Investing Is For Everyone, Here's What You Need To Know

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

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Social security isn’t going to run out, but its numbers fluctuate and there’s no telling how much it will pay for retirement. It only brings in about 75 percent of what it’s intended to pay out each year, which could leave you with less than you’re hoping for. 

That’s why you need a well-rounded and diversified investment portfolio regardless if your income is low or high. The following lists the various types of investment opportunities available to you, and the importance of using an investment management company to help you ensure long-term success.

Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual Funds

Stocks and Bonds are not similar. Stocks allow you to buy your way into company ownership. Bonds allow you to lend your money out and receive interest and the eventual repayment of capital. Mutual funds combine both stocks and bonds and they’re managed by third-parties. It’s important to choose an investment management company that understands risk. For example, Shailesh Dash, named one of Forbes’ “Top Indian Leaders” in 2015, uses “Fundamental Analysis to Identify Value.”

Analysis is everything, and it’s going to ensure that outcomes are fully researched. This ensures a successful long-term return with fewer risks. Not all management companies are created equal, and not all are so homed in on risk and reward. Even if you’re only investing in your 401k, it’s important to research your management company to ensure they’re doing all they can to protect and grow your money. 

Real Estate 

Home ownership is important, but mortgage debt can hold you back in life. The secret to successful real estate investing is to not live outside your means, and don’t mortgage yourself to death. If you’re considering purchasing your first home, you may want to own a duplex. Live in one side and rent out the other; or, continue to rent and rent out both properties.

Here are a few more ways to invest in real estate that is growing to be a profitable market:

• Senior and disability-friendly apartments/homes.

• Off-campus homes for students.

• Off-base military housing.

• Low-income and halfway houses.

On his LinkedIn page, Shailesh Dash recommends that you utilize a qualified management company to evaluate and optimize your real estate portfolio. This is a good advice, because it minimizes risk and maximizes reward. You’ll receive a “Full Spectrum of Debt Management… including Acquisition Finance, Debt Restructuring, Strategic Debt Financing, and Coordination of Bank Syndicates.” As well as your assets will be evaluated, your transactions structured, and more.

Alternative Investments

Alternative investments are any investments that don’t fall into the traditional category of stocks, bonds, and cash. Real estate is considered an alternative investment, but it deserved its own space on this page, because it’s one of the best ways for lower income individuals to build wealth. Other examples of alternative investments include wine, art, precious metals, hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital. 

If you're interested in reliable investments for retirement, certain collections are always a great choice. For example, silver and gold are two things you can always buy low and sell high. The secret is to know when to buy and when to sell. Don’t just buy silver now because you have some extra money; instead, place that money into a savings account and wait for silver to go down. Luckily, there are lots of places online that monitor the prices of silver and gold and can help you make a good decision of when and where to buy.

As far as investing, it’s never too late to start. But, the earlier you start the better. No matter where you are in life (in college, in debt post college, or middle-aged), investing in your future can only help you. Talk to a money manager now, and you can start putting away what you need to have a carefree retirement. 

Looking forward to your comments.

*by andreascy*

Why Silver Should Be Part of Your Portfolio

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

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You have heard the debate over silver. One side says buy silver as a hedge against inflation and a protection of your assets in the event of a financial crash. The other side says that silver has no real value because it is just a metal that sits around collecting dust – i.e., you cannot use it to buy a loaf of bread. So which side is right? Is it smart to buy silver or not?

Every successful investor knows that the foundation of success is diversification. In other words, you do not put all your investment eggs in one basket. If you do, you are risking losing everything. Diversification reduces risk by putting your money in multiple vehicles that are likely to react differently to market forces.

The question of whether to add silver to your portfolio or not is based partly on the idea of diversification. But not just diversification as a means of protection. Diversification can also be a means of growth as well. That growth potential is why you should buy silver.

Find a Good Ratio

Before explaining how diversification can produce growth, talking about finding a good ratio is appropriate. The ratio of silver to the rest of your investments is a question a lot of inexperienced metal buyers struggle with. The general rule is to base silver on the amount of money you have in bonds and annuities. The ratio is 10 to 1. Every dollar in silver should be offset by $10 in bonds and annuities.

What if you do not have bonds or annuities? What if you only have stock holdings? The 10 to 1 ratio still works, but you will have to find something that makes you comfortable. The thing to understand is that your silver holdings should be a significantly smaller allocation that provides security over quick returns.

Moving on to growth, do not be fooled by the current illusion that investment in silver is short-term only. That thinking is based on the annual cycle gold and silver tend to follow. That cycle dictates that silver peaks in April, falls between May and June, stabilizes in July, and begins to pick up again in December. The cycle has little to do with long-term silver holdings.

Using Silver to Fund Growth

Silver and other precious metals are commonly promoted as a hedge against inflation. That is absolutely true. But that brings us back to the argument that you cannot use silver to buy a loaf of bread. To have any real value, you have to buy silver at a lower price and then sell at a higher price so that you have cash to purchase what you need. Therein lies the secret of using silver to produce growth.

Right now, we are seeing a concerted effort by central banks to devalue currency. Why? Because they are trying to spur positive inflation. Remember that inflation can be both good and bad. It is bad when income does not keep pace; it is good when it encourages economic activity by giving businesses more cash to work with.

There are three reasons central banks devalue currency as a way of producing good inflation. The first is to boost the value of exports. When a nation's currency falls, the cost of its exports to foreign markets also falls, making them more attractive to consumers. This increases demand, which then spurs growth at home.

The second reason is to reduce trade deficits. Increased exports occur alongside decreased imports when currency is devalued. Trade deficits begin to shrink in line with the balance of payments as a result. Once again, this encourages economic growth in the country where currency is being devalued.

Finally, currency is devalued in order to reduce the amount of interest nations pay on the money they borrow. This has less of an effect on stimulating the economy, but it does help some.

The point of all this is to say that if you buy silver at the same time currency is being devalued you are essentially getting in at the low point. The value of silver will only climb as currency goes lower and good inflation takes hold. Bear in mind that this is no short-term strategy. It takes several quarters of persistent currency devaluation to realize growth potential from precious metals like silver.

Selling Your Silver

Assuming you buy silver now to take advantage of currency devaluation, when and how do you sell it? That depends on how long you want to hold on to your investment. One way to look at it is to play silver and gold together. Their growth rates tend to rise and fall inversely.

You could buy silver now and then let it ride to the end of the year. Silver should peak somewhere between December and April of next year, at which point you could sell just enough to cover your profits while leaving the original amount in your portfolio. Take that profit and purchase gold instead. Ride the gold until the difference between the metals peaks, then take the profits from gold and put them back into silver as the difference corrects.

The Best Places to Buy Silver Online

 • Money Metals Exchange - https://www.moneymetals.com/buy/silver

 • JM Bullion - https://www.jmbullion.com/silver

This Year Might Be Different

The point of all the information provided here is to suggest that 2017 might be different compared to what silver has shown us the last couple of years. There are a number of strong signs that indicate silver is not going to sharply decline as it normally does. There is a reason companies like J.P. Morgan are aggressively increasing their silver holdings.

Silver could be on the verge of a big run-up thanks to global currency devaluation, improving European and American economies, and all the optimism displayed since the election of President Trump. There is no guarantee that silver will boom in 2017, but it is not likely to bust either.

Silver should be part of your portfolio because it affords growth opportunities. If you don't have any, there is no better time to buy silver than right now.

SIMILAR ARTICLE TO READ: Bitcoin Phenomenon: A Bright Future or a Growing Bubble?

For anyone who wants to connect with me, I'm on Twitter. Would love to hear from you!

*by andreascy*

Bitcoin Phenomenon: A Bright Future or a Growing Bubble?

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

Happy Mother's Day, everyone. "Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible" ~ Marion C. Garretty 

Wishing you some peace and serenity this coming week. As you must have noticed, I've been MIA (Missing In Action) for a while and that's because I've been busy with my team finishing another project we took on. Exciting things are happening! Want to know more? Subscribe for future updates. 

Now... Let's talk Bitcoin! Have you heard about it? Yes? No? Ok. 

The idea of Bitcoin was introduced by it's founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, the face behind the world's most successful digital currency, with transactions of nearly $500 million a day at its peak. The Bitcoin system is not controlled by any organizations and it's concept is hard to know. 

Satoshi launched a peer-to-peer payments system (kind of like BitTorrent) in 2009 with the goal that it would deliver a borderless digital cash without the supervision of any government, and no central info would follow the transactions. Bitcoin, a substitute currency that does not exist physically, has become the talk of the economic world as people lose faith within the monetary unit and other different traditional currencies (Euro, etc.). The digital currency created and utilized in the system is also known as virtual currency, electronic cash, or a crypto currency, as cryptography is employed to regulate it's creation and transfer. Bloomberg Businessweek calls it the "anarchist crypto-currency".

The strained rise-and-fall of Bitcoin has multitudinous stories explaining why the net virtual currency could also be a classic bubble. But the Bitcoin development is over a bubble, and it has risen to such high numbers, because it's an uncomfortable combination of commodity and currency. The commodity value of bitcoins is rooted in their currency value, but the more of a commodity they become, the less useful they are as a currency. Bitcoins have skyrocketed in value: back in 2010, one Bitcoin was worth four cents. In line with Mark T. Williams (Boston University, School of Management), Bitcoin is over seven times as volatile as gold and over eight times as volatile as the S&P 5 hundred.

One factor is enough to destroy the future of the worldwide economy. You’ll be ready to create the coin by "mining" it online. It takes somewhat advanced algorithmic computations on your system to do it, so the overall public is not obtaining yet any Bitcoins. 

You can pay with Bitcoins on sites like Pizza For Coins, which might take your Bitcoin payment, and place your order with Domino's Pizza (DPZ +0.10%). Bitcoin uses public-key cryptography, during which a public and a private cryptography secret is generated. Risk of stealing could be reduced by generating keys offline on associated uncompromised systems and saving them on external storage devices or paper printouts. 

Growth of Bitcoin funds is predefined by the Bitcoin protocol, and through this approach, inflation is restrained. Presently, there is a unit of over twelve million Bitcoins in circulation with an approximate creation rate of 25 Bitcoins every 10 minutes. The entire offer is capped at the arbitrary limit of 21,000,000, and in every four years the creation rate is halved. This means new Bitcoins will still be free for over one hundred years.

Bitcoins may be bought and sold out from individuals and companies for many totally different currencies. The fastest way to get Bitcoins is a local face-to-face cash transaction and wallet-to-wallet. Some investors, like Peter Thiel (Founders Fund) who invested US$3 million, did not purchase any Bitcoins but instead funded Bitcoin infrastructure, like Bitcoin exchanges, companies that supply Bitcoin payment systems to merchants, etc. Some other investors, in addition, invest in Bitcoin mining. Bitcoin ATMs allow Bitcoins to be purchased for cash, and they allow cash withdrawals from Bitcoin wallets on phones. 

Bitcoin payment fees as a unit of measurement are typically not up to those of credit cards or cash transfers. They are a hedge against almost all currencies. "The bitcoin bubble is about to wipe out some very gullible nerds" as tweeted by CNBC's John Carney. Another Twitter user delineates Bitcoins as 21st-century "tulip bulbs". Bitcoin detractors and supporters have urged that Bitcoin is gaining quality in countries with problem-plagued national currencies, as an effect of it that ought to be utilized to dodge expansion, capital controls, and global approvals. As an example, Bitcoins are used by some Argentineans’ as an alternate currency to be utilized to evade swelling, capital controls, and universal authorizations. 

Francois R. Velde, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve in Chicago, represented it as "an elegant implementation”. Economists Brad DeLong and Paul Krugman have found fault in Bitcoin, asking about why Bitcoins need to be a reasonably stable store of value or whether or not there is a floor on their price. Social scientist John Quiggin has criticized Bitcoin as the final refutation of the economical market hypothesis.

Bitcoins become connected with online criminal behavior and questionable cyber-criminals. Used to amend online transactions, Bitcoins are appropriated once dark web black markets are shut down by authorities. This association with criminal activities has stigmatized the currency and attracted the attention of financial regulators, legislative bodies, and enforcement agencies. Criminal activity involving Bitcoin has foremost been targeted on stealing the currency, concealment, the use of bonnets for mining, and conjointly the utilization of Bitcoins in exchange for ill-gotten things or services.

In Oct. 2013 the FBI (the primary law enforcement agency of United States Department of Justice) closed down the black market (for illegal drugs) and seized 144,000 Bitcoins, worth close to $28.5 million at currency exchange rates. Also in December a McAfee survey found that a ten-fold surge in the last quarter in the number of cyber attacks - significantly ransom-ware wherever data cannot be accessed until a payment is received - had been driven by rise of Bitcoin usage.

It seems clear that there are places where Bitcoin has the potential to cause some serious problems to the financial industry. I wonder if it will ever receive a critical mass of support from vendors/investors to reach the circulation levels of the world's major currencies. Although it is rough for Bitcoin right now as regulators are not sure what to do with it, i still believe it's here to stay (unless you turn off the Internet).

Update As Of 16th of June, 2017 

The most recent update on Bitcoin fortune's, comes only a day ago. It seems that the news is not all good as following an all-time highs over the past week, Bitcoin - alongside Ethereum - saw a dramatic fall of 25% on Thursday, leaving investors and blockchain enthusiasts puzzled. According to Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency exchange, Bitcoin price fell as low as $2079. This is quite a noticable drop, almost 30% compared to the record high $3,000 milestone reported last weekend. Since the steep slide, the renown digital currency stormed back, experiencing a rise, currently trading up at around $2500-$2540. Investors do feel the heat and are called upon to make important decisions as to whether they need to sell or buy. Still, it remains to be seen what the future holds as economists and financial experts hold contradicted views on the matter.

(Disclaimer: All information is provided for educational purposes only and should not be relied on for making any investment decisions.)

SEE ALSO: 7 Useful Pieces of Advice for Accounting Students

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*by andreascy*