Investment Articles

A budget is basically a money plan which includes your financial goals. By having a budget you can plan to achieve your financial objectives and this means making frequent investments. Your budget will help you to know what you have coming in as income and what expenses go out each month allowing you the capacity to make adjustments for your investing.

You may have heard the old adage “pay yourself first”. The usual recommended amount is to put 10% of everything you earn into investment. This is where retirement funds and managed funds become useful as you can invest regular amounts without having to invest large sums. These funds, particularly retirement saving, can be taken from your pay packet before being paid to your account. This is useful as a way to “set and forget”. If it is taken out of your pay it will not affect your budget.

One of your first investment priorities is to set up an emergency fund. When you budget you need to put aside a certain amount of money for unexpected expenses as well as the normal anticipated spending costs. Start with setting up an emergency fund until you have three or four months worth of net income replacement in an interest earning call account. The regular amount you invest will depend on your expenses and outgoings. Once you have your emergency fund in place the money you were putting away can be redirected into other investments.

Save for annual goals such as holidays. Save a regular sum for your travel for annual vacations. Decide on the amount you need for your travel expenses. For example if you want to spend $6,000 annually you will need to invest $500 each month. As this is an annual goal it will be ongoing.

Saving for specific goals is done in a similar fashion to your vacation fund. First establish when you want to achieve the goal and then calculate how much you need to set aside to achieve this in the time frame you envisage. In this case $6,000 in five years will mean investing $100 a month (not counting for interest payments). That is the total sum divided by the number of years and then divided by 12.

If you have a surplus in your budget after catering for your goals then invest that surplus — provided there is no debt to clear. You are able to invest small sums into managed funds (mutual funds) and sometimes amounts as small as $50 are accepted as a regular monthly investment.

While investing is important to your financial security do not forget your commitments when doing your budget. This includes commitments that may be annual and even your gift giving, entertainment and other miscellaneous spending. Adjusting your budget to make frequent investments is all part of an ongoing budgeting plan.

Lyn Bell has been in the finance industry for more than 30 years and is a Certified Financial Planner. She has helped many clients achieve their financial goals. Sign up to get Lyn’s free newsletter SoundFinance News and receive a free gift.

A disclosure statement is available free on request.

In simple financial terms a bond is a debt instrument. A borrower who is the issuer of the bond seeks to raise money from investors. The borrower may be a government, municipality or corporate, and the investors are the lenders. In return for the loan of funds the borrowers promise to repay the debt on a specific date in the future and to pay interest either along the way or at maturity.

Although this sounds simple enough, there are certain things that a bond investor needs to know before putting money into the bond market. There are some important terms to be aware of when purchasing a bond and these include par value, maturity date, and coupon rate.

The par value (or face value) of a bond refers to the amount of money you will receive when the bond reaches its maturity. What confuses many people is that the par value is not the price of the bond but it is the value at maturity.

A bond’s price fluctuates during its life in response to interest rates. A bond which trades at a price above the face value, it is said to be selling at a premium or at a discount when it sells below its face value. The maturity date is the date that the bond will reach its full value and you will receive your initial investment. As interest rates rise, the value of a bond decreases and if interest rates drop the value of the bond then becomes more sought after and the value rises. People are willing to pay the premium to get the higher interest rate.

The interest may be paid at maturity or at intervals during the term of the investment. Terms may be, six monthly, quarterly or other specified terms. The interest is known as the coupon rate and is normally a fixed rate throughout the life of the bond. The term coupon originates from the past when physical bonds were issued that had coupons attached to them. On the coupon date the bond holder would give the coupon to a bank in exchange for the interest payment.

The bond yield is basically the amount or percentage of return that an investor can anticipate receiving from a bond issue within a specified time period. Calculating the yield involves making use of current data regarding the current price of the bond as opposed to the price at the time of purchase. It also includes the current annual coupon associated with the bond and usually assumes that the buyer will hold the instrument for at least a term of one year.

The advantage of a bond is that they can be traded before maturity if cash is required, making them a liquid investment. Depending on the interest rates they will trade at par or at a premium and therefore it is possible to make a profit or loss on the sale. Holding to maturity does not affect the value of your investment as all things being equal you will get the money back that you deposited.

Bonds can be purchased using a broker or brokerage firm or your financial adviser. Most banks also have a money market department where bonds are transacted.

Lyn Bell has been in the finance industry for more than 30 years and is a Certified Financial Planner. She has helped many clients achieve their financial goals. Sign up to get Lyn’s free newsletter SoundFinance News and receive a free gift.

A disclosure statement is available free on request.

We are all in a habit of looking at every investment from a short term point of view, so that it would yield high returns; however as they advice if you really want your money to grow you need to opt for long term investment.

At the same time it is very much known that stocks are volatile; so to start with, typically you should have enough cash reserves to take care of your living expenses or handle any unforeseen emergencies or demands, that is what most of the financial advisors would suggest.

Do you Want Returns within Five Years?

The obvious and safest places to invest would be certificates of deposit of banks preferably; the best part here is that Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation guarantees safety of your funds for up to $250,000 against a minimum initial investment of a few hundred dollars or less.

Recently, rates of interest for 6 month CDs were about 3%. However if you are looking at exposing your principal amount to a little more risk then you can invest in short-term bond funds. For such investments the minimum investment requirement hovers around $1,000.

Do you want to invest for a much longer time frame?

Well now we are talking, you would definitely want to consider investing your funds where the returns grow faster and better, which of course means stocks. Stock market has outperformed every other kind of investment over a period of time.

Over the past half century inflation (courtesy: consumer price Index) risen at rate of 4.3%(annually), so looking at the way at which inflation reduces your power to spend, stock market is the only option that can help you out of this situation. And especially if you are looking at long term investment the best place to invest is in stocks. Now the worry is how do we get started? When and where to invest? Here are a few suggestions:

Invest in Mutual Funds

If you are a rookie investor the safe way to get a feel of the stock market is via mutual funds, which helps you to invest into diversified portfolio of numerous stocks/ bonds. The other major advantage that Mutual Funds offer besides diversification is that your funds are managed by expert stock traders whose core job is to closely follow the stock market. Mutual funds give you an option of investing as low as $500 to $1000 and as a novice you would rather want to start with minimum initial investment till you get a hang of it.

How do mutual funds work?

Day Trading on US Stock Exchanges

Well I would not suggest this, mainly because you ideally need $25000 in your account for day trading effectively (which is buying and selling stocks on the same day), this needs a lot of experience and know-how of the market and also calls for huge piggy bank.

Now to answer is $5000 enough?

Yes it is, we have already mentioned that if you are looking at investing in mutual funds you could invest a smaller amount than $5000, however if you are looking at trading at the stock market then to start with $3000-$5000 is a good amount, until you have mastered your instincts and emotions while trading.

Broker Selection Guide

At Compare Broker, we can assist you in opening an investment account with a leading brokerage. Visit our site for latest reviews of offers and promotions from different brokers. Our blog section is regularly updated with informative write-ups for traders and investors.

Many times, people will hesitate to go into forex trading because traditionally, it carries a lot of risk. True, there is a lot of software that will give you all the information and even do your trades for you, but hesitation continues to exists because people still lose money using this kind of software. Forex Bullet Proof though, comes with a difference. It is a guarantee that if you put x amount of money in, you will get x+1 at the very least.

You can call it automated money making. Its main difference from all others is that it has automatic adjustment to avoid losses. Most of the time in forex trading, you have to be on the look-out, to see how the market is doing and if things look like they are going to take a plunge, you then have to make adjustments yourself. The problem is, you’re not even sure if you’re making adjustments in the right direction. You are simply moving to avoid oncoming risk. With Forex Bullet proof, you don’t have to worry about that any more. It works just like a broker, only for a one time fee and much faster. Immediately there are changes in the market, it will cut your lot size and reallocate to where there are gains and then return the lots once the market is back to normal.

It operates in the major currencies, EUR/USD and USD/JPY, and because the spreads on these currencies are usually low because of their popularity, it always works to the user’s advantage.

Its easy to install, it will never give you a margin call, it works during market hours and not between them as most other forex robots do and it requires a low initial investment – all you need is about $450. It’s also easy to set up, and you get great support from the software manufacturers.

Forex Bullet Proof will cost you $147, and for that you will get the handbook on how it works, tips and lessons on the best way to trade as well as video tutorials. What’s the proof that it works? If you buy it and it doesn’t make you a dime in 60 days, all you need to do is ask for your refund, and no questions asked, you will get your money back. Who said it’s not easy to get rich?

Diamond Kiang is a professional products reviewer, who has spent the last 3 years of his life reviewing top products in the market. He works with top product creators to reveal the best products to global the internet market.

The typical investor has few choices to invest without risking loss to their capital. The traditional investment choices are cash, stocks, bonds, and options. Each has their own negative side to obtain zero loss investing with above average returns. So how does one obtain zero losses with above average returns?

Cash can be used to obtain zero loss to capital, but it will not normally give above average returns. In today’s environment cash pays only about 1-2% for a one to two year commitment. If it did pay higher returns, you would normally not get the above average growth provided by stocks, bonds or options. One way to invest cash would be to siphon the interest and use that interest to invest in stocks, bonds or options.

The problem would still be that you might suffer capital losses from those investments though technically you are not losing principal.

For example $10,000 invested at 5% would produce $500 per year. If you used $400 of the $500 then there would be no loss to your principal of $10,000 and it would actually increase by $100 no matter what happened to your $400. You might get more leverage and greater reward from using options rather than stocks or bonds, but you still could have losses with the trade.

To invest directly into stocks, bonds or options may put risk into your capital, so using the 96% or more of your capital into a fixed investment and investing the remaining into stocks, bonds or options seems to be the most logical way to avoid capital losses. There is a new investment vehicle that seems to satisfy the requirement of having zero losses with the potential for above average returns. This new vehicle is not cash, stocks, bonds or options. It is keywords.

There are at least two new search engines that have launched. One uses an auction system for trading keywords but the costs to maintain those words that an individual may own, could result in a loss. The other system uses a controlled keyword exchange where keywords are bought and sold within the system and there is no cost to maintain those keywords. What that means for an individual is that they can buy and hold keywords for as long as they want without incurring fees causing a loss to the investor. Further, just by purchasing the keyword an individual earns purchase-share-credits which further translate into weekly profit sharing money. Although the profit sharing is not guaranteed, it has been consistent, growing and reliable.

The other criteria to be met is that it should generate above average returns. The controlled keyword exchange has this covered as well. A recent two month test has shown that just buying and holding keywords would have generated a 0.927% weekly profit sharing return or 48.20% annually.

With the controlled keyword exchange a keyword can only be sold, if the buyer is willing to pay a 15% premium. The buyer can pay more for the word with the hope that the word will bring more profit if the buyer then sells the word. With no losses in this system both the buyer and seller have incentives for higher profit. A keyword may become over-priced but anyone can link to the keyword for a price as high as 15% of the keyword value as well.

Combine this with buying and selling of keywords, getting paid for advertisers linking to keywords and getting paid from referrals, it is not hard to see how someone could easily earn over 100% of their initial investment in a short(one year or less) period of time with zero losses. In fact, the only potential loss to capital might be the opportunity loss from investing in keywords rather than something else. Until that something else surfaces it appears that investing in keywords is a profitable venture. Just ask Google.

Bob K.
Own Keywords for profit, weekly profit sharing, get paid from linking, referrals and more.

Invest is an activity to put some of your money in several promising money generators. Today there are many money generators/investments that you can choose. However, the principal for investment is the same from the ancient time until today that high risk equals to high profit/high loss. Therefore, here I give some options of investment that are promising fur current and future times.

The first investment is gold; as we know from the ancient time the value of gold is always increasing. If you are new to this, I suggest you to watch gold value chart for the last five years. Watch the detail on every month and every year. There you can see the fluctuation of gold value but still the trend is always and will always be increasing. If you want one year duration for gold investment; I suggest you to buy on January or February when the price of gold reaches its low price and sell the gold during November until early December when the price peaks the highest price of the year. You can do it all over again every year however, keep on updating for the value of gold world-wide to be more precise on the timing.

The second recommended investment is property. The value of property is indeed fluctuating but the same as gold it shows increment trend time after time because the more people live on our beloved earth but the land size is still. Property gives slow return to your investment but profit is quite sure available for you. To take this investment, you must have good calculation on the city/area development. One of favors you can get to help your calculation is by asking to the government handling future city development. Excellent calculation on area/city development will generates large sum of profit in less than five years.

My last recommended investment and rather riskier than the two above is index trading. Different with individual stock trading, index trading means conduct trade to all the stocks available in one stock market such as index trading at Nikkei Future Index, Japan. The profit is generated from the gap point from the selling and buying activity. Currently, the world-famous futures index are located in Asia that are HangSeng Future Index in Hong Kong, Nikkei Future Index in Japan and Kospi Future Index in South Korea. I strongly suggest you to hire well-known broker for index trading. Choose the broker that has direct access to the future index and capable to analyze the market. For smooth trading activity, prepare the minimum of $50,000 for the HangSeng Index trading and $250,000 for the Nikkei Index trading. As I said early in the paragraph, trading is quite risky but it offers high profit in very short time.

Well, thus all the top three investment recommendations for the part 1. Part 2 will available in nearby time which offers you other promising investments for current and future times.

The core definition of a CFD and the concept of CFD trading are underpinned by a very basic principle, a contract.

A contract for difference, also known in the abbreviated form as a CFD is an agreement to exchange the difference in value of an asset. The value or potential profit of this asset lies in pricing. Profit can be made from this agreement when the difference between the opening price and closing price is realised.

CFD trading has experienced rapid growth during these recent times of economic uncertainty as volatile markets provide traders with the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the increased leverage it offers. CFDs allow traders to not only profit from the rising value of a share but to also profit from a decline in value. A trader may choose to ‘go short’ in order to profit from falling share prices or to ‘go long’ and profit from rising share prices.

Another reason why CFDs are popular is because they provide an ideal method for ‘hedging’ your portfolio. A trader purchases 6,000 real shares, but wants to hedge this investment. In order to hedge the purchase of 6,000 real shares; the trader must sell the equivalent through a CFD at the same price.

CFDs are a unique financial instrument, with features which allow traders to play the markets from a different perspective. In addition to hedging your portfolio, CFDs provide investors with a gateway into the global financial markets, inviting traders to move beyond their native markets and into a greater choice of shares, 24 hours a day. Along with greater choice comes increased market exposure in terms of capital. A contract for difference allows traders to be exposed to markets for a significantly lower cost than if you were purchasing physical shares. Inevitably this does also mean that you can experience losses which are larger than your initial investment.

A contract for difference can provide reassurance in the form of hedging and increased market exposure for limited capital. As with all trades, CFDs need to be considered in the context of the market place but a willingness to look beyond the boundaries of conventional physical shares can at times lead to a greater reward.

Always remember that trading CFDs can result in losses as well as profits, so make sure you understand the risks involved.

IG Markets South Africa provides all the tools and resources you need to start CFD trading, from PureDeal technology to live seminars.

The Answer to Jane’s Problems;

This is to be my final article reference to Jane, it hopefully will set her on her way to creating a solid future for her family.

So, what is stopping Jane from creating passive income?
What is stopping her from taking the first investing steps?

It’s very likely the answer for both questions is “FEAR”

Fear of the unknown,
Fear of losing face,
Fear of losing money,
Fear of rejection,
Fear of making a mistake.

The key to creating wealth through passive income is overcoming these fears. This can be a difficult act to accomplish. It is often much easier to take the path of least resistance, have a few glasses of wine and procrastinate away about how good life could be.

I remember my first investment very well. I remember being at a seminar in London. I remember looking at the plans for this beautiful new apartment block. I had no fears, only excitement that my life was about to change today. Despite the fact my apartment was in Melbourne, Australia I could not have been more excited. I had done a little homework and I firmly believed that Melbourne would have unprecedented growth as a result of the Olympic Games in Sydney the following year.
The initial growth was so impressive, I quickly acted and bought another apartment later that year, on my Credit Card. No problem, no worries, only excitement. This was sure to make great passive income and even better capital growth.

I remember visiting a London Bar after my second purchase and ordering 2 large glasses of NZ Pinot Noir, the sun was shining that day and life felt so good. No fears, no regrets. Melbourne had 2 years of exceptional growth, property prices rose by more than 20% in year 1 and 22% in year 2. WOW, investing is so easy. By the end of year 2 I had paid off my credit card and was sitting on over £60 000 of capital growth. This was much more than I had expected and had sold them on at this point, my income from my investments would have been higher than my income from my salary. I had found a hobby which paid me more than my salary.

I am always on the look out for great properties although I prefer to concentrate on cash-flow instead of capital appreciation. Earlier this year I managed to find a great property which ticked all my boxes and is looking like an amazing investment

This property is in a beautiful location.
It has amazing coastline views.
It is built on a golf course, always a good sign.
I bought it at 48% BMV.
It cash-flows £300 / month after all expenses including management costs and has a developers guarantee of no rental voids, for 10 years. Bought using only £1000 of my own money it is estimated that I will gain more than £100,000 in capital appreciation by 2013. You must have guessed it is not tied to the declining UK market

It has had a capital appreciation of more than £10 000 in only 7 months.
There is no refinancing involved.
There are no hefty solicitor costs.
There are no hefty agency fees.
It is next to a Premier League Football Club Training Academy and many Premier League footballers own properties here.
It has a Tennis Coaching Centre set up by Pat Cash.
Is is a stones throw to great bars and restaurants.
It is a private estate and has a private beach.
It has a world class spa just yards from my front door.
Although the management company rent the property on my behalf, they have arranged it so I can live in this property for 1 month every year and whilst I am living in it, I still collect the rent, even though I don’t pay it!

I remember the adrenalin rush when I purchased this property, I did not listen to my friends objections and not 1% of me felt any fear.

The property is too far away.
I don’t understand how the money works.
I don’t like Liverpool FC.
I hate footballers.
I preferred Andre Agassi to Pat Cash.
Bars and restaurants, sounds very noisy.
I bet the locals invade the beach and I bet it’s pebbles and not sand.
World class spa, did you hear about the man in Thailand who became crippled after a massage.
You can live there, do you get free food?
I don’t believe they will pay you the rent if you are living there.

Some of my friends created their own objections without any prompting from me.

I heard they have Hurricanes in the Caribbean?
I read the next Tsunami will be in the Atlantic?
Those pitons look like they might erupt at anytime?

The objections above affirm in my head that becoming rich is all about mindset. Most people actually choose to work hard all of their lives, pay their earnings to the tax man and as long as they have enough money at the end of the month, life is a garden of roses. They never realize the power of investing, the fun it can bring and the potential rewards.

I enjoy investing so much, I now own an investment company.

Richard Branson said last week that he wants to be the person in the world with the most debt. What this means is he wants to be the person with the most borrowing. He knows if he borrows money, he can make it work harder for him.

Sounds like a good strap-line for our business!

About the author:

Mark Williams believes in spreading wealth through inspiring and educating people. His company offers amazing investment opportunities that could otherwise not be accessible to the average man on the street. Do you want financial freedom? Let us show you how you can achieve it! Register on our website today to receive our free report on how you could become financially free. http://www.investus.co.uk

In my opinion one of the most effective ways to leverage a portfolio, is probably also the most volatile and is certainly not for the faint hearted! The advantages of CFD day trading? Here are five main advantages in trading CFD’s in comparison to other trading products.

1. Incredible Leverage: By laying out an average of only 5% of the capital the investor is able to take 100% of the adjustment in price. In other words purchasing 1000 shares at £1.00 each would normally amount to the princely sum of £1,000 however with CFD day trading the share purchase would only cost £50.00. (at 5%) But here is the exciting part – should that share price rise by 5% to £1.05 then you will receive the total rise of 5p which equates to a 100% gain on a CFD costing 5p, (Keep in mind however – a drop in the share price has exactly the same effect in the opposite direction!). Look at it this way, £1000 will buy you 1000 £1 shares whereas £1000 worth of CFD’s will buy you 20,000 of these same shares.

2. Volatility: Yes that’s right – with CFD trading volatility is your friend. What do I mean by that? Well the fact is that you are not in this for the ‘long haul’ profits are dependant on movement there-fore it stands to reason that a volatile market means potential profit. With CFD trading you have of course the right to go ’short’ or ‘long’ and so even in a falling market it is just as possible to lock in profits. This aspect of trading can and does lead to real opportunities in any time of uncertainty where the markets can be extremely volatile.

3. Free Financing: If you buy and sell your stock before the close of the trading day then there is no financing charge! This is standard practice with most if not all brokers.

4. No Time Limit: Traded options – possibly CFD’s biggest ‘competitor’ have a huge disadvantage over contracts for difference in that they have a definite ‘life span’ and value is directly related to the life of the Traded Option CFD’s on the other hand continue to reflect the trading value of the share itself. The most important thing is that you maintain a ‘margin’ which means surplus funds in your account to cover any movement – typically between 1-15% if you use online traders such as CMC markets.

5. Free/No Commission! Another of the great advantages of using such dealers as CMC markets is the fact that they offer commission free trading on index, commodity and treasury CFD’s. In summary, if you are CFD Day Trading within certain parameters then you have no commission to pay on the trade and no interest to pay on the capital if you buy and sell in the same trading day.

If your looking for more information on CFD contract for difference trading and numerous different aspects of trading on the stock markets why not visit my site at http://www.australianstockexchangeshareprices.com/

Spread betting, CFDs and FX are leveraged products and carry a high level of risk to your capital. It is possible to lose more than your initial investment. These products may not be suitable for all investors, therefore ensure you understand the risks involved and seek independent advice if necessary.

A Contract For Difference (CFD) is concerned with the difference in value of a particular commodity, share or currency between the time at which the contract was opened and the time at which it shall be closed. A CFD is a derivative financial instrument and it isn’t usually traded on exchanges. It is a versatile tool for investing in any market condition and allows investors to hedge current positions or to profit when the price of the traded commodity falls.

CFD trading allows traders to open positions that are close to 20 times the margin deposit. This feature alone has made CFD trading one of the hottest trading instruments in the financial markets. CFDs can be shorted in a bear market, which allows traders to sell a stock they’re expecting to fall and to realize a profit from the decline in its value. CFDs provide inherent leverage for traders looking to boost earnings and provide a very flexible tool for investing on the strength or even the weaknesses of long term assets or index performance. However, margin trading exposes the capital to high risk with a possibility of losing more than the initial investment.

Since CFDs are not for the acquisition of the asset, and instead are just a contract with the broker, the tax treatment is different. Moreover, the trader does not get a direct tangible asset in this kind of trading. Trading in CFDS is very similar to trading in futures. Thus, the trader can buy or sell the asset for the difference in the spot price later.

The value of the Contract for Difference varies as the underlying stock to which it may be associated differs. CFDs are typically used by traders to capitalize on short term fluctuations where the trader can forecast either a long or short position as appropriate.

CFDs are generally traded off-exchange and have a fundamental margin, which means that they allow traders to invest in positions more heavily than their available capital would allow. While this may mean that it incurs high transaction costs, it also provides the trader with the opportunity to augment any winnings and ramp up the earnings potential of any given trade.

Compared to shares, CFDs are a great way to take advantage of predictable market movements and it brings both profit and tax advantages to the traders. Also, since there is no stamp duty applicable on this instrument, there is a huge potential saving for large scale investments.

CFDs have several useful benefits as traders can profit from the market fluctuations. For this, the traders have to hedge against corresponding positions. And it is especially this hedging potential that has popularized CFDs with some of the world’s largest institutional investors, providing a high yield investment tool through which other investment decisions can be offset. When employed effectively, CFDs are one of the most valuable investment vehicles for investors to build a portfolio that is robust and generates high yields.

CFDs have several practical benefits as traders can profit from the market fluctuations. For information related to CFD Trading, visit http://www.igmarkets.co.nz.