Investment Management: How to Know You Are Making the Right Investment Choices

Investments can be risky. They can either get you a great reward, or they might cause you a loss. But investments can help your personal finances and even your retirement plan.

It comes down to having the right management when it comes to your investment management solutions. You want to make sure each one you make is calculated and that your chances of graining in money or assets have more of a chance of an increase than a decrease.

With so many possible investment choices available to you, how do you know that you are making the right decisions about your portfolio?

While investing is mostly subjective, there are ways to determine what strategies may work best to keep your money working hard for you.

What's Your Time Horizon?

If you have 30 years to grow your money, you are most likely better off with a growth portfolio geared toward stocks instead of bonds.

However, if you are closer to retirement, it may be better to preserve capital by investing in bonds or CDs. Index funds are a good way to preserve capital and achieve tangible returns for those in retirement or looking to keep building wealth throughout their lives.

Income or Long-Term Appreciation?

Dividend stocks allow investors to receive a steady income stream on a monthly or quarterly basis.

This may appeal to those who want increased liquidity or who want to use some of their returns now to pay bills or invest in other projects. Those who care more about overall returns for a long period should look for stocks that have a decade long record of consistent growth.

Realistically, an adviser from a company like State Bank of Cross Plains will work with you and may tell you to use a mixture of both.

Are You an Investor or a Trader?

An investor is someone who buys a stock because he or she wants to hold it for a long period. A trader is someone who wants to make money off of short-term price fluctuations.

Investors tend to prefer equities that will grow steadily over a long period while traders like volatility because it creates the price action they need to profit in short periods.

Do You Think About Diversification?

A good portfolio will be diversified to create a cushion against any significant pullback in one part of the market.

For instance, if the price of gold plummets, you may be buoyed by an increase in the price of education stocks.

If oil prices fall, the effect may be negated by a rise in real estate prices that can keep overall returns in the black until oil prices recover.

Do you Think About the Risks?

Every investment comes with a risk. For example, if you are looking to invest in stocks, you have to understand that stocks often tend to fluctuate.

You want to make sure that you buy low and sell high if possible, but when playing the stock market, your investment doesn’t pan out the way you want it to. But it can also get you great rewards as well.

Less risky choices would be with things like property. Remember, though, that there will not be a risk when you make an investment decision.

There is no surefire way to know whether your investment decisions are right. All you can do is make educated choices based on your preferred strategy. As long as your portfolio is diversified, you stand a good chance of making positive returns in most years.

5 Savings Benefits When Going Solar

Making the choice to switch over to solar power may seem like a big decision, but with the economic, financial, and environmental sense it makes, a growing number of people are taking the plunge. 

In fact, having a solar power system installed in your home has so many benefits that even the government offers tax credits to incentivize homeowners and businesses to switch over. Here are five ways you will save when you decide to go solar.

Federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC)

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits you’ll get for installing a solar power system is the Federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC). 

This benefit is worth 30 percent of the cost of your solar system, including labor, permitting, and engineering. The amount will be deducted from the amount of taxes owed by the system’s owner, but the tax credit is not capped. 

This means you can start out with a basic system this year and claim this solar tax credit, and then add on to your system next year, and still claim the credit. 

Keep in mind, however, that the government is reducing the credit value in the upcoming years, so get your system in sooner rather than later to take full advantage of this tax credit.

State Tax Credits

In addition to the ITC, several states also offer a tax credit for owners of solar systems. This is also usually in the form of a tax credit, with the amount deducted from your tax bill. 

Some states offer up to 25 percent or more, which means that you could save 55 percent in solar power tax incentives between the ITC and your state’s tax credits. Check your state’s policies and incentive programs to get the most benefits for installing your solar power system.

Cash Rebates

Sometimes a particular state, city, company, or other organization will offer cash rebates in order to promote the usage of solar energy. 

These rebates are usually capped and will end once a certain amount of solar panel systems have been installed. If you’re lucky enough to snag one, you could save up to 20 percent on your system.

Monthly Electrical Bill

Once your solar power system is installed and begins to generate its own solar power, you will see your monthly electrical bill decrease more and more, with some solar power customers claiming a nonexistent electrical bill some months.

Solar Renewable Energy Certificates

You can also make money with your solar power system through Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SREC)’s. Basically, several states have passed legislation that require utilities to generate a certain percentage of their energy from renewable sources. 

These companies must obtain a certain amount of Renewable Energy Certificates, including SREC’s. As it turns out, your solar power system will produce several kilowatts each year, which are each associated with their own SREC. 

You can turn around and sell these SREC’s to utilities that need them to meet their requirement. An average solar energy system produces around five kW’s per year, which can be sold for anywhere from $50-$200. That’s a nice little chunk of extra change per year.

What are you waiting for? It’s time to find out how to get a solar energy system installed in your home. Learn just how much you could start saving by installing a solar energy system.

5 Ways to Eliminate Debt in Your Business

Debt is one of the biggest threats to small businesses. It is often the biggest reason why most business fail within the first few years. They have spent too much money and haven’t brought in enough in profits to offset that spending and pay off their debts. 

Many business owners take out loans to launch their business or grow it. While it always starts with the best intentions, not everything might go as planned and the debt you’ve accumulated may start getting out of hand. 

Many business owners feel that the more money they throw at a problem, that it will fix itself. While that may work in some cases, it is not an economically sound business practice. 

If you are in this situation, here are some solid strategies to get on the path to eliminating the debt you’ve taken on.

1. Manage Your Cash Flow Better

How are you managing the money coming in and going out of your business? Are you spending an adequate amount of your profits to pay down your debt? 

Managing your cash flow effectively will allow you get the money you need to grow your business while also reducing your debt. You need to look at your business carefully and make sure that you are allocating funds to the most effective parts of your business so that it will thrive in both the short-term and long-term. 

Hopefully, if you manage your money right, you are getting some sort of take home pay as well.

2. Consolidate Your Debt

If you’re carrying multiple debts for your business, you may want to consolidate your debt. Try to find a lender that will offer a competitive interest rate and transfer your debt into that one lender. 

An alternative option would be to get another loan at a lower rate and pay off your existing debt if it is on your credit cards.

3. Restructure Your Business

Do you have an in-house team that can be handled to an external firm? Do you have staff whose positions can be easily outsourced? 

You may want to look into how your business is structured to find out if can rearranged to help save your business the money it desperately needs.

4. Revisit Your Budget

As a business owner, you should be looking at your budget often. You should know what is bringing money in and where your money is being spent. You also have to weigh in on how effectively your money is being spent. 

Even if you think your budget is spot on, you should still revisit your budget to understand your expenses. Figure out if there are any unnecessary expenses you can cut, how you can save money on the necessities, and if you can unearth all the other hidden costs of running your business. 

5. Educate Yourself Financially

One of the biggest reasons businesses fail is because they don't know how to read and interpret their profit and loss statement. This is no surprise as business owners often make bad financial decisions because they are not educated about all the financial aspects of their business. 

This is where companies like Navicor Consulting come in as they help out struggling businesses. Whether it's learning proper accounting, managing payment terms, keeping track of a merchant account, or understanding your taxes, you should get the necessary education to develop financial competency.

The important thing that you need to remember is that eliminating debt takes time and careful planning. While it often feels like you’ve stagnated, you’ll start to see results as your business grows and you start to make better financial decisions.

Pay with Confidence: 5 Tips for Safe Online Banking

Online banking is convenient, sure, but if it's not safe, then it's not worth that convenience. Handled poorly, online banking could almost as dangerous as unlocking your safe deposit box and leaving it wide open for the public to pilfer. 

With just a few swift clicks, unscrupulous folks could destroy your credit rating or drain your accounts dry. Fortunately, it's not all doom and gloom when it comes to online banking. 

By taking careful precautions, you can benefit from its convenience without leaving yourself wide open to financial ruin.

1. Create powerful passwords.

Your password is the gateway to your account. Lowercase-letter words are remarkably easy for hackers to guess, no matter how wacky the word might seem to you. 

For that reason, your password should contain a combination of lowercase letters, capital letters, numbers and symbols. Password management programs can help you create and remember a top-notch password.

2. Go directly to your banking sites.

Scammers try to steal your financial information by tricking you into giving it to them. They do this by posing as your bank through emails or social media networks, in hopes that you'll follow their fake links and enter your log-in information on their page. 

Therefore, it's critical that you go directly to banking sites by typing the URL into your browser's search bar, rather than following advertising links.

3. Avoid public networks.

Shared networks, such as the ones at your local library or neighborhood cafe, leave you vulnerable to prying eyes of the digital sort. 

Technology is handy, not just for you, but also for others who might want to track your activity. That's why you should do your online banking from home, over your own private network. 

If that's not an option, take extra security measures by using a free virtual private network (VPN) service, or even better, turn off Wi-Fi on your phone and connect via cellular data instead. 

If you’re not sure whether your network is secure, contact Ottawa IT services for an audit.

4. Protect your computer.

Your home network is only reliable if your computer itself is safe and secure. Keep online intruders from compromising your privacy by keeping up with updates to your operating system. 

Also, install a strong firewall program, as well as antispyware or antivirus software. These help prevent your system from being hacked.

5. Keep on top of your accounts.

One of the best ways to know whether your accounts have been compromised is to keep a close eye on them. 

Look for unauthorized withdrawals, unexplained charges or other suspicious activity. If you do notice a problem, contact your financial institution right away.

Used wisely, online banking is an invaluable timesaver. There's nothing like being able to log in at any time to check on the status of your accounts. 

As long as you take the necessary precautions, online banking can be one of the handiest financial decisions you make.