Many first time investors think that they should invest all of their savings. This isn’t necessarily true. To determine how much money you should invest, you must first determine how much you actually can afford to invest, and what your financial goals are.
First, let’s take a look at how much money you can currently afford to invest. Do you have savings that you can use? If so, great! However, you don’t want to cut yourself short when you tie your money up in an investment. What were your savings originally for?
It is important to keep three to six months of living expenses in a readily accessible savings account – don’t invest that money! Don’t invest any money that you may need to lay your hands on in a hurry in the future.
So, begin by determining how much of your savings should remain in your savings account, and how much can be used for investments. Unless you have funds from another source, such as an inheritance that you’ve recently received, this will probably be all that you currently have to invest.
Next, determine how much you can add to your investments in the future. If you are employed, you will continue to receive an income, and you can plan to use a portion of that income to build your investment portfolio over time. Speak with a qualified financial planner to set up a budget and determine how much of your future income you will be able to invest.
With the help of a financial planner, you can be sure that you are not investing more than you should – or less than you should in order to reach your investment goals.
For many types of investments, a certain initial investment amount will be required. Hopefully, you’ve done your research, and you have found an investment that will prove to be sound. If this is the case, you probably already know what the required initial investment is.
If the money that you have available for investments does not meet the required initial investment, you may have to look at other investments. Never borrow money to invest, and never use money that you have not set aside for investing!
Come back again next week for more tips, tricks and techniques to help you live the champagne life on a beer budget.
Mahalo.
******************************************************************
Need to learn how to get and stay out of debt and live debt free?
Tips and techniques outlined in our ebook “Debt Free Living”.
For more information:
http://www.renspubhouse.com/debtfree/debtfree.html
******************************************************************
Are you sick and tired of making just enough money to survive?
Well then check out these Must Have Finance Tools
Personal Finance Tools - products that you can use to get your finances together and make money even in down times.
http://www.renspubhouse.com/finance.html
**********************************************************************
Monday, February 23, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Before You Invest, Stabilize Your Current Situation First!
The stock market is at a low point and that is a good time to get into the market if you are able. There are a lot of good values and the market has only one way to go and that is up. The long term trend shows that after a crash like the one we just had, the market rebounds to higher levels. For the long term investor these are good times.
However, before you consider investing in any type of market, you should really take a long hard look at your current situation. Investing in the future is a good thing, but clearing up bad or potentially bad situations in the present is more important.
Pull your credit report. You should do this once each year. It is important to know what is on your report, and to clear up any negative items on your credit report as soon as possible. If you’ve set aside $25,000 to invest, but you have $25,000 worth of bad credit, you are better off cleaning up the credit first!
Next, look at what you are paying out each month, and get rid of expenses that are not necessary. For instance, high interest credit cards are not necessary. Pay them off and get rid of them. If you have high interest outstanding loans, pay them off as well.
If nothing else, exchange the high interest credit card for one with lower interest and refinance high interest loans with loans that are lower interest. You may have to use some of your investment funds to take care of these matters, but in the long run, you will see that this is the wisest course of action.
Get yourself into good financial shape and then enhance your financial situation with sound investments.
It doesn’t make sense to start investing funds if your bank balance is always running low or if you are struggling to pay your monthly bills. Your investment dollars will be better spent to rectify adverse financial issues that affect you each day.
While you are in the process of clearing up your present financial situation, make it a point to educate yourself about the various types of investments.
This way, when you are in a financially sound situation, you will be armed with the knowledge that you need to make equally sound investments in your future.
Come back next week for more tips on living the Champagne Life on a Beer Budget. We're all in this together, and I'm pulling for you.
Mahalo.
******************************************************************
Need to learn how to get and stay out of debt and live debt free?
Tips and techniques outlined in our ebook “Debt Free Living”.
For more information:
http://www.renspubhouse.com/debtfree/debtfree.html
******************************************************************
Are you sick and tired of making just enough money to survive?
Well then check out these Must Have Finance Tools
Personal Finance Tools - products that you can use to get your finances together and make money even in down times.
http://www.renspubhouse.com/finance.html
**********************************************************************
However, before you consider investing in any type of market, you should really take a long hard look at your current situation. Investing in the future is a good thing, but clearing up bad or potentially bad situations in the present is more important.
Pull your credit report. You should do this once each year. It is important to know what is on your report, and to clear up any negative items on your credit report as soon as possible. If you’ve set aside $25,000 to invest, but you have $25,000 worth of bad credit, you are better off cleaning up the credit first!
Next, look at what you are paying out each month, and get rid of expenses that are not necessary. For instance, high interest credit cards are not necessary. Pay them off and get rid of them. If you have high interest outstanding loans, pay them off as well.
If nothing else, exchange the high interest credit card for one with lower interest and refinance high interest loans with loans that are lower interest. You may have to use some of your investment funds to take care of these matters, but in the long run, you will see that this is the wisest course of action.
Get yourself into good financial shape and then enhance your financial situation with sound investments.
It doesn’t make sense to start investing funds if your bank balance is always running low or if you are struggling to pay your monthly bills. Your investment dollars will be better spent to rectify adverse financial issues that affect you each day.
While you are in the process of clearing up your present financial situation, make it a point to educate yourself about the various types of investments.
This way, when you are in a financially sound situation, you will be armed with the knowledge that you need to make equally sound investments in your future.
Come back next week for more tips on living the Champagne Life on a Beer Budget. We're all in this together, and I'm pulling for you.
Mahalo.
******************************************************************
Need to learn how to get and stay out of debt and live debt free?
Tips and techniques outlined in our ebook “Debt Free Living”.
For more information:
http://www.renspubhouse.com/debtfree/debtfree.html
******************************************************************
Are you sick and tired of making just enough money to survive?
Well then check out these Must Have Finance Tools
Personal Finance Tools - products that you can use to get your finances together and make money even in down times.
http://www.renspubhouse.com/finance.html
**********************************************************************
Sunday, February 8, 2009
What is Wrong With Our Financial Press
It's the end of the world! Repent now or be lost forever! We will never see good times again!
Sayings from religious nuts? Rantings of a lunatic? No just the popular press on TV and in print creating another crisis. It's as if someone turned a switch and now,according to them, we are forever damned.
Why the “Doom and Gloom”? Because it sells newspapers and TV shows that's why.
Amazingly the TV people tell us we don't want to hear “happy stories”, just about who is being bad and
that we are having a crisis. How do they know? They never try the other way, except during the “soft news” portions about cute puppies and kittens. Why don't they focus more on success stories and the good that is happening in the world? Because they don't really know what is going on, they are just repeating feeds and wires passed to them. Hey it's easier than actually working eh? Besides it helps spread the gospel of “group think” and they all want to be good drones.
The main reason for this of course is the narcissistic nature of the society these days. (Of course it is easy to blame it all on the baby boomers, but the younger generations are even worse. Proof you say? Well just look at MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, etc. and see the “Look At Me” nature of all the posts and whining). So everyone wants to think that this is the worst ever because that means we are now part of history. Guess what, it's not, and the press knows it, but it doesn't sell ad space to admit that.
The exception of course is sports reporting where today's stuff have to be the “Best Ever”, even though they don't take into consideration the advances in technology and money issues etc. Yes, instant gratification for dummies.
But I regress.
Are times bad? Yes.
Have they been like this before? Definitely.
Will good times ever return? Of course.
When? In the next few years.
What is happening is called “A Business Cycle”. Things go up and then come down, then back up, then back down, then.. well you get the picture. It has been happening since day one, the cavemen and cavewomen had it easy, they just migrated to better areas when things looked bleak in their environs, hence how the world got populated over time. Of course we can't do that enmasse, but we will adapt and things will turn better, and we will all be the stronger for it.
But the same people who have been predicting that “There Is No End In Sight For Good Times” are now predicting “No End In Sight For Bad Times”. And they claim to be professionals? Professional what? The these so called “Journalists” are only newsreaders picked because for their looks and personalities. It is disgusting that these idiots are even on the air or writing for newspapers and magazines. Worse are a lot of these special shows. There are some, to be fair, that are good and those few people actually know what they are talking about. You know who you are and who I mean. But the majority are just good at moving their lips and making coherent sounds come out in pleasant voices.
What should you do? Well if you are smart you would just ignore “Doom and Gloomers” like the New York Times, Washington Post, etc and most TV Talking Heads. You will be surprised at how things are actually not as bad as they seem if you observe readily what is going on.
Sure there are bad things happening, but it is not the end of the world (that comes on December 21, 2012 if the Mayans are to be believed, but that's another story for another post). But by keeping our heads and helping out one another, we will survive and be ready for the next uptick, which should be around the autumn I believe.
Be sure to stop by weekly for more tips, trick, techniques and observations on “Living the Champagne Life on a Beer Budget”.
Mahalo.
******************************************************************
Need to learn how to get and stay out of debt and live debt free?
Tips and techniques outlined in our ebook “Debt Free Living”.
For more information:
http://www.renspubhouse.com/debtfree/debtfree.html
******************************************************************
Are you sick and tired of making just enough money to survive?
Well then check out these Must Have Finance Tools For 2009
Personal Finance Tools - products that you can use to get your finances together and make money even in down times.
http://www.renspubhouse.com/finance.html
**********************************************************************
Sayings from religious nuts? Rantings of a lunatic? No just the popular press on TV and in print creating another crisis. It's as if someone turned a switch and now,according to them, we are forever damned.
Why the “Doom and Gloom”? Because it sells newspapers and TV shows that's why.
Amazingly the TV people tell us we don't want to hear “happy stories”, just about who is being bad and
that we are having a crisis. How do they know? They never try the other way, except during the “soft news” portions about cute puppies and kittens. Why don't they focus more on success stories and the good that is happening in the world? Because they don't really know what is going on, they are just repeating feeds and wires passed to them. Hey it's easier than actually working eh? Besides it helps spread the gospel of “group think” and they all want to be good drones.
The main reason for this of course is the narcissistic nature of the society these days. (Of course it is easy to blame it all on the baby boomers, but the younger generations are even worse. Proof you say? Well just look at MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, etc. and see the “Look At Me” nature of all the posts and whining). So everyone wants to think that this is the worst ever because that means we are now part of history. Guess what, it's not, and the press knows it, but it doesn't sell ad space to admit that.
The exception of course is sports reporting where today's stuff have to be the “Best Ever”, even though they don't take into consideration the advances in technology and money issues etc. Yes, instant gratification for dummies.
But I regress.
Are times bad? Yes.
Have they been like this before? Definitely.
Will good times ever return? Of course.
When? In the next few years.
What is happening is called “A Business Cycle”. Things go up and then come down, then back up, then back down, then.. well you get the picture. It has been happening since day one, the cavemen and cavewomen had it easy, they just migrated to better areas when things looked bleak in their environs, hence how the world got populated over time. Of course we can't do that enmasse, but we will adapt and things will turn better, and we will all be the stronger for it.
But the same people who have been predicting that “There Is No End In Sight For Good Times” are now predicting “No End In Sight For Bad Times”. And they claim to be professionals? Professional what? The these so called “Journalists” are only newsreaders picked because for their looks and personalities. It is disgusting that these idiots are even on the air or writing for newspapers and magazines. Worse are a lot of these special shows. There are some, to be fair, that are good and those few people actually know what they are talking about. You know who you are and who I mean. But the majority are just good at moving their lips and making coherent sounds come out in pleasant voices.
What should you do? Well if you are smart you would just ignore “Doom and Gloomers” like the New York Times, Washington Post, etc and most TV Talking Heads. You will be surprised at how things are actually not as bad as they seem if you observe readily what is going on.
Sure there are bad things happening, but it is not the end of the world (that comes on December 21, 2012 if the Mayans are to be believed, but that's another story for another post). But by keeping our heads and helping out one another, we will survive and be ready for the next uptick, which should be around the autumn I believe.
Be sure to stop by weekly for more tips, trick, techniques and observations on “Living the Champagne Life on a Beer Budget”.
Mahalo.
******************************************************************
Need to learn how to get and stay out of debt and live debt free?
Tips and techniques outlined in our ebook “Debt Free Living”.
For more information:
http://www.renspubhouse.com/debtfree/debtfree.html
******************************************************************
Are you sick and tired of making just enough money to survive?
Well then check out these Must Have Finance Tools For 2009
Personal Finance Tools - products that you can use to get your finances together and make money even in down times.
http://www.renspubhouse.com/finance.html
**********************************************************************
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