Investing
Most Americans save for retirement over their professional lives. It pays to think of your future while you are young and active as you need more and more money for a happy life in the old age. There are many reasons for a young professional to start saving: • The…
Mutual funds have suffered a serious blow when the public learned about serious machinations in the industry. The public has heard a number of times that the majority of the funds underperform the average return of the stock market. However, the funds are still there. Moreover, you will probably need…
A “closed-end fund,” legally known as a “closed-end company,” is one of three basic types of investment company. The two other basic types of investment companies are mutual funds (open-end investment companies) and Unit Investments Trusts (UITs). Here are some of the traditional and distinguishing characteristics of closed-end funds: –…
With the stock market growing fast, stock mutual funds continue playing an important role. Mid caps, short for medium capitalization, refer to stocks with a capitalization in between $500 million and $7 billion. To understand properly mid caps, it is important to really distinguish between “small”, “medium” and “large” caps….
Stock generally refers to shares of Common Stock or an “equity share” of a corporation. Each share of Common Stock represents a share of ownership in a company. The price of a stock generally represents investor expectations about the future profitability potential or future value of the company, and may…
Maturity One of the key investment features of any bond is its maturity. A bond’s maturity tells you when you should expect to get your principal back and how long you can expect to receive interest payments. (However, some corporates have “call,” or redemption, features that can affect the date…
Many investors who want to reap the returns available in the corporate bond market may buy shares in bond mutual funds instead of individual bonds – or in addition to individual bonds. They do so for the same reasons investors have flocked to mutual funds of all kinds in recent…
It may be difficult to make sure you minimize your risk investing in the stock market – that’s why so many people and advisors turn to mutual funds. A mutual fund allows an investor to easily diversify because every dollar you invest is divided among many underlying investments. For instance,…
In fact, many investors pay more taxes than they need to. We are going to list seven common tax-related mistakes investors make. (Please note that the same things may not be mistakes if they are done within a tax-sheltered account such as an IRA or 401(k) plan.) 1. Load relief…
Debenture bonds Most corporate bonds are debentures – that is, unsecured debt obligations backed only by the issuer’s general credit and the capacity of its earnings to repay interest and principal. However, even unsecured bonds usually have the protection of what is known as a negative pledge provision. This requires…