to name, not just "b's."  Imagine the standard beer commerical, which focuses 10% on the "beer" aspect, and 90% on the extremely beautiful women in skimpy clothing running around with a bunch of average Joes.  Sex sells because it is what we want to see, and is more likely to leave a lasting impression in our brains than just simply showing the product as it is.  No one would buy your brand of beer if you simply advertised the product as it is, since beer is boring, unless there are "sexy people" around to enjoy it with you.

Currently, it does not seem like the trend is slowing down, and instead, only getting bigger. (no pun intended)  The internet porn industry has grown rapidly since the speed of the internet only keeps increasing while the quality of videos is a lot higher.  Likewise, we are witnessing a revolution in the way we feel about our media, with internet marketing growing faster than ever imagined.

The Future of Sex in Advertising, and the Media

This is the start of a trend that will continue to lead us into the future.  It is likely that we will be seeing 3D ads on our computers and television screens, giving companies more chances to interact on a more personal level with each consumer.  There will also probably be whole new products and services offered to cater to the endless sexual desires of the human mind, whether it be in robots, virtual reality, or many more.

What is considered radical and unlikely now, which encompasses much of what we actually have today, is likely to transcend into the future.  There is no doubt in my mind that these companies are going to continue to use sexually suggestive material to sell stuff to our kids and so on.

Even in the media, SEX controls everything, seriously, JONAS BROTHERS, JUSTIN BIEBER

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JAILBAIT? I'm not the only one that sees this am I?  Are Disney and Mickey Mouse trying to sell sex to OUR kids?  Probably, the South park episode on it is pretty funny too!

LG phones for little girls, with really hot models advertising the phones in some sort of slutty pose.  Sure, why not, give them the idols they want, and let them fantasize about what they will grow up to be like.  Hey, its been working for decades, why not ride the gravy train even further.

The Point of this Post

So whats the point of this whole post?  Well its pretty simple, if you want results, add some sort of sexual innuendo in your products or campaign and see a spike in results if you apply the rules properly.

What are the rules?  Well it ties in with the Principles of Power that I talk about in my other blog.  Basically, you can't be too offensive, and learn where to draw the line between what is "acceptable" to society.  If you overstep your bounds, you might be found rude and abrasive, which would then jeopardize and tarnish your reputation.  

You have to create a smokescreen, not do it deliberately, but kind of slip it in here and there without drawing too much attention to it.  The subconscious probably sees and processes a lot of this information without actually realizing that it has already created a profound effect on you and whoever else may have watched it.

Facebook > Google

http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/02/facebook-bigger-google/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Techcrunch+(TechCrunch)

Great read.  I watched the Social Network movie yesterday and was really impressed with the production values and humor they injected.

I found the article above to be very interesting and informative.  Perhaps one day a blogger will create an idea that will rival or surpass Facebook.  If the future is a riddle, maybe it's time to start coming up with our own answers.

The Importance of Outsourcing and why YOU should do it

Good afternoon, haven't updated lately but I'll make up for it with an interesting post today about:


"The Importance of Outsourcing and why YOU should do it"


I hope you like the new layout for my blogs, I made the changes to reduce lag and make everything more visible, crisp, and sharpened looking.  Thanks for all the great comments, i'll be working hard soon after in replying and reading your blogs as well.

Without further ado, i'll begin....




What is Outsourcing


Outsourcing, in my own words, is basically hiring someone or letting someone do the work that you should not be focusing on, since time is valuable and you should be doing the things you are BETTER at.  Essentially, its sub-contracting work to a third party, whether it be Chinese workers packing cards for an American Casino ring, or phone companies hiring workers in India or the Philippines to complete their telemarketing aspect.


Outsourcing is a term that is frequently misused, and this is because it is a broad term and can refer to different aspects.  We won't worry about that though, this article is based purely on how YOU should do it in order to reap in benefits in your life.

What are the Benefits?


There can be a tremendous amount of benefits to both small business owners, and even larger businesses,  and even to someone who does not have a business.


If you are a great writer, but do not know how to market your writing online or to potential publishers, should you really spend hours on end trying to learn marketing?  Perhaps in some cases, it is good to have a general idea of the subject so you are not clueless, but not spend four years in university to get a degree in the field.


BUT the point of the fact is, in most cases you should find someone who can help you do the tasks you find mundane or difficult so that you can focus on what you are actually good at.


Efficiency is the key to success, and can also reduce the amount of work and stress for you.

"Fact is, you cannot do it all on your own either. No matter how much you like to think that you can do it better, faster and more efficiently than anyone else, the fact remains that you will eventually burn out. The worst number in any business is "1". Meaning, you never want to be the only one working in your business."

How Do I outsource?


You can do this in many ways, first by going online and doing research about the tasks that you might want to outsource to another firm.  These types of tasks could include: Human Resources, Accounting, Payroll, Budget, Logistics, Web Promotion, and many many more, depending on the nature of your business and specifically what aspects you want to reduce stress from.


Lets say you have a large website, with a lot of articles needing to be written, updated, commented, and more.  Would it really be worth all your time, hours a day, writing and doing everything yourself?  Even outsourcing some of the work to your pen-pal friend in Malaysia would help alleviate some of the stress from your shoulders.


Better yet, if you have a few dollars per hour to spare, you can actually find people online to do the work for you!  Of course, you get what you pay for in most cases, and hiring a 3$/hr writer from the the Philippines might not get as good results as an 20$/hr writer in California.  Some people charge based on the amount of words, and many other factors play in, but you get the idea.




Final Words


Even if you are still a student, and have yet to start or be involved with a business, learning the importance of gaining leverage through outsourcing the tasks you:

Stuff you're not good at doing or don't care for

Stuff you don't know how to do very well

Stuff you don't have time to do (since you should be busy with other things)

Anything outside of your brilliance/genius (meaning, everything other than the stuff only you can do in your business)

Thanks for taking the time to read this article, I hope you found something useful that you can apply later on in other aspects of your life!