THOUGHT FOR WEDNESDAY 18 JUNE 2008
From top share author MALCOLM STACEY
Hello Crazy Gang,
I don't know about you, but I'm constantly fascinated by the strange comparisons of life. For example, why do we spend time trying to get a few quid off a new washing machine? And the next minute, we lash out £3,000 on an exotic holiday.
I mean after all, after a week, the £3,000 has disappeared down a hole. The holiday is over. (And by the way, if you don't haggle over the price of a washing machine in a high street store, then you need your brains washing).
Any road up, we are so silly about money. It's a case of a penny wise and a pound foolish every time.
Take shares for example. you buy £500's worth of Treacle Holdings on the trading arm of Sharecrazy.com. But would you have been quite as fast to part with your dough, if you'd been required to count it over in five pound notes in the broker's office. That's 100 five pound notes!
Probably not. I know I would feel very uneasy about handing over a pile of real fivers. But I don't turn a hair at spending £500 on Treacle Holdings with a click of my mouse on Sharecrazy.com.
But it's a jolly good thing I can invest electronically, otherwise I might be too sacred to buy shares at all. And if I'd never bought shares, I would not be living a nice easy life doing nothing very much - but clicking about doing a bit of relaxed share speculation.
So it's a matter of comparisons. You would not spend £500 on a bottle of wine, though some do. But you might well fork out £500 for shares, especially if you'd consulted Sharecrazy fellow investors and the site's experts and done your homework.
But then again, an investment is not buying, like ordinary buying. The asset may appreciate in value once you've got it. Not many things do that. Of course, some shares don't do it, either. So never invest what you can't afford to lose. But you've heard that before, I know. Rocking on.
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