Tips to Save Money

There are some shocking statistics about the state of the economy today and the amount of debt that people have accumulated. All this goes to show just how important it is to save money and here are five top tips for saving and a little debt help for those that need it.

1. Review you mortgage facility

A home is generally the most expensive purchase you are ever likely to make and therefore your monthly mortgage payments can represent a significant slice of your monthly income. It is therefore imperative that you try to find the best possible loan available and there are plenty of deals to choose from with banks and building societies competing with each other for your business. By shopping around you could find a lower interest rate, which would result in major savings.

2. Rid yourself of credit card debt

Credit cards may be convenient and it is easy to get lulled into the offers of six months interest free deals but the reality is that credit cards are very often a more expensive option than a low cost loan. If you are failing to clear your balance each month then it's not unusual to be paying in excess of 15% interest, which adds up to a large amount very quickly.

3. Reduce your utility bills

Water, gas and electricity bills seem to be rising each year but there are an increasing number of new companies entering the market and offering lower prices than the regular suppliers that have dominated the market for so long. By researching online you could easily save hundreds of pounds a year by switching to a lower cost supplier.

4. Combine your communications

Nowadays almost every home in Britain will have an internet connection, as well as a standard landline for the telephone and any number of mobile phones. A lot of telecommunications suppliers are now offering all these services, along with offers of free calls and texts. These companies are also encouraging customers to use them for all these elements and are offering substantial discounts for those signing up. This is another way to reduce costs and save money.

5. Use Price Comparison Sites

Price comparison sites are bigger than ever these days, as can be seen by the number of them advertising on the TV. They offer you the chance to compare the prices of thousands of products and services, from car insurance to holidays and a huge variety of retail products. You will be surprised by how often the difference in price varies, especially when purchasing online as opposed to in the major high street stores.

So if you're looking to reduce your monthly expenditure and save some of your hard earned cash, then follow these five simple steps and you will be amazed at how much you could save, which will not only give you peace of mind in an uncertain world but allow you to treat yourselves to those little luxuries every once in a while.

from Investment News, Investment Strategies, Investment Opportunities - Feed http://www.quantitativeinvestmentgroup.com/tips-to-save-money/

Strength of Dollar

As we all know that Forex is a biggest trading platform, which bound the complete market into one big global platform where countries from all around the world participate in the currency exchange hub through variety of trading modes with one common goal of acquiring best returns on investment.

With the vastness of the Forex market deliberately comes up variety of problems and even the small and the larger troubles have the force to influence the currencies and the entire market in few moments.

There are not just few factors that influence the market but there are list of issues, which shake the market taking it from the minor incidence of the bad weather or natural calamity to the biggest issue of political instability.

Because USD enjoys the position of funding currency so all the other countries trade fluctuates with the fluctuation in the USD as it is considered as the reference point for other countries and also all other nations look forward to USD in times of raising funds.

Interest Rates: Let s see how the interest rates effect the USD position at the forex trading platform. Interest rates influence the market generally in three ways.

• Interest Rate Hike: Increase in interest rates is profitable for the investors because this would strengthen the USD position in the market however, as far as the long-term investments are concerned the law of interest rate parity says that the currency valuations and rates should move in opposite directions and vice-versa. All the things at the Forex market are interlinked to each other in such manner that variation in one brings variations in other either directly or indirectly.

• Interest Rates of other countries: Without considering much about the US interest rates rise and drop the USD value depends on the way the USD manages to mound up to those of other nations. Like if the interest rates of USD declines then the investors may move to invest in other currencies rather then sticking to the USD for getting better returns on their investment.

• Interest Rates news and data releases: All the traders wish to be one step ahead of the investment this is the reason whenever ant news related to the interest rate increment or drop is released, USD value changes in reaction to the impending inflow or outflow of investments that are estimated to happen in the coming Forex sessions.

Therefore, it is not a matter of surprise if the value of USD changes sudden because there always exist some or other reason behind the variations. This is just a one factor discussed here but there are numerous that would be discussed in coming times. Until then stay connected to make Forex trades.

from Investment News, Investment Strategies, Investment Opportunities - Feed http://www.quantitativeinvestmentgroup.com/strength-of-dollar/

Backtesting Forex Trading Strategies

The back testing process is the method of evaluating the plus and minuses of other strategy, theory or model by utilizing its past data. It can be used to any kind of data that requires analysis and prediction of the upcoming trends based on the historical events in that regard. It can be applied in situation like analyzing the performance of particular method in the past stock trends, weather reports and forex market.

Thus, it can be applied to any type of events that includes numerical figures to sketch the charts and trends depending on the past trend moves or activity of that method or strategy to figure out the positive and negative effects of any method.

The main point to use back testing is that it gives an opportunity to make an overview about some other methodology or application way to derive some more positive outcomes. That means, what are the possible ways in which a certain method can be applied to pull out better outcome from the same strategy. It is the most common methodology that is used to replicate the situations of the time in question with intention to acquire accurate outcome.

This also indicates that things are ever changing and is not necessary that what you have applied today would work in other circumstances as well. There are certain things that the new traders must keep in mind to avoid the failures of applying back testing in the Forex. They must consider that type of data they are using at the Forex that indicates about the indicative prices of the currency pairs playing crucial at the trading platform.

The Forex spread offer the broker is offering you on the selected currency pair, next comes the margin price offered by the broker, determining the limits that broker had placed for you and your own trading limits as well. This is certainly the most important question because the thin line between accomplishment and breakdown can be determined through details.

• You can discover about the minutes of the Forex out through experience usually the most pricey way if not done through the Forex demo;

• You should ask your broker the cheapest and best possible way to trade at Forex.

Thus, back testing helps to determine the best trading strategy out of others by analyzing the historical trade activities at the Forex trading platform.

Some traders find it more appropriate to use forward testing rather than the back testing as it enables to determine about the future trading outcomes with reference to that particular trading situations.

from Investment News, Investment Strategies, Investment Opportunities - Feed http://www.quantitativeinvestmentgroup.com/backtesting-forex-trading-strategies/

Real Estate Investing Through Stock Market

Real estate is a great strategy for the investor who is willing to make the time to learn about the options, risks, and potential rewards for this type of investment process.Investing through a Real Estate Investment Trust is the quickest way to get started.

"Real estate can be a very lucrative investment at any age, but usually requires a huge time commitment and lots of cash — or very good credit — to get started. For busy millennials with less cash to spare, a real estate investment trust (REIT) may be an easier place to start. REITs are a good option for diversifying an investment portfolio, as they represent an entirely different asset class than stocks and bonds.

An REIT will provide exposure to the real-estate market without the time and cost commitment of buying a property to either manage or fix up and sell. Equity REITs, the most common type of REIT, allow investors to pool their money to fund the purchase, development, and management of income-producing commercial real estate. A typical REIT focuses on a specific type of real estate, such as apartment complexes, hospitals, hotels, or malls.

When the REIT collects rental income from its properties, at least 90% of those earnings are returned to the investors as dividends, which are then taxed as ordinary income. You can invest in REITs either in the public market or the private market." Read more...

Other common real estate investments are the following:

1) Rental property.

Property ordinarily gains value over time unlike many other investments that may rise and fall quickly and without warning. The problem is that far too few people can actually afford to hold and maintain multiple properties over an extended and indefinite period of time while waiting for the value to rise. Many property investors manage to overcome this by renting the properties to tenants during the time when the property values are rising. This allows the tenants to essentially cover the note on the property and makes the venture a little less risky though there are risks involved when dealing with tenants (such as property damage, failure to pay the rent, and possible legal woes-the good tenants generally outweigh the bad).

2) Pre-construction investment.

This is a highly speculative and very risky sort of property investment that has booms and busts. Many investors recently discovered exactly how risky this endeavor actually is when the property 'bubble' went bust so to speak. The risks involved in this type of investment should not cover up the fact that many millionaires have been created through pre-construction investing and many more will be created in the future. Pre-construction investing, just as its name implies is a type of investment in which investors purchase 'options' on the property before ground is broken. This is very popular in high demand areas that are known to experience housing shortages as prices often rise quickly and the units are often sold before they are completed and any 'real' money exchanges hands.

3) Flipping houses.

This is a type of property investment that has made leaps and bounds in the last few years thanks to the popularity of many popular home improvement and house flipping shows on cable networks in the last few years. More and more people have decided to pursue this sort of investment in hopes of creating big profits in a short amount of time and with minimal investment. The problem, of course, is that it always looks much easier on television than it is in person. Couple this with the fact that many people have unrealistic expectations when it comes to costs and ability and there are plenty of risks involved with this type of investment as well. For those who are successful however, there is the potential for great profit in a relatively short amount of time as these televisions shows indicate.

4) Buy and hold.

As mentioned above, real estate tends to gain value over time. Even if the buildings are in desperate need of TLC and repair the very land they are standing on is more often than not gaining value as the years pass by. Purchasing large lots of land or even several houses and holding on to them for as long as possible before selling can often fund college educations for children, pay for weddings, or greatly supplement retirement funds. The longer these properties are held the better in most cases as this provides the greatest opportunity for the value of the property to increase.

5) Lease options.

There are few people in this world who never experience rough spots financially. Many of these people are denied traditional home loans because of their inability to cover debts properly in the past. For this reason they are often willing to pay for the privilege of rebuilding their credit while working towards a path of home ownership. For these people, a lease option presents a workable and often valued solution. Those investors who are willing to take the risks often find the rewards are well worth those risks.

These are only some of the investment opportunities that exist for those who are interested in real estate for an investment avenue. There are commercial real estate endeavors that have the potential to bring in big profits as well as the development and planning of housing communities as well. Needless to say real estate investing offers many opportunities to the savvy investor.

from Investment News, Investment Strategies, Investment Opportunities - Feed http://www.quantitativeinvestmentgroup.com/real-estate-investing-through-stock-market/

Non-Farm Payroll Report

All the traders have their unique trading mechanism and strategies either developed on their own or through the Forex online brokers where they are having their trade accounts. To serve this motive hey need to constantly observe the economic indicators to recognize trends through Forex analysis that would lay down economic growth.

The common indicators on which traders rely upon are Consumer Price Index, Housing Index and the Gross Domestic Product along with the reports associated with the employment. Out of all these indicators, employment reports comprises of array of figures and statistics concerning the employment information of the Forex market.

This indicates that the data releases and the reports related to any part of the Forex market is refer to as trading platform that helps trader to make assessment of the possible trends and thereby strategize their techniques to hit the competition the Forex trading platform and come up as a successful trader.

There are some traders in the market who just make decisions of buying and selling the required financial asset on the basis of such data releases at the market and gradually they attain so much of expertise in it that they can even evaluate the trend lines of the coming session without consulting the Forex indicators or other economic indicators but such experts are rarely observed at the market.

There are reports related to the payroll data are also released, it is the data of great concern that need thorough analysis and out off all the payroll data non-farm payroll data is very significant and denotes the total number of paid US workers of any business, keeping beside the information about the general government employees of US, employees of the non-profit organizations, private household employees and the workers that work as a an assistance to an individual and the employees of farm.

The traders closely analyze these reports and also conduct comparative study of the present and past data to identify the economic growth and inflation moves in the country.

The extent of the influence of these reports can be easily depicted through the difference between the actual non-farm figures and the estimated figures of the data releases and this would give full information about the effect of the data on the forex trades and that influence would ultimately influence the consumer response towards market.

If there is expansion in the non-farm payroll, it is a positive indication of the economic growth and exactly opposite situation if the condition reverses. Here, it should be considered that the expansion should not be fast because if it so then there will be obvious hike in the inflation of the country as well that would not be good from consumer s point of view.

At Forex trading platform, the actual non-farm payroll and the estimates of the payroll are considered very significantly and if the actual data is found to be lower than the economists estimates and under such conditions the traders generally sell off the USD in expectation of weakening of the currency in the coming trades and vice-versa.

from Investment News, Investment Strategies, Investment Opportunities - Feed http://www.quantitativeinvestmentgroup.com/non-farm-payroll-report/

Save Money Live Better

To save money and live better is not an easy task,

"Nearly everyone wants to save more money for retirement, but no matter how much you're earning, it's not easy. Roughly a quarter of American households earning $150,000 per year or more are living paycheck to paycheck, a survey from Nielsen Global Consumer Insights found. A third of households earning between $50,000 and $100,000 per year are also struggling financially, as well as approximately half of those earning less than $50,000.

Part of the reason saving is so hard may be that you don't feel like you have enough cash left over after paying all your bills. But it's also possible you may be struggling because your saving strategies are working against you. By doing any of these three things, you may be hurting your savings more than you think.

When money is tight and you're trying to save for the future, it's tempting to put all your spare cash straight toward your retirement fund. Congratulations for realizing the importance of saving now to reap the rewards later.

However, if you don't also have a solid emergency fund, you could unintentionally be putting those savings in jeopardy. Without an emergency fund, when an unexpected expense pops up -- whether your car breaks down, you lose your job, or your kid breaks an arm -- you'll have no choice but to pull the money from your retirement savings.

While establishing an emergency fund means you can't save as much for retirement in the short term, it ensures your savings can remain untouched so it can grow faster. Thanks to the power of compound interest, the longer your money is left alone, the more it will grow. If you're repeatedly withdrawing from your retirement account every time you're faced with an unexpected cost, it will only hurt your savings over the long run."

Read more ...

However, with some efforts, saving for retirement is achievable, even at an early age.

"Three years ago, I made a deal with myself: I wanted to have $100,000 saved when I'm 25. But I didn't mind if it didn't happen until the day before my 26th birthday.

About a year ago, I reviewed my rate of savings and investments and realized that although I haven't made more than $80,000 a year for the past three years, I was on track to save $100,000. With only a car loan away from being debt-free, I've got another year and $10,000 to go!

I want to acknowledge that privilege is a key part of my story. I'm white, I come from a middle-class family, and I was able to graduate college without any debt. All these things helped a great deal. I owe my interest in saving money to my parents, who made sure I had a strong financial education at a young age.

I've been fortunate. But it also takes a lot of hard work, sacrifice, and responsibility to save and maximize your earnings. Knowing that I'll be prepared for whatever life throws my way fuels my drive to keep making smart financial decisions. Here's how I'm getting to $100,000.

This kick-started my journey towards six figures. In addition to saving the majority of my 9-5 salary, my first year of freelance social media marketing made me quite a bit of cash that I could immediately save. I was able to establish both a SEP IRA and a fully funded emergency fund with my earnings."

Read more ...

Once you manage to save some money, you should compound it by using a high-interest money market account,

"If you have money in savings, or are working to boost your savings balances, it's important to choose the right account. Among savings accounts, money market accounts can offer even better interest rates than regular savings.

Here are five good uses for a high-interest money market account that you may want to consider.

The average interest rate in the US is currently around 0.10% — yes, that's one-tenth of 1%. At some of the biggest banks in the country, the rate is as low as 0.01%. You can't get any closer to zero without adding a new digit! That interest rate is really, really low.

On the other hand, high-yield accounts currently pay around 2% or more, which is as much as 200 times as much as the lowest-paying accounts. If you are retired and want to keep a lot of cash on hand, a high-yield account is perfect because it will give you the maximum return on your cash with the lowest possible risk.

In his book " I Will Teach You To Be Rich," author Ramit Sethi showed an example of how you can save for a wedding, travel, and other future expenses automatically using multiple savings accounts. If you open an account for each unique goal, you can create automatic transfers every payday that will move the funds without your having to remember or lift a finger.

When you put the money into dedicated high-yield money market savings accounts, you are less tempted to use the funds for anything else. And like other use cases, you get the best interest rates while keeping your money very safe.

My wife's family made their living in real estate, and now we are interested in adding real estate to our investment portfolio. But unlike a stock or ETF, I can't buy a rental property with a few thousand dollars. We need to save up a bigger down payment to make our real estate plans come true.

We have a good start on the down payment for a second property, but we are not there yet. In the meantime, our funds are sitting in a high-yield money market account at Capital One Bank earning us a little something in the meantime."

Read more...

 

 

 

from Investment News, Investment Strategies, Investment Opportunities - Feed http://www.quantitativeinvestmentgroup.com/save-money-live-better/

Bollinger Band Trading Strategy

John Bollinger created a tool to analyze prices in currency pairs. This tool he created in the 1980's would come to be eventually known as the Bollinger bands. To understand how they work and how you can use it in technical analysis of a Forex market currency pair, it is useful to know a little about moving averages. A moving average, also known as a rolling average used with a sequence of best fit price points measured at successive uniform time intervals, will show you the short-term fluctuations and longer-term trends or cycles in a currency pair. You may wonder to what end or with what objective, well the moving average will chart a smoother curve based on previous price points making it easier for you as a trader to spot a change in the trend of the currency pair, and confirm support and resistance levels of the currency pair at a given time when used in conjunction with other tools and indicators.

Also since moving averages are only computed at specific intervals, they are immune to price spikes that the Forex is known for, hence the smooth curve. The types of moving averages most commonly used in the Forex market by analysts is the simple moving average (SMA) and the exponential moving average (EMA). Right, so with Bollinger bands you have your middle graph set to plot using a moving average of typically 20 or 50 closed price levels. Notice there a no units for the interval as this depends on what kind of trader you are for instance a 'scalper' or intraday trader will be interested in 20 previous price points within the hour as opposed to a long term trader who may use 20 weeks or even 20 months.

In addition to the middle graph you will have 2 more graphs that trace beside the MA20 graph at 2 standard deviations, above and below it to form what is known as the 'envelope'; you should know that these are arbitrary figures and you are free to choose your own deviations and moving average to use for the bands but 20 SMA is normally recommended for beginning technical analysts.

So now that we know what they are and how they work, how can we use them in analysis? One thing to remember is that Bollinger bands like all other tools are not absolute, because they can only give you the best buy and the best sell signals of a currency pair based on relative information and indicators at a particular time with all things constant; the decision to buy or to sell would still require your better judgment in the interpretation of the information that the bands would illustrate. The lower Bollinger band often (not always) provides price level support while the upper Bollinger band provides price level resistance. As much as Bollinger himself categorically stated that if the price level of the currency pair tags or exceeds any of the deviated bands, it does not indicate a buy/sell signal, millions of traders in the Forex market do not adhere to his doctrine.

Try it for yourself by placing a Bollinger band envelope of a EUR/USD chart and watch the price levels shift as they approach the lower or upper graphs, what you want to look for is the closing low/highs of the candle sticks immediately preceding the one that breaks either the upper or lower bands.

In conclusion, as a simple strategy you can monitor the price levels as they approach the upper and lower bands, and wait for them to breakout. When this happens they will usually retrace back and 'range' ; and depending on the previous candlestick when the break from the Bollinger band envelope occurred and the ranging begun (that is whether the candle stick's open and close levels are lower than the previous candle stick), you can consider that an alert that a major price shift is about to occur. It will be up to you to then decide whether to take a position.

from Investment News, Investment Strategies, Investment Opportunities - Feed http://www.quantitativeinvestmentgroup.com/bollinger-band-trading-strategy/

Every type of insurance has a monthly payment called a premium, and how much you pay depends on how risky you are

In order to keep your car, home, apartment, or health insured, you need to pay your monthly premium.

An insurance premium is a monthly or annual payment made to an insurance company that keeps your policy active. Health insurance, life insurance, auto insurance, disability insurance, homeowners insurance, and renters insurance all require the policyholder to pay a premium to continue receiving coverage.

Unless you're buying term life insurance, which locks in a monthly rate for the full policy term, your premium amount usually isn't set in stone. Most policies last for six months or a year, at which point the insurance company will reevaluate your risk and may change your rate.

While some factors that determine your premium are within your control, including the number of claims you file, many factors — like your age and location — are not. During the underwriting process, the insurance company will evaluate your current risk and set a premium amount and the policy will be activated upon your first payment.

Car insurance premiums

Car insurance premiums are incredibly variable. In addition to being determined by your age, driving history, and location, your premium can go up or down if you're involved in any car accidents or are cited for any traffic violations, like speeding, according to insurance-comparison site Policygenius.

Read more

from Investment News, Investment Strategies, Investment Opportunities - Feed http://www.quantitativeinvestmentgroup.com/every-type-of-insurance-has-a-monthly-payment-called-a-premium-and-how-much-you-pay-depends-on-how-risky-you-are/

How to Make Money with Forex

Before you can make your very first trade on the foreign exchange market, you have to know a little bit about Forex trading basics. This is important because in the market, 10% of investors will win the remaining 90% of investor's money. If you do not want to loose money, then you must know the basics.

For starters, you have to realize that the foreign exchange markets operate 24 hours a day, 6 days a week. Every major country has their own market which is why this occurs. The value of the currency pairs is dependent upon a number of factors, but in most cases it can be attributed to supply and demand. When more people want a particular currency, then the value of that currency increases. Knowing when to trade and what to trade will obviously take some experience, but eventually you will be able to consistently make winning trades.

In making an actual trade, you are trading in currency pairs; one currency for another. However, if you trade US Dollars for British Pounds, you cannot simply go out and trade those pounds for another currency. Think of it more like purchasing a share of the currency. If you trade the Dollar and Pound, you will eventually have to trade them again to get rid of your share. The concept is known as currency pairs and when you purchase a pair, you will eventually have to sell it; for a profit or loss.

You have the currency which is being purchased, as well as the currency that is making the purchase. The currency you are purchasing is the second in the pair. You goal as an investor is to purchase a currency in which the value of the pair being purchased increases over the value of the currency making the purchase. If it does increase, then you make a profit, minus any fees. However, if it does not increase then you make a loss including the fees.

In the end though, the most important thing anyone needs to become truly profitable with regards to the foreign exchange markets, is experience. You will loose money while building this experience. But eventually you can make those losses back if you stick at it and continue trading, while making sure you are also learning. If you work hard to develop the necessary experience and take every opportunity you can to learn as much as possible about the currency markets and investing in them, you will build the necessary experience and knowledge to become profitable on the markets and make money with Forex Trading.

from Investment News, Investment Strategies, Investment Opportunities - Feed http://www.quantitativeinvestmentgroup.com/how-to-make-money-with-forex/