How can I start investing in the Stock Market with only $25?

I am glad you asked! 

 

Don’t think you have enough money to start investing today?

Yes you can! To invest directly in the stock market at the cheapest cost you need to buy 100 shares of a company and that is called a Lot.  If you don’t buy at least 100 shares, the price you will pay for those shares will be more expensive.  The other issue is that you are not diversified, so if that company’s stock price goes down, you lose, but if you owned stock in multiple companies and multiple industries, then hopefully as some stocks in your account go down, other stocks would go up and minimize your lost.  So what do you do?

Mutual Funds, ETFs and Annuities are the Answer!

Investing in these vehicles allow you the ability to diversify your investments when you have limited dollars to invest. Most mutual fund companies allow you to invest as little as $25 when you sign up to invest monthly, which is called dollar cost averaging.  This allows so many people with limited funds to start investing in the stock market.

What are the benefits of Dollar Cost Averaging?

When you invest monthly you will get the benefits of more shares when the price is low and less shares when the price is high. In the end, the idea is that when you average all of your shares and prices paid, you will have gotten a cheaper price than if you would have invested a lump sum one or two times a year.  See example below:

Dollar Cost Averaging

We could have invested our $1,200 lump sum in March or October and we would have only purchased 150 shares, which at the end of the year would have given us a profit of $300. The trick is to invest at the cheapest cost and investing a fixed dollar amount on a regular schedule will lower the average cost per share over time.  This is Dollar Cost Averaging.

So what now?

If you want to learn more about investing or to learn more about investing strategies, call me or complete the Contact Us form from the Menu drop down, for a free consultation. Below are some of the services that I offer:

  • Monthly and Yearly Coaching Packages available
  • Tax Planning and Strategy Planning
  • Insurance and Retirement Planning
  • Budget and Credit Repair Management
  • On-Line and Classroom Training and Coaching

*Building Relationships with Integrity and Trust*

The Benefits of Life Insurance!

Part Of Every Sound Financial Plan!!

 

Everyone Needs Life Insurance!

LexisNexis, a leading risk management research company, said 68% of Americans don’t have life insurance.  We don’t think twice about having car insurance or health insurance so why are we not putting the same importance on life insurance?

Is Only having work offered Life Insurance enough?   

Most jobs offer an amount that is 1, 2  or 3 times your current salary.  Obtaining this type of life insurance is very cheap and sometimes it is even free up to $50,000.  But don’t be fooled, this can actually give us a false sense of protection!  Case and point: if there is only one person working in the household or maybe there are children, 1 to 2 times is not going to be enough to cover burial expenses, ongoing living expenses for the surviving spouse and kids or even college.  Having enough protection to cover these kinds of expenses, you will most likely need more like 9 or 10 times your current salary as a death benefit!

Use Life Insurance to pay for college.

Life insurance is a way of covering those expenses for our loved ones that we always wanted to pay, but due to unfortunate circumstances, we are not around to do so.  Permanent Life Insurance allows policy loans against the life insurance cash value, which can be used to pay for your kid’s college expenses.  Not only is the repayment cheaper, but you are borrowing from yourself and that is the best kind of loan.  Life Insurance is not by any means the cheapest way to save for college, it is probably one of the most expensive.  But life is expensive and caring for kids, pets, and everyday expenses already puts a strain on our paycheck leaving saving for retirement and college virtually non-existent.

But I have a solution!

Don’t let your challenges stop you from calling me.  As your Financial Success Coach, I will partner with you to come up with a plan to achieve your goals for your today and for your future. No matter where you are starting out, I have strategies that can immediately be put into place to start you on this journey. Remember, to get to where you want to be you’ve got to start! You’ve got to TAKE ACTION!!

Call me today for a free strategy session

 

 

Increase Your Credit Score!

Quick Tricks to Increase Your Credit Score!

Why Not?

Are there really ways that you can raise you Credit Score quickly?

Yes, there are!  There are some tricks that will allow you to continue living the way you are and increase your credit score at the same time.  As long as you follow the rules and make no mistakes you will be able to increase your credit score and benefit from paying less for borrowing money.  What are the ticks, you ask?

Use only 30% or less of your credit card’s credit limit.

When you only use less than 30% of your credit card’s credit limit that is a positive to your credit.   Anything between 30 and 60% has a neutral effect on your credit score and anything above 60% has a negative effect on your credit score.  So if you need to increase your credit limit and continue holding the same monthly purchase amount, that is better than using more than 30% of your credit limit’s balance.

Pay off your credit card balances BEFORE the due date!

Paying off your credit card’s balance does several things, first, you escape paying any interest, which is a good thing.  As long as you pay your entire balance by the due date, NOT ON THE DUE DATE, you will escape paying any interest for that period.

Apply for all your credit all at once!

When you need to apply for credit, the credit inquires have an impact on your credit score, so if your are shopping for new credit, shop it all at once.  Credit Inquiries stay on your credit for 1 year, so it has an effect for a period of time, shorten the impact by applying for credit needs in advance, all at once!

Taking Control!

Let’s Take Control of Your Retirement!

For the Small Business Owner!

“Are you investing in your Future Life (retirement)?”

As a small business owner, sometimes we are so focused on trying to build our business and/or our brand and not with “Investing in Our Future Life”.  When we do start to invest, after years of delay, you realize that you have lost precious time.  Investing for your future life is just as important as investing in your today!

The government has put in place many programs and incentives for small business owners to save for your future life! 

There are plans that allow you to contribute as late as when you submit your tax return for last year’s taxes, including tax extensions.  Other plans that allow you to invest as much as $51,000 per year, with an additional $5,500 if you are 55 and older.  There are even plans for one person only businesses, as well as plans that include additional employees, family and non-family employees.

Saving for retirement is a double win for YOU!

Not only can you save money to fund the kind of retirement that YOU want to live, but you can also deduct that money from your taxable income today, LOWER TAXES!

“Let’s take advantage of these opportunities, it’s crazy not to!!!!”

So if you have a side hustle where you are making a little extra money or you have been fortunate enough to have your own business, let’s start putting some of that money to work for your future, and live it how you want to!

Call me to discuss the many options available to you!

 

What Kind of Retirement Do You Want?

So, What Kind of Retirement do You Want to Live?

Are you planning today for tomorrow?

“Do you want to travel abroad?  How about buy an RV and travel the United States?  Or retiring in the Caribbean?” 

The government was not designed to be our only source of retirement income, but for so many of us, Social Security is all we have.  And in today’s world of keeping up with the Carter’s, we are spending much of our money today and saving very little for tomorrow.

Companies used to be more vested in their employees’ retirement, but not anymore!

Years ago, companies helped fund their employees’ retirement income with pension plans.  Depending on the number of years of service and/or your position in the company, that would determine the contribution to the plan designated for you.  The plans were invested to grown and by the time the employee retired, there was income designated to that person for retirement.  It could be paid in monthly installments or as a lump sum payout, in broad terms.  This income along with Social Security allowed people to live comfortably in retirement.

“It is never too late to start saving for your future life!”

In the 1960’s, 41% of private sector employees were covered by a pension plans!  Today it is about 4%.

As the payment into these pension plans became more of a burden for companies and profits were decreasing, in the 1980’s the IRS came out with a new kind of plan called the 401(k).  This plan helped shift the BURDEN of saving for retirement from the employer to the employee.

The Ball is in Our Court, we have to do the saving and we have to start now!  Call me so we can discuss getting the most out of your 401(k) plan and maximize our company’s matching.

“So what kind of retirement do you want to live?”

Call for a free comprehensive financial plan today!

Paying Attention!

PAY ATTENTION!!!

Keeping an Eye on your Financial Adviser

Is your Financial Adviser fulfilling their promise to you?

This is one of the questions that we should ask ourselves on a routine basis, especially during a “life changing event’.  We do all the upfront due diligence when we search for a (new) financial adviser.  With anything new, a new mechanic or even a new doctor, we spend alot of time on our due diligence.  We ask friends, we check out websites, we see how many likes they have…..but then it all stops, when we found our person and excited about the journey to our “Future Life”.

Should we ever stop monitoring the people we hire?

What ongoing due diligence do we do after hiring our “financial adviser”?  Do we continue to keep up with their likes?  Do we check to see if there are any new client complaints?  Are we tracking their performance against the market or by like managers, to see how they are performing compared to their peers?

How many times have we heard about clients losing their money because of their financial adviser, for whatever reasons, bad investments or even embezzlement???

We stop reviewing our adviser and we TRUST what they tell us and we TRUST that they are doing what they promised, to grow our money.  There are steps that we can take as everyday investors that will help you monitor your financial adviser and make sure they are doing everything that they initially promised.

The market is always moving, up and down based on politics, emotions, what one country is doing or what another country is not doing, there are many influences that affect markets behavior.  The more we learn, the less anxiety we have towards investing and the more we can grow in our knowledge and our financial success!

My purpose….

This blog is to help you monitor your investments and those managing your money; to learn more about our financial markets and to become comfortable with investing.  Our ability to save enough to have an enjoyable retirement with the rising costs of our day to day living can be extremely overwhelming and daunting.

Don’t let it be!  Come learn and grow with me.  I will inform and educate you about investing, wealth accumulation and everyday money management.  I will show you ways to reduce your taxes, grow your investments and live a life not financially limited!

Let’s grow and prosper together, call for your free comprehensive financial plan today!