RE: RE: lost 8 k today and it was one...In case you haven't noticed, "investing" doesn't pay.
The very idea is a scam. They used to say "stocks return 8%" compounded over time. That number, when it was about right, was based on the indexes. Companies that go under get dropped from the index. So if you bought an equal weighting of every company in the index at a point in time, say right now, for example (why not? some good companies are down 90% from their 52 week highs); now wait 30 years - over time you're going to lose 100% on some of your deals - they'll go under and get dropped from the index but that isn't going to help you, is it? Do you still think it works out to 8% compounded after that?
Do you actually believe that by buying somebody's paper you're contributing to society?
The best way to contribute to society financially is to preserve your capital so you don't become a burden, or find a way to grow it so you will have savings to spend when you stop working. If that means trading, by all means trade if you can do so profitably. If not, stay away from the markets. As Amanda Lang said on BNN the other day, "Long Term Holds are just Short Term Trades that didn't work out." Buy CDs at your bank or credit union. Those funds are insured up to a point. If you think your government is going to rob you (after all, currency is just government debt - the best way to pay off a billion tomorrow is to announce "starting tomorrow, each new Canadian Dollar is worth 100 or 1000 old Canadian Dollars" - if you think that, buy gold coins and hoard them in a safety deposit box. Personally, I don't believe it's quite that simple; but I do think that given no choice, G7 governments will inflate themselves out of debt. As always, third world countries will just refuse to pay.