Using Mutual Funds That Match Your Personal Needs

By Adriana Noton

A mutual fund is a collection of a wide number of stock and bond combinations held by individuals that are entrusted to a mutual fund company. The manager of the mutual fund will develop the mutual fund with the purpose of making a certain investment objective.

Mutual funds are popular because they are low risk and they can be chosen to one's personal needs.

Mutual funds are a diversified investment which makes them less of an investment risk. Mutual funds can follow diverse investment areas such a specific industry area. There are general industry areas as well as new and innovative type of investment funds such as mutual funds that only invest in environmentally conscious industries.

An important feature of a mutual fund is that one gains immediate access to hundreds of individual stocks or bonds, thereby drastically decreasing one's exposure to high risk volatility in the market. As well, to meet one's personal needs, a mutual fund is available in a number of types. These types include: money market mutual funds, stock funds, balanced funds, sector funds, and much more. The various types of funds allow people to build a diverse portfolio based on their personal needs.

Another benefit of mutual funds is that it does not require a significant amount of money to invest in a mutual fund. One can make regular investments in a mutual fund for little as about $50.00 a month. One can arrange to have a direct deposit made into their fund from their bank account once a month. As well, if one needs extra money, they can make a withdrawal from the mutual fund into their bank account. The flexibility and convenience make this form of investment popular with a broad range of consumers. Mutual fund holdings are available for public viewing so one can keep track of their investment.

Normally you will have to pay a tax on the money you make from the mutual fund. Although, if you hold your mutual funds in a registered plan, you will not pay any income tax on the money until you make a withdrawal.

For those who do not have the knowledge or time to research and analyze stocks and bonds in order to build a low risk portfolio, mutual funds are a great choice. As well, one can take their earnings and have them reinvested into other mutual funds without hassle or expense.

For ones personal needs, mutual funds provide a wide variety of investments that will allow you to choose investments that you are comfortable with so that you do have to worry. You have the ability to buy the type of mutual fund that you want and you can include low risk investments with a few high risk ones. You can invest at any phase of life, that is, young, middle age, and old. Because there are so many funds to select, you will find one that meets your particular needs.

A mutual is a safe method of investment for those who want to earn extra money for retirement or any other future expense that requires a significant amount of money. - 23218

About the Author:

When you're deciding to buy a house, some of the factors that you have to take into account are mortgage rates. As mortgage rates are important for home-buyers, GIC rates are important for investors. If you're interested in a customized financial plan, remember to visit us.

Talk To Your Lender About Saving Your Home from Foreclosure

By Doc Schmyz

When your home is on the verge of foreclosure, you certainly will do anything possible to save it. But the problem is how you will do it. The first thing, among many, is going to your lender and asking for help

Yet for others, contacting the lender at the first sign of financial problems seems to be not such a good idea. It may be because they are embarrassed to discuss money issues to others or they simply don't see the need to inform their lender right away of their present financial standing , most of the time they are thinking it is a temporary problem. But the fact is, asking for your lender's help will save you a lot of trouble and it will help you save your home.

Most people have the perception that lenders, like banks, think only of themselves and don't care about the future of the borrowers. This leads to the common notion that lenders show no mercy to homeowners who have defaulted on payments and will take the homes when the very first window of opportunity opens. The truth is lenders like owners will do everything they can to avoid home foreclosures. So again, the best way to save your home is to work with your lender to solve the problem.

Lenders will send a Notice of Default if you miss payments for 3 consecutive months. Call your lender as soon as possible. Inform them why you have defaulted on a payment and ask for an alternative payment schedule or temporary lower rates until your finances have returned to normal. You can also ask for Forbearance which is where your lender waives some of the penalty fees as a result of default or a mortgage refinance without going through the process of re-application, whichever you think is more economical. Mortgage lenders are more than willing to help you to avoid repossessing your home.

The rule of the thumb is: Talk to your lender, inform them the cause of your delay, and ask for payment alternatives. DO NOT WAIT!!! Act fast. Understand the gravity of the situation and do something about it. It is your obligation to pay your mortgage but when worst comes to worst, your lender wants to help you keep your home. - 23218

About the Author:

Doc Schmyz has invested all over the US and Canada. He built a free website shares Real estate investing information for all over the US. Find real estate information by state

Real Estate Investing For Long Term.

By Doc Schmyz

News flash: Real estate is in a downturn. Prices are dropping. Does this mean that you should get out of Real Estate investing? No this is actually the BEST TIME to increase your property portfolio. When you are buy property it does not really matter whether the market is up or down unless you are trying to do a fast turn over. If you are holding for the long term then you have to deal with the market fluctuations with an inevitable upward trend at some point. If you can buy at the lower end of the cycle that is the best time to buy of course.

Now that the market is experiencing a downturn it is a great time to be buying. Just look at the foreclosure lists. You have a massive inventory to choose from and most are at below market value. Go for positive cash flow whenever you can. In other words make sure your rental income equals or exceeds your outgoing including mortgage repayments. If you have other income you may be able to stand an extra $100 or more per month to top off the mortgage but try to avoid it.

If the property market is rising you can be confident that the value of your investment is increasing. That is where your profit is and you should be able to sell if necessary. However, that was a few years ago when the market was more positive but now the reality is that the market has dropped and you need to be able to hold long term without any worries. It may take a few years before we hit healthy real estate selling conditions again, let alone a property boom.

Focus on positive cash flow and steadily increasing returns. This is a long term game. Property investing is a business. You need a decent return on investment and you need the rental return to cover or nearly cover the new mortgage expense.

Taking the current market woes in to consideration, the fact that now is a great time to buy and hold for the long term, goes without saying. Due diligence is the key for the next few years. Now is the time to look at buying for long term gains. - 23218

About the Author:

Doc Schmyz has invested all over the US and Mexico. He built a free website shares Real estate investing information for all over the US. Find real estate information by state

What Is A Pip In Forex? (Part II)

By Ahmad Hassam

The results must be converted to dollars using the current exchange rate between the quote currency and the US Dollar in order to obtain the dollar value of the pip if the quote currency is anything other than US Dollar. Here are a few examples:

Example No 1: Lets take the currency pair USD/JPY. JPY is the quote currency here. Using our formula: Pip value for 1 standard lot of USD/JPY= 100,000 (Lot Size)*1(No of Lots)*0.01(Pip Size) = 1000.

If your account is in US Dollar, you need to convert this pip value into US Dollar. The quote currency is in Yen, so the value of 1 pip on a standard lot is also in Yen. The broker will calculate the pip value in US Dollar for you automatically if you instruct the broker to do so.

You should understand that until you instruct the broker to exchange currencies into your own currency, your profit and loss will stay in that currency you made a profit or loss in. So instruct your forex broker that you need your profit and loss statements in US Dollar. However, lets try to learn to do these calculations ourselves as well.

Suppose the USD/JPY rate is 101.02. In order to make the conversion to USD, you need the USD/JPY exchange rate. So the exchange rate is 101.02. The Dollar pip value will be 1000/101.02= $ 9.89. Therefore, 1 pip is equal to $ 9.89 in the case of USD/JPY for a standard lot at the exchange rate of 101.02.

Second Example: Now consider the currency pair EUR/GBP. It is a cross currency pair. Meaning it does not involve USD on any side. Any currency pair that does not have USD in it is known as the cross currency pair. Some cross currency pairs are very important. The base currency in the currency pair EUR/GBP is Euro and the quote currency is British Pound.

Pip value for a standard lot of EUR/GBP= 100,000 (Lot Size)*1 (Number of Lots)*0.0001(Pip Size) = 10. Here, the quote currency is in British Pounds, hence the value of pip is also in Pounds.

You need the GBP/USD exchange rate in order to convert into USD. Suppose the GBP/USD exchange rate is 1.8465. Dollar pip value will be 10*1.8465=$18.46. This means that the pip value will keep on changing depending on the currency pair exchange rate.

Third Example: The base currency is Euro in the currency pair EUR/USD. The quote currency is in USD so you wont have to make any conversions. Pip value on a standard lot=100,000(Lot Size)*1(Number of Lots)*0.0001(Pip Size) = $10 per pip.

Leverage does not affect the pip value. It should be kept in mind that while the lot size, amount of lots traded and the specific currency pair traded will certainly affect the pip value, the leverage chosen by the trader whether it is 50:1, 400:1 or somewhere in between, has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the pip value.

The exchange rate for any currency pair is expressed in the form of bid/ask. For example the EUR/USD exchange rate might be 0.9955/0.9959. The first number is the bid price that you will get if you sell Euros against US Dollar. The second number is the ask price, the price at which the broker will sell you Euros against US Dollar.

Spread is also an important concept that you need to know. The difference between the bid and ask price is known as the spread. Spread is the brokers profit. Sometimes there can be slippage also. New traders often think that the difference between the price they see on their charts and the price the broker quotes them is slippage. This is wrong. Your charting software and broker prices are two different things. - 23218

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try These 1500 Pips A Day Forex Signals From Heaven. Know Forex Rebellion!

Forex Trading System Course - Potential Money Maker

By Mark Walters

You may have heard about the exciting money making opportunity that is foreign currency trading, but it's tough to know where to start. A forex trading system course can be a way to get your foot in the door. Without having a proper understanding of what the foreign currency market is, and how it works, you risk losing everything that you invest.

When you want to get into forex trading, it helps to first understand what essentially forex is. "Foreign currency trading" is a bit of a vague description, so I'll give you an example. Every time a holidaymaker travels to another country and exchanges money, they are trading foreign currencies. This is a small scale example, but it's one that everyone can relate to.

The exchange rates of currency are always changing. One day you might be able to exchange 100 USD for 60 Euros, and the day after those 60 Euros might be worth 110 USD. Alternatively, they could be worth less - maybe only 80 USD. Though, the value of one currency against another very rarely fluctuates that much in a day, this example nicely highlights the potential of forex trading.

Forex is a great market to make money because the trading is non-stop and a lot more money changes hands than in other markets as much as $1.5 trillion daily (compared to the New York Stock Exchange, which only does around $25 billion). It can seem overwhelming at first to take all the figures and rules in, which is exactly why you should sign up for a forex trading course before investing your own money in the forex market.

There are a lot of things to take in when it comes to learning your way around forex. You need to understand how the market operates, the different types of software involved, and most of all, you need to learn discipline and how to keep your head.

You can either take on-line courses or go to a location that offers hands-on training for your forex trading system course. There are literally hundreds of course providers out there that can get you started in forex trading for a small fee.

Unfortunately, some of them are straight-up scams and they will charge you way too much and provide almost no information on successful forex strategies. So, be sure to check the credentials of both the institution offering the course and the instructors, make sure that they're coming from a successful forex background. - 23218

About the Author:

Got the idea of how you can make money from different currencies? For more information on how you can have a forex trading system course work to your advantage, take a look at http://www.compareforexproducts.com