Investment Jungle

Clearly, investors are operating in a jungle with some very vicious animals. And these vicious animals know that anybody that is stupid enough to hand money over to them is prey.

This is a quote from Stephen Jarislowsky (The Investment Zoo: Taming the Bulls and the Bears) - a man with over 52 years of investing experience considered to be the Canadian version of Warren Buffett.

The analogy that Mr. Jarislowsky is conveying in his book is that, like a jungle, there are predators waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting and the trusting. With respect to investing, he lists stock brokers, advisors, underwriters, executives, bankers, organized labour, accountants, lawyers and even the government itself as predators! And they all want the same thing - a slice out of the investors’ assets.

So what is an average Joe Investor to do? Hide your money under your mattress? Leave your money in a bank account and guarantee the loss of purchasing power every single day? Hand your money over blindly to a stock broker or financial advisor? Throw darts at the daily stock market pages?

Mr. Jarislowsky says it best:

It is time for investors to snap out of their apathy, stop being taken advantage of, and start seriously defending their interests. To do this investors need knowledge - enough knowledge to be buyers rather than be sold a bill of goods.

And that brings me to the purpose of this blog - investment knowledge. The Investment Jungle’s mission is to empower individual investors to gain the knowledge, skill, and confidence required to invest in high quality stocks to ensure a lifetime of successful investing so as not to rely on ‘predators’ within the financial industry.

I am just an average Joe Investor looking to have my money work as hard for me as I do to earn it. What do I have planned for the Investment Jungle?

Goals:

• Develop my own investing strategy by studying and understanding current investment strategies and techniques.
• Publish my findings with my readership to stimulate discussion and learning.
• Use this strategy to enhance my own wealth (and hopefully my readerships’ wealth as well).

This will not be a short and easy journey. But together we can persevere, avoid the predators that are lurking in the jungle, and prosper financially for ourselves and our families.

Welcome aboard the expedition!

Average Joe

P.S. Please read my DISCLAIMER.

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