Year: 2015

Financial planning for the future is something that every person thinks about. There are many reasons why you need to plan for the future. It may be for your children future-their education. It may be for your retirement. You may also be simply planning ahead, putting away money to buy your dreamhouse or to buy a car.

There are a lot of means by which to make your money grow for you. Most Indians invest in gold. It is an age-old tradition because the value of gold is always appreciating. A lot of people also invest in bank fixed deposits. They are a very good way to lock in a particular amount of money for a particular time period.

Postal savings are another way to put aside a small sum of money each month. Mutual funds are also an excellent way to plan your future. However, many people avoid mutual funds or invest in the stock market. This is mainly due to the obvious risks involved in such investments.

But as the saying goes ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch!’ In order to obtain good returns, you have to be willing to take certain risks. A Mutual Fund is an investment tool that pools the money of a group of people so as to build a huge corpus. The money thus pooled is then invested in the stock market by a group of financial experts. These experts are called fund managers.

Investing in mutual funds is not as daunting a task as many would imagine it to be. All that is required is to have a demat account with a bank and one can then log in to the many online trading portals. These trading portals provide all of the necessary information to investors that are considering investing in mutual funds.

There are many kinds of mutual funds that are available for investment. They are basically classified equity funds, fixed-income funds and money market funds. All mutual fund plans are variations of these three asset classes. Equity funds that invest in fast-growing companies are known as growth funds while those that invest in companies of a certain sector are known as sector funds or specific funds.

Investing in equity funds involves a certain amount of risk as equity basically refers to shares of a company. But equity funds do in the long run, provide good returns. Fixed-income funds are more suited for those investors that wish to lock their money away and also take advantage of the tax benefits that they offer.

The most important thing to remember when you invest in mutual funds is diversification. Investors should invest in a basket of securities right from high-risk to the most stable. This helps to keep the investment portfolio balanced, even during market fluctuations.

Once your portfolio hit 500,000 or more, you then should begin to consider stepping away from mutual funds and allow a professional adviser to manage your money. Until that time you should consider the 5 reasons why having ETFs are the best way to build your 500,000 nest egg.

Number One: You will have an actively managed account by a team of professionals that will help your money to grow with out the worry of day to day trading yourself. These actively managed accounts can also be far less costly to you as the investor because these managers are often working with hundreds of millions of dollars of buying power, which means lower costs overall.

Number Two: Diversification is very important and ETFs can allow you to have funds within a number of different sectors and categories. As a result you then mitigate your risk since all your money will not be within one or two stocks.

Number Three:  There are clear guidelines that these fund manager and companies that run the funds must follow, which allows you to have clear transparency into the activities that they are involved in, in bringing you a return on your investment.

Number Four: Continuing in the vein of diversification, you can offset continued risks by purchasing into funds which represent varying degrees of risk.  That is, best large cap funds versus best index funds can be very different but blending them can create a healthy portfolio based on your needs.

Number Five: ETF Funds are very accessible to the mainstream investor and can carry significant reductions in costs.  Whereas you can receive allot of costs with individual stock, bond and commodities purchases.  There are two ways in which you purchase into these funds; load and no-load.  Each can have its benefits, so consulting with a professional adviser is always recommended.

As you can easily see, these are just 5 of the many reasons why you should be investing in ETFs until your portfolio has reached the magic value of 500,000.  Again, diversification does provide you with the opportunity to reduce the risks involved in investing into the market.

In these current times when the prices and rates of homes and establishments are going down and getting cheaper by the day, many people are thinking about entering the world of real estate investment by buying investment properties for themselves and their families.

Investors who have been in the market for years and decades will immediately tell you that they cannot easily just give out that one best and sure-fire successful strategy to a person or a family interested to buy investment property.  The marketplace’s playing field is just too volatile and unpredictable.

But if you are thinking of purchasing and investing, do not despair.  This article will be giving out expert advice on how to buy investment property.  There may not be one single strategy that will assure one to find the best real estate properties, but these three extremely simple (yet often overlooked) tips will surely give you a heads-up on the marketplace.

Expert Advice # 1: Scrutinize Locations

Location, location, location—you know that this is the most important aspect of starting up a business.  It also happens to be an overlooked aspect when people buy an investment property or home.  A location of a certain house determines its price, along with its potential to increase worth in the future.

An expert tip:  look at its neighboring households.  Is it a quiet neighborhood or is it an area prone to crime?  Find out the profile of the homeowners.  Knowing these bits of information may seem useless now, but will give you an idea of whether the area the house is located in is promising.

Remember, do not just think about its present condition.  You have to look at the future and see whether buying an investment property will yield profit and an increase in worth in the coming years.

Many wise people have benefited from choosing the right location when it comes to making a property investment.  They usually research on an up-and-coming area, purchase a property while it is still cheap there, and then in five years, the area becomes so trendy that everybody wants to own property there.

Expert Advice # 2: The Right Crowd

The next best tip when it comes to property investments is to surround yourself with the right people who can help you to buy investment properties that are truly worth your hard-earned cash.

For example, establish a network with bank employees.  These employees usually have first-hand knowledge of properties and homes that experience bank foreclosures.  Being in contact with bank employees gives you the immediate advantage of finding out the sales of these properties before other people do.

You should also include in your network some experienced real estate agents who are masters at navigating the market.  Get advice and tips from them. Consult your planned purchases.  They have guided many other homeowners and investors before, so they are the best people to approach.

Expert Advice # 3: Turn to the Internet

A simple buy-and-sell website like Craigslist can already help you in finding cheap but often quality investments.

Additionally, browse through the online corporate websites of the many property investment companies in your country or location.  Find out how the system works.  Learn from their processes and understand how to get the best deal out of your investments.

And finally, if you are interested in dabbling in other types of investments to diversify your portfolio, you should take that extra step of looking at the bigger picture.  Examine the stock market and find out if it is the right time to invest.

Owning property is part of the Western definition of success.  Investment properties have stayed popular because property holds and steadily increases in value.  Recently, rental properties have also emerged as ideal investment opportunities.  Those considering such investments should know that while rental properties may generate more income than waiting for an undeveloped lot to increase in value, but they also require a whole lot more time and work.

Rental Properties

Many people choose to make their property investments in rental properties because people will pay a fee just to live or use them.  The income is much more obvious and immediate.  Even if you think you already know everything you need to know to run a rental property, do yourself a favor by becoming informed about laws in the area.  The important things to know are the legal details of the tax laws, standards your property must meet to be considered habitable, and all of the paperwork.  Messing up in any one of these areas could cost you dearly since most of the laws about landlord and tenant relationships tend to favor the tenants in most disputes that arise.  As more people specialize in working the system to gain their own advantage you will find out that choosing your tenants carefully will save you a lot of hassle and money.  Demographic information is also important in choosing your rental property.  If the commercial center of town is showing signs of moving in a certain direction you want to be in that area, not in the old building someone is selling because they can’t keep it full of tenants.  In short, doing quality research on the laws and the area will pay off when you finally get your rental property and start looking for tenants.

Undeveloped Properties

While rental properties are a relatively new pursuit for average people, the traditional approach of buying investment property and waiting for it to become more valuable is still alive and well.  Such property investments are usually purchased near a town or city so that as it expands and needs more land the property can be sold for a much larger amount.  Land is a very logical investment because it is a limited natural resource; it will become more in demand and therefore more valuable as long as population continues to increase.  Despite all these advantages, property investment contains some risk.  Don’t let the enduring value of land as an investment fool you into thinking that a property investment needs to be less researched than others.  Doing your research can keep you from making mistakes like buying an  investment property for a really great price and later finding out that it has really expensive property taxes.  An investment property calculator that has all of the required functions is essential for determining the right price for a property before buying.

When looking into annuity investments, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by all of the different terms. In order to understand the variation of annuity products you need to learn about all the concepts. One can explain annuities by describing every part. For example, annuities can be fixed or indexed. There are also variable annuities. It’s important to know that most annuities are part of these three categories. To find the best financial option you need to be well informed. Try to learn about every variation of the annuity products before making a decision of which one to invest in.

Fixed rate annuities provide fixed dollar payments with a fixed interest rate. The variable annuities will allow variable dollar amounts. The indexed and variable annuities will depend on the market.

Another notable point is that all types of annuities are classified in two big categories. The annuities can be immediate or deferred. Depending on your individual  situation, either one might be a better choice.

The immediate annuity will have a very fast distribution. The deferred annuity will start distribution after a period of time. You have the option to pay both annuities with a single payment. For the deferred annuity you can also choose to setup a periodic payment plan. This will allow you to pay an amount of money every month. It’s up to you what type of annuity you choose.

Another way to classify annuities is according to the distribution period. This way an annuity contract can be made for a fixed period of time or for lifetime. The person with whom the contract is based upon is called the annuitant. It’s also interesting to know that you can create an account with more than one life insured, and establish it so that the account terminates upon either the first death or the last death.

What is an ETF investment?

Exchange traded mutual funds, also known as ETF investments, are baskets of securities that you trade on the open exchange like you would any other stock.  There are tons of benefits with very little downside if you are looking to do stock market investing in entire sectors and industries.

For example, if you want to invest in the gas industry, you can find a natural gas ETF list somewhere and invest in those.  There aren’t a ton of ETF’s for each sector, unless it’s a popular sector.  Many industries have at least one you can invest in.

When it comes to ETF vs mutual funds, ETF’s wins hands down.  Compared to traditional mutual funds, ETF’s are a lot cheaper and more flexible.

With many traditional mutual funds, you have to pay some kind of a management fee.  It can not only add up, it can really eat into your gains and profits.  ETF’s are relatively cheap.  The only fee you have to pay is the normal trading commission you would pay to buy or sell any other stock on the market.  You just pay your stock broker their normal fee.

Also, ETF’s are a lot more flexible.  There are a lot of ETF investment strategies that you can use which take advantage of this flexibility for increased profits. With exchange traded funds, you can buy or sell them at anytime during normal trading hours.  You can’t do that with mutual funds.  With mutual funds, you are only allowed to invest or divest once a day, at the end of the trading day.

That means you can’t take advantage of major, breaking news and events during the day.  You have to wait until all of the investors and traders have already priced it into your mutual fund before you can do anything about it.  By then, it’s often too late.

That means that you can use exchange traded mutual funds for stock index trading as well.  It was unheard of to be able to do day trading with mutual funds, but now you can with ETF’s. With the right ETF investment advice, tips, and strategies, these funds can become a great asset to your financial portfolio.

Green investing, as the term implies, engages the businesses to become steadfast in the protection of Mother Earth via environment-friendly procedures and operations. Companies that are making use of the ways to decrease pollution, or those firms that make use of renewable and alternative energy resources, whether for operation and or production or provide power to the clients are essentially involved with green investing.

As part of green investing, many people are also investing in eco-friendly corporations by purchasing their stocks as well as trading for environment-friendly mutual funds from different providers.

Although environment-related financial products and services usually come at a more expensive cost, not to mention quite they are somehow inadequate, nevertheless they secure better future for the environment and the industry nonetheless. That’s why one of the more popular investing tips of modern times is to be involved with green investing.

Interest and attention on the renewable and alternative energy resources have been steadily growing since the prices of gasoline can never be anticipated to decline. As a matter of fact, oil prices have gone so high since the last decade. Accordingly, a lot of people have also become more aware of the grave costs of using fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum. Consequently, these concerns have paved the way for green investing.

Additionally, a lot of people perceive that green investing can give long-term and viable income and revenues to the investors, considering the fact that green investing involves an extensive range of so-called green stocks which consist of various segments, business array and worth.

Although many of those possible green investments are little, immature, and risky, yet still investors can make an eco-friendly portfolio from of high-profile corporations. For instance, a person may invest in a technology company that manufactures air-conditioning structure for buildings in order reduce the consumption of electricity by these establishments.

In other words, the business trend for the future is most probably green investing. A lot of business leaders are heading off to lead the shift to the investment for the advantage of the Mother Nature. Although generation of income is still important, nonetheless the protection of the environment is now the priority of green investing.

The stock market is a big industry and all too often it swallows a new investor whole and they end up losing more money then he or she could ever afford to lose. When trying to get started with investing, you are most likely all over the internet looking for stock market investing strategies.

The problem with these stock market investment strategies is the fact that a strategy which will work for one person, most likely will not work for you. This is why it is so important to developing your own investment strategy which feeds off of your own strengths.

Remember, the concept of making money in the stock market is by buying low and selling high. This concept is a deep one though because a stock’s value is based on its demand and when the value is low, it is low because of the lack of demand. When the value is high, it is because the demand for the stock is also high.

Building your own strategy is important because you need to be able to determine when to purchase a stock based on an anticipation that its demand will increase. You of course also want to make sure you purchase this share of stock long before any of the other investors.

The timing of the sale is the most important part of your stock market investing strategies because you want to sell right as the stock peaks out. If you sell the stock too early, you are losing potential profits, however if you sell too late you are also losing these profits.

Knowing how to decide when to sell and when to buy is your stock market investing strategy and this takes time, practice and experience to develop. You will eventually develop your own strategy, as long as you give it the effort and stay focused on gaining the experience you need to do so – by this stage you will have moved away from stock market for dummies because you will need information regarding more advanced strategies – speaking of more advanced strategies, make sure you do your research on online forex trading before you invest.