‘Johnny come lately’ on investment

In the autumn of 1903 a little known Italian young man arrived in Boston on the East coast of the US. His exploits in the financial circles stretched from Montreal in Canada to Florida and back to Italy. Charles Ponzi soon acclimatised to the US and set up a get rich quick business in International Reply Coupons (IRCs). He managed to defraud subscribers to his money making scheme of around USD 20 million in a single year!Thanks to this disingenuous con artist, the English lexicon was endowed with a new phrase “the Ponzi scheme”. The phrase has come to denote any money making endeavour that revolves around raising funds from new members to pay dividends to existing members. These kinds of schemes are outlawed in most countries. In Rwanda, a similar venture appeared around 2008 under the name of “black stone” but was quickly dismantled by the central bank’s intervention.Charles Ponzi arrived in Boston with USD 2.50 and ‘a million dollars in hopes’ according to a New York Times article. Perhaps that was a veiled tribute to another famous fraudster named William Miller who managed to raise a million dollars from gullible investors by promising 10% profit per week.The fascination of the human race with “Get rich quick” schemes has become a major stay in our collective history. More recently the Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford affairs have left gaping holes in the credibility of the US financial markets. Perhaps it’s fitting that the largest financial frauds occur in the US. Nowhere in the world is speculation actively encouraged than in the financial markets which are the cornerstone of the world’s largest economy. In the guise of haute finance, that most basic of primal instincts is betrayed. Apparently the notion that ‘greed is good’ is still espoused today. Be that as it may, there is also such a thing as having too much of a good thing. As we all know, too much of anything (even a good thing) is bad. There is no exception when it comes to investment. When the returns on an investment seem outrageously high, it’s time to hold your wallet tight and do a runner.The world’s pre-eminent investor Warren Buffet aka the sage of Omaha, puts it simply; “Do not speculate, invest!” Doing our homework may not be the most exciting thing but before throwing money into something, it is well worth going through the tedium of knowing what it is we are investing in.The more cautious amongst us may be drawn to conclude that it is better to hold onto one’s resources rather than risking their loss through investment. After all it is claimed that a bird in hand is better than two in the bush. Here lies the great paradox of wealth creation. For ones resources to grow, they must continuously be exposed to the risk of loss through re-investment.Return on investment or profit therefore represents the reward for the risk taken in exposing one’s resources to possible loss. The answer to the tricky question of whether a bird in hand is really better than two in the bush now becomes “it depends”. It depends on whose hand the bird is in and what opportunities are available in the bush.In 1926, a seminal book on the creation of wealth was written by George S Clason. The book was titled, “the richest man in Babylon”. This remains as relevant today as it was acclaimed in decades gone by. Its charm is in the simplicity of the storytelling. What is clear from the book is that anyone with a job has a chance of becoming wealthy in their own life time as long as they work consistently anywhere between twenty to thirty years. It clearly outlines the process of wealth creation from learning a trade to saving and consequently making wise investments. I recommend it to all young people striving to attain financial security.Forbes magazine an American publication dedicates its pages to covering the ins and outs of the wealthiest people on earth. What’s peculiar about these people is that not many of them set out to accumulate wealth for its sake. It seems that behind every great fortune is not a great crime but a great passion.The emergency of technology billionaires in the 1990s like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and Larry Ellison is true testament to this. With the internet came the surge of the hobbyist as entrepreneur. First it was Netscape and Yahoo then it was Google and Amazon and now its facebook and Twitter. It is clear that in today’s world, the avenues of making money are endless. The challenge remains in converting those initial earnings into perpetual income. Everyone has heard “a rags to riches and back to rags again” story. These are prevalent among talented individuals who rise to prominence at a tender age, ill prepared in the ways financial management. Think Mike TysonSports icons like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and David Beckham have defied this trend. It is not sheer luck; they did things differently. They allowed reputable professionals to manage their money for them.They observed the third law of Gold (wealth) according to George S Clason in “the richest man in Babylon” The law states that “Gold clingeth to the protection of the cautious owner who invests it under advice of the men wise in its handling”Rwanda today is burgeoning with investment opportunities. Unfortunately, among these myriad opportunities lies a ‘snake oil salesman’ or two.As we seek to grow our pots of gold, let us not be victims of smooth tongued Ponzis of this world.

Opinions

‘Johnny come lately’ on investment