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Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.
The age of tying the internet to your TV is getting closer. Google introduced the Chromecast this week. It’s now the cheapest plug and play streaming TV device available. It also allows you to control your TV directly from your smart phone, notepad, notebook, or desktop. Continue Reading…
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Emerging markets ETFs and index funds are high risk, high reward investments. They certainly haven’t been kind to investors lately. But it doesn’t have to be, if you understand the risks. While most are thinking its time to cut and run, it might be a reason to buy.
There are three ways to invest in emerging markets: buy stock in a local company doing business overseas, you can buy a foreign company through its ADR or American Depositary Receipt, or you can buy a diversified emerging markets ETF or index fund.
You won’t find developed countries in these funds. Rather, emerging market economies are going through major industrial growth. Think of it as their own Industrial Revolution. New businesses are growing, infrastructure is being built, education levels are rising, and these countries are in the process of growing a middle class that brings higher wages and discretionary spending. Continue Reading…
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There are many different investment strategies to choose from. Growth investing is one of the more popular ones. It’s the most obvious strategy based on its goals. You guessed it…growth, specifically, growing companies. It follows that growing companies tend to outperform the market, but not every growing company qualifies.
A growth investing strategy looks for companies with consistent, above average earnings and revenue growth. In turn, growth investors are willing to pay a premium for a stock now, because they believe the company will grow faster in the future. This leaves growth companies with a higher P/E ratio. Basically, growth investors are willing to pay a higher price (P) now, for long-term future earnings growth. Continue Reading…
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Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.
This was inevitable. Detroit filed for bankruptcy yesterday, making it the largest municipal bankruptcy to date. I’m sure the local news organizations will have a field day with this one. You can expect to see a lot of “Is (insert city name) next?” kind of stuff. It’s already happening in Chicago. Just give it time if it hasn’t started in your area. Continue Reading…
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We’re drawn to the idea of a safe investments because nobody likes to lose money. Over the past few years investors have turned to bonds, income stocks, and gold for safety. It paid off until now, because safe investments don’t last forever.
Where safety is concerned, the term safe investments is an oxymoron. They don’t exist. There are safer investments, though, and for a small window of time they pay off. To find them, it helps to dig into those old safe investments we’ve heard about the past few years and find out why each is no longer safe. To do that, you need to understand the risks and why investors were buying it. Continue Reading…
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Investing is full of ways to make money. Yet, despite what you may have heard, there are no safe investments. Anything you put your money into has risks. Whether its stocks, bonds, real estate, a business, and even your savings account, it pays to understand the different types of investment risk involved in anything before putting your money to work.
Investment risk is simply the possibility of real losses. It’s often confused with volatility, which is the daily swings in asset prices. While those swings can be unnerving at times, the concern is when prices swing down and stay down. This is because of one or more types of investment risks covered below has become a reality. Continue Reading…