When was the last time you regret about investing your money somewhere? And when was the last time when you regret for not investing them? To me the first happens very rare, but the second - every day. Missing good opportunities is not the only mistake that small investors make.

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Keep your eye on any of the following:

1. Investing more than you can afford
Any chance that you have not done that ever? I do this mistake all the time. I see a good investment opportunity and am ready to arrange funds for it even if I am not in the best financial situation at that moment.

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Exactly one month ago I conducted a quick poll with you. Do you remember it - What is the main hurdle on your way to financial success?. If you have missed to vote, the poll is still open, please do it.

As I wrote at the time on posting it, I did not create the poll just for my pleasure. I wanted to understand what really is troubling you the most on your way to achieving your financial goals. On the second place are 33% of the readers who lose money because of bad investment decisions. We are already working hard on this together, don’t we? It’s a long process and I believe we’re all learning and doing better with the time. And don’t forget that making mistakes and losing money is not that bad.

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I don’t often participate in blog carnivals, neither bother you much with them, but this one has some real value. Visit the carnival at USNews and note that my real estate post was also included.

You’ll see some posts of the best personal finance bloggers there, so it’s worth reading. Almost as good as my monthly “link love” selection *grin*.

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Real estate investing is dumb. Really, see what happens after a mortgage crisis. If you just buy real estate because everyone says it’s cool you are making a stupid mistake. Real estate investing is dumb when done in the way everyone does it.

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If you put some thought into it however it might turn into a tool offering one of the best risk/ROI ratios in the investment world. I have two general strategies which work in almost every real estate market and almost independently on the current market conditions. The strategies are simple and not secret and they are quite involved. This is what makes them so good - no matter how many people know them, very few are those who use them well, so there is plenty place for you if you wish to try.

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Here are this month’s best blog entries about investing and finances. If you have something better, let me know in the comments.

The Simple Dollar is intriguing as always and writes How Consumer Culture Undermines Children’s Well Being. Nice stuff.

The Silicon Valley Blogger thinks it’s time to shift to frugal living. What’s your take?

The super cool blogger Punny Money thinks that budgets are overrated. Your drawings rock, mate.

My Dollar Plan gives 10 ways to eat out for less. 11th tip from me is to eat less outside.

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If you wonder what kind of investments work well for you and suit your character the following quiz should clarify the doubts you have. You may have some fun with the quiz but take the results seriously - many people take wrong investment decisions (as shown in the poll results as well) because they don’t follow the investment style which is most appropriate for them.

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I was researching for new good managed accounts since Galleon, FXCM and FxStreet aren’t doing great. There are several good ones which will be reviewed soon, but their minimums are between $25,000 and $50,000.

I wanted to find something with lower minimum and ended up at Pip City. Let me save you from further stories - this “company” is scam. They are completely anonymous and offer 25% fixed monthly ROI with $10,000 minimum. The “managed account” program is for six months.

How I know this is scam:

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Your main target as an investor is to make your money work for you, rather than you working for money. Most of us usually think about owning assets which can bring entirely passive income for years. And that’s fine.

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But buying ready asset which brings passive income is not always the best option for you. Here are some reasons for that:

• Such assets have high price. Said in another way, it means the assets which can be bought easily rare bring good yields. The easiest thing you can do is to have a bank deposit, but it will bring you just 3%-4% per year.

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I should probably call it super successful. This is a Livesctock futures & options trading account with amazing performance started on small test account.

The program is called MAP and is offered by Roger Show at Livestock CTA, LLC.

The trading is done on USA markets with futures on 25.00% Systematic and 75.00% Discretionary methodology.

Minimum account size: $25,000

Average yearly ROI: 95.84%

The average ROI is very very impressive but there is one important thing to consider. Judging by their charts they have just started accepting deposits and the past performance is based on account of $1,000 . This is at least what I can understand. Even this trading has some large drawdowns of 34% so consider this a really risky investment.

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Would you mind owning 50% in a billion dollar company?

“Then you need at least a half billion”.

No.

Most private investors don’t buy 50% of a billion dollar companies but many of them own such.

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The early bird gets the worm

The key to successful venture investing is to enter it as early as possible. For sure startup investing has made many people millionaires - for example Guy Kawasaki.

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