WEALTH BUILDING TIPS AND TRENDS

Income tax is something that all investors are faced with every day of their investing lives. As governments are struggling to make ends meet, increases in their funding are likely coming in the not so distant future. It is therefore more important than ever to know exactly where you are when it comes to how much you are currently paying for income tax.                                                             Real Costs to Investing  There are two major obstacles that everyone faces in everyday life. These are inflation and taxes. Inflation is not a major factor these days as interest rates etc. are very low. However, taxes are currently a major factor you must consider with every investment you make. For instance, do you know how much of your income your government will take from you before you file your yearly tax return...

The use of other people's money, also called financial leverage, can be a great tool for speeding up your growth of wealth. It can also, however, be a huge disaster if not done properly and at the right times.As with most things in the financial world, become educated before making the jump.                                                                 What is OPM To use other people's money you simply borrow money from your bank etc. for a promising investment. The money the bank lends you is their clients' money that is invested in savings accounts, term deposits, etc.Hence the term "other peoples' money". Borrowing to invest can make a lot of sense, especially in today's extremely low interest rate environment. For example, if you could buy an investment that paid you a dividend of around 8% or higher and you paid a...

It's no secret that many of the wealthiest people on this planet have made their fortunes through investing in Real Estate. There are many good reasons why every investor should consider Real Estate as a portion of their overall wealth building plan. One of the main reasons is that there is a finite amount of land on this planet. In other words there isn't any more of it being made. This should have the long term effect of gradual price increase. This does not mean however that there won't be setbacks along the way. This we have recently seen the in U.S. real estate market.                                                           Smoothing out the Market To smooth the ups and downs of the market, one way is to do your analysis based on how much income a property puts in your pocket each month. Of course, we are talking about revenue rea...

Have you ever noticed how people with a positive outlook make you feel better ? I think we all know someone who you just love being around because good things always seem to happen to them. Maybe you hope some of this good luck will rub off and make your day. On the other side of the coin are the people who always complain and never have a good thing to say about anyone or anything. These people are such a drain on your energy that you just want to stay as far away as possible. Most of us fall somewhere in between, sometimes positive , sometimes negative.                                                             Positives Attract Yes, positives attract and negatives repel. If you want to have good things happen to you, which polarity should you be ? Yes, positive of course. The same principle works with wealth creation as we...

Investing in the stock markets of the world is one of the most important things all individual investors should learn. Buying a stock is actually buying a piece of an active business venture. You will share in the profits of that business and will receive monthly or quarterly payments directly to your account. To receive these payments you do absolutely nothing except invest in the shares. Income producing stocks are truly the best way for the average person to multiply their income streams with very little time involved.                                                               How the Markets Work Stock markets are where shares of businesses are bought and sold. The value of these shares change constantly based on how much individual investors are willing to pay. There are many factors that determine the price of shares...

It seems that the more wealth you accumulate the more attention you attract from people in the business of selling investments. They all have the best opportunity to make you gobs of money in a short period of time. Or at least that's what they promote. In reality, most of these so called opportunities are very high risk investments and many are actually new ventures looking for start up capital. There is usually no track record of earning any income at all. What they try to do ( and they are very successful at it) is get investors excited about the opportunity. They show projections of what they think could happen given the parameters that they set. What they generally fail to point out is that there are no guarantees for the investors. Also, once you buy in it can be very difficult if not impossible to sell out if things go wrong.                                           ...

An old adage once said "your body is your temple" We must learn to respect our temple (bodies) in order to fully enjoy the fruits of our labor. What is the point of saving and investing and building a comfortable future if we neglect our health ? Think about what you would like to be doing once you become wealthy. Now think about looking at yourself in the mirror. What do you see ?  Will you be physically and mentally up to the challenge ? I have seen far too many individuals save and invest their entire lives only to fall ill soon after they are able to start enjoying their wealth. What a shame. What a tragedy.                                                                         What To Do You should start by doing an evaluation of where you are starting from today. Maybe you need to stop s...

Yes, I know it's a painful word for many, but before you run for the exit or click on another site, please hear me out. Budgeting. There I said it. Not so bad was it ? For those who have difficulty resisting temptation and therefore saving money, a budget may be just the thing to start them on the right path to becoming rich. As mentioned in a previous post, you have to know where your money is going every month.If you haven't done the exercise yet, it's time to go back and reread my previous post "How to Increase Your Savings - Know Where Your Money is Going" . The first step to developing a budget is to know where your money is currently being spent. Once you have an idea of where you are spending your money, add up all the categories and list them in order of importance. The ones at the top should be life's basic needs such as food, shelter (rent or mortgage payment, utilities, etc.- this does not include cable tv, cell phones etc.) and clothing. The ...

Mutual Funds have been around for many years. They have developed and adapted to the changing times.But are they really something you should invest your hard earned money into ? What mutual funds do is pool the money of many investors and purchase investments with this money. They could invest in stocks, bonds, Real Estate Investment Trusts, or many other forms of derivative securities. The individual investor has no control over what is purchased and what is sold. ( or when it is purchased and sold) The fund hires a manager to do all of this for the investors. These managers operate within guidelines that are set out when the fund is originally set up and must follow the rules. Mutual Funds are sold by a legal document called a Prospectus which every investor must read and understand before investing.                                                   ...