Credit Crunch

All of my stocks are significantly lower than they were last week.

If you’ve read any of my previous investment posts then you know I’m a novice who is learning by doing when it comes to stocks. And in the process of learning some valuable lessons (read: in the process of experiencing a net loss of 20% of my investments) I’ve learned to pick some decent stocks. Stocks with positive balance sheets, for instance.

Then the credit crunch kicked into high gear.

Here’s the thing: Only 1 of the 6 stocks I own is actually kicking out any kind of dividend. That is, only 1 of them is actually earning money. All the rest of my stocks may become profitable for investors someday – and there are signs that they would in a normal market – but they aren’t profitable right now. Right now they’re all really dependent on their credit in order to continue and to expand operations and become profitable.

And credit is hard to get right now.

Guess how my stocks are doing!

I’ll tell you: I’ve now experienced a net loss of 40% - and this time without having learned anything except not to put my money in the stock market