Secret Code of the Superior Investor: How to Be a Long-Term Winner in a Short-Term World (Crown Publishing; $14) and Jim Collin’s Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap …and Others Don’t (Harper Collins; $27.50). Other great reads: Black Enterprise Guide to Investing by James A. Anderson (John Wiley & Sons Inc.; $19.95) and The Millionaire’s Club by Carolyn M. Brown (John Wiley & Sons Inc.; $19.95).
TAKE WORKSHOPS OR COURSES
Timmons obviously recommends attending seminars like those she offers or even taking courses on investing at a local college. There are also seminars sponsored by groups such as the American Association of Individual Investors (800-428-2244; www.aaii.com) in Chicago. For a $49 annual membership fee, investors can receive guidance on investments and tax issues.
UNDERSTAND UNIVERSAL INVESTING STRATEGIES
Make sure that your investment matches your goals and time horizon. “If you want to buy a home in five years, you wouldn’t invest that money in stocks because it’s too short of a time frame,” explains Timmons. “I would put the money in either a money market or a CD because the principal is protected, and it’s going to earn a higher level of interest than it would in a regular savings account.”
Timmons says, too often, people don’t want to do the work, whether it’s following a budget or reviewing financial statements. That’s because a lot of people just don’t get it: “How much you put into something determines how much you’ll get out of it.”