Archive for April, 2009

Apr
18

Why you should take out more insurance, not less
For most people, talking about life insurance sounds almost as fun as eating rotten fish. And while ignoring it can compound a family tragedy by turning it into a financial nightmare, more and more people are doing just that. A recent survey by the nonprofit LIFE Foundation found that one in four Americans would consider canceling their life insurance policy in order to save money during the recession.

Before making that kind of drastic decision, consider these seven insurance mistakes you’re probably making—and you might decide to buy more insurance, not less. Read more…

Apr
18

It turns out millionaires are just like us–but they have a lot more money. When asked about their secrets to success, they don’t cite anything magical or rare, but rather the steady application of wise investing strategies, hard work, and, believe it or not, a degree of frugality. Here are 10 secrets of millionaires’ money management:

Start early to avoid financial pitfalls. Adrian Cartwood, 49, author of the blog How to Make 7 Million in 7 Years, made his fortune by living frugally while he built his technology-related business. People often get into trouble, he says, by racking up personal debt early on, which acts as a big drag on their earnings. “Learn how to live within your means and how to delay gratification; these are the habits that you need to maintain on the way up, so you can keep your millions when you get there,” he says. Read more…

Apr
15

Technical analysis is the study of stock prices and pricing patterns that can help investors determine whether a stock is overbought (expensive) or oversold (cheap). By using various technical indicators together, called correlation, traders can bring the “big picture” about a stock into clearer focus.

Here we’ll look at volume, the Aroon indicator and Fibonacci numbers, three technical analysis tools that can be used to help facilitate more profitable trades. In fact, investors can use them in conjunction with each other to spot emerging trends and stay ahead of the crowd. Read on to find out how. Read more…

Apr
15

Warren Buffett hasn’t just seen the car of the future, he’s sitting in the driver’s seat. Why he’s banking on an obscure Chinese electric car company and a CEO who — no joke — drinks his own battery fluid. Warren Buffett is famous for his rules of investing: When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is usually the reputation of the business that remains intact. You should invest in a business that even a fool can run, because someday a fool will. And perhaps most famously, never invest in a business you cannot understand.

So when Buffett’s friend and longtime partner in Berkshire Hathaway, Charlie Munger, suggested early last year that they invest in BYD, an obscure Chinese battery, mobile phone, and electric car company, one might have predicted Buffett would cite rule No. 3 above. He is, after all, a man who shunned the booming U.S. tech industry during the 1990s. Read more…

Apr
14

People’s emotions lead them to make bad financial moves in chaotic times. Here’s what to look out for. In a chaotic bear market like this one, it’s easy for investors to fall into traps. They might scramble to make trades based on the latest news reports. They might search for a miracle stock that will pay off big and let them recoup all their losses. Or they might go in the other direction — and get so scared of the market that they don’t make any moves at all. Read more…

Apr
09

Suddenly, cash is king again. With more and more Americans worried about their job security, the personal savings rate has climbed to 3.6%, up from next to nothing two years ago. Investors, meanwhile, have parked billions of dollars on the sidelines while they wait for better days. But with interest rates on savings near record lows, it pays to be savvy about where you stockpile your rainy-day funds. Here’s what you should keep in mind. Read more…

Apr
08

Those trading in the foreign-exchange market (forex) rely on the same two basic forms of analysis that are used in the stock market: fundamental analysis and technical analysis. The uses of technical analysis in forex are much the same: price is assumed to reflect all news, and the charts are the objects of analysis. But unlike companies, countries have no balance sheets, so how can fundamental analysis be conducted on a currency? Read more…