1 post tagged “investment”

A future investment opportunity is one that could be defined a few different ways.  One way to define a future investment opportunity is common stock.  Common stock are securities representing equity ownership in a corporation, providing voting rights, and giving the owner of the shares an opportunity to participate in the company's success through dividends and/or capital appreciation.

A future investment opportunity option would be the growth derived from the investment like common stock.  Growth is defined as the amount of money management invested on day one and then the amount of money the investment is worth ten years (or any period of time) from day one.   A future investment opportunity could also yield income to the investor.  The income producing vehicle could be one of many different types of future investment opportunity options. 

A Business as a Future Investment Opportunity

An individual might decide to invest in a future investment opportunity such as a small business corporation (like a local restaurant).  The small business typically takes time to grow and a company would issue shares that would provide equity ownership and might produce a steady stream of income (monthly for instance) that is much higher than the normal investment like a certificate of deposit or a treasury bond.    

An important consideration is the risk factor.  As most people are aware the amount of risk associated with government backed securities (treasury bonds) is basically nil.  The reason is that the United States government issues the security and backs their value.  The only real risk is the United States government defaulting on their debt payments (like treasury bonds) and if that happens there would be a slew of other issues confronting the investor besides their treasury investment.  I think we can assume that will never happen and we should also hope it never happens. 

The risk factor with investing in a future investment opportunity like a small business is that the single investment opportunity (like a small business) could fail.  All of us have seen the local restaurant or dry cleaner close down due to lack of business or being a poorly run business.  Since we are discussing small businesses as a future investment opportunity let us examine this as a representation of a single investment. 

The failure rate of small start up companies is high (fewer than 4 out of 10 make it beyond 3 years according to some reports) and putting funds into such a business is risky.  As with any future investment opportunity, an individual is seeking either a higher stream of income or a higher rate of return.  However, it is unlikely that any investor would like to lose their initial investment and that is why alternatives to investing in a small business exist. 

Financial Growth with a Safety Net

Diversification is a concept that has evolved from being an unknown factor in the world of investing into something that is part of most individual investor’s vocabulary.  Diversification is an investment strategy designed to reduce exposure to risk by combining many different investments, such as stocks, bonds, and real estate, which are not likely to increase or decrease in value at the same time.  The goal of diversification is to reduce the risk in an individual’s portfolio.  Volatility is limited by the fact that not all asset classes or industries or individual companies move up and down in value at the same time or at the same rate.  Diversification reduces both the potential increase and the potential decrease and allows for more consistent performance under a wide range of economic conditions.

Popular and Successful Choices

The most popular form of diversification and the easiest to understand is the use of mutual funds.  Mutual funds represent a great opportunity for individuals seeking a future investment opportunity.  Mutual funds pool money from many investors and place the money in stocks, bonds, or other securities.  Mutual funds can also invest in a combination of the three. They are managed by a professional portfolio manager who actively adjusts the funds' portfolio to try to increase their value.

A very popular future investment opportunity would be a common stock mutual fund.  These funds typically invest in stocks of companies that present either a unique long-term or short-term investment opportunity for the individual investor.  These future investment opportunities represent the potential for a return that is far above normal yet also present risks that are above normal too.

Any individual seeking to gain financial independence should take a look at alternative long term investment opportunity options.  There are many different investment vehicles that can be used as a long term investment opportunity and a few have been discussed in this article.  The key is to remember that a long term investment opportunity is just part of an overall plan to achieve financial independence.