America is a land where prosperity and opportunity may be found. The problem is that most of us are not looking very hard for opportunities or prosperity. We're in the rut facing straight ahead, either looking up or around. "Got to clock in by 8 am Or else!" Let us look at stocks and mutual funds that invest in stocks.

You can not just run out to the local supermarket and invest in funds or stocks. You have to visit a stockbroker who will take care of buying or selling your order. For this he gets a commission from your order. The commission could be big or small depending on your circumstances. Yes, you did detect a brief switch to weasel words. Imagine how happy the stockbroker is to see you! If you or others do not buy or sell financial products through them; they would starve or be fired.

So the stockbroker has a vested interest in getting you to establish a financial portfolio or sell one. It's how a stockbroker gets paid until the broker strikes it rich. How good is the advice? It's hard to say since no one, for obvious reasons, tracks stockbrokers' performance. Exception, for the new issues of stocks or funds touted by the brokerage firm. Does not matter if the offers are dogs.

Along came the Internet and vast information about finances. Computers could and should be used to handle office work generated by customers. The real stockbrokers are in the firm's back office watching the electronic ticker tape on their screens awaiting a customers call. Now and then, by law, they must handle items that only a stockbroker may handle. Think of E * trade or Ameritrade, electronic brokerage firms where from a customer's PC an order may be dispatched and processed in seconds.

Welcome to the age of speed, greed and stupidity. "There was a blip with the automated trading programs causing a dip in the indices." People who want large houses should not buy them if they can not afford them. Fannie Mae & Mac should not create toxic loans in the nation. Banks should really look at how they load money. Sorry about that. They should look at how they loan money to the public and businesses of America.

1. Will I see a penny of it paid back?
2. Do I make a commission off of it?
3. Am I loaning my money?
4. Is the concept of making a profit with this loan non-existent?

Investing should be about more than luck and parents.

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Source by Ronald Newton