Site Sponsors Use our National Registry to find pre-screened, five star rated planners and advisors who provide financial advice and services in your community. Free Public Service.   Our blog site exposes investment scams, conflicts of interest, bad investment products, Ponzi Schemes, fraudulent claims and other deceptive sales practices.

Welcome to theInvestment.org

The investment of assets may be one of the more intimidating processes on earth. That's because it is extraordinarily risky when you make mistakes - take the past 21 months for example. The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaked at over 14,000 in October, 2007 and 18 months later bottomed at less than 6,500. This 7,500 point loss caused investors to lose 35% to 65% of the value of their assets. Everyone uses hindsight to blame the mortgage and bank fiascos, but nobody predicted the massive losses that were experienced by most investors.

Then came the Ponzi schemes. As the markets collapsed so did the investment scams that were dependent on rising markets to attract new investors and keep current investors quiet. Bernie Madoff operated the biggest Ponzi scheme that bilked 11,000 investors out of $50 billion to $65 billion. Very little of that money will ever be recovered because it was spent paying out early investors, money finders who brought in new investors, and Madoff's ostentatious life style.

You may feel pretty helpless about now because all of these mega-events are played out on a huge stage that you don't understand and don't want to be a part of. But, guess what? You have to be a part of the investment process because you own the assets. Like it or not, you are involved.

One solution is to learn as much about investing as you can, then do the investment work, and make the investment decisions yourself. This may be a good solution if you have the time, interest, and knowledge. But it doesn't work if you are already busy, aren't interested, or are unable to grasp key investment fundamentals.

In this case, your only recourse is to hire an financial advisor to do the investment work for you or hire an expert who will do the work and make the investment decisions. When you hire the first type of professional you retain control over the decision-making. However, the second type does the work and makes investment decisions on your behalf.

On the surface it would appear the least painful alternative is to hire a professional to do the investment work for you and make the decisions for you. That is what the Madoff investors thought they were doing when they hired him, but they lost most of their money. So hiring a professional may be easy, but it is not always the safest decision – you have to know how to select quality professionals and you have to monitor their activities and decisions.

The question is, how do invest your assets while maximizing the probability of achieving your financial goals – do it yourself or outsource?

It doesn't matter which course you select, you still need to acquire to some basic knowledge yourself so are you less dependent on third parties that may or may not have your best interests at heart. It doesn't matter if you pick your own securities, invest with a mutual fund family, or use the services of a financial advisor. The more you know, the less dependent you are on others to help you achieve your most important financial goals.

Your goal should be to increase your knowledge, at a pace that is comfortable for you, to decrease your dependency on others. Imagine, if some of the Madoff investors knew enough to question the information in the reports they were being sent or the custodian that had possession of their assets. They didn't have to know how to invest their own monies, they just had to understand the process enough to know something was wrong.

If the Madoff investors had even a small amount of investment knowledge they would have known something was terribly wrong and reported Madoff a lot sooner than the 17 years that he operated the Ponzi scheme. Knowledge is power. You can never have too much knowledge when your financial well-being is at stake. You just need to know enough to question anything that is out of the ordinary.