Money – Protect and Grow

Each one of us does not have the expertise or the time to build and manage an investment portfolio. There is an excellent alternative available – mutual funds.

A mutual fund is an investment intermediary by which people can pool their money and invest it according to a predetermined objective.

Each investor of the mutual fund gets a share of the pool proportionate to the initial investment that he makes. The capital of the mutual fund is divided into shares or units and investors get a number of units proportionate to their investment.

The investment objective of the mutual fund is always decided beforehand. Mutual funds invest in bonds, stocks, money-market instruments, real estate, commodities or other investments or many times a combination of any of these.

The details regarding the funds’ policies, objectives, charges, services etc are all available in the fund’s prospectus and every investor should go through the prospectus before investing in a mutual fund.

The investment decisions for the pool capital are made by a fund manager (or managers). The fund manager decides what securities are to be bought and in what quantity.

The value of units changes with change in aggregate value of the investments made by the mutual fund.

The value of each share or unit of the mutual fund is called NAV (Net Asset Value).

Different funds have different risk – reward profile. A mutual fund that invests in stocks is a greater risk investment than a mutual fund that invests in government bonds. The value of stocks can go down resulting in a loss for the investor, but money invested in bonds is safe (unless the Government defaults – which is rare.) At the same time the greater risk in stocks also presents an opportunity for higher returns. Stocks can go up to any limit, but returns from government bonds are limited to the interest rate offered by the government.

History of Mutual Funds:

The first “pooling of money” for investments was done in 1774. After the 1772-1773 financial crisis, a Dutch merchant Adriaan van Ketwich invited investors to come together to form an investment trust. The goal of the trust was to lower risks involved in investing by providing diversification to the small investors. The funds invested in various European countries such as Austria, Denmark and Spain. The investments were mainly in bonds and equity formed a small portion. The trust was names Eendragt Maakt Magt, which meant “Unity Creates Strength”.

The fund had many features that attracted investors:

• It had an embedded lottery.




• There was an assured 4% dividend, which was slightly less than the average rates prevalent at that time. Thus the interest income exceeded the required payouts and the difference was converted to a cash reserve.




• The cash reserve was utilized to retire a few shares annually at 10% premium and hence the remaining shares earned a higher interest. Thus the cash reserve kept increasing over time – further accelerating share redemption.




• The trust was to be dissolved at the end of 25 years and the capital was to be divided among the remaining investors.

However a war with England led to many bonds defaulting. Due to the decrease in investment income, share redemption was suspended in 1782 and later the interest payments were lowered too. The fund was no longer attractive for investors and faded away.

After evolving in Europe for a few years, the idea of mutual funds reached the US at the end if nineteenth century. In the year 1893, the first closed-end fund was formed. It was named the “The Boston Personal Property Trust.”

The Alexander Fund in Philadelphia was the first step towards open-end funds. It was established in 1907 and had new issues every six months. Investors were allowed to make redemptions.

The first true open-end fund was the Massachusetts Investors’ Trust of Boston. Formed in the year 1924, it went public in 1928. 1928 also saw the emergence of first balanced fund – The Wellington Fund that invested in both stocks and bonds.

The concept of Index based funds was given by William Fouse and John McQuown of the Wells Fargo Bank in 1971. Based on their concept, John Bogle launched the first retail Index Fund in 1976. It was called the First Index Investment Trust. It is now known as the Vanguard 500 Index Fund. It crossed 100 billion dollars in assets in November 2000 and became the World’s largest fund.

Today mutual funds have come a long way. Nearly one in two households in the US invests in mutual funds. The popularity of mutual funds is also soaring in developing economies like India. They have become the preferred investment route for many investors, who value the unique combination of diversification, low costs and simplicity provided by the funds.

Every person reading this article will be living, working and investing in different circumstances, with mind boggling possibilities for variation.

For example:

• One person may have a full time job, but invests part time;
• Another may run a small business, with investment on the side;
• Yet another may invest full time, as a business.

However, very few of us get to start full time investing right away – we just don’t have the capital. So, what to do? You need to develop your own long term Investment Plan – one that will allow you make changes in your circumstances and lifestyle. Every plan must be different, and your plan needs to be flexible. Here are some principles that you can use to develop your own plan:

• Don’t quit your day job until you have built up sufficient capital to weather the inevitable draw downs that every investor has to go through. Don’t live in the stupidly false hope that it won’t happen to you – it will! Take this as a given, and plan for it!

• Start with a relatively low risk, but steady investment strategy (like selling options). Save the windmills (like buying options) for when you have the time to really focus on your investments. Once you have built up your capital with a relatively safe (and boring) strategy, start branching out into more fun stuff!

• Diversify your investments, at several levels. Invest in different types of investment vehicles like stocks, bonds, CDs, mutual funds and dividend earners. Use different investment strategies, in ways that match your lifestyle, time allocation and risk tolerance. Consider long term position trading, momentum trading, swing trading, selling options (like credit spreads and naked puts), buying options (buying puts and calls or Deep-in-the-money options). Allocate your portfolio to different TYPES of investments and different STRATEGIES of investment.

• Add an extra leg to your income generating efforts. If you have a full time job, then start a small business on the side – one that can run itself once you have set it up.  Unless you really need this money, use the income from this business as seed money for your investment portfolio.

• Don’t get obsessed with investing. Invest for a purpose, not just to get rich. Use the money to GET A LIFE – preferably with your family. The classics are too full of stories and histories of people who end up hugely rich, but divorced, abandoned by their children, rejected by their friends… and so on. Investing can swallow a person up, and unless you keep a large perspective, you can drown.

• GET OUT OF DEBT! Why pay interest to someone else, when you could be investing that money. I am talking about all kinds of debt….credit card, mortgage…everything! Add up all the interest that you have paid this year, then work out how rich you would be if you had taken that money (instead of making someone else fat) and invested it in plan that gave you a good return. The result will shock you!

• Be generous!!! History shows that generous people are always much better off and much happier than the other kind.

Remember: those who fail to plan plan to fail. The cliche is old, but truth remains!

To learn more about developing your own investment plan, have a look at this page.

With so many home insurance products on the market the choice can be baffling, and with big differences in the price of policies and the protection they give you, take time to think about your needs rather than just going for the cheapest deal available.

Many mortgage providers will insist on buildings insurance, which covers the cost of rebuilding your home in case of disaster. This is to ensure that they are able to recover the asset that is your home if you are unable to pay the mortgage.

You should make sure that your buildings cover includes the cost of alternative accommodation in the event that your home is uninhabitable. It is also worth checking whether the policy covers the cost of rebuilding or if it gives the market value of your property.

In addition to the physical structure, your buildings insurance policy should cover the permanent fixtures of your home, such as your bathroom fittings, kitchen cabinets and wall coverings. Basically, anything that you would not or could not normally take with you if you moved home will be covered by your buildings insurance policy.

Things in your house that you would expect to take with you if you moved, like furniture, electrical goods and clothing, have to be insured separately with a contents insurance policy. Mortgage companies do not require you to have contents insurance, but most policies are fairly cheap and could mean the difference between a big financial problem and a slight inconvenience if your things are damaged or stolen.

If you have any particularly expensive items in your home they may not be covered by a standard contents insurance policy. On the other hand, some policies will even cover you in the event that someone is injured in your home due to some failure on your part to maintain the property.

As with buildings insurance, the cheaper contents insurance policies do not always give the best value. For example, cheaper policies will give you indemnity insurance, meaning they will give you the market value of the goods that you are claiming for, but that might be a lot less than what you will have to pay to get new replacements. Unless you would be content to replace a damaged rug with a second hand one for example, it may be worth paying a little extra for your contents insurance to get a new for old policy.

Both buildings and contents insurance will generally cover you for damage caused by fire, storms, flood, theft and vandalism, but higher levels of cover are available if you feel that it is necessary, for example accidental damage.

There are a lot of price comparison websites that will help you to find the best deal, so you are sure to find a policy with the appropriate level of cover to meet your needs.

In understanding the difference between domestic and offshore mutual funds, it is important to know what these funds are. It is true that there are a number of different mutual funds that are available to investors, but the basic construction of a mutual fund is that it is created by a firm that takes the money of many investors and invests that money into stocks, short-term money markets, bonds, and other types of securities. It is then that the manager of the portfolio manages that money by investing and trading the underlying securities of that fund. What happens is that capital gains or losses are realized and those gains and losses are then passed to each individual investor.

The United States and Canada have mutual funds that operate in a similar manner. These funds are open-end funds, closed-end funds, and unit investment trusts. Those investing in offshore mutual funds may find that the term is used more broadly. It is used to refer to any type of collective investment. The names that the investor may see these referred by include open-ended investment companies, unit trusts, undertakings for collective investments in transferable securities, and unitized insurance funds. That may seem like a lot to swallow, but many investors find that their offshore mutual fund investment opportunities are not as restricted because there are more types of mutual funds to invest in.

The offshore mutual fund

There are tax advantages to the offshore mutual fund that individuals will not find with their domestic mutual funds. Unless one of the rare loopholes is found, United States residents will still be fully taxed on their offshore mutual fund. This is usually referred to as “foreign arising income” on IRS tax forms. Nevertheless, individuals have found that investor-friendly countries allow savings on investments through tax incentives. Some offshore locations, such as the Virgin Islands, do not require tax to be paid. This allows the portion of the gain that would normally go to tax to be reinvested.

There are certain organizations that argue that allowing no tax to be paid or reducing the amount of tax is a form of legalized tax evasion. However, tax incentives are a way for individuals to invest into that economy, making that economy even stronger.

But what one will find is that there is a high degree of regulation when it comes to offshore mutual funds. One may find that there may be a minimum investment of $100,000 and that an individual is required to identify him or herself as a “professional investor.” In the U.S., Canada, and various other countries around the world, a person does not have to be a professional investor to invest in mutual funds. They have brokers who can take care of that for them and guide them through the process or simply take care of 100% of the account transactions.

There may also be instances in which the number of investors is limited because of stipulations set forth in constitutional documents. It is these types of regulations that can limit the number of foreign investors in mutual funds, but they can prove to be quite profitable.

The differences

So as you can see, there are differences between domestic mutual funds and offshore mutual funds. Offshore mutual funds can be a fantastic investment for the investor once the hurdles are cleared. Domestic mutual funds may be easier to invest in, but an individual may find that the return on their investment is not as high. However, many prefer their domestic mutual funds over the confusion that surrounds offshore mutual funds. Nevertheless, many find that the confusion is worth it and that the process becomes easier for them over time.

Traditional real estate investing is mainly about buying low and selling high, and making a profit from that difference. But nowadays it needs real estate investing strategies with in depth knowledge, proper planning and of course the right strategy to make the venture successful.

Real estate investing strategy ensures that moneymaking investment opportunities are both identified and acted upon in a timely manner to aid the investors’ needs. Innovative real estate investing strategies ensure capital budgeting by using state of the art investment analysis, which includes the future flow of earning, it will generate, and the adjustments of the associated risks.

Real estate investing in the past was once kept for larger financial institutions or wealthy entrepreneurs. But things have changed dramatically in the real estate business. Real estate investing has become a normal way for the investors of all levels to increase wealth and control large amounts of investment property with little cash expenditure.

Different real estate investing strategies are being made to control large amounts of investment property with only a small down payment. There are several real estate investment strategies depending on the investor’s investment preferences and risk tolerance.

Various types of real estate investing strategies include:

- Private Lender Real Estate Investing Strategy: The private lender strategy is perfect for those who have traditionally invested in bonds and banks and want to earn a higher return. A private lender can earn a fixed return of 10% to 25% in up to 36 months or invest in rehabilitation opportunity, foreclosures and buy and hold projects or receive monthly interest payments directly to the bank account.

- Preconstruction Syndication Real Estate Investing Strategy: Preconstruction syndication is an ideal way to maximize the potential profits and effectively manage risk. This innovative strategy lets the investor purchase preconstruction contracts from developers under preferential terms.

- Preconstruction Purchase Real Estate Investing Strategy: Preconstruction purchase strategy allows the investors to identify opportunities as a group and purchase individually. The investors are individually responsible for the possible purchase and sale of their properties. As a preconstruction purchaser, the investor can earn some of the highest returns.

Money makes the world go round, and don’t we all know it! All of us are looking for ways to get ahead financially. Mutual funds are one way to increase your net worth by becoming involved in collective investing. Investing in mutual funds reduces the risks of individual trading by making you part of a collective of investors. These mutual funds can provide you with a prospectus of fees and their past performance to help you make the right decision about where to put your money. Independent rating services will also guide you in finding a mutual fund that has the same goals as you.

The Basics of Mutual Fund Investment

You may be wondering “what are mutual funds?” Not everyone has a huge deal of knowledge about investing and stocks. Many of us have some money tucked away for a rainy day, and a little in our superannuation. Now, more than ever, is the time to understand how to make your money work for you. Mutual funds pool together money from numerous investors and invest this collective sum into stock, bonds and various other investments. Your money is professionally managed with the aim of benefiting all shareholders in the mutual fund. The risk of losing money is reduced by diversifying the investments. Also, mutual funds are cost efficient. Investing money together increases buying power and reduces operating costs per person. A major perk of investing in mutual funds is that it’s a lot more liquid than other forms of investment, so if you’re finding yourself a little short of cash you can actually sell some of your funds shares.

Investing Your Money In Mutual Funds

Investing in a mutual fund means that you have access to the services of a mutual fund manager. This means a professional is handling the daily trading of assets on your behalf. A mutual fund manager oversees the investment portfolio, and is responsible for finding the best possible returns for the invested dollar.

You can choose to invest your money in lump sums or with automatic investment. Lump sum investment in a mutual fund will typically mean you can invest as much or as little as you have, provided that it is above the minimum requirements of the fund. Automatic investment can help you save money on a regular basis, by transferring a part of your income into the fund on a regular basis.

Making Money From Mutual Funds

The value of a mutual fund is divided into shares, and the value of each share is determined at the end of every trading day. Money is earned in appreciation, dividends or capital gains distribution. It’s important that you look at the past performance when you choose a mutual fund, because not all are equal. Don’t forget to take into account fees and expenses against the average yearly return.

How You Can Benefit From Mutual Funds?

All investment comes with risk. It is possible to lose money invested in mutual funds. Long term, this risk can be managed with some strategic investing, but can be a little disconcerting in the short time. Investments have the potential to both increase and decrease in value, in line with economic change, but in the long term investments do tend to increase with time. These same risks are found in the housing market and traditional stock trading. Mutual funds reduce the risks slightly with the ability to weather some financial instability due to diverse investing.

If anyone you know is still asking “what are mutual funds?” it’s time to let them in on our little secret. Mutual funds are a relatively low risk way to make the most of the money you have. By investing with others you’re able to make the most of the money you have and increase your assets. Your mutual fund manager handles the investment decisions for you whilst your net worth continues to increase over time.

Every investor’s investment strategy should adequately address the following five questions:

(1) What specific stocks will I buy?

(2) When should I buy these stocks?
(3) How should I buy these stocks?
(4) When should I sell these stocks?
(5) How should I sell these stocks?

In addition, the answers for questions #2, #3, #4, and #5 should vary depending upon the different components of an individual’s stock portfolio. If the answers for questions #2 , #3. #4, and #5 exhibit no variance, then the risk profile for all stocks in the portfolio will be the same, an undesirable trait.

There is a very good reason why people that try to mimic the portfolios of very wealthy successful investors never can achieve nearly the same success as the investors they mimic. The reason is that they can only answer one piece of the above 5-part investment puzzle- the question of what to buy. In fact, I could open up my portfolio to investment novices, show them all the stocks I own now, and out of 1,000 novices, all of them would have an extremely difficult time duplicating my future returns. In fact, it’s entirely plausible that investors would lose significant amounts of money on the very same stocks that would produce my largest gains.

Why?

Again, understanding a complete investment system will determine portfolio returns, not just knowing what to buy.

Why Most Investment Firms’ Strategies Fail to Adequately Address the 5 Questions

The evolution of job titles for investment professionals from broker to financial consultant to financial advisor is ironic, because the original title, for the great majority of employees in this industry, is by far the most accurate. Most financial consultants are nothing more than brokers that broker the money you give to them. They serve as middlemen between you and the money managers hired by the firm, and are so interchangeable with one another that a retail investor’s portfolio returns are not likely to vary significantly from one consultant to another at the same firm.

Back when I worked as a “broker” at a Wall Street firm, I remember hearing a story about a very successful (meaning high-income earner) financial consultant that bought nothing but exchange traded funds (ETFs) for his clients. His rational for doing so was four-fold.

(1) Mutual fund expenses were too high (true);

(2) Expenses on ETFs were low (true);

(3) The overwhelming majority of money managers can’t beat the performance of the major domestic indexes (true); and

(4) Therefore, ETFs were the best way to invest for his client (false).

Global investment firms never train their brokers how to be superior stock pickers. They train them how to be superior salespeople. So in concluding that allocating entire portfolios solely to ETFs was the absolute best possible strategy for his clients, this particular consultant’s logic was erroneous. The consultant drew this conclusion solely based upon his foundation of investment knowledge, one primarily filled with investment sales strategies. In fact, though I was never able confirm this, I heard many anecdotal stories that this particular financial consultant was able to outperform the vast majority of financial consultants at the firm with his “I will only buy ETFs” strategy.

Though I wouldn’t be surprised if this were true, the fact that this particular consultant was able to gather so many clients based on such a faulty strategy was a remarkable statement about the average investor’s knowledge of how to build wealth. To me, as unknowledgeable as financial consultants are about proper wealth building strategies (given their constant diet of investment sales strategies), this proves that the average retail investor, even those with millions of investable assets, are far less knowledgeable.

In conclusion, every retail investor should thus utilize the 5 questions of building wealth to determine if his or her investment strategy is faulty or strong. With any strong investment strategy, all 5 questions will be relevant. Own a faulty investment strategy and most likely, one or more of the 5 questions will be irrelevant. And the faultiness of the strategy no doubt will be manifested in weak returns. To illustrate how the 5 questions of building wealth will “out” any poor investment strategy, let’s take a look at a couple of examples. Let’s start with two different portfolios, one primarily built around ETFs; the other primarily built around Mutual Funds.

(1)What Specific Stocks Should I Buy?

Neither the Mutual Fund or ETF strategy can answer this question, so you don’t even need to ask the final four questions to know that neither of these strategies will help you build wealth.

How about a portfolio that consists of all individual Chinese stocks? This portfolio passes question #1, the question of what specific stocks to buy. Next, if we drill down to see how this portfolio was constructed, the portfolio manager’s answers to questions #2 and #3 – “When were these stocks bought and why?” and “How were these stocks bought and why?” – will reveal whether or not the portfolio was indeed constructed solidly.

Finally the portfolio manager’s answers to questions #4 and #5 – “How will these stocks be sold and why?” and “When will these stocks be sold and why?” will reveal if strategies are in place to lock in profits or minimize potential losses. However, remember the earlier point I made in this article: “the answers for questions #2, #3, #4, and #5 should vary depending upon the different components of an individual’s stock portfolio.” Most likely for a portfolio built on stocks that trade in a frothy, emerging market, there will be little variance in the answers for questions #2, #3, #4 and #5. This lack of variance again would expose the weakness of this investment strategy.

Although just a rough guide, the 5 questions should provide you a quick way to establish the intelligence and strength of your current investment strategy.

The time when landlords had to undertake the stressful task of going about sourcing for the appropriate low rate insurance policies to cover their properties are over.

From your home, office or relaxation spot, you can quickly connect to the internet and get the information you need on the appropriate home cover deal, compare free landlord insurance quotes and choose the best service that wont leave a hole in your pocket.

In searching for the insurance provider online, make sure that you find out how comprehensive they are; some cover only the land area and the structure. Please take you time to study the fine prints in the policy you are buying. This is very important if you want to have peace of mind during the active period of your landlord insurance deal.

A quick way of getting discounts is by engaging yourself in home safety practices. Safety practices like fixing burglar and fire alarm systems will make home insurance companies offer you discounts. This is true because you are also keeping the home cover company free from paying too much on many unnecessary risks; risks that you could prevent from happening.

Saving money is good; a better feeling comes when you have complete control of your account and login information. This comes easy when you source for you home insurance deal using the internet.

A secret for getting cheap deals with complete coverage is knowing what you need exactly when comparing free quotes from different companies.

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