You've decided to stop relying solely on your monthly payment and invest your savings to make them grow. Bravo! But what markets will you invest? Where will you find credible advice when you have little time to devote to it and you're starting? Can you trust the traditional intermediaries, your banker or columnists of radio, television and print media? Here is my feedback for your search of the best markets do not turn into a nightmare.
your neighborhood banker Your banker is a financial intermediary, which traditionally you do trust. He advises you to subscribe to products that suit your financial situation. My personal experience is that it often does not know in detail the product it sells. New products come out regularly, they are increasingly complex, and your banker may not be perfectly formed to control all these products. Especially since it offers not only investment products.
Also note that the premium touches your bank each month is the number of bad stuff happens to sell to its customers. The products sell well all alone. It is less financial incentive to sell them to you. There is nothing wrong with that, your banker is a merchant, its bad products must be recouped. But bear in mind that your banker can not be impartial: his interest is not always the same as yours.
Add to this neighborhood, your banker does not know better manage its assets as you and me. Bankers for their business benefit from credit rate so low that the vast majority of benefits and is constantly in debt. Your banker is perhaps not the best person from whom take advice. Once you've spent some time reading PlusRiches.fr you discover by talking to your banker that you know more than him.
The financial media
Whether radio, television or print media, live media advertising. Their primary interest is not to alienate their advertisers. The fact that you provide the best advice is secondary. We must eat. But when a financial product is good, it does not need publicity. The performance is noticeable and affluent subscribers. The bad products need publicity. Therefore it is not surprising that the list funds provided by some journals "forgets" to mention the funds more efficient than those of their advertisers. Compare the list of the best performing fund performance on MorningStar.fr and your preferred medium for realizing it.
Many media you intend to follow their portfolio every month. A good way to get back. But if the advice from the specialist media were so good, they would not need to sell their information to live . They would earn enough money from their own investments. The results displayed in their portfolios are often disappointing. But if you start, you do not know and you imagine that this is the best result it is possible to achieve with the "best" products from their advertisers.
few months ago I listened every morning BFM. Economic information posted allowed me to anticipate major trends across the different opinions given. Since the crisis of late 2008, I no longer listen to BFM. Every morning the scenario was the same: "Stay tuned for what happens this morning is really exceptional, our world will never be the same, we give you all the details in a moment." There followed several minutes of commercials with a volume higher. Anxiety creates a greater audience and greater hearing generates more advertising. Unfortunately the media abuse and there is a time when the cost is too high for you. You can find a better information for less money, that is to say without being under the influence of advertisements that are imposed on you.
The video below is a good example. If you look at these TV news every day, what did you do? Difficult to such pressure, backed by those around you who see the same images, not to sell vosd financial investments in a few days or few weeks. You would pass for a madman. You're left influence but it was a mistake. When you sell at the market bottom, you realize heavy losses. Now on my portfolio, the potential losses of 2008 were largely offset by gains in 2009.
I'm not saying there is no good bankers or media integrity who do their job well. But do their job is not necessarily offer the best products and advice. Their interests and yours may differ regularly. What you must realize, is that these contacts are only additional intermediaries between you and the reality of markets and financial products. With that it induces distortion of information, interest and additional costs for you (not just financial costs).
Imagine you have taken out a life insurance contract on the internet because the costs are cheaper. In return you have zero advice. At least you do not have a banker to do you recommend that houses products. You decide to distrust the media and trying to decipher the current economic trends to guess. You learn from your mistakes but the process will be long.
How you move from middle and get information on markets closer to the source? Getting the right information to make your choice without spending hours? I'll introduce in the next article the three ways I use to get my market information before making my choice.
What is your own experience of information that you provide your banking and financial media? They allow you to choose the right markets for your investments over the medium to long term?
Photo credit: celine nadeau
If you enjoyed this article, you'll love also:
- What the financial media does not want you to know
- Make sure these errors by choosing your financial advice?
- Easy to follow your fund ratings
