An Introduction to a Stock’s Annual Report

Many investors know that they are supposed to request a company’s annual report to understand the business but they don’t really know what it is or why it is important.

What is the annual report?

The annual report is a document prepared by a company’s management to the shareholders explaining what happened in the business for the year. There are no real rules for what an annual report contains. Some companies don’t even prepare one.

How is the annual report different from the 10K? Do I need to read both?

If the 10K is regular Coca-Cola, the annual report is Diet Coke. It is a softer, more accessible, easier-to-understand version of the company’s finances, business, and management philosophy. The 10K is often hundreds of pages of text, financial statements, and legal disclosures. The annual report, on the other hand, is sort of a PR document with lots of pictures, colorful graphs, and images of smiling employees.

Some companies don’t prepare an annual report at all, instead releasing everything in the 10K. Others combine a short annual report with the 10K. Still others have a very, very lengthy annual report and their 10K statement consists of nothing but the saying, “incorporated by reference from the company’s annual report.”

The bottom line is that you need to read both the 10K and annual report to get a full understanding of a company. You wouldn’t buy a car without knowing the background of the company that made the automobile and due to the power of compounding, there is much more at stake when you choose a stock to buy.

How do I get a copy of a company’s annual report?

Most companies post their annual report on their website as a free download. If not, you can call or email the investor relations department and request mailed copies be sent to you. These are always free.

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Mortgage Loan Options for People with Bad Credit

When you are in the market for a mortgage and are looking around there are a lot of things that lenders consider. The main obstacle for people is when lenders look at their credit score also known as FICO score. People who have had a history of not paying their bills on time or ones that have had things happen to them in life that was beyond their control have the hardest times. There are a few new programs that have come about lately that may help those with bad credit wither clean up their scores and help them qualify for a loan even in these uncertain times.

The main factor that lenders look at is the FICO score, for a conventional mortgage most lenders require at least a score of six hundred and fifty. But, for those that don’t have that high of a score to qualify there are programs that will help you qualify for a mortgage loan for people with bad credit.

The best mortgage loans for bad credit are the ones that the government offers to you. The first one is call FHA they are a mortgage lender that is back by the U.S government that gives lenders a backing for taking the risk on mortgage loans for bad credit. The basics qualifications for a FHA loan are that you must have a min FICO score of five hundred and eighty. You must also have steady employment or a way to provide documentation if you are self employed. As well as have most if not all your current credit obligations paid down. They will provide you a great interest rate and a secured loan for you to get your very own home.

There are other lenders out there that do specialize in giving bad credit mortgages to people with bad credit. You must be very cautious about whom and how you do business with these companies. Not only will you save yourself a lot of headaches but, you will also save hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the lifetime of the loan. So before signing any contract do a little research on the type of loan you are taking along with the type of company you are doing business with so that you can be a informed consumer.

Along with saving hundreds of dollars a month by choosing the right company you also will have the chance to improve your current credit situation. One way to do this is to pay your bills on time after at least a year of on time payment like a mortgage your credit score will go up. Secondly before and after you receive your loan make sure you go to all three major credit bureau and find out exactly what you have on your credit. This way if there are any inaccuracies you can dispute them before you even apply.

The three major credit bureau:

1. Equifax – www.equifax.xom

2. Transunion – www.Transunion.com

3. Experian — www.experian.com

So using these Tips as well as researching the company you are looking for will greatly ease your frustration for applying for a bad credit mortgage. This will greatly increase your chances of qualifying for that loan to finally own the home of your dreams. This will also save you thousands of dollars in the process what could be better than money back in your pocket? So do your research learn about the process and apply to the best companies and you will own that home you been looking for.

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How to Become Wealthy

Nine Truths That Can Set You on the Path to Financial Freedom

#1: Change the Way You Think About Money

The general population has a love / hate relationship with wealth. They resent those who have it, but spend their entire lives attempting to get it for themselves. The reason a vast majority of people never accumulate a substantial nest egg is because they don’t understand the nature of money or how it works.

Cash, like a person, is a living thing. When you wake up in the morning and go to work, you are selling a product – yourself (or more specifically, your labor). When you realize that every morning your assets wake up and have the same potential to work as you do, you unlock a powerful key in your life. Each dollar you save is like an employee. Over the course of time, the goal is to make your employees work hard, and eventually, they will make enough money to hire more workers (cash). When you have become truly successful, you no longer have to sell your own labor, but can live off of the labor of your assets.

#2: Develop an Understanding of the Power of Small Amounts

The biggest mistake most people make is that they think they have to start with an entire Napoleon-like army. They suffer from the “not enough” mentality; namely that if they aren’t making $1,000 or $5,000 investments at a time, they will never become rich. What these people don’t realize is that entire armies are built one soldier at a time; so too is their financial arsenal.

A friend of mine once knew a woman who worked as a dishwasher and made her purses out of used liquid detergent bottles. This woman invested and saved everything she had despite it never being more than a few dollars at a time. Now, her portfolio is worth millions upon millions of dollars, all of which was built upon small investments. I am not suggesting you become this frugal, but the lesson is still a valuable one. Do not despise the day of small beginnings!

#3: With Each Dollar You Save, You Are Buying Yourself Freedom

When you put it in these terms, you see how spending $20 here and $40 there can make a huge difference in the long run. Since money has the ability to work in your place, the more of it you employ, the faster and larger it will grow. Along with more money comes more freedom – the freedom to stay home with your kids, the freedom to retire and travel around the world, or the freedom to quit your job. If you have any source of income, it is possible for you to start building wealth today. It may only be $5 or $10 at a time, but each of those investments is a stone in the foundation of your financial freedom.

#4: You Are Responsible for Where You Are in Your Life

Years ago, a friend told me she didn’t want to invest in stocks because she “didn’t want to wait ten years to be rich…” she would rather enjoy her money now. The folly with this school of thinking is that the odds are, you are going to be alive in ten years. The question is whether or not you will be better off when you arrive there. Where you are right now is the sum total of the decisions you have made in the past. Why not set the stage for your life in the future right now?

#5: Instead of Buying the Product… Buy the Stock!

Someone once asked me why they weren’t wealthy. They always felt like they were putting money aside, yet never seemed to get any further ahead. The answer is simple. I told them to stop buying the products companies sell and start buying the company itself! A survey of America’s affluent (those who make over $225,000 a year or own $3,000,000 in assets) revealed that 27-30% of all the income the wealthy earned went into investments and savings. That isn’t a result of being rich, that is why they are rich. When the pain of getting out of the bondage of financial slavery is greater than the pain of changing your spending habits, you will become rich. Either change, or be content to live as you are.

#6: Study and Admire Success and Those Who Have Achieved It… Then Emulate It

A very wise investor once said to pick the traits you admire and dislike the most about your heroes, then do everything in your power to develop the traits you like and reject the ones you don’t. Mold yourself into who you want to become. You’ll find that by investing in yourself first, money will begin to flow into your life. Success and wealth beget success and wealth. You have to purchase your way into that cycle, and you do so by building your army one soldier at a time and putting your money to work for you.

#7: Realize that More Money is Not the Answer

More money is not going to solve your problem. Money is a magnifying glass; it will accelerate and bring to light your true habits. If you are not capable of handling a job paying $18,000 a year, the worst possible thing that could happen to you is for you to earn six figures. It would destroy you. I have met too many people earning $100,000 a year who are living from paycheck to paycheck and don’t understand why it is happening. The problem isn’t the size of their checkbook, it is the way in which they were taught to use money.

#8: Unless Your Parents Were Wealthy, Don’t Do What They Did

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If your parents were not living the life you want to live then don’t do what they did! You must break away from the mentality of past generations if you want to have a different lifestyle than they had.

To achieve the financial freedom and success that your family may or may not have had, you have to do two things. First, make a firm commitment to get out of debt. To find out which debts should be paid off before you invest and those that are acceptable, read Pay Off Your Debt or Invest?. Second, make saving and investing the highest financial priority in your life; one technique is to pay yourself first.

Purchasing equity is vital to your financial success as an individual whether you are in need of cash income or desire long-term appreciation in stock value. Nowhere else can your money do as much for you as when you use it to invest in a business that has wonderful long-term prospects.

#9: Don’t Worry

The miracle of life is that it doesn’t matter so much where you are, it matters where you are going. Once you have made the choice to take control back of your life by building up your net worth, don’t give a second thought to the “what ifs”. Every moment that goes by, you are growing closer and closer to your ultimate goal – control and freedom.

Every dollar that passes through your hands is a seed to your financial future. Rest assured, if you are diligent and responsible, financial prosperity is an inevitability. The day will come when you make your last payment on your car, your house, or whatever else it is you owe. Until then, enjoy the process.

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What does it mean to own shares in a “street name”

QuestionI received from a reader: What does it mean to own shares in a “street name”

Some investors hold physical stock certificates; pieces of paper with their name on them that represent their ownership in a corporation. Other investors are invested in a DRIP, or dividend reinvestment program, and their shares are noted by the company’s registrar in an electronic journal; this is known as “book entry”. In both cases, the company can quickly and easily access the total number of shares you own and / or contact you directly.

The most popular holding form for most investors, however, is through a brokerage account or asset management account. When you buy shares of Coca-Cola or The Washington Post through your broker, they aren’t physically sitting in a vault with your name on them. Instead, the broker has them registered in its name; that is, Coke won’t know that you own the shares, it only sees that Schwab or Fidelity owns X number of shares. The brokers, in turn, track who owns what internally.

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Can I Sue My Parent’s Broker? A Question from a Reader

Please forgive the rapidity with which this message is written – I’m preparing this week’s special feature on financial independence and wanted to respond given the nature of your email. Unfortunately, I’m not going to have time to go through and edit it so excuse me if it lacks eloquence.

Although it is generally a rule of thumb that the percentage of stocks invested in bonds should be equivalent to your age (i.e., a 70 year old would have 30% other assets such as stocks and 70% bonds), that is just a broad outline and doesn’t take into consideration the individual finances of people. Many seniors continue to have significant equity exposure if they have substantial assets, no need to live on them other than the dividends, and maintain a comfortable lifestyle. There are members of my own family that are around the same age that have near total equity exposure because they don’t need the funds for day-to-day expenses as a result of their pension income and social security checks so they focus on the long-term to maximize the value of the estate for those who will inherit after they’ve passed away.

The bigger concern is your focus on short-term market fluctuations. You are confusing volatility with value. Yes, Dow stocks have been hit hard this year. But time and time again, for more than one hundred and fifty years, blue chip equities, when bought on a diversified basis with dividends reinvested, have crushed every other asset class. In fact, at these lower prices, a very strong argument can be made for those who hold their stocks because the dividends that are being reinvested are purchasing far more shares due to depressed stock prices. You need to get a copy of Ivy League Wharton Professor Jeremy Siegel’s book, The Future for Investors: Why the Tried and True Beat the Bold and New. It will open your eyes. His research is magnificent. Stock prices are the greatest asset class for building wealth for the average man but the gains don’t come in gradually upward sloping markets. They are jagged ups, downs, sideways, drops, skyrockets, and more. Find a chart of the Dow over the past 100 years, though, and you’ll see even the Great Depression was a blip on the chart (when you factor in reinvested dividends, it was even smaller). Despite war, famine, the threat of nuclear annihilation, a Presidential assassination and resignation, the advent of the Internet, space travel, planes, trains, and automobiles, biomedicine, civil rights movements, and more, ownership of businesses has proven to be the most lucrative long-term proposition from someone looking to grow their capital. The ride is bumpy so it requires you to stick to your guns, buy quality, and ignore fluctuations! Otherwise, you’ll just be handing your hard earned money to professional traders and business men / women who buy for their own brokerage accounts.

Please understand that in most cases, when I get these types of letters, they seem to come from adult children with parents that have built up substantially more assets than they currently have. Many times, the sons and daughters are legitimately concerned about their parents, but equally as concerned about the value of any potential assets they will inherit. Yet they fail to realize that the very reason their parents often have money and they don’t is because mom and dad have diligently invested in high quality stocks for decades, ignoring market fluctuations and profiting from the well documented real growth in equity valuations on an after-inflation basis. What’s especially frustrating is that people often look at the high water mark of their portfolio and say they need to “get back to there.” Instead, they fail to realize that if they’ve been investing for long enough (say, 20 years), they already have many, many times (literally multiples) the money they would have had by parking it in bonds or the bank. Yet, even though they are richer on a net basis, they feel the psychological sting of a perceived paper loss. For professionals, it’s baffling because you’re still better off than you would have been. It’s like the people that sue a doctor who broke one of their ribs despite saving their life in a restaurant by performing the Heimlich maneuver.

What do you propose now? You seem to be suggesting that they sell out of their stocks and switch into more conservative investments at the very time when stocks appear to be the most attractively priced in many, many decades. I can’t offer you financial advice or give you any recommendations. All I can tell you is that the “super investors” such as Warren Buffett are pouring their personal resources into American stocks at this time, even going so far as to publicly declare it. Much of my personal capital came in the aftermath of the September 11th stock market crash when people panicked after massive drops, allowing me to buy up shares that I had been watching for years. I’ve invested more money in the past six months than I have in my entire life.

1. Continue to hold the blue chip stocks, reinvest the dividends, and let America, Inc. get stronger and more profitable just like it has for the past two hundred plus years. The stock market will eventually follow but when we get back to break even dow 14,000+/-, the portfolio value could be higher due to reinvested dividends. In fact, the longer the market stays at these levels, the better for both them and whoever will inherit their money. Dividend reinvestment is currently adding 7% to many top-name firms! That’s just unbelievable. Even if the stocks go nowhere for three years, you could have a compounded annual rate of return of roughly 22.5% over that time!

2. Suck up the loss, sell the portfolio holdings, and move to more conservative assets. When things calm down, you have no chance of recovering that money, however, because certificates of deposits and Treasury bills cannot keep pace with equity ownership over the long-run. It may be three months, it may be five years, but you will have to watch the value of stocks skyrocket as your account stays at the lower, permanent level you forced it into as a result of your asset sales. For some people, this is still the right call due to their emotional disposition and financial position. (If this were my aunt or grandmother asking, to sell out now – and park the money in accounts paying only 0.01% interest – especially when the United States is printing dollars to try to stave off the credit crisis (which will eventually lead to inflation) seems idiotic to me, but honestly if they need the money to live on, you don’t have a choice.)

I’m not a lawyer. What I can say is that based on my own opinion and the information you gave me, your parents would be wrong for claiming that the broker was at fault on a layman’s common-sense test. Could you get a settlement? I don’t know – maybe? But it seems like a fairly immoral thing to do given that you were willing to take all of the upside of the market yet when the inevitable volatility happens, want to lay blame off on a third party. It’s not like the broker was having them write naked puts or something (which would almost certainly be irresponsible for the situation you described).

My response, however, is predicated on your statement that they own high quality Dow Jones type stocks. If they are well-off, can live comfortably on their social security checks, and have a long history of investing in the stock market, all equity exposure could have been a perfectly reasonable and rational portfolio allocation. Stocks are not like a savings account. You can’t tell “how you’re doing” by looking at the statement each month. Instead, you take a 3-5 year rolling basis and, frankly, we are just now at the 2004 stock levels meaning that your family is just as well off now as they were a few years ago, plus they have the benefits of reinvested dividends so it’s highly likely that they are better off than if the money had been parked in a savings account. After all – what would have happened if your parents had sold out during the crash just before the original Gulf War in the 1990’s? Or the 1987 stock market crash? They’d be much, much poorer than they are today. You’re effectively suggesting they do the same thing now.

Take it for what it’s worth.

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