Articles: Investing
If you finally have your bills under control and find yourself with some discretionary income that you'd like to put to work, then you need to understand the basics of investing. This is one area where that old saying "work smarter, not harder" really applies.
If your friends at work or family members are constantly talking about their stock portfolios or the growth of their real estate holdings, and you'd like to get into that game too, then you need to learn how to invest wisely.
Investing Basics
If you just want to learn the basics of investing, these articles should be your first stop. In fact, we've even included a pitch for our newsletter. We'll give you a brief introduction to the growingly popular habit of investing online, and also help you get started on that retirement nest egg.
- Investing Money
- Cash Investments
- Emergency Fund
- Understanding Compound Interest
- Present Value
- Opportunity Cost
- Holding Cash
- FDIC Insurance Coverage
- Inflation and Deflation
- Investing Online
- Investing Newsletter
- Investing for Early Retirement
- Beginner Investing for Retirement
Getting Started Investing
If you start investing at an early age, then you also have time working for you too. That's one of the reasons we are a big proponent of starting your investment portfolio early in life. To help get yourself, or your children, started down that road, we have the following publications to choose from:
- Investing for Beginners
- Investing for Kids
- Investing for Dummies
- Rich Geek Poor Geek
- Angel Investors
- Venture Capital Funding
- About IPOs
Investing in Stocks
If you want to become a serious investor, then you need to understand what investing in stocks is all about. Over time, the stock market has provided investors with a fair balance of risk and reward. So if you're thinking about buying a share of a company's stock, here's the place to start.
- Reading Online Stock Reports
- Understanding Stock Quotes
- Earnings per Share Estimates
- Understanding Financial Ratios
- Liquidity Ratios
- Profitability Ratios
- Debt or Leverage Ratios
- Efficiency Ratios
- Market Ratios
- DuPont Equation
- Insider Trading Information
- Understanding Stock Ownership
- Proxy Contest
- Leveraged Buyout
- Buy and Hold Strategy Explained
Real Estate Opportunities
In prior years, investing in the real estate market was pretty much a no lose strategy. While some analysts predicted the housing bubble would burst, others thought it still had legs. It's never too late to educate yourself about this important segment of the market, and we have a number of articles that can help you make an informed decision:
- Real Estate Investment
- Real Estate Investment Loans
- Real Estate Investment Clubs
- Real Estate Investment Trust
- Investing in Real Estate
Tax Liens
Tax liens are another increasingly popular way to invest in real estate indirectly. If you don't completely understand this approach, we have several articles that can help walk you through the entire process:
Bonds as Investments
We have an entire section of this publication dedicated to investing in stocks, but what about the bond market? Many investment gurus feel that bonds play an important role in balancing one's portfolio. We explain bond ratings, a valuation approach to choosing bonds, and even the basics of why companies need to issue bonds in the first place:
- Investing in Bonds
- Investing in Bonds Part II
- Investing in Bonds Part III
- Bond Options
- Bond Ratings
- Junk Bonds
- Investing in Bonds and Bond Funds
- Corporate Inflation-Linked Bonds
- Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities
- Zero Coupon Municipal Bonds
- Understanding US Bonds
- Secured and Unsecured Bonds
- Credit Default Swaps
- Asset Backed Securities
- Collateralized Debt Obligations
- Collateralized Mortgage Obligations
- Trust Preferred Securities or TruPS
- Auction-Rate Securities
- Understanding Bond Yields
- Bond Prices and Interest Rates
Investing Internationally
You might be comfortable investing in domestic stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, but what kind of opportunities exist overseas? If you're thinking about a currency play, or are trying to figure out if developing countries such as China are worth looking into, then take a look here:
Investing in Commodities
Since the beginning of recorded history, man has been intrigued with the lasting beauty and value of gold. If you've heard that gold is a good hedge against inflation, and want to know why, these articles help remove some of the mystery:
- Intro to Commodity Trading
- Intro to Futures Trading
- Forex Currency Trading
- Investing in Gold Coins
- Investing in Gold
Special Investing Topics
This final group of articles deals with many specialty topics such as DRIP investing and investing in socially responsible companies. DRIP investing is a great way to get started in the stock market and often you can avoid paying commissions. If you'd like to invest in stocks, but don't support the social outlook of some companies, here is some more information on that topic too:
- Drip Investing
- Exchange Traded Note
- Socially Responsible Investing
- Low and No Risk Investments
- Lowering Portfolio Risk through Diversification
- Dollar Cost Averaging
- Understanding Cash Flow
- Evaluating Cash Flow Results
- Building a Cash Flow Statement
- Understanding Net Income
- Analyzing Income Statements
- Building an Income Statement
- Analyzing the Balance Sheet
- Building a Balance Sheet
- Profit Margin
- Return on Invested Capital
- Simpsons Paradox and Investing
- Rule of 72 and Compounding
- Absolute Versus Relative Return
- Financial versus Managerial Accounting
- Understanding the Cash Conversion Cycle
