How soon would you want to know if your investment advisor wasn't telling you about the three major investment types? If you've only heard of two - Variable and Fixed, then you may have a problem. Unfortunately, many investment advisors routinely fail to present all three types: Variable, Fixed, and Indexed as valid investment choices to their clients. This is normally because they are unable to offer all three options or they have a personal dislike for one or more of these investment types. So what is the difference in these investment types and what do the terms mean? The simplest answer is that these terms define how interest is earned on your investment. More specifically, it tells you how your money is invested and if your money is protected from market fluctuations. Let's take a look at these various investment options.
A Variable investment is one where your money is typically invested in stocks or mutual funds. The performance of these stocks or funds varies and is not guaranteed - hence the term "variable investment." Variable investments have many key benefits. They allow you to earn interest by investing in a single company (individual stock), multiple companies, or a specific segment of the market (mutual funds). You can even invest in an entire Index like the Dow Jones or S&P 500. Also, variable investments allow for the greatest return and historically have outpaced all other investment options. Sounds pretty good, right? It is, as long as you have the tolerance to lose money as well. The volatility of variable investments is a major concern for many investors. The "upside" or growth potential is nearly unlimited, unfortunately so is the "downside" or risk of losing money. One other adverse factor that Variable investments face is the cost. Most have either fees or loads associated with the underlying investments. These fees or loads can reduce the performance by as much as 3.5%, although 1-2% is more common. These fees or loads are applied even in down years so it is definitely something to consider.
If you have a 401k at work participate in it, and take maximum advantage of your employer's matching contribution if your company offers this feature (it's free money). Investing money here is automatic and almost painless. This is one of the best investment ideas available for accumulating a nest egg for retirement. Plus, the tax advantages will put a smile on your face each year at income-tax time. Open a Roth IRA with a major NO-LOAD mutual fund family and start investing money each month through their automatic investment plan. Enter "no-load funds" into a search engine and you'll see some of the biggest and best fund companies at the top of the page, names like Vanguard, Fidelity and T Rowe Price. Give them a toll-free call if you have questions - like do you qualify, how much can you invest a year, and will they send you free literature. A Roth IRA (or Roth 401k if available) is one of the very best investment ideas for accumulating money for retirement. A Roth account (IRA or 401k) is TAX FREE investing, as long as you follow the rules. Tax free is as good as it gets and difficult to find.
High yield investment programs really took off with the introduction of electronic currencies such as e-gold. The reason for this is that investors can buy their electronic funds immediately and start investing right away. Often, these e-currencies can be purchased at a great rate as well, making them doubly attractive to investors. Once an investor begins to earn, he or she can cash out any time and will be paid in e-currency, which is then traded in for a cash value. Electronic currencies really brought the HYIP world to the investment forefront because it made the programs even easier to follow and interact with.
Do all that you can to learn about investing money; and especially learn about stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Once you understand stocks and bonds, getting a handle on mutual funds is a piece of cake. What are the investment options inside your employer's 401k plan? The vast majority of them are likely mutual funds - mostly stock funds, bond funds, and/or balanced funds (that invest in both stocks and bonds). There will likely also be one or two safe investment options that pay interest: a money market funds and/or a stable account. Investing money successfully in 2014 and beyond could be very difficult due to today's investment environment. First, record low interest rates mean that safe investments that pay interest are paying close to nothing. Second, bonds and bond funds pay more interest, but when interest rates go back up to normal levels they WILL LOSE money; that's the way bonds and bond funds work. Third, stocks and stock funds are pricy, having gone up in value and price well over 100% since 2009. In other words, best investment ideas are few and far between.
Here's the best investment strategy in 2014 and beyond for beginners who want to start investing money for retirement and keep it simple. In a 401k and/or Roth IRA account invest (monthly or each payday) equal amounts into a stock fund, bond fund, and money market fund. If your 401k has a stable account option use this instead of the money market fund if it pays more interest. Mutual funds are always one of the best investment ideas for most investors - if you invest money in low-cost no-load funds. (Your 401k plan should have no loads, sales charges). When investing money for retirement in 2014 and 2015 keep three factors in mind. Two of these always apply: keep costs low and invest money across the board in all three fund types listed above. Your third factor is to give money market funds equal weight in 2014 and beyond for added safety. Normally, you would give them less weighting.
A Variable investment is one where your money is typically invested in stocks or mutual funds. The performance of these stocks or funds varies and is not guaranteed - hence the term "variable investment." Variable investments have many key benefits. They allow you to earn interest by investing in a single company (individual stock), multiple companies, or a specific segment of the market (mutual funds). You can even invest in an entire Index like the Dow Jones or S&P 500. Also, variable investments allow for the greatest return and historically have outpaced all other investment options. Sounds pretty good, right? It is, as long as you have the tolerance to lose money as well. The volatility of variable investments is a major concern for many investors. The "upside" or growth potential is nearly unlimited, unfortunately so is the "downside" or risk of losing money. One other adverse factor that Variable investments face is the cost. Most have either fees or loads associated with the underlying investments. These fees or loads can reduce the performance by as much as 3.5%, although 1-2% is more common. These fees or loads are applied even in down years so it is definitely something to consider.
If you have a 401k at work participate in it, and take maximum advantage of your employer's matching contribution if your company offers this feature (it's free money). Investing money here is automatic and almost painless. This is one of the best investment ideas available for accumulating a nest egg for retirement. Plus, the tax advantages will put a smile on your face each year at income-tax time. Open a Roth IRA with a major NO-LOAD mutual fund family and start investing money each month through their automatic investment plan. Enter "no-load funds" into a search engine and you'll see some of the biggest and best fund companies at the top of the page, names like Vanguard, Fidelity and T Rowe Price. Give them a toll-free call if you have questions - like do you qualify, how much can you invest a year, and will they send you free literature. A Roth IRA (or Roth 401k if available) is one of the very best investment ideas for accumulating money for retirement. A Roth account (IRA or 401k) is TAX FREE investing, as long as you follow the rules. Tax free is as good as it gets and difficult to find.
High yield investment programs really took off with the introduction of electronic currencies such as e-gold. The reason for this is that investors can buy their electronic funds immediately and start investing right away. Often, these e-currencies can be purchased at a great rate as well, making them doubly attractive to investors. Once an investor begins to earn, he or she can cash out any time and will be paid in e-currency, which is then traded in for a cash value. Electronic currencies really brought the HYIP world to the investment forefront because it made the programs even easier to follow and interact with.
Do all that you can to learn about investing money; and especially learn about stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Once you understand stocks and bonds, getting a handle on mutual funds is a piece of cake. What are the investment options inside your employer's 401k plan? The vast majority of them are likely mutual funds - mostly stock funds, bond funds, and/or balanced funds (that invest in both stocks and bonds). There will likely also be one or two safe investment options that pay interest: a money market funds and/or a stable account. Investing money successfully in 2014 and beyond could be very difficult due to today's investment environment. First, record low interest rates mean that safe investments that pay interest are paying close to nothing. Second, bonds and bond funds pay more interest, but when interest rates go back up to normal levels they WILL LOSE money; that's the way bonds and bond funds work. Third, stocks and stock funds are pricy, having gone up in value and price well over 100% since 2009. In other words, best investment ideas are few and far between.
Here's the best investment strategy in 2014 and beyond for beginners who want to start investing money for retirement and keep it simple. In a 401k and/or Roth IRA account invest (monthly or each payday) equal amounts into a stock fund, bond fund, and money market fund. If your 401k has a stable account option use this instead of the money market fund if it pays more interest. Mutual funds are always one of the best investment ideas for most investors - if you invest money in low-cost no-load funds. (Your 401k plan should have no loads, sales charges). When investing money for retirement in 2014 and 2015 keep three factors in mind. Two of these always apply: keep costs low and invest money across the board in all three fund types listed above. Your third factor is to give money market funds equal weight in 2014 and beyond for added safety. Normally, you would give them less weighting.
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Frank Miller has a Debt Consolidation Blog & Finance, these are some of the articles: Is The D3 Credit Card Processing Technology Strange You have full permission to reprint this article provided this box is kept unchanged.
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