Investing in stocks and bonds is a scam in America. You must be thinking that government has done a great job by passing the financial reform bill but beware friends - wall street lobbyists have spent billions to have the bills do exactly what they want - use unclear dubious words and give big financial companies enough leeway to work their way out in case another crises dawn upon us.

It seems that I have literally started getting alienated with the US government and the scam it's playing. So why do I think investing is a scam? Here are my reasons:

I will come straight to the points on the strategies you can follow to safeguard your hard earned money from another investment scam.

1. Avoid hedge funds

These funds have way more leeway in the way they use your hard earned money without any transparency of what's being done with your money. General mutual funds have stricter rules from SEC that they need to follow and disclose everything to the investors but Hedge funds play with different rules.

2. Never fall for guaranteed return

With recent downturn in economy and crisis on the Wall Street almost every American (perhaps every person in the world) has seen one's retirement saving going down quite substantially. Even the safest haven in the retirement plans, viz. money market fund, couldn't keep money safe.

If you already save money in a retirement account you must be knowing that your money usually goes either into bonds or stocks. And by any standard none is a safe haven for a retiree.

Show from the Big Three from Detroit

When the executives of the three big auto companies - GM, Ford and Chrysler went to congress asking for some sort of bailout last time they weren't prepared at all.

They had no plan to show how the money they were asking would help their companies. Moreover they flew in their corporate jets to beg for taxpayers’ money. Great shows from the CEOs, the master of the big auto industries!

I found an interesting article ( How Companies Raise Money )on the London Stock Exchange about how companies raise money.

It will answer the following questions while making a few stock/bond related concepts clear to you
- Can a company issue new stocks anytime?
- What is a "stag"?
- What is primary and secondary market?
- What is "Rights issues"?
- What are "Script issues"?
- Why does a company issue bonds?

This morning I was browsing through yahoo finance and came across an article Inflation-Beating Investments for Retirement(full story here) by Leslie.

I couldn't stop myself from critically analyzing the choices mentioned in the article and giving some common-sense advice.

TIPS (Treasury Inflation Protected Securities)

It's the best choice Leslie mentioned in her article.

With such a great rise in foreclosure caused by a number of factors it's important to know what choices you have when your house seems to be the next in the line and you fear losing everything you have worked so hard for - a dream, a place for family, your cash cow for retirement (though that doesn't hold anymore).

First of all don't panic. Relax. Look at your finances and see if you can do something.

Talk to your lender. It's getting harder to get to a lender as they are getting numerous calls every day but lenders are more likely to listen to you and do something.

Holiday seasons are approaching fast and everyone would soon spend some money buying gifts for friends and family. But given the weak economy, higher job losses and households fighting to survive in these bad times it's very obvious that people wouldn't splurge on gifts this season.

But when it comes to buying gifts for the immediate family member (spouse and kids) we tend to ignore the economic conditions. We always want to give something special to our spouses and kids. But wait a min. What's that something special?

With financial sector dragging the economy to a halt, govt. injecting billions of dollars in the economy and financial sectors, banks gone bankrupt, jobless claims on rise and the fear of sub-prime lending not yet over it could be quite daunting to even think of investing your hard earned money these days.