Investing in My Future

My friends and I cannot wait until we have a good paycheck so that we may actually put some of what we have learned about investing into action. As we sat around one night we discussed what we would do when we are finally lucrative enough to invest ourselves, we decided to discuss what we would do when each of us do finally invest.

We each have varying views of how to invest and in what we should invest and of course why we would invest in the matter we have chosen. Would we invest in stocks or bonds? Would we go online and handle the major decisions ourselves or hire someone to handle our financial decisions? And what about the policies of the company? Does it matter how they handle themselves socially and environmentally?

Stocks are a piece of the company, but the value of them is always changing, while bonds are much more stable. Bonds have an agreed value with an expiration date; you don't hold them and expect to make a massive fortune. Stocks on the other hand have constantly changing prices, they are somewhat more risky as you could lose your shirt, but you could also make several times your investment back. You can hold on to a stock indefinitely. The choice between stocks and bonds is all about how much you are willing to risk.

What about who should handle your money for investing. A financial manager has experience on his/her side, but are you willing to let him/her make all you decisions on where your money goes? Or are you willing to make all the decisions yourself? If you do it yourself, you don't have experience on your side, but you pick exactly what you want, and you get to see for yourself were your hard earned money has gone. When you do it yourself you have no one but you to blame if it all goes wrong.

What about social and environmental policies of the companies you choose to invest in? Does it matter if a company is environmentally friendly? It may not seem like a big deal right now, but a more environmentally friendly a company is, the less it has to revise if the laws on environmental pollution are tightened. If environmental laws tighten the company might have to make major overhauls in how they do business or produce product. They could also receive heavy fines for how badly they handle their environmental issues.

What about social issues? If they pay less for labor in other countries is that o.k.? What about employing children? The laws of other countries are far different than ours, should we make a decision based on the way our laws work about another country and their laws? Several countries are not as financially secure or even as financially stable as our own, the families their may have more members and less money, should we begrudge a company for being willing to employ members of that family who are younger than the average American worker? Or should we check to see how they treat these young workers before making a final decision? If the children they employ are treated badly then are they a bad company? If they treat the children in their employ well, provide medical, good pay, are they a bad company?

When it comes to investing the world is a mine field. Beware the hidden bombs, but by trying to find the hidden bombs don't ignore the ones in front of you either.