Posted: December 18th, 2008 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Credit | Tags: Credit | No Comments »
Credit cards often get a bad rap, especially on personal finance blogs, but they can be a powerful tool when used properly. For small and medium size businesses, they can be a tremendous help. I’m not just talking about the credit aspect. Being able to purchase equipment and services on credit is important to be sure. But credit cards offer other benefits as well, and it’s not just consumer cards.
Business credit cards provide an excellent means of tracking what your money is spent on, as well as keeping tabs on employees expenses. The many tools offered by various business credit cards provide expense reporting for the business as well as individual employees. Most credit cards allow you to check your statements online and see your total expenditures up to the day, create quarterly reports to see where your spending fits with projected budgets, and generally categorize and analyze expenses. Want to know what you spent on gasoline, hotels, meals, travel, entertainment or office supplies? No problem. Just pull out the statement and check the summary.
Another cool aspect to business credit cards is that many offer rewards, just like consumer cards. Rewards like:
- 0% APR on purchases for 12 months
- No annual fee
- Unlimited employee credit cards with individual credit limits that you can set
- Cashback Bonuses on various purchases
- $0 Fraud Liability
Credit cards get a bad rap because of the fees and interest charges, but if you pay off the balance every month they are an excellent expense tracking and management tool – for the individual and business alike.
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Posted: December 17th, 2008 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Investing | Tags: Investing, Stock Market, Stocks | 4 Comments »
A market bottom is a long lasting, pervasive bottom that affects multiple sectors and stocks. These kinds of bottoms usually follow bubble bursts. Notable recent market bottoms include the ’87 market crash, ’90 Iraq war bottom, the 2000 dot-com bubble burst bottom, and the 2008 mortgage meltdown/credit crisis bottom. Note that the bottoms associated with the market crash may not have occurred in the same year as the crash. Case in point: the 2000 dot-com bubble bottom actually hit in 2002-2003.
Indicators of a market bottom:
1. Market sentiment.
If every one of the following conditions is met, it’s likely near a bottom:
- The economic pain makes the cover page of the NYT or USA Today. Ignore the business and financial news sections as they pay too much attention. You know sentiment is low when it’s in your face on the cover page.
- “Investors intelligence survey of money managers“. This survey is given by Investors Intelligence. It’s a counter-sign. When this poll is bearish, it may be a bottom. < 40% bulls is good. It can be found in the Investor’s Business Daily and every Thursday in papers, or you can get it at Market Harmonics here.
- Increased Mutual fund withdrawals. A steady increase of withdrawals from mutual funds for at least 2 months. This data is available on Fridays from AMG, in papers on Saturday or Monday.
- The VIX is up. The ^VIX (volatility index) is a measure of stress in system. If the VIX is over 40, panic is present and usually accompanies a bottom.
- -5 or lower on meisler oscillator indicator. This oscillator indicator is a measure of the relative over-bought or over-sold value of the market. When this indicator reaches -5 or lower, there has been a disproportionate amount of selling and this usually accompanies a market bottom. Unfortunately, this data is a paid service, but you can get more info about it and other oscillators at The Street and Investopedia.
2. Capitulation.
Market capitulation occurs with a crescendo sell off. The crescendo sell off is the final purging of the markets before stocks can begin rising again. Long time investors who had been holding out for a rebound finally throw in the towel and get out. Crescendo sell offs appear as an increased ratio of new lows to new highs. A good example would be 400-700 new lows, with only a handful of new highs.
3. Catalyst.
What will make the market go up? In 1991 and 2003 it was war with Iraq. Many times it is a rate cut by the Federal reserve. It’s often impossible to know what the catalyst will be, but once it happens it often seems like the only thing that could have happened and stocks take off. The trick is to be prepared, systematically invest in the market when all indications are that it is at or very near a bottom. Then whenever the catalyst appears, you will be ready to reap the rewards.
Market bottoms are an essential part of the stock market roller coaster. Many investors fear them and panic when they see their stocks plummet in value. The prudent investor uses Stops Loss orders to limit the carnage, and buys again at the bottom. It is the essence of buy low, sell high. Of course, the practice is much harder than the theory, but I think you will agree that having the theory and creating a plan to work from it is better than no plan at all.
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Posted: December 15th, 2008 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Reviews | 1 Comment »
Personal Finance cards from Nuru: a distinctive gift.
I received my Nuru Personal Finance cards from the giveaway at MoneyNing a few weeks ago (Thanks again David!)
I actually got the cards within 3 days of winning the giveaway. I’ve just been so busy, I haven’t been able to blog about until now.. Yeah, I know, the giveaway was forever ago, but I think these cards would make a great stocking stuffer and I’m hoping this is still a timely post 
The personal finance cards are an excellent primer on the basics, and totally portable. That’s the advantage of these cards over a book! They fit quite comfortably in the pocket of my jeans or jacket, and they’ve given me something to look at when I’m stuck in traffic and get tired of staring at all the lifeless faces stuck with me.
The cards cover:
- Financial Vehicles for Retirement Planning
The topics are laid out so that they build upon the previous topics, and have a nifty notation for cross referencing various topics on other cards.
They have a clip-ring to hold them together, so you’re not constantly dealing with a shuffled deck!
The company that makes them is Nuru (Knowledge for Real Life). They’ve got a bunch of other topics too like Fitness, First Aid, Automobiles Maintenance and more. Each deck sells for $7.50 – $10.00 and makes a unique stocking stuffer. Check them out Here
I think they would make an excellent gift for anyone who interested in learning more about personal finance, but isn’t going to sit down with a 200+ page book on the topic. In fact, these cards might just get such a person interested enough to eventually delve into a book.
They can also serve as a helpful reminder of the basics for someone who may have forgotten or just lost sight of the building blocks of proper personal finance.
Thanks again to MoneyNing and Nuru for the giveaway!
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Posted: December 12th, 2008 | Author: Joe | Filed under: Insurance | Tags: Auto Insurance, Saving Money | 2 Comments »
The following is a guest post from a friendly Insurance Advisor.
To protect your car from damages, having auto insurance is important for every individual. But with insurance rates rising higher, it becomes difficult for many to pay the monthly premiums regularly. To solve this problem, you can try out the 10 easy tips given below that will help you to reduce your auto insurance premiums:
1. Don’t buy an expensive car: The first step to reduce your auto insurance is to avoid buying an expensive car. As costly cars are more prone to theft and risks, they have higher insurance rates. Opt for a low profile vehicle to reduce your monthly premium.
2. Inquire about discount benefits: Many insurance companies offer special benefits to their customers. If you are a senior citizen, teenage policy holder or longtime customer of the company, you may enjoy discount benefits on premium. Ask your insurer if you are eligible to any special discount.
3. Drive less: If you are a private owner who drives less than average miles per year, you can qualify for the “low mileage discount” offered by many insurance companies. Ask your insurer to find out about this benefit.
4. Improve your car with safety gear: Insurance companies offer safety and security discounts to policy holders whose cars are equipped with protection measures such as air bags, automatic seat belts, anti-lock brakes, tracking system, car alarm and more.
5. Ask about the lowest market rate: Before you choose an insurance company, check the market rates. Different companies offer different insurance rates and benefits to attract customers. Online information can help you with details on various insurance companies. Decide carefully
6. Good credit report: If you have a good credit report, it can help you get a fair cut in the insurance costs. Companies ask for credit report to ensure that the policy holder will be able to pay his premiums on time. Insurers sometimes allow special benefits to policy holders producing a good credit report.
7. Make use of auto insurance online: Another easy way to reduce auto insurance cost is to buy the insurance online. Many companies offer discounts for policies availed through online. But before availing yourself of these services, always consult the insurance company for verification.
8. Buy more insurance from the same insurer: Every insurance company try to retain their customers for long time. So if you are planning to buy other insurance policies such as life insurance, heath insurance etc, buy it from the same insurer. Sometimes to retain and attract customers to more policies, the insurers offer special discounts.
9. Pay Annually: Insurance companies allow a reduction in costs for those policy holders who agree to pay the premium annually. Consult your insurer to get full details about this benefit that you can avail.
10. Look for group insurance discount: If you belong to certain professions such as engineers or doctors, you may get some insurance cost cut. Many insurance companies have special discounts for these people.
Always make sure to check out with the insurance company properly before availing insurance policy. Discuss with your insurer in details to find more ways to reduce your auto insurance.
For more information on auto insurance click here.
photo by Ian Hampton.
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