Where to Invest Money When the Sky Is Falling

Most of us know where to invest money in good times, but when it looks like the sky might be falling, knowing where to invest money and how to invest it becomes a puzzle. In 2014 and 2015 good investments might be hard to find, especially if yesterday’s good investments like stocks and bonds tank. This is not a prediction, but rather a “heads up.” You can’t prepare if you’re not aware, so let’s take a closer look at the sky.We all know that safe choices like money market funds and bank savings accounts don’t look like good investments for 2014 because they pay peanuts. But what if the sky starts falling: either interest rates ignite and/or the stock market tanks? Either way or both… where to invest money is the question of the day. Safe choices will look like good investments for parking money that must be safe.Wall Street’s traditional answer to where to invest money: put about 60% into stocks with about 40% in bonds holding a cash reserve on the sidelines. Problem: in 2014 and 2015 losses in stocks may not be offset by gains in bonds… as was the case for the last 30 years or so. If interest rates soar from today’s record-low levels, neither stocks nor bonds look like good investments.For over 30 years interest rates were falling and bonds were generally good investments. With today’s ridiculously low rates (created by our government to stimulate the economy) a rebound in interest rates is in the cards (as the government unwinds its stimulus). When that happens, bonds will no longer be where to invest money for higher interest income with relative safety. Bonds are NOT good investments when rates go up; they lose money. That’s the way it works. How to invest in bonds in 2014 and 2015 if rates take off: lighten up and opt for safety.Stocks had been very good investments five years running as the year 2014 began. This was at least in part due to government stimulus and cheap money. In a sense, stocks were where to invest money because nothing looked cheap except for money (short term interest rates were set at about one-tenth of one percent). With a gain of over 150% in five years, the downside risk in the stock market is mounting. This begs the question of how to invest money in stocks if the sky starts to look ominous.Remember that the stock market is actually a market of stocks, which means that the vast majority of stocks get hit when the market crumbles – but at least a few will be good investments. And the best way to find good investments in a bad market is to watch the price action. For example, as the market climbed 30% in 2013, some gold stocks were down about 50% by early 2014. If you don’t know how to invest in or how to pick a specific gold stock… you might want to know where to invest money to get a piece of this action. The answer is to invest money in gold funds and let them pick the gold stocks for you.The bottom line is that in 2014 and 2015 investors face an uphill battle, because both stocks and bonds look pricey. That presents a new challenge to today’s investor in search of where to invest money. We are facing uncharted waters in this modern electronic world, where no one really knows how to invest or where to find good investments for the future. This includes the big investors like life insurance companies and pension funds.My suggestion is to take some profits in your stocks and bonds, because the tide will turn eventually if not in 2014 or 2015. Then you’ll have a cash reserve, so you can take advantage of the situation as the skies darkens. Smart investors are always in search of where to invest money next, especially when a change of trend is in the cards. At such times, yesterday’s underperforming sectors or industries often become today’s good investments.

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How To Use Credit Card Wisely

Some agree that credit cards give us great convenience, others see credit cards as evil who ruined their life. I was almost “ruined” by credit cards before I gradually know how to use it wisely. I’ve been a terrible loser on credit card issues. Over limit fees, late fees bothered me almost every month. What I paid was less than the financial charges. I worked hard every day to found my debt growing larger and larger.Now my life is getting better and better as I learned how to manage credit cards. I know there are millions of people like me, who are struggling with credit card debt, and I really want to share all of my tips.For different people, there are different strategies regarding credit card usage.1. Before you apply for a credit card, think more about what kind of person you are.

If you are not a self-controlled person, if you spend whatever you have, DO NOT use credit card. Once you get a credit card, you will take the credit limit as part of your savings, and finally use it up. And that is the most terrible thing for a credit card user. Imagine if you have a credit card with credit limit of more than $10,000, it will take you years to pay it off. Creditors like to allure your interest by offering high credit limit. Some even offer 0% APR for the first year. If you get on the hook, and used up the limit, it will take you forever to free yourself.
If you are not an organized person, don’t apply for more than 3 credit cards. Managing multiple credit cards is much more difficult than you thought. One more credit card mean one more bill, one more deadline. You have to pay them all in time to avoid late fee. If you don’t carry a lot of balance, you may need pay attention to the grace period to avoid interest. If you carry a lot of balance, and paying interest is no longer a surprise to you, you have to worry about the available credits of each card, you don’t want to go over limit.
If you are not a careful person, only apply for popular credit cards that are well known to most people. Don’t apply for store credit cards, or credit cards offered by small creditors that you never heard of. Yes, you are protected by law, and they are not likely to cheat you. But in their membership agreements, there may be special rules like hidden charges, obligations or anything you don’t want. Most people won’t be careful enough to read through all these agreements before signing them.

2. Do all what to can to avoid feesFees are one of the major income streams of creditors. But if you are careful enough, you can get rid of these fees easily.

Adopt an automatic payment system to avoid late fees. A lot of checking accounts have the capability to send payment automatically to credit cards. I use Bank of America checking account, it can receive e-bills from credit card companies and pay either the minimum or full payment automatically before the due date (you can set how many days ahead).
Keep a record of available credits of different cards to avoid over limit fees. You can attach a sticker to each card, write down your available credit on the sticker, and update the number whenever you swipe the card. I use the portfolio feature in Bank of America’s online banking to keep track of all my credit cards.
If your card has a low or zero introductory APR, keep in mind the introductory period, and try your best to pay off the card before the period ends.
Some store credit cards, like Bestbuy store card, offer no payment within certain time of purchase. Remember to pay off the amount before that period ends. Otherwise you will have to pay a huge amount of default fees!
Think twice before you take cash out of your credit card. Credit card companies tend to encourage you to use the cash advance service by sending your checks, giving you an ATM PIN… But don’t do that unless you have no other choice, cash advance fee is very high.
Some credit card offers 0% balance transfer promotion, which is misleading. Sometimes 0% balance transfer is not equal to free balance transfer. The 0% here means balance transfer APR, but they still charge you balance transfer fee (around 3-4%). Well, some credit cards do offer real free balance transfer, you just need to be careful and verify before you transfer.

3. If you carry high balances on one or more cards, following tips may be helpful for you to eliminate your debt.

DO NOT file bankruptcy until the last minute! Bankruptcy is listed in the top 5 life-altering negative events that we can go through, along with divorce, severe illness, disability, and loss of a loved one. There are plenty of things that you can do to change the reality.
If you don’t have a strong determination, pay off your debt from the card with lowest balance. send a little more than minimum payments to all your credit cards, and pay the rest of free money to the card with lowest balance. Keep the process going, and you will see your situation getting better and better.
If you have strong faith, try the more efficient method: pay off debt from the card with highest interest rate. Send minimum payment to all credit cards, and use the rest of the free money to pay the card with highest interest. This process could be hard, because you may find your self dealing with same amount of cards for a long time. But this the the most efficient way: total interest is the lowest.
No matter which method you use, use up all the free money, your savings account’s interest rate is much lower than credit card’s. Just be sure you have enough money to survive…
If you are not self-controlled, cut or dump your card when you pay it off. Otherwise you will use it again, and all your previous efforts will be spoiled.

For more useful articles, please visit my blog [http://www.blogoferic.com/]

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So You Want To Make Money Online From Home Lets Get Started

It has become more popular for people to make money online from home. The reason why it has become so popular is because the work process is extremely simple.In fact, it is much simpler than the traditional employment process. However, it also can be very challenging. It is challenging in part because there are so many opportunities out there for you to make money online from home. However, most of those opportunities cost money to join.The best thing to do would be to look into the opportunities that do not cost anything. That way, you will have very little to lose as you take action.There are a lot of opportunities out there but you want to find the ones that are free or very inexpensive. Most of the free opportunities that exist online will require a membership site and some form of credit card or payment system to get started.There are so many opportunities that come with membership sites. In fact, you may not even need a membership site to make money online from home.One way that you can make money online from home is through online surveys. There are companies all over the world, that will pay you to take their surveys.You can do this by simply spending time taking surveys for these companies. The amount that you will make will vary depending on the amount of time that you put into the surveys. This is another way to make easy money online from home.Another way to make money online from home is through affiliate programs. Again, you will get paid for the time that you spend marketing a product or service.You will get paid through gift cards as well as money when your referrals make a purchase. With this method, it is important to understand how the program works and what you are signing up for.There are also websites where you will be able to sign up with an affiliate program.Another way to make money online from home is through managing Facebook ads. Facebook is a social networking website that has millions of members.The members of this website include people who you would have probably never even met in person. By managing Facebook ads, you will be able to connect with these people and drive traffic to your website.However, in order to manage Facebook ads effectively, it is important that you are familiar with how this program works. You should take the time to learn about how this program works and then use that information to your advantage.One other way to make money online from home is by becoming a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant is someone who helps out business owners in many different ways, including managing and running Facebook ads.This includes making sure that the ads are running efficiently, reaching the target audience that you are seeking, and more. While you will not be directly getting paid for this, your efforts will still be greatly appreciated by the business owner.In fact, you may find that you are actually offered a contract to work online from home in exchange for managing the Facebook ads of his business.If you want a simple and easy way to make money online from home, you should consider becoming one of the many virtual assistants that are available on the internet today.Virtual assistants do not get paid for performing any specific task; however, they do get paid for their skills. They are excellent at managing work schedules, answering phones, handling email accounts, preparing financial reports, writing SEO articles, writing press releases, setting up meetings, handling online surveys, etc.If you have skills that you think could make you an excellent virtual assistant, then you should definitely consider this side hustle.You can easily learn how to make money online from home if you take the time to research what’s available to you. There are plenty of opportunities to start up your own side business on the internet, so don’t let anything discourage you!Just keep in mind that it will take some time to learn how to make money online from home. Once you are more knowledgeable, you will be able to quickly take off and begin profiting from your new online business. The secret is to never give up!

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