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Educating Yourself About Money for New Wealth Creation:
Do you have a void in your money education?

This page is generously sponsored by Wealth Mentors

It is difficult to believe that in most formal education systems today one of the most important aspects of our lives is not taught. Money! We must deal with and are affected by our need for money every day throughout our lives. Money is sought after and traded by individuals, companies, governments, and countries; but still we are taught little about money in school. How we make money, how we manage it and how we invest it will determine our place in society, our lifestyle and our freedom to make the choices of how we want to live our lives.

Most individuals do not realize the void in their practical education until they are well into their careers and realize that their current or projected salary are not going to provide them with enough funds to achieve the lifestyle that they would like to enjoy and to provide for their families. Many people are willing to accept this and give up on reaching their financial goals, however, others seek new avenues and means to advance their economic positions.

Most people can not afford the time or money that is required to go back to college or university to educate themselves, enabling them to advance in their careers or switch professions totally. This means that motivated individuals have to take the initiative to educate themselves through short courses or by the advice of mentors that can help them to achieve financial freedom.

One such financial mentor is Aaron Sim, CEO of Wealth Mentors, a Singapore based company that specializes in teaching individuals how to trade Options on the American stock market. Seven years ago Aaron was in the same scenario as hundreds of employees find themselves mid way through their careers, wanting more financial and time freedom than he could ever expect to gain from his current employment situation.

After taking numerous investment courses in Singapore, Australia, and the United States, Aaron became attracted to the opportunities that Options Trading offered and realized that the two problems that often hinder people from obtaining wealth, lack of time and lack of money, were in fact advantages of Options Trading.

Aaron found, however, that many of the courses that he attended often lacked basic information. He saw a need to develop a course that was easy to understand and followed basic strategies, but could produce consistent winning results in the market. He was introduced to Mirriam MacWilliams, who was the National Director of Education of the 14,000 member strong US Investors Club.

Aaron invited Mirriam to become the chief trainer for Wealth Mentors, a company he formed. Since the Wealth Mentors initiation in 2003, Mirriam and Aaron have taught Options Trading strategies to over 3,000 students in Asia – giving their training participants the tools needed to obtain financial freedom. Options Trading has proven to be one of the quickest ways for individuals to generate impressive wealth in a very short period of time.

In a recent interview with Aaron, I was able to discuss with him some concerns that people have regarding Options Trading. I questioned why people should consider Options Trading as opposed to other forms for wealth creation that might be considered safer, such as real-estate or bonds.

Aaron pointed out that real estate investments are very capital intensive and take a large investment or loan to get into. Options accounts, however, can be started with as little as US$ 2,000 for an initial investment. One of the most attractive characteristics of Options is the leverage that they provide. Options allow you to control shares of stock at a fraction of the cost of an outright stock purchase, giving you the leverage to supercharge your returns.

Options can be purchased for as little as 10% of the value of the stock, but allow you the same control as actually owning the stock. Options are very liquid assets that can be bought and sold at any time whereas real estate commits the investment capital for a much longer period of time in order to achieve the return, and requires time to be liquidated. Real estate and bonds normally give a modest return on investment of 5 – 10% per annum, whereas options have the potential to give returns of 20-30-50 or even 100% returns in just a matter or days. Needless to say, options trading is a fast track means to wealth creation!

The US stock market has recently experienced dramatic volatility. For many companies, this has meant massive losses. I asked Aaron how this reflects on Options traders. Aaron explained that a volatile market, whichever way it is moving, leads to opportunities for Option traders. No one can predict what the market is going to do, however, it does typically react to events such as earnings announcements, FOMC meetings, holidays and month ends in predictable ways. Educated traders are aware of these events and position themselves to take advantage of the movement that often happens during these events.

Options can make money in a downward or upward trending market; so regardless of the direction of the movement there is an opportunity to make money! It is critical, though, that traders understand market behavior and use the correct strategies to protect their capital. Aaron mentioned that being familiar with a few stocks and understanding how they typically moved allowed smart traders to trade the same stock over and over again with profitable results. Successful traders have to be patient, wait for the opportunities to arise, and practice the discipline of following proven trading strategies.

Most wealth mentors will agree that one of the best ways to get on the fast track to financial independence is to create multiple income streams. The way in which you create the multiple income streams of course will depend a lot on your financial position and interests. However, Options Trading is very attractive in this respect as it can be conducted after regular office hours (enabling you to hold down a regular job), involves only a couple of hours per day, and can be done from anywhere in the world where you have an internet connection.

Residents of Singapore and Indonesia enjoy the benefit of their earnings being non-taxable! I asked Aaron if people could expect to be expert options traders after attending his four-day course. He reminded me that no one could become an expert of anything in four days. Just as with riding a bike, you can read all the books and watch all the demonstrations of doing it that you want, however, you will never be able to do it until you get on the bike and practice!

Options trading is no different. In order to become a successful trader, it is crucial that you get the right education, practice what you have learned as soon as possible, and do something on a daily basis, even if it is just monitoring the market. Keeping accurate records of all your trades is essential to allow traders to document their successes as well as their losses, and should be considered a learning experience, and used as a base by which to learn what to do and what not to do with future trades.

Aaron strongly encourages his training participants to practice virtual trading using a simulated trading account in order to gain experience with paper (do you mean “play money”?) money, prior to entering the market with personal funds. Even the most experienced traders still benefit from practice. Most online brokers offer a virtual trading feature.

Why should individuals be concerned about furthering their financial education? Aaron pointed out that no one is more concerned about your money than you are. If you are not concerned about money or how to make more of it….who else is? Even high net worth individuals who may not have the time to practice the strategies themselves should learn about options, the market, and about managing risk. By doing so they equip themselves to be able to question their fund managers regarding what decisions they are making with their money. It is never too late to take the initiative of educating yourself so that you can achieve the financial freedom that you seek. I think the bigger question is, “Can you afford not to educate yourself about money?”

To learn more about Wealth Mentors upcoming Options Trading sessions, visit the Wealth Mentors website.

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