darrenhicks6

vrijdag 1 juni 2012

The Models Are Broken—But Indexing Still Works

If you’ve researched the theoretical foundations of index investing, you’ve no doubt come across Modern Portfolio Theory and the Efficient Markets Hypothesis. And if you read the commentaries of active money managers and the financial media, you’ve probably seen countless articles that dismiss both as obsolete. Modern Portfolio Theory is declared dead after every market [...]

Source: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2012/04/30/the-models-are-broken-but-indexing-still-works/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-models-are-broken-but-indexing-still-works

click here for more info click here ipod

Preparing For Market Reaction To Greece

If you believe policymakers will once again bail out the markets, it is important to understand the limitations associated with each possible policy response. Writing for the Wall Street Journal’s Brussels Beat, Stephen Fidler touches on the problems associated with the narrowing list of options for European leaders. The drawback with euro bonds is [...]

Source: http://ciovaccocapital.com/wordpress/index.php/stock-market-us/preparing-for-market-reaction-to-greece/

allstate triple a info

I gave at the (tax) office…

We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes…
~ Leona Helmsley – hotelier and crazy narcissist…
Taxes are the higher-earning frugal employee’s nightmare. Spending can be controlled in every category except for taxes when you’re an employee.
If I were to stay working at my contract job for a full year – which I’m not going [...]

Source: http://singlemomrichmom.com/i-gave-at-the-tax-office/

ipod ipad apple ipad

Larry Light's Tips on Taming the Wall Street Beast

Filed under: Economy, Investing, Investing Basics

With the U.S. and European debt crises, concern about a double-dip recession and some lingering numbness from the market woes of a few short years ago, these are uncertain times. And investors are looking for investment strategies that will lead to wealth amid all the uncertainty.

If I could draw your attention.....

to my sidebar, you will see that my vehicle loan is now down to $1372.

Let me rephrase that - my vehicle loan is now down to $1372!!!!!!!!!!

DS1 is home safetly so I took money from my income tax refund and whapped that onto my loan. Lookie the percentage it's at!! That's right. 95%

That means I need a wee bit of snowflakes and my two regular payments at the start of May and of June, and this loan (knocks on wood) is done.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this and while it will be something to celebrate, I am coming to the realization that they will always be a SOMETHING to pay for or to save for.

I guess that, in itself, shows how much I have learned the past few years.

Source: http://shakingthemoneytree.blogspot.com/2012/04/if-i-could-draw-your-attention.html

statefarm allstate triple a

change for the month

Earlier this month I rolled the change I had accumulated in my special piggy. He's the one who holds the loonies and toonies. I hadn't checked for awhile and was pleased to find there was enough for one roll each. A happy $75 to take to the bank.I took it in as part of a lump sum I was putting down on my loan. I love the dents change can make :-)

Source: http://shakingthemoneytree.blogspot.com/2012/05/change-for-month.html

for more info click here ipod ipad

Upcoming New Budget

With the loan almost paid off and some extra cash about to be floating around, I need to do some tinkering with the budget. If I don't, that money will pull an awesome magic trick and disappear. I haven't really tinkered with the budget since I bought the here were lots of possibilities, but the result was rather a simple one.

warning: if you were expecting something really exciting, this is not the post for you :P

Combining my vehicle payment with the money I previously had going towards savings goals and paying down my LOC, I now have $1350 /month to redistribute. While I would have loved to add money to the clothing budget or given myself a little shopping cash, the voice of reason came through. I have savings goals that need to be met and a line of credit that needs to be paid off. DS2 will be driving soon so we need to think about transportation. He also will get a school trip to Europe but not for 2 years. I will need time to save.

My first plan is to go meet with the bank and up the boys' RESP (education) savings amount. I currently am putting $100 for each of them in the plan, each month. I want to up this to $250 each. I don't really have a lot of time to save for either of them, but every little bit helps.

That leaves me with $1050 to put towards debt repayment and savings goals. Since I sacrificed putting money towards my savings to speed up the finale of the loan, I need to refocus on the savings for a few months to balance things all out.

The distribution
$1350

$300 more to RESP
$50 to LOC
$1000 to Savings goals.

I plan to tackle the following savings goals in the following order:

$800 for plates (insurance) for DS1's car. He saved $300
$1500 Back to School
$1400 for Xmas

After these I will still have the RRSP and TFSA goals to meet. I guess we shall see how fast I can meet the first three goals above.

This budget will take effect at the end of June with that cheque.

Source: http://shakingthemoneytree.blogspot.com/2012/05/upcoming-new-budget.html

allstate triple a info

Buddy Roemer, We Hardly Knew Ye

Carl Cannon, RealClearPolitics
Charles E. "Buddy" Roemer Jr. has ended his impracticable run for the presidency. Most Americans did not even know that Roemer, a former Louisiana congressman and governor, was in the 2012 race, and his withdrawal will have no bearing on the general election contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.Roemer's fate, however, raises profound questions about the state of U.S. politics. For starters, Roemer was really a man without a party. But so is roughly one-third of the electorate.Roemer's belief in lower taxes and less government -- along with generally conservative...

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/05/31/buddy_we_hardly_knew_ye_114331.html

country financial statefarm allstate

donderdag 31 mei 2012

Bargain Shopping Simplified: Is This App the Answer?

Filed under: Technology, Saving Money, Shopping

Comparison shopping is an art to some and an obsession to others. But getting the best price in one way can come at a cost in others -- in the gas you burn while driving to reach that great sale, for example, or the time it may take you to travel from one grocery store to the next to cherry-pick each one's weekly sale items, or the hours spent scouring the Internet for bargains.

NetPlenish, a startup based in Ventura, Calif., aims to help you minimize those hidden costs.

Its app sorts through the various merchants selling the items you want, and bundles them together to get you the best overall deal. It even compares combinations of items to determine whether you'll save more with shipping costs by buying primarily from one merchant, or whether you'll spend the least by using a wider variety of retailers.

And of course, it's all mobile.

Though services like Soap.com, Amazon's Fresh, and Alice.com all serve a similar purpose -- providing one-stop shops for household staples -- NetPlenish distinguishes itself through its mobile app, its price comparison capabilities and its simplified checkout. (A complicated, time-consuming checkout process is one of our biggest peeves about online shopping).

Smaller Purchases, Bigger Savings

People have always been willing to put in the effort to score deals on bigger purchases, like cars and travel, and the Web gave them plenty of tools for that. Kayak.com, for example, tracks multiple sites to get customers the best airfares. But incremental savings can add up quickly on everyday purchases -- trouble is, most folks don't have the patience to look.

"People usually use price comparison for a television but not for diapers," said Dave Compton, CEO and founder of NetPlenish. "If you wanted to do this for everyday items, you'd have to get a big ol' honkin' spreadsheet."

Shopping even without deal searching is a time suck. According to NetPlenish, the average consumer spends 45 minutes nearly twice a week on errands. Compton -- still haunted by the memory of trying to go shopping with his toddler daughter in tow -- wants to harness the power of the Internet to get the whole shopping experience down from 45 minutes to 45 seconds.

A More Powerful Algorithm

At the heart of NetPlenish is its ShopGenius algorithm, which scours vendors' prices to find the best deals for multiple items on a user's shopping list. ShopGenius then lets merchants compete to provide the best overall price, including shipping, sales tax and the lowest possible product price.

"NetPlenish solves a big problem that consumers face every day, which is a single store may not have the best price repeatedly for items you need to buy over and over, like toothpaste, toilet paper, diapers and dog food," Compton said. "With NetPlenish, your items come from a different merchant each delivery, based on who has the lowest price at the time of your purchase."

The app, for both iPhones and Androids, is fairly simple to use: Users can add items to their shopping list manually or by scanning bar codes. After that, they can simply tap the items they need replenished, and they'll receive the products directly from among the more than 20 merchants NetPlenish works with, including Walmart, Target, Walgreens, Drugstore.com and Sephora.

Though you may still pay, say, $15 for shipping after saving $15 by optimizing your deals, NetPlenish views the time saved as a net-positive. And with its painless method for adding regularly purchased items to your shopping list, it turns shopping into practically a wave of the hand.

Related Articles

5 Mobile Shopping Trends That Will Change the Way You Buy

Consume with a Conscience: The Rise of Ethical Shopping

E-commerce's Next Wave: How Your Facebook Wall Could Become an Online Mall

A Cloud Social E-Commerce IPO You Missed... Maybe

No Checkout Checkout

Still, the biggest selling point for NetPlenish may be its ease of check-out. The final step of shopping on an e-commerce site -- especially when using a mobile device -- can be painful: too many hoops to jump through, too many steps, too many numbers to enter and anti-spam codes to type. In fact, anywhere from 25% to 55% of online shopping carts get abandoned before the purchases are completed, in large part because consumers lose patience.

That fact meshes with another recently reported piece of data: 58% of online shoppers said they'd rather safely store their account information once, in a single place that can be easily accessed no matter where they're shopping online, according to a MasterCard survey conducted by Harris Interactive.

Sell in May and Go Away: Stocks Close Dismal Month

Filed under: Investing, JC Penney, Macy's, Morgan Stanley , Target Corp, Facebook

NEW YORK (AP) - They sold in May and went away, all right.

With a disappointing finish on Thursday, the stock market closed what was by some measures its worst month in two years. Over five dismal weeks, Facebook (FB) fizzled, a debt crisis in Europe loomed, and nobody was in the mood to buy.

When May was mercifully over, the Dow Jones industrial average and other major indexes had erased most of the strong gains they built up through March and held on to in April.

"The sentiment has changed," said Craig Callahan, co-founder and president of ICON Advisers in Denver. "Any time the market dips like this, it erodes some confidence. It scares people out of the market. All of the above, May has done that."

The Wall Street adage that investors should "sell in May and go away" may not be sound strategy all the time - many financial advisers say it's foolish - but this year it looked like good advice.

The Dow lost 820 points for the month, its worst showing since May 2010. That month, investors were spooked by a one-day "flash crash" in stocks when a large trade overwhelmed computer servers.

This May, stocks limped to the finish. The Dow closed down 26.41 points on Thursday to end the month at 12,393.45. It declined on all but five of 22 trading sessions.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index dropped 2.99 points to close at 1,310.33. It fell 6.3 percent in May, its worst month since September. The Nasdaq composite index fell 10.02 points to 2,827.34, and had its worst month in two years.

On Thursday, investors latched on to a sliver of good news in the morning: May sales from retailers like Target (TGT) and Macy's (M) looked healthy, and sent stock futures higher.

Then the government offered two unpleasant pieces of economic data. The number of people applying for unemployment benefits rose to a five-week high, and economic growth from January through March was slower than first thought.

Bailout Talk Sparks Rally Off Lows

Markets love bailouts, but the story behind today’s story paints a concerning picture. From the Wall Street Journal:
The European department of the International Monetary Fund has started discussing contingency plans for a rescue loan to Spain in the event that the country fails to find the funds needed to bail out its third-largest bank [...]

Source: http://ciovaccocapital.com/wordpress/index.php/currencies/bailout-talk-sparks-rally-off-lows/

for more info click here ipod ipad

Driving Around with Madhur Jaffrey

I have several driving companions these days — sometimes I ride around with Madhur Jaffrey, the guru of Indian cooking. At other times I’ve got Martha Stewart riding shotgun, always on hand with recipes and ideas for dinner. They’re not exactly next to me in the passenger seat; they’re in the trunk – well, their books are at any rate. ► MORE

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GetSmarterAboutMoney/~3/KD3ew3a1g0I/driving-around-with-madhur-jaffrey

click here for more info click here ipod

The Models Are Broken—But Indexing Still Works

Source: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2012/04/30/the-models-are-broken-but-indexing-still-works/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-models-are-broken-but-indexing-still-works

allstate triple a info

Six Ways to Avoid Common Retirement Planning Pitfalls

Filed under: Retirement, Investing, Investing Basics

Despite the endless drumbeat of advice to "save, save, save for retirement," most Americans are saying "tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow." Then tomorrow turns into today, and more immediate priorities keep pushing long-term planning off into the future.

In the latest Employment Benefit Research Institute survey, 56 percent of workers reported that the total value of their household's savings and investments, excluding the value of their primary home and any defined benefit plans, was less than $25,000, and about 29 percent said they have less than $1,000. Those numbers are hardly enough to fund even the most modest of retirement dreams.

Truth is, with savings so slim, there's precious little room for error when planning for retirement, because people's nest eggs aren't much of a safety net. But failing to save enough is just one of many mistakes people make when planning for the twilight years. There are a host of retirement planning missteps that can make an already less-than-ideal situation even worse.

Here's a look at where people commonly go wrong, and how they can adjust course to reach retirement in good financial shape.

1. Rethink Retirement

"The retirement message doesn't work. Most people don't have the willpower or the financial ability to forgo spending today for a hazy benefit tomorrow," says Sol Nasisi, chief economist at www.BestCashCow.com, which provides information on banks and credit unions. "Instead, people should think about building personal wealth, a process that it is ongoing and has immediate benefits, but also provides for people when they decide to stop working. Building and accumulating wealth is a much more powerful, immediate message than saving for retirement.

Changing the message changes how one thinks about saving and investing. "Building wealth is a much more active process than saving for retirement, and its benefits can be realized much quicker," Nasisi adds. While this may seem top be just a shift of semantics, "Building wealth is largely a matter of outlook and philosophy. Saving for retirement is a chore, building wealth is a challenge," he says.

Also, forget about the idea of retirement as a permanent vacation.

"The old idea of retire at 65, move somewhere warm, play golf, no longer works," points out Matthew Tuttle, a certified financial planner with Tuttle Wealth Management. "With life expectancies increasing, playing golf and going to early bird dinners every day can get old [after] 35 years. Rethink what retirement means: It could be working fewer hours or changing jobs to something you like more."

Know too, that you may not have as much control over your retirement date as you imagine. "Most people assume they will retire at a certain age, but two in five people retire earlier than planned," warns Katie Libbe, vice president of consumer insights at Allianz Life. "This could be due to layoffs, illness, or any number of factors. The key is to start saving early."

2. Anticipate the Unexpected

When you're young and healthy, you'll spend very little time in the doctor's office, but for most of us, that will change later in life. According to a Fidelity Investments study, a 65-year-old couple who retired in 2010 will need $250,000 to pay for medical expenses throughout retirement, not including nursing-home care. The study found that health care costs average $535 a month, or about one-fifth of an average couple's total monthly expenses of $2,842.

Failing to prepare for the reality that eventually, your young bones will be old is a critical mistake. "Medicare is not free and it doesn't cover everything, including prescription drugs," says Ross Blair, CEO of www.PlanPrescriber.com. "Not planning ahead in retirement for catastrophic medical expenses as well as prescription drug costs and supplemental insurance plans could potentially be devastating to a retiree."

The good news is, there are some tax-free ways to compensate for those expenses. You can contribute to a Health Savings Account. Individuals can contribute $3,050 in 2011, while a family can contribute $6,150 a year tax free. If you're over 55, you can add an extra $1,000 as a catch-up contribution. "When someone turns 65 and ages into Medicare they can use these funds for prescription drugs, certain Medicare plans and other health coverage other than premiums for a Medicare supplement policy, such as Medigap," says Blair. Proper protection is key, be it health, disability, life, or long term care insurance.

3. Forget Tradition

Conventional wisdom may not apply to you. "Following standard industry advice that you should get real conservative, meaning investing heavily in bonds, by the time you are 65 is a recipe for having to find a job in your 70s and 80s when you run out of money," says Tuttle.

Likewise, you shouldn't count on history repeating itself. "You can't assume you'll always get the same return on your investments," cautions David Spader, a financial analyst with www.SavingsAccount.org, which provides information on savings, money market and CD rates. "Don't think you'll be able to beat the market for 30 years."

4. Handle Your 401(k) Wisely

A 401(k) is not a piggy bank. Sure, it's your money, and good for you for participating in your employer's plan -- a surprising number of people don't even do that, believing that they can't afford to. Hopefully, you're contributing enough to get the maximum amount of free money from the company's match, if yours offers it. But borrowing from yourself is a bad idea.

"Taking a loan from a retirement plan can look appealing as a way to get out of a hole, but it can actually create more problems," says Scott Halliwell, a certified financial planner with USAA. "This tactic removes the growth potential on those funds, and, if you lose your job and can't repay the funds, the loan will be treated as a distribution and subject to taxes and penalties."

While it may be convenient, think twice about leaving retirement funds in an employer plan after you leave that job. "The employer plan has limited investment options. The employer makes all the decisions. As soon as possible, most people should roll their employer retirement funds into an IRA," advises Radon Stancil, a certified financial planner with Diversified Estate Services. You can do this tax-free and once the funds are in an IRA, you the owner, have all the control.

5. Redefine Investing

Investing has increasingly become synonymous with putting money in stocks, bonds or mutual funds. While this should be one facet of building wealth, it should not be the only investment vehicle, nor should it necessarily be the primary investment vehicle, says Nasisi. To be truly diversified, an investor should look to real estate, an investment in a business, or starting a side business, he adds.

"Take the initiative and invest some money in yourself and things you can control instead of forking over all your savings to others," says Nasisi. "Look for ways to build income streams that will generate reliable cash well into the future."

6. Set Priorities

You have to put your hard earned money in the right places. "Forget the shiny new BMW or the latest iPhone, save the money and put it to work for you," says Nasisi. While it's a very admirable goal to save money for your children's college education, truth is, there are many ways to pay for college. "But go into the bank on the day you retire and ask to take out a 'retirement loan," says Charlie Long, a financial adviser with Exemplar Financial Network. You get the point.

It can also be a mistake, especially in this low-interest-rate environment, says Long, to pay off a low-interest mortgage, when those funds could be used elsewhere.

Realize that when it comes to retirement you can't "wing it." Stephen Cunha, a certified financial planner with Baystate Financial Services says to remember the five P's: Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. You want a written plan that includes an analysis of all financial goals, retirement income needs, insurance, tax, investment and an estate plan, he adds. However, your plan can't be engraved in stone, and should be monitored periodically. You need some tangible evidence of what you want and why, and and idea of how you plan to achieve it -- otherwise, how can you expect to reach your goals?

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/04/06/six-ways-to-avoid-common-retirement-planning-pitfalls/

verizon 4G country financial statefarm

How Young Adults Can Still Thrive Financially

Much has been written recently about the financial state of young Canadians. The Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick thinks today’s young adults have it tougher than ever, and financial expert Kurt Rosentreter thinks Canadian 30 year olds are screwed because we spend too much time on the internet. I get it. We’ve just experience a...

Source: http://www.boomerandecho.com/how-young-adults-can-still-thrive-financially/

for more info click here ipod ipad

Lessons for Retirement from Kodak

It could be argued that in the past, company pensions were the backbone of retirement planning. It wasn't long ago that every father and grandfather worked at steel mills or other large corporations, and had their future already figured out thanks to the guaranteed income that a pension would provide. In other words, they had it good.

Unfortunately, company pensions aren't nearly as secure as they once were. More employees than ever before are now finding themselves on the receiving end of bad news concerning their company pensions. If you'd like to know more about this phenomenon, and what retirement advice you should follow if you become one of these unfortunate pension holders, read on...

Pay attention to what happened with Kodak.

Like many companies before it, the Kodak Corporation recently announced that they had filed for bankruptcy. As usual, a huge focus has been on the number of jobs that may be in jeopardy, depending on what ultimately happens with the company. While this is obviously a huge concern for many people and their families, what typically isn't discussed is what happens to employee pensions. Many employees may find themselves not receiving the full pensions that they have been promised after years of dedicated work.

Kodak employees are not alone.

As previously stated, many employees over the years have lost their jobs and/or their company pensions due to businesses going under. Judging from experts in the field, they are not alone and more will very possibly follow. Between 2010 and 2011, approximately 300 underfunded company pensions from the private sector shut down. This doesn't bode well for the future, as this trend is expected to continue.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation can help.

The good news is that private companies are insured by the PBGC. What this means is that, in the event that a company fails to meet its pension obligations, insurance coverage will kick in. In other words, your pension will still be in effect; it will simply be from a different source.

However, there is a cap to what the PBGC will cover.

Although the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation can help in the event that a company's pension dissolves, there is a cap to what will be paid out. So while you would still receive a guaranteed income during your retirement, that amount may be sizably cut. While it should be noted that most pension plans are below the maximum amount dictated by the PBGC, many individuals will be affected by the cap.

Much worse if you're several years away from retirement.

If you're still several years away from retirement and your company pension shuts down, you may find a drastic reduction in your benefits, since you won't have those extra years to accrue more income. For example, if your company pension was to shut down 15 years before your expected retirement, you could lose nearly two-thirds of your yearly expected retirement income.

Retirement advice for those affected.

If you have a company pension, it doesn't matter whether you think you're safe or not. This is your future we're talking about. The best course of action is to prepare for a worst-case scenario. This means that you should create a greater savings by way of other types of retirement accounts. If you have access to a company-sponsored 401k, that would be a great choice. Or you might want to invest in CD's, IRA's, or a variety of other products. For the best retirement advice that will allow you to prepare for such an event, it would be wise to seek the help of a financial expert.

Source: http://firstsecurityfinancialshow.com/blog/bid/115028/Lessons-for-Retirement-from-Kodak

verizon verizon 4G country financial

Waiting for Godot… and kids to grow up…

Welcome New York Times readers! For regular readers, here’s the NYT article that talks about the Person Under the Stairs (aka my son who lives in the basement):
Rules for When Your Child Moves Home
Here’s the stages of learning myself and my kid had to go through to learn about money since it wasn’t a talent [...]

Source: http://singlemomrichmom.com/waiting-for-gdt-kids-to-grow-up/

ipod ipad apple ipad

What’s New Around The Blogosphere: May 11th, 2012

Do 20-something’s have it tougher today than they did 25-30 years ago? Rob Carrick wrote a column in the Globe and Mail looking at the economic situation of today’s young adults compared to back in 1984, when he graduated. He notes that tuition, cars and house prices have increased far beyond the typical 2% annual...

Source: http://www.boomerandecho.com/whats-new-around-the-blogosphere-may-11th-2012/

click here for more info click here ipod

Does Wall Street Have Your Best Interest At Heart?

It's no secret that Wall Street is an essential part of the United States' overall economy. Without it, the infrastructure would be severely threatened. Knowing how important it is, you would think that Wall Street investors would have the public's best interest at heart, seeing as how if the system falls apart, the economy might not be too far behind.

Unfortunately, it has become clear in recent years that Wall Street definitely doesn't "have our backs," which makes it hard to know who to trust as you attempt to strengthen your retirement plan.

An Ongoing Issue

Investors defrauding their clients is a tale as old as time. Or, at least, almost. Although some clients have become more astute concerning certain practices and warning signs, a great number of them simply go about their daily business, unaware that a problem might be lurking around the next financial corner.

The problem seems to have gotten worse over the past few years. If not the frequency, at least the severity. Take the case of Bernie Madoff, for example. He defrauded millions out of investors, even the more savvy ones. Yet most people haven't taken any steps to protect themselves, because they trust the people they're working with. Arguably, so did Madoff's clientele.

If you want to protect yourself, now is the time, and no financial advisor worth his or her weight in gold will question your motives for doing so. After all, it is your retirement we're talking about here.

A Public Resignation

The financial world can be a cutthroat business. Just ask Greg Smith.

Greg started out as a summer intern for Goldman Sachs. He worked for the company for nearly two decades, and the job took him from New York to London, and he moved all the way up to an executive position. His growth with the company is what many employees would kill for. And what did he do? He quit.

The reason why he quit was covered in an op-ed piece he wrote for the New York Times. He used it as a letter of resignation and laid it all out very candidly. He explained that he had been given the opportunity to witness the inner workings of a large financial company and he didn't like what he had seen. He recounted how Goldman Sachs had once been a great company, but in recent years, he had witnessed a number of events where the focus had been taken off of client satisfaction and placed onto the company's bottom line. He also indicated that the financial giant could become what it was once again, but as long as they continued down the path they was currently on, he wanted no part of it.

Who Can You Trust?

Seeing as how companies like Goldman Sachs and investors like Bernie Madoff haven't had the clients' best interest at heart (in the case of Madoff, that is a gross understatement), it is important that you take steps to protect yourself. Don't simply choose a financial company to advise you in your retirement plans because of name recognition. Get a feel for how they do business and how they treat you. If you're especially skittish, start with a small investment and grow your portfolio as you gain confidence in their ability. And don't be afraid to get a second opinion from an outside source who can analyze your financial strategy and make sure that the course your advisor has set up is a wise one.

Source: http://firstsecurityfinancialshow.com/blog/bid/136348/Does-Wall-Street-Have-Your-Best-Interest-At-Heart

statefarm allstate triple a

woensdag 30 mei 2012

An Investment Puzzle: How to Put Your Assets in the Right Places

Filed under: Investing

Investment choices Obviously, what you invest in can mean the difference between getting rich and losing your shirt. But where you invest can be even more important -- especially if you end up picking winners.

Most people have several different ways to put their money to work. If you have a 401(k) or other retirement plan at work, you can have deductions pulled directly out of your paycheck and put toward your long-term savings. Opening an IRA can give you many of the same benefits with even more flexibility. For goals other than retirement, regular brokerage or mutual fund accounts let you have complete control over your money, and you can take it out or move it without any penalties.

But if you have a diversified investment portfolio with a variety of assets -- such as stocks, mutual funds, bank CDs or other fixed-income investments, and alternative investments -- you may not spend much time figuring out where each investment fits best across all the accounts you have. As a result, you could be missing out on big tax savings.

What should go where?

The right answer depends on your individual situation, but some general rules of thumb apply to many people.

1. Interest-bearing assets belong in IRAs. If you have bank CDs, bonds, or other investments that produce interest income, the best place for them is in a Traditional IRA. The reason is that these assets benefit the most from the tax savings that IRAs provide. Unlike income from stock dividends and capital gains, interest income gets taxed at your higher ordinary rate. Given how low the rates on these investments are right now anyway, the last thing you can afford is to lose a big share of that meager income to the tax man.

2. Save your best ideas for a Roth IRA. A Roth IRA is a special type of retirement account that let's you withdraw all the income it generates tax-free. Therefore, you should put the investments that have the best chance of soaring in value inside a Roth.

vrijdag 1 juni 2012

donderdag 31 mei 2012

Related Articles

Related Stories

woensdag 30 mei 2012