And some might argue that credit – on a personal level – may work the same way. But while that might be good for GM or Toyota, it might not be good for you, on a personal level. I promise to pay you, and you, in return, deliver goods or services. A hundred-dollar bill is, after all, only another promise from the government, right? After all, you own a lot of crap, right? Feeling all the excitement, I decided to sell it right away at that price. 1700 an ounce. Then a month later, gold goes down and they sell that and buy the same stocks back. So if you sold it all three weeks ago, you would have avoided losses and you could buy it all back again today and make money. We have to pay back our personal car loans and credit cards, the thinking goes, so the government has to pay back its debts as well.

You don’t make money – or have the opportunity to make money – from a car loan or a home mortgage. Commercial loans have always been viewed as riskier endeavors than consumer loans – mostly because they are for larger amounts, and in the case of mortgages, not backed by the Government. If you are invested in quality investments and have a good long-term strategy, you needn’t worry about trying to “time the market” – because you can’t time the market, and trying to do so will bankrupt you in short order. Move toward safer investments as you get older. Ironically, today, it is easier to get consumer credit than commercial credit. Most businesses would never get built. So today, banks are shying away from lending money from businesses, but still handing our cash to Mr. and Mrs. Verge-of-Bankruptcy. But do we want to buy banks into what appears to be a down debt cycle?

If I borrow money to buy a tow truck or a taxi cab, and make money using the vehicle, then I would make money. Won’t it also make sense then to trade that mean reversion? Washington to discuss trade will take place in the next few days, according to media reports. But few people do that. The entire place was torn apart and has been in the recovery process for the last four years and few months. I had managed to keep my portfolio at 16 companies – just 1 additional company from my last portfolio update. You need to review your investment portfolio from time to time so that you don’t lose out drastically. A subscription to AAII Dividend Investing will educate you on how to become a successful dividend investor and give you access to a model portfolio of 24 hand-picked dividend-paying stocks. Consumer credit is just spending, not investing.

But on a personal level, consumer credit is very different than commercial credit. Consumer loans are usually always losers. You should also avoid gold collectibles or coin products that are considered rare. Speakers will NOT be allowed to market specific products or services during presentations. On the other hand, if you listen to the fear-mongers and the TeeVee, you will be perpetually broke, in debt, and angry about how you got ripped off. On the other hand, you may have exited many of your positions and will like to invest in companies that could probably be the fastest to rise back. Page views seem to have increased quite a bit since the early days. Using the same hindsight, you should have bought AVIS stock in February 2009 – it went up 2600% in a year – far outperforming Gold. The speedy technology acted as a catalyst to break the norms of stock market. We need to do better analyses and know our own psychological makeups better in order to beat the market!