Dramatically Improve Your Stock Trading Success
August 30, 2008
Get Access to Realistic profitable strategies & discover the mindset to dramatically improve trading success.
* Avoid those confusing “cookie cutter” technical analysis tips and tricks that you can read anywhere else for free.
* Let us show you an effective & practical approach
* Limit your risk and follow certain conditions
* How and where to pick the best stocks
* Identifying great opportunities
* When to trade them
* Choosing the right time frame during market hours
* Pre market and After hours trading tactics
* Avoid certain stocks and never overtrade
* Learn the simple powerful factors that will let you profit from momentum trading every day.
Stock trading can be one of the fastest ways to make money when you pick the right stock opportunitites. The market can present you with a lot of momentum opportunities every day. Some of them are extremely risky while others are not as good as they seem. That’s why it’s critical for you to know how to identify and approach the best ones.
Introduction to Australian Superannuation
August 22, 2008
Australians, in general, constitute some of the worst savers in the world. Current estimates suggest that, on average, Australians save just 4% of their income. This is less than half of the 11% estimate for Australians in the late 1970s.
In the past, pensions from taxpayers were used to provide pensions for senior citizens upon their retirement. However, because of the increased life expectancy of Australians coupled with the decrease in the average number of children per household, the use of pensions, if persisted with, will put a significant strain on the Federal Budget.
As a result, the concept of superannuation was introduced whereby employers are obligated via the superannuation guarantee to contribute at least 9% of an employee’s wage to a superannuation fund which must be preserved until the employee has reached retirement before it can be accessed.
The advantage of making contributions to superannuation are that it introduces a form of forced savings for Australians into a fund which will hopefully invest the money into the appropriate assets for increasing its value over the long term.
How To Free-Up 10% to 15% of Your Income
August 13, 2008
Would you be interested in freeing up 10% to 15% of your current income? Just imagine what you could do with this money. You could pay down your debts, increase your savings, or work toward that next important purchase that you have in mind. Wouldn’t it be exciting to actually have money left over at the end of the month?
I know what you are thinking: "That would be nice, but not if I have to budget every dollar". What if I told you it could be done without budgeting? What if you could accomplish this in a week’s time without too much effort? Would you take a few steps in order to improve your finances?
If you answered "yes", let’s go through the simple steps required to make this possible.
Step #1: For a total of 7 days we need to track every single expense. This includes credit card, check, and cash purchases. For this program to really work you will have to track everything (even pocket change). The easiest way I have found to accomplish this is to use a blank check register and write down every transaction that you make for the next 7 days. And I mean every expense, even if you give your child a quarter for a gumball, track that expense. We need to collect the date the purchase was made, and the item that was purchased (this part of the exercise is actually most of the work, and really isn’t all that time consuming ? especially when we keep in mind the possible benefits).
Roth IRA Contributions - IRS Rules
August 6, 2008
Confused about whether you can contribute to a Roth IRA? Try using these simple rules:
Income
To contribute to a Roth IRA, you must have compensation (e.g., wages, salary, tips, professional fees, bonuses). Your modified adjusted gross income must be less than:
$160,000 - Married Filing Jointly.
$10,000 - Married Filing Separately (and you lived with your spouse at any time during the year).
$110,000 - Single, Head of Household, or Married Filing Separately (and you did not live with your spouse during the year).
Age
There is no age limitation for Roth IRA contributions. Unlike traditional IRAs, you can be any age and still qualify to contribute to a Roth IRA.
Contribution Limits
In general, if your only IRA is a Roth IRA, the maximum 2005 contribution limit is the lesser of your taxable compensation or $4,000. For individuals age 50 or older, the contribution limit is $4,500
The maximum contribution limit phases out if your modified adjusted gross income is within these limits:
$150,000-$160,000 - Married Filing Jointly
$0-$10,000 - Married Filing Separately (and you lived with your spouse at any time during the year)
How to Save Money in a Grocery Store
July 28, 2008
Now there are ways to save money in the grocery store, and they may or may not take much effort on your part to learn some great ways to save money. Your greater savings can often be found in the perishable departments of a grocery store. The perishable departments are the bakery, meat, and produce departments. Looking at the grocery ads can also be of great assistance. Also, believe it or not something as simple as writing down a list can help you save money. I’ll show you a few techniques that will help you save money.
Now for me, I have saved more in the meat department, than any other department. No, I am not purchasing meat that is barely fresh. Keep in mind that often the same or similar cuts of meat can be sold at very different prices. Why buy stew meat for a couple of bucks more, when you can buy a chuck roast, and cut it yourself. Did you know that the chuck sits right next to the ribeye? If you look closely, you can get some chuck steaks that are on the tail end of a ribeye, and enjoy a similar tasty cut of meat, for the same basic price. For the product department, take a look at the bags of bulk produce, you can find some good deals there, but check to make sure all of the fruits/veggies in the bag are good and fresh. Please bypass the cut up veggies, you can cut your own fajita veggies, or stop by the salad bar for less.
Budgeting Your Way to Financial Freedom
July 19, 2008
Financial freedom cannot be achieved without budgeting. Budgeting involves tracking your sources of income and more importantly tracking your expenses. It is novel tool for controlling your expenses and making you aware of how you spend your money. At the outset, budgeting may seem to be onerous and boring, particularly for those of us who hate numbers. But once you realize the benefits emanating from it, you will find it an interesting exercise. Even businesses, whether small or large, use budgeting as a tool to achieve their financial goals. It is, in fact, an integral part of managing an organization.
Benefits of budgeting:
Helps to control impulse buying.
Helps to control your expenses.
Ensures that you pay your bills on time.
Helps you to borrow money when you need it.
Helps you by not defaulting on your loan repayments, thus, protecting your credit rating.
Helps you to save money which can routed to different investment vehicles that can in turn help you build your net worth over a period of time.
The budgeting process
The first step in the budgeting process is to determine your net worth.
The World is Not Enough - Calling for a More Ethical Approach to Personal Finance
July 13, 2008
At a time when the entire world’s attention is focused on the problems of world debt, with the Live 8 concerts, the G8 summit in Scotland, the Make Poverty History Campaign (MPH) and the various anti-poverty marches, it seems that everyone wants the world’s governments to behave more ethically towards the manner in which international finance is conducted. This is obviously a laudable attitude to take, and has gained immense momentum with such a groundswell of public opinion that even the UK Chancellor, Gordon Brown, has stated he is planning to participate in the Make Poverty History demonstration in Edinburgh during the G8 summit.
Mr Brown has urged world leaders to follow up their decision on debt cancellation for the poorest countries with a doubling of aid and fairer trade rules.
The Chancellor said, “This is a day for the people not for politicians. It is the people’s voice that must be heard.”
Whilst the support from such a prominent member of the British cabinet with his accompanying statements that the world was “angry” and “outraged” over the poverty in Africa, which has continued despite repeated past pledges from the richer nations, has been welcomed by many who believe that the various organised events could have an influence on the leaders who attended the summit, others see his words as hypocrisy.
Bank On It: Places to Hide and Invest Money
July 3, 2008
Today I passed a thermometer at a bank that read 110 degrees, but I am not telling you that to show you how hot it was. I am telling you that because this bank really needs to fix their thermometer. According to their thermometer, it was also 110 degrees in December. There are a lot of people, places and things that can be more accurate with the weather, and as I’ve never said (but have always wanted to), “Whatever I trust with the weather is what I also trust with my money.” Here are some examples:
A random old lady: Certain beings can predict the weather through their bones, and that group includes random old ladies and dogs. I specify “random” because that way I won’t get e-mails from people stating, “Hey, why are you messing with my grandmom? Are you saying she’s like an alien or some kind of meteorologist or something?” And no, I’m not. I am talking about a “random” old lady, and grandmoms don’t fit into that category, not even on Bingo Night. Regardless, my plan is to give my money to one of these random old ladies instead of keeping it at a bank because I know this lady won’t go too far with it, and if she does disappear, I’ll know to find her in Florida. Also, I don’t have to worry about her making any silly investments except for lottery tickets and candy buttons. Plus, who is going to try to rob a random old lady? It’s just not feasible…
How You Feel Affects How You Shop & How Much You Spend
June 26, 2008
Have you ever stopped to think about how your “mood” affects the way you shop, not to mention the amount you spend? Think about it.
If you want to save a lot of money, avoid shopping whenever you are in one of these moods:
DEPRESSED, UPSET, or ANGRY
It’s very dangerous for your pocketbook to shop when you’re either depressed, upset or angry. Why?
Many people find that shopping takes their mind away from their problems. In fact, it probably does. But how much does it cost you?
Not only does shopping not solve your problems, but you will also spend money that you did not originally intend to spend.
When you’re not feeling “well”, instead of shopping, do something where you do not have to spend money. Go to a park. Check out the local library. Go on a nice jog or bike ride.
Remember that if you HAVE to get out of the house, plan an activity where you do not have to spend money. You’ll feel much better about this decision after you have cooled down (or cheered up). 
Envy Shopping
Developing a budget? Watch out for Those Budget-Bursting Gremlins
June 17, 2008
If you’ve developed a household budget to get your spending back in line or to just reduce stress, good for you! Creating and sticking to a budget isn’t easy by all means. But it represents the best way by far to manage your finances so you can relax and worry about other things.
A budget can also be a very useful tool for ending financial arguments — assuming that you and your spouse agree how much to allocate for each of the categories in your budget.
The big categories are usually the easy ones. You know how much you pay for rent or your mortgage. Ditto other items such as your car payment(s), heating bill, phone bill and the like.
These are all fixed expenses. In other words, they are expenses that cannot be easily cut. They can be reduced but not without a major effort. For example, you could sell your home and buy one that requires a monthly mortgage payment.
However, many of the other items in your budget are discretionary expenses. In other words, they are expenses you can control and cut. This category includes items such as clothing, entertainment, insurance (yes, you can cut the cost of your car and health insurance), cable or satellite and groceries.
