The 2022 Opportunity: This will make us rich! (insha Allah)

Recently the Federal Reserve made one thing abundantly clear:

Interest rates have further to rise and once there they will stay elevated for some time.

That is to say, the Federal Reserve’s policy will be restrictive for the foreseeable future, which means asset prices will likely be depressed for some time.

As an investor, this is a massive opportunity.

I look at it as a chance for me to set myself up for the rest of my life and I think a lot of you can do the same if you follow the steps that I’m going to lay out in this article.

The Last Ball Run

The last bull run lasted nearly 13 years and started after the last great recession of 2008 and 2009.

At the time, I was not in a position to take advantage.

• I graduated in 2012
• I had nothing to  my name except for student loans
• I entered a  corporate job wherein most of the excess income I earned went to pay off my student loans.

After I got married in 2018 I wanted to make sure that I was working on something that I loved before I accumulated more responsibilities with kids. So I left my corporate job at the beginning of 2019 to follow what I was passionate about which is Islamic Finance and Halal Investing. I ended up dabbling in several different projects and in these 3 short years, I feel like I’ve learned so much as an entrepreneur and I’m finally getting into a rhythm.

Alhamdulillah with Practical Islamic Finance, now is my chance to lean in heavily into investing drawing from the lessons that I’ve learned in the last 10 years, and set myself and my family up financially for the rest of my life InshaAllah and I think you can too.

The 2022 Opportunity

Perhaps you’re like me and you missed the last bull run. Now we’re in a period of the investing life cycle wherein the payoff from investing becomes exceptionally high.

Let me illustrate what I mean exactly with an example:

Let’s say a price target for a particular stock is $100. By “price target” I mean what we think it’s going to reach in price in the next 12 months

if you don’t know how to come up with price targets consider becoming a PIF member, we provide price targets along with buy and sell prices for a large number of stocks and cryptos to our premium and elite members.

If the stock with a price target of $100, currently has a price of $90 then:

The Potential Profit = $100 (price target) – $90 (current price) = $10

potential profit/investment = $10 / $90 = 11%

Now assume this stock drops 45% to $50 per share (which a lot of Tech and Growth Stocks have as of late):

The potential profit = $100 (price target) – $50 (investment outlay) = $50

potential profit/investment = $50/$50 = 100%!

So let’s say you’re investing $90. Rather than earning $10 you now have the potential of earning $90!

This is the power of a market downturn for investors who know what they’re doing.

Who knows if history repeats itself it might be another 12-13 years before we have a similar opportunity.

How to Take Advantage of the Opportunity?

1. Know your numbers

You need to make sure you are tracking every dollar of income and every dollar of expense.

If you’re a full-grown adult you need to be doing this. Not doing this is amateur. Evolve into a professional and track your numbers.

There are many services today that allow you to track your income, expenses, investments, and net worth and make it as seamless as possible

I personally use a service called Rocket Money

I think it’s a great service and it’s completely free to use.

You don’t have to use that service though, you can use any of the alternative services out there, and there are many.

Just make sure you get started with knowing exactly where you stand financially because this is going to allow you to do the second thing which is extremely important:

2. Maximize your Discretionary Income

This can be accomplished by either increasing your income, lowering your expenses, or a combination of both.

• Increasing your income

It’s never been easier to make money online, from the comfort of your home.

Ask yourself, what do I have or know that other people may value and be willing to pay me for?

Figure out how to test your thesis with minimal startup costs.

Nowadays you can test out any business idea you have with extremely low startup costs, and if you can’t then you’re not being creative enough.

Don’t take on the risk of a new idea without testing it first. Make your first sales, and then invest more money.

If you can make an extra $500 a month, that’s $6,000 a year which you could be earning a high return on if you invest it in the right places.

• Lower your expenses

A big part of this is your choice of where to live.

Today, more than ever before, employers are giving their employees flexibility to work remotely.

If this applies to you, living in a less expensive location can save you thousands and sometimes tens of thousands annually without sacrificing your standard of living.

For example, if you’re living in Turkey but you’re earning in U.S. Dollars, you could save yourself a lot of money which you can use to invest.

3. Invest your Money

The third and final step is the logical conclusion to this process which is to invest your money.

Once you have discretionary income you can invest, you have to know where to invest it.

Spend time educating yourself. Not all investments are equal. you want to deploy your money in a way that maximizes your chances of earning a high return.

By far the most accessible investments for most people are going to be stocks and crypto.

I created a “Beginner’s Guide to Halal Investing in Stocks” all you have to do is sign up for our newsletter to get it. This is a completely free guide that will walk you through the basics to help you get started.

If you’d like to follow what we’re investing in, become a PIF member. In addition to following our stock and crypto investment portfolios, you gain access to our watchlists, complete with Buy and Sell prices as well as unique investing insights written from the perspectives of halal-conscious investors.

I know that I am biased in my review since it is my company, but the value that members get is well worth the investment they make in membership costs and if you pay for an annual membership you’ll get two months free!

You should also consider the course that I recently published “ The Practical Guide to Screening Stocks for Sharia-Compliance”  so you don’t have to rely on someone else’s opinion on the permissibility of the asset you are considering.

And as Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett’s mentor wrote 

“The intelligent investor is a realist who sells  to optimists and buys from pessimists”

(Benjamin Graham)

There is a lot of pessimism in the market as of late, so I for one am going to be a buying!