Showing posts with label Finance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Finance. Show all posts

Thursday, September 27, 2007

StockScouter - Quantitative but Intelligent Analysis : Business Intelligence applied to Stocks

StockScouter takes Data Analysis with Gradient Analytics and adds intellectual facets to pick top 10(top 50) stock picks.

These stock picks assure you a gain of around 25% by following a sure buy and sure sell strategy having duration of six months.
Means, you just need to buy the top picked stocks, hold them for 6 months period, and sell it.
That easy. and You will be getting on an average 25% return. That can triple the amount invested along the 6 years.

You can decide your budget, and divide it between the stock picks and purchase them, hold the stocks for six months and sell at the end. The only thing is that you have to have faith and courage to do it at the given time. Sometimes, you may find that stocks are rewarding you and you start loving them. But, then stick to the StockScouter picks and its strategy.

If you want to find out why StockScouter strategy should work and what are the current picks, read the complete story here.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Need for Building Residual Income

it's important for you to take control of your finances. Implement a stream of money that your household budget hasn't already consumed. Building residual income in alternative ways is a great way to start this.
Residual income is income that is generated from somewhere other than your primary source of income. Residual income occurs after the effort to generate the income has already occurred, such as purchasing real estate for rental properties. Purchasing the rental property is the event that has occurred to generate the residual income, which is the actual rent that is being paid to you for use of your rental property. And it didn't even take away from your day job!
Be sure not to confuse residual income with linear income, a term that is often used in conjunction in general discussion. Linear income is generally classified as income that can be calculated using a numerical formula; it is directly related to the number of hours that are invested in creating the income. Having a day job lined up usually qualifies as having a linear source of income; having rental properties as well as a day job qualifies as having residual income as well, or multiple streams of income. This is a good thing!
Building residual income is one of the best things you can do to ensure financial security for not only yourself, but your family and generations to come. It's a way to make sure that, even though the primary source of income may dry up due to illness, lack of work or other issues, money is still streaming into the household. It is income that occurs outside of your primary employment, hence the word "residual".
Building residual income does not always involve work though. There are many ways of doing it, it's really just a matter of how quickly you would like this extra income generated. Stocks and bonds are a source of residual income, as is a savings account that you earn interest on. Normal savings accounts don't usually have an interest rate worth mentioning as a source of residual income, but it certainly is a start!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Investing in Gold Coins

When you have a child, or even before you do, start collecting gold coins. When your child grows up, cash them in to send your high school graduate to the University of their choice. Your child can do the same for your grandchild. Collecting gold coins can make something special for your family. It can make your family special. Even rich and famous. Can it be done? Has it been done? Well, do you recognize any of these family names?
If you have heard of the Adams family, or the Brand family, or the Dupont family, or the Royal Farouk family, or the Garrett family, or the Green family, or the Hopkins family, or the Hunt family, or the JP Morgan family, or the Onassis family, or the Rothchild family then there is a good reason why. They built their fortunes from collecting gold coins.
Take for instance Mayer Amschel Rothschild. He worked in a coin shop, which made the way for the Rothschild's destiny as the richest family in the world. Because it is there that he learned the value of collecting gold coins. That is how he made his fortune. That is how he was able to open a bunch of banks.
People were getting so outrageously rich from gold coins that the government just had to step in and take them away. And the gold bullion and gold certificates too! If you owned them you were an outlaw. If you didn't turn them in you had to go to jail for ten years and pay twice the value of your gold plus ten thousand dollars on top of that. Thanks to the gold confiscation of April 5th 1933 by the Executive Order 6102 of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the government had to build Fort Knox to hold its enormous collection of gold!
The people of our land of opportunity have been denied this most lucrative investment for forty-one years until... the last day of December 1974. That is when President Gerald R. Ford signed the bill authorizing private ownership of gold. Happy days are here again! Gold is legal again!

Friday, September 7, 2007

Cash Flow - A bird's eye view

Cash flow planning is projecting your future cash inflows from sales, services, and loans, and comparing them to your future cash needs (suppliers, salaries/wages, loan payments, taxes, etc.). The difference between the two is your net cash flow.
Why is cash flow planning so important? Cash flow planning can help you identify problems down the road, and fix them before they occur. It can also help you make decisions such as should I attend that conference I’ve wanted to attend, should I buy the new computer I’ve been wanting, or do I need to work extra hard this month to avoid a cash deficiency next month?
The first step in planning your cash flow is knowing where you spend your money! Solo entrepreneurs need to have a good grip on both their personal and business spending, as most solo entrepreneurs rely on their business income to meet personal finance goals (i.e., pay the bills!). So, you should track both your personal and your business spending, although I recommend that you keep them separate (that’s a topic all by itself).
What’s the best way to track your spending? You can use pen & paper, spreadsheets or a software program. The best method for you is the method that you will actually use on a regular basis.
You should project your spending for at least the next 12 months so that you include annual and other periodic expenses. If you are experiencing a cash flow crisis, you should track & project your cash flow on a weekly basis, instead of monthly.
If you are an existing business, you can project your cash flow for the next year by reviewing your expenses for last year. If you are a new business, you will need to estimate your start up costs in addition to regular operating expenses.
Start up costs include inventory, legal expenses, advertising, licenses & permits, supplies, and many more costs that you may not have thought of. To research startup costs you should contact your local Small Business Development Center, contact a SCORE counselor, join groups of similar business owners, and read as many books or articles you can find on the subject.
To improve your cash flow, you should:
1. Complete the first 3 steps. You have to understand cash flow planning, track your cash flow, and project your future spending needs before you can improve your cash flow.
2. Create best and worst case scenarios and create appropriate responses to both scenarios. For example, if your best case scenario is to increase sales by 50%, how will you use the profits? Will you put the profits back into the company by investing in new equipment, training, etc.? If your worst case scenario is a drop in sales by 50%, how will you continue to cover your monthly expenses? By planning for the best and worst case scenarios, you’ll be ready for any situation.
3. When estimating your future income, realize that some people will pay late, and account for that fact in your projection.
4. Charge what you’re worth. Many businesses, especially service professionals, under-charge when they are first starting out. This is a great way to go out of business. Make sure you are charging what you’re worth, and remember you’re in business to make money, not to give your expertise away for free.
5. Watch your business spending. Focus on the value the item brings to your business, and avoid lavish spending (i.e., do you really need the fastest, newest computer available?).
6. Don’t hire until necessary. Consider using virtual assistants or temporary employees before hiring permanent employees.
7. Give incentives for early payment for products and services. On the flip side, chase down invoices the minute they’re late. Charge interest or late fees to encourage timely payments.
8. Update your projection regularly. Your cash flow plan will change frequently as your business grows. You may want to update it weekly when you first get started, then switch to monthly once you’ve got a good handle on your cash.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Thinking Like a Financial Planner

Even if you do not think you are a financial planner, you better start thinking like one fast. In the United States, there is an approximate of 5.6 million people who are either self-made millionaires or financially independent. And what is so hard to believe about that statistic, you ask? This is because that is only about 5% of the American population.
The remaining 95% of the American population (we're talking about 106.4 million people here!) are not only not rich, but most of them are facing financial disasters, either owing to poor financial planning or foolish spending!. This is why you should start thinking like a financial planner. Financial planning is not so complicated, and it can make a huge difference in your life.
As the saying goes, "failing to plan is planning to fail". Much of the same can be said if you do not plan your finances well, it does not matter if you are a high earner, you still need financial planner skills, to keep you form harms way and to ensure that your life will be financially secured.
The fact of the matter is that financial planning Is Not An Option, most of us need to think ahead today, and you should practice your financial planner skills right away to enjoy the money you make today in the future.
The basics of financial planning is to keep all your finance in order, this is very basic advice, alright. However, more often than not, we would rather concentrate on other things in life such as health, studies, work and more.
Think about the things you want to achieve in life, and how you are going to get there, financial planner always set his goals and puts some order in his thought before starting to actually put the wheels in motion. Financial planning can include buying a house, paying for your children education and thinking about a retirement fund.
Financial planning will help you use your current pay check and your saving to start working on a program that will give you peace of mind on the financial level, a financial planner will plan a budget according to every household’s expenditure budgeted and a savings plan drawn up, this will help you spend your money wisely and effectively.
A financial planner will consider having savings invested in an investment vehicle that pays higher returns than the normal bank account, it will add in some muscle to your savings and help you reach your financial goals in a shorter period of time.
By starting your retirement planning now (not later!), you can gauge how much money you will need to maintain your current lifestyle and where this money will come from. Many people, especially those who have just started working, always put their retirement planning on the back burner for reasons such as “I just started work” and “Oh, I am still young”.
Many, however, fail to realize that by starting early to save for retirement, you will be able to save and invest more due to the magic of “compounding interest”, provided that you invest your savings wisely. Maybe you do not have to wait until the age of 65 to retire. For all you know, by the age of 40, you might have already reached your financial independence and do not have to worry about getting up early to clock in or work until late hours because there are deadlines to meet.

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Monday, August 6, 2007

Does Debt Consolidation Service Work?

If you have applied for a credit card, which you got it the following month. You involved yourself into equity speculation and you lost big. You applied for more credit cards and you are just paying the minimum sum each and every month. The interest is killing you and you are in an absolute financial mess. Well, from a personal financial management point of view, individuals are experiencing these are facing bankruptcy.
However, there is this miraculous solution that has been showed on TV as well as on papers that seems so convincingly that this is your only chance. Well, it can be a chance as well as a bottomless pit. Do you think a finance company is going to you solve your problem for charity. Needless to say, nobody in the right mind is going to lend you such a hand without some tradeoff involved. Because by putting your leg into this solution, although it holistically centralized your debts into one single debt, it does cost some money, which is substantial enough to make you way poorer than, you already are. Why let someone manage your debts for a price.
Debt consolidation solution offered by finance company may not really work, as it is just another service to earn your money, thus making you a few thousand of dollars poorer. However, you can actually try to take a loan from banks or finance company by mortgaging your house as a form of collateral for paying off the other miscellaneous debts that incur comparatively high interest. This is just one way, which you can take and not paying any consolidating planning as well as solution that even a kid would probably understand.
Well, if you do not have a house, approach your creditor to work out a way to repay your debt. Chances are, they are going to work it out with you, because it is just not cost effective for them to issue that letter of demand through lawyers, which could cost more than the money, you owe them.
As you can see, there are many other alternatives that you can actually take instead of debt consolidation service. But the most prudent thing to note is never get yourself in such mess. Take debt consolidation as a form of last resort.

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Thursday, August 2, 2007

Could A Family Live On A Single Income Source?

Many families dream of having one parent stay at home to raise the kids. The idyllic picture of having mom (or dad) home, taking care of the kids, cooking great meals, keeping a beautiful home, is hard to resist.

It's also incredibly difficult financially.

However, in many cases it can be done. And with practice the sacrifices you make may not seem so bad. You will probably take fewer vacations, and they'll be simpler. You will probably eat out less often. You will probably buy fewer things. If you and your family can live with that, you will probably be able to cope.

Provided that you can make the remaining income stretch to cover your necessities. You need to look at this to make an informed decision. Here are some steps to take.

1. Collect 3 months' worth of pay stubs from the person whose income your family will be relying on. Use this to calculate your average monthly income.

2. Collect 3 months' worth of bills. If you like, you can separate this into more or less fixed bills, which are things such as rent/mortgage payments, water bills, electrical bills and so forth, versus other expenses such as groceries. In any case you need an average of what you are paying out every month.

3. Subtract your average monthly expenses from the average monthly single income. Will it work?

If not, don't despair. There are often areas you can cut. When you have two incomes it is easy to spend more than you absolutely have to.

You can start with monthly bills. Do you really need cable television? What about having both cell phones and landline phones? Perhaps your family could get by with just one or the other.

Now look at the other things you spend money on monthly, but don't come in the form of bills. Can you cut that grocery bill down? Do you tend to buy more clothing or new electronic gadgets you don't need? What bad shopping habits do you have? Can you give up Starbucks?

Try to work out a budget that will work with the money you would have as a single income family. Then before you are actually a single income family, try living on it. Put the extra into savings. It makes a nice cushion for if things don't work out and for when those extra bills that you really can't plan for hit.

It takes time to learn to live on a single income. It is very possible for many families. It takes planning, both in terms of finances and in terms of what is expected from each person, but it is highly doable. And having the ability to have one parent there for the kids is just a delight.

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Sunday, July 29, 2007

Smart Money Drives the Financial Markets

A speech from a former syndicate trader, Tom. Would like to watch more videos of this person. That provided awesome knowledge piece on trading and investing.

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