Real Estate Investing Guide

Real Estate Investing Guide

There are many websites out there that provide material that can teach you secrets of real estate investing. Most of these courses cost a lot of money, but if you chose good, they can prove to be very rewarding. The major reason people most people are not interested in a real estate investing is that it requires a lot of money. This type of investing can be very rewarding, but is not easy to do, as it requires, besides a lot of money, a lot of your time, and of course, some luck.
There is so much that can be written about real estate investing that it would probably take almost a 1,000 page book to properly explain this subject.
I will try to explain things that I believe are the most important, but if you really decide to get into real estate investing you will definitely have to buy several books, courses, and to join some of the professional websites that deal only with the real estate investing subject.
Ok, so lets get started. First things first. What you need before starting to invest in real estate is:
1. The most important thing for a real estate investor is a good credit score. But do not forget that not only good credit score counts. After all a human being is finally approving your loan. Letters from your employer, landlord, etc. can mean a lot too. Also, your character, personality, what you will say to lender (have a good story to tell) and the way you are dressed, are very important as well. If you do not have a good credit score make sure you read my article, improve your credit score before getting into real estate investing. It mike take from several month to a year for your score to improve, but it is well worth the wait, if you want to invest in real estate.
What is Insurance?
Insurance is a way to manage risk and is used to protect against certain potential losses. Insurance customers pay a premium to an insurance company, which protects them against certain insured events. Having the right insurance cover to protect against lifes uncertainties is generally considered to be sensible financial management.
Types of Insurance

General Insurance

-Home Insurance
-Landlord Insurance
-Car Insurance
-Travel Insurance
-Business Insurance
-Farm Insurance
-Health Insurance

Personal Insurance

-Life insurance
-Income protection insurance
-Total and permanent disability
-Trauma
-Living expense insurance
-Incapacity

Consumer Credit Insurance

-Mortgage protection insurance
-Credit card insurance
-Loan protection insurance

Learn More About Penny Stocks

Learn More About Penny Stocks

Penny stocks are a great investment opportunity, if you are willing to take more risk than most investors as these stocks are the ones with the highest risk. The simple description of penny stocks would be that penny stocks are all stocks that trade for less than $1, or sometimes up to $5. Most penny stocks have only a few million dollars in net tangible assets and have a short operating history. I must emphasize that stocks bellow $1 are not my favorite, for a simple reason that this means those companies are probably in trouble. You see, companies whose share price stay bellow $1 for a period of time get removed from Nasdaq, and they continue trading on OTC (over the counter) market.
The first and most important thing you should know about penny stock is that they are highly volatile. Basically, if you invest in penny stock, you should always be prepared for the possibility of losing the whole investment. So why people still invest in penny stocks so much? Well, because of the incredible return that penny stocks offer. These stocks can easily jump 20-30% in a single day, and even more. Once I invested in penny stock that jumped 87% in one day, and I sold the day after. Unfortunately, I didn't have too much money invested, as I didn't want to take such a high risk. The company I invested in had a drug in clinical trials. That is always a great risk because whenever one phase of clinical trials proves to be successful stock price usually jumps substantially, however, if the clinical trial gets suspended (which is usually more probable) shares can easily lose over half of their value as soon as the news is released.
Also, an important thing to know is that penny stocks may trade infrequently, which means that it may be difficult to sell penny stock shares once you own them. But this can be avoided by not buying stocks that have low trading volume.
It is very easy to buy penny stocks. All you need to do is to open an account with one of the online brokers. There are plenty online brokers on the internet, so you won't need to research too much to find the one that suits your needs the best. Just keep in mind that if you want to trade penny stocks it would be the best to go with the broker with low commissions. Usually depending on the amount of money that you plan to invest and number of trades that you will execute each month, you can decide which broker is right for you. For example if you don't have a lot of money to invest, go with the broker with no margin limit, however this one will usually have higher fees. If you have a lot of money to invest go with the broker with smaller fees. I have came upon online brokers that let you make real time trades for only $5, however you have to have at least $100,000 in your account.
Probably a good choice would be Sharebuilder because they let you Buy Stocks for $4 (this is for automatic investments, real time trade is $15.95), have no margin limit, and no inactivity fees! And overall Sharebuilder is by far the best choice for beginner investors. They do have some limits, but in my opinion (as I have used their services for years, along with Ameritrade) they are a great choice for beginner to intermediate investors. Ameritrade is more for serious investors with somewhat lower real time trade fees, but with inactivity fees, margin limits, maintenance fees, etc. Click here to see a comparison table for online brokers.

Why invest?

Why invest?

It really is nearly a rhetorical question. Investing is the best way to secure your future. In this world there are two ways to earn income; one is to exchange you labor for dollars and the other is to have your money earn money for you. The rich know this and the poor don’t. It’s as simple as that.
Money kept in a “savings” account is earning interest at rates that don’t even keep pace with inflation, so you need to find the best place to put your money to beat inflation by a substantial amount. Average interest rates on savings account are currently less than 2%. Average annual returns for mutual funds are over 10%. Don’t understand what a mutual fund is or where you can find investments that will serve you well? You are in the right place to learn how to earn.
There is always risk in anything you do, but with education and research you can minimize that risk. As you get more education you can better decide how much risk you want to take and conversely how much return you need to make. Understanding the risks is the first step toward minimizing them. In fact, it is possible to make 10-15% annual return on your investment with almost no risk, if you know what you are doing.
One strategy that investors have been using for years is that of diversification. You do this by having investments in a range of different companies from blue chips to tech stocks, while also having some investments in bonds. To get a nice range of stocks some people use mutual funds to spread their investments without having to do a lot of research on different companies. This gives you diversification, and also has a professional taking care of the research end of that part of your investment portfolio.
There are many paths you can go down when you get into investing in the stock market, but one thing you can be sure of. With education and research you will make money. You are already beginning your education here, that’s a great start. Continue on this road and make your money work for you.Offshore Investing Guide
First of all, I would like to explain to you what offshore exactly refers to. Offshore is an international term meaning not only out of your country (jurisdiction) but out of the tax reach of your country of residence or citizenship.
The main reason people usually invest offshore is to avoid paying tax.
So why might an 'offshore' investment be superior to an onshore investment?
The first answer is because it is less regulated, and the behavior of the offshore investment provider, whether he be a banker, fund manager, trustee or stock-broker, is freer than it could be in a more regulated environment.
A very important thing to consider, when investing offshore, is the political stability of the country. Basically, what can happen to you is to lose 100% of your money, while trying to avoid paying 40% in tax. However, fact is that today, over half of world's transactions take place offshore. Investments grow much faster offshore, because the gain on investment, that is reinvested is much larger, since not tax was paid on the gain.
There is good news for the US or Canadian person. Even though taxes are to be paid on worldwide income generated in a controlled foreign corporation, one's privacy can still be protected. To maintain one's privacy, the stock in the offshore corporation can be owned by a private Nevada "C" Corporation (or for a Canadian an Alberta Corporation). This way, the income produced in the foreign corporation is reported on the tax returns of the corporation and not the individual. This can also be a tremendous tax-saving strategy, because the "C" corporation pays lower income taxes in most brackets than does an individual.
Due to the recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and European Union regulations, many jurisdictions that have a dependence on Great Britain have decreased or eliminated their privacy laws. The offshore tax havens that have independence from Great Britain have retained their strong privacy laws. Many of these countries receive a majority of their income from offshore services so they have a financial incentive to keep the privacy laws in place on a long-term basis.

What is Forex?

What is Forex?

Forex stands for foreign exchange, something that has been revolutionized by the creation of the Internet. Foreign exchange is not a new concept and has been around for many years, but now is much easier since forex trading is available online.With more than triple the amount of the United States Treasury and Equity combined, the forex market is the largest in the world. More nearly two trillion dollars changes hands daily across the world, but unlike other markets it has no central exchange, and it has no physical location.Instead, the foreign exchange market works through a network of corporations, banks and individuals trading one currency for another. Although some people are worried about the lack of physical exchange, it gives the foreign exchange market the ability to work 24 hours a day.When forex first began, the only way that retail investers could gain access was through the banks that handled the large transactions of different currencies for investment and commercial purposes. Since 1971, when exchange rates were first allowed to float freely, there has been a rapid increase in trading volume. Currently, the FOREX market is being used by international portfolio managers, speculators, day traders, importers and exporters, long-term holders and hedge funds to make transactions in financial assets and to pay for goods and services.Forex trading is always spoken of in terms of two rates of currency. Let's take an example. Say the Japanese yen exchange to United States dollar rate was 2.507 to 1 one day and an investor went in and bought 1000 Japanese yen. Their cost would be $2507 United States dollars. Depending on whether the value of the yen rose or fell, the person who bought those yen would either gain or lose on their investment. Although there are many factors which help to decide what the exchange rates for currency will be, one of the main determining factors is supply and demand. The value of a currency due to supply and demand is not governed by any one factor but several different factors instead.

Economic factors

Whenever you are dealing with money, one of the biggest determining factors, of course, is going to do with economics. These include the surpluses or deficits of the government's budget, balance of trends and trades, trends and levels in inflation, and economic health and growth.

Political Conditions

Any instability or upheavel in a nation is going to have a negative impact on a nation's currency. On the other end of the spectrum, there could be a positive influence on currency rates if the country is doing well and the government of the country is looked upon favorably.

Market Psychology

The foreign exchange market can also be influenced by perceptions of traders and market psychology in many ways. Some of these ways include long term trends, flights to qualify, 'buy the rumor, sell the fact', economic numbers, and considerations for technical trading. Unlike with the stock market, there is very little or no insider information. The fluctuations in the exchange rate of currency are caused by money changing hands and what people expect will happen in regards to money flows.

Stocks

When people are talking about the stock market, the first thing that usually comes to mind is the New York Stock Exchange. But what are stocks? Why is the stock market such a big thing? How do you invest in the stock market?

What are stocks?

Before you delve into the intricacies of the stock market, the first thing you should understand is what exactly a stock is. Stocks, which are also known as shares, are portions of companies that people can buy, and therefore own part of the company. But even though you may own a part of a company, only those who have invested a lot of money into the company have any real say in how the company is run.

There are two different types of shares: preferred shares and common shares. When you invest in common shares, there is a greater risk of losing part or even all of the investment that you have put into the company should the company stop functioning. Why is this? Because creditors, bond holders and preferred shared holders have a higher rank than the common shareholders, and because of this they will get the first chance to get some of the money they have put in if the company goes out of business.

By the same token, the investors who have preferred shares have a higher standing than the ones with common shares, but still have to get in line behind the creditors when it comes to how much of the company they own, or getting paid if the company goes out of business. In addition to having more of a say in the company decisions than those who have common shares, investors who have preferred shares can also look forward to higher dividends.

There are two ways to purchase stocks - investors can either use a brokerage, or buy their stocks through Direct Investment Plans or Dividend Reinvestment plans.

If you decide to purchase stocks through a brokerage, you can go one of two ways. If you are going to trust the experts to do the right thing, and leave it in their hands, then you should go with the services of a full service brokerage. But, if money is a consideration and you don't want to spend the money on a full service brokerage, you can go with a discount brokerage. Even though discount brokerages cost less than full service brokerages, they don't offer the same amount of assistance that the full service brokerages do.

If you decide to invest using a Direct Investment Plan or a Dividend Reinvestment Plan, check to make that the company that you are interested in investing in offers such plans because not all of the companies do.

History of the Stock Exchange

One of the biggest misconceptions is that the first stock exchange in America was the New York Stock Exchange. But those who think that this is true might be surprised to find out that the first stock exchange in America was actually in Philadelphia, PA, and it was founded in the year 1790. The very famous New York Stock Exchange was not founded until two years later, in 1792.
Another thing that you hear talk about with regards to the stock exchange is Wall Street. Sometimes people wonder how it got its name. That is actually a very interesting story. Back in 1653, a twelve foot stockade was built by the Dutch settlers to guard against British and Native American attacks. The sturdy wall stood for over 30 years, until 1685. At that time, the wall was torn down and a street was built in it's place - hence the name Wall Street.
The stock market has evolved greatly over the past few centuries. From its humble beginnings in Philadelphia, PA, to the New York Stock Exchange, which is known world wide, the stock market has grown in leaps and bounds. That's not to say that there haven't been problems. Most everyone has heard of the great stock market crash of 1929. There are now steps that the government has taken to prevent such a large crash from happening again, but that doesn't mean that the possibility still isn't there.
The stock market is a place where you can make a lot of money but you can also lose a lot of money as well. If you have decided that you want to try investing in the stock market, it's a good idea to do some research and get advice from people that you trust and who are already investing in the stock market. But be careful, because if you don't invest wisely you can lose a lot of money. Be wise with your investments and take the time to do your homework. This will help you to make the right decision when it comes to your investments.