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I believe the greatest investments we can make while we are alive are to invest in our children, or grandchildren. By invest I am not talking about money, although there is nothing wrong with money. We all enjoy buying them things like kids bedding, or something else for their rooms. What I am talking about is investing your time and just having fun with your grandchildren.

I remember one day when my grandson and I were just going for a ride. He was about three years old. He said Papa can we go to look at the “train wagons”? It took me a second or two to realize that he wanted to go to see the train boxcars. So we did just that. On the way we passed an Ostrich farm. He said “wow look at that bird”. I laughed as I turned the car around so I could park where he could get a better look. Finally I said to him, “what kind of bird is that”? He thought for awhile and responded “its an Ooo… Ooo… Oyster”. These are the kind of experiences create memories that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. Kids are so great. It is fun to watch their minds work as they are trying to make sense out of their surroundings. Children are industrious, intelligent and innocent. These early years are the best time to influence your grandchildren.

There are so many things you can do with your grandchildren. How about reading them a story? As a child I can remember story time as one of my favorite things. My father had a great sense of humor. He would like to tell us stories, but he would like to put a twist on them. For instance instead of the “Three Little Pigs” he would tell the story of the “Three Little Sows”. There were times that his children would get into heated debates with their teachers on how exactly the story really goes. Again this creates memories that will last as long as we live. This could not have happened without the parent spending or investing time into their children. So remember, read to them. Children at this age really love it, especially if the story is lively and easily understood. You can make going to the library a special event. Do it often with your grandchildren.

Another one of my favorite times is taking a long walk with kids. It is great to let them explore, bring the dog along. Kids and dogs just seem to go together. I especially like to walk in wooded areas. It is great fun to discover any kind of wild life. This is an opportunity for teaching kids things like being kind to animals as well as insects. Teach them that we are going into the animals’ home and we should be respectful to them. Teach them that animals have a right to be there. It is where they live. Teach them the value of bugs, worms, insects, plants, and anything and everything we come across. Again these are times that become valuable as memories, both to the grandparents and also to the grandchildren.

Being young doesn’t mean you can’t invest wisely in things that even some adults don’t understand such as stocks. The great thing about investing in stocks at a young age is you can ride the ups and downs without having to worry about selling everything you have in order to keep your money, you have years if not decades to earn it all back. Something I know most people aren’t aware of is just how simple it is to invest in stocks and see a steady gain year after year.

Do you want to retire at a young age? Retiring from stocks is very simple, all you have to do is pick some decent stocks to build your portfolio around and keep adding to them. So what stocks should you buy? Well that is really up to you and depends on the market at the time but for me the best stocks to buy are in real estate, technology, health care, and alternative energy. If you want to grow your portfolio the way that I have in recent years then you will stick to these 4 basic industries and build off them.

Tips for investing at a young age

Invest often – Something even adults don’t do is invest often. When I started investing in stocks on my 18th birthday I put a lump sum of $500 in an account and added $50 every month since then. This is what I like to call a stable investment because every month I am adding to my portfolio with the plan of buying more stocks every 3-4 months. The great thing about investing often is that you won’t always buy at one price, you will average yourself in.

Diversify – The last thing I want to make sure you are doing is diversify your portfolio. If you don’t diversify your portfolio then you will run the risk of losing all your money and not cashing in on the gains of other stocks. Diversification is the key to long term gains.

If you have decided to invest in Cape Coral, you should know that the money is made or lost behind the scenes and not when you close the deal. To give you an example, let’s say that after selling a house you have made a $10,000 profit. But, after giving $5,000 to the real estate agent, another $5,000 to the contractors and $1,000 to your attorney, it means that you lost money on this deal.

There is a lot of common sense involved when you start investing in real estate improvements to the house, like getting new cabinets, doing some landscaping, some tiling or any other actions that will increase the value of the property. It is best to hire some professionals to do these things for you. Although you will be spending some money at first, the results will come later on when you sell the house. There are a couple of things that you can take care for yourself, like putting in new plants, painting the walls or changing the locks so at least for these things you shouldn’t hire someone to do it.

Before investing in this city, you need to learn more about its market. Although you might read on the internet just about everything there is to know about Cape Coral, you will be surprised to learn how competitive the business can be once you embark on it. You will have to face up both individuals and businesses that have been in the market way longer than you have. Although you cannot gain their experience over the night, you have the possibility to educate yourself on many of the possible trends and issues.

For this reason, you should check out the home prices in Cape Coral by following the sales on the Internet or in the newspapers. In addition, look at the fair rental prices and if you have the time, visit some of these homes that you think to be similar with the one that you plan on listing. Also, drop by the local banks in order to find out about the required down payments as well as the loan volume. With this knowledge you will be able to avoid paying too much and in some cases, even negotiate a better deal.

Don’t forget about the 1% rule. All you will need is two numbers: the price for the house and the rental income you will be getting each month. If the monthly income consists of 1% of the purchase price it means that you got a good deal going on. On the flip side, let’s say that you have a house that costs $300,000 and the rent per month is $2,100 – it means that you will be getting only 0.7%. In this case you should probably still stick with the house but you need to know that money is going to be tight. Anything less than 0.7% is not worthy risking as it will be hard to make cash flow without a higher rent, a lower purchase or a significant down payment.