Tag Archives: stocks

How Much Is Your Life Worth?

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As we enter the Easter period, many Jamaicans celebrate the important Christian holiday in which they remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a time for reflection on how the sacrifice that was made thousands of years ago still impacts the lives of many persons today.

Although we may not readily list it as one of the assets on our personal balance sheets, the gift of life is priceless. Despite the challenges and difficulties that may discourage us from time to time, it is indeed a rich blessing to be given another day to experience what life has in store for us.

Does income determine your value?

If you wanted to quantify the value of your life, could you put a price tag on your existence? In order to seek a financial settlement in legal cases that involve wrongful deaths, lawyers often try to calculate how much possible income has been lost from the untimely passing of an individual. Continue reading How Much Is Your Life Worth? →

Protecting Your Investments

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When you invest, you hope that your money will generate an income for you or that it will grow in value and allow you to realise a profit in the future. However, there is a possibility that your desired investing outcome may not materialise; you could instead receive an unfavourable result.

While you happily envision what you stand to gain, before you commit your funds to an investment you also need to consider what you could lose if you were to make the wrong decisions. It’s critical to assess how any adverse outcomes could harm your financial position and negatively affect your goals.

When you put your money to work for you, one of the possibilities is that you could lose some or all of your money if the venture fails. There is also the risk that your investment may not perform as planned, or that you may not get the kind of returns within the time frame that you had anticipated.

Although risk is an inherent part of the investing process, you can still seek to minimise or prevent some of these negative occurrences. Let’s look at some of the strategies that can help you to protect your investments from the risks of loss and unmet objectives. Continue reading Protecting Your Investments →

Four Things You Need to Know Before You Invest

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We have recently been looking at the importance of developing your financial savvy. Ignorance about money matters can cause you to struggle to meet your current financial needs, and may also prevent you from making the best use of your funds to build your wealth.

Investing – the process of putting money to productive use with the expectation of making a profit – is a vital money skill for anyone who wishes to accomplish more out of life than just paying bills. If you don’t know how to invest, it will be difficult for you to earn enough money to live your dream lifestyle.

If you try to invest without understanding the process, you may also make poor investment choices. Investing in ignorance can be detrimental to your finances; you may overlook lucrative opportunities or lose your money. Let’s look at four things that you need to consider before you start investing. Continue reading Four Things You Need to Know Before You Invest →

Getting Started with Investing

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Whenever I examine the topic of investing, I often receive responses from readers who want to learn more about how they can make their money work for them in some type of investment. It seems that while they have a desire to invest, many persons are unable to proceed because they just don’t know where to start.

When I first learnt about the concept of investing many years ago, I was initially hesitant about putting money into anything that couldn’t guarantee a positive return. While I understood about saving and receiving interest on my money, it seemed like a risky idea to commit my hard-earned funds into an endeavour, hoping that it would generate a profit.

I remember doing a training course that required the students to create a portfolio which included stock investments. At the time, I didn’t know anything about the stock market, and I was annoyed that I was being forced to invest in something that could lose money.

Very reluctantly, I placed 20 per cent of my ‘pretend’ funds on a few stock picks, and prepared for a disastrous result. Continue reading Getting Started with Investing →

An Attitude of Gratitude

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“When I’m worried and I can’t sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep counting my blessings.”
– “Count your Blessings,” Bing Crosby

Over the last three months, we have covered many of your concerns – escalating energy costs, the international financial crisis, increasing mortgage rates and foreclosures, and fear of the financial future – and presented practical solutions to help you deal with these realities.

With the global economy apparently deteriorating before it gets any better, threats of recession and redundancy, and the shrinking net worth positions of the rich and not-so-rich alike, it might be easy to feel a sense of despair as the year draws to a close. For most people, 2008 will definitely not be remembered for bringing financial blessings. Continue reading An Attitude of Gratitude →

Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back From Investing

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“Some of my friends were talking recently about how they made some good profits in the stock market recently. However, it was my understanding that if you invest in stocks you can lose your money.

“I really have worked hard for my money and I don’t want to get involved in anything where I could lose any of it. I’m wondering if there’s something I’ m missing by being afraid of investing in stocks.”

I can relate very well to your fear of investing in anything that could lose money. Many years ago, when I had just started working in an investment brokerage, I had to do an exercise to invest some money in stocks and money market accounts.

I didn’t know anything about the stock market at the time, and I remember saying to myself “Why would anyone want to put money into an investment that could lose money?“ I reluctantly placed twenty percent of my available funds (the minimum allowed) into the stock market, and prepared for the worst. Continue reading Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back From Investing →

Investing Basics

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“I’m always seeing articles in the newspapers that talk about investments, but it seems like investing is something that’s out of my reach, as I don’t have a lot of money. Is it possible for people with small incomes to invest?”

When we hear the word ‘investor’ many times we picture a wealthy person who has made a lot of money by trading in the stock market, or buying expensive real estate. The reality is that anyone can invest, if he or she learns and applies the basic concepts of investing.

So what exactly is investing? Investing is simply the act of putting money into an endeavour with the expectation of making some profit. An investment is any item that is bought with the intention for it to increase in value in the future, when it can be sold at a higher price, and/or provide an income stream. Continue reading Investing Basics →