Tuesday, June 7, 2011

How to invest your money that suit your style?


There are many different ways of investing money and selecting the right one for you is of vital importance. It's essential that you select the right method for both your needs and your personality before you invest anything at all. To do that you need to really consider all the different ways of investing. Money can be made in almost any type of investment but matching it to your personality will make it a much more sensible approach.

When we think of the different ways of investing money most of us think in terms of the stock market but there are plenty of other types of investment to consider. For example you could choose gold or any other precious metal, real estate, Certificates of Deposit or even old automobiles. Your choice is limited only by your imagination and of course the depth of your pockets!

Whichever way you decide to invest there are some "rules" which carry across regardless. One of the fundamentals is to know what you are doing. Without this you are not investing but gambling. Let's take an example of the silver markets about 30 years ago. Two brothers Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt decided to corner the silver market along with some of their business associates. They succeeded in driving the price up to around $54 an ounce before the authorities changed the rules on margin trading. As a result the market crashed spectacularly into freefall. If you had blindly followed them because you didn't know what you were doing but thought it was safe to do so because others were following them you could have finished up bankrupt.

A second important point to keep in mind is to match the risk to the reward regardless of the type of investment. If you are considering a high risk bond for example you need to ensure that the rewards you are being offered are equally high. Never lose sight of the fact that high rewards are being offered for a reason - the risk of loss is also high.

Whatever the type of investment you are after you should always try to think about having a broad portfolio of investments as this again will lessen your risks while giving you the opportunity to get a good return. A good spread will cover all the major types of investments but without exposing you to some of the more unusual and very different ways of investing money.

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Sunday, May 29, 2011

How should sudden debt be deal with?


Sudden debt can crash unexpectedly into the lives of almost any of us at any time. We can be going along through life quite happily and then bang! Without warning we find ourselves in debt and it's well… so sudden! Debt is also something that many of us have been told since childhood is a bad thing. And that just adds to our woes.

Here we are unexpectedly in a traumatic situation and we get hit by the double whammy of sudden debt and guilt!

If you think it will never happen to you don't be too sure. Think of something as simple as an accident, it doesn't even have to be your fault, and you get hospitalized for a couple of months. Do you think while you're laid there in your hospital bed it's just possible that making the payment for your credit card bill might get forgotten?

And what happens when you forget your monthly credit payments? Those nice friendly guys at the loan company who wanted to increase your credit card limit only last month now turn into Don Corleone and the boys from Mob! They start to slap on late charges and the exorbitant interest now starts to attract interest on itself and, and… Well you get the picture.

So what do you do when you find yourself facing sudden debt?

The first thing is not to panic. Easy enough to say I know but it really isn't going to help. Just stop and think of a plan of action.

Before you do anything else at all, contact the companies you owe the money too. Explain the situation you've found yourself in and ask what they can do to help. Some, not all, but some companies will freeze the interest, especially if you've always had a triple A credit rating in the past.

Let take a worst case scenario here and assume your creditors aren't helpful. If you find that is the case then start to look at some of the options. Do you have a family member that can lend you the cash to pay off what you owe? If not, what about your bank? Ask them for a loan that you can repay over a period of time you feel comfortable with. That way you begin to take control over the situation and you will soon begin to whittle away at that sudden debt.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

What Must You Look For Best Saving Accounts


Most people begin their financial journey by opening a regular account which they use for nothing more than depositing and issuing checks. A lot of these people allow money to remain in these accounts till it reaches a particular amount and then they begin looking at options for saving accounts. It is needless to mention why people would want the best saving accounts they can get at this stage, because their financial life is almost on the verge of or already has become stable. The account they are opening now is an instrument of savings.

Probably you are contemplating on opening a saving account too. If you are doing that, there are certain things you must look for. One of the first things that you have to remember is that the bank where you have your regular account is not necessarily the bank with the best saving accounts too. With a saving account, the stakes are higher because banks have to pay you interest on the deposits that you make. Naturally, the bank that can provide you the best rate of interest will be the best saving account bank for you. But there are some other considerations to make here.

Here we list the four important points you have to look at when you are scouting for banks that can provide best saving accounts.

(i)            The first thing you have to look at is naturally the rate of interest. Since it is the bank that will be paying you the interest, you have to select the bank that provides you the highest rate of interest. This should be one of the primary points that you should be looking at, but certainly it should not be the only point.

(ii)           The second thing you need to check is the amount that the bank needs you to deposit so that you can open the account. Different financial institutions have different limits here and hence you need to ask them personally or check their written brochures.

(iii)          Since these are savings accounts, you will need to keep some amount in the bank each month. This amount is called as minimum deposit. It acts as a kind of security for the bank as well as it helps you to really save that amount of money, adding more meaning to the concept of savings accounts. But you have to see if you can really afford to keep this minimum deposit with the bank because if your total deposited amount goes less than this, you will have to pay an additional charge.

(iv)         There may also be a limit on the number and the amount of withdrawals that you make from the savings account. See if that meets your needs. With some banks, you can make more withdrawals than the number that they allow but you will have to pay an additional charge for that.

(v)          One more point that you have to check is the notice period before you can make a withdrawal, which is typical of most savings accounts. If this period stretches out to too long (in some banks it could be as much as three months), the account may not be suitable to your needs.

Hence, choosing best saving accounts is not a very easy task because there are several things that you need to consider. But being aware of what you need to look at, you are liable to make a better decision.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Bad Credit Debt Consolidation Loan - The Secret To Getting One

A bad credit debt consolidation loan can get you out of a financial hole very quickly. The question is if you've got a bad credit history will the banks still lend to you? The answer is probably. That's because a bad credit debt consolidation loan can make as much sense for them as it can for you.

You see the banks really don't care about you. I know, that came as a surprise right? But they do care about themselves - second surprise! So they might be happy to make a loan to help sort out your bad credit. Debt consolidation loan is just another way of saying refinancing of course. And the reality of that is the bank will take the money you already owe them and spread the payments over a longer period.

Now what happens is that because the money they are lending you is outstanding for a longer amount of time they can charge you more interest. See what I meant when I said they don't care about you?

Of course from your point of view you are probably going to be benefiting by having lower repayments, less worry and you'll get your credit history back on track. So it's win-win.

Now to actually get a bad credit debt consolidation loan you're going to have to convince the bank or loan company that they really are going to be benefiting. Just telling them that they will make more money in the long run won't cut it. You need to present a well thought out case as to why it makes sense to consolidate your existing loans.

You need to sit down and work out a plan before you even think of contacting them. In that plan you need to be able to tell them how your bad credit came about. Was it a problem with your job? Was it down to ill health? You also need to explain what has changed now and how you will be able to meet the new payments.

Try not to be over optimistic here. And for goodness sake tell them the truth, if you don't they will almost certainly find out and you'll fail. They're trained to spot lying by applicants.

The secret to success is having a good, well-though out reason why they should grant you a bad debt consolidation loan.

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Understanding The Stock Market 101


If you are looking to get started with investing in stocks and shares you really need to get to grips with understanding the stock market. While you don't need to become an expert or have an in depth knowledge you certainly need at the very least a basic understanding. The stock market is in its simplest form just an auction but it is one with a sting in the tail for the unwary.

To help you start understanding the stock market you need to think of what makes it work. Very simply the market is driven by supply and demand. That means that if there is only a very limited number of shares in a particular company available the demand for them will be far greater than if the market place is awash with them. So you can see that just like an auction where there are a lot of people who want what is on offer the price will increase to reflect that demand.

Once you have grasped the concept of how the stock market works you can then begin to look at how to spot in advance whether there will be a rise or fall in demand for those stocks and shares that you are interested in.

There are many ways that investors try to work out which way the market or an individual stock will move. They will look at any number of technical indicators that they feel will give them a clue as to what may happen. Of course outside influences can also affect matters. These can happen very rapidly without warning and send prices shooting either up or down and totally confounding the indicators.

A feature of any stock market that further complicates matters is the fact that there are several prices for any one stock. You really need to be sure which price you are referring to if you are going to fully understand the stock market. While the opening and closing prices clearly refer to the price at the opening or closing of the stock exchange each day the bid and ask ones perhaps are not so obvious. The easiest way to remember is to realize they are stated from the brokers point of view. This means that the ask price is the price being asked for by the broker and the bid is what they will bid for any stock you wish to sell. It's all a matter of understanding the lingo!

Stocks and shares can be profitable and fascinating but only once you begin understanding the stock market.

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