Some Great Investment Advice I've Learned Over the Years

1) Run against the herd. When people are running away from it, buy it. When people are running towards it sell it or hold it - but never buy. Would you willing wait until something is no longer on sale before you purchase it? I know there are people that sh*t money and then choose to buy clothes at Lord & Taylors or Saks instead of Target or Burlington but it's still kinda dumb. Obviously do your research ahead of time, making sure that they are great companies with a long track record or at least a great future P/E ratio and always... I repeat: ALWAYS invest for the long term.

More Simply Put:
a) research the company - it's history, it's board, it's vision, it's P/E and it's viability
b) always buy low
c) always sell high (but preferably hold)
d) focus on the LONG term


2) Ignore the daily index results and stock/bond fluctuations on the financial news programmes and networks. Most of it is meaningless nonsense. This is a marathon, not a sprint. There is no get rich quick formula in investment. There is blind luck of course, but so is the lottery and getting hit by lightening.


3) For God's sake before you get too close to retirement start to transfer those stocks and equity into bonds, securities and cash. Don't get caught in the fate of most of today's retirees where your stocks and real estate are worth a fraction of what they were a few of years ago just when you are no longer taking in income.


4) DIVERSIFY! DIVERSIFY! DIVERSIFY!
Try to allocate your funds in as many different forms, sub-categories and risks of investment diversification as you possibly can. Stocks, bonds, treasuries, real estate, cash, precious metals, commodities, high risk, medium risk, low risk, long term, short term, domestic, international, DOW, Nasdaq, S&P, energy, tech, services, medical, pharmaceutical, retail/restaurants/hotel, industrial, chemical, green tech, entertainment... etc. That way when some sectors start to plummet others will rise and it will all ultimately balance out. Historically the entire economy always grows and recovers. You just have to not have all your eggs in one basket, or even in only 10 baskets - but in a 100 baskets if possible.


5) A 401k (but only up to the maximum company match) is almost as good as FREE money. Not having any credit card debt, loans or a mortgage with the resulting interest charges is a better return than ANY investment. A ROTH IRA will be tax free when you go to withdraw from it after retirement age at what will almost assuredly be a much higher tax bracket. Three no-brainers. 'nuff said.

the Justice League (DC Comics) vs. the Greco-Roman Pantheon

First of all I should confess that I grew up as more of a Marvel fanboy than DC. Having said that the DC characters are seemingly more iconic and most have been around far longer the Stan Lee/Ditko characters of Marvel that primarily came about with the 1960's. The Batman and Superman (for example) date back to the late 1930's.

There is something to be said about the striking parallels between the core DC characters (i.e. the "Justice League") and ancient mythology... as in Athenian/Roman and even Egyptian:

Superman = Zeus/Jupiter & Apollo
Here you have the one that seems to be the leader, the all powerful, one of the oldest, takes to the skies and derives his power from the Sun? 'nuff said

the Batman = Hades/Pluto
Dark, gothic, strikes fear in others as a weapon, been around as long as Superman and dwells in an underground lair. Hmmm...

Wonder Woman = Athena & Hera
Although her namesake (Diana) would seem to imply the Goddess of the moon and the hunt - those attributes are more suitable to someone like the Huntress (basically Bat Woman). Instead you have Hera - the matriarch of the pantheon and (more appropriately) Athena the goddess of both wisdom and combat... the epitome of an Amazonian warrior-princess and ambassador.

the Flash = Hermes/Mercury
As if the speed and personality weren't clues enough... even his costume is a knock off to the god.

Aquaman = Poseidon/Neptune
Come on now - it doesn't get much more obvious than this connection.

the Green Lantern = ?
Now here is a much trickier one to connect to any mythological deity. Some might say Apollo once again or some ancient mystic... Basically you have someone than can do anything, is arguably more powerful than any other character (yes, including Kryptonians like Superman) and has evolved from being purely magical into a far more science-fiction/alien based being. I'm more inclined to make the leap at this point into the Egyptian pantheon (see "Hawkman/Hawkgirl" below) and draw a parallel between the Green Lantern and Amun/Atum-Ra or Ptah-Seker (both virtually omnipotent deities of creation and light via Ré). The jury's still out.

the Martian Manhunter = Ares/Mars
Ok... granted this was just a namesake connection here. Still Mars + Warrior? Plus the only MAJOR male deity from the pantheon missing? No?

the Black Canary = Circe/Sirens
Bit of a stretch I know - but a powerful voice is a powerful voice.

the Green Arrow = Artemis? Apollo? Pan?
God of archers? Ok, obviously he is a bit more of a Robin Hood knock off but one could bring up parallels to Pan, Artemis or Apollo (who was also a god of archery)...

Hawkman/Hawkgirl = Horus
Here is where we slightly go off the rails and venture from Greco-Roman into Egyptian territory. Still, a falcon/hawk headed god of war and vengeance would seem too close to deny.

the Huntress = Diana/Artemis
Although Wonder Woman goes by the namesake of Diana - it is the Huntress that actually hunts by the moonlight.

There are a few other significant members I excluded - mostly teen sidekick/female knock offs of already established characters (and I hate when they resort to that instead of creating all new, interesting female or ethnic characters)... like the various Robins or Supergirl. The biggest exclusions would be the Atom, Dr. Fate/Zatanna, Plastic Man/the Elongated Man and the Red Tornado. Not much to work with there.

Steven Lauren: Has Microsoft finally gotten their act together?

Something amazing seems to be happening at Microsoft. Maybe it's the pressure they are feeling from Apple, Google and Mozilla? Maybe it's new management or R&D staff? I would hope that it has nothing to do with Gates' departure and the psycho Ballmer taking over 100% - but who knows? As much as I admire Bill Gates and what he has built and done for us, as well as what he is now doing with the vast fortune he has amassed as a result - Ballmer is, after all, a business guy and not a tech guy. Maybe that is the shot in the arm this company needed? A balance against ingenuity via a consumer based direction?

I state my case:

1) The Zune HD is a serious contender against the iPod. It's functionality, integration and especially it's stunning display are a vast improvement over it's brown, boxy, 'who cares' predecessor. Unfortunately the iPod, iPhone and particularly iTunes have such dominance that it could already be too late.

2) the Xbox - one of the few successes to come out of Redmond in recent years has gotten even better with Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and Zune integration - as well as video on demand.

3) There appears to finally be a deal struck between Yahoo! and Microsoft that could prove to be valuable to both companies and provide stronger competition against Google in particular.

4) Speaking of Google - who would have thought that Microsoft's "Bing" search would be such a growing success? A brief spike... sure... but it is STILL growing in share. The photo and mapping features have improved dramatically over the old Microsoft/MSN search and they are cleverly adding features that make it stand out against Google rather than trying to beat them at their own game. They have also just released an integrated partnership deal with Wolfram Alpha of all sites!

5) Microsoft is also finally venturing into making versions of it's productivity suite (Office) online - as in cloud computing/Google Docs online. The difference here is that the user will have both offline and online versions integrated together should either fail or be inaccessible. Obviously this would also be integrated with Windows Mobile.

6) Speaking of Windows Mobile... well this is a problem for Microsoft. As if the iPhone and Blackberry/RIM weren't strong enough we now have Google Android and Nokia (don't laugh - they are still #1 in the world). Having said that - the Mobile 6.5 is a pretty damned good improvement even over 6.0 and they have finally gotten the message an created a marketplace for Mobile Apps.

7) Windows 7. Need I say more? This is what Vista should have been in the first place. Still, better late than never... and pretty much anyone that has used it (and is not a Mac Head or Linux/open source loyal) has agreed that it is a job well done. Finally. Hell there are even XP converts... lol

In conclusion - it's nice to think that they may have finally gotten their sh*t straight over at Microsoft. Still, in this modern age of rightful mass migration to Apple, open source/free software and cloud computing is it too little and too late? Only time will tell. Safe to say they aren't going anywhere no matter what.