Have you ever wondered where to invest money that you have accumulated throughout your lifetime? If you have, then you are not alone. Today, thousands or even tens of thousands of individuals situated in the United States and all over the world are wondering the same. It is very difficult to make this decision since there are now numerous ways and means in investing ones money. There are so many businesses out there where you can invest your money. The most popular among these investing procedures is "stock investing".
Stock investing mainly focuses on the trading of stocks in the stock market. Trading stocks involves both the buying and selling of stocks. In order to gain the highest possible profit, stocks are bought at the cheapest or lowest price attainable. The investor will then wait for the right time when these stocks will be at the highest or most expensive price before actually selling it. The key in order to be able to buy at the cheapest and sell at the most expensive is to know the "fluctuation" of the prices. These fluctuations can be predicted by using the tried and tested stock market formulas that have been widely used since the last five decades.
The stock market must be taken into account as a whole. Therefore, a suitable and complete market analysis must be conducted in order to have adequate data and information of the stock market as a whole. This can be done with the aid of numerous stocks trading software widely that is widely available in the market as of today. All of the necessary computations together with the charts and tables that are needed in order to predict the market trend and the much anticipated "fluctuation" will be done by this kind of software. Time, effort and energy are thus saved whilst having accurate data and information at the same time.
So much about building wealth in real estate today assumes you wish to make a quick profit. Buy low, improve the property, put it on the market right away, sell it and make a quick profit. While that sounds good, things may not go the way you planned and you could end up losing money.
The reason for that is because real estate is really not designed for get rich quick schemes. It's a long term investment. Those who look at it that way usually outperform those that don't. Just look at how many have lost their fortunes during this recent real estate market downturn!
Instead, I'd like to offer an alternative based upon many people I've met growing up. These people didn't have super-high paying jobs. Most didn't have college educations. Most of these people had blue-collar jobs, carpenters, painters, etc. Yet all of them retired quite wealthy and with plenty of money. They did much better than those who pursued what was considered to be the conventional way to wealth.
Here's how they did it: They would buy a house that needed work and was priced below-market. They would move in and do repairs over a period of about 5-10 years. By this time they paid off the house in full. Since they didn't earn a substantial salary, that means they were very disciplined and took any extra money they had and used it to pay down the mortgage. They disliked interest because interest on money borrowed didn't help them build equity in the property. Once the property was paid off and fixed up, it was now ready for a tenant who would gladly pay top market rent for such a nicely updated property.
Next they would buy another property and do it all over again. By the time they retired, they owned five to ten free and clear units. Imagine if you took today's rental value and multiplied it by five or ten. You can see that this method provides plenty of income. And here's the best part: Rental income grows with inflation. This ends that problem I see so often with retirees: When they retire, their retirement income is abundant. But just five years down the road it no longer is enough forcing the retiree to seek other sources of income. Not so if you follow the plan I've just described. Obviously, you set aside some of the rental income in a fund to continually take care of the property when repairs are needed.
But here's the little known benefit to the get rich slow plan: When the real estate market gets slow, or if a tenant cannot pay the rent, because the property is owned free and clear it's not a huge financial drain. Investors who use this plan do great in either fast or slow real estate markets and very seldom see a collapse of their real estate holdings as is so common with the get rich quick folks.
If times really get tough, you can either borrow against the equity in the property or sell it outright. And because the property is owned free and clear, there are selling options not available to those who have to pay off a loan. For example you may be able to carry the financing for the buyer. That one option alone can open the door to more potential home buyers leading to a higher sales price.
It's rare, however to see the get rich slow people ever sell their properties, though. That's because whenever you sell, you trigger tax consequences. If you buy but never sell, taxation on your sales profits won't be an issue. Read more
A businessman who set up a joint venture with Michael Jackson to take ownership of Neverland Ranch has written an an open letter to Santa Barbara residents warning them that mourners are about to converge on their community, according to press reports. Thomas J. Barrack Jr. told residents that they must "prepare to accommodate Michael's family's wishes as they contemplate the location of his final resting place and their own return to the tranquil grounds of the Michael Jackson family compound." A viewing of Jackson's body is set to occur Friday at the 2,500-acre ranch within the Santa Barbara County limits.
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"Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the essential," Obama said as Senate Republicans stepped up their criticism of the bill's spending and pressed for additional tax cuts and relief for homeowners. He warned that failure to act quickly "will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession."
Democratic leaders have pledged to have legislation ready for Obama's signature by the end of next week.
While they concede privately they will have to accept some spending reductions along the way, conservative Republicans failed in their initial attempts to force deep cuts in the bill.
Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., who advanced the homebuyers tax break, said it was intended to help revive the housing industry, which has virtually collapsed in the wake of a credit crisis that began last fall.
The proposal would allow a tax credit of 10 percent of the value of new or existing residences, up to a $15,000 limit. Current law provides for a $7,500 tax break but only for first-time homebuyers.
Isakson's office said the proposal would cost the government an estimated $19 billion.
Democrats readily agreed to the proposal, although it may be changed or even deleted as the stimulus measure makes its way through Congress over the next 10 days or so.
Other GOP attempts to change the measure went down to defeat. The most sweeping of them, by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., failed on a mostly party-line vote of 36-61. It would have replaced the White House-backed legislation with a series of tax cuts on personal and business income and capital gains at the same time it made cuts passed during the Bush administration permanent.
"This bill needs to be cut down," Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said on the Senate floor. He cited $524 million for a State Department program that he said envisions creating 388 jobs. "That comes to $1.35 million per job," he added.
After days of absorbing rhetorical attacks, Obama and Senate Democrats mounted a counteroffensive against Republicans who say tax cuts alone can cure the economy.
Obama said the criticisms he has heard "echo the very same failed economic theories that led us into this crisis in the first place, the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems."
"I reject those theories and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change," said the president, who was elected with an Electoral College landslide last fall and enjoys high public approval ratings at the outset of his term.
Obama did not mention any Republicans by name, and most have signaled their support for varying amounts of new spending.
Even so, the president repeated his retort word for word in late afternoon, yet softened the partisan impact of his comments by meeting at the White House with senators often willing to cross party lines.
His first visitor was Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a moderate GOP lawmaker. Later he met with Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb.
"I gave him a list of provisions" for possible deletion from the bill, Collins told reporters outside the White House. Among them were $8 billion to upgrade facilities and information technology at the State Department and funds for combatting a possible outbreak of pandemic flu and promoting cyber-security. The latter two items, she said, are "near and dear to her," but belong in routine legislation and not an economic stimulus measure.
Collins and Nelson have been working on a list of possible spending cuts totaling roughly $50 billion, although they have yet to make details public.
In Palm Bay, Fla., a 563,000-person metro area on the central Florida coast, it's not just lush palm trees dotting the landscape--foreclosure signs are all over.
Partly to blame? The area's median home sale price has fallen by half since 2006, from $238,000 to $110,000, according to Trulia.com, an online real estate data provider. This has left many homeowners owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
As a result, almost 1,800 homes are in the process of being repossessed by lenders--twice as many houses as were sold in the six months between May and November.
And more foreclosures are inevitable as homeowners cut their losses and walk away from their mortgages. There are already so many empty homes that the city passed an ordinance two months ago requiring lenders to identify which abandoned properties they owned.
Farther south in Miami, it's a similar story. Online real estate data provider Zillow.com estimates that 96% of Miami's houses are losing value. Median sales prices were 22% lower than last year in the third quarter.
Out West, in Las Vegas, a crushing 98% of homes are losing value and foreclosures account for 45% of all transactions, according to Zillow.
All three top a list of the country's top 25 worst housing markets in 2009. Provo, Utah, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., round out the top five.
Behind the Numbers
To find them, we asked Moody's Economy.com to compile a list of the country's real estate markets that are furthest from recovery. Moody's looked at the country's Census-defined metro areas--including metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas--with populations over 500,000 and prepared forecasts through 2011. They then compared them with prices in the second quarter of 2008, the latest figures available, to calculate how far prices will likely fall before reaching bottom.
In Palm Bay, real estate values are expected to fall another 41.4% before bottoming late next year. Miami could be in for a similar decline, and Fort Lauderdale is forecast to drop another 30%.
There are more familiar names on the worst-off list: Los Angeles and Phoenix where foreclosure signs and half-built exurbs serve as constant reminders of the real estate frenzy that lead to this crisis.
In Las Vegas, where speculation moved out of the casinos and into the property market, prices have another 43% to lose, according to Moody's.
In Phoenix, too many houses and too much speculation sent property prices into a tailspin two years ago. But the bottom may be in sight late this year--after another 31% drop.
Tucson, Ariz., also looks like it's close to flattening out--after an estimated 33% fall by the end of next year.
For other towns on our list, there's still plenty of time to get 'em while they're cold. Most of these troubled markets--including Santa Ana, Calif.,Orlando, Fla., and Jacksonville, Fla.,--won't even start to recover until next year or the year after.
That's even though real estate prices, on average, across the country should hit bottom by the end of this year, according to Moody's forecasts, after an average 15% drop.
It's not just the cities already facing massive foreclosures that are poised to further stumble; this year the gloom is spreading to the country's second-home markets.
Many of these places were doing well until recently as retiring boomers and investors bought property where they played. But the market for second homes followed Wall Street into a deep dive last year. Because the downturn hit many of these markets late, the worst is yet to come.
Just over a year ago, for example, property prices in Salt Lake City were still rising, even though they were falling just about everywhere else.
By the third quarter of 2007, the median home sold for $247,000 versus $203,000 in 2006. Prices haven't fallen much yet; the median price in late 2008 was $230,000, according to the National Association of Realtors.
But Salt Lake City, which is surrounded by some of the best ski resorts in the West, is just starting to feel the effects of the drop-off in second-home buying. Prices are set to fall 29% over the next two years, according to Moody's forecasts.
Provo, Utah, and Boise City, Idaho, are also headed down with the drop in nearby ski home sales, says Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com.
Honolulu hurt by the drop in buyers from Asia and California, is beginning a long and slow descent, with real estate prices forecast to drop 31% before hitting bottom in 2011.
There is another region where the worst may be to come: New York City-area metros. Housing values in Newark, N.J., could fall 26%.
Likewise, Edison, N.J., is also among the mid-sized metro areas expected to see the steepest drops this year. But the worst could be over by the end of 2009 for New York's satellite cities.
Manhattan, now at the epicenter of the financial crisis, is noticeably absent from the top 25 weakest markets list. So far, the city has been isolated from the popping bubbles in the rest of the country.
Property prices were rising in Manhattan until early last year. Zandi believes Manhattan could be spared a steep drop. He expects a fall of around 20%. Even if big bankers lose their bonuses, "Manhattan is still supported by international demand," he says.
That prediction may prove conservative. The value of new contracts signed have already dipped 15% to 20% in the fourth quarter, according to a Beige Book report from the U.S. Federal Reserve last month.
The report said much of the activity came from "desperate sellers," so it may not be a fair gauge of where prices will go from here.
Of course, that depends on how many more sellers become desperate.
