The Simplest Way to Invest #3

In the previous post, we tried to create a portfolio using the Market Price / Book Value ratio. We looked at the results of an imaginary ₺100,000 investment in a period of one year and five years.

This post is going to be about the P / E ratio. This ratio, which is defined as the price-earnings ratio, is the ratio of the price per share of a company to the profit per share.

XYZ has one million shares -one million lots- in circulation. XYZ made a million dollars profit this year. So what is the earnings per share? It is a dollar. Let’s say one lot of XYZ is trading at $ 30 on the stock market. This stock you bought for $ 30 will bring you one dollar of profit according to the profit announced in a one-year period. Do you think this is a sensible investment? Of course not. This means that I will invest 30 dollars and only make a dollar profit. In that case, it will take 30 years for me to pay off my investment. That’s the rule. But of course, even a share with a P / E ratio of 180 can make a premium, increase or decrease. Why is that? Because the profit to be announced in the next balance sheet will increase, as a result of their follow-up, investors notice this in advance and start investing. So could there be another reason? Yes, it could be just a speculative increase. Think about it, you will make an investment. An airline stock catches your eye. This is when the Covid-19 cases are on the rise. The shares are on the rise; P / E ratios are very high and P / B ratios are also high; But there can be no sectoral expectations, you are in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is not possible for an airline company to make enough profit to raise its shares in this environment. Here you need to understand that the rise of this stock is speculative and perhaps even manipulative. There will be no stability in speculative ups. Risk is high due to lack of stability. You can buy the stock at a high value and watch its value decrease. So, we need to understand whether the increase or decrease of a share is speculative.

Let’s create our portfolio now. I will create a portfolio from the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015. We will be watching a one-year performance. Just like I did at the P / B ratio, this time I will select four companies. The companies I choose will be those with the lowest P / E ratio. Remember, a low P / E ratio means the stock is cheap. Well, is there a rule that if it is less than 1 as in the P / B ratio, it is cheap, and if it is higher than 1, it is expensive? Nope. The basic rule here is that the P / E ratio can be at the smallest values higher than 0. Where the price of all is 190, 150 is cheap. If the price of all is 5, 8 is expensive. So, when looking at the P / E value, we will look at “others” and say something relatively. Here, taking “others” as other companies in the same industry will give a better, more reliable result.

For the above timeframe, the four companies I will add to my portfolio are: TUPRS, YKBNK, THYAO and ALBRK. (These are stock exchanges in Turkey.) 

Warning: This is not investment advice. The chart below is from 2015 and is without details. It was created to give an idea. The following companies are in Turkey.

Blue Line: My Portfolio

Orange Line: BIST100 (the average earnings of the 100 largest companies on the stock market in Turkey)

As you can see, the portfolio I created using ONLY the P / E ratio performed very superior to BIST. As my portfolio started the year with an index of around 3800; It ended the year with an index of around 6500. BIST started around 350 and finished around 420. While my portfolio made my ₺100 roughly ₺170; BIST’s overall index made ₺100 to ₺120. The inflation value for 2015 was 8.81%. Therefore, I have achieved a very superior performance as a result of a year investment with the P / E ratio. I was able to make a profit well above the inflation rate. Without tiring myself, without getting lost in many fundamental and technical analysis terms, without watching the indexes on the screen for hours; I could only create a portfolio that I controlled from balance sheet to balance sheet, month to month. This is actually the nature of the investment. Investing is not about trading constantly, but about making a satisfactory profit at the end of a certain period by investing money in the right places.

I will check my portfolio again at the beginning of 2016. I will examine the P / E and P / B ratios of the shares of four companies in my portfolio. I will examine other companies in the same sector, if the P / E or P / B ratio has increased too much and there are no new investments that may come from the company whose shares I bought, I will remove this company from my portfolio. I will look at the stocks of other companies. Since I know that this process will take some time, if I start all this work in early December 2015, I can start 2016 with solid research and knowing what changes to make in my portfolio. In this way, I can maintain around 70% profit per year with simple techniques. If I keep this investment for five years and keep my profit rate of around 70% by making the right moves, my ₺100,000 could reach around ₺1,500,000. Moreover, 70% rate is not bad annually for someone who is interested in the stock market, but it is not exactly what is desired. We expect 100% annual return in the stock exchange. But for this, we know dozens of techniques and follow closely. Therefore, it is not bad to have a 70% return without spending that much effort.

You may have noticed something. Return on investment with P / E was better than return on investment with P / B.

THE SIMPLEST WAY TO INVEST

THE SIMPLEST WAY TO INVEST #2

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The Simplest Way to Invest #2

In the previous post, we talked about the importance of risk sharing and the need to create a portfolio to share risk. We said that the first step in creating a portfolio is to look at the P / B ratio of the shares we will buy. This ratio helps us to understand whether the lots we will buy are cheap or expensive. You can check the previous post for detailed information on this subject. In this post we will examine a sample portfolio.

Warning: This is not investment advice. The chart below is from 2015 and is without details. It was created to give an idea. The following companies are in Turkey.

In the first quarter of 2015, while looking at the P / B ratios of the company shares, I saw that the P / B ratios of ECILC, DOHOL, VESTL and TRGYO companies were low. This means their shares are cheap.

The blue line in the chart below shows the average earnings of these four companies ECILC, DOHOL, VESTL and TRGYO over 2015. The orange line shows the average earnings of the 100 largest companies on the stock market in Turkey (BIST100).

As you can see, the index created with these four companies has gained value in a year. I formed the index of the portfolio by looking at the values of the last four days of the stock exchange’s closing in 2014. The index of the portfolio was roughly 1480 at the time, while the BIST was around 400. By the end of 2015, while BIST did not even reach 500, the portfolio I created approached roughly 2300. This means that when 100 thousand Turkish Lira was invested, it became 155 thousand Turkish Liras at the end of 2015. If this performance continues for five years, when 100 thousand Turkish liras are invested, it becomes approximately 1 million 280 thousand Turkish Liras in five years. However, this portfolio may not show the same performance for five years.

When we create a portfolio, we need to check the P / B ratios of the companies we buy from their shares, and when we determine that the ratio has reached saturation according to itself and the sector, we need to sell our shares. Now we can get our profit. Then we can buy another cheap stock with a low P / B ratio and add it to our portfolio. If the P / B ratio of the company whose shares we bought does not reach saturation for many years, we can continue to make profit without effort.

Here, it is necessary to mention the loss of value of money. Suppose we buy 100 thousand Turkish Liras worth of shares and sell our shares for 1 million 280 thousand Turkish Liras at the end of five years. When we look at the inflation values between 2015 and 2020, we see that the purchasing power of 100 thousand Turkish Lira at the beginning of 2015 is equal to the purchasing power of 550 thousand Turkish Lira at the beginning of 2020. Still, we made 175% profit.

In this example, we saw that we made a profit without tiring ourselves on an investment we made just by looking at the P / B ratio. If we make the right investment and follow it correctly, we can easily make a profit. To be able to do this, there is no need to stress, watch the stock market for hours, sit in front of the screen all the time, learn technical analysis terms…

If you want to start investing, you can start by trying to identify stocks with a low P / B ratio. If you don’t have any experience yet, create a portfolio and follow it without buying shares. Or buy one lot from each of the companies you choose. This will cost around $ 25-50 on average. Follow the lots in your portfolio for a few months with online banking. By taking such small steps, you can start investing and gain experience.

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You are the Person to Take Control of Your Investments

Rich people use much more leverage than poor people. If you want to get rich, you need leverage. If you really want to get rich, you need a lot of leverage.

We mentioned about leverage before. Now let’s talk about another thing we need to achieve a better economic situation, control power.

People who earn are careful about their thoughts. They don’t think they can’t. They don’t say “This is too risky.”. They don’t back down by saying “I cannot afford this.” Instead, they ask “How can I do this?” or “How can I reduce my risk?” or “How can I afford this?” People who invest to earn money are also extremely careful when choosing people for financial advice. Just as Olympic athletes should be careful when choosing foods that go into their bodies, investors who invest to earn must be careful with advice that will enter their minds. This process may sometimes involve cleansing your mind from old thoughts.

Control Power

Investors who invest to earn want control as well as leverage. People think investing is risky because they have no control.

Think of a car. A car with steering wheel, brake, accelerator, gear and engine. Just imagine if you could drive without any of these. If you got into a car without a steering wheel, could you drive that car?

Many people think investing is risky because they lack control. Imagine investing in mutual funds, stocks, bonds or savings accounts without any knowledge. When you invest in these tools without being able to answer the questions of what will happen next, how they will be traded, or how they will be affected by price volatility, you have almost no control over them.

Interestingly, most of the people who invest are not trained in this field. Driving a car requires at least a driver’s license to show that the driver has been trained and can drive a car.

The lack of control of uninformed and inexperienced investment advisors, financial planners and stockbrokers also makes things worse. For this reason, they make recommendations “Diversify, diversify, diversify”. Diversification is something you will need when you are out of control. Warren Buffett doesn’t diversify because he’s investing in a controlled manner. It buys either all or most of the shares of a business.

Lack of Control

Most people feel powerless because they have no control over their work. I know many people who lost their jobs not because they were bad employees, but because their companies were sold. More and more people feel like they are losing control, as there are many jobs shifting overseas these days. It is difficult to feel safe when you have little control over your job and salary and invest in assets over which you have no control, such as blind investments in savings accounts, stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

There are three reasons people find it risky to invest.

– They have very little financial education.

– They invest in investment instruments over which they cannot control.

-They get investment advice from salespeople and these salespeople have no control over the investment.

Once you understand the use of leverage, your next task is to make sure you have control.

Control is all about education. The more financially educated we are, the sooner we distinguish between advantageous and unfavorable situations. It is also much easier to sort out the bad ones among the good ideas.

Life is full of risks. We don’t have full control – at least not as much control as we think we have. But by getting educated, making reasonable choices, and having a positive attitude, we can reduce risk. Many people have achieved magnificent successes, even when “fortune is not on their side.” They have won because they have decided to take control of their destiny and refuse to give up.

One of the ways to gain control is to always have the big picture in your mind. When people talk about the big picture, I usually think of a tapestry. If you look from behind an extremely beautiful and invaluable tapestry, all you will see will be many knots. Sometimes it’s all that people can see, because they haven’t seen the completed design on the other side yet.

One of the ways to gain control is to always have the big picture in your mind. When people talk about the big picture, I usually think of a tapestry. If you look from the back at an extremely beautiful and invaluable tapestry, you will only see many tiny knots. Sometimes it’s all that people can see, because they haven’t seen the completed design on the other side yet.

Someone once told me that there are many knots in his life that he could not untie. I quickly realized that his problem was simply that he wasn’t visualizing his own tapestry. He was quite relieved when I told him about it.

Look at the situations from the other side. It will help you gain control and gain insight into how to deal with problems and people. At the very least, you have to be able to control what is going on around you as much as you don’t get stuck with your life being full of knots.

You may not have control over many things, but you can start with yourself. The real leverage is brain power. Winners accept responsibility and retain control.

Review your life today. Can you choose how you spend your day, or are you told how you should spend your day? Do you direct your financial investments or do you leave this business to someone else?

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Don’t Be Afraid To Invest Your Money

Wealth Is Measured in Time Not Money

“Wealth is the number of days a person can live without physically working and maintaining her standard of living.”

Let’s say your monthly expenses are $ 1000. If you have $ 3000 in your savings account, your wealth means 3 months or 90 days. Wealth is measured in time, not money.

After all, it is not how much money you make, but how much money you can keep and how long you can increase the money. I know many people who make a lot of money every day, but most of their income goes to the spending column.

If their income increases, they consider buying a bigger house or a new car. This means long-term debt and hard work, so nothing is left for the asset column. Money runs out quickly.

“Going in Red” Shortens The Life Of The Engine

To go in red is to continue driving even though the gas gauge drops empty. This phrase is also used to describe going at full speed.

Whether rich or poor, there are many people who always “go in the red”. No matter how much they earn, they quickly spend what they get. “Going in red” shortens the life of the engine.

According to many doctors, the main cause of stress today is hard work and not making enough money. Especially some people insist that “wallet cancer” is the biggest cause of health disorders.

Money Works for You So You Don’t Have To Work

No matter how much money people make, eventually they have to use some of it to invest. Investors are more interested in making money out of money. This is also the idea that money works for you so you don’t have to work. But the important thing here is to know that there are other ways to invest.

Other Ways to Invest

People invest in their education. Traditional education is important because the better you study, the better your chances of making money. If you devote four years to college, you have the potential to earn between $ 24,000 and $ 50,000 a year or more. Considering that an ordinary person actually gives 40 years to work, studying at a four-year university or similar institution can be a very good investment.

Loyalty and diligence are also another means of investment, for example a lifetime working in a private company or a government agency. The reward for this is the retirement bonus and lifetime pension, as well as the right to various services. However, this type of investment, which is valid in the Industrial Age, has lost its validity in the Information Age.

Others invest in a crowded family and want children to take care of them in their old age. Such an investment used to be good, however, due to today’s economic difficulties, families are no longer in a position to meet the living and health expenses of the elders.

There are also independent pension investment plans called individual pension plans. The federal government provides tax relief for incentives to both employers and workers so that they participate in these plans.

Income from Investments

Although all of the above are investment tools, people who invest are more concerned with a continuous source of income than these. Are you currently deriving your income from your investments? In other words, does your money work for you and generate income for you?

Let’s look at someone who buys a house for investment and rents it out. If the rent he receives is more than he has to spend for that house, it means cash coming from investments. The same is true for those who earn interest on their money in the bank or receive dividends from stocks.

Advantage of Earning Income From Investments

The main difference that separates those who make money from their investments from others is to make money from money. If they succeed in this, they can run their money, and the next few generations of members of their family also benefit.

In addition to the obvious advantages of knowing how to earn money from money and live without having to get out of bed in the morning and go to work, there are also tax advantages that are not available to those who work to make money.

One of the reasons the rich get richer is because they earn millions but do not pay taxes on that money. Because their earnings are included in the “active column”, not the “passive column”. Or they make money from their investments, not physical work.

Those who work to make money are not only subject to high taxes. Also, a certain tax is deducted from their wages, that amount goes to tax before they even get it.

Why Are More People Not Being Investors?

Investing means working less, earning more and paying less tax. So why don’t more people become investors? For the same reason as the small number of people starting their own business. In one word, we can say because of “risk”.

Many people are afraid of losing money when they are investing it somewhere. Even if they know how much their investments may earn them, they avoid investing and risking their money because they are afraid of losing.

Fear of losing money divides investors into four classes:

1. Those who avoid risk, love guarantees and keep their money in the bank

2. Those who leave their investment decisions to experts such as financial advisors or mutual fund managers

3. Gamblers

4. Investors

We can distinguish between the gambler and the investor as follows: According to the gambler, investment is a game of chance. For those who hand their money over to someone else to invest, investing is a game that they do not want to learn. It is important for these people to be careful when choosing financial advisors.

It’s Time to Become an Investor!

The defined and predictable plans of the Industrial Age are gone. As the Information Age shifts to specific retirement plans, everyone has to be responsible for their own finances. However, the number of people who realize this is very few.

I urge you to read my WHY YOU NEED TO INCREASE YOUR FINANCIAL IQ post.

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Why You Need to Increase Your Financial IQ

The average American today works for six months to pay taxes. This is a very long time. The more one work, the more she pays the government.

In this article, we’ll take a look at how taxes work in favor of corporations and the rich, and then discuss the power and advantages of corporations.

When the poor and middle class try to punish the rich, the rich do not bow down and react. Because they have money, power, and are determined to change things. They don’t just sit around and agree to pay taxes. They look for ways to reduce their tax burden, recruit skilled lawyers and accountants and persuade politicians to change laws and create legal loopholes. They have the opportunity to change the rules.

For example, the US tax law provides some possibilities to avoid paying taxes. Many people cannot access these opportunities because they are busy with their own work. These legal loopholes are details only the rich can see. For example, “1031” means the section numbered 1031 of the State Revenue Law. It allows the seller to delay tax on real estate sold to be exchanged for a more expensive property for the purpose of capital increase.

Real estate can offer great tax benefits. If you are not selling for disposal, you will not pay tax on your earnings as long as you trade them to increase their value. People who do not take advantage of the tax savings made possible by law miss the opportunity to grow their assets.

A high Financial IQ is required to be aware of and benefit from these opportunities. And raising Financial IQ only takes four areas of expertise:

  1. Accounting. We can also call this financial knowledge. This skill is a must to build an empire. The more money one takes the responsibility, the more careful one has to be. Otherwise everything will be ruined. Details matter. Financial knowledge is reading and understanding bank statements. This skill allows to identify the strengths and weaknesses of any organization.
  2. Investment. The science of making money. Strategies and equations are important for making the right investments. This skill is linked to creative intelligence.
  3. Understanding Markets. It requires knowledge of supply and demand. It is necessary to know the “technical” aspects of the markets. Whether an investment is right or not depends on current market conditions.
  4. Laws. A company with technical skills related to accounting, investment and the market grows rapidly. But a person who knows the tax law and is under a corporate shield can get rich much faster than someone working for someone else or just someone who owns a small business. This is like the difference between walking and getting on a plane. The difference is huge when it comes to long-term wealth.

Employees earn and pay taxes, and live with the rest. The company earns and spends money and pays taxes on the remaining amount. This is one of the biggest legal tax loopholes benefited by the rich.

This is easy to do if you have investments that generate good cash flow. For example, you can turn your vacation trips into board meetings in Hawaii. Automobile payments, insurance, repair expenses turn into company expenses. You can show your sports club membership fee as company expense. You can add most of the restaurant expenses to company expenses. There are many more advantages like this, but they should be done before paying tax.

The rich hide most of their wealth. They use companies or foundations to protect their assets from creditors. When someone sues a wealthy person, they face a legal protection shield, and often that wealthy person “has no property”. The rich keep control of everything, but they have no property. The poor and middle class try to own everything and lose them to either the state or other people.

In short, if you have legal assets, find out as soon as possible the benefits and protection shield a company can offer you. You will find many books written on the subject. Even if you look at the company establishment stages, you will get detailed information on this subject. The power of sole proprietorships is well described in Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich.

Financial IQ is actually a synergy of many skills and abilities. But I think the combination of the four technical skills I listed above forms the basis of financial intelligence. If you have a desire to make a great fortune, then the combination of these skills becomes even more important.

As part of your overall financial strategy, my suggestion is to have your own company equipped with assets.


Please let me know what you think below.

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The First Rule of Getting Rich

In the previous post, it is explained that the first step to getting rich is to have accounting knowledge. In this article, I will tell you the first rule of simple accounting.

The first and foremost rule to get rich is to always invest money in active funds.

If we really want to get rich, this information is enough for us. This rule may sound very simple. It is so simple that it is often overlooked. Most people live without realizing how important this is. They always suffer financially because they don’t know the difference between active and passive investing.

If we adopt this rule, we will have a financial plan and will not suffer economically throughout our lives.

Now we must know the difference between active and passive.

While active funds make us money, passives take the money away from us. That’s all. If we want to get rich, we must buy actives for our lifetime. Thus, we can increase our wealth exponentially. If we want to be from the middle or poor class, we must constantly invest our money in passives.

The major cause of financial suffering in the world is due to not knowing the difference between these actives and passives.

Lack of knowledge is the main reason for financial confusion. Whether ignorance is about words or numbers. If people are in financial difficulties, there is something they cannot read about words or numbers. There must be something they cannot understand. The rich people get rich because they know how to manage their money. If we want to get rich and increase our wealth, we have to learn financial knowledge. In the language of both words and numbers.

Numbers alone may not make much sense. So are words. The important thing is the story of these together. This is the story of where the cash flows. We read that story in financial statements. The histories of four-fifths of families tell us that their financial history is hard work. It is not because these families work hard that they cannot earn money. They had to work hard all the time because they invested in passives.

It is not enough to have money. The point is not to get rich, but to sustain wealth. Therefore, we need to ask “How to maintain wealth?” question rather than asking “How to get rich?”.

It is obvious that, getting the money doesn’t solve the financial problems we have. Even it complicates the existing problems. Money often reveals our flaws. It reveals our unfamiliar sides.

Generally, the person who gets unexpected money gets relief for a short time, but soon starts to have financial difficulties again. Sometimes they even have worse financial difficulties. If the person with increased income tends to invest in passives, his expenses will also increase.

As we mentioned in previous posts, we take education to learn professional knowledge. We earn money thanks to our profession. But we don’t get financial skills at school. Therefore, our education cannot guarantee us a prosperous life. Even if we are very successful in our profession, we may have to deal with financial difficulties. Working more can’t solve this problem. Because the knowledge of how to spend the money in our education is lacking.

In fact, learning to manage money is more effective in getting rich than choosing a high-income profession.

Knowing how to manage money is a financial skill. People generally do not know the root cause of their financial problems. Because they do not know the cash flow and do not have financial skills. In this case, people cannot operate the money for their own benefit and they work too much and get tired.

Shortly, the active and passive investment issue is actually much simpler than it seems, and everyone should know about it. Cash flow is the story of how people use money. Active funds gradually make us money, and passive funds take the money out of our pockets.

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