The Rise of Fake Gurus and the Trap People Fall Into

We all want to be rich, get a fancy sports car, and live in a luxury mansion. It is on everyone's wish list in their life. However, most of us do not come from a wealthy family or have a high paying job. We are stuck in a job that we probably dislike and suffering from an endless nine-to-five rat race. Because of wanting to find a solution to becoming wealthy, we often lured to an advertisement video content of how some gurus became wealthy. I am sure you have seen them before. It is usually someone telling you how they can transform your life through their so-called 'secret' business opportunity or the 10-step mastermind course. You will usually see these gurus driving that nice sports car or the mansion they live in.

I encounter these video ads when I am browsing videos on YouTube or scrolling through my Instagram App on my iPhone. As someone who also wants to achieve financial freedom, I want to learn the secret formula to become rich quickly. However, the truth is that to succeed in life financially is not as easy as you think. These gurus' campaigns that you usually see on the Internet are not telling the whole truth and only want to make money from you by purchasing their expensive course.

 

Many people out there fell to these traps; it makes me want to write an article on this topic. I want to inform readers about these gurus that claim to have the secret formula to becoming rich. In this article, I will explain why these gurus are fake and only wants your money. Signing up for their course will not teach you how to be rich, and you will only regret paying a large sum amount of money for information that can be found for free.  

Why Pfizer Stock is a Great Buy Now

As an investor, I have been looking around the stock market for stocks that pays out dividends and great value. I came across this company called Pfizer Inc. (Ticker: PFE) when I found out about a close friend of mine who is a value investor mentor, Chris Lee Susanto, who has invested in Pfizer Inc. as one of his stock position in his portfolio. I was attracted to this company because it was a stock that pays out dividends, but its price was trading at an attractive valuation.

Anyways, if you readers haven't heard of Pfizer Inc. (Ticker: PFE), let me introduce you to this company profile. Pfizer Inc. is an American multinational pharmaceutical corporation headquartered in New York City. In 2012, it was one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and ranked 57 on the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
 
Seeing my friend invested in this company had made me curious about the company. I decided to research my own on Pfizer Inc. and became interested in investing in it for my dividend growth portfolio. Pfizer Inc. stock has dropped 15% and climbed back to the price it was a quarter ago. It's currently trading at $37.20 (as of October 22, 2020) and yields 4.02%. 
 
After researching on my own on Pfizer Inc., I believe that this company has a potential upside. It was, of course, trading at a valuation that is attractive for many value investors. In this article, I would explain why Pfizer Inc. is an outstanding dividend growth stock currently trading at an excellent price for investors to buy. Moreover, Pfizer Inc. is a great company to invest in with or without a Covid-19 vaccine. This reason had led me to place Pfizer Inc. as my second-largest position in my stock portfolio. 

Benefits of Writing Your Own Book as an Entrepreneur

As an entrepreneur, I have been pretty ambitious to working many side hustles of my own. I have many ideas that I can one day monetize. One of the side hustle I am working on is actually writing a book about personal finance and stock investing. I have been writing this book during my spare time from working in my dad's company. It is currently not finished yet at the moment, but I have written close to forty-five pages so far.

I have zero experience and knowledge of becoming a book author. I do not expect for it to become successful at all. I enjoy working on this since it can be a great time to express the knowledge and experience to others out there. I already planned a mindset not to be discouraged if it does not succeed. I will be happy enough if people out there are willing to read the things I wrote. I hope the book I am currently working on can somehow help people out there.

 

I know readers probably think that writing a book of my own is a waste of time, and it is not easy to be monetized. A typical book author barely makes more than minimum wage. You receive an advance and 10% royalties on net profit from each book. If your book retails at $25 per copy, you would need to sell at least 4,000 copies just to break even on the $5,000 advance. 

 

 Yes, indeed, publishing a book is not an easy task. However, this does not stop me from working on it. I think there are many benefits to having a written book of your own. This is why I decided to write this article in regards to my own curiosity and a topic that I would like to share in this blog. From my research, I learned that writing your own book can make you some money on the side and come with many beneficial factors on the side. 

My Retirement Plan as of October 2020

It has been five years since I manage my own stock investment portfolio. When my older brother and I decided to split, our portfolio was in October 2015. I started with $400,000 capital when I started managing my own portfolio. Moreover, I have been contributing money ($2000/month) in the portfolio every month. Now, my portfolio is valued at $810,000 (As of October 12, 2020). That's a CAGR of 10% every year since October 2015. If I compare my portfolio performance to the S&P 500 performance, I actually underperform the market. I made many bad investment decisions during my journey; however, I learned from it. I hope for the future; I can make better decisions in investing.

New Year's, it's about to come soon. It's going to be in 2021 soon. I'm going to grow older, but I am still committed to my financial plan toward financial independence. Even though my portfolio has grown in value over the years, I think it is still far from the goal I want to achieve. I still want to keep working on my portfolios for another 15 years ahead before I start enjoying the passive income the portfolio will generate for me.