The BEST Investments for ANYONE should ALWAYS be based on the RESULT.  The successful investor is able to correlate an investment to a result – and not just a return.

Rather than Successful investing I prefer to use the term Intelligent Investing.  Why?  Success can come in many shapes and forms.  Intelligent Investing is more about Purpose.  Reason.

I was chatting to a private client just last week and he made the comment that he had surplus funds ‘not doing anything’.  But did not have the time to analyse all his options.  And wanted to pay someone to do it for him.

Now there are many folk around who will take your money to conduct analysis.  And in some cases this is money well spent.  I would encourage everyone to spend a bit of time and get clear on what you actually want to achieve.

When considering what you want to invest in, here are 5 very important considerations you MUST take the time to document.  To write down – not just think about.  In your decision making process:

#1  Liquidity – How quickly can you sell and get your initial capital back?  Do you need the option to get your initial investment back quickly?  If so, how quickly.  Days, Weeks, Months. 

#2  Returns – What are the annual returns of the investments you are looking into?  Do you have a minimum that you want to achieve? Or a baseline where you will consider opportunities above a certain return.  Are your decisions based on a percentage (%) or a dollars ($) return.

#3  Payment Frequency – are the returns paid annually, more or less frequently (eg. every 2 years or maybe every 6 months).  Do you want returns paid to you annually, bi-annually or maybe even quarterly.  The more regular, possibly the more choice you have.  However the more inclined you could be to ‘waste’ the funds as well.

#4  Investment Time – how long do you wish to invest for.  Noting once committed you can’t simply change you mind.  Are you in for 1 year, 3 years or longer.  Is it short term – maybe even just months.  Medium term 2-4 years.  Or longer term 5 – 10 years.

#5  Purpose / Intent – what are you trying to achieve?  At the end of the day, what’s it all for.  What is your investment RESULT aligned with to achieve in your personal life.  How will this provide you an experience that you value.

Whilst these may not be the ONLY factors to consider, these are by far the most important.  I would even write these down on the left hand side of a page.  Write your investment options along the top of the page.  And then simply ‘tick n flick’ which ones match your criteria.

This is an excellent method to quickly analyse your initial options before then getting into the details.