Sunday, December 28, 2008

College vs. Retirement

Most of us, investing in mutual funds is pretty straight forward. You have specific goals that need to be met. You and your partner are approaching mutual fund investing with your eyes open and you’re both on the same page. Granted, she may want that pretty house down by the lake and you want that new car, but both your goals involve water, and that’s close enough for you. But what if you’re in a completely different boat? What if you know you need to invest, but you have two equally important goals pulling you two different ways? This is the case with thousands of parents who see the need to save for retirement but also want to save for the kids’ college education. How can you do both at the same time? Here are a few tips.

One of the biggest factors in the college vs. retirement battle is the fact that people are putting off having kids until later in life these days. Fifty years ago, this wasn’t the case, and saving for both college and retirement usually happened during two distinctly different phases in one’s life. These days, now that we realize that saving for retirement is something that should be started when you’re 18, not 48, the two overlap more than ever.

The gut instinct of most parents is to put the kids’ future ahead of their own and cut back on retirement savings in favour of college. While this is a popular choice, it really only should be a last resort. A technique that is becoming more and more popular with parents who face saving for both at once is offering your prospective college student the chance to get matching funds from you. This is simply the idea that for every dollar they pay for, you’ll match it. If your not sure how junior will pay for half, remember, there are many ways for teenagers to save for college themselves. Almost everyone qualifies for student loans, there are scholarships for good grades as well as an after school and summertime job. Most college students work while they are attending classes, as well.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

History of the stock exchange

A stock exchange is simply a place where stock is traded. Obviously, in this day and age, the New York Stock Exchange is much, much more than that. Not only is stock traded, but bonds, securities, commodities and countless other things are traded, as well. The NYSE has become so well known throughout the world that it has evolved from a place to do business to a genuine tourist attraction. The history of the market, combined with the wealth and power that resides within its walls makes it a must-see for any tourist visiting New York City. But how did we go from a dirt road trading post on the outskirts of a small village to a marble and stone monolith like the New York Stock Exchange?

While the location of the very first stock exchange is somewhat controversial, it is believed that the original exchange was located in the Egyptian city of Cairo at or around the 11th century. It is thought that Jewish and Islamic merchants dealt in stock and commodities trading. This goes against most common beliefs that the Italians were the ones to actually invent the stock market.

The first appearance of stock brokers can be traced back to France in the 12th century. A person known as the courratier de change was saddened with the job of regulating and managing the debts and finances of communities that were based on agriculture for the local banking system. They were also known to trade the debts that they kept records of.

During the next century, French commodity traders started to become more organized and groups that would meet on a regular basis to trade began sprouting up all over Western Europe.

The first evidence of trading of government securities was seen by Venetians in the 1200’s. The government of Venice soon outlawed the practice of rumour spreading with the intent of lowering prices of government-issued securities.

Within the next few hundred years, the Dutch were the first to start stock companies that let their shareholders have a piece of profits, and losses. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange was the first exchange to offer the idea of continuous trade as early as the 17th century.

The road from dusty marketplace to organized stock exchange has been a rocky one, but the evolution is unmistakable. With the current trend of moving away from floor traders and to computerized trading, no one knows what the stock exchange of the future will look like, but one thing is for certain, the market will continue to change over time, no matter what.

How the market affects gas prices

How the market affects gas prices

A recent downturn in gas prices has come as a welcome relief to most drivers in North America. The timing, however, of the price drop has many people thinking conspiracy theory. A recent poll of Americans showed that a staggering 42 percent of respondents believe that George W. Bush and the ruling Republican administration in Washington lowered gas prices in time for the November 2006 mid-term elections. While this may or may not be the case, the various stock markets around the world do have a real time impact on the price of oil, and therefore gasoline.

The biggest culprit in the lowering of gas prices might actually be Mother Nature. In preparation for the upcoming hurricane season, many investors on Wall Street and around the world invested heavily in gas and oil futures, guessing that another direct hit by a Katrina-like storm directly on gas and oil pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico would send prices through the roof like they did last year. But a recent correction by hurricane forecasters who downgraded the 2006 hurricane season caused the price of oil to plummet and all those investors who bought futures to cry.

But it wasn’t just the hurricanes that did it. The announcement coincided with the end of the summer season for drivers, which also dragged down the price of oil. The price of oil over this time fell off the table, going from an August 7th high of $77 a barrel to $58 a barrel in October. It doesn’t take long for this drop in prices to be felt at the pump.

This seismic shift in oil and gas prices over such a short amount of time left many investors in deep financial trouble. At least one mutual fund that was invested heavily in oil and gas futures went belly up due to this dramatic drop in prices. At the same time, there were other funds that did quite well despite the portfolio-ruining drop in oil prices. As they say in sports, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

While it may be naive to think that global politics never plays a part in the world’s commodity markets, it is unlikely that the sole reason for the massive and speedy drop in oil prices was due to upcoming elections. The number of variables that play on the world’s stocks, bonds and commodities is too vast in number to be influenced completely on one country’s elections.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Day Trading

With the technology boom that has changed the way business is done across the globe, one unintended result has been the rise of day trading. Day trading is a risky and stressful form of trading that involved buying stock and selling it within one days time. It’s thought that if this is done enough time, with the right foresight and financial advice, that a person can make quite a lot of money each day. Day trading wasn’t even an option before the 1990’s. Here’s why.

Back before the computer age allowed instant stock buying and selling, the financial settlement period use to take much, much longer. It was possible to buy a stock, and not have to pay for it for another 10 business days. It was common practice in those days to try to sell the stock for more than it was worth before you had to pay for it in an attempt to make a profit. Many traders who had no actual money of their own would make their livings this way, and it’s obvious how dangerous this was.

A day trader has many different strategic options that he or she can follow to try to make a profit. The first is trend following. This is a tool that is used by all investors and its simply the idea that stocks that have been going up will continue to go up and stocks that have been going down will continue to go down. Obviously, this isn’t always the case, which makes trend following a dangerous method to base all of your day trading investments on.

Range trading is another tool used by day traders. This is the practice of buying and selling stocks once they reach their respective highs and lows. The trader figures that a stock that is headed up will continue to go up, but only until it reaches a new high, and then it’s due to go back down. The same is thought for stocks headed the other way. Once they reach a brand new low, they tend to rebound and head back up.

Playing news is another common tool of the day trader. The technique is exactly what it sounds like, buying stock that has just released good news and selling stock that has just released bad news.

While none of these techniques are guaranteed, day trading is increasing in popularity every year, and while the potential for significant loss is very real, many continue to walk the tightrope that is day trading.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Investing For Your Retirement

Most people have a retirement paranoia in them the general opinion is that this is the time when they stop earning actively, will be probably depending on someone else and will probably have medical problems that they will not be able to pay for. There are so many such apprehensions about retirement that it is no wonder people dread the time. But then, if you are dreading your retirement, then you do not know of the various ways in which you can save for your retirement. Here's a list.
1. Retirement Annuities - Several retirees are getting the rich benefits of annuities nowadays. Annuities are investments that are made before a person retires and which begins paying out after the retirement for a fixed pre-decided term, or for the whole remainder of the person's life. The interest accrued during the timeframe between the investment and the payout is also given out to the retiree. In this way, the retiree gets not just the principal amount back, but also the interest that is collected over the years of the investment. There are two types of payout methods the fixed annuity and the variable annuity. The fixed rate annuities are better because there the interest rate is fixed, but in the variable rate annuities, the interest rate will change according to market trends.
2. Fixed Deposits in Banks - This is another very popular method of investing for retirement. Every bank pays out a healthy interest rate on the invested principal, due to which after some years the invested amount multiplies. If kept for a significant number of years, the little amount invested in fixed deposits could multiply and be a good source for spending the life comfortably after retirement.
3. Term Insurance Policies - Term insurance policies are set for a fixed period of years, which can be either a short or a long period of time. The investment is done in the form of premiums after regular intervals of time. The premiums are collected by the insurance company and the interests are accrued on them. When the stipulated term is over, the insurance company pays out this amount to the person. Many people buy term insurance policies to tide them over after their retirement.
4. Real Estate Investing - Most people buy some property when they are working. They might buy the property on installments, but in most cases, the installments are over long before the retirement time approaches. In the meantime the property has built up significant equity. This can be a good option for investment. Many retirees sell their homes after retirement and buy smaller homes in a more peaceful area. The money they save is good enough to look after their needs in their post-retirement years.
There are several more ways for the discerning person who wants to do some investing for life after retirement. The above are just some of the most common ones.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Make Money by Selling T-Shirts From Home

It is entirely possible to make a decent amount of money by selling t-shirts from your already established website.
This should only be used by entertainment websites with a good established user base - websites relying on search engine traffic will find this much harder for obvious reasons.

If you want to make money by selling t-shirts, first you need a website generating a high amount of traffic. This traffic should be from people looking mainly for entertainment as they are the most common and cheaper traffic available.

If you don't have a website now, you should make one based in t-shirts themselves. Make them unique and appealing somehow - after you have some very good t-shirts that will definitely grab attention, I suggest you go to Adwords and find some good keywords. Make those keywords stand from the rest by having a catchy name.

Don't just limit yourself to adwords, though. Advertise wherever you can - including particular websites, Adwords, Overture, Casale Media, etc. Try everything and advertise to as many people as you can.
Then you should make an affiliate program. Advertise the affiliate program itself in Adwords too to get some good affiliates who will promote your t-shirts. Give them a good starting price (say 30%) for them to be interested.

After a couple of months you will be selling many t-shirts per day. That is how I have seen many big t-shirts sellers take off.

Remember that the t-shirt business online will only grow in the future years so take advantage now.

If you have a website now:

If you already have an entertainment website generating a decent amount of revenue, I suggest you make t-shirts based on your website's theme. If it's purely about funny images, then make some t-shirts with funny images themselves! I highly recommend that you be extremely careful in only using the images you made YOURSELF as doing it otherwise might lead you to trouble.

Even if you have an already-established website, advertise wherever you can. Also never override the option of making a website based for t-shirts themselves as it might help your website look a bit more professional.
Author:
Joaquin de la Sierra

Happy Investing!!

Monday, November 10, 2008

How To Start Your Home Business, Once and For All, This Year

You've thought about it for awhile now. There's a good chance you've rationalized it and said, "Next year I'll get my own business started." Guess what? It's next year, and there's no better time than the present to get your home business started.

So What's The Secret?

Is there a secret to starting and making money with a home business? What about making lots of money? Are there just a few people out there that can be successful? Or can anyone make it happen? In my research of successful home-based business owners, I've found two essential ingredients to success: having a good attitude and lots of determination. Call me crazy, but we can all have these and it isn't going to cost us a dime.

But I Don't Have The Money To Start A Home Business

We are often caught up with the situations we find ourselves in, and see no possible way to start a home biz. Maybe you're broke with barely enough money to survive, let alone to start a home business. You could be a single mom raising your family all by yourself. Maybe you've been burned by one to many work-at-home scams and have given up on the idea that you can make a home business work.

It's easy to tell yourself that you could never start, let alone run a home business because of this or that reason. It's easy to rationalize "Well those people who are super successful, they probably had a bunch of money to start their business with and they probably knew all the right people." Well, that's usually not the case. Any self-employed person will tell you how hard it really was to make their business a success. It always comes down to lots of hard work!

What Are You Focused On?

Many years ago I was teaching my youngest daughter to ride her bike without training wheels. She was riding on the side of the road, and was very nervous about running into the curb. Every time she would start to peddle, she'd immediately look at the curb, and sure enough, she'd head straight for it. I explained to her, "Look at where you want to go, not where you don't want to go." It's funny how when you look straight ahead, the bike goes straight ahead, but when you focus on where you DON'T want to go, you end up there.

The mind is a wonderful machine and it can be our best friend. If you constantly tell yourself that you can be a success, you can make money doing what you love; your mind will find a way to make it happen. A quote by Edward Vernon Rickenbacker says, "I believe that if you think about disaster you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience."

Make Your Dreams Come True - Make Money Doing What You love

When you think about the type of business you want to start, think about what it is you love to do. Try not to focus on a business because you are told about all the money you can make. Instead look at what you enjoy doing. What you are already naturally gifted at doing.

All businesses take time to grow and make money. Even the ones you are told will make you a ton of money. Wouldn't you rather work hard at something you enjoy to make a living?


It's Up To You

No matter where you are coming from, it's your attitude and determination that will ultimately decide the fate of your home business. If you want to work-at-home badly enough, then you need tell yourself on a daily basis that you will find a way to make it happen, and you will be a success at it. Do this and your business will not only get started, but is will also grow and thrive. With a positive attitude and determination you can move mountains!

Author: Liz Folger

Good Tips for start up Business!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Investing Tips For Beginners

Investing can be confusing, especially for the beginner. Getting some basic tips can help a beginning investor to make informed choices that fit their needs. Each person has a different goal when investing and that plays a big impact on how you invest. The following list explains some things beginners should know before investing.

1. Understand that there are no set rules for investing. There are no guarantees and no perfect way to invest.

2. Make informed choices. Before investing in any way you should completely understand how your investment will work and all of the details of the transaction.

3. Make a simple plan to determine your goals and needs. This will help you to determine what investments to make and how much money to invest.

These three tips are great for general investing, but many people are looking to invest in the fast paced world of the stock market. The above tips are a good beginning, but the following tips will further help those interested in investing in stocks.

1. Look at the value of the stock instead of the price. Low cost stocks may be low for a reason. Look at the whole picture. See why the price is low and if there is a possibility it may rise.

2. Check the companies return on net worth. This is the profit after taxes divided by the net worth. It is important to see a trend of growing return on net worth.

3. Spread out your risk. You should not put all your money in high risk stocks. Try some lower risks and some higher risks. This is the best way to protect your money.

4. Understand the basics of stock prices. Prices move up or down depending on future projections.

These four tips can help a beginning investor start investing in the stock market.

No matter what type of investment you are looking into, knowledge will be the key to success. These short tip lists are just the beginning to understanding investing and how to maximize your return. Keep learning and trying.

Author:
Stephen Kreutzer
Financial literacy is important before you invest. Happy Investing!!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Making Extra Money Online

Making money using the Internet is becoming increasingly popular every year. A bombardment of emails and adverts indicating that internet users can earn money by working at home and leaving their normal jobs are constantly being received by net surfers. Many are leaving with a foul taste in their mouth who buy into this notion that they can make extra money online so why do they end up failing?

Due to this gain in popularity, there are also more con-artists around, determined to use this ever growing trend in the notion that one can make extra money online for their own gains. Of course but you will need to proceed with caution if you wish to become successful.


Tips to Make Extra Money Online

Put a plan together so you know how you expect to make extra money online. So many are failing because they do not have a plan and are aimlessly searching for an easy way to make those extra dollars. They are treated as prime targets by con-artists. Do some research on ways that are most likely to succeed if you don't know where to start. Decide which things you would like to do to earn money online. With the plan you have chosen, reliable sources can be located that can teach you further how to make money.

Once you have a plan in mind you should consider seeking out reliable sources that can teach you further how to make extra money online. A mentor can reduce the learning curve and improve your chances of having success so you should locate one. Many of the people who are failing are doing so because they are making fundamental mistakes with the strategies they are implementing. There will be a client support system in place with trustworthy money making programs. You will only be deterred from creating the success you deserve if you do not take advantage of this.

It is more important than finding a good teacher or support group to take action. In order to make extra money online you should take the challenge on board. A get rich quick scheme that is going to make you millions by doing nothing does not exist. The amount of work you are willing to put in will determine how much extra money you make. Do not work hard for a week and then slack off because you aren't seeing any results, be consistent with your efforts. Once you have built momentum on the internet the effect will snow-ball, provided you have been consistent with your actions.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Simple Tips to Find Investment

Many people want to try their hand at investing, normally as a way to build a nest egg for their family in the future and there are a number of ways to do this. Investing money comes in many areas from real estate to stocks and shares; the choice available is huge and will depend on your individual needs. This is how many people believe the will achieve financial security and a way to provide for their family in the future. This article cannot provide in-depth information on this subject but can give some useful basic information if you are looking to do this.

Of course the most popular area to invest:

Stock Market but caution is required with so many companies wanting your money; careful study is the key to long term success here. This is also the riskiest area but huge amounts of money can be made quickly although even experts can make huge mistakes.

Real Estate you are more likely to see substantial gains but they will take some time, however, it is a much safer option. Buying a run down property can be considered a project and make a handsome profit when re-sold, if approached in the correct way and not with the lick-of-paint attitude which many fall foul of.
Online Business the quickest way to get started and it is also the fastest growing sector of investment as it can be carried out by just about anyone providing they have a computer and an internet connection. Using a computer, this group of people comes from all walks of life and this allows them to be a trader who performs his or her own company research before they decide to buy or sell. Be aware that because of the ease with which this can be done it has also been shown to be highly addictive and may cost more than you are prepared for.

CONCLUSION:
Learn about the markets and investing generally to see how they work as this information is crucial if you do not want to start losing money as soon as you start. Whether it is with stocks, mutual funds, real estate or online, do your research and make some money! Once again, the internet can help with forums and sites devoted to supplying tips and tricks for successful online investment, use these and learn from the experience of others. Enjoy the investing you do but remember it has a serious side that doesn't take prisoners; this is why it is so important to learn the game rules before you play.


Happy Investing!!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Baby-boomers-create-passive-income

A hail to various creativeness that made possible the way towards increased wealth to almost anyone even to the emergent figure of baby boomers by creating passive income so that they may have something to boast with their retreat portfolio.

We can say with a direct approach that the social security is beginning to have a lot of downfalls especially that it is no longer a secured organization to which we can put our trust on because its system was created as a net intended for security but has a seen to have a lot of tears and holes.

Today individuals have realized that when after laboring through your whole life working for a particular firm, the final retirement/pension benefit accrual can hardly add any extra value, when it comes to utilizing the money for real purposes.

**Usually, there is the cutting off of benefits and the reduction in contributions by such organisations.

I know of one such company who did not think twice before they cut short the careers of its employees who had labored for two to three decades by paying out only 30 percent of their retirement benefits.

This kind of story does not create any more new ripples but acts as a rude reminder to us as the baby boomers is gradually nearing retirement age.

While we were used to hearing and believing that benefits and privileges will be surely given to us, the truth is actually far from it.

I have this friend who after working for 30 long years to a single firm got a monthly retirement little amount of dollars for his 30 years of service.

His reality is that he is working long after retirement and he is not alone.

Evidently, there are a lot of individuals who are having extra jobs to add up to their savings for their retirement income.

Many such people turned to the internet for business opportunities only to find that the place is full of failure stories primarily because the Internet based business is mostly based on distributorship modules with no real clients buying any product.

The web based business works in a manner by which a marketer who is in keen to search for new get rich systems from a number of companies, that is actually of no use, will be recruited and marketed by another marketer.

Thomas Prendergast Chief Executive Officer of Inetekk and founder of Veretekk is one person that has a useful belief towards helping the helpless average individuals like us succeed in life by having an Internet based business at home.

Prendergast in a recent interview admitted that online commercial enterprises most of which relies on the distributorship chain, can succeed in the short term but when you are talking of long term sustainable success, it is bound to stumble and fall.

It is not uncommon to find hordes of individuals making unwise investment decisions for Internet based business enterprises which they try to run, unable to build a viable and meaningful customer base and end up wasting thousands of bucks on overused lists and leads.

Wouldn't you rather invest your time, effort and hard in dollars in clients who are already familiar with your firm and already buying and using your products?

Think of the idea where you do not have to take in people, no trading involved and no fear of rejection as you are engaged in generating a lot of passive income.

So you are thinking that this is impossible? Rise and shine baby boomers, here is someone talking real business.