Baking a Cake is Like Investing

Its Saturday morning and the household readies itself for the impeding 8 year old birthday party. The party is centred around the birthday cake... being made by mom.

Pink castle with lots of smarties!

We are lucky to have the cake at all. The enthusiasm of probing young oven eyes, almost resulting in the cake not rising! Thankfully though and with many reluctant glances, Morganne was able to restrain herself by "untimely" interfering with the baking process, which happily resulted in the most "delicious" happy birthday cake.

Similarly, many people make the mistake of trying to time the market and consequently fail miserably. If you open the oven every 15 minutes to see how it is baking, your cake will flop! The same applies to your investments. If you switch in and out of the market when you think it appropriate, thinking that you are a fund manager with a flexible mandate, you will most likely get it wrong!

Markets are largely driven by mass psychology and the two emotions of fear and greed. To avoid these pitfalls one must have a clear understanding of why you are investing. The delayed reward must be more meaningful than the instant gratification that most of us all want!

Do not open the oven.

Its okay to review and make sure that the heat is still on. Once you have established what your financial planning needs are and set some objectives... keep to them and have faith in the recipe.

Silke Financial Services has always preached about not timing the market and that market dips give qualified and astute fund managers the opportunity to buy into good, undervalued stocks of solid companies so that, over time, you will benefit from the miracle of compounding and reinvestment of dividends and earning inflation-beating returns.

P.S. I love carrot cake!

Recipe to baking a Carrot cake:

1. Ensure that the oven is preheated to 180C or 360F.
2. Melt the four (4) ounces of margarine.
3. Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Use an electric mixer to beat orange juice, eggs, shredded carrots, almond, and vanilla essence until it is smooth.
5. Add melted margarine to liquid mixture and whisk as fast as possible into dry ingredients.
6. Grease the baking tins that will be used with grease paper and margarine (this is to hinder the cake from sticking to the baking tin)
7. Pour the mixture into the baking tin and allow it to bake in the oven for approximately forty- five(45) minutes

The time spent on making these cakes is minimal compared to other cake baking recipes and they require no prior baking experience.