Mutual funds are investments that gather the investors’ money into a pool to make multiple types of investments, known as the portfolio.
Professional money or investment managers, who invest the fund’s capital and attempt to produce capital gains for its investors, operate the mutual funds.
The investment manager’s compensation relies on how well the fund performs. In this way, you can be assured that they will work hard to make sure the fund grows well.
Image Credits: Steve Jurvetson via Flickr
As a mutual fund investor, you become a “shareholder” of the mutual fund company. When there are profits you will earn dividends. When there are losses, your shares will decrease in value.
Mutual funds are diversified or are made up of different investments to lower the risk of loss.
Advantages of Mutual Funds
1. Mutual Funds give small investors the access to professionally manage, diversified portfolios of equities, bonds and so on. This is difficult and nearly impossible to create with a small about of money.
2. Each shareholder participates proportionally in the gain or loss of the funds.
3. The experts handle your money professionally…so even if you have little knowledge on stocks, you may learn as time goes.
Three Categories of Mutual Funds
1. EQUITY FUNDS. Equity funds are made up of common stock investments alone. Although this can be riskier, this can earn more money than other types of funds.
2. FIXED-INCOME FUNDS. Fixed-income funds are made up of government and corporate securities. Since the government and corporate securities provide fixed return, the risk of the investments are low.
3. BALANCED FUNDS. Balanced funds combine both stocks and bonds in the investment. It offers a moderate to low risk. So before investing to mutual funds, you will have decide how much risk you are willing to take.
Do you know the feeling when walking from the closest MRT station towards your house and it simply takes forever? Driving around the island of Singapore is a true pleasure. One hardly ever encounters a traffic jam and generally gets quickly to any desired place. There isn’t any problem with pollution or a high car density. However, driving and owning a car in Singapore can be a costly undertaking. It is not only the car and its license that is expensive, but also the car insurance can weigh heavy on one’s finances. No matter how much money one has – there isn’t any chance that one can lower the government-imposed charges for the usage of the car. Therefore, it is even more important that one finds a beneficial deal for the car insurance.
The first trick to safe money is the oldest one in the book – drive safely. However, many people are not aware of the system that car insurances around the world use. If one has a car accident, the rate one has to pay monthly or yearly is instantly increased. If you are driving safely around Singapore over a long period of time, your car insurance will remain the same or even shrink slightly. Those people, who tend to crash their car, will not only pay for the reparation, but also for the continuously increasing car insurance. Many car insurances offer a no-claim discount (NCD). This allows for a 10% discount for every year in which you haven’t claimed anything. If you for example have only a minor dent in the car, you may want to consider not claiming it from your insurance, as you can possibly save more with the discount. The NCD can reach a maximum discount of 50%, with which one can safe potentially thousands of hard-earned dollars.
Not only being a safe driver, but also being a law-obeying driver can help you with the insurance. Fancy and fast cars are extremely attractive in Singapore, but even if you have one of those racecars, you are still subject to the speed limits. If you have a clean license over an extended period of time, you can earn a further discount instead of another ticket. After three years driving without committing a traffic offence, you can get the Certificate of Merit (COM), which brings you a further 5% discount on top of NCD. Using all this saved money, one can buy a ticket for the Formula 1 Race in September and enjoy proper racing.
When you are arranging a new car insurance policy, then pay attention to what you actually commit. Many policies often include unnecessary points. Go through them and use your commonsense. It can be that your car insurance also covers you for something that you are already covered for. A personal injury policy within your car insurance is very good, but a total waste of money if your health insurance already takes care of you in the case of an accident. Being covered twice for the same cause will not bring you double money and doesn’t mean you can claim it twice. Furthermore, one should check exactly what policy covers what points. When renting a car, one might be already covered in the case of an accident through another insurance. Different policies might have different names, but cover actually the very same thing. A rental-car insurance might include the same points as a collision policy. Therefore, it is very important, if one wants to save money, to double check the covered points in a insurance. Furthermore, one should eliminate all unnecessary points.
Car and accident statistics aren’t the best friends of young drivers. Unfortunately, an inexperienced young driver has the tendency to crash a car more often than older and more experienced drivers. This results in a higher insurance policy for younger drivers in general. Even if you are driving perfectly, you are paying more by default. Therefore, it is advisable to let your experience on the road be reflected in your policy. If you have been driving for more than ten years without any accident, then you should make a point of it in your new insurance. Not everybody has the possibility to do so, but there is another trick. One can for example insure the car on another person or include a driver with more experience into the policy. Mixing a high risk and a low risk profile will in most cases reduce the insurance. Therefore, one should check who is a low risk profile. Statistically older or female drivers will fall in this category. Listing such as the main driver in one’s car insurance policy, can save some money.
Each car is categorized with a certain amount of insurance money that the owner has to pay. It is generally known that the bigger the engine of the car, the higher is this amount. The reasoning of the car insurance companies is the higher risk. Statistically cars with a higher engine are more likely to crash. For obvious reasons insurances are all about statistics. So if you can beat the statistic, you will save some money. Most people will not modify their car, however there are car enthusiasts that do. A simple engine tweak or any other car modification can quickly become very expensive. What seems like a body shop bargain, can become a killer within the insurance policy. Therefore, it is worthwhile to check with your car insurance whether an upgrade is necessary.
Of course one could say that the insurance company doesn’t have to know. This is however an extremely risky undertaking. In case you do have an accident with your modified car and you haven’t notified your insurance about it, you can loose your cover immediately. Even if you haven’t caused the accident, the insurance company can refuse to pay anything. Hence, one shouldn’t modify outside the regulations of the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and definitely not keep it a secret. Handling your car insurance correctly doesn’t take too long and can award you with some extra cash.
Evolution suggests that men are designed to hunt while women gather. Gender stereotypes also encourage females to stay at home and to take care of the off springs. But…times have changed.
More Women Work
Based on a study by Prudential Company in 2012, approximately 53% of the sample were women breadwinners while only 22% were married or living with a partner who made more than them. Furthermore, other research showed that about 70% of mothers with children aged 17 and under are in the workforce. And, those numbers are just in the United States. Global rise in dual-career bearer household have increased annually.
Image Credits: Kelly Garbato via Flickr
This fact that women are working more nowadays is something both men and women are accepting. The younger generations were raised to empower equality in the household. Moreover, the quality of life is getting harder as economies fail. And so, there is a great need for both men and women to work regardless of gender stereotypes.
Impact on Marriage When She Makes More
On of the largest impact of this contemporary shift is that it may affect the dynamics of the marriage. Psychology argues that men’s view of the self is formed by his work and his drive to achieve. If that is the case then if the wife makes more, it will make him feel far more inferior and insecure.
To avoid that, Farnoosh Torabi, the author of “When She Makes More”, suggests that most couples assume that if one makes more then that person has more responsibilities in the house, which she firmly stands against. According to Torabi, a couple must constantly make a conscious effort to ask the partner about financial decisions and share it openly with each other. Furthermore she gave these two tips: give everyone’s money a meaning, and treat each other once in a while.
Ultimate Financial Goal
The most important financial goal for women is to have enough money to raise their family, and to maintain the same lifestyle in their retirement. This is why young women need to take steps toward understanding investing. When women avoid investing young, they are losing out on the one thing that knowledge cannot buy– time.
Who makes more than whom should not be a huge matter as the couple’s combined earnings will only benefit not only the both of them but also their children. Couples shall work together and communicated openly on financial decisions in order to share the emotional responsibilities and keep the balance in order.
Can there be an economy where oil is cheaper than water? If yes, how will it affect its countrymen?
According to United Kingdom’s The Independent, a British national newspaper publication, Oil by barrel is now cheaper than the 6 packed bottles (1.5 liter each) of Evian Natural Mineral Water.
A liter of bottled water costs about 42 Pence (S$87 or US$0.66), while it costs about 24 Pence (S$0.49 or US$0.38) a liter for gas…that is 40 percent cheaper!
The price of oil has notably collapsed, affecting every single person in the country. A market analyst for Reuters named John Kemp, highlighted the bizarre state of economy on Twitter saying that not only that the current oil price represented “an unsustainable low level” – but that it was “impossible to predict how low prices might fall”.
Image Credits: Daniel Oines via Flickr
This is not the first time it has happened globally.
In 2011, Saudi Arabia’s petrol costs about 0.45 Saudi Arabian Riyal or 0.16 Singapore Dollars and 0.12 United States Dollars, which is absolutely much cheaper than bottled water. Saudi’s government spends SAR26 Billion on water subsidies every year to keep down their citizens’ water bills (Finfacts, 2011). That is equal to S$26 Billion.
An interesting thought is that unlike any other countries in Southeast Asia, the tap water in Singapore is safe to drink. We can just get a glass of tap water then refill it for free. But, a liter of bottled water in the supermarket is still more expensive than United Kingdom’s liter of oil today.
Image Credits: Luis via Flickr
Although this economic state in UK may cause lower annual prices of other goods easing the cost of living of the citizens…the falling energy prices may result to inflation and threaten the financial stability of the whole country. The Bank of England backs up this statement of warning.
Some people make it their golden mission to find hidden treasures throughout their lives, while others accidentally stumble onto them without effort. Whether it be practical or not, here are 4 Ways You can Find and Earn Money in the most Unusual Places.
1. YOUR OWN BACKYARD
A couple in California discovered treasures in their own backyard while walking their dog. They found 1,427 rare mint-condition coins dating from 1847 to 1894. Then, the coin experts estimated and appraised the coins at US$11 million. Today, you can find the last piece of coin that is offered for sale at Amazon.
Image Credits: Kagin’s, Inc. SRH via Amazon
2. FLEA MARKETS
A man once bought a painting of a country scene at a flea market in Pennsylvania in 1989. It turns out that it was one of the 24 known copies of the original 1776 Declaration of American Independence. In 2000, it was sold for US$8.14 million to the television producer named Norman Lear.
There are various flea markets in Singapore. Maybe you’re the next person to find antiques or special items in the flea market. Nonetheless, you can always find cheap yet useful items, which you can resell again.
Image Credits: Nasrul Ekram via Flickr
3. UNIVERSITIES OR RESEARCH CENTERS
Participate in paid focus groups, online surveys, or research studies that maybe in the field of science, marketing, etc. You may google the opportunities that are near to your city or those that pay even if you are in any place of the world through reputable services such as Paypal. Although while in search, you must make sure that the center or the institution is credible to ensure your safety.
4. LASTLY, IN YOUR BOOKSHELF
Selling your old books and magazines on online sites such as Amazon or Carousell can be a valid option. Not only can you earn extra money but you can also de-clutter at the same time! Also, some people have had success by compiling used books of others or buying books on the cheap garage sales, and reselling them again for a higher price.
Anna Agoncillo
MoneyDigest
