Investment Articles

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.

Portfolio optimization is a technique designed to balance the risks and returns of an investment portfolio over long holding periods. Read more about this technique in this short article.

Since each investment (stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, etc.) or line of business you have in your portfolio has different return profiles, your portfolio will useually have some diversification benefit built in already. The goal of portfolio optimization is to increase the benefits of diversifying without decreasing long term returns. In many cases this technique will actually increase returns. At a minimum, your overall variability in returns will likely go down, producing a steadier, more reliable profit curve.

One of the things to look for in a portfolio optimization tool is the ability to specify a variety of inputs to the model. Inputs might be target return, maximum return volatility, minimum return, maximum or minimum weighting per investment or sector, discount rate for discounting future returns, lookback period of historical return calculations, etc. You want to start with the current portfolio or perhaps a benchmark portfolio to gauge against. You must specify the individual stocks, bonds, futures, commodities, etc. in the portfolio, as well as historical cash flows for a sufficient period to calculate historical volatility and returns. Normally this means daily or weekly price history for securities, and monthly cash flow history for investments in real estate, businesses, or business units.

Once the inputs are specified, the model should automatically calculate correlations between the individual
investment returns. If your group of investments are highly correlated, moving together when the market moves up and down, then you may be able to optimize the portfolio only so far. On the other hand, if your portfolio is made up of a variety of investments in different assets and different sectors of the economy, then the model has a lot more to work with from the start by adjusting the weightings of each investment.

An important consideration when doing portfolio optimization is the capability of the calculation model to ensure the simulated return of the optimized portfolio is at least as high as the current or baseline portfolio. There should be a tick box to select before you run the model. This makes sure that you don’t run an optimization which creates a lower risk portfolio, but ends up significantly reducing long term profits. This is especially important when there is a long period of time between the initial investment and future distributions, such as a retirement account where a large amount of cash will be needed at the end of the investment horizon and the primary interest is in high growth at the beginning.

The output of the optimization should include a Monte Carlo histogram distributions of returns showing how the starting portfolio and the optimized portfolio stack up against each other across thousands of simulations. The expected return for each portfolio is expressed as the mean of the distribution. The exact number of units or amount of capital to invest in each component is required to guide the portfolio reallocation. In addition, statistics such as standard deviation, Sharpe Ratio, Treynor Ratio, and probability of achieving the target with the portfolio time horizon should be displayed in the results. A graphical display of the baseline and target portfolios versus the efficient frontier is highly desireable. These items are critical in gathering the statistical data to support an efficient allocation of investments.

Hopefully this short article will help in your efforts to conduct an effective portfolio optimization.

To see an excellent Excel spreadsheet-based portfolio optimization tool, check out this website today! http://www.financial-edu.com/portfolio-optimization.php

According to Morningstar, the 10 year trailing total return for the S&P 500 ending September 21, 2010 is negative. The total is (-0.53). A very small loss but a loss just the same. The go-go days of 10% plus annual returns ended with the dotcom stock bubble busting back in 2000. Hundreds of billions of dollars still sit in 401k accounts and IRAs currently invested in mutual funds and stocks by investors over age 50. Is this wise? Also, with the tax favored window of opportunity for Roth Conversions open at this time, is this your opportunity to move funds to an annuity as an option?

Mutual funds and stocks are suitable investments for younger people who can absorb risk with the advantage of time on their side to recoup losses. As folks get older, asset management is critical to protect the nest egg for retirement or to pass it on to children. Unfortunately many people leave their money in bad investments or take on too much risk. If you want to go to Vegas and have fun, great! But you should not get your thrills by betting on the equity markets while taking downside risk with a limited time horizon to recover. On the other hand, one can be too conservative and put 100% of their money in low yielding 12 month CDs earning an average 1-1.5% currently.

One alternative is to invest in annuity products from top rated insurance companies. A popular product is the Equity Indexed Annuity (EIA). If you are thinking about a Roth conversion, consider EIAs as part of your investment strategy. They might not be right for you but are worth consideration. An individual converting in 2010 from a traditional IRA to a Roth can elect to defer the tax and report half of the income on the 2011 tax return and the rest on the 2012 return. Are taxes going up in the future? Almost certainly they are, even if the GOP takes over this fall. The budget deficits have to be addressed and the national debt can’t just grow unabated forever. If taxes are going up, converting to a Roth makes sense for those investors who may have a large retirement income. If you expect your income to be less at retirement, then a Roth may not be your best option. You may balance your Roth conversion by having accounts with mutual funds in one, CDs in another, and an annuity.

The Equity Indexed Annuity provides protection of invested principle no matter what the stock market does while offering the potential for superior returns if the market does well. Some insurers offer a “bonus” on the initial investment of up to 10%. Equity Indexed Annuities are based on different indexes like the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the New York Stock Exchange Composite index, the S&P 500 Stock Price and the Nasdaq-100 Index. The guaranteed minimum return rate, if any, depend on how the contract is written. Most of these products afford investors the opportunity to put some of the funds in a bond index, some in a stock index etc. However, keep this in mind, an EIA is not going to match performance of the stock market on the way up. It tracks the market via a complicated formula. In most cases the returns are capped so the upside is limited. This product may provide a better return than non-indexed investments but is not going to produce equivalent gains to equities themselves. Like other traditional fixed rate annuities, you may opt for a lifetime income at retirement or may cash it in once you have met the required holding period to avoid surrender charges.

Annuities may be purchased from various sources. Many advisors have a “turf” and are partial to their products. Brokers like stocks and mutual funds, bankers like CDs, and insurance agents like annuities. If you are considering an annuity, seek out a trained insurance professional who specializes in this area. Make sure they carry Errors and Omissions coverage and have a clean record with the State Insurance Commissioner. Today, agents have to make sure a person seeking an annuity is “suitable” for this investment. Some greedy agents in the past have ignored suitability, but regulatory action now has put in place protections to prevent this kind of abuse. Suitability is very important because a major downside to an Equity Indexed Annuity is that it is a long-term investment with serious penalties for early surrender. Often these surrender charges are on the order of 10% or more. Almost all EIAs require holding periods of 5-10 years to avoid surrender charges. There are also potential tax implications when early withdrawals are taken.

An annuity is not guaranteed by the US government although many states have guarantee funds. During the recent financial meltdown of 2008-09, some major stock brokerage firms did not make it. No major US life insurers failed during the crisis although some like AIG did get government assistance. A person should not lockup all of their investment dollars in an annuity. If someone tries to put all of your investment dollars in any one product, think very carefully about whether they have their best interests or yours at heart. Whether or not a Roth conversion is something that may benefit you is a matter to discuss with your tax advisor.

James Robert Coleman, E.A., A.T.A.
Enrolled Agent & Accredited Tax Advisor
Licensed Insurance Agent in Texas, LA, and VA.
http://www.exirsman.com

Olive oil is showing up in more and more kitchens and on more and more dinner tables throughout the world. The oil is cherished by cooks, enjoyed on salads, and healthy for the heart. Over the last two decades this combination of factors has led to increased consumption far beyond the Mediterranean Basin, the traditional home of the olive and its oil. It used to be that virtually all olive oil was produced as well as consumed around the Mediterranean and in the Middle East. Production has been sufficient for local (Mediterranean Basin) demand. As worldwide demand increases olive trees will be planted and olive oil produced outside of the countries that have historically been the leading producers. This is a big trend that will need capital and those who have the foresight may well profit from investment in growing, refining, exporting, distributing, or selling olive oil in regions as diverse as the UK, India, Japan, China, or the USA.

Olives and Who Makes the Oil

People have been making oil from olives for as long as 5,000 years according to archeological evidence in Greece. Today olives are grown and processed into to oil in Spain, Italy, and Greece who are the major producers at 36%, 25%, and 18% of worldwide production according to recent figures. As demand for more olives and more oil goes up these countries will probably not be able to answer the call. Greece, for example, devotes 60% of its cultivatable land to olive orchards already.

After the big three olive oil producers, come Tunisia (8%), Turkey (5%), Syria (4%), Morocco (3%), and Portugal (1%) in the same recent set of figures from 2005. These countries, from Spain at the top down to Portugal, produced 90% of the world supply in 2005. Every other nation produced less than 1% of world production. A big part of this is that olives are native to the Mediterranean Basin and grow best there. It is not just a matter of the plant surviving but that it produces high quality olives for refining into exportable oil.

As the figures show a handful of producers currently make the oil from olives. Now the question is who will step in to make more as worldwide demand multiplies? What kind of olives will work the best in what locations and who is going to invest the capital to make all of this work?

Where Are Folks Going to Plant Olive Trees?

Olives are grown throughout the world but they work best in the Mediterranean Basin. The space, climate, and soil conducive to growing exportable quality olive oils are on the opposite side of the Mediterranean Sea for the current major producers, Spain, Italy, and Greece. Tunisia (8%) and Morocco (3%) are already in the top seven producers. Now Algeria, the second largest nation in Africa is planning a million hectare planting of olive trees. Algeria lies to the immediate East of Morocco and on the Mediterranean Sea. Its climate is Mediterranean. Olives are grown for food and oil already in Algeria but the infrastructure has not been present on a sufficiently large scale to refine enough oil promptly enough to produce export quality oil. A major factor here is having enough processing plants dedicated to a set of orchards and the infrastructure needed to pick and process in a timely manner. Another factor has been that of foreign connections for export, marketing, and sales.

It turns out that folks are going plant a million hectares of olive trees in Algeria. That is, for those from the USA, 2.5 million acres. If planted in one block it would be 100 kilometers or 62.5 miles on a side. Foreign investors are bringing their expertise and capital to this project. In addition foreign companies are setting up projects in such a way as to attract the foreign capital necessary to plant orchards, tend orchards, pick olives, process olives to oil, and send processed oil through a supply chain to the supermarkets of places as far afield as North America, India, and Japan.

The supply chain for olive oil looks like this:

Producer-Farmer
Oil Mill or Cooperative
Refining into oil
Export
Wholesaler
Distributor
Consumer

What foreign expertise will bring to the mix will be expertise in choosing olive varieties, the building of a sufficient number of modern oil mills and the connections for export and distribution.

An example of a promising project in Algeria is one by a Spanish firm. This company has a subsidiary in Algeria. Through the subsidiary the company will plant 1, 500 hectares of the Arbequinia olive. This is a variety suitable for intensive culture. It is drought resistant and cold resistant. The small tree yields 20% weight per volume of oil from its small brown olives and is well known for the excellent taste of its oil.

The company will build a modern processing plant to assure prompt refining into high quality oil for international markets. It will develop the supply chain to move olives to processing, oil to export, and exports to wholesales in markets around the world.

As projects like this take hold the world wide demand for high quality oil will be satisfied. As private companies attract investors to this sort of profitable undertaking they will attract the necessary capital that has often been missing in order to develop a complete supply chain and enhance profits.

To continue the example above the Spanish company is allotting 500 of its 1,500 hectares for private investors. Investors will receive interest on investment as well as a “piece of the action.” After three years when the Arbequinia olive starts to produce investors will receive $2 US per liter of oil produced on “their’ hectare of land. The Arbequinia variety typically produces 11,000 kilograms of olives per hectare. The olives typically yield 19% oil. Thus a hectare of arbequinia olive trees will produce 11,000 times 0.19 equals 2,090 liters of olive oil. At $2 a liter this is more than $4,000 to the investor on top of yearly interest. This arrangement will last for ten years at which time the investor will receive his initial investment back, having doubled his money. In the end the investor helps increase olive oil production, makes money, and may even find a bottle of “their” olive oil at the supermarket.

http://www.userbancorp.com

Contact me on e-mail: geir.holstad@userbancorp.com

The economy is tough for everyone right now, but it is especially difficult for the Baby Boomer Generation looking to retire soon. According to a recent article in the Wall St. Journal: “As of the first quarter of 2010, net household assets (homes, 401(k) plans, pension assets and other investments) minus debts stood at $54.6 trillion, down 18% from the end of 2007. That’s an average of about $171,000 per person, much of which is concentrated in the hands of the wealthiest.”

While banks, home buyers, and bond issuers are all benefiting as the short-term interest rates near zero percent, many of the 80 million Baby Boomers looking to retire in the next ten years are watching their net worth drop like a rock. If current conditions persist, nearly three in five baby boomers will be at risk of running short of money in retirement.

Low yields present retirees with a difficult choice: Accept the lower income offered by safer bonds or take the risk of gambling in the stock market for a potentially higher return.

What are the Baby Boomers options if looking to pull out of the market? What other retirement savings options are available that yield a positive return with minimal risk? Savings accounts, CDs, money markets, and Treasury Bills are popular because Americans understand how this process works and these accounts are protected by the government and offer a positive interest rate. While the risk is very low, however, the interest rates are equally low. 7-10 year Treasury Bonds are only offering a 2.5% yield. Most short term interest rates are under 2%. No one can grow their retirement accounts with a 2% interest rate. In fact, it would take 36 years for someone to double their initial investment at a 2% interest rate! These low returns is a big reason why people stick in the stock market.

Why not continue in the stock market? Recently, CNBC aired a story about the future of the stock market. The conclusion was that based on studying charts and past trends, unemployment and leading indicators, the Dow will likely drop to 5,000 in the next two to two-and-a-half years.

Suddenly, 2% growth looks better!

Of course, this projected drop in the stock market is just speculation, but the speculation aspect is part of the problem. People are tired of taking risks and gambling in the stock market. Investors want to invest in a retirement vehicle that will show a positive growth from now until retirement.

What if you could combine the safety of a bank account or Treasury bond with the high yield return of the stock market?

The answer for many investors is the Safe Savings Account. A Safe Savings Account is a product designed to offer Americans the safety of a bank account with a higher, guaranteed interest rate backed by hard assets.

A Safe Savings Account operates similar to a CD in that you invest money and earn a guaranteed compound interest rate. Instead of offering protection in the form of FDIC insurance, thought, the Safe Savings Account is then back by a hard asset, thus guaranteeing your investment. Since backed by an asset, the Company offering the Safe Savings Account can afford to offer a higher, more competitive interest rate than banks or TBills or bonds without all the volatility and loss potential of the stock market! How else can you accurately plan for retirement unless you can calculate the future value of your retirement account to the dollar? Anything else is just financial guessing; and in these uncertain times, taking chances just doesn’t make any sense.

The Warr Investment Group offers a Safe Savings Account with a Guaranteed 8% interest rate. While the tumultuous market will have it’s ups and down, you can rest assured that your investment will double every 8.67 years. How else can you plan for retirement unless you know how much money you’re going to make? For more information on the Warr Investment Groups’ Safe Savings Account, please visit http://www.JimWarr.com.

I think tax lien investing is one of the most interesting ways to get involved in the real estate market. The advantages are overwhelming compared to other real estate investments. It is a relatively risk free investment because you will either receive your investment plus interest or you will be able to get ownership of the property. The interest rates are higher than most certificates of deposit or other bank interest. The initial investment is lower than any other real estate venture. Another advantage it is fairly simple.

Tax lien investing can be simple, but you need to have a plan and there is some research involved. You need to create a strategy before you get started. In order to create that strategy, you will need to know the following:

1. Research how different states/counties conduct tax lien sales.
2. Decide which states/counties you want to participate in tax sales.
3. Determine the specific procedures for participating in auctions in the county you have selected.
4. If you want to invest through an IRA, you will need to set up a “self-directed IRA”.
5. Determine if you want to just invest for the interest or if you want to ultimately own the real estate. There are different approaches to selecting properties depending on your goal.
6. Decide how much you are willing to invest. Although you will get a good return on your investment, you will have to be willing to wait. There is no way to know when the property owner will pay the taxes owed. Be patient.

Tax lien investing can be a profitable investment, but it is not free or fast. If you are willing to do your homework and put a little of your portfolio into tax liens, you can make a good return. You can have fun in the process as long as you have a strategy.

To see the best research I found on tax liens, Click Here.