Although you may not want to think about the state of your finances, there is no getting away from the fact that money is an essential part of everyday life. This article is full of tips that will help you get your finances under control.
Be sure to include your post tax income. For starters, include all after-tax money that you get each month from your salary, alimony, child support, rental income, or other sources. Make sure your expenses are less than your income on a monthly basis. A great way to consolidate many bills into a smaller payment is by getting personal loans and these loans are typically desired because they offer a much lower rate of interest. You can imagine how much money you will save by consolidating higher interest loans into a personal loan with a lower rate.
To make this process effective, you should compose a detailed listing of your expenditures. You need to also include quarterly and yearly payments. Some of these expenses may be home improvement and repair costs, or car maintenance and registration payments. You need to also write down other, smaller things that you pay for daily or weekly, such as child care or grocery shopping. You should make sure that your list is as comprehensive as possible to ensure you have a true picture of what you spend.
There are always things you can eliminate from any budget. One easy thing you can do is bring coffee from home instead of stopping for expensive lattes on the way to work. Seek out anything similar to this that you can get rid of without difficulty prior to putting together a lasting financial plan.
See what improvements you can make to help you lower your utility bills. Windows can be a weak link in your homes armor by letting out heat in the winter and cool air in the summer. Make sure your windows are properly insulated. An on-demand hot water tank is a good way to reduce spending. Have a plumber come out and fix any leaky pipes you have to help lower your monthly water bill. Be sure to run your dishwasher only when it is full, so you can make the best use of it.
If you can, purchase new energy efficient appliances. These energy-saving appliances help you save on your utilities. Also, when you are not using something, unplug it. You can save both money and energy by doing this.
Some home improvements pay for themselves over time with the reduction in utility expenses. For example, replacing your roof and installing new insulation prevents you from losing energy for both heating and cooling because of insufficient structural materials.
Try to save money by being careful with appliances. Even though you are spending money to repair or replace items, you will see a savings in the long run.
is looking at investing a further $4 billion in its operations onshore Nigeria in efficiency projects aimed at both raising production and minimizing harmful natural-gas flaring, Chief Executive Peter Voser said Wednesday.
In remarks to investors published on Shell’s website, Voser said Shell’s oil production in Nigeria rose to about 800,000 barrels a day in 2011. However, he also highlighted the dangers of working in the country, where two of its contractors were killed by gunmen last year.
Nigeria, an OPEC producer nation, accounted for around 10% of Shell’s total global output last year.
Crowdfunding, a Web-powered money-raising technique pioneered by charities and arts projects, is moving into the world of business.
It soon will emerge as a potential vehicle to finance small firms, a prospect that interests people such as Juli Kaufmann, one of the founders of Fund Milwaukee, a recently organized group seeking to improve the community through local investment.
This is an incredible new opportunity that we otherwise didnt have access to, Kaufmann said last week.
Crowdfunding is the buzz-generating provision of a piece of legislation passed by Congress in a rare show of bipartisan spirit and signed by President Barack Obama on April 5.
Dubbed the JOBS, or Jumpstart Our Business Start-ups, Act, the new law eases restrictions on how small firms raise money.
Theyll be able to go public without clearing all the usual regulatory hurdles, and theyll be able to sell equity to nonaccredited (read, nonwealthy) investors.
That typically has been forbidden, and some people think it should remain that way. But others see a new world of finance opening that will give ordinary folks a chance to buy into promising opportunities and provide capital to firms that are too small or too plain to interest angels and venture capitalists.
In crowdfunding, many people make relatively small investments that collectively amount to serious money.
The new law limits how much any one investor can funnel to any one company. For someone making less than $100,000 a year — thats four out of five American households — the cap is $5,000.
Some worried
Still, many observers worry that these loosely regulated investments will breed fraud.
The North American Securities Administrators Association, a 93-year-old group of state and provincial securities officials, called the JOBS Act an investor protection disaster waiting to happen.
Investors need to prepare themselves to be bombarded with all manner of offerings and sales pitches, association president Jack Herstein, assistant director of the Nebraska Bureau of Securities, said in a statement after the bill signing.
Congress has just released every huckster, scam artist, and small-business owner and salesman onto the Internet.
And Roberta Karmel, a Brooklyn Law School professor and a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission under President Jimmy Carter, said the new law ignores the lessons of history.
In 1980, Congress passed legislation easing regulations on capital formation by small businesses. Small firms raising seed money were allowed to advertise and sell securities to basically anyone without having to register with the SEC.
Two decades later, the SEC clamped down. Stock issued under the eased regulations was being resold in over-the-counter markets, at times in fraudulent schemes. The SEC reacted by banning general advertisement of unregistered securities.
Karmel sees parallels to crowdfunding.
This is just going to lead to some kind of bubble or there will be fraudulent offerings, and then Congress will say we need more regulation, she said.
Others arent so worried.
I personally have more confidence in the intelligence of the American public that we dont need to be so paternalistic, said Scott Shane, professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
The limits on how much can be invested offer protection, and would-be investors can be reminded of the need to investigate before offering their money, he said.
People should invest no more than they can afford to lose, because these will tend to be high-risk situations, said Dan Olszewski, director of the Weinert Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He also sees promise in crowdfunding.
It definitely has a lot of potential for certain types of start-ups that need a limited amount of investment dollars to launch their business, Olszewski said.
Local benefit
One area that stands to benefit is the type of investing Kaufmann and the others at Fund Milwaukee want to do — financing local businesses that they believe can enhance the community as well as deliver a return.
The biggest winners out of this will be Main Street companies, said Amy Cortese, author of Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit From It.
If youre a high-tech start-up doing an iPhone app or the next social network, you have no dearth of investors willing to put up money for you, Cortese said. But its much harder for your bread-and-butter type of small businesses — the ones that may not be in the most glamorous or sexy businesses but nonetheless have very good prospects, are part of the fabric of their communities.
Fund Milwaukee has backed what it believes is one such business so far — ice cream-maker Purple Door. Eight of the groups 18 members lent money to Purple Door to help it buy equipment and open a retail store in a Fifth Ward building Kaufmann developed.
Other businesses, including a brewer and a food processor, have approached Fund Milwaukee about investing, Kaufmann said.
Whether the group branches into crowdfunding isnt certain, but Kaufmann for one is enthusiastic about its potential to support community-oriented investment.
People are very generous in Milwaukee and really want to see Milwaukee be a better place, she said.
And crowdfunding, she said, offers a sort of do-it-yourself avenue of finance that aligns well with many peoples ideals.
Its a reaction in some ways to those who are disappointed with Wall Street and what financial markets are doing, Kaufmann said. We see the damage, but we dont understand how we can make a difference, and this is kind of creating the path to taking your finances back into your own hands and using the power of your own money to have the impact you want to see directly in your community.
Whether thats the result, or whether crowdfunding spawns a new round of pump-and-dump schemes and other fraud, wont be known for a while. The SEC has nine months to work on rules covering the mechanics of the new law.
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Learn how to profit on the companies you love most.
Want a cleaner, greener world? One way is to live green. Another is to invest in clean energy companies and divest yourself of old school oil, gas and dirty energy in your 401k, IRA, annuity, pension, trust and any other retirement plan you own.
Heres how.
1. Know What You Own
2. Profit on Good Products
3. Great Gains While You Sleep
4. Co-Create a Cleaner, Greener World
Learn more about just how easy it is to Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is and profit from sustainable living and investing below.
1. Know What You Own
If you dont know the companies that are held in the funds in your retirement accounts, chances are very high that you own oil, gas and old, dirty energy companies. What a lot of conscious creatives dont know is that many socially conscious fund companies invest in oil, gas and old, dirty energy companies, too. Apple is now the most valuable company in the world and paying dividends (Exxon Mobil is #2). So, you can go greener/cleaner and still have the benefit of owning large companies that are more stable and provide some yield.
Most financial websites allow you to see the holdings of the funds you own. All you need to know is the name of the fund and the ticker symbol, which can be found on your brokerage statement.
2. Profit on Good Products
Over the past three years, investors of Whole Foods have earned 450 percent more than investors of legacy grocery companies. Google investors are far richer than owners of British Petroleum.
Yes, Im as happy as anyone that I dont have to ride my horse from LA to New York. But, Im going to be even happier when I can fly in a solar-powered plane. So, while were dreaming of a better world and co-creating our future, I am more into profiting on organic food and the democratization of the Internet, over canned food and gasoline. A win-win.
3. Great Gains While You Sleep
There is a risk to investing in emerging markets of any kind. NASDAQ was the best investment in the late 1990s and the worst in the Dot Com Recession of 2000-2002. Clean energy scored almost 60 percent gains in 2007 and was the worst performing industry of 2011. That is why Modern Portfolio Theory is a great strategy for your nest egg. (I add in a few other tricks, like avoiding the Bailouts, adding in Hot Industries and 1-3 times a year rebalancing as well.) To reduce risk in your nest egg, avoid investing in individual companies, and choose funds instead. Keep your industry exposure to a reasonable percentage. Below are two pie charts illustrating what a reasonable clean energy exposure might be for a 25-year-old versus a 50-year-old investor.
4. Co-Create a Cleaner, Greener World
A lot of people, particularly the conscious creative community, are living green and buying green. Many are promoting bike-friendly, green city policies, choosing more fuel-efficient cars, eating organic, recycling and far more. However, the next evolution of green advocacy is to align your investing dollars with your spending dollars. Should you buy an electric car, but own stock in gas guzzlers? Or purchase organic food, but profit on pesticide companies? Older, more established companies make it easy for you to invest in their stock. It takes information, wisdom and commitment to align your 401k, pension, annuity, IRA, health savings account, etc. with your vision of a new world. But if you dont, youre just funding the Bailouts, the Banksters and cronyism economics. So, make 2012 your year to get money smart and put your advocacy efforts where they can force the most change. Make sure that all your investments are in a cleaner, greener world — from the money you spend on products and services, to the money you invest in the companies that make them.
Join me for a special Natalie Pace BlogTalkRadio.com show on green investing on Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 9:00 am PT (noon ET) to learn more and get your questions answered. Call-in number is (347) 215-7305.
Pie Charts (c) NataliePace.com 2012. Used by permission.
Most employees face delay in Roth investing
By Eric Yoder
At least three-fifths of federal employees will have an additional wait before they can begin Roth-style investing in their retirement savings program.
The Defense Finance and Accounting Service, which provides payroll services to three large departments apart from Defense, plus several smaller entities including the White House, has said it will not be ready for the start-up next month of the Thrift Savings Plan’s new investment alternative.
The TSP, which received authority for Roth-type investing three years ago, recently announced that it will begin accepting such investments as of May 7. However, it added that some agency payroll providers might not be ready by then to distinguish between traditional and Roth investing when they forward employee money to the TSP for investment. Until a payroll office can separate the two, investments must be made with the TSP’s traditional tax treatment.
Under the TSP’s traditional design, investments are made with pre-tax money that is taxable along with its earnings on withdrawal. Roth investments are made with after-tax money that is tax-free along with its earnings on withdrawal, as long as certain conditions are met.
The TSP doesn’t have a list of agencies that won’t be ready, spokeswoman Kim Weaver said. “There are more than 100 payroll offices that provide payroll deductions to the thrift plan, and many of those payroll offices service more than one agency,” she said.
One of those providers is DFAS, best known as the pay distributor for active and retired military personnel and for civilian employees of the Defense Department. It also provides payroll services for the Energy, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services departments, as well as for the Executive Office of the President, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Broadcasting Board of Governors, according to DFAS spokesman Thomas LaRock.
“They, along with all DoD civilian employees, are affected by the delay,” LaRock said in an e-mail. DFAS plans to phase in Roth investing from June through October for military personnel, with the option beginning in July for civilian employees of DoD and the client agencies.
As of year-end 2011, DFAS-serviced agencies accounted for 1.2 million of the 2.1 million executive branch federal employees, not counting postal employees, making DFAS by far the government’s largest payroll services provider. It provides payroll services for the entirety of its client agencies as well as for Defense, LaRock said.
Once Roth-style investing begins, employees and uniformed military personnel will be able to invest through one or the other or both types of balances, up to a combined annual dollar limit that this year is $17,000. Those 50 and older similarly will be able to invest an additional amount up to a separate combined limit that this year is $5,500. Agency contributions on behalf of employees under the Federal Employees Retirement System will continue to have the traditional tax treatment regardless of whether the employee personally invests in a Roth balance.
By Eric Yoder
| 06:00 AM ET, 04/18/2012
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Phased retirement plan for federal employees advances
Discrimination in real estate report is released by Real estate investing wealth Ltd. The new report has attracted interest from sites in similar sectors.
Austin, TX. (PRWEB) April 17, 2012
Equal opportunity housing issues form the main theme of a new report that has just been released by Real estate investing wealth Ltd. People can pick up the new report right now on the Company’s website.
David Dunkan, one of the Directors on the site said that “this new report is something that we feel is needed in the real estate market today. Equal opportunity housing opportunities is something that we feel very strongly about and we feel that many of the reports that are released out there on the real estate outlook in the USA today fail to take equal opportunity housing and discrimination in real estate into account. We are hoping that this new report will highlight some of the difficulties that people can go through in the market today when it comes to finding suitable accommodation and it will also point out some of the difficulties that they face with regard to people being prejudice against them”.
Sites like realestatewatch321.com and propertyfocusnow1.net specialize in looking at real estate market trends and they have picked up on the news of this new report and both of them are actively encouraging their readers to download it.
In addition to looking at how discrimination can effect housing sales today the team at Real estate investing wealth Ltd. are also giving away free information on how to pick up property at below its market value. This information can be downloaded right now at http://realestateinvestingwealth.com/discrimination-in-real-estate/.
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/4/prweb9409654.htm
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By Jonathan Burton, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — There’s a heaviness in James Bianco’s voice when he talks about the U.S. economy and the investing climate. It’s the tone of someone who is dismayed by current conditions but is resigned to them.
James Bianco
Bianco, president of Bianco Research LLC, provides top-down economic and market research that influences the buy and sell decisions of many large institutional investors. What is his view of the U.S. economy today? Corporate executives are passengers, and government policy makers, starting with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, are driving the ship.
Or to put it bluntly: It’s Ben’s world, and we’re just investing in it.
“Stock picking is a dead art,” Bianco said in a recent telephone interview. “The most important man in investing decisions is Ben Bernanke. It shouldn’t be, but it is. We are in a post-crisis environment where the Fed is running the most extreme policy it’s ever run; Europe is even more extreme. That affects all investment decisions.”
Moreover, Bianco added, investors can either follow the Fed using short-term tactics that anticipate policy makers’ moves, or fight the Fed with a longer-term, defensive stance. Neither choice is particularly attractive, he said.
So Bianco is straddling both sides. Investors can expect “some version” of additional quantitative easing from the Fed, or “QE3,” before June, he predicted. That will lift stock prices, but absent economic improvement, these gains will be fleeting.
Then, Bianco said, defense will be in order.
1. Go light on stocks
Bianco isn’t a big fan of stocks. Investors need robust corporate earnings growth to justify buying equities, and, Bianco said, “there isn’t any.”
Instead, stocks have soared on the back of quantitative easing, “Operation Twist” and other Fed actions geared to boost an anemic economy — but fundamentals remain weak, Bianco added.
Click to Play
U.S. consumers open their wallets
High gasoline prices and inadequate savings were supposed to drive American consumer spending onto the rocks. So much for that. Photo: AP.
“I’m worried that the stock market has been manipulated higher,” he said. “We have had a rally produced by policy out of the Federal Reserve.”
More disturbing, Bianco said, is that the U.S. market rally hasn’t created a wealth effect that fills corporate coffers and encourages retail investors to buy stocks through mutual funds and other avenues.
“If Bernanke really wants to instill confidence, he needs to tell us in clear and precise language how the Fed intends to get out of this,” Bianco said. “I get it that you’ve put us on this ‘sugar high,’ rammed interest rates down and stock prices up. But tell me how you’re going to stop, so this is not going to wind up like the fall of 2008 or the summer of 1979 with inflation.”
“He can’t,” Bianco said of Bernanke. “I don’t know how we get out of it without it being ugly, and he can’t tell me how.”
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By Robert Powell, MarketWatch
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Given what’s likely to happen to interest rates in the coming months and years, now might be the perfect time to use a bond ladder for your portfolio.
That’s according to experts who recently discussed the prospects for fixed-income investments as part of a MarketWatch Investing Insights event in New York.
Click to Play
Rate outlook poses complex risks for bond investors
With interest rates near all-time lows, bond investors are between a rock and a hard place. At a MarketWatch Investing Insights event, bond experts discuss the risks and strategies investors should be thinking about now.
Bond laddering is a technique for generating current income while reducing the effect of rising and falling interest rates on the fixed-income portion of your portfolio, according to William O’Donnell, the head of U.S. Treasury strategy at RBS.
O’Donnell was among the panelists at the MarketWatch event, as was Lee Munson, founder and chief investment officer of Portfolio LLC.
“I look at a bond ladder as a very reasonable and appropriate way to manage your fixed-income portfolio,” O’Donnell said in a recent interview.
In essence, the technique calls for building a portfolio of fixed-income investments (CDs, annuities, bonds, ETFs, and the like) that mature at different dates along the so-called yield curve — the curve that shows interest-rate yields based on maturities — based on your outlook for interest rates.
Read: For bond investors, holding tight is best.
Interest-rate risk versus inflation risk
If you are unsure whether interest rates might rise or fall in the future, you might put your cash in equal amounts in a number of fixed-income investments — for example, one-third in short-term bonds, one-third in intermediate-term and one-third in long-term bonds. Then you simply roll the maturing bonds back into short-term fixed-income investments.
If, on the other hand, you think interest rates might fall (you would be alone in that group), you would do the exact opposite and invest a larger percentage of your portfolio in long-term fixed-income investments, and a much smaller percentage in short- and intermediate-term fixed-income investments.
Click to Play
Bond investing: risks and strategies
At a MarketWatch Investing Insights panel discussion, William O'Donnell, head of U.S. Treasury strategy at RBS Securities Inc., talks about how investors can best manage their bond investments in a time of ultralow interest rates.
Investing exclusively or largely in long-term fixed-income investments subjects you to interest-rate risk — the risk that the value of your bonds will fall should interest rates rise.
So, if you think, as many do today, that interest rates might rise, you would invest a larger percentage of your portfolio in short-term fixed-income investments, say two-thirds, and a smaller percentage in intermediate- and long-term fixed-income investments, say one-third. Then, as fixed-income investments mature, you would reinvest the proceeds in higher earning investments.
Keep in mind, however, that investing exclusively or mostly in short-term fixed-income investments in today’s market subjects you to inflation risk. That’s the risk that the value of your investment declines as inflation shrinks your purchasing power. (Right now, you’re earning a negative real rate of return on short-term fixed-income investments; the real rate of return is the nominal interest rate minus the rate of inflation.)
With a bond ladder, you are essentially trying to manage many of the risks associated with investing in fixed-income securities, including interest-rate risk, inflation risk, and reinvestment risk. Reinvestment risk is the risk that you’ll have to reinvest in lower yielding investments when your fixed-income investments mature in a falling interest rate environment.
A Thai food company plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Australian food and processing in the next five years.
CP Group has supermarkets and poultry and fish farms in Thailand, as well as producing ready meals.
The company has opened an office in Melbourne to start buying red meat and grains and set up a salmon farm in Australia.
General manager of CP Group, Richard Lovell, says the plan is to spend $100 million this year on Australian produce and recruiting staff.
And over the next three to five years to looking at doubling every year for sure and within the next three to five years looking into upstream into factories – whether thats a farm, processing, whether thats ready made meal manufacturing, he said.
Its really something that develops in the next three to five years.
TORONTO, ONTARIO, Apr 17, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –
BMO InvestorLine today announced the results of a study indicating
that the overwhelming majority (88 per cent) of Canadian online
investors find that extensive research resources and educational
tools such as online seminars, webcasts and newsletters are critical
in helping them make effective investment decisions.
“It’s very encouraging that Canadians appreciate the value of having
access to current and credible research and educational tools when
deciding how to invest their money,” said Cesar Rainusso, Vice
President, BMO InvestorLine. “We’re committed to continuously looking
at new ways to help our clients access the research and tools they
need to be confident investors. Our innovative online platform is
based on rich tools and resources that are always evolving to remain
ahead of the trends.”
The survey, conducted by Leger Marketing for BMO InvestorLine, also
found that half of Canadians are looking for the following in online
investing services:
— A wide range of investments to buy and sell (e.g. securities, ETFs,
mutual funds, etc.)
— Access to a variety of accounts (e.g. RRSPs, TFSAs, etc.)
— Strong customer service support
Other key findings:
-- Online investors in Alberta (92 per cent) are the most likely in the
country to find access to research and educational tools important.
-- Male online investors are more interested in having access to a wide
range of investments to buy and sell compared to women (57 per cent
versus 41 per cent).
-- Six in ten Prairie residents prefer access to a variety of accounts
(RRSPs, TFSAs) in their online investing platform (59 per cent).
As Canadians become increasingly savvy online investors, BMO
InvestorLine has continued to launch new tools and enhancements to
existing features, including:
-- My Holdings: New enhancements provide greater insight into portfolios
with detailed information on asset allocation and securities
performance.
-- ETF Screener & Compare Tool: Investors are able to search, compare, and
access comprehensive data on a broad range of ETFs, including top ten
holdings, historical performance returns and full quote details.
-- Morningstar Credit Reports: Investors can access Morningstar Credit
Reports for over 300 North American-listed companies, including 20
Canadian companies. BMO InvestorLine is the first online brokerage to
offer this resource.
-- Morningstar Canadian Pick Lists: Pick Lists feature the most
attractively valued Canadian large cap and top dividend-paying Canadian
equities. Investors can also access detailed equity reports for each
company listed on the Pick Lists.
The survey was completed on-line from March 12th, 2012 to March 15th,
2012 using Leger Marketing's online panel, LegerWeb, with a sample of
1501 Canadians. A probability sample of the same size would yield a
margin of error of +/- 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
To learn more about online investing, please visit
www.bmoinvestorline.com .
Get the latest BMO press releases via Twitter by following @BMOmedia.
Contacts:
Media contacts:
Amanda Robinson, Toronto
416-867-3996
amanda.robinson@bmo.com
Sarah Bensadoun, Montreal
514-877-8224
sarah.bensadoun@bmo.com
Laurie Grant, Vancouver
604-665-7596
laurie.grant@bmo.com
SOURCE: BMO Financial Group and BMO Bank of Montreal and BMO InvestorLine