Introduction I have with me today a young lady who is not only my daughter but also is a professional podcaster and lives in the world of social media.

Social Media Growth - Facebook - Instagram - Twitter - Spotify - YouTube - Tumblr - Twitch - Pintrest

Today's youth trade on these platforms. But not typically with money but with time. They are trading their time.

What is the ROI on trading your time with Social Media?

Can anyone make money by publishing on Social Media?

What examples can you share with me where people have made money through Social Media?

You work with many clients to help them Podcast; do you consider podcasting a social media platform?

Do any of your clients make money through podcasting?

If you are going to trade not necessarily the markets but rather trade your sweat equity with Social Media; what are some tips you have for people to make money through social media?

It is always amazing to me how powerful fear and greed are. One time I was up in the mountains with my brothers and my Dad. We were watching for Elk and Deer and so we had separated ourselves to see if we could widen our search area. It was still early morning and it was very quiet; and I was alone. I heard a noise above me. I looked up the mountain and could see bushes moving and I could hear running. Perhaps it was a bear? Or maybe an elk?

Sometimes a moment in time can feel like forever. Finally the animal emerged from the trees and bushes. That is when I realized that it was a pack of 6 coyotes. They were running down the mountain fast and were coming right at me. I was struck with fear. They got closer and closer until they were about 10 yards away from me. I raised my hand to appear bigger and at that moment the front coyote saw me. I could tell from the look in its eye that it had not even seen me. It was shocked and the pack had so much momentum going that they couldn't stop. So they split right around me, 3 ran on one side of me and 3 ran on the other side of me and they just kept going.

There was some fear that ran thru my veins for a moment there as I thought they were attacking me and I was alone. Fear is powerful.

Fear and Greed are two of our biggest enemies when making investing or trading decisions. We can prepare ourselves mentally to make better decisions when we pre-frame our minds. But first we need to get in to the state.

If you are really serious about making good investment and trading decisions, then try this simple technique on a regular basis.

In a room with no distractions, sit in a comfortable chair with good posture, back straight, feet flat on the ground, arms resting on your lap or on the arms of the chair. Close your eyes and take a long, slow deep breath. Your goal is to fill your abdomen, not your chest, with air. Do this multiple times before you go work on the markets.

Fear has the ability to affect our physiology and narrow our ability to see the broader picture of what is going on around us. We have to be mindful of how powerful this is on our decision making. Greed has similar effects...causing us to ignore signs that tell us to stop.

I have experienced that. One time I made a trading decision and it turned out to be a bad decision. I looked at all of my parameters in the trading system and it turns out that if I would have actually followed my trading system I would have been ok.

This is the real crux of investing and trading. All the plans in the world mean nothing in this area; it comes down to executing on your good plans. It is about excellent and consistent execution.

Often our biggest problems come because we lack the patience to wait for everything to line up right. So, in an effort to feel like we are working or are being productive, we often skip a few parts of our trading systems and we jump in too soon and pay the price for it.

Fear, Greed, and I would add - LACK of PATIENCE are the biggest culprits from what I have seen.

Gaining the ability to execute your trading system consistently every time is the key.

What techniques have you learned to help you do this?

One of the best techniques I have found has been to make investment and trading decisions with a partner...another pair of eyes and a brain are critical. But, you should get yourself in to a clear mental state before you start using your hard earn money to approach high-leverage situations.

One thing is certain, be sure to stand tall and don't wait until the coyotes are 10 yards away before you make yourself known!!

Thanks for joining, and until next time, keep a lid on fear and greed!

One night we were driving our family up through the mountains. It was snowing and blowing and very hard to see. Typically some sort of road grime starts to build up and you begin using the windshield wipers on the back windshield. In this case the more I sprayed washer fluid on it the more smudged and clouded the back windshield.

Eventually we needed to pull over to get some gas for the car. As I was standing near the back of the car I took a moment to clean off the back windshield. At that moment I realized that it was not road grime or dirt, but it was oil. I got very worried at that moment, and, long story short, our transmission had begun leaking and was going out. Wow!

There are many kinds of investment and trading indicators to use. But often we don't interpret them correctly...just like I didn't interpret the smudge on my window.

What indicators do you use for making your investment and trading decisions?

Generally you want something that helps you see the movement of price over time; these are often moving averages. But which moving average should you use? That certainly depends on the frequency of your investment and trading decisions. If you are looking to trade for longer periods of time, then you will want to use daily, weekly and monthly-based moving averages.

But how many indicators do you need? You can go through a lot of time trying to figure out what is the right indicator set to use. We started with looking at price movements over time.

What if we took time out of the equation and just looked at price movement? There are some investors and traders who use those; things such as Range charts and Tick charts. Each bar on the chart reflects a range of movement, regardless of the time it took to move there.

There are other kinds of indicators such as the level of volatility in the market; and other indicators such as range of movement and regression. And there are oscillators, and volume-based indicators. Wow!

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!!

Here's a tip if you are looking to determine what to use. I have found it helpful to have multiple-timeframe charts, regardless of the level or frequency of my trading. Then to have several moving averages on each of those charts and also a way to visualize the level of volatility and momentum. That's it.

You can keep it pretty simple without too many indicators. Sometimes with too many indicators it is like getting oil smudged all over your car window and you cannot actually see what is going on.

So, keep it simple, and keep your eyes on the road!!

Thanks for joining, and until next time, Keep it Simple!!

Sometimes we make the dumbest decisions when our mental state is not right. I have plenty examples of doing that. One of the key lessons I have learned from investing and trading is that it really forces you to be self-aware...to know your personality and your current state.

For example, one time I was in the frame of mind, or, a mental state, that said that our kids are going to each whatever their good mother had prepared. Now in general we still stick to this...but...we have toned this down a bit.

One evening while eating dinner as a family one of our sons was not eating the artichoke heart that my wife had prepared. Eventually I asked him to eat it, to which he replied: "If I eat that I am going to throw up!" Well I stood my ground, that was the state of mind I was in...I just had to be right. He ate it out of respect, but not long after it came back up just as he promised!

I learned an important lesson that night...it caused a change of mind.

When we are trading, or making investment decisions we have to make sure we are in the right state of mind. Because there is a probability that the decision we are making is wrong. In many cases we don't want to accept that. To improve our probability of making good choices we need to examine our current state of mind.

What is that state? And how do we get in to that state?

Sometimes the market will help us get into that state; just like my son did. It is absolutely necessary if you are day trading, long term investing, or teaching money principles to children, or working on your budget, to get into the right state.

Let's start with first checking some signals in our own body and mind. For example, look for items like: - Am I tired? - Am I angry? - Am I Sad or Angry? - Do I feel anxious?

This is not an exhaustive list. I know a trader once who would not trade when family members were visiting; because he learned he could not focus and would make poor decisions.

In most cases in life we tend to remember more about events because of the strong emotional connection with the event. Having emotions that are pulling down on us when we are making decisions relative to money is a signal to us to step away.

Wherever you are on your financial journey, it could be learning how to budget, practicing saving, buying your first home, opening a savings account, buying stocks, or day trading...be sure to stop and evaluate your state of mind and get as clear as possible before making a decision.

If you don't do that, the whole situation could regurgitate on you...and we don't want that!

Thanks for joining, and until next time...KNOW YOUR STATE!!!

When I was a kid I saw an advertisement for a ghost in a magazine. They wrote the sales copy so convincingly...it basically said that this ghost would fly. What really hooked me was that they stated that it would 'obey my every command'! Well, I couldn't get my younger brother to obey my every command, so this seemed pretty enticing to me. I had been saving and saving my money; my parents insured that would happen.

Back then we couldn't just order on the Internet. I solicited the help of my parents. I showed them what a great deal this ghost was. It had a scary face, it had a long, draping body, it was white, and oboy, it would do what I told it to do.

My mother looked at me in amazement...she could tell I had been hooked. Oh how I wanted that ghost. After some complaining on my part my mom finally agreed to let me learn my lesson. She helped me retrieve some money from my bank account and supervised me as I wrote out the order and put it in the mail, along with the money.

It took an eternity...apparently ghosts have to travel from some other place far away in order to get to me...or so I assumed. I am sure it was only a few weeks...but for a young kid, that still represented a significant portion of my life.

The day came and the ghost arrived. I was beyond excited. My first confusion was that the package in which it arrived was so flat. Hmm...maybe the ghost self-inflates? I wasn't sure.

I pulled everything out of the package and started to follow the instructions. It turns out that the contents were very simple materials that I already had access to. This included, a balloon for the head that had a face drawn on it; some plastic wrap that represented its "draping body" and was connected to the "head" (the balloon) with a paper clip. The final piece was a string that connected to the balloon.

The way in which I would command the ghost would be to run around with it following me...obeying my every command. Within moments I realized that I had been duped.

Ha!

Sometimes our investment strategies may have similar components. The sales copy may be very convincing, but the elements of the investment are not what you thought they would be.

Sometimes we ask ourselves, should I keep my money in the bank or should I invest it in something else. We have to identify the risks of course. I have friends and acquaintances who have been duped by the sales copy and have lost a lot of money.

Investment areas such as real estate, the markets, new technologies and other areas are potential targets for scams.

As you know, don't just check the references THEY give you, but find other sources to verify what is being sold to you.

If you are not careful, it will end up being a ghost, that doesn't fly.

Thanks for joining me, and until next time...invest with care and watch out for fake ghosts!

The news comes in many forms today. A couple times when I was young I delivered news papers in the morning. During one point of my life we lived in the midwest...there were many times of delivering papers in the snow and cold mornings.

But there is one experience in particular that stands out. It was an early morning in the rocky mountain area on a Sunday morning. Back then the Sunday morning papers were quite large; there was the comic section, the coupon section, larger sports section, and other elements that made those papers large. My job was to get all the inserts into the already large paper and put a rubber band around them or put them in a plastic bag. From there I put the papers into a bag on my bike and off I went. As a delivery boy my goal was to get the paper into a location that would reduce the likelihood it would get run over by the car in the driveway, but also to avoid landing it in the flower bed and such.

On this particular Sunday morning the paper was unusually larger than normal. This required me to get off my bike a lot and run the paper up to the porch. I was in a hurry because I was later than normal. Now, I need to tell you about the stained glass panes that are often next to many front doors on people's homes. In this case as I ran up to the front door and threw the paper, I was going fast enough, and the paper was large enough, and my aim was bad enough, that the paper went right through the window...on an early Sunday morning.

I was looking through the hole of the window as the home owner came walking down the stairs in his robe.

It can be painful to get the news...as I proved it in this case.

Today Mr. Zuckerberg testified before a Congressional Committee...and what did Facebook's stock do? It rose over 4%.

Hmmm....do you trade the news? Do you invest based on the news? What was it about his comments that caused the price to rise so much? Or, did his comments have any impact on the price?

How do you make your investing or trading decisions? Is it based on fundamentals? Are you looking at technical analysis, or is it a combination of both?

I try to avoid news-based decision making when it comes to making an investing or trading decision. I do use technical analysis as a basis; but also consider other factors. Trading on the news can be risky approach. However, I have seen some groups really try to leverage that approach.

From my experience I find that at the most it is one element of input to decision making, but I caution you to not rely on that as the basis for your decision making.

One thing is certain, my job as a newspaper delivery boy did not last long after I delivered the news through the front pane glass that morning.

Thanks for joining...and until next time...watch out for flying newspapers!!

Many years ago one of our daughters was very much in love....it turns out she was in love with ice cream. Every effort was made to eat ice cream. Complex strategies were implemented by her to acquire more ice cream.

This began to affect her eating at dinner time; as she would some times get access to ice cream before dinner. This all came to a head one evening as we had just finished dinner; and some people in the family decided to have some ice cream for dessert. One of those people was our ice cream-loving daughter. So, she began to fill up her ice cream bowl.

As the family was eating the ice cream it became evident that this ice-cream loving daughter was not eating her ice cream. At that point I made a statement I never thought would come out of my mouth...I looked at her and said: "Young lady, if you are going to take all that ice cream, I am going to ask you to finish it."

With tears in her eyes she cried out, "Daddy, I don't want to finish my ice cream." She had maxed out on ice cream...and has had it under control ever since!!

Some times our financial cravings can have the same effect on us. We may feel a desire to binge and binge and binge on certain "financial foods"; it may be using our credit card, it may be spending on restaurants, or clothing we cannot afford...or whatever.

For some time it can "taste sooo good". But, much like our ice cream-loving daughter, it can get to a point where it is not sustainable and our financial picture crumbles. We can also make those kinds of mistakes in our investing or trading, or in how we allocate money in our budget. Where ever we are in our financial journey, having the ability to control our financial appetite can make the difference between satisfaction in our life and painful disappointment.

Some of it has to do with reaching the point where we are satiated...to stay with the food metaphor. When we eat food, we get to a point where our brain says "I am full", and "I am satisfied". Part of the trick to making these eating adjustments in our lives deals with helping our brain to declare we are satiated sooner rather than later. That can take some time to make those changes.

Being emotionally satiated financially has some similarities; finding the point where we can find satisfaction in how we deal with money, how we spend it and save it. Some times we are "full" or "satisfied" financially when we have the shopping bag in our hand as we leave the store. In other cases we may feel "full" or "satisfied" financially when we have saved money for the first time in a long time; or perhaps we were able to provide some assistance to someone.

A key tip here is to identify what gives us the emotional financial satiation; and to be honest with ourselves on that. Doing this exercise can give each of us some insights our on relationship with money and help us determine what some next steps are for us.

For me, I love Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. But there was a time when I couldn't get enough of the A&W Rootbeer shake...wow...just thinking back on that now still makes me quiver.

Where ever you are on the financial path, enjoy the journey.

Thanks for joining me, and until next time...let me know what your favorite ice cream is!

Part of my growing up included milking cows, hauling hay, and working the wheat fields. As a boy I recall watching my Dad milk cows by hand. The cats would gather around as he milked the cows. Occasionally he would direct the milk spray to the cats and they would lap up the milk, in sheer delight. He also had several buckets. One bucket was intended for family and other buckets would go into the large milk vat, that eventually would be sold. I watched this distribution of the milk regularly.

At one point I read a book, called the The Richest Man in Babylon. It's a great book, I highly recommend it. In the book, authored by George Samuel Clason back in 1926, he teaches a principle about how the Richest Man gathered his wealth, and distributed his income. He gave 10% to God, then he paid himself 10% (through savings) and then he would live on the rest.

Certainly we each have a level of resources to use and to distribute wisely. Just as important we should teach our children similar principles of thrift, giving, and wise use.

Now, despite all of this effort and wise preparation, sometimes the things that are providing the resources or paying us the money backfire on us.

This happened to me one time while I was milking the cows. As you know cows chew cud, and it transfers from one stomach to another as part of their digestive process. When they do this, they often cough and move the cud around. Anyway, I was milking the cows and was walking behind a cow who was doing 2 digestive activities at the same time. What I mean by this is she was coughing while she was, well, dropping some manure. Now, the timing was just perfect, because right as I passed behind her she coughed hard while doing the other thing I already mentioned.

The result was that I was plastered with manure. The force was so strong that the outline of my body could be seen on the wall next to me.

And, so it is with financial matters. We need to apply the simple, basic principles of giving to God, and saving (which is paying ourselves) and using wise judgement with the remainder of our resources. Because at some point in our journey through life we will get crapped on and we need to have the resources, and God's help for that matter, to help us through it.

Be sure to teach these principles to the people in your life. Establish some simple systems to track your money management and also set up some accountability to others in your life.

It is generally by small and simple things, that great things are brought to pass.

My name is Grant, thanks for joining, and until next time, ...umm...be prepared for flying crap!! ;-)

Jefferson Starship sang a song many years ago called "Jane". Some of the words went..."Jane you're playing for fun, but I play for keeps!" I believe the market is like that. You cannot approach the market like it is for fun; at some point the market will play for keeps and our investment or our trade gets whacked.

I do a stock report for a trading community called Tackle Trading... you ought to check them out. There are a set of criteria I walk through to evaluate stock opportunities. While there are many criteria one should look through, I will not list them all; but here are a few critical ones.

1. Establish well-used moving averages The reason why this is important is because you want to see common areas where other traders or investors are making decisions. That is key, on every investment or trade you make someone is taking the other side of that investment. What do they see that you don't? What else do you need to be considering to build your confidence in your position? Take a moment to evaluate the other side of the investment or the trade and what they are considering.

Now some of this has to do with how you view your participation level in the market. If you consider you are a short term trader then you watch these moving averages very closely. If you are a longer term investor then you will still use them, but your frequency is certainly not at the same level.

What moving averages do you use? I suggest you have three moving averages.

2. Identify multiple time-frames to view the instrument your investing in or trading Once again the time frames you use will vary based on the kind of investor or trader that you are.

Here's a key tip: create moving averages on your charts that represent different timeframes! That has made all the difference for me.

Sometimes charts can get so busy, it is very difficult to get a cohesive view. Create a cohesive view and it will be a positive impact for you.

Much of this will require you to train your eyes to recognize opportunities. Over the years I have learned that it is the discipline TO the system more often than it is the system that is most critical.

How do you or I act, meaning how do we execute our system? That is a more critical part of financial investing. What rationale did you or I use to justify breaking a rule in our system?

One time I was hiking in the mountains; I was with a group of people, but we decided to split up and check out different parts of the mountain. We each had a GPS; and we had save the pin or the location of our camp. As night approached I decided to start heading back. It was a full moon, I had plenty of food and water and even some shelter I could create if needed. There was snow on the ground. The mountain was quiet. Almost too quiet.

I started back and it was dark now, other than the light of the moon. I was using my GPS to guide me back. However, with the light of the moon I could see the contour of the mountain, it sloped down to the left of me, and so did the trail I was on. Eventually I got to a point where my GPS was telling me to go to the right. However, my eyes and my brain were telling me to go to the left. I had an internal battle regarding which way to go. Am I going to use my instruments (my system) or will I go with what appears to be the correct way.

I ultimately decided to follow my system; at least in this case I did. I haven't always done that. I am grateful that I did, as the GPS was correct and I went up and over a mountain pass and down the other side to my camp.

Our investing and trading systems need to be followed; even when we have some indication things are going a different direction.

3. Find some way to represent momentum It is critical to have a representation of momentum on your charts; regardless of the kind of investor or trader that you are.

Sometimes short term momentum can mess with our minds and we get succored into a position. So, please note, that all of these items are to be taken together.

You want CONFLUENCE...you want them to work together.

So, when it is time to choose an opportunity for investment or trading evaluate: 1. moving averages 2. price action on multiple timeframes 3. momentum

Well, the market plays for keeps, but, according to Jefferson Starship it sounds like Jane was just playing for fun. Don't play for fun with your money...get a system and stick with it.

Thanks for joining, and until next time...stick with your system!

As part of our journey with helping children to develop a healthy relationship with money my wife and I determined to give them opportunities to earn money in our home before they were ever able to work outside the home.

I will share one such approach we did to help them learn how to plan, budget, hire, invoice, pay others, and pay themselves.

I called it the YARD MANAGER.

Each child has taken turns being the yard manager. They are given a budget for expenses like gas for the mower, fertilizer, and also a list of of chores and tasks that need to be done.

Each task has a monetary value, such as pulling weeds would be worth $4 for a certain part of the yard. The idea is that the yard manager can hire their siblings or others to do the work. They need to sell them on the task, and the pay associated with it. Or if the yard manager wanted all the money then he/she could do it all themselves.

If we needed to remind the yard manager more than once to get the work completed then there would be no pay. Some weeks when the child who was in the role of the yard manager needed more money it was done by them and other weeks they would hire out the parts they did not want to do. Almost everyone has hired out weeding, and in some cases there were times where money was taken from other tasks to pay a higher rate for weeding.

There was one other stipulation that was critical...and that was invoicing. The yard manager had to send us an invoice outlining the work that was done and the amount for the tasks. As parents we would inspect the quality to insure it was sufficient. This process focuses on building young people more than it does on getting a perfect yard.

There were times where the invoice did not come and so those who had been hired were not getting paid. The hirelings (namely their siblings) provided sufficient pressure to cause the invoices to get created.

There were many weeks where the yard manager had done all the work but did not send an invoice. They learned the value of timely invoicing.

At first each child did not want to be the yard manager, but as the lessons were internalized and as they matured they have all commented on this impact of this and other opportunities to gain a healthy relationship with money.

These kinds of systems help each of us have a healthy relationship with money. We have developed systems to help families teach children about finances.

Thanks for joining, and until next time, give your children financial responsibility.