Wanting, hoping & wishing for more money is something we all do and at some point in our lives it can and does happen; from a win on the lottery to an inheritance, pay rise or gift the next question is always: what to do next? Will it be spend, spend – holidays, cars – or should it be save, save, save. Devil or angel? Your heart or your head? However, does it have to be such a stark choice – can you spend and still have enough to maintain a lifestyle without worry – of course so long as you remember two golden rules from the master himself, Warren Buffet: Rule one is “preservation of capital”, rule two “never forget rule one” They apply whether you decide to handle your financial affairs yourself or employ a professional. So what are the basic rules of investment and how do they work?

First you must understand yourself and, in particular, your view of risk. What does this mean? It means being honest with yourself and how you view both money itself and risk. Your values and beliefs about these will have been established at a very young age, primarily via your parents and those closest to you. If your view of high risk is to lose £100 in an investment decision, then I would suggest that you have a very low risk threshold. Alternatively if you are happy investing £250,000 in a new business venture and can sleep easily, then your risk threshold is high. Both views of course, have to be measured against your overall wealth. You can establish your own “risk profile” by completing any of free online personality tests such as those found at www.similarminds.com. If you decide to use a professional adviser this is the first thing he or she will try to establish. Put simply, they will try to understand the limit of your comfort zone where money is concerned, as well as your long term financial goals and objectives.

Many of the financial markets are extremely volatile, and prices can move significantly on a day to day basis. The US market for example is considerably more volatile than the UK market. For example, a share in the FTSE 100 can move up to 10p in a day whereas a share in the equivalent American market can move one dollar or more (60p) – i.e. 6 times as much per day. You’ve now taken the test and spoken to the experts what next? What will be the key to your success? Diversification or, put more simply, spreading it around will be key, because that is what the successful boys, and increasingly girls, do. It is simple common sense – you do not put all your eggs in one basket as this is asking for trouble. If you had £100,000 to invest, you might put 15% into shares, 10% in premium bonds, 25% in Government Bonds, and the rest into property. Most millionaires are risk averse, they just manage their risk better by preserving their capital, diversifying to spread the risk, and using sound money management techniques. Perhaps this is why they are millionaires!! Just watch Dragons Den and see how careful they are.

Once you have established your risk profile, and accepted that in order to increase the value of what you have it will be necessary to trade and invest, what markets or investments should you choose? Property, pensions, shares, bonds, unit trusts, options, derivatives, precious metals, currency, the list is endless. It all sounds very complicated and intimidating. In fact it doesn’t have to be. There is no reason to feel threatened or intimidated because by asking simple direct questions everything can be explained very easily and in a non patronising way. Remember this is your money and these are your dreams; never, ever invest in anything you do feel comfortable with or fully understand. If it can’t be explained clearly and simply or it keeps you awake at night, you shouldn’t be in it!!

anna coulling
http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/investing-for-beginners-91977.html

The office at JAG is closed for now, but I plan on making an appointment asap. So, I was hoping for the best info I could get before I consult an attorney. Husband is Army E-4 with 7.5 years in, no articles 15′s. DC BAH is around $1790. Been married the last 4.5 years of that. I am legal resident of Maryland, his is Hawaii or home of record is in Montana. No kids. Neither one of us cheated. He called it irreconcible differences. We have always had separate checkings and savings account, retirement funds, etc. Only real debt is car @$7750 left. He plans to have me move out of the residence at the end of March since his LPN at Walter Reed starts in early May. He plans for us to sign a legal separation agreement at end of March since in the state of MD, a couple must be legally separated for a year before they can get an absolute divorce. MD says it is an equal distribution state. SO, question is how much is he required by law, if any, to pay me in support? We’d still be legally married until April 2011. He says I will get my health & dental insurance still and that he will pay me $700/month and pay the car off & put it only in my name(will be around 1.5-2 years left in payments). He’s been planning this for so long and knew so many of the laws, and it came as a shock to me when I thought we were about to just have a serious talk about the relationship. He says we are not happy and not fair to one another to stay together. I have gone through a series of emotions. Even when I got to the point where I started getting mad, I was using a normal tone of voice, but asking very direct questions. Last night he just threatened to take away some of the monthly $budget. I want it to work out, but he’s already made up his mind and only has to wait due to the law. He does not want to go to marital counseling. Renting a room here to keep my job in a high cost of living area, is a tough choice since hard to find another job. My family is in Alabama so I’d probably move back there. I make only $14/hr here & once I did find a job in AL, it might be only $12/hr. I currently work as an 1:1 aide at a private school for emotionally disturbed students and also have experience with autistic spectrum disorder. What legal suggestions and tips do you have? Thank you for your time in reading this and offering advice.

without a court order he is only required to give you the difference between single and with dependent BAH.. often no more than a couple of hundred dollars.

you will have all Tricare and base access until the day the diviorce is final.

Him offering $700 and the car payment is FAR More than he is required by UCMJ to provide you.

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Duration : 0:9:29

I am years from retirement, but an immediate annuity appears to offer a higher withdrawal rate than I can guarantee on my own. If I plan for an annuity it can help me achieve my goal. Is that a good strategy?

I don’t like annuities.
Some charge as high as 5% – all this to give you a check each month.
Do not go through an advisor for this.
Annuities are the biggest money makers for them – that’s how they buy their Lexus’s.

If you like annuities though – Charles Schwab offers a super low cost ones.
Fidelity Investments probably have some good ones also.
These discount brokers are not out to get you.
Go the schwab website and spend a little hour looking around and compare.
If I wanted an annuity that’s the way I would go.
Don’t get ripped off – also google annuity cons, and read, read, read.
I would also like for you to go to the bookstore and get a book on the subject.
The fees run in the thousands a year for some annuities – the least you can do is spend $20 on a book.
I think Schwab has an annuity that automatically buys laddered cd’s.
Be careful with high returns in variable annuities in a volatile market – you can lose it all.
Schwab and Fidelity have been around for 30 years – trust them.
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Real estate flipping is a term used by most people these days, the meaning of which is re selling real estate for a profit. Most participants in the real estate market confirm the transaction before re selling their property for a profit. The insinuation is that they use their own funds to secure an investment. This is characteristic real estate investment. But the true art of flipping lies in re selling an interest before closing the deal. One buyer of a contract of sales or purchase will find another buyer for the same interest ready to buy before the first buyer completes the deal. This implies that the first buyer is only putting the deposit out of his own resources. This is characteristic real estate speculation

More often than not, real estate flipping can be the cause for many problems even though it is not an illegal practice. Most real estate boards and organizations do not encourage the practice of real estate flipping. Market value can be defined as the price that a property is expected to obtain after considerable time and exposure to the various market conditions. If someone with extraordinary skills and talents, like a realtor is involved, flipping would then envelop an element of misrepresentation. However, if no professionals are involved, courts have ruled that misrepresentation will still be punishable by law. Such misrepresentations can also be categorized as deceptive. Apart from the legal and moral issues, flipping contributes to the approximate inflationary damages that prove them to be unfavorable for the whole economy. This is more pronounced when they involve large items like capital assets. When it comes to real estate investing, the small matter of re selling property for profit is considered to be a common part of the business.

In a market economy, the main responsibility of the speculators is to soak up all the risk and to contribute a minimal amount of flow of money or liquidity to that market place. Often times, speculators reduce the liquidity in a market by increasing the prices. The effect of price increase is to reduce the number of buyers therefore affecting demand and lowering prices even further. On the other hand, investors play a completely different role in the market. A person that purchases a property renovates it and then re sells it for a profit is known as an investor and not a speculator. This will also be the case for a person who buys property under foreclosure.

When it comes to the subject of investment, risk management is also very clear. Investment is directly proportional to the basic relation between personal incomes. This can also be influenced by the nature of the property bought or sold and the rates of interest. An increase in the value of personal income will lead to an increase in investments and this in turn will lead to the subsequent expansion of prices and economy. On the contrary, high rates of interest will lower investment by increasing the cost of financing. The end result will be a lower demand graph thus hampering the progress of prices and the economy. Even if the investor decides to use his own exclusive resources, there will still be a measure of risk. If the main purpose is to make easy money through flipping and speculation, the risks involved will be considerably higher.

Kris Koonar
http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/speculation-vs-real-estate-investment-60625.html

Hedge funds make money in bonds by separating treasury bills for a higher profit, creating better leverage for the bond investment or getting better loan rates on bonds. Get a higher after tax rate of return on bonds through hedge funds with information from a financial consultant in this free video on investments.

Expert: Roger Groh
Bio: Roger Groh is the founder of Groh Asset Management.
Filmmaker: Bing Hu

Duration : 0:1:23

I have a college assignment to but really stuck on a question, so any help would be great. the exact question is

describe the main elements of the financial planning process in an engineering business and the sequence in which the planning takes place.

you can ignore the engineer bit if you want to – just a general idea to help me out would be good and ill incorporate the engineering bit later

You need to talk to your tutor. Asking for the answer in the internet is CHEATING.

I just received my W-2 and I noticed an X on retirement plan on box 13. But I did not sign up for a retirement plan. And I did find something odd with the amount of money I was getting per check after taxes. Would I be able to reteive this money? I can’t afford to save a dime on a retirement plan right now.

Box 13 can indicate a couple of different things:

Box 13 – may have a box checked that indicates whether you are a statutory employee, a participant of your employer’s retirement plan or received third party sick pay.

Are you a statutory employee. Read about it at the link below and see if it fits your job.

Or perhaps your employer has a retirement plan which you do not have to pay into. Check with your HR representative. One thing for sure, if you didn’t "pay in" you’re not going to be able to take anything out.

There are so many different financial planning companies to choose from, how do you pick the right one? Does anyone have an experience with being a financial planner that could give me some insight as to what to expect besides the brochures that the companies supply? Is it worth getting into? It would also be nice to get someones email or contact info to maybe talk more with them. Please someone help me out a little. Thanks

O.K. Financial planning, first off, majority of your work is in the evening and weekends, when working folk are available.

If you are still interested, you should know that it is a lucrative business, however it takes a little while to build your commissions, sometimes commission is not paid until an investment has been in place for a certain amount of time, or until it is cashed in.

It is like owning your own business in that it takes time to build up your client list. Definately lucrative, however it requires a very serious committment, make sure you are ready.

I am a junior college student working on my BA in Business Administration specialized in Finance.
I have read many books on Investing, Security Analysis, Foreign Exchange, Technical Analysis, Fundamental Analysis, Asset Allocation, Interpreting Financial Statements, and I practically lived out of investopedia.com at one point.

Now what I want to do proffesionally is basicly what I do for myself, anylyze stocks and invest in them for clients.

I read thatzs what Investment Managers do, can anyone clarify what is the job of an Investmen Manager? also what field would best fit with what I want to do? Would appreciate tips from people who are already in the industry, thanks ahead.

Applied math will have you best prepared for what you have mentioned. You may find upon gradation with your finance degree, that you average entry opportunities. You may not even be able to get into Wall Street at all. Wall Street will give you a shot if you supplement your degree with and applied math degree, a statistics degree, and econometrics degree.