Investing

Alpine man accused of widespread investment scam

Read the article. It should have been obvious to anyone investing that the profits involved were a bit unreal. The very obvious Ponzi structure should also have been a tip-off.

We can easily be blinded when there is an offer of so much money to be made - and it seems so easy.

Just as Judas used his position of trust to steal from the church, there are even some in the Church who use positions of trust to convince others to join them:

Man accused in $20 million Ponzi scheme involving Utahns

Apostles and Prophets have repeatedly warned against this sort of problem, as in a recent letter from the First Presidency of the Church.

After recommending avoiding debt and living within our means, they recommend that "Consideration should also be given to investing wisely with responsible and established financial institutions."

For me, this means that I don't invest my money with friends and family, even if I trust them. I stick to an established investment firm with low-maintenance accounts.

Since savings accounts and checking accounts offer, at best, interest that doesn't even cover the cost of inflation, it makes sense once we have enough extra money saved to move some into stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

There are many companies that provide this type of service. We use the one we do because it offers the features we need.

1. It only requires $3000 to open an account, with no annual fees if I receive my statements by e-mail.
2. We can choose between a variety of mutual funds, targeting different levels of risk tolerance.
3. I can have part of each paycheck automatically deposited into the account and invested into whichever funds I want. Basically, I only have to even look at it every few months.

Basically, I'm using the type of "Lazy Investing" described in an article on Get Rich Slowly: "The Lazy Way to Investment Success".

When we enter into high-risk, unrealistically high-yield or high-maintenance investments, we can begin to focus so much on money that we may begin to indulge in the "Love of money".

We don't want to make the foolish mistake of the man who buried his money in the ground, but nor should we become people who seek first for money.

"But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God." Jacob, 2:18

Also see 2 Nephi 2:26, Are You Honest to the Core? (Ensign, February 1990)