ICLUB Insider |
September 10, 2004 |
THE LATEST NEWS ON
NAIC SOFTWARE BUILT BY ICLUBCENTRAL INC.
Summary
As I travel to NAIC Chapters across the country, teaching
about NAIC principles and how to put the power of your
personal computer to work to help build a successful
portfolio, I'm always delighted when I can help individuals
and clubs "see the light" and understand that software is
key to the process of investing.
At one Investor's Fair last year, I met members of one
newly-formed club whose members attended en masse, eager to
soak up the knowledge that comes from the educational
classes that are often part of these events. They each
scribbled notes as rapidly as I spoke (or at least they made
a valiant attempt at keeping up, considering how quickly I
can talk, particularly when I'm enthusiastic about the
subject matter!). During my presentation, I ran through the
usual benefits of using NAIC Software, and how these
programs can be used to harness the often-confusing (to
newbies) Stock Selection Guide. As usual, I described the
features of each program, and the type of investor for which
each SSG software is best suited.
After my presentations, I packed up my laptop and headed out
to the lobby where the chapter had a table set up to handle
registrations and sales of NAIC Software. The volunteer
behind the table greeted me with the question, "Exactly what
did you talk about in your class, Doug? We're completely
sold out of NAIC Classic Plus!"
It seems that after my talk, members of a single club had
all made a beeline for the sales table and each one of them
had bought a copy of NAIC Classic Plus, completely depleting
the inventory on hand! The members of this club, after
seeing Classic Plus in action, had decided that this was the
software for them. The lightbulbs went off over their heads
and they saw that Classic Plus would not only get them up to
speed on the SSG, but would also serve them well in the
future as they became more experienced with NAIC-style stock
analysis and delved into portfolio management. Plus, as they
all learned the software and the SSG together, they could
support each other in the effort, and share their completed
stock studies by e-mail.
Upon reflection, it's not hard to understand NAIC Classic Plus's appeal. After all, here's a program that covers the
basics of the Stock Selection Guide, has copious amounts of
interactive help, features a step-by-step learning mode that
assumes that you don't know anything about the SSG -- and
then lets you switch to experienced mode once you've got the
basics under your belt. And the price -- just $79 for NAIC
members -- won't break your bank, especially when you
consider that it only takes one good stock pick made using
the program to make back your investment in the software. (I
won't go into how many cappuccinos you could give up, or how
long it might take to collect enough loose change from your
pockets at the end of a typical day in order to save $79,
but feel free to do the calculations on your own.)
The late NAIC volunteer Dick Kenfield (for whom the NAIC
Computer Group's Kenfield-Burris Award is co-named) used to
remind investors to "keep it simple" when it came to the
SSG. While there will always be investors who enjoy digging
deep into every aspect of a company's operations, the SSG
itself is the key that unlocks much of the mystery about a
stock.
If your club is struggling with the SSG, don't you owe it to
yourselves to make the move to NAIC's official SSG learning
software? Keep it simple, keep it real, and in no time at
all you'll be investing like a pro.
To order your copy of NAIC Classic Plus, or get more
information, please visit http://www.iclub.com/classic/.
The Investor Advisory Service (IAS) web site has moved from
its old home on the NAIC site (www.better-investing.org), to
our ICLUBcentral site at http://www.iclub.com/investing/ias.
This move will enable us to provide our users with easier
navigation, clearer renewal notices and a simplified
subscription renewal process. Down the road, we'll also be
able to offer enhanced search capabilities and other online
features.
We encourage all IAS users to explore the new web site as we
get it up and running in advance of the publication of the
October issue later this month. The NAIC site will stop
hosting IAS starting with the next (October) issue.
Please go to the new site and take note of the following
items: - If you have an NAIC Online Club Accounting (NOCA)
username and password, you may use your NOCA login
information to access online IAS.
- If you do not currently
have a NOCA login, you will need to set a new username and
password for IAS by using the email address we have on file
that is connected to your IAS subscription.
- Make sure you
update any IAS bookmarks that previously directed you to the
NAIC's IAS site.
If you are having problems with our new IAS site, please
don't hesitate to contact IAS Customer Support at
(617) 661-2582, ias@iclub.com, or visit our support
resources on the web at http://www.iclub.com/support.
If you would like to log in to the online version of IAS,
but you are not currently subscribed, you can subscribe or
get more information by visiting http://www.iclub.com/ias.
Besides entering monthly deposits and transactions, the most
important duty a treasurer can complete is backing up your
club's data. Our support department often encounters users
who lose their hard drive only then to discover that their
club accounting data is forever lost because an export was
never done.
While the software will remember your data input every time
you launch the program, that is not enough. We recommend
that every month you do an export to a floppy disk to ensure
you always have a copy of your club's information. This will
also ensure you can easily transfer your club's data to
another computer or a new treasurer. You can also use this
feature to act as a reference point to go back to when
dealing with complicated transactions.
Simply go to ACCOUNTING > UTILITY SECTION > EXPORT > EXPORT
TO A FLOPPY.
If you do not have a floppy disk, you can always select
"Custom location," and have the file saved to a place on
your hard drive of your choice. (Though remember that this
won't help you if your hard drive crashes!)
That's it! Now your club's information is saved to a disk
for safe keeping. It stores the data in a file called
NCADATA located in a folder with the CLUBNAME under the
BACKUP folder. You can then load this backup when needed by
selecting the IMPORT feature.
For help with NAIC Club Accounting or any other ICLUBcentral
software program, please visit http://www.iclub.com/support/.
I recently spoke with a friend who I had been urging to
begin investing. I tried to impress upon him the great
benefits he could accrue and how time would be his biggest
ally. He read an article I wrote on the effects of
compounding and was really receptive to the idea of starting
investing. He is a younger guy in his mid-twenties with a
wife and a child, a house and a couple of cars; and he is
still a long way off from retirement.
Investing is laying out money now to get more back in the
future. It sounds easy and it truly is. With every dollar
you earn you get a choice. You can do one of two things with
it. These two choices and in what proportion you choose,
will have a profound effect on your wealth. You can either
keep your dollar or spend it. This simple concept has proven
very illusive for many in our society. If you spend that
dollar it is gone forever. You will never get it back. If
you choose to keep your dollar you can keep it for as long
as you like. There is no rule for how long you can keep what
you earn; you can keep it and make it labor for you for as
long as you live if you like. This is where the story starts
to get good.
A dollar can be used to purchase any of the goods and
services available in society. You will be encouraged to
purchase many of both with great frequency and many do. It
is quite difficult to invest when you are spending more than
you make. If this describes you, you are not keeping enough
of your dollars. More than a few of my friends and neighbors
have healthy upper middle class incomes. Many also live
paycheck to paycheck. I have other friends who do not make
nearly as much and save over 10% of their income. They have
made a conscious choice to keep many of the dollars they
earn. They also have enslaved these dollars for their own
benefit.
When you spend less than you make you have money left to
invest. As I implored my friend, I will implore you to begin
investing if you do not already and congratulate you if you
do. For me investing implicitly means the stock market. This
is my method of choice for having my money toil for me. No
matter what you choose you will experience the joys of
growing your wealth through compounding.
To continue reading more on "Everyone Can Invest: Keep Some
of Your Dollars," please visit http://www.ebcia.com/content.htm.
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Copyright 2004 ICLUBcentral Inc. All rights reserved.
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