You have a private equity fund. And you say to yourself, I have arrived. But, have you? Because, in fact, it may take you longer to arrive. First things first. Let me explain what a private equity fund is (but please bear with me – we will be going a little technical here). It is typically a [...]

Sometimes, we need a guidepost, a road map to where we want to be. Most of the time, our goals involve wealth, or ways to wealth. Here are some methods that are tried and tested

1. Make a financial assessment.

A woman should know how much she has before she can decide what to do with how much she has. For many, this starts a series of wake-up calls, not to mention panic attacks. But wake up calls are good, and panic attacks are good because they set off something in the brain that makes it go to preservation mode.

Here is where the expensive coffee and clothes and bags and eating out and traveling have to go. Or at least cut by as much as seventy five percent.

Because to be wealthy is to carve out and use that seventy five percent for something that can bring in more income (read: investment).

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2. Invest.

For the conservative investor, there is the mutual funds that can give a steady yield year by year provided it is not taken out for at least 7 years. Other investments that are considered conservative include government bonds, time deposits, certificate of deposits and treasury bills. Boring, yes, but generally safe.

For the aggressive investor, there is the stock market. It is not for the faint of heart, it should be observed, it should be timed because it is affected by the waxing and waning of the world economies.

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I found this lone piggybank in a toy store and embraced it right away, looking suspiciously to my left and to my right to check if someone will get it from me.

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No other takers. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Kidding.

But to tell you the truth, when I got it, I initially thought of giving it as a gift to one of my nephews or nieces but then as the countdown to Christmas lost digit after digit, I started wanting it for myself (it would be perfect too for my daughter…).

Because it was not just your regular piggybank – it was a piggybank that makes a provision for savings, spending, donation and investment.

One year. That was how long my relationship with the stock market has been. But there was a pre-story, which was training, lots of training, before I found the heart to jump in and play for real.

Flashback to 2008, giddy and excited and with fake money at hand, I started with the online stock exchange (it offered a practice account). Prepped by my financial planner, pumped up with some reading I had done here and there and some monitoring of the market, I found I gained some fake USD$600 in a few months. But I since I was in no real danger of getting poor or rich, I soon found myself bored. The market bottomed out too, wiping my gains, but ironically, it was also the perfect time to get in for real, to play for real.

Do not be fooled. The business of stocks or securities is serious business. The big boys make the stock market their playground, their very own money mill, if you please. If you are not careful and fall prey to their schemes, well, you can kiss your hard-earned money goodbye.

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