Financial Advisor Told Me To Invest Instead Of Paying Debt

That's a big question - is it better to invest my money and pay of my debts with my returns, or should I get my debt cleared first?

You'll get different advice from different people - so who's right?

Check out this great video that should answer this very question for you!

How to Raise Funds Using Crowdfunding Sites

To be able to give back and help people who are in need is one of the best things that you can ever do in your life. If you have the time and the resources, you should do your best to do some good and donate to charitable institutions. If you do not have the funds one of the best ways to raise them is to use crowdfunding or crowdsourcing sites.

New Term

Crowdfunding is no longer a new term. People have been using it for a long time now and it has grown in popularity ever since the increase of people's use of the internet. Through these crowdsourcing sites, people from around the world can connect with other people and ask them to help fund their causes.

Help Your Charity

To use these sites to help fund your charity, the most important thing you need to do is to create compelling content. This type of content does not have to move people to tears with an extremely sad story. Rather it should be able to stir some compassion from anyone who reads it. When compassion is triggered, people become more amenable to donating funds for your cause.

Content

Your content should have the right mix of text and pictures that will captivate and compel the audience enough to make a contribution to your cause. If you are planning on raising funds for people who have been struck by a devastating calamity, you should include pictures of homes that have been destroyed and people who have been displaced from their homes. Do not go too far and post pictures of dead bodies lying on the ground. These can sometimes make a person feel uncomfortable instead of feeling compassionate.

Your content should detail the reasons why you are raising funds through the crowdfunding site. It should include your plans and how you intend to use the money that you have raised. This gives people an idea as to where their contributions would go.

Incentives

Offer a nice inexpensive incentive to convince people to make a contribution. Some people would give a token or a product that is symbolic of the cause. Keychains are among the most common giveaways given for every donation made.

Questions

Answer queries and concerns about your fundraising campaign. People will want to know what the cause is and why you need funding for it. Naturally, they would ask you questions about the campaign. You should be ready to answer all kinds of questions as people will surely be sending them in.

Promotion

Lastly, you should try to find a way to promote your fundraising campaign. Back in the day when people were not so addicted to the internet, in order to promote something, people would need to pay huge amounts of money just to advertise on print and on TV ads. They also did not have a wide range of viewing gadgets that people enjoy today. There are no such things as online followers, retweets and regrams, and sharing of content.

Easier

Nowadays, it is easier than ever to reach out to more people and spread the reasons for your cause. Use social media, tap media influencers, and get word out there about your fund raising campaign. Do not forget to tell your audience where and how they can donate. Campaigns for raising funds are definitely more effective with the use of sites that have a wide reach like crowdsourcing sites.

Rob Hillman is a Crowdfunding Enthusiast. To find out more about all types of crowdfunding, please visit http://www.crowdfundingdiy.com/

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Rob_Hillman/315124

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5 Proven Steps To Doing Really Well In Trading

Hi. Have you ever wondered what it takes to do really well in trading or what necessary steps you need to do? I keep receiving these questions quite often. So let me give you my five proven steps. I've been doing really well with them in my own trading, so I believe they can help you too.

Step #1: Questions

You may or may not like it, but successful trading is about the ability to come up with new, fresh ideas. Fortunately, it's not as difficult as it sounds. All you need to do is to keep asking this question: "What happens if... ?" What happens if I buy when the RSI indicator is overbought instead of oversold? What happens if I start moving my stop-loss according to my moving average? By asking the "What happens if... ?" question constantly, you start to move forward really fast and I can guarantee you some of your ideas will be sooner or later really big winners.

Step #2: Robustness Testing

Most strategies are crap. That's the fact. But how do you know which ones aren't? You can always find it out through extensive robustness testing. What does it mean? In my case it mainly means three things: A) A good strategy can easily adjust to changing market conditions. An extensive walk-forward testing is needed at this stage. B) A good strategy performs reasonably well in other markets. C) A good strategy has been developed only on a part of all your historical data and performs well on the rest. To be very honest with you, about 95% of all my strategies never pass my robustness testing criteria, but when they do, it's time to move to the next step.

Step #3: Portfolio 

One strategy will help you learn, but a portfolio of strategies will help you grow. You don't need to have a big portfolio at the beginning, but even three strategies are much better than just a single one. Remember, if you want a smooth equity and a steady income from your trading as soon as possible, the only way is through diversification and portfolio. Very few people are aware of this and even fewer spend significant time by modeling different portfolios. I personally spend a lot of time trying to find out the best way to combine my strategies together to make a really good portfolio.

Step #4: Position Sizing 

Let me ask you a question: Do you want to make it big or do you want to stay small? Because if you want to make it really big, then you need to start seriously thinking about position sizing. This topic can be pretty complex, but it can be also extremely rewarding. So, where do you start? I highly suggest reading Van Tharp's book "The Definitive Guide to Position Sizing." You will learn a lot. Personally, it has moved my trading to a whole new level.

Step #5: Persistence 

Listen, it can be done. It doesn't matter what education you have, how old you are, or even how confident you feel at this moment. I've seen many people succeed. I've seen traders making it from zero to quite a nice living, and that's why I believe that you can do it too. Yes, it does take some time, effort and learning, but once you're finally there, it's all worth it. So, stay persistent and mainly never give up, and that's really all.

Happy Trading!

Tomas Nesnidal is a European trader and developer, with 10+ years of full-time trading experience. You can download an example of his strategy for FREE on his blog http://www.SystemsOnTheRoad.com.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tomas_Nesnidal/2231820

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