Articles filed under 'How to Invest'
Sherman, set the wayback machine to the winter of 1999! This was a time when everyone thought they were a financial genius. You couldn’t loose, or so we thought. I was a conservative investor even in those days but a co-worker was talking about a great investment tip he heard from a friend who had heard it from their doctor. That in it self should have been a sign.
Arguably, no investing product receives more bad press than variable annuities. Many individuals have horror stories to share about unscrupulous brokers who pushed them into complex annuity plans without adequately explaining fee structures and provisions. Some individuals may have thought they were getting an IRA and instead ended up in an annuity. In this article, I will explain the facts related variable annuities and give you some information to help you decide if variable annuities are right for you.
There are two types of metals for investment: precious metals as opposed to base metals. Precious metals include gold, silver, platinum, and some other less known materials such as ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, and iridium. Base and/or industrial metals include copper, nickel, aluminum, zinc, lead, and iron/steel. The reasons for investing in precious metals and base metals can be very different. But their prices are correlated nevertheless because of inflation.
Here are some ways to invest in metals:
Certificates of Deposit are not for everyone but if you live long enough you will probably be considering them at some point. If you are going to invest with what banks currently call CDs then you should be smart about it. Using a technique called "laddering" or "stepping" you can improve your liquidity and maximize your returns over the long run by protecting yourself from downturns in market interest rates.
The market has come a long way since its last major crash — an event that transferred much wealth from the ignorant to the informed. It almost feels like deja vu when you see VCs lining up again to fund startups, or companies commanding unreasonable stock price multiples based on little more than hope for the future. Don’t you wonder what we’re not knowing this time around? I don’t wish to convince everyone to be value investors, but what if there’s a way to play a popular trend, but also err on the safer side of risk to avoid the extreme volatilities?
In my previous article, Misconception: Renting is for Suckers, I wrote that there comes a point when it makes more sense to rent an apartment than buy a home. For myself, I have a rule of thumb that for every $1 dollars I spend in rent a month I can afford to buy up to $125 in property. Right now I pay $1000 in rent, so using my rule I shouldn’t spend more than $125,000 on a home. This created a surprising amount of controversy; some exclaiming me a heretic, and some accusing me of house-hating. For those of you who wanted to know where that number came from, wait no longer — and I’ve put together a calculator for you to figure out how much you should spend on a home.
You’ve heard all the reasons that people want to stop renting. “I don’t want to waste my money.” Heck, you may have even said them yourself. Many of my friends are reaching that point in their lives where they’re considering buying a home. However it’s unfortunate that so many choose to buy over rent, especially in this expensive market, because many well-intentioned people are buying homes that are actually damaging their finances.
Despite the fact that many people disagree with me that the real estate market is going to deflate, there is a rule of thumb that I use that should give you an idea about how much you should spend on a home no matter what the market looks like.
As I’m sure you’ve all heard by now. Vonage has decided to offer some of their customers a shot at getting in on their IPO action. I happen to be one of those elligible customers, but should I buy in?
Tools are designed to help their users do their tasks more efficiently and crunching numbers is no exception. I’ve been humming along with Excel and my trusty scientific calculator just fine, but as I’m getting more involved with calculations such as discounting I’ve decided it may be worth the time to pick up a financial calculator that has many of these formulas built-in.
I ended up buying the HP 10BII, which is among the most popular financial calculators out there. It’s very reasonably priced, has training modules on the HP web site, contains advanced functions such as IRR and NPV, and has a user-friendly keypad. For $30-40, this is a must have for anyone in finance or real estate.
HP 10bII Financial Calculator on Amazon (please support us with your purchase!)
Calculator Comparison from About.com
Saturday, May. 13, 2006
by Chris
I was doing some reading, and came across some great articles on Net Operating Income. NOI is an important gauge of a company’s ability to generate profit from its core business. While it’s only one piece of the puzzle when analyzing companies, understanding it can help you compare two firms who may have the same Net Income (Profit) but drastically different core businesses. Have a look if you can:
Zooming in on Net Operating Income. Investopedia
A Clear Look At EBITDA. Ben McClure. Investopedia
Saturday, May. 13, 2006
by Chris
