How to Make Money Investing If Clueless

Would you rather make money by working the rest of your life or make money investing the dollars you have accumulated? As they say, you can either work for it, or you can make your money work for you. There is only one problem with the obvious answer here: most folks are somewhat clueless, and to make money without going to work you first need to learn to invest. Let’s get started.In order to make money investing over the long term your goal should be to make your money grow at a rate that at least outpaces inflation and taxes. Otherwise, you’re not getting ahead; you’re treading water at best. You must first understand that growth is the objective, and then you need to learn to invest money so you can put it to work. There is no secret formula to make money investing, but there is a shortcut if you really want to learn to invest, especially if you sometimes feel clueless.Here’s why people feel clueless: they don’t know what their choices are or what to look for when investing money. These are the basics, and until you understand them your odds are poor if you want to make money investing over the long term. Plus, you will likely never feel comfortable, especially if you’ve lost money in the past. It is very difficult to learn to invest piecemeal… picking up one nugget of information at a time. The pieces of the puzzle just won’t ever seem to fit together.So, here we start at the beginning, the ground floor. This is your shortcut if you want to learn to invest money with a firm foundation so that the pieces of the puzzle start to fit together and make sense. There are only four basic choices that any of us have, and if you want to make money investing over the long term you should get a handle on all four of them. Here they are in order of least risk (with lower profit potential) to higher risk (with greater profit potential): cash & savings, bonds, stocks, and alternative investments. That’s it.The first choice simply pays interest and features safety. Think of checking accounts, savings accounts, CDs, T-bills and money market funds. The second choice offers higher interest income with moderate risk. Here we have Treasury bonds, municipal, corporate, investment grade, junk and a multitude of other bonds as well as bond funds. If you want to make money investing without too much risk you should include both of these safer choices in your portfolio.Your third choice is stocks, your primary growth engine, and it obviously involves risk. You make money in stocks through price appreciation (rising stock prices) and from dividends. Here you find terms like blue-chips, high quality, low-priced, growth, growth and income, industrials, financial, high-tech and so on to describe them. You don’t really need to learn to invest in individual stocks; you can go with stock funds and let them do the stock picking for you. But if you are going to achieve growth, stocks can not be avoided.The fourth category of choices is growth oriented and risk can be significant as well. Some professionals in the financial services business ignore it or consider these alternative investments unnecessary. The list is long, but think: real estate, natural resources, gold, silver, oil, and other commodities like aluminum and copper. I feel that if you ignore these choices, you’re missing out on the opportunity to make money investing when the likes of stocks and bonds are out of favor. The good news: you don’t need to learn to invest in real estate, gold, oil and so on. Mutual funds are available that do the heavy work for you in all of these areas.Now you know your basic choices. The next step is to ask a few basic questions, and here are some questions you need to ask anytime you consider making a specific investment in any of the four basic areas. Ask about: liquidity, safety, income, growth potential, income taxes, and the costs involved. Ask yourself and then find the answers, or ask the person (like a financial planner) who is making a recommendation to you. Never ignore the costs involved. You are trying to make money investing. High costs only work against you.You can’t learn to invest money by reading one article, but you can get pointed in the right direction. That’s what I have tried to do here by starting at the beginning. Once you have a handle on the basics, it’s a whole lot easier to learn the rest. Don’t give up, and stay focused on your objective: to make money investing so you don’t need to work for the rest of your life.

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Your Guide to Selecting the Right Student Credit Cards

When your child goes off to college, many financial decisions must be made, but one consideration that is frequently forgotten is applying for student credit cards. The topic of selecting the best card for your college bound child is one that is often overlooked – and many parents wonder if they should co-sign on a card to ease the budget burden for housing, food and spending allowances, tuition, and books.Obtaining the best credit card for a college student, who is now considered an adult, can be very beneficial in building up the student’s credit score. In most cases, banks will issue a card to a student who is under the age of 18 only if the parent co-signs on the card. Once the student is over the age of 18, he can likely apply for – and receive – a card on his own.Various Advantages of Choosing the Best Student Credit CardThrough this process of establishing a good credit rating, the student would be able to obtain larger amounts of credit upon graduation, which might include a mortgage on a home or a new car. Being required to pay regularly teaches the student the responsibility of managing credit, an important lesson in today’s high credit society. The best student credit card will reinforce these values and help students learn to manage their resources constructively.In addition, students will learn to budget their money accordingly in order to pay the monthly bills and avoid credit card debt, and you as the parent can see if your child quickly establishes good spending habits and practices. If worse comes to worst, the low limit credit card balance can be paid off, and you can revoke your child’s spending privileges. Of course, in the best case scenario, your child uses the card responsibly, establishing an excellent credit rating at the same time.Other Lessons to Learn from a Credit CardMoreover, student credit cards can offer the student fraud or refund protection. This security net can help prevent a student from getting ripped off in Internet scams or by identity thieves who are eager to prey on a student’s vulnerability. Also, the best student credit card will offer extended warranty protection over and above the standard warranty that comes with the product that he buys.Student credit cards can serve as documentation of what your child is spending money on, making the card extremely helpful for tax purposes. The credit card, after a careful review from both of you, should, after all, be a learning process and a fun experience.Rewards and Benefits of Having a Credit CardMost student credit cards offer some type of rewards program, and the best student credit card rewards program will offer a cash-back incentive. By using charge cards, your child is actually receiving a cash savings, ranging from 1% to as high as 5% on certain purchases.Additionally, in case of an emergency, student credit cards serve as excellent sources of protection. Your child may not always have cash on hand or money in the bank to pay for emergency purchases like car repairs or school supplies. While your child is away, it’s comforting to know he or she can always use the card should an emergency arise.How to Choose the Best Student Credit CardThere are numerous credit cards designed especially for students, and, typically, the best card will start with a low credit limit of $500 or less. You could also consider a secured credit card, which would require the student to deposit cash in an account in advance, and then only permit charging up to this amount. Once this amount is depleted, it would need to be replenished prior to allowing the student to charge anymore on the card.Deciding how to choose the best student credit card depends upon the needs and budget of your child. Sitting down and discussing the responsibility that comes with having a credit card is a necessity. Try to gather some material and review options in order to choose the best student credit card that satisfies both of you. Of course, as the student maintains a good payment record, the credit limit will increase and the secured credit card can be converted to a regular credit card.Made Your Decision? Sign Your College Student Up for a Credit CardTypically, the application process for student credit cards is easy. The application should inquire which educational institution your child attends as well as confirm he is a college bound student. There are several student credit cards from which to choose, and many will be happy to help you through the process. By giving your college student the responsibility of a credit card, you are giving him or her a sense of pride. Our best advice in using a student credit card is to spend wisely and pay in a timely manner!

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5 Proven Ways to Make Money Online

There are endless ways you can use to make money online. Some will give you great returns while others will leave you working for pennies. If you are looking to make money online, here are the top 5 proven ways that you can consider.Webinar TrainingsOne of the ways you can make a significant amount of money online is through webinar training. A webinar is an online event held in real time. The people present are able to interact with each other and with the presenters by sending and receiving messages in real time.If you are an expert in a certain field, you can use webinars to train people who are interested in what you offer. To be successful in webinar training, it is important that you have a recognized online presence in your niche or area or expertise.Start an Online CourseAnother way to make money online is by starting your own online course. Courses present a good source of passive income. When you create a course, you can sell it for many years to come with little to no updates depending on the topic.It is easy to start a course and you can price it the way you want. According to Teachable.com, their instructors make upwards of $5,200 per month and most start making money immediately after launching their courses.People are wired to seek education and skills, therefore, if you have a good course that really delivers value, it becomes easy to build a seven figure business with it.Affiliate MarketingAffiliate marketing is the act of selling products owned by others for a commission. You can use affiliate networks such as ClickBank and others or look for other online businesses and companies that have their own affiliate offers.You can easily make money with affiliate marketing if you have a blog with a good following. You can sell products or services that would interest your blog followers and make passive income without much effort.Drop ShippingWith drop-shipping, you sell products through your site to people who are interested without having to deal with inventory or delivery of the same. It is also a great way to make money online without a lot of investment upfront.Become a FreelancerFinally, you can become a freelancer and engage in lucrative ventures such as content marketing, digital marketing and advertising, web analytics, web design, graphic design and others. All of these are freelancing careers that are scalable and able to bring in a decent amount of income. Many people have built million dollar online business offering such services.Other good ways to make money online include starting a blog, becoming an online tutor, offering virtual assistant services and working with online business like Uber, Lyft and Amazon to offer driver and delivery services.If you are looking to make money online, the time to start is now. If you are lucky, you might make money immediately; but for most ventures, you will need time to gain traction and start making a decent income.

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