Investment Playground.NET

Let’s take a minute to explain what the real definition of investing is. Every book you pick up or rumor you hear leads you to believe that investing is solely picking stocks. They lead you to think about stock options, value investing, technical analysis, and the next big Starbucks.

• Bonds (i.e. fixed rates of return, but try to avoid interest-based products when you can)
  
• Stocks (standard long buying)
• Stock Options
• Commodities
• Futures
• Real Estate - Buy and Hold
• Real Estate - Fix and Flip
• Real Estate - Commercial Properties
• Real Estate - Development
• Real Estate - Contracts
  
• Small Balance Lending
• Business Building (i.e. financing a new business; mini-venture-capitalism)
• Business Building - Purchasing (i.e. purchasing a low maintenance operation)
• or investing into someone doing these projects (i.e. your buddy is flipping a property, go half with him)

The Indian economy is poised for superb growth. Everything from population levels, GDP levels, federal-level policy making, and key fundamentals are clear explanations why. The growth is expected long-term. Of any emerging market throughout the planet, the one place that will outshine the rest is India.Foreign involvement isn’t easy. You have to be an Indian resident, NRI (non-resident Indian), or a PIO (person of Indian origin). But using ADRs is one simple way to invest through traditional US-traded securities. These securities essentially mimic their overseas counterpart. On a long term play, you should be secure purchasing just about any one of these listed below, as they all are expected to increase as the general macroeconomic indicators do. Be forewarned though… all these companies are affected by the Indian securities markets, the U.S. securities market, as well as both Indian and U.S. economic scenarios as well. Notice how in six weeks almost all have increased.

A very impressive chart. Is it too late to get in? Absolutely not. As always, do your due diligence and take a look at the company’s fundamentals which are publicly available through a number of sites. Run a few ratios starting with the very basic P/E ratio and compare against the company’s peers to find out how expensive the company truly is. As a long-term play, Indian outsourcing is a solid 10-year plan. India is the second highest destination for Indian investment throughout the world, ahead of Japan and below the US. For even more information, look into some research on Indian outsourcing companies that are actually US based, such as EXLS. Here is the company’s website. This complete list from above is also found here. For more in depth detailed info on exactly what is an ADR, check out RantAboutIt, an excellent site for investors.

This blog is designated for the active investor who invests for fun and money, looking to creatively invest every dollar that we save.  This site is for you.

Since I was a child, investing in the traditional route never interested me. I didn’t want to wait for my allowance, instead I opened up a lemonade stand. When I was in the 6th grade I sold “research” to all of my classmates on the history of the United States. 30 classmates, $5 per report - not bad for a twelve year old.

Every dollar that you have can be turned into $1.15 if you are good. If you’re better - $1.30. This site seeks to explore how to do exactly that - for the common person such as us. Most of us have a regular full time job, or perhaps we are self employed. Some of us are college sparks while others are trying to finance our daughter’s wedding. Some of us are wealthy, others are working on it. But we all have one thing in common - we are investors.