Investing

Have you been looking for good finance documentaries on Netflix, BBC, or youtube?

The world of finance. To some slightly mysterious, to others exciting. Fast-paced, stressful, impacting the lives of everyone on the planet. In my humble opinion, there should be many more movies about the world of finance. But choosing from the good movies about finance, which ones are truly worth watching.

To clarify, a good movie about the finance world, in my book, does a number of things:

1) it's realistic

2) educational for those unfamiliar with the finance industry

Have you ever asked yourself: How do I know or decide what to invest in? How do I choose the company that to invest in or the share to buy?

One of the most difficult aspects of investing, particularly for those just starting out, is deciding what to invest in. With an almost infinite number of investment opportunities choosing the right one can be daunting.

Type of investment vehicle aside picking the right stock from the staggering number of listed companies can be a real challenge and adds to the complexity of investing.

Are cryptocurrencies an investment?

That should be the first question one asks. With more than twenty years of investing experience and as a former investment banker my verdict is a clear No. Cryptocurrencies are as much of an investment as trading in any other currency. They are pure speculation. Cryptocurrencies are as much an investment as shifting money back and forth between the Canadian and US dollar. Does that mean cryptocurrencies are a Ponzi scheme or worthless? Far from it.

A few years ago, I wrote the first article on bitcoins. It was long before they became the new big thing. Bitcoins were a thing for geeks, a subsection of the population. Most people had no idea what cryptocurrencies were. Today every mainstream newspaper and magazine talks about bitcoins. Too often, it is evident that they are still not really part of the mainstream. “Expert” journals describe the way they work incorrectly, draw really strange conclusions or elaborate on the way they are created (too a great extent even mining is misunderstood by many in the mainstream media).

Bitcoin, the new kid on the block. Well, amongst the cryptocurrencies, bitcoin is the father of virtual currency, the grand daddy. Not the first cryptocurrency ever, but definitely the one that has made the biggest impact. Amongst the other virtual coins are Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum, Monero, Bitcoin Cash, Gold, and many more. Bitcoin Cash and Gold are forks of Bitcoins and thus share many commonalities, but are different. They were created after their parent Bitcoin was forked. In principal, a fork in cryptocurrencies is a split into two separate coins.

A rumble of investment giants. Which one is the better investment: Shares or property? Is it better to own part of a business or bricks? Property has one major advantage over shares: it offers a roof over your head and walls protecting you from the cold. Even if you were to buy a property as a mere investment, it would still offer you the opportunity to move in yourself if needs be.

What an evening that was. I was in a magnificent chateau with some top bankers in the city of Paris enjoying an atmosphere full of history. Arches forming the sky of a twenty meter high room stretching a good few hundred meters in length. Ecclesiastical in nature, the edifice stood mighty and its wooden floor instilling a sense of Versailles. If the walls could only talk, I thought to myself while looking around and listening to the key speakers. Many a parties must have been celebrated and deals made in this magnificent estate.

Ok, so you have found a suitable property to buy. So did we at the beginning of the year. We had finally, after a long search found the property we wanted to buy. We made sure to have experts at hand to check the most fundamental aspects such as structure, piping, and wiring. However, even after all the due diligence, issues keep popping up. Some are easily resolved, others present more of a challenge.

Have you ever thought about starting your own business or the best way to becoming a business owner? If entrepreneurship isn't yours, you worry about the amount of work or aren't happy to take the risk, put in the hard work, persistence, the good idea, or the capital involved in building and running a successful business, there's an easier solution to owning a business. Better still, it's also an efficient way to build wealth. Simply invest in a business.