Archive for the ‘investments’ Category
Tax Planning With Mutual Fund Investments
By nature Mutual Funds are not tax saving instruments but some mutual fund investment products also offers tax saving plans. Generally income that is earned from Mutual funds is categorized under two heads dividend and capital gains. Given that the tax implications can have a significant impact on the return earned it is necessary to understand the tax for both these heads of income. Income earned through dividends is tax free in the hands of the investor. The tax on most occasions is actually paid by the Mutual Fund Company itself. Investors who fall in the highest tax bracket should opt for the dividend option in mutual fund schemes. Capital gains from mutual funds are of two types – short term (1-3year) and long term (more than 5 years). This classification is based upon the period of holding. If the investment is sold within a year 15 days from the date of purchase, any capital gain made would be treated as a short term nature. Hence the tax deducted will be normal. If the mutual fund investment is sold after a year from the date of purchase, any capital gain made during that period will be treated as a long-term capital gain. Here the tax that would be deducted will depend on how long the investment is kept after a year prior to getting it sold. The longer the fund is kept the lesser the tax to be paid.
A Good Fund that could be used to invest upon is the equity linked saving schemes fund (ELSS). They are strong favorites for investing as they provide tax concessions on investments and are also exempt from long term capital gains tax. Apart from ELSS schemes, diversified equity schemes are a good investment considering that capital gains in equity funds below one year are taxed at a rate of 10% and over a year are tax-free. This option can be best exercised using Growth Funds. The primary objective of Growth Funds is to provide investors long-term growth of the capital invested. Dividend paid in Dividend Plans is tax free, and no distribution tax is deducted. However, every time we buy or sell equity shares a Securities Transaction Tax, STT, of 0.25% is paid and further when you redeem your investment, again STT is deducted from your redemption price.
Tax Planning & saving options requires a through study of the market conditions, especially if you are trying to do it in a period of slump. Proper Asset Allocation, research and the advice of the Fund Manager will definitely help. Long term capital loss can be set off only against long term capital gains. Short term capital can be set off against any capital gains, whether short term or long term.
Ryan Crown
http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/tax-planning-with-mutual-fund-investments-689477.html
What rates of return have investors earned on investments in common stocks?
Historically, what rates of return have investors earned on investments in common stocks? Why may a firm distribute dividends even though earnings decline?
The stocks you want to focus on is consumer staples, consumer discretionary, and healthcare. These are DEFENSIVE stocks that will survive through good and bad times. Most of my positions are in these stocks. Some names include 3M, Procter & Gamble, Kimberly Clark, Exxon Mobil, Walmart, Costco. Everybody’s got to eat and wipe their butts regardless of the state of economy. Many of these companies survived through the Great Depression.
That’s the benefits. You can sleep at night knowing your money is doing well. There are NO guarantees that you won’t lose money. It’s just that these stocks are the best. They pay good dividends too.
Different Kinds of Chinese Investments
2008 maybe year. Certainly having the eyes of the world on the country for 3 weeks of Olympic events hasn’t hurt. It also doesn’t hurt to have lookalike-numeral advance and an active reduced for the umpteenth year. And despite the universal trust crunch, China appears to be fearless and seems cool to stay its giant investment abroad. For as tourists and matter wellbeing collect to the East in search of new experiences and new markets, China is continuing its Journey to the West, by establishing an investment station in Europe for extension into Africa, the Middle East and the break of Europe.
Competition between New York, Europe and Asia for Chinese investment and Chinese IPOs has been fierce in latest existence, after a long time when the U.S. promote was the evasion fine for Chinese businesses. 2007 was a film-breaking year for Chinese IPOs in the United States, but since then opening free offerings from Chinese companies have almost disappeared.
New stringent regulatory laws that make it harder for Chinese companies to pursue initial open offerings in the U.S. are somewhat to charge for this impulsive change. And fiscal conditions in the U.S can also be blamed. Nevertheless the aggressive campaigning of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and other European markets for Chinese investment have also contributed to the swing. An indication of the importance of Chinese Yuan was the establishment formerly this year of a LSE representative workforce in Beijing, a move which followed the openings of the New York Stock Exchange and The NASDAQ Stock Market offices in 2007.
The brains for this pastime in Chinese investment? The total of money difficult. Last year, $117.7 billion was raised on inclusive fairness markets by Chinese companies. That figured was second only to the United States. With Western companies fighting their way into the Chinese promote, Chinese money is flowing out, providing an enticing incentive to markets around the world to clash for this center.
While IPO’s are the focal way Chinese businesses are establishing a grip in Europe, other fiscal vehicles such as mergers and acquisitions and exclusive partnering also contribute to the worldwide investment records. Chinese investment in European projects has augmented 500% since 2000, according to Ernst & Young China, and this growth encompasses both large and small-range investment. While industries giants like China Telecom and Nanjing Auto grab the headlines, small and form-sized enterprises are also joining the move to Old Europe.
With all the resources flowing out of China, it’s no wonder the governments throughout Europe are liability everything they can to persuade Chinese IPOs and turn investment. The London government is even taking lead of the bond between the Beijing Games and the London Games in 2012 to farther Chinese companies to move their European operations to the British capital.
While London is the palpable head in attracting Chinese investment, other European capitals are also since the repayment of increasing their economic partnership with China. Last year, trade between the EU and China topped 300 million, making the EU China’s leading trading partner. And French President Sarkozy’s 20 billion trade covenant with China last year is a harbinger of upcoming initiatives from European capitals.
Investing in Europe also makes intuit for Chinese businesses and for the Chinese country. In today’s increasingly multi-agile world, diversification is both wise and valuable. And with the flow land of the U.S. wealth, China sees evident benefits in pursuing investment in the EU. While the United States relics the world’s chief family, the EU has stronger ties with Africa, Russia, and the Middle East and provides China with the precise bottom to enlarge their investment into these regions.
So while the world looks East and focuses on China and the Olympic Games, it is increasingly sunny that China’s Journey to the West will persist, with more and more Chinese businesses pursuing IPOs and making direct investments in the West. Helping and encouraging that investment is both an opportunity and a challenge for European governments and trade happiness. For in the early economic races of the 21st century, attracting Chinese investment is one of the global wealth’s top prizes.
Jenna Sawin
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/different-kinds-of-chinese-investments-732960.html
How to Raise Capital: The #1 Skill of an Entrepreneur
Money capital is the lifeblood of every investment. Without capital, there can be no product, no property, no sales, no cash flow. Check out Roberts video about his experiences raising capital for his first entrepreneurial venture.
During this one-of-a-kind, never-to-be-repeated 3-day event with Robert Kiyosaki and his advisers you will learn:
* Robert’s experiences raising capital
* Why raising capital is the #1 skill of an entrepreneur
* How you can develop this skill to benefit your business and real estate investing
Whether your current or future investments involve business or real estate, raising capital is vital to keeping your investments alive and producing cash flow. Robert and his advisors are experts in this important skill who practice what they preach and will share with you their knowledge gleaned from years of real-life entrepreneurship and investment experience.
Duration : 0:10:51
Investments for 2009. Dec. 26, 2008
BEING STREET SMART
___________________
Sy Harding
INVESTMENTS FOR 2009. Dec. 26, 2008.
Retail sales are down. Autos and the housing industry are still in the dumps. The financial sector may be under repair – or not. No one knows at this point.
So where is an investor to look for profits in 2009?
Many have apparently given up on the stock market altogether, with record amounts having been pulled out of stocks and mutual funds in recent months. Historically, bailing out after the market has had a 50% decline has not been a good approach.
Meanwhile, most investors, being buy and hold investors, held through some terrible and stressful losses in their stocks and mutual funds, many completely unaware of the opportunities for profits even in 2008 – for those willing to change with the times when bear markets arrive. Some normal market-timing (going after intermediate-term gains from both corrections and rallies) was the key in 2008.
I expect opportunities in 2009 will be similar but even better.
For instance, my subscribers (and the Street Smart Report Market-Timing Strategy portfolio) took double-digit profits three times in 2008 from the ups and downs of the Russell 2000 Index (which focuses on small stocks). One profit, 11.3%, was from the market’s rally off the July low, using the iShares Russell 2000 etf, symbol IWM. But two more profits, 11.7%, and 21.7%, were provided by the ProShares ShortRussell 2000 etf, symbol RWM, which is designed to move up when the Russell 2000 index moves down. We switched into it for the corrections after the March-May rally, and for the market decline in September.
We similarly took a 16.6% profit from the ProShares Short S&P 500 etf, symbol SH, in less than a month in the market’s decline in October.
Market-timing also helped us take a double-digit profit of 23.9% from the biotech sector, via the HLDRS Biotech etf, symbol BBH from the market rally off the March low, and then stay out of it while it declined to the November low. And now we have another profit of almost 10% running at the present time from BBH in the market’s rally off the November low.
There were also a number of single-digit profits taken by similar switching between ‘inverse’ and ‘long-side’ exchange-traded funds on the Nasdaq 100, and S&P 500 index.
We used diversified holdings for both the rallies and corrections, never taking more than a 10% position in any one holding. And I don’t want to mislead you. We also took some losses, from holding onto positions too long, or from being on the wrong side at the wrong time.
But overall, the portfolio is up more than 7% so far this year. That’s not super, but any gain is a heck of lot better than losing previously made profits, as did the majority of investors, mutual funds, hedge funds, etc., with the S&P 500 being down 38%, the Nasdaq being down 42%, and even Warren Buffett being down 34% for the year so far.
Looking ahead to next year, we expect similar volatility, and our New Year’s resolution is to do an even better job of taking advantage of both the rallies and corrections, since we believe the market will again be unkind to buy and hold investing.
In 2008 we pretty much steered clear of individual stocks, preferring the lower risk provided by exchange-traded-funds. In fact, we invested in only one individual stock in 2008, that in a two-month 5% holding of a gold mining stock, GoldCorp, symbol GG (on which we took a 49% profit last week).
However, with the stocks of many excellent companies beaten down to levels not seen in many years, we expect next year will be a year of more opportunities in individual stocks.
One we like, and which we recently took a position in, is Zimmer Holdings, symbol ZMH. You can’t get much further away from housing, autos, retailers and the financial sector. Zimmer designs and manufactures orthopedic implants, including joint, dental, and spinal replacements.
Zimmer has been growing steadily from rising sales of its own products, as well as from acquisitions. Its most recent acquisition was Abbott Spine, acquired from Abbott Labs for $360 million. The acquisition was funded from cash on hand and its already existing credit line, worth noting given how the credit crunch is causing problems for many companies.
In its most recent earnings report, for the September quarter, the company reported a 39% earnings increase over the same period a year ago, on a 5.4% increase in sales.
Analysts expect sales, earnings, and profit margins will contract short-term from those kinds of levels, due to costs associated with it latest acquisition, the company’s plans to increase its R&D expenditures, and the slowing economy.
However, Zimmer shares plunged with the rest of the market this year, and are 54% below their peak of last October. We believe that more than factored in the expected lower sales and earnings. And on a valuation basis, the decline has Zimmer shares selling at just 1.6 times book value, and at 9.6 times earnings.
Of 20 analysts surveyed by First Call/Thompson Financial, three analysts rate ZMH a ‘strong buy’, one rates it ‘buy’. Fourteen rate it ‘hold’. Only two rate it ‘underperform’.
There are no guarantees in investing, and we could be wrong, but we believe the selloff in Zimmer shares was overdone. Our upside target is 60, which would be a 50% retracement of the previous decline. We suggest a protective stop at 33 (to be moved up to lock in profit if and as the share price rises).
Sy Harding publishes the financial website http://www.streetsmartreport.com/ and a free daily Internet blog at http://www.syhardingblog.com/. In 1999 he authored Riding the Bear – How To Prosper In the Coming Bear Market. His new book is Beat the Market the Easy Way! – Proven Seasonal Strategies Double Market’s Performance!
Sy Harding
http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/investments-for-2009-dec-26-2008-701106.html
Runescape Money Making Guide – [ False Graphs, Better Investments ]
READ
Hey Guys this is Jackthemerchant here, this guide will allow you to make better investments and inform you of the false impression some graphs may give you.
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Duration : 0:1:55
What are the federal income tax rates on investments?
What are the federal income tax rates? I’m talking about investments. I heard there’s one tax rates on savings account, a different tax rate on short term capital gains, a different tax rate on long term capital gains, another tax rate on dividends, and so on. Is there a chart somewhere that shows these rates so I can consider tax consequences of how I invest my money?
They are all taxed at the same rate…..your rate depending on your income. The IRS no longer treats long term / short term differently. All the accounts you asked about are just entered on the 1040 as equal additions to your income.
Different Kinds of Chinese Investments
2008 maybe year. Certainly having the eyes of the world on the country for 3 weeks of Olympic events hasn’t hurt. It also doesn’t hurt to have lookalike-numeral advance and an active reduced for the umpteenth year. And despite the universal trust crunch, China appears to be fearless and seems cool to stay its giant investment abroad. For as tourists and matter wellbeing collect to the East in search of new experiences and new markets, China is continuing its Journey to the West, by establishing an investment station in Europe for extension into Africa, the Middle East and the break of Europe.
Competition between New York, Europe and Asia for Chinese investment and Chinese IPOs has been fierce in latest existence, after a long time when the U.S. promote was the evasion fine for Chinese businesses. 2007 was a film-breaking year for Chinese IPOs in the United States, but since then opening free offerings from Chinese companies have almost disappeared.
New stringent regulatory laws that make it harder for Chinese companies to pursue initial open offerings in the U.S. are somewhat to charge for this impulsive change. And fiscal conditions in the U.S can also be blamed. Nevertheless the aggressive campaigning of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and other European markets for Chinese investment have also contributed to the swing. An indication of the importance of Chinese Yuan was the establishment formerly this year of a LSE representative workforce in Beijing, a move which followed the openings of the New York Stock Exchange and The NASDAQ Stock Market offices in 2007.
The brains for this pastime in Chinese investment? The total of money difficult. Last year, $117.7 billion was raised on inclusive fairness markets by Chinese companies. That figured was second only to the United States. With Western companies fighting their way into the Chinese promote, Chinese money is flowing out, providing an enticing incentive to markets around the world to clash for this center.
While IPO’s are the focal way Chinese businesses are establishing a grip in Europe, other fiscal vehicles such as mergers and acquisitions and exclusive partnering also contribute to the worldwide investment records. Chinese investment in European projects has augmented 500% since 2000, according to Ernst & Young China, and this growth encompasses both large and small-range investment. While industries giants like China Telecom and Nanjing Auto grab the headlines, small and form-sized enterprises are also joining the move to Old Europe.
With all the resources flowing out of China, it’s no wonder the governments throughout Europe are liability everything they can to persuade Chinese IPOs and turn investment. The London government is even taking lead of the bond between the Beijing Games and the London Games in 2012 to farther Chinese companies to move their European operations to the British capital.
While London is the palpable head in attracting Chinese investment, other European capitals are also since the repayment of increasing their economic partnership with China. Last year, trade between the EU and China topped 300 million, making the EU China’s leading trading partner. And French President Sarkozy’s 20 billion trade covenant with China last year is a harbinger of upcoming initiatives from European capitals.
Investing in Europe also makes intuit for Chinese businesses and for the Chinese country. In today’s increasingly multi-agile world, diversification is both wise and valuable. And with the flow land of the U.S. wealth, China sees evident benefits in pursuing investment in the EU. While the United States relics the world’s chief family, the EU has stronger ties with Africa, Russia, and the Middle East and provides China with the precise bottom to enlarge their investment into these regions.
So while the world looks East and focuses on China and the Olympic Games, it is increasingly sunny that China’s Journey to the West will persist, with more and more Chinese businesses pursuing IPOs and making direct investments in the West. Helping and encouraging that investment is both an opportunity and a challenge for European governments and trade happiness. For in the early economic races of the 21st century, attracting Chinese investment is one of the global wealth’s top prizes.
Jenna Sawin
http://www.articlesbase.com/travel-articles/different-kinds-of-chinese-investments-732960.html
Gold: The Ultimate investment for capital preservation.
McAlvany ICA presents financial, political and geo-political information to aid investors in developing sound alternatives for their portfolios in uncertain times. Topics of discussion: U.S. Real-Estate Market, China, Middle East and a declining U.S. dollar. Call, 800.525.9556 or email: karis@mcalvany.com for a FREE copy of this entire DVD plus an exclusive Market Report. Or if you would like to listen to exclusive, weekly, economic commentary for FREE by economic expert, David McAlvany, be sure to go to: www.mcalvany.com and register where it says, “McAlvany Weekly Commentary.”
Duration : 0:2:58
How much should a church have in investments?
If expenses are exceeding the income (offerings) and a church needs to cash in some of their CD’s to stay "afloat", how much does the church need to retain in investments to be sure that the church does not go bankrupt in the future? This is an independent church. If cutbacks are needed in the church, should they be in employee positions, salaries, benefits, or in the ministries of the church?
At this difficult time in the economy, church positions should be all volunteer as much as possible. The pastor should do a significant salary cut of his salary and any remaining staff. Can the church find a cheaper place to rent for church space, like on Sundays only, like a school auditorium? I don’t think church tithes should be eliminated. My church gives 10% of the collection to nonprofit groups in the community who help the poor. Also, there should be some evangelism and money going to help Christian missionaries (this can be part of the 10% tithe.)
Seems to me the biggest investment a lot of churches have is the real estate and I wonder how much they really need all that space all week. If you can get out from under the mortgage and rent space for the Sunday service(s), have Bible study groups in homes, and do outreach in the community (feeding the poor, doing garage sales and giving to the poor, evangelizing at rest homes with Bible studies,
volunteering at nonprofit agencies that help the poor, etc.) then that sounds more like a church to me. Sounds like your church needs a revival.
The church isn’t the building– it’s a group of people seeking to worship God and help the community and world to know Him, and to glorify Him by helping others. What’s important? If you lose the building/church, you will then see this more clearly. What would Jesus do. A Lutheran.