Thursday, February 28, 2008

Great Discovery: Zenni Optical $8 Glasses








Today I luckily saw a Great Discovery: Zenni Optical $8 Glasses where you can find all type of prescription sunglasses, lenses, frames for the care of your eye at very low prices even you can buy the Zenni Optical $ 8 Rx Eyeglasses which I think very cheap, Best Thing found: Zenni Optical $8 Glasses that there is no middle man for selling the product, through this, this site seeld product directly to the customer. So check this site for Prescription Glasses, rames, with single vision lens, sunsensor (potochromic)lens, tinted suglasses lens, bifocal lens and progressive lens etc.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Investing Basics - What are your investment objectives?

When it comes to investment, many first time investors want to spend in both feet. Unfortunately, very few of these investors are successful. Investing in any requires a certain expertise. It is important to remember that few investments are one thing sure, there is the risk of losing your money!

Before you jump right in, it is better not to know more about the investment and how it works, but also to determine what are your goals. What do you hope to achieve with your investments? Will you be financing a college education? Buying a house? Retirement? Before investing a single penny, really think about what you hope to achieve with this investment. Knowing what your goal is to help you make investment decisions along the road!

Too often, people invest money with the dream of becoming rich overnight. This is possible - but it is also rare. It is usually a bad idea to begin investing in the hope of becoming rich overnight. It is safer to put your money so that it will grow slowly over time, and can be used for retirement or a child to education. However, if your goal is to get rich quick investments, we must get the highest yield, short-term investment as possible before investing.

We recommend that you speak to a financial planner before making any investments. Your financial planner can help you determine the type of investment that you need to do to achieve the financial goals that you have defined. He or she can give you information realistic about what kind of performance you can expect and how long it will take to achieve your goals.

Again, it should be noted that the investment of more than call a broker and say you want to buy stocks or bonds. It takes a certain amount of research and knowledge on the market to expect to invest successfully.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Basics to Share Market investments

Lots of people are interested to invest in share market,majority of them doesnt know about it properly.For those people just read and understand the basics given below

What is a share?

A share is a share in the share Capital of a company. If that sound too
complicated it simply means by owning a share, you are one of those
millions of owners that own the company. Everyone who owns a share is an
owner of the company but he/she is not the sole owner as every
shareholder is only a part owner. Once you are a shareholder you get all the
benfits an owner of a company would get.

How does one become a shareholder?
To be a shareholder one has to buy shares from the market. It is not
possible for everyone to run around the place shouting out that they want
to buy/sell shares. So to facilitate this process we have something
called exchanges. So if one wants to buy and sell the shares he/she has to
go through the stock exchanges. We have many stock exchanges in India
out of these the Bombay Stock Exchange is one of the oldest stock
exchange not only in India but also in Asia. We also have the National Stock
Exchange which is Located in Mumbai (Bandra Kurla Complex) where
sharetrading can take place. Now it is also not feasible for millions to
visit the comparitively small buildings of the stock exhcange to buy and
sell shares. So we have middlemen called brokers. Brokers buy and sell
shares on behalf of a shareholder. Brokers do a good job but at times
they are mainly responsible for the fraud that takes place in the stock
markets. So to monitor them we have a governing body called SEBI
(Securities and Exchange Board of India) Therefore if you have any problems
whatsoever with your broker dont worry!! just visit
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sharetrading/links we have a lot of
usefull links there, and one of them is complain to SEBI. Click on the link
fill in the details and complain online to SEBI and they will help you
out.
Some years back if one bought a share he would receive the share
certificate of the company physically. But nowadays it is in the electronic
format. If you have heard the word demat account quite a few times and
wondering what it is, to simplify it, I would call it an electronic
plastic bag wherein you put your share certificates (also other debt
instruments, securities and commercial paper). All demat accounts are held by
National Securities Depository Ltd. or NSDL http://www.nsdl.co.in/
Your broker who opened the demat account has to report to NSDL all the
details of the account and your details as well. Nowadays they are pretty
strict therefore your broker may ask you many details while opening an
account. Even a small thing like a change in the address if quite a
procedure. Things get tedious if you are an NRI.

What do I need to trade?
So to trade online one would need a Bank account, demat account and an online trading account. You may open an online trading account with
online portals. The famous ones are,
ICICI Direct
5 paisa
Sharekhan
Geojit

you may chose the one you desire put your money in the bank account and
start buying and selling shares.

Insurance as an investment

Agreed, insurance may not be the best place to invest your hard-earned money. But there are sufficient reasons for one to believe that it can be a highly lucrative avenue to facilitate savings. People often talk about yield on investment and tend to compare their values with those available on various insurance schemes. This is particularly typical within the Indian sub-continent where one conveniently forgets the element of risk covered by life insurance.

It is extremely unfair to compare the performance of insurance against other investments without considering the core features of insurance. The very essence of insurance is to protect your family from the uncertainty of your life. Hence it proves very logical to evaluate the costs involved towards this feature. Ask yourself this question

When you pay insurance premium for your car, do you get anything if fortunately no mishap happens? This means that you spent the amount to secure a valuable property.
Hence you must accept that out of the total amount paid by you for your life insurance, a certain amount is used for providing the risk cover and only the balance can be utilised as savings.

In other words, the total premium you pay minus the amount evaluated as the cost of insurance must be considered as the amount invested to get the maturity amount. If you calculate the yield from returns, you will be in for a surprise.

Now how do you compare the yield in such a situation? Is it 100 % or 1000 % or more?

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Invest in Government and corporate bonds

Most people know about the basics of investing in the stock market but many people are puzzled as to what bonds are. In one word a bond is a loan. The loans can be form the federal government, a federal agency, municipality, or corporation. When you purchase bonds you are lending your money to whomever you buy the bonds from. In return for lending them your money you are paid a fixed rate of interest over a set period of time. When the bond matures the investor’s money is usually returned with the earned interest included. Bonds are like stocks because they are both traded. Therefore you can buy the bonds after they are originally issued while at the same time you can sell bonds before they mature. Bond prices are subject to volatility in relation to market conditions.

When a person is issued a bond they are basically promised to get their money back. Bondholders are paid before anyone else, even stockholders and creditors if the company runs into hard times or goes bankrupt. Bonds give you a stream of income based on their rate of return. Bonds are usually much less volatile then stocks are. Bonds also can provide a tax break because municipal and government bonds are sometimes exempt from state and federal taxes.

The main disadvantage to bonds is that they generally have lower returns than stocks and mutual funds. Bonds are like stocks because their prices are sensitive to interest rates as well. Bonds also carry with them some heavy terminology, which can be confusing and hard to understand.

Type of Bonds:

Government Bonds

The U.S. Department of Treasury and other federal agencies issue treasuries and federal agency bonds. Treasuries are basically risk free because the U.S. government backs them. They are issued to help finance all of the costs involved in operating the government. Municipal Bonds – State and local governments to help pay for schools, streets, highways, hospitals, bridges, airports, and other public works issue municipal bonds. You usually don’t have to pay federal taxes on the interest earned from municipal bonds.

Corporate Bonds

Corporate bonds are issued by businesses to help pay for business expenses. There are a ton of different corporate bonds available all with their own interest rates, maturities, and credit ratings. Corporate bonds are generally higher risk bonds in comparison to municipal and government bonds. They also have a higher rate of return than municipal and government bonds. However you do have to pay taxes on the interest earned from corporate bonds. Municipal bonds are issued by more than 50,000 state and local governments and their agencies to fund projects such as schools, streets, highways, hospitals, bridges, and airports.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Mutual Funds

Mutual Funds are among the hottest favourites with all types of investors. Investing in mutual funds ranks among one of the preferred ways of creating wealth over the long term. In fact, mutual funds represent the hands-off approach to entering the equity market. There are a wide variety of mutual funds that are viable investment avenues to meet a wide variety of financial goals. This section explains the various aspects of Mutual Funds.

What are Mutual Funds ?
A Mutual Fund is a trust that pools together the savings of a number of investors who share a common financial goal. The fund manager invests this pool of money in securities -- ranging from shares and debentures to money market instruments or in a mixture of equity and debt, depending upon the objectives of the scheme.

Why choose Mutual Funds ?

Investing in Mutual Funds offers several benefits:

  • Professional expertise:
    Fund managers are professionals who track the market on an on-going basis. With their mix of professional qualification and market knowledge, they are better placed than the average investor to understand the markets.
  • Diversification:
    Since a Mutual Fund scheme invests in number of stocks and/or debentures, the associated risks are greatly reduced.
  • Relatively less expensive:
    When compared to direct investments in the capital market, Mutual Funds cost less. This is due to savings in brokerage costs, demat costs, depository costs etc.
  • Liquidity:
    Investments in Mutual Funds are completely liquid and can be redeemed at their Net Assets Value-related price on any working day.
  • Transparency:
    You will always have access to up-to-date information on the value of your investment in addition to the complete portfolio of investments, the proportion allocated to different assets and the fund manager’s investment strategy.
  • Flexibility:
    Through features such as Systematic Investment Plans, Systematic Withdrawal Plans and Dividend Investment Plans, you can systematically invest or withdraw funds according to your needs and convenience.
  • SEBI regulated market:
    All Mutual Funds are registered with SEBI and function within the provisions and regulations that protect the interests of investors. AMFI is the supervisory body of the Mutual Funds industry.
Types of Funds

There are a wide variety of Mutual Fund schemes that cater to your needs, whatever your age, financial position, risk tolerance and return expectation. Whether as the foundation of your investment program or as a supplement, Mutual Fund schemes can help you meet your financial goals. The different types of Mutual Funds are as follows:

Diversified Equity Mutual Fund Scheme
A mutual fund scheme that achieves the benefits of diversification by investing in the stocks of companies across a large number of sectors. As a result, it minimizes the risk of exposure to a single company or sector.

Sectoral Equity Mutual Fund Scheme
A mutual fund scheme which focuses on investments in the equity of companies across a limited number of sectors -- usually one to three.

Index Funds
These funds invest in the stocks of companies, which comprise major indices such as the BSE Sensex or the S&P CNX Nifty in the same weightage as the respective indice.

Equity Linked Tax Saving Schemes (ELSS)
Mutual Fund schemes investing predominantly in equity, and offering tax deduction to investors under section 80 C of the Income Tax Act. Currently rebate u/s 80C can be availed up to a maximum investment of Rs 1,00,000. A lock-in of 3 years is mandatory.

Monthly Income Plan Scheme
A mutual fund scheme which aims at providing regular income (not necessarily monthly, don't get misled by the name) to the unitholder, usually by way of dividend, with investments predominantly in debt securities (upto 95%) of corporates and the government, to ensure regularity of returns, and having a smaller component of equity investments (5% to 15%)to ensure higher return.

Income schemes
Debt oriented schemes investing in fixed income securities such as bonds, corporate debentures, Government securities and money market instruments.

Floating-Rate Debt Fund
A fund comprising of bonds for which the interest rate is adjusted periodically according to a predetermined formula, usually linked to an index.

Gilt Funds - These funds invest exclusively in government securities.

Balanced Funds
The aim of balanced funds is to provide both growth and regular income as such schemes invest both in equities and fixed income securities in the proportion indicated in their offer documents. They generally invest 40-60% in equity and debt instruments.

Fund of Funds
A Fund of Funds (FoF) is a mutual fund scheme that invests in other mutual fund schemes. Just as fund invests in stocks or bonds on your behalf, a FoF invests in other mutual fund schemes.


Source: www.bajajcapital.com