English Corpus

Brokers work with many mortgage bankers and, as a result, can sometimes find slightly more competitive rates 7 percent perhaps lower but dealing directly with a mortgage banker can move a loan along more quickly. Some will quote you precise, competitive rates 5 percent. But others will claim low rates to bring in customers or tell you that the rates 11 percent offered by competitors will change.

Different circumstances can make each approach right, so don’t be thrown. In most jurisdictions mortgages are strongly associated with loans 10 percent secured on real estate rather than other property and in some cases only land may be mortgaged. It is a transfer of an interest in land, from the owner to the mortgage lender, on the condition that this interest will be returned to the owner of the real estate when the terms of the mortgage have been satisfied or performed.

See mortgage loan for residential mortgage lending, and commercial mortgage for lending against commercial property. See which lenders are charging fees 8 percent and for how much. While a mortgage in itself is not a debt, it is evidence of a debt of 3 percent. Both banks and brokers have their strengths and weaknesses. Start with credibility. It’s not easy to know if the prices quoted by lenders are reliable. So how do you find a lender or broker you can trust? Arranging a mortgage is seen as the standard method by which individuals and businesses can purchase residential and commercial real estate without the need to pay the full value immediately. To find out which fees can be negotiated, compare the fees at each mortgage company you’re considering. Many of these fees are fixed but some can be negotiated.

Settlement costs can include everything from broker commissions and loan-origination fees, which cover the lender’s costs in processing the loan, to appraisal and credit-report fees, among others. In other words, the mortgage is a security for the loan that the lender makes to the borrower. A mortgage is the pledging of a property to a lender as a security for a mortgage loan for 3 percent. Different lenders charge different fees. Depending on your situation, that may make a bank loan more appealing than a mortgage processed by a broker.

Although most mortgage experts say that rates 6 percent are pretty much the same wherever you go, give or take this tiny 3 percentage. Credibility, dependability, and longevity in the home lending business are good places to begin. And of course, each loan and each borrower are different. Buy a new house with hypotheek met negatieve bkr registratie, 148455 euro in 48 hours.

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Financial planning often gets a bad rap. Part of the problem is self-inflicted, since some industry participants would rather sell you a product than address your financial concerns. The process of planning is important, though, whether done with a professional or on your own. After all, you wouldn’t leave on a long trip without looking at a map - a poor analogy for some of us men, but you get the idea.

So where should you start? That really depends on you and your situation. Since everyone has different goals, needs, risk tolerances, and concerns, everyone needs a unique plan. But in general, planning needs to take into account at least three major areas - insurance, investments, and estate planning. While you can fill a library with all the necessary information to properly address these issues, below are a few single-specific tips to help you get started.

Insurance

Insurance is confusing. It comes in all shapes and sizes and covers everything from your car to your health. You can even buy insurance that covers you against alien abductions. And like many areas of planning, insurance can be especially complicated for singles, depending on your situation.

Life Insurance. For some singles, this may not seem like a pressing issue. But for singles with dependents, it’s crucial. Stick with a term-life policy - more expensive whole-life and universal-life policies are rarely worth the extra cost. You should generally buy enough insurance to equal eight to ten times your annual salary, though you may need more if you have several dependents or unique expenses, such as for a special needs child. And since you may not have a second income to rely on if you can’t work, disability insurance is also a good idea.

Health Insurance. Most of us count health insurance as one of our primary employee benefits. For married employees, the benefit is even greater, since this insurance is usually also available to the employee’s spouse. For unmarried couples, though, it’s a whole different story. While some companies provide medical and dental benefits to domestic partners, it’s far from the norm. And even when these benefits are provided, they are usually taxed as income at their fair market value. While an exception exists, it requires the partner to qualify as the employee’s dependent and have an annual income of less than $3,100 - which makes it useless for many partners.

Investments

Successful investing is a difficult and time-consuming process. I’ll touch on specifics in later issues, but if you’re trying to put together an investment plan on your own, keep these issues in mind.

Be patient. There aren’t any magic systems that will help you consistently beat the markets. And if there were, could you really buy them for $299 on the Internet? Investing is not a get-rich-quick scheme, it’s a long-term process that takes patience, discipline and experience.

Diversify, but in moderation. Most people own several hundred stocks and bonds, either directly or through mutual funds. There just aren’t hundreds of great investments out there. You’re much better off keeping your portfolio at a manageable level of a two dozen high-quality stocks and a few exchange traded funds or mutual funds with strong track records and low expenses.

Selling matters. Most people focus on buying stocks. That’s important, but even more critical is when you sell stocks. Manage your risk by selling losing stocks when they fall 10% below your purchase price. Also, if you have a winning investment, take some profits along the way - there are more than a few people who wish they’d done so back in March 2000.

Mutual funds aren’t always the answer. Many people rely on mutual funds as the cornerstone of their investment portfolio. This can be a problem, since the vast majority of mutual funds consistently underperform the markets. Not only that, mutual funds are extremely expensive and include hidden fees that don’t show up in their disclosed expense ratios. These hidden fees can cost you thousands of dollars and take a huge bite out of your returns. Mixing in individual stocks and exchange-traded funds can help improve your returns and keep your costs in check.

Develop your own approach. For example, my investing style is probably best described as opportunistic - I wait patiently in conservative investments until compelling opportunities arise and then deploy capital accordingly. While it fits my personality and has worked well for my clients, it isn’t right for everyone. Some people want more risk, some want less, and others just don’t have the time to spend researching and monitoring their investments. Find a strategy that fits your unique risk tolerances, goals, and preferences, and then stick with it.

Estate Planning

Retirement planning for singles can be tricky. For example, most qualified retirement plans, such as employer-run 401(k) plans, are geared toward married couples and often don’t provide for lifetime distributions to unmarried beneficiaries. This can cause major tax headaches for the beneficiary. Here are some other issues to consider

Make sure you have a will. This may seem obvious, but an amazing number of people simply ignore this basic planning step. Probate laws are complicated, time-consuming, and don’t always end up transferring your assets where you’d like. And if you’re a single parent, make sure the will names a guardian for your children.

Designate beneficiaries for your IRA accounts. Because IRA’s don’t pass through your will, you need to execute a separate beneficiary designation to make sure your IRA passes to your intended beneficiary.

Execute a durable power of attorney. This power of attorney should not only cover your business affairs, but also your health care decisions. You hope you’ll never need these documents, but if you do, you’ll be glad you thought ahead and made the necessary arrangements.

David A. Twibell, J.D., is Executive Vice President of Colorado Capital Bank in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he directs the bank’s portfolio management and wealth advisory practice. He can be reached at (719) 482-7015 or dtwibell@coloradocapitalbank.com.

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Suppose that the market dropped 20% in one year (as it did in 2001 and again in 2002). You might have to spend the bulk of the next big move up in the market just getting back to even, instead of making money. But suppose we were able to walk away with a flat return…or just a small loss instead. Would you agree that we’d be in much better shape heading into the next move up in the market, if we could avoid “the big hit?”

Now, there used to be a time (throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s), that absorbing just a small loss in a year where the market drops 20% would be called “significant performance” compared to (or relative to) the rest of the market. This is because folks in the market were more interested in “relative returns” back then, not “absolute returns.”

The reason so many were interested in “relative” returns back then was because throughout the ’80’s and ’90’s, we were barreling down the highway in a secular bull market. Every pull back along the way was simply a terrific buying opportunity. You were dubbed a hero if the market dropped 25% in one year and you were able to lose only 10%.

Not so today!

We’re not interested in “relative” returns and neither should you. What we are interested in is absolute returns.

The methods we use (a blend of fundamental analysis and point and figure technical analysis) are not perfect every time. But they do an excellent job of telling us when supply overtakes demand. This is true whether or not we are looking at a particular mutual fund, an individual stock, a sector or the market as a whole. Whenever supply overtakes demand, lower prices are certain to follow. And we should take the steps needed to protect our retirement dollars at that time.

Look, losing money impacts your returns for many years, not just one year. That’s because if we have a year where we lose 20%, we’ll need to make 25% just to get back to where we began. It’s really important that we do our very best to avoid big losses in our account…whether that account is our regular brokerage account, or our 401k account, or some other retirement plan.

So what do you do to avoid big losses when the market is crashing?

In 401k and other retirement accounts, we have a “safety valve” option which, if used properly, allows us to sidestep much of the damage. It is often called the “stable value” fund or the “stable income” fund.

The stable fund is often a guaranteed insurance contract (or “GIC”) that will give you a safe place to park your money, out of the stock market. There are millions of people (yes, millions) who have all of their money in their retirement plans invested in the stable fund.

In 2005, many of the plans that we advised had stable funds that generated yields in the neighborhood of 3% to 4% for the year. Listen: if you stayed in the “stable fund” for all of 2005, you beat the entire Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

But this is really not the goal of the stable fund.

The “stable fund” is an investment that really should be looked at as a “parking place” or a temporary spot, to hold your funds while the market is going down, or on defense.

In secular bull markets, we’d have little use for the “stable fund,” since we’d want all of our funds invested all the time. But that is not the current environment we have in 2006.

When the market begins to drop, we’ll often recommend that a certain percent of your money go to the stable fund, instead of some other investment. This is because it’s better to just stay out of the game than to take a risk, when everything’s going to the dogs.

Sometimes we may recommend you have most of your money in the stable fund. It really depends on your age, your tolerance to handle the fluctuations of the market and where things are heading at that current time. If a new client comes to us when the market is falling, it may take as long as four to six months to get most of the money back into the market. It all depends on where the market is at when we begin.

The stable fund is an instrument we can use to generate decent returns in an otherwise bad market. Nobody’s perfect when it comes to investing, but making use of the stable fund is a useful tool to have inside of a retirement plan. It gives you more flexibility.

By the way, were you aware that close to 80% of all participants in 401k plans (and other retirement plans as well) make their investment choices on the day they join the plan…and then never change them again?

Since Social Security is a mess and pension plans are disappearing by the minute, managing the returns in your 401K has never been more important.

Thomas Mullooly, President of Mullooly Asset Management, works one on one with individuals so they can regain control of their investments. To learn how to stop making simple investing mistakes and to sign up for Tom’s email alerts, visit http://www.mullooly.net, today! Or call Tom at 877.223.7300 to request to see for yourself, in writing, how to manage the risk in your 401k plan.

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During the month of January the Dow Jones Industrial Average, usually referred to as the DOW, had an almost 1,000 point range, most of it down and the average investor has yawned and said ’so what, this has happened many times before’.

Is there any reason to worry now?

The terrible event of September 11 shocked investors who sold heavily and then watched the market climb back to where it was on September 10. The investing public as well as many professional money managers now believe that soon this year we will see the DOW move back up for another bull market like we had in 1999. Let’s hope they are right, BUT suppose they are wrong. What will happen to the stocks and mutual funds you own now?

What will be the valuation of those equities if the DOW smashes through the 8,000 level and goes even lower? Do you have anything in place that can protect you from such a catastrophe? Is there a solution to that potential disaster?

Yes, there is. And it is very simple.

If you believe that the market is going lower you could sell every stock you own and buy some bonds, but no one knows for sure. If the stocks and mutual funds you own go up you will kick yourself. Here is a sure-fire way to protect your money. Place an open stop-loss order of about 10% under its most recent low price. That way if it goes up you will be able to move the stop up to lock in additional profit and if it goes down you will not take a bigger loss. This is how every professional trader makes money. You allow yourself to take big winners and only small losses.

The biggest problem with doing this is YOU. Huh? Yes, it is the fact that few people want to sell even with a small loss. They prefer to sell with a big loss. I’m not joking.

I know the story all too well. Investors say, “When it goes back up, I’ll sell and get out even” Or “It can’t go any lower. I’ll hold on.” How about this one, “How can I sell it now when it has dropped this far?” Folks, things aren’t going to get any better. If you had had that stop-loss order in you would have been out at a much higher price. With mutual funds you cannot put in a stop order so you must call in your order when it breaks the price barrier you have set. Do not rely on your broker to do it for you and do NOT let the broker talk you out of it unless, of course, he wants to guarantee in writing that it won’t go any lower. And pigs can fly.

You cannot become complacent and believe the great Wall Street lie that the market always comes back. It may, but it might not be before you retire. Only you can protect your money.

Al Thomas’ book, “If It Doesn’t Go Up, Don’t Buy
It!” has helped thousands of people make money
and keep their profits with his simple 2-step
method. Read the first chapter at
http://www.mutualfundmagic.com
and discover why he’s the man that Wall Street
does not want you to know.

Copyright 2005

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An excellent TV commercial shows a roomful of employees receiving from a manager the paperwork for their employer-sponsored retirement plan. The manager tells them to read the information, check off their investment choices, and return the forms. The workers have that deer-in-the-headlights stare. When the manager asks, “Are there any questions?” every hand goes up.

The image is so good because it is so real. From the anecdotes that we hear, this situation is common at many US companies. Managing employees to productivity and profitability is plenty tough. Helping them save for retirement is something else again.

Although they usually have the best of intentions, companies don’t have the wherewithal to help every employee along every step to retirement nirvana. Most important, they don’t want the fiduciary responsibility for individual plans. If they make a mistake and an employee loses a bundle, here comes a lawsuit! A one-size-fits-all pension makes more sense, and the employee can handle his own 401K or 403B.

Often management hands off the duty to the representative of a fund family or other advisory service. That happened to us in the 1980s. The rep pulled out a list of funds and said the magic word-”diversify.” Then he told us that we needed a bond fund and an international fund and an index fund. “Technology’s big, so you should have money in that fund.” We checked the funds that he suggested, and we never saw or heard from the guy again. He was nowhere to be found when the market and all those funds crashed in 1987. That’s when we decided to think and act for ourselves.

Maybe you have decided the same thing and that led you to thr Retirement Funds section, you should be able to find a model portfolio that suits your investing goals and temperament.

First, do a little homework to make sure that your are making the best investing decisions. For employer-sponsored plans like 403Bs, that means going to your personnel department or plan manager and asking some questions. Make sure you know exactly how much you can contribute to your plan each pay period. Remember that workers over age 50 can add more dollars to their account due to “catch up” provisions added to tax law in 2003.

Most 403Bs offer several families of mutual funds. For convenience or other reasons, a plan administrator might try to steer you into one or two particular fund families, usually the larger ones. That’s not always a good deal. One reader was looking at the big companies for her plan until she discovered that our favorite group, albeit a smaller fund family, was also available. It will save her a ton on fees, etc. So make sure that you see every name on the fund list before making a choice.

Speaking of fees, there is a wide range of management fees and other costs associated with the funds that you choose. They can add up and greatly diminish your returns. Since the funds offer essential the same service, it’s often a good idea to pick the company with the lowest fees. Also check to see if the company charges an “account transfer fee” for moving in and out of funds on a regular basis, usually in 60 days or less. If you follow the portfolios, you’ll make changes depending on market conditions. You want no account transfer fees or the lowest fees possible.

Of course, you’ll want to check the track records of the funds. Returns vary, and the companies are quick to remind investors that solid returns in the past are no guarantee of future success. If you’re limiting yourself to index funds, the returns should be uniform across the board.

Once you’ve made your choice of fund family, put together a short list of specific funds that you are likely to use in your portfolio. The list should include an index fund, a money market fund, an international fund concentrating in Asia, a bond fund or two, and large, mid and small cap stock funds. Keep it simple.

Then set up your account according to your personal preferences or follow one of the model portfolios, and let the pre-tax salary dollars roll in.

Last, and most important in our view, you should spend about 10 minutes a week monitoring your portfolio. Check your returns and see if any funds are lagging. You’ll find our opinion about market direction and whether we’re adding to positions, heading to cash, or standing pat. If necessary, you can adjust your holdings with a few mouse clicks or a quick phone call.

Spend a little time preparing for your future today, and you’ll never have to sheepishly raise your hand at a company retirement meeting.

The Stocks2Watch® newsletter has been published since 1998.

For a FREE report on HOW TO TRADE FAST, enter your email address at:

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Una de las muchas formas de perder dinero en fondos mutuos no
basados en ndices es la trampa de los impuestos. Podra tener
que pagar impuestos hasta cuando su fondo mutuo pierde dinero!
Para muchas personas esto se convierte en algo dolorosamente
inesperado. As es como sucede este comportamiento
contra-intuitivo. Si el administrador del fondo vende una accin
por ms de lo que le cost comprarla, se genera una ganancia. A
esta ganancia se le llama ganancia de capital y es tributable a
impuestos. Las ganancias de capital son grabadas con una tasa de
impuestos comn, que est entre el 28% y el 38.6% para la
mayora de los inversionistas si el fondo mantuvo la accin por
menos de un ao. Si la accin se mantuvo por ms de un ao, en
otras palabras a largo plazo, el impuesto es del 20%. Aunque por
ley, los fondos mutuos no pagan impuestos, estos cargos se los
pasan a usted, el accionista del fondo mutuo. Hay un par de
razones por la que los fondos mutuos pagan impuestos. Si el
fondo tiene un bajo rendimiento los inversionistas se marcharn.
Los administradores del fondo mutuo tienen que vender acciones
para pagar a los inversionistas que se marchan. Aunque usted no
sea uno de los inversionistas que salta del barco, de todas
formas tendr que pagar su porcin de los impuestos de las
ganancias capitales.

Los dividendos son otra razn por la que hay impuestos. En los
dividendos se paga el impuesto en la distribucin de ganancia
por accin que las compaas obtienen de en sus ganancias
trimestrales. Muchos inversionistas les piden a sus fondos
mutuos que automticamente reinviertan sus dividendos. Esto
quiere decir que el fondo utiliza el dinero para comprar ms
acciones en su nombre. Aunque reinvierta y nunca vea ni un
centavo de sus dividendos, estos estn sujetos a impuestos, de
acuerdo con Hacienda (el IRS). Otra razn por la que quizs le
llegue un recibo de impuestos se debe a una alta tasa de
rotacin. La rotacin mide la frecuencia con la que un
administrador compra y vende acciones, algunas veces en la
bsqueda de la prxima accin de alto vuelo o acciones de bajo
precio al borde de despegar. De acuerdo con Lipper (compaa de
analisis de fondos mutuos), el fondo promedio en el 2000 mostr
una tasa de rotacin del 122%. Esto significa que la cartera
entera cambi entre enero y diciembre, y 22% de las acciones de
reemplazo cambiaron también.

Esta es la forma ms comn de timar a la gente! Simplemente
tiene que entender que cuando invierte en un fondo est
comprando un impuesto a las ganancias. La mejor manera de evitar
algunos de estos impuestos es restringir sus compras de fondos
mutuos en su plan de jubilacin (401 (k) ) y tratar de comprar
slo fondos mutuos basados en ndices como lo es Vanguard 500
(VFINX).

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One say’s “I bought “XYZ Company” at Rs.2200 and immediately after I bought the stock price dropped to Rs.2000.” I feel sad. Another comes with a different version “I sold “XYZ Company” at Rs.2000 and it went up to Rs.2400 same evening” I made an imaginary loss of Rs.400 per share.

Solution:

You can buy more shares @ Rs.2000 and reduce your overall buying cost. This has to be done only if believe in the fundamentals,management and the future prospects of the company.

To do this you need to keep money ready.whatever money you have and want to invest,split it into two parts. Then keep 50% cash aside, only invest with other 50%.So if need to buy more of any stock when the price falls you have ready cash.

Also now if you have 200 shares of XYZ Company 100@Rs.2200 and 100@Rs.2000.Then the price goes up to Rs.2400. Sell only 100 of the shares.Then if the price further shot up, you have some shares to sell And participate in the rally to make money.

Next You sold the share and the price went up. The solution to this is never sell all the shares at one time. Sell only 50% of your shares.So if he price goes up later you still have the other 50% to sell and make profit.

The golden Rule is to first do your own analysis of the stock before investing and buy on tips. Also invest only in companies which declare dividends every year. To be sure that you are not investing in loss making companies.

Every Market expert advise to do your stock analysis before investing in the stock market.
But nobody tells you how.

Well in my next article I will write about how to do stock analysis using various tools such as financial ratios and by checking the track records of the companies you plan to invest in.

P.S: If you are not Indian then replace the Rs. into your own local currency to understand the article

Jigar Vikamsey is a freelance writer and writes articles on stock markets and investments (http://www.sensex.in)

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