This article is actually about a subject that I felt I needed to research for my own good. Now that I’m making money online in marketing I thought that it would be a good idea to learn some investment strategies. At the very least, find out what types of investments there are, so this articles is kind of a beginners’ tutorial on investments. I’ll go into more detail of each type in later articles. The one thing I did know about investments even before doing this research is that investments can be relatively safe, very risky or somewhere in between. And as with anything in life the bigger the risk the bigger the reward. Let’s face it, you’re not going to get a 50% ROI by putting money into a savings account. Right now mine is earning about 1.5% interest. Pretty pitiful if you ask me. That’s not investing. That’s just letting your money rot away in a vault.
So let’s see what basic types of investments we have.
For starters you have bonds. These are also called “fixed income” securities. The reason that they are called this is because the income you get from bonds is fixed. You invest a certain amount in the bonds you purchase and after a certain amount of time, when the bonds mature, you get a certain return. You’re basically lending out your money to the government and they are paying you back with interest at a later date. Bond investment is relatively risk free. Therefore the return you get is pretty low.
Then there are stocks. And let me tell you, there are more stocks out there to invest in than Carter has liver pills. Just check with the NYSE to see how many stocks are actively being traded. Stocks are much riskier than bonds. A stock can sell for $5 a share one day and drop down to $1 a share the next day. Imagine investing in 1000 shares. You would have lost $4,000 in just one day. Conversely stocks can give you a big windfall literally overnight. The key to stock investing is to get a good broker who knows the market. And don’t worry, he WILL have your best interests in mind because he wants to make money too, as he gets a percentage of any gain you make on the stocks you invest in.
Then you have your mutual funds. Mutual funds are a collection of stocks and bonds put together in one portfolio. When you buy into a mutual fund you are actually throwing in your lot with a bunch of other investors. The theory behind mutual funds is that the diversification of investments will help prevent against any great loss on the investment as a whole. My wife’s IRA is actually part of a mutual fund that so far is doing very nicely. So these are relatively safe, though a little riskier than bonds alone.
And then finally you have what they call alternative options which include options, futures, FOREX, gold, real estate, etc. I’ll go into these in detail in future articles.
Investing is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity. With the value of the dollar constantly going down the only way to provide for your future and your retirement IS to invest. If you think I’m kidding, in 1965 a gallon of gas was 32 cents. It’s now up to over $3 where I live. No, a dollar isn’t worth what is used to be worth.
What’s the answer?
Invest.
Just don’t lose your shirt in the process.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Investing
Do you have eBay inventory sitting around the house? Maybe you are new to eBay and just have a few items on hand that you are waiting to sell. Or, maybe you have turned selling your eBay inventory into a part-time or full-time income-generating career! Whatever your case may be, you are more likely to make more money if you keep your eBay inventory organized. So before heading out to garage sales, auction sales, and secondhand stores searching for those unique products, make sure you have a plan in place for organizing.
Depending on the amount of you eBay inventory you currently have to sellor plan on sellingwill determine how much space you need. For the purposes of this article, we will assume that you plan on running this business at a rate where you can manage the inventory from your home. However, many of these same techniques can be used if you decide to upgrade to a small warehouse.
If you are new to selling on eBay, it is easy to get caught up in the excitement of the world’s largest e-commerce site and want to sell everything. However, I encourage you to start selling at a low number. This will help you become familiar with how the auction process works. Your goal is not only to sell items for profit, but to develop a good feedback rating. This rating is based on product quality and customer service, so the better service you can provide the higher rating you will receive which is key for building a good reputation.
4 steps to organizing your eBay inventory:
1.Dedicate a spare room, basement, or garage to organize and manage your eBay inventory. Ideally, you will clear out this space before you bring your newfound treasures home. Within this room, keep a filing cabinet with plenty of files and folders with tabs. You will create a new file for each product you sell. By keeping your inventory in one confined area, you can keep better track of your inventory and reduce the chance of items getting misplaced or broken.
2.Categorize your merchandise. Think of your eBay room as your “store.” You know how convenient it is to walk into your local grocery store? You know just where to go for the milk, bread, and cheese. This is because items are laid out in a fashion that makes sense. Literally, set your eBay room as a store. Set up tables or shelves where you can display the products in a nice and organized manner. “Seeing” these products will help you know what is in your inventory and know where you have “empty shelves” to fill.
Let’s say you specialize in selling perfume, vintage t-shirts, golf clubs, antique teapots, unique dolls, and collector baseball cards. It would make sense to group all of your fragile items (perfume, teapots, and dolls) together. Perhaps keep these items on a higher shelf or table out of the reach of small children or pets. Then, organize these items within each category. You could organize by value, brand, etc.
If vintage t-shirts is a category that you anticipate selling on an ongoing basis, it would be wise to hang these in a closet or hanging rack, or fold nicely so you can easily see the graphics. Again, organize these within its category. You could organize by size, color, graphics, brand, etc.
The golf clubs are unique because they probably won’t sit up on a shelf or table. In this case, simply line them up along a wall in an organized manner.
And last, the baseball cards. You would want to keep these organized in a protective baseball card organizer. You could organize by player, team, year, value, etc. It would be wise to keep a print out of your card inventory right inside the organizer.
3.Organize merchandise information. Just as important as the merchandise itself, is organizing the information that supports it. For every product you bring home, create a file. This file should contain product information, photos, and a copy of the description you post on eBay.
Items to include in each product file: •Product information - For example, let’s say you just found a beautiful unique doll at a garage sale. Create a file where you will keep all of the information related to that product. If you don’t know much about this particular doll, research it. Find out about her origin, her history, her creator, etc. Keeping all of this information in one file will help you as you go to write your product description. •Product descriptions - When you write your product descriptions, be as visual as possible. Make your products sound exciting to draw the bidder injust be sure to not over-exaggerate. It is essential to be honest in your descriptions. If you have an interesting story of how you found the product, include that too. •Product photos - To give your bidders a fair picture of your items, invest in a high-quality digital camera. Take clear pictures at different angles. It might be wise for you to set up a corner in your eBay room for a mini-photo studio. A well-lit corner with a nice backdrop would suffice. Setting up a permanent mini-studio will save you the hassle and time of doing this every time you sell a product.
4.Shipping center. In your eBay room, don’t forget to include an area or “station” for shipping supplies. A variety of padded envelopes, boxes, padding, packaging tape, and mailing labels should all be set up in an organized manner. This station will help you ship your products out quicklywhich is an excellent customer service practice.
With this useful organizing system, you will feel like you have better control over your eBay inventoryenabling you to make more money, faster!
Copyright 2005 by Kathleen Elias - Editors are welcome to use this article for content as long as the article and author biography are reprinted in their entirety and an active weblink remains intact.
