How to Make Money Investing If Clueless

Would you rather make money by working the rest of your life or make money investing the dollars you have accumulated? As they say, you can either work for it, or you can make your money work for you. There is only one problem with the obvious answer here: most folks are somewhat clueless, and to make money without going to work you first need to learn to invest. Let’s get started.

In order to make money investing over the long term your goal should be to make your money grow at a rate that at least outpaces inflation and taxes. Otherwise, you’re not getting ahead; you’re treading water at best. You must first understand that growth is the objective, and then you need to learn to invest money so you can put it to work. There is no secret formula to make money investing, but there is a shortcut if you really want to learn to invest, especially if you sometimes feel clueless.

Here’s why people feel clueless: they don’t know what their choices are or what to look for when investing money. These are the basics, and until you understand them your odds are poor if you want to make money investing over the long term. Plus, you will likely never feel comfortable, especially if you’ve lost money in the past. It is very difficult to learn to invest piecemeal… picking up one nugget of information at a time. The pieces of the puzzle just won’t ever seem to fit together.

So, here we start at the beginning, the ground floor. This is your shortcut if you want to learn to invest money with a firm foundation so that the pieces of the puzzle start to fit together and make sense. There are only four basic choices that any of us have, and if you want to make money investing over the long term you should get a handle on all four of them. Here they are in order of least risk (with lower profit potential) to higher risk (with greater profit potential): cash & savings, bonds, stocks, and alternative investments. That’s it.

The first choice simply pays interest and features safety. Think of checking accounts, savings accounts, CDs, T-bills and money market funds. The second choice offers higher interest income with moderate risk. Here we have Treasury bonds, municipal, corporate, investment grade, junk and a multitude of other bonds as well as bond funds. If you want to make money investing without too much risk you should include both of these safer choices in your portfolio.

Your third choice is stocks, your primary growth engine, and it obviously involves risk. You make money in stocks through price appreciation (rising stock prices) and from dividends. Here you find terms like blue-chips, high quality, low-priced, growth, growth and income, industrials, financial, high-tech and so on to describe them. You don’t really need to learn to invest in individual stocks; you can go with stock funds and let them do the stock picking for you. But if you are going to achieve growth, stocks can not be avoided.

The fourth category of choices is growth oriented and risk can be significant as well. Some professionals in the financial services business ignore it or consider these alternative investments unnecessary. The list is long, but think: real estate, natural resources, gold, silver, oil, and other commodities like aluminum and copper. I feel that if you ignore these choices, you’re missing out on the opportunity to make money investing when the likes of stocks and bonds are out of favor. The good news: you don’t need to learn to invest in real estate, gold, oil and so on. Mutual funds are available that do the heavy work for you in all of these areas.

Now you know your basic choices. The next step is to ask a few basic questions, and here are some questions you need to ask anytime you consider making a specific investment in any of the four basic areas. Ask about: liquidity, safety, income, growth potential, income taxes, and the costs involved. Ask yourself and then find the answers, or ask the person (like a financial planner) who is making a recommendation to you. Never ignore the costs involved. You are trying to make money investing. High costs only work against you.

You can’t learn to invest money by reading one article, but you can get pointed in the right direction. That’s what I have tried to do here by starting at the beginning. Once you have a handle on the basics, it’s a whole lot easier to learn the rest. Don’t give up, and stay focused on your objective: to make money investing so you don’t need to work for the rest of your life.

Home Based Business for Moms: A Tutorial

Nowadays everyone is trying to find home based businesses in order to bring a boost to their income. Today’s moms are also trying to find businesses at homes because not every mom wants to work long hours at work like men do. Seeing this, I have created a step by step tutorial on a profitable home based business for moms.Mostly moms would have many motherly jobs to do such as look after the children, cooking, cleaning up the house etc. Therefore online jobs would certainly not be suitable for them because they would then have to sacrifice all they do at home to work online, which obviously is not an option. So, for this purpose, I have taken special care to compile kind of jobs that would be suitable to most moms.One of the ways to start a home based business for moms is by going online. Everyone nowadays is looking for jobs online because it provides vast amounts of paying jobs for every category. Any mom would surely be interested in at least one of the online jobs to offer. Also, it is necessary for her to know what kind of task she is about to opt for.You should always have the essential elements you would need to achieve success online. You cannot ensure your success until you have the basic fundamentals for your task. Therefore, you must have a laptop or a desktop computer, an internet connection and most importantly, determination to succeed.Now once you have collected all the essentials it’s time to get started. Along with the many different offline home based businesses a mother could choose from, there are also many online ones which would provide them with greater outcome. Some of them are as follows.1. Network marketing is one of the best home based business for moms. This is specially recommended for those moms who would like to spend more time at home and look after their children. This may seem unprofitable to some mothers at first, but it promises to provide great outcomes.2. Data entry is a job which requires you to enter data upon request of some companies. This job allows moms to run their regular work i.e. cooking etc. with their online home based business. The income is low compared to the network marketing business, which provides greater profits.3. Affiliate programs are suitable for those moms who own a website. All you have to do is paste a link, onto your website, that would lead to an external website that sells products. When a transaction is made from the website, you would get a commission from the website.4. Paid surveys are also a great way for moms to earn money. Upon each survey you take, you get a fixed amount of money (winning prizes is also possible).The internet contains many different business opportunities, and many of them are filled with people who try to victimize others, so you should be careful while choosing a home based business, or else your time and determination would go to waste.

Home Based Business Opportunity – Consider Which One is Best For You

For anyone considering starting a home based business opportunity there are a lot of opportunities out there. A home business opportunity is an excellent chance to generate income from the comfort of your own home.What is the best home business opportunity?When considering what business opportunity is best for you it is crucial to first sit down and figure out:o What is it that you really enjoy doing?
o What is the point in starting a business that you would not enjoy running?
o How much money are you prepared to invest in your new business venture?Some opportunities require a small start up investment while others ask for a huge start up investment. You must sit down and determine how much you can afford to invest.So, what is required to make the most out of a home business opportunity?A state-of-the-art computer, a reliable broadband Internet connection, a printer, a working knowledge of the Internet and operating the computer are required. Almost anyone can make the most out of working on the Internet. There is an unlimited number of work from home opportunities to be found on the internet and not all are legitimate. In fact, some of them capitalize on your ignorance of the essentials of home business. It is in your best interest to thoroughly research each opportunity and then go with the one you believe would be genuine and a good fit for you.Some very good news is that a home business opportunity can pay you a lot better than your regular 9 to 5 job where you work to make others rich. You do not have to interact with anyone else other than your customer. The more effort, focus, dedication and hard work you put into your business you are more likely to generate a higher income. A big plus in benefits is that you can provide more quality time with your family. Furthermore, you can save money on things like insurance, car maintenance and gas. The downside to trying to make a living with a home business on the Internet is that less than 5% succeed.Do not become discouraged and give up on your goal of starting a home business opportunity no matter what negative information you receive. Believe in yourself as well as your talents and abilities to have a good life for you and your family. Realize that you deserve it and were born to have it.Imagine a better income than you already have and set your sights on achieving it. A home based business opportunity is that better income and it can put you on the path to independence and financial freedom if run in the correct manner.