Investment may fall within the broad category of commerce but it is every bit an art. A Motley Fool staff writing for The Motley Fool has put together a rich assortment of ideas on the art of investment – altogether 8 tips for making good investments. There are gems of thoughts to choose from.

The Australian government has declared a fiscal deficit of $12 billion but the situation does not warrant the abolition of Negative Gearing. Stacey Moseley for the Real Estate Business writes that the proposition to abolish Negative Gearing in order to redeem the Federal Budget could have some serious consequences for the property market.

If you only work hard on your job, you’ll never get rich – that’s a fact! Michael Yardney, director of Metropole Property Strategists, discusses the importance of capital gains, how it can make you rich, and how to minimise risks. The US Internal Revenue Services reported that of the hundreds of big earners in America, 45.8% got their wealth from capital gains.

Yardney also shares his 4 strategic approach to property investing that’ll reduce risk and increase your chances of getting higher capital gain. His strategy includes choosing unique or special properties priced below their intrinsic value located in areas where there’s a long history of high capital growth and refurbishing them to maximize gain.

Although you can’t succeed most of the time, by following Yardney’s strategy, you can minimise risk and profit from your property investment. You can also try and revise other property investor’s advice to become your own. You can learn how to do it only if you do it.

You can read the whole article here.

What criteria do you use when choosing your property investments?