Full Disclosure: I am not a certified financial planner, nor do I sell investments, insurance products, or other similar financial products. My goal in sharing this information is to shed light on a topic that few people understand well. It is my hope that this information will help inspire more people to climb the I Was Broke. Now I’m Not. Ladder (download a free copy HERE) and become wise investors so they can live fully funded lives.

Throughout the month of October, we have been heavily focused on investing. I wanted to end the month by sharing my current investments. I do not recommend specific investments. I can only tell you the investments I own, and that they have worked well for me. The investments that you choose are up to you. I update this list of investments every March so make sure you are on the lookout.

Below is a chart of my current investments – click on the chart itself to download a printable version.
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There was a point in my life where I came to the realization that I needed to find oxen in my life and start getting my money to work for me. From an average bank balance of $4.13, I have since acquired multiple oxen and experienced a truly abundant harvest. In my book, Oxen, I share these principles along with step-by-step instructions so that you too can win with your money. Check out this excerpt from my book and make sure you grab a copy for yourself.

“Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest.” Proverbs 14:4

Imagine a farmer who was responsible for farming a full section of 640 acres, which is one square mile of land. Imagine if he decided to “do it all on his own” and attempt to plow all the ground without oxen. It doesn’t matter how strong and energetic the farmer is, it would be an impossible task. For me, just hoeing a small garden in my backyard wears me out! The farmer might be able to do enough work to produce food for the family to eat, but the potential for an abundant harvest would be impossible.

Don’t miss the point here because it is vital to understanding oxen ownership. A farmer knows it is impossible to reap an abundant harvest without oxen. The same is true for all of us even if we aren’t farmers.

If I continued managing my money without the help of financial oxen, the opportunity for an abundant harvest would be greatly limited. After all, there was only so much I could accomplish on my own. Like most people, I was working a “Work, get paid. Don’t work, don’t get paid.” job. Even if I worked twelve hours every day, there was a limit to how much I could earn on my own. My earnings would allow me to feed my family, but without a serious change to the way we managed our money, the income would probably only be enough to maintain our household. We would continue to be stuck in the “empty manger” cycle cleaning out the manger each month and then standing around waiting for the next paycheck to arrive. The worst realization of all was knowing that even if I worked the next fifty years of my life, my income would cease the moment I chose to retire. It became imminently clear that I needed oxen in order for my family to experience abundance.

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Do you want to learn more about how you can acquire and maintain oxen? You can get my book Oxen for 20% off plus free shipping by clicking HERE. Offer valid through the month of October of 2018

Many people are hesitant to begin investing because they think that it is some incredibly complicated venture that is only for the uber wealthy. I am here to tell you that it is not that difficult and you can (and should!) get started today at some level.

Most people feel this apprehension towards investing because they do not really know how to tell if they are making a sound investment. There is some research that you can do to make this decision. In fact, I have a process that I go through when deciding if a mutual fund, specifically, is a good investment. Here are the questions I ask when I get ready to make an investment:

1. Do I like the product or service they are delivering? Do my children like it? I want to like a product that I am going to invest in first and foremost. If I like a product there is a good chance other people will like it as well. The same holds true for if I dislike a product or service.  
2. Is the company profitable? Does the company share those profits with shareholders in the form of dividends? I do not typically invest in companies that are not profitable although there are a lot of people that have made a lot of money off of their stock. When I invest in a company I want to see that they can move an idea towards profitability.
3. What is the P/E? Once I know if a company is profitable, I next look at the P/E or the price to earnings ratio. This is calculated by finding the earnings per share (the total profits of the company divided by the total number of shares) and the current price of the stock. The P/E is calculated by dividing the price by the current earnings per share. I want to see a P/E that is less than 20 and ideally less than 10. Now, do not freak out about having to calculate this number every time you want to invest. You can simply google the company name followed by P/E ratio and easily find out.
4. What is the vision of the company? Do I like the leadership and the direction they are headed?

To find this information, I typically utilize several different websites including finance.yahoo.com, money.cnn.com, and schwab.com.

As you can see, investing does not have to be super complicated or involve a lot of intense research. When picking mutual funds it can be as simple as checking out their products, leadership and vision and then doing a quick check to make sure they are profitable. If you can put a check mark next to those four boxes, you can probably say that you are making a good investment.

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Do you want to learn more about how you can acquire and maintain oxen? You can get my book Oxen for 20% off plus free shipping by clicking HERE. Offer valid through the month of August of 2018

Want more tips like this one?  Subscribe to the Monday Money Tip Podcast HERE.