September 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from General Finance written in the month of September 2006.
Here we will discuss a couple options you have when deciding on what annuity is best for you.
-Lifetime Income for you and your spouseHere you will be paid as long as you or your spouse still lives. Decide if the initial payment you receive is low or high or if payments will remain the same after the first person dies. The higher payment that drops by half when one spouse dies is another option to consider.
-Lifetime Income for you
You will get the highest income with this option and will recieve a flat monthly payment the remainder of your life. Once you are gone the money stops. So don’t die early!!!!
-10-Year Certain
Flat payment, but if you die before 10 years are up your spouse will receive payments until the 10th year is up.
-Inflation Protection
Your beginning payment would be low, but will increase every year as inflation does.
Written by mike on September 30th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Insurance and Investing and Retirement.
Well, it looks as if the Fed choose correctly to stop the interest rate hicks a couple months back. The economy has reacted positively as has the stock market. Housing has cooled off, but that was expected and now the Dow Jones is near its all-time high. People seem very bullish on the immediate future for the stock market. The falling oil prices has helped the economy in many ways and soon it will show up in company’s bottom line.
Be cautious. Times like these has many of the same characteristics as past recessionary markets. Keep your portfolio diversified and do not panic if things begin to go bad.
Written by mike on September 29th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Stock Market.
Mutual funds are as popular as ever for most investors and they are a great way to have your money professionally managed and diversified. If you are investing in mutual funds I recommend that you do everything on your own. Doing the research is easy. Decide what type of fund you need and then go on to one of the many websites (Yahoo Finance, Smartmoney.com) that will screen out the funds you do not want. Focus on 5-10 year performance and statistics (ignore short-term results). Choose one that fits your criteria and then call them directly. Ask them questions you have about the fund and invest directly through the mutual fund–it will save you money on fees, however, you will have more paperwork. Remember to never buy a mutual fund that has a front or back load (sales charge), there are too many good mutual funds available that are no loads.
Typically I would not recommend large mutual fund companies like Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, etc., but these funds do have their place. Because they are so large they can offer the novice investor more investment options that fit a specific criteria as well as lower expense ratio. Sometimes you might be able to get enough funds from one company to have a diversified portfolio. If you invest enough in any kind of mutual fund you might be elligible for breakpoints. Sometimes that is much easier to do if you are invested in one fund family.
Written by mike on September 28th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Investing and Uncategorized.
Cash and cash equivalents are type of investment.
They . . .
- Preserve your principal
- Have low to high liquidity
- Are sometimes FDIC insured
- Have very low fluctuation of principal and return
- Are taxed as ordinary income in the year received evn when you roll it over
- Are short-term debt instrument issued by a bank or the U.S. government
Written by mike on September 27th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Investing.
U.S. Government bonds are consider one of the safest invest available. Since it is safe it does provide as much return as other bonds.
- Investment objective is to provide income while diversifying
- Liquidity is from low to high
- This is guaranteed for timely payment of principal and interest by the U.S. government
- Low to high fluctuation of principal and return
- May be exempt from state taxes and is taxed as ordinary income
- You are an investor of the U.S. government
Written by mike on September 26th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Investing.
Mutual funds are as popular as ever for most investors and they are a great way to have your money professionally managed and diversified. If you are investing in mutual funds I recommend that you do everything on your own. Doing the research is easy. Decide what type of fund you need and then go on to one of the many websites (Yahoo Finance, Smartmoney.com) that will screen out the funds you do not want. Focus on 5-10 year performance and statistics (ignore short-term results). Choose one that fits your criteria and then call them directly. Ask them questions you have about the fund and invest directly through the mutual fund–it will save you money on fees, however, you will have more paperwork. Remember to never buy a mutual fund that has a front or back load (sales charge), there are too many good mutual funds available that are no loads.
Typically I would not recommend large mutual fund companies like Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, etc., but these funds do have their place. Because they are so large they can offer the novice investor more investment options that fit a specific criteria as well as lower expense ratio. Sometimes you might be able to get enough funds from one company to have a diversified portfolio. If you invest enough in any kind of mutual fund you might be elligible for breakpoints. Sometimes that is much easier to do if you are invested in one fund family.
Written by mike on September 25th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Investing.
Municpal bonds are another form of bonds that investors can choose. We will discuss the characteristics of munipal bonds.
- Investment objectives are strictly income
- Liquidity low to high
- There is a high to low fluctuation of pricipal and return
- Interest payments are exempt from federal taxes. You may be subject to the alternative minimum tax (AMT). Federal taxes apply to any capital gains
- You are a creditor of issuiong municipality and are subject to default risk
- Do not hold tax-exempt investments in retirement accounts.
Written by mike on September 24th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Investing and Taxes.
Corporate bonds are a popular way to lower risk in your portfolio while diversifying. Here we will go over the traits of corporate bonds.
- Investment objective is income and diversification
- Liquidity can be low or high
- Fluctuation in pricipal and returns can be low or high
- Interest payments along with principal are taxed as ordinary income in the year received
Written by mike on September 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Investing.
International government bonds are the road less traveled but can be helpful to your portfolio. Here we will describe the aspects of investing in international bonds.
- Investment objectives are growth, income and diversification
- Low liquidity because it is foreign
- The fluctuation in principal and return goes from low to high
- Interest payments and principal taxed as ordinary income in the year reeived in the country earned
- Because it is foreign there will be economic, political, currency and market liquidity risks
Written by mike on September 22nd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Investing.
Domestic large cap stocks are very popular with investors because they are the best-known companies out there. We will lay out the main characteristic when investing in large caps.
- Investment objectives are growth and income along with diversification
- Because they are large company there is always a market so they are very liquid
- Just like any other stock there is a high probability of fluctuation of principal and return.
- Your capital gains and dividends taxed in the year received
Written by mike on September 21st, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Investing and Stocks.
« Older articles
No newer articles
Here we will discuss a couple options you have when deciding on what annuity is best for you.
