Join The Investment Club

This is a story in which my father, Jose F. Avila was featured in for PBS' "Money Track"

Here is a description of the episode as written on the Money Track website.

This episode focuses on investment clubs, and how members should make an informed group decision instead of simply following the herd. Meet Tomas and Jose Avila, identical twins who each founded an investment club. Their members, Honduran immigrants in New York City, research companies and mutual funds, and decide where, when and whether to invest. Whether their holdings skyrocket or stutter, members of both clubs view every decision as a great lesson in investing wisely.

There are right ways and wrong ways of investing with other people. In our Investing 101 segment, Dennis Genord of the National Association of Investors Corporation describes the Dos and Don’ts of being a good club member.

The club environment can easily become the perfect setup for a scam. In Scam Alert, meet another investment club in Florida whose story unfortunately has a very different ending. One member joined up with her entire nest egg of $25,000 but found out later that the club leader, a church pastor, had shady ways of signing people up and spending their money. He stole $23 million from more than 1,000 people – but authorities have only recovered $9,000 to date.