PITTSBURGH -- We are talking about looking to the future for good investments in today's 'netWORTH. Click on the video box on the right to watch my fascinating conversation with John Barbour who is a CFP with InterGen Advisors (securities offered through First Allied Securities, Inc which is a member of FINRA/SIPC).

John came up with an acronym to make his strategy easy to remember. He used our television station's call letters: WTAE.

W = The World and how it's changing
T = Technologies, new advances and new opportunities
A = Attitude, learn to understand and control your brain
E = Economics, how America and the world interact.

John says to think of these four things as lenses that help us see more clearly what we need to do when it comes to investing.

Talking about the WORLD first, listen to some of these statistics John brought with him:

*China has more people listed in its top 25 percent of IQ ranking than the entire population of North America. * India has more people in its top 28 percent of high IQ than the number of people living in North America. * In the time it takes to have this 'netWORTH conversation, 60 babies will be born in America, 244 babies born in China and 351babies in India. * If the number of people using MySpace made up a country, it would be the 11th largest nation right between Japan and Mexico. * The number of text messages sent around the world in a given day exceeds number of people in the world.

Thinking of those stats, you can see why it's important to understand the changing world before making an investment choice.

TECHNOLOGY is what John focuses on next. He suggests we pay attention to all the new energy sources being studied and he adds there is a lot of interesting things going on with medicine and good investors will want to pay close attention to think about what is on the right track and what is being phased out.

ATTITUDE comes next. He suggests we read a book called ' Your Brain Your Money' written by Jason Zweig. It talks about the growing science of neuro-economics which looks at how the brain reacts to money. A study shows when we're making money, our brains have a chemical reaction similar to being on a drug. When we lose money our brain reacts the same way if we were in mortal danger. This science can explain why people make bad decision if they're making a lot of money or losing a lot.

ECONOMICS is the last part of his talk where John says we need to understand economics especially what's going on in America and how America interacts with the world. Continuing to learn is essential in this changing climate and will help prepare you for what the market holds.