06
Jun
Posted by: admin / Category:
Business & Finance,
Finance,
Investing

Investing in precious metals isn’t the first thing that someone thinks of when they put together their financial portfolio, and that is unfortunate because if after reading this you take a quick look at a chart tracking the price of gold or silver, you’ll understand why. Over the past five years, the price of gold has gone from approximately $650 per ounce to highs just under $1900 per ounce. I’ll leave you to do the math but you don’t need a calculator to realize that there is money to be made in precious metals. Gold is perhaps the best known of the precious metals and has always been seen as a symbol of wealth going back thousands of years. While gold is indeed a material that has industrial uses besides its better known attributes as a hedge against inflation and for making fine jewelry, it is primarily seen in the financial community as market indicators of various economic trends and the overall health and level of prices i the economy.
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06
Jun
Posted by: admin / Category:
Business & Finance,
Finance,
Investing

The reason why this article is titled “Equities for the Investor” is because too often people that aren’t financial market professionals get involved with the stock market without know the difference between trading stocks and investing in stocks – and truth be told it isn’t all their fault. These days anyone with a laptop or smart phone can access a trading platform that gives you the ability to trade the equity markets from virtually any location around the world. The ability to “day trade” the stock market isn’t new. The dot.com bomb that exploded just after the turn of the new millennium was detonated in part by the millions of newbie traders that didn’t understand the difference between trading and investing nor did they fully appreciate the different risks involved in each approach to handling equities.
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06
Jun
Posted by: admin / Category:
Business & Finance,
Finance,
Other
When deciding on the right investments for your portfolio you might want to consider adding municipal bonds to the mix. Muni bonds, or muni’s as they are referred to by market insiders, aren’t for everyone so as with all other investments it is important to do your homework and find out all of the particulars that go along with investing in municipal bonds before shelling out your hard earned income on a financial product that doesn’t make sense for you.

Muni Bond Particulars
Like any other interest bearing security, municipal bonds are in their most basic form an IOU issued by a particular entity in order to raise capital. In the case of muni bonds that entity is usually an American city, local government or and agency of a local government. For example, you will find that most cities around the country issue bonds in order to raise funds for any number of reasons, but mostly as a means to supplement the city budget or for their cash management. You are probably also familiar with muni bonds issued by city agencies to fund specific projects such as road building, water treatment facilities, and other large scale projects that require large amounts of capital not included in the city budget. Muni bonds are a great vehicle for local governments to use to fund these infrastructure type projects and most if not all American cities have been taking advantage of this market for quite some time. Read more…
05
Jun
Posted by: admin / Category:
Business & Finance,
Finance,
Real Estate

Mortgaged backed securities have been in the news quite a bit these past couple of years, and while they say that, ‘Any publicity is good publicity,’ for mortgage backed paper, this probably isn’t true. These securities have been making headlines because of the role that they played in the housing crisis that many fault for precipitating the entire financial crisis that ravaged the economy starting in late 2007. Before touching on why and how mortgage backed securities may or may not have played a part in our financial calamity, it is important to understand what these financial securities are, how they function, and if they are suitable for your investment portfolio. Read more…
05
Jun
Posted by: admin / Category:
Business & Finance,
Finance

One of the most popular and safest investment vehicles in the world are U.S. treasury securities. These securities are basically an I.O.U from your Uncle Sam, for which the government will pay you interest for lending money to the U.S. government. The reason why they are considered the safest investment vehicle in the world is because they are. This is not a matter of opinion though some might argue that it will be. The United States has never failed to honor its obligations on outstanding debt, ever, and because of that U.S. treasury securities are the highest rated investments in the world. Recent budget issues surrounding the U.S. fiscal picture have prompted these securities to be downgraded by several rating agencies, but that is a topic for another article and despite the downgrade, U.S government paper is still the safest investment vehicle in the world. However, you should also bear in mind that you pay a price for that safety and a good rule of thumb to follow is that the greater the return expected on a particular investment, the greater the risk associated with that investment. And an even more important rule to consider is that even though bonds are safe you can still lose money investing in U.S. treasury bonds.
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