Saving & Investing
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It is basically a life-time exercise to devise an effective savings plan through proper investment. A tax-saving investment strategy can aid you in building a lump sum provident fund account. Saving in a provident fund has enormous advantages. It is backed by the state and offers considerably high return. There are tax-exemptions on the interest earned and above all, its effective post-tax return is pretty handsome.
An individual who has just begun to build his career, this is an important prospective to start off with. A regular contribution can offer long-term dividends. During this time, person is likely to be burdened with lesser responsibilities. As such, he can indulge in a bit investment risk like the equity mutual fund. A lot of financial experts are also of the opinion that it works better if calculated investment is targeted at these equity linked savings schemes of the mutual funds.
A basic term-insurance life policy is perhaps the cheapest mechanism to earn the maximum profit from an insurance investment. Then, there are the Fixed Income Instruments. Although they are incomparable to the equity investment, they offer assured and safe returns for investments. As they are free from any market risks, the investor stands to receive a specified amount at a stipulated period. He gets to build a stable portfolio. These are particularly appropriate for investors who are who are nearing retirement.
Written by srini on August 28th, 2009 with no comments.
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Our house is perhaps the largest investment that we make in life. As you increase the value of your house through effective maintenance and improvements, you invariably protect the savings that you have put in it. For major renovations, the expertise of a professional contractor is required but there are a whole lot of avenues that can be taken care, if you devote a little bit of ‘sweat equity’. With each single step, you can add to your house value enormously. Your house can also be your future investment option.
The quickest and by far the easiest way to take care are by painting the interior and the exterior of the house. It gives the house the desired face-lift and a conservative color selection makes it more appealing to the prospective buyers, that is, if you plan to sell it off in the future. Another expensive, yet valuable option is to put on a new roof. It adds to the overall market value and presents a whole new definition to the house. A new roof has a 2-3 decade warranty and is thus, a smart investment option. Replacing the worn-out wooden windows can not only improve the appearance but help amazingly in energy conservation. The kitchen and the flooring are the other points top take note of.
A little bit of an effort coupled with some judicious alterations can not only give a proper face-lift to your house but also effectively protect your investment.
Written by srini on August 27th, 2009 with no comments.
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It is often felt that the terms “safe” and “investment” does not go hand in hand. But this is a complete misnomer and there are ways and means by which one can make his investments a lot safer than it is now.
- Portfolio: while investing your money, the first thing that must be given due importance is the portfolio. Try and compare the portfolios after choosing a few of them, according to your choice and requirements. Then choose the one that is the best in the lot and serves your needs in the most suitable manner.
- Risk: while investing, go through the offer documents or the Red herring prospectus thoroughly, before making a final decision. Ensure that the instrument comes with some tax benefits as it reduces the associated risk with the investment.
- Fund management: trust is the most important aspect in any investment. The credibility of the fund managers must be verified before you decide to invest. You need not worry if the manager has market goodwill. If there is any doubts in your mind, then better take your time and get more information.
- Investment time period: the time for which you are planning to invest is also important, especially in the present period of financial uncertainty. It is better to stick to short and middle term investment, rather than investing in long term plans.
Written by srini on August 26th, 2009 with no comments.
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Saving is always a good habit. The sooner you get to know this and make it a habit, the better. The present global financial situation is such that the more you can save, you will have to worry less about your future. But the question is how you can save money. Well, there are many simple ways following which you will end up saving a bit for your future usage.
- It is better to set some goals for yourself as you start saving. Short term goals such as daily or weekly goals are very effective in this case. If you push yourself hard to keep up to the daily or weekly goals, you will end up saving a lot.
- Try to keep a time frame in mind, if you are saving for something specific. If you are saving money to buy a car, then do so by telling yourself that you want to buy a car in a time of two years. This will always be in the back of your mind and you will be instigated to save.
- Maintain a written record of the daily or weekly expenses and also how much you are earning. This will help you get an idea how much you can actually save and how much you are actually saving. If you see that you can save more than what you are presently saving, then you need to rework the calculations.
Written by srini on August 25th, 2009 with no comments.
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The financial condition the world over is such that one will have to think about savings very seriously. There are many ways by which you can save your hard earned money and you need to start with it today.
Credit cards have become a very common place financial instrument in the modern world. But most of you may not be aware of the fact that even a credit card can actually help you save a bit of your money, rather than making you spend more. Most of you are aware of the fact that most credit cards that are available in the market offer some sort of a return. This may be in the form of cash backs or points being added to your account depending up on the amount you have spent using the credit card.
If you are careful enough to choose the right kind of credit card, then you will be able to save a lot. Try to get yourself such a credit card which gives cash backs, as then you will get back a pert of money that you have spent. But if your credit cards gives you points, then you will have to buy more, by spending more in order to utilize the points within a specific date. So, while applying for your credit card read the fine prints and chose the card that gives you the most cash backs.
Written by srini on August 25th, 2009 with no comments.
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The investor can refer to the Central Registration Depository or the CRD in order to access information and every possible detail regarding his broker. This is important for ensuring the safety of your investment. It is a computerized data-base that houses the entire information file about your brokers, along with their representatives and the firms where they are employed.
The manner in which the brokers work along with the credentials are important to ascertain that your money is in safe hands and all you savings are securely traded. Say, if you desire to acquire information whether your broker has a proper license for the state that they are operating in or, if they had any tiff with the regulators, or whether they happened to receive any serious complaints regarding their operation from other investors, one can readily resort to this information source.
The educational background of the broker can also be checked out along with their past employers’ details. The state securities regulator of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority can also present you with the desired information that you are seeking from the CRD. The investor complaints, if there are any, are important with regard to your objective of ensuring the security of your investment. The North American Securities Administrators Association website can prove to be a great aid in this respect. The telephone number of the BrokerCheck hotline is (800) 289-999.
Written by srini on August 23rd, 2009 with no comments.
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It is important to ensure that your investment is in safe hands, if your objective is to save your capital. The investors are often found to invest in a CD or Certificates of Deposits, with a bank that offers a higher rate of interest in comparison to a regular savings account. As an investor purchases a CD, a certain sum of money for a particular period of time gets invested with the bank. The investor then receives a periodic payment of interests on his invested amount. Post maturity, the investor can withdraw his deposit amount along with the interest that it has already accrued. But, if he goes for early withdrawal, a certain percentage of the interest gets deducted as an ‘early withdrawal penalty’.
Apart from the banks, the brokerage firms or the deposit brokers also offer CDs, nowadays. The investor stands to receive a pretty higher rate of interest from these brokerage firms. There are wide arrays of CDs to choose from and it is important to understand the whole of the terms and conditions before indulging completely in the CDs. The issuer needs to be identified if you are going for a brokered CD, the maturity date of the CD is also important. If it is a callable CD, you need to access the call features with great concentration as well. These are simple and obvious factors that are oft ignored or overlooked.
Written by srini on August 22nd, 2009 with no comments.
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We save in order to build wealth and our objective is to stay prepared for the future financial alterations. Here are a few uncommon factors that save your investment and help your wealth to grow.
Through Compound Interest, you get to earn interest on the interest that is already present in your account. This is a very simple option which is oft ignored. So, a savings plan can be a very effective method to make your money grow.
Use the Rule of 72. An amount deposited in an account gets doubled within a specified amount of time. This occurs through compounding. The Rule 72 helps us to ascertain the time period. This can be obtained by dividing the interest rate payable by the account in which your money is deposited by 72.
The risk and return factor. There are different methodologies to build wealth. Those that involve more risk are found to offer greater returns. Wealth is usually built through a savings account and through investment in stocks. There is no chance in the loss of money in the savings account but in stocks, there are many causes that can result in the loss of money. And, the interesting part is that, you get an opportunity to earn around 10-15% interest while in a savings plan the interest rate is just 1.5%. You can also diversify your investments, to obtain the maximum benefits.
Written by srini on August 21st, 2009 with no comments.
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Forex is actually the other version of the Foreign Exchange Market. This is the best platform that you can get to enhance the growth of your money in the international market. Forex deals in trading of foreign currencies of different nations of the world.
Forex works in association with different international banks and financial institutes of optimal repute. It helps them out in buying or selling currencies.
People engaged in international trading, often have to implement their business deals with foreign currencies, and find this platform very useful. Through Forex trading, there has been a tremendous growth in the entire process of international trade and investment.
Why is it a perfect choice for business men around the world? Well there is an array of reasons –
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- First, Forex offers extreme liquidity.
- Second, it offers the facility of geographical dispersion.
- Third, it offers a variety of options in terms of exchange rates.
- Fourth, extended trading hours, 24 hrs a day.
- Fifth, it offers spot transactions.
- Sixth, the facility of leverage.
Bank For International Settlements reveals that in the global foreign exchange, turnover of a business day comes to something around $3.98 billion.
If you are interested in Forex, you will be benefited from the information provided in the following top international institutes-
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- Morgan Stanley
- Barclays Capital
- HSBC
- UBS AG
- Deutsche Bank
- Citi
- Royal Bank Of Scotland
- JP Morgan
- Lehman Brothers
- Goldman Sachs
Written by srini on August 20th, 2009 with no comments.
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Hey! Great news for those of you, who just have a mind for traveling within a frugal travel budget. You have a desire to romp the most exotic parts of the world famous sites. What gets in the way is the hypertension of the money that would be flooded out in this venture.
The most prominent segment in this concern is the concern over travel fare. Well, you need not worry about that any more now. It is Lufthansa that takes the yoke on its shoulder by getting the rates of the air tickets into a record breaking cheap level.
You can avail the flights with the most incredible air ticket rates. The great offer on the part of Lufthansa would enable you to touch some of the most enigmatic, mesmerizing and mystic places sprawling in entire Europe.
Take a look at the air ticket rates offered by Lufthansa and I am sure it would suit your frugal travel budget if you are eyeing for these places. The list is something like this –
New York to Hamburg – $228.
Denver to Berlin- $226.
Charlotte to Paris – $238.
Washington DC to Athens – $245
Detroit to Milan – $240.
Houston to Prague – $266.
Los- Angeles to Madrid – $272.
The best thing of the offer is, they have included every service charge along with taxes. Now isn’t that something that you can term really and truly as a truly frugal budgeting?
Written by srini on August 17th, 2009 with no comments.
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