You Will Need Property Investments Upon Your Retirement

By the time I reached 35, I was already earning a fortune. I have financed my own vehicle, paid halfway my mortgage and had been setting aside money for the educational plans of my future children. I have also been setting aside property investments upon my retirement.

Yes, I do have some stock market investments, which are currently fluctuating despite UK’s best economic recovery since the 2008 financial crisis. However, stocks, like companies, can come and go, and despite their growth, the money you deposit in them they can lose their value. Properties are also the same, but because they are solid assets, they can get you more.

A simple monthly rent already serves as passive income in many cases. Imagine if you had more properties. Most UK couples and young families prefer to rent instead of purchasing a new house or room because it is more affordable. You will surely find someone who will want to rent your property.

You could also invest in improving the property’s quality to raise its value. However, the real deal is when another investor takes interest to open up a significant economic driver in the area, such as a mall, a factory or a business centre for locals. With bustling activity, your property’s position increases its value.

You may lose some of its value because of economic changes, but any economy wants to recover, which is why you would not really lose out on investing in real estate.

Will the Help to Buy Really Help Homebuyers to Buy Properties?

Bank of England Chancellor George Osborne had announced the extension of the Help toBuy scheme until 2020. What started as a one-year plan had ballooned into the biggest free-for-all for homebuyers, and both local and foreign property investors. This can just drive up the costs of properties everywhere in the United Kingdom.

Properties in London became exorbitantly-priced because private investors have purchased and developed these lands with other investments in amenities and convenience that the comforts and benefits it provides cost an arm and a leg. With Help to Buy, other areas of the UK can probably increase in value the same way London has. London may even inflate further.

The extension of Help to Buy can result into a bubble burst. London is safe from a burst because it is the capital and the bustling city of the United Kingdom with almost-infinite business activity. However, for other areas, inflating and deflating, especially in residential neighbourhoods, will mean a lower number of homebuyers, or lower values of properties.

As home buying interests increase all over the United Kingdom, the Help to Buy extension could also cause drastic damages to the environment. Resources needed to build new homes can decimate entire natural forests and quarries the UK has.

Will lots of new homes be beneficial for the United Kingdom? We might become a country full of houses, but not enough productivity and environmental concern.

Why We Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Risk It

As an investor, I think that it is important to also consider high-risk investments. Yes, we could be successful in diversified portfolios. Yes, we understand the economy’s saving grace for mutual funds and bonds. However, spreading ourselves thinly to gain something from everything is like trying to impress everybody when we know we can’t.

A high-risk investment comes my way and I’ll study it further. I consider investments dangerous when they’re innovative, but not too compelling. Another would be a business structure that is so simple, it seems too easy and too good to be true. Another would be an investment for a friend; I value friendship, but I will never do business for a friend because of the emotional attachment involved.

Yet one of these three hold the key to success. Look at smartphone applications; many of these games have a unique innovation, but to make them “presentable” to the public, it will need several hundred thousand dollars. I might not be compelled by the innovation as an investor because I’ve seen the idea before, but they just changed the characters and improved the levels.

A too-simple business strategy is something that a kid could come up with without having to explain other details, but sometimes, these business strategies actually work in application. A marketing strategy, for as long as it compels consumers to purchase your products, is an effective marketing strategy regardless of the message. A simple, emotional and clever quirk to such a business strategy might just be the right ingredient for a success story.

So don’t be afraid to risk it. Even with family or friend investors, a sound reasoning could entail high-risk, but may possibly reel you in with high success.

How the Money Market Works

The stock market is made up of many markets and it is the “bull” market that is well-known for many people, partly due to some films portraying dramatic situations inside the ticker tape office. The bull market entails very high risks, but very high returns, which make them instrumental for developing colourful investor or broker life stories, but if you’re like me and you’re looking for somewhere stable to deposit your money, you might want to know about the money market.

The money market addresses many companies, government entities and individual investors’ financial needs for a very short time. Cash investments, as money market investments are called, are debt securities that mature in one year as compared to usual securities such as bonds. Essentially, when the economy does well, your returns do well too.

Money markets are synonymous with mutual funds, treasury bills, certificate of deposit and other types of time deposits.

Yearly, the yields of money market financial instruments are very stable; it is very rare for a government reserve or a bank to go bankrupt at any time within the year.

The money market also works in conjunction with the help from the government. It helps governments raise money from the public and investors. Treasury bills are backed by government reserves, which virtually make them one of the safest investments in the world.

So if you’re like me and you don’t want to gamble too much with your investments, stick with the money market, or you could just give it a chance.

The Benefits of Having a General Circulation of Bitcoins

Bitcoins may not be the first attempt at making an electronic currency, but its flawless system of money production through solving algorithms and other features are making it more popular all over the world. If Bitcoins went into general circulation, here’s what can happen.

1.    Defense Against Inflation

Bitcoin might have a very high exchange rate, but another feature it has is that it could defend investors from monetary inflation in their own national currencies. You could just exchange your actual money into bitcoins and use it to buy items the following day when the numbers become better.

2.    No Transaction Fees

The Internet is fast becoming a means to buy and sell items from international merchants and individuals, but the industry is bleeding because of the high but fair transaction fees banks and financial institutions impose. Bitcoin allows for digital exchange directly from the buyer to the seller without any fees.

3.    Secure

The bitcoin network records all bitcoin transactions and each is secured with an encryption. The encryption allows no trace of the financial record, but it validates that the purchase had been made.

4.    Future

People have been using cellphone credits to pay for certain items in the past. Some countries use their call minutes on their mobile phones to exchange items. Bitcoin is doing the same thing. With a decentralized currency and great rewards for “miners”, bitcoin is a better future currency than anything else.

UK PPI Complaints Really Work for the Economy

It is actually great to hear that UK lenders are recognizing consumer needs given they are allocating additional refunds for mis sold PPI on loans, mortgages and credit cards. The current refund bill might increase more than £20 billion according to experts, but today, Lloyds takes half the bill of £13 billion with a total of £8 billion in compensation.

However, according to experts, the PPI refunds actually works better than the usual quantitative easing and tax refunds. They said that people are due an actual windfall, which they take and use to their advantage. Unlike tax reductions and returns, these are not offset to the following time they pay their taxes; they get to spend the money as they wish.

The  Office of National Statistics also showed a 13.4% increase in the number of car registrations in the first half of 2013. More than 25,000 vehicles were registered to many UK consumers. Experts are also observing great activity with consumer confidence increasing in local and regional economies.

I noted that many of my friends who reclaimed their refunds, usually going about £3000-5000 for some of my friends, are planning to use the money to fix certain parts of their homes or even to new businesses.

Indeed, UK PPI complaints, when refunded, actually work for the UK economy. It helps knowing that you are due a windfall that is unexpected in a basic monthly budget.

Things to Remember When Investing in Technologies

The increasing number of users with Internet access gives rise to many names in the Internet industry. While social media giant Facebook and search engine giant Google changed the game, communication and data technology became very important investments. 

The technology industry is very important today because it already touches many aspects of different industries. Computer and Internet technology is important especially for data storage, easier access, security and productivity. Communications technology and the Internet will continue to be developed

The crucial thing to remember when investing in technologies is that competition is always present and it is important to take note of who could possibly outdo the other. Inspect both ideas and study them. Anticipate what industries and customers will look for in a company in the future.

Technology has different tiers such as hardware, software and network. Hardware is important to run software and for 2014, investing in hardware manufacturing is a good but expensive risk because people are looking for manufacturers to develop faster technology at a cheaper price.

For software products, patents and piracy are plaguing the profits of many developers. Many customers are also turning towards open-source software; software developed by user communities.

Network development and the Internet itself is a great investment for 2014. Cloud technologies that enable data syncing for any mobile device, including a vehicle, will drive many businesses and customers to look forward to higher-end products.