When you lend friends or family a significant amount of money, do you sometimes call to remind them of the repayment plan?  I’m guessing a lot of you do.  What is surprising is that in a similar scenario for financial advisors, people don’t follow-up on the status of their investments.  Do people think just because the people they hire  have a piece of paper on the wall, that’s enough due diligence needed to make an informed decision?  Let me just say that you don’t have to look far in the newspapers to read about so and so an actor getting scammed of his money or that he got bad investment advice and now he’s broke.

The fact is, you cannot plead ignorance in your finances because it’s your life.  It hurts no one but yourself if you are clueless.

So how can you remedy this situation and become financially literate?  It helps if you learn from the best and the best investor in the world is Warren Buffett.  Warren Buffett stocks are known to be long term stock picks.  He doesn’t do the day trading thing which is so popular nowadays with the trading software and stock screeners now available.  Buffett does things the old fashion way and that is by buying good blue chip stocks that are undervalued.

The obvious question often posed is how can you determine undervalued stocks?  The answer lies by reading financial statements and making phone calls to the prospective company you want to invest in and making the exact phone call to the competitors.  This way, you get a good gauge of the industry from the horse’s mouth and the competitors.

Not a lot of people go through this trouble and just listen to the advise of their financial advisors.   In my opinion, no one cares more about your money than yourself so ultimately, it’s in your best interest to do due diligence.