Engage with your fellow Fools to find great investments -- that's the message from the boards this week.
A glorious light
One of the things we really love to hear is a great story of lightbulb moments and happy dances, and we make no apologies for featuring them here whenever we can. What am I talking about? Our Dealing With Debt board, of course -- the lightbulb moment is when you switch on to the hard fact that you really have to tackle your debts, and the happy dance is what you do when the last penny is paid back.
We're delighted to offer our congratulations this week to Sassyka...
"Just over 5 years ago, I found this board and I was in a desperate state, just over £20k in debt. Persistent phone calls from creditors and raiding the loose change jar, just to get a bus fare to work.
I found the Fool and the lightbulb was well and truly switched on (low energy of course!) I learned to budget and to change my mindset as to whether I really needed something. I still have a few treats now and again but most importantly, I keep an eye on the bank balances."
Her story should be an inspiration to others in similar situations.
Music to our ears
A core goal of the Motley Fool is to help people educate themselves, and each other, about all aspects of investment, and our boards often throw up great discussions which are much more in-depth than any one author could hope to achieve. We have a great example which has been running all week, started by Carmensfella...
"A very quick heads up as it is the Music Box Leisure interims announcement tomorrow morning and I fully expect them to be excellent especially compared to the prior year interims which were very satisfactory at 20% eps growth on prior year (2007). This time round I can see eps growth at nearly double that figure and as the brokers are expecting a flat year in their forecasts it should boost the share price and see broker upgrades follow."
Others, like paulypilot, are more cautious...
"A lot of friends are in MUBL, but I always find myself drawn to urge caution on this one, for the following reasons;
1) It's just a distributor, hence there are no real barriers to entry. The nature of the business is that there is always someone ready to undercut you. So margins constantly under squeeze from competition and customers."
For the rest of his reasons, and for a lot more great contributions, you'll have to read the whole discussion.
Don't let others lose your money
At the Fool, we generally aren't too fond of managed investment funds, which charge a lot of money for experts to choose where to stash your cash. It seems that Miner1000 agrees with us...
"Sometime around the end of 1981 or early 1982 I bought £600 worth of units in the Target Malaysia and Singapore Fund. My experience with this holding has taught me a few lessons that I have found to be pretty useful during later attempts at becoming an investor. If anyone has the time or inclination to read on, here is what I learned..."
That fund got merged with others and went through all sorts of changes before it reached its high point...
"... the 1990's were not a great period for Japanese companies and you will not be too surprised to learn that there was no income that I am aware of during that decade, although I have to admit that the value of my 435 units did reach an amount of £1,062 in November 1999."
If you want to discover the final value, you'll have to read on -- but suffice to say that Miner100 is managing his own high yield portfolio now.
And finally...
As squiffs has observed, it's the time of year when lots of us dress up in silly red outfits.
Last week's roundup: Reading The Symbols And Signs
