Victory Investment

Archive for July, 2010

Middle East is known for its business hub having construction companies, oil industries and entertainment life style. Gulf region is also known for their traditional life along with life style way absorbing new life style look.

For growing in life, there is required to have earned money along with saving for growing ahead. There are lots of financial institutions that provide way for saving under different programs. They have program like interest, time period and other seasonal and attractive offers. But for different people needs, there are lots of financial institutes for different people.

With private ownership and Joint Stock Company, This bank is established in 2008. There are 10 employees, with providing services related to wealth management. Its physically location is Burjuman Business Tower, 10th, Office 1011, Trade Centre Road, Dubai International Financial Centre, P.O. Box 117052, Dubai, United Arab Emirates with telephone number 971 4-509-6111.

: Known with other name like G1, G1OB and gulf1bank, this is established in 2005 with 25 number employees. Bank provides services related to corporate finance, investment infrastructure and financing advisory in merging and acquisition. Its official address at Building 1549, West Tower, Level 15 Office No 1501-1504, 15th Floor, Road 4626, Bahrain Financial Harbour No 346, P.O. Box 11172, Manama, Bahrain with telephone number +973 17-102555.

known as development bank, this bank is located at Princess Anoud Tower, King Fahed Road, Al Olaya Area, P.O. Box 66674, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia with telephone +966 1-218-5555. Founded in 2005 and with 514 employees, this bank provides services related to commercial services like loans, credit cards and deposits.

Operating as public listed ownership as well Joint Stock bank is established in 1997. It provides Islamic and conventional services like deposits, loans and credit cards and brokerages services. There are 2266 employees with 75 branches. It is official address at Banque Saudi Fransi Building, Al Maathar Street, P.O. Box 56006, Riyadh 11554, Saudi Arabia along with telephone number +966 1-289-9999. For Saudi Arabia stock exchange, this is listed with ID 1050.SSE.

Established at 1955, operating with publicly listed and Joint Stock company, bank has 1706 employees with 58 branches. It provides commercial services like loans for corporate, personal and premium clients, asset management services, investment banking services and portfolio management. Its official address is Jordan Ahli Bank Building, Queen Noor Street, Shmeisani, P.O. Box 3103, Amman 11181, Jordan with telephone number +962 6-562-2282.

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Both citizenry and the media focus on the past conflict, poverty and the behaviour of politicians and the governmental machinery in the handling – of debt, aid, poverty and service of infrastructural assets influenced the way Sierra Leone is discussed externally, reinforcing perceptions of a country of numerous problems affecting investor’s confidence doing business in the country.

Sierra Leone was and still appears to be seen as a risky country with little understanding of its diversity and internal dynamics to do business. The Income Electric (energy provider from Nigeria) saga with the government has buttressed this view in many minds which must not be taken lightly or brushed under the political carpet. Image or character of a country is dented and affected more so by perceptions garner from a single event which can take a long time to control, repair or recover from.

If you are branded a thief or corrupt will be a stigma making it very difficult to find genuine partners anywhere both local and international to work with period. But despite the presence of these obvious problems, the country deserves to be seen as a country of opportunities. Business leaders, and mostly investors in and out of Africa, feel this growing sense of confidence in the future of Sierra Leone, but playing the wait and see strategy in the unfolding scenarios pertaining to the new government’s ability and capacity to handle situations both seen and unforeseen is the main issue at present.

Business has a crucial educator role within every community and society as well as more broadly to challenge misconceptions about business investment in Africa through stories that convey the diversity and opportunities of the continent. Trade and business has the potential to be a powerful engine for Sierra Leone’s development. So a failure to be more dynamic in approach, develop a home grown business and trade blueprint using vibrant, experienced and rhetoric individuals with proven capacity would be foolish, unacceptable and suicidal to the success of any government generally. Businessmen investing across the continent recognise the importance of a successful and ambitious outcome to local trade economy, for Africa and its people, and for business.

Government as an urgent priority has to reinvigorate its efforts to achieve a positive solution to its economic blueprint by empowering local indigenous businessmen and businesses where ever they maybe and not relying on outside players or investments. According to the World Bank in 2006 2/3 of African countries made at least one reform, and Tanzania and Ghana rank among the top 10 reformers. While Africa in the last two years was the slowest reforming region in the world, this year it is the third fastest, after Eastern Europe and the OECD high-income countries.  South Africa and Mauritius are among the world’s top 30 places in terms of ease of doing business.  In Côte d’Ivoire registering property took 397 days in 2005. Reforms eliminated a requirement to obtain the urban minister’s consent to transfer property. Now it takes 32 days. Burkina Faso cut the procedures for starting a business from 12 to 8 and the time from 45 days to 34.

Madagascar reduced the minimum capital for start-ups from 10 million francs to 2 million. Tanzania introduced electronic data interchange and risk-based inspections at customs. The time to clear imports fell by 12 days. Gambia, Nigeria and Tanzania reduced delays in the courts. Growth figures have also been encouraging.

According to the Africa Economic Outlook 2007/8, Africa grew by 5.5 per cent in 2006 – well above the long-term trend and for the fourth consecutive year.  In 2007 the report estimates that average real GDP growth rate for the continent will be 5.9 per cent. ECOWAS and the MRU must support through special funding and technical support to build regional capacity to trade including support for trade facilitation and customs reform which will improve greatly both GDP and GNP. The reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade between ECOWAS countries – as part of the much needed effort by African governments to stimulate intra-African trade is much overdue.

This must include to improved regional infrastructure and enhanced customs administration facilitating ICT digital technology platforms to replace old methodology with new strategy to enhance productivity and services including security. Government must continue its effort as on going to improve the business climate and to tackle the barriers to, and reduce the costs and consequence of doing business in Sierra Leone.  As highlighted by the World Bank’s Doing Business Reports, the Commission for Africa and others, all successful economies are those that have made progress in reforming their investment climates: overcoming onerous bureaucratic requirements; making financial markets work effectively to enable access to capital; tackling sometimes counter-productive regulation; strengthening insecure property rights; and ensuring effective contract enforcement as part of an effective legal system.  Such reforms are particularly important for helping smaller businesses to move into the formal sector and grow. President Ernest B Koroma must look at setting up a special fast track business court to deal with all business cases especially internationally owned enterprises that may need fast track approach and solutions to their problems. This will greatly help improve the image of the country globally which will help attract more positive investors and not fly by night businessmen. 

I am optimistic about the prospects for Sierra Leone.  Recent economic trend and growth has at least in part reflected improved governance and investment climates.  Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are competing for the top rank in West Africa.  Mauritius has set a goal of reaching the top 10 on the ease of doing business by 2009. African nations still impose the most regulatory obstacles on entrepreneurs.  In Sao Tomé and Principe it takes an estimated 192 days to start a business, in the DRC, 155.  In Zimbabwe the cost of starting a business is equivalent to 1,443 per cent of income per capita, in Sierra Leone it is 835 per cent.  According to the UN trade and development body, Africa’s share of FDI remains low (under 2 per cent of global FDI inflows) and has been on a downward trend for three decades.  One study shows that around 45 per cent of African private wealth is held outside Africa. On infrastructure, efforts must continue to tackle infrastructure weaknesses, enhance donor co-ordination, promote infrastructure in national policy planning, mobilize additional funds and tackle issues such as project preparation capacity.

Concerted action now needs to be taken, as highlighted by the Commission for Africa, to meet the costs of the infrastructure gap in Africa – equivalent to around an extra US billion a year, including US billion a year in extra external financing.  Unreliable infrastructure often represents one of the main costs to business operating in Africa.

The evidence shows that investing in infrastructure is good for growth and enables poor people to access market opportunities, as well as health and education services. It is important that Sierra Leone establishes mechanisms through which business and civil society can engage in constructive dialogue. Good governance is the foundation of economic growth and poverty reduction. The international community is already supporting and encouraging the efforts of the government to strengthen governance standards and to fight corruption. Sierra Leone has made substantial improvements on the dimensions of governance, including accountability, political stability, government effectiveness and rule of law”. However, much remains to be done to embed good governance and transparency and to tackle widespread corruption.  Corruption is not a phenomenon that is confined to Africa but many African countries rate poorly in international surveys and the perceived prevalence of corruption in many African countries is a significant barrier to investment and development.  Moreover, because of its lack of resources and resilience, corruption in Africa will tend to have a disproportionate impact upon governance systems and the life chances of ordinary people and small businesses. Business must play its full part in tackling corruption and must take an uncompromising stance of zero tolerance to bribe giving and other stimulants like tax evasion, non payment of energy bills including telephones etc.

Privatisation is good in certain instances to support and improve on basic infrastructure to serve its populace. How we approach this issue is what should be carefully considered and looked at seriously. Sierra Leone must first of all set itself and agenda and details of priorities within the business sector. First of all what do the country hope to achieve by privatising and what is the time factor involve in achieving its objectives. By having a good deal in privatisation can bring good results in improving standards of both the infrastructures as well as the local technical manpower skills taken into consideration all of the factors which can be geared towards maximising general benefits rather than only economic profits which at the end dividend yield cannot be sufficient to compensate or train a good local manpower base work force for continuity.

Creating an enabling business environment locally is not a short-term project after the devastating war and decay but can be given a fast track approach. In standard banking conditions to obtain a loan, the longer term the loan is spread over the smaller the monthly repayments. The interest is determined by day, monthly or yearly payment plan so should be the monitoring of results from various economic and business sectors within the country on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly strategic plan in its present situation like the stock exchange market. Government must have absolute control and transparency on all Extractive Industries Initiative and contracts directly like Botswana, Angola and South Africa. There are sufficient incentives for the implementation of such good governance initiatives if proper strategy and a new integrity code are fully adopted for the welfare and benefits of the country present and future generations. Let Sierra Leone turn its curse into blessings by starting on a positive footing of leaving politics to the politicians and business to the businessmen. Accepting a political appointment and doing business at the same time is a conflict of interest which will not auguring well for the bureaucratic machinery. We must lift ourselves from our own bootstraps. For more than four decades, we have relied and depended on foreign aid to survive. Now, we have reached our menopause stage. If we set our priorities, we can raise the needed capital we need by our skills and assiduity.

A country like India has reduced its number of bilateral donors and now it’s trying to avoid the foreign aid dependency syndrome. We do not have to go to the Betton Woods Institutions for loans to develop our countries. Our population of 6 million is not a liability but rather an asset to us. Sierra Leone’s heavy reliance on foreign aid makes implementing development plans more vulnerable to factors outside its control. Instead of parliament debating to approve loan agreements and salary increases, it must rather use its precious time to debate how to practically empower the people to raise income in their respective environment, fast tracking privatisation and minerals bills, education and labour issues, telecoms and energy concerns which are important aspect pertaining to growth and stability. This should be the present priority and agenda prescription for all to collaborate in sync with the president’s laudable ambition for the country.

Sierra Leonean’s must see themselves as one people with one destiny. The country belongs to us all. A false prophet prophesies the doom of a town he also is part of. Another great historian and writer Arnold Toynbee said some twenty-seven civilizations had risen upon the face of the earth. Almost all of them descended into the junk heaps of destruction. The decline and fall of these civilizations, according to Toynbee, was not caused by external invasions but internal decay. If we fail to live together as one people, a future historian would say that a great nation called Sierra Leone died because its people lacked the soul and the commitment to live together, be compassionate, tolerant and love for one another.

Moreover, awareness about the actual returns or yields earned on insurance products was quite low. Insurance customers solely depended on insurance agents for product information. The agents dumped high premium plans on the clients, ostensibly to provide higher income (it had a lot more to do with higher commissions to the agents) compared to low premium pure insurance plans or term plans. Which would have given exactly the same benefit at a fraction of the cost. 

At Naikwealth, we recommend you do not mix your investments with insurance. 
In order that we better understand the cost implications of using your insurance plans as an investment tool, let’s look at a realistic, if hypothetical situation:

A 30 year old male purchases an endowment plan for a sum of Rs. 10 lakh for a term of 30 years. He will pay an annual premium of Rs. 29,820. On the other hand, the annual premium for the same sum and duration for a term plan would be Rs. 3,430 – less than 12 per cent of the cost of the endowment plan. 
The term plan offers only insurance i.e. no money if the insured survives the term of the policy. The man might argue that he spends all that money and gets nothing in the end. Especially when the endowment plan could provide returns in the range of 6 to 8 per cent per annum. Let us assume the higher return of 8 per cent per annum, which means the insured receives a sum of Rs. 36.5 lakh after 30 years. Keep in mind that in order to earn this 8 per cent per annum return, the insured has to commit an aggregate sum of Rs. 894,600/- to be paid over the next 30 years as insurance premiums.

Now, let’s assume the other alternative – he purchases the term plan. His premium is Rs. 3,430/- per annum. He decides to invest the balance 88 per cent of what would have been his annual endowment plan premium (a nice little sum of Rs. 26,390/-) in an equity-based tax-saving mutual fund. 

Equity-linked tax saving funds have provided returns of 48 per cent over the last one year, 34 per cent over the last three years and around 44 per cent for the last five years. Assuming that the surge in the market will not continue for a very long period, we could look at the returns earned by such funds in the last 6 months. That shows an average return of around 8.44 per cent, translating into an annual  return. The insured could actually earn over Rs. 35.5 lakh in  years or faster.
So, which option do you think is the smart one? And what are your feelings about using your insurance as an investment instrument?

In your insurance proposal, remove the portion of the premium allotted to the term policy. Now, taking the remaining part of the payable premium, compare the promised yield in the insurance plan to any pure investment instrument. If the investment instrument yields better returns, your answer is clear – get the term insurance and invest the balance of the proposed premium into the investment product.

I don’t save as much as is allowed – not got the funds, but I can move out the money sitting for a few years. What’s the best bet?

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If near be adjectives these folks who didn’t realise that their interest rates be going to go so dignified that not a soul could even afford to take-home pay…

Did you know that Oil Futures 5 years ago was solitary 12 Billion dollars, now they are close to 300 Billion

Should the stock market be constrained to individual investors with no more than 100k per investor contained by the market? Would this brand name the market more or smaller amount responsibly productive?

not investing their money in the marketplace and or not react to monetary policy that they are privliged to?

People are dying not here and right from hunger, deficiency of medicine and drinking sea within Bangladesh. Bangladesh Govt does not own satisfactory resources or money to provide nouns to the flood victims. 19…

If American’s start spending their hard earn income on “stuff” they dont need, instead of good it or putting it into investments, will it boost the economy?

My boyfriend and I both hold full time job. He earn roughly lb15,000 a year, plus bonus of abour lb200 a month. I earn something like lb20,000 a year. We own save a deposit of lb14,000. House…

So, my family owns a restaurant business. We are on a main street surrounded by a good location and great parking. The business is worth 400K if we sold it. the reason to trade is…

They would then be forced to share the additional company profits near their partners (workers).

Iraqi Dinar equality to dollar, Zubaidi suggests Iraqi Dinar equality to dollar,[6/27/2006] Finance ministry & Iraqi Central Bank study a suggestion something like lifting…

Don’t have greatly in them but afraid that adjectives will be lost with the marketplace going down so fast.

OK im 20 years antediluvian and i want to bring back into the stock flea market spectator sport.my dad have done it for various years but hasnt done anything in the closing 5-6years due to losses so…

I don’t know anything about this stuff and don’t know what Fund to run though. My options are: American Cash Management Trust of America R4 American Bond Fund of America R4 American Income Fund…

A so-called expert at VRTrader.com claims that silver is headed for an oz. What fundamentals, such as production and consumption trends, justify that argument?

Over all what is the better investment? Silver or Gold? And if you have any pious investment information on the subject please elaborate. Thank you

lets assume company X have a current stock price of .95 the sep20 calls are trading at 0.25/0.30 if i want to buy ONE opportunity contract it will cost me…(100 shares * 0.30)= .00? in command to make…

decreased? (If someone is trying to do daylight trades with ,000 or smaller amount, then they will not be capable of do too many trades…

hi dear as you may be aware of for mutual fund investment pan card…

Yahoos price has been going up because of microsoft wanting yahoo. immediately that microsoft and yahoo cannot decide on a price, and microsoft is giving up, do you think that it is a pretty…

There is data going subsidise to 1802 showing that a diversified…

please suggest me good S.I.P.Mutual fund, i can invest 1000 Rs. per month

in 2 mutual fund

Sirius stock is so cheap. Do you think they are going to merger anytime soon, and would Sirius stock even budge up that much if they do?? I personally missed out on Take 2 today… I be…

has anyone else been following this? whats beside it being down to 2.39. when the merger takes place is it supposed to double within price? or will this stock never see the likes of 3.00 a share ever again?

If you had 1 million tariff free dollars to invest in something right in a minute, what would it be? (USA & Canada)

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Has anyone joined SMC? Has it proven beneficial to you? Have you be successful with the online business? My husband and I are considering joining sMC but I enjoy some doubts about how true the hype is. The…

More Investing and Investing Q&A Please visit : invfaq.com

There are two major ways of looking at a green home as a great investment for you and your family. One of the ways is that is will save you money every month on utility bills and usage, making it a perfect everyday investment. Another way to look at it as an investment is that because everyone is going green in today’s modern age, your home will be more desirable. Of course there is the obvious environmental investment to consider as well.

The way a green home saves you money every month is because everything in the house runs efficiently. You use air conditioning and heating less because the windows of the home are special, and keep heat and cool air inside the home. Your plumbing system is more efficient because the pipes are run to keep the environment in mind. If you are using less water, you are saving money. Even the way your house is wired has efficiency in mind. Some of these energy efficient homes have trees planted to shade the house in hot weathered areas, to help on HVAC costs.

Green homes are gaining popularity among people, and if you currently live in or own a green home, expect the value to always be rising. There are thousands of environmentally friendly homes that exist in America, which may seem like a lot, but really they are still a rarity compared to how many total homes exist in the US. This makes them desirable. Anything that is rare, always maintains its value, and makes for a great investment.

Green Homes Chapel Hill

Homes For Sale Raleigh

12/2/2009 By Fisher Investments Editorial Staff

http://www.marketminder.com/a/fisher-investments-the-ol-pension-blues/cbe61fa6-7302-4033-9368-1281867c171b.aspx?source=home

The ol’ pension blues are back—but they needn’t rob investors of holiday cheer.

:

> Corporate and public pensions are underfunded, a fallout from the market plunge and from under-contribution.

> The same pension worries surfaced in the late 1980s and in 2002, and it turned out underfunding fears then were greatly overstated, as they likely are now.

> Corporations contributing more funds to pension plans could be a positive for markets if the extra funds find themselves into stocks, as they did in 2003.

> Underfunded pensions are a widely known phenomenon—meaning the negative impact is likely already largely priced into stocks.

________________________________________________________________________

The holidays are coming, and we can only guess what’s on corporate and public pensions’ wish lists: A big wad of cash. Pensions of all stripes are finding themselves underfunded—meaning liabilities (payment obligations to employees) are greater than what’s in the bank—a fallout from the market plunge and from under-contribution. The average public pension plan is 35% underfunded, and 92% of corporate pension plans were underfunded at the end of last year.

Solutions to the underfunding issues aren’t promising. Aside from Santa’s generosity, options include cutting back on benefits, contributing additional funds to retirement plans, or declaring bankruptcy and falling into the safety net provided by federal pension insurers, like the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The recent market surge has helped some, but many pensions are still in the red.

There are worries the pressure to balance pension plans will hold back or even depress economic growth. When corporations shift funds to retirement plans, they do so at the expense of future profits and growth. Some corporations have reduced operations and expenses to maintain pension contribution levels. Employees at companies with underfunded pensions may feel uncertain about retirement benefits and perhaps cut back on spending and/or investing in stocks. Underfunded public pension plans are likewise a worry. Many public pensions are legally bound to provide stated benefits, meaning options to balance liabilities and assets are fewer. And a state or municipal bankruptcy would heavily weigh on taxpayers—not ideal given today’s weaker economic environment and high unemployment.

However, the ol’ pension blues aren’t new. The same worries surfaced in the late 1980s and in 2002, and it turned out underfunding fears then were greatly overstated, as they likely are now. Why? Many pension funds, corporate and public, invest in “alternative investments,” like hedge funds and private equity. Following bear markets, companies adjust downward their return expectations for the pension plans. (Similarly, expectations are generally adjusted upward during flush times, leading to under-contribution.) This downward adjustment increases the present value of future assets while the low interest rate environment increases the present value of liabilities, making pensions seem more underfunded than they really are otherwise. A function of accounting! Indeed, accounting for pension fund liabilities is complicated and highly subjective—it tends to extrapolate the most recent phenomena into the future, a common cognitive investing bias.

This isn’t to say the pension losses over the last year weren’t real. However, the overemphasis on the underfunding issue isn’t warranted. Even in 2006, before the recession and bear market, public pension plans were underfunded by 1 billion, and that didn’t hold back more growth, nor did it trigger economic or market collapse. Plus, corporations contributing more funds to pension plans could be a positive for markets if the extra funds find themselves into stocks, as they did in 2003.

Underfunded pensions are a widely known phenomenon—meaning the negative impact is likely already largely priced into stocks. More than a market-crushing event, this is likely one more brick in the wall of worry markets like to climb. Though pension plans’ balance sheets don’t look rosy, investors needn’t lose their holiday cheer.

This article reflects personal viewpoints of the author and is not a description of advisory services by its author’s employer or performance of its clients. Such viewpoints may change at any time without notice. Nothing herein constitutes investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security or that any security, portfolio, transaction or strategy is suitable for any specific person. Investments in securities involve the risk of loss. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

The questions in what to invest and how much of your savings to invest are on top of the mind of every investor. Let’s have a look at a much quoted rule of thumb on this topic and what type of tools are available for this on the web.

A much quoted rule of thumb and a simplified asset allocation guide on how much to invest in stocks and bonds is the age related rule:

Allocate a percentage of your portfolio equal to 100 minus your age to equity stocks, and invest the rest in bonds. For example, if you were 45 years old, then you would hold 100 – 45 = 55 or 55% of your investments in stocks or stock funds, and 65% percent of your assets in bonds or bond funds.

The background argumentation for this model is that when large cap stocks are held for periods of 15 years or longer, they in general have a better return than bonds. But because of the higher fluctuations in stock prices than in bond prices, stocks offer a higher risk and should be a smaller part of your investments when getting closer to retirement. The assumption is that you need the money when you retire and you cannot afford then that your stocks have lost a lot of value.

The following issues are often highlighted around this simplified model:

-          It only takes into account two assets classes: stocks and bonds. It does not take cash, real estate funds and the difference between large and small cap stocks into account?

-          It looks upon bonds and bonds funds as part of the same class while both have considerable different characteristics; more on this later.

-          It does not take into account how wealthy the investor is and with what risk levels he or she is comfortable. Wealthier investors are often prepared to invest a larger portion of their wealth into more risky but also more rewarding investments than less-wealth investors.

-          It forgoes on the idea that younger people have not only more time to make up earlier losses but have also have more time to lose even more than older people since they have more time till the standard retirement age.

-          It does not take into account that in case of death of the owner of the assets, it could be, from a tax point of view, more favourable to inherit ate stock holdings than cash.

In summary, this much quoted rule of thumb is a very simplified model that could be plainly wrong for a lot of people.

On the internet, you can also easily find automated asset allocation advisors like this one on the CNN Money website. Based on your inputs regarding time horizon, risk tolerance and flexibility, it provides you with a suggested assets allocation over bonds, small cap stocks, large cap stocks and foreign stocks.

A good aspect of the availability of tools like this is that it may prevent people who have no better information to put all their savings in just one asset. Following now such a model, they in any case diversify their investments. But this does not mean that they are only taking risks that they are comfortable with. The problem is that they maybe do not know or understand what risks they are taking.

The issue for me with following an advice like this would be that it is very much a black-box tool. You know what you put in and see what you get out of it, but you do not get an understanding how the tool came to the results. For me to sleep well at night, I want to understand why I would invest in a certain way. Just following the advice of a web application won’t do it for me since it does not provide me clarity on what type of assumptions are behind the advice that I am getting and if those assumptions are even valid for me.

When we want to answer questions like “in what assets to invest” or “how much of our savings to invest”, we consider at Stock Trend Investing the following aspects:

-          Two different types of “risk”

-          Your risk tolerance

-          Inflation and Interest Rate

-          Bonds, Options and other Assets

-          Your presence in the market

Do you want to consider these aspects as well?

If you plan to grow your business or extend your network of contacts as an investment consultant, you should be building a mailing list of your leads. These are usually leads to people who have shown an interest in what you do and have given you permission to contact them by email. There are many ways for investment consultants to gather leads or subscribers and this article looks at several of the best ways to build a targeted list.

By getting these people into your list you will be able to stay in regular contact with them and some of them will probably go on to become your best prospects and loyal customers.

There are several categories of people whom you should want on your mailing list as an investment consultant, and these include existing clients, potential investors,  and in fact anyone else who might be looking for a good investment consultant.

Make it easy for them to subscribe to your newsletter or other announcements. Set up a web page with a simple sign up box where they can easily send you their name and email address.

One of the keys to building a successful mailing list is attracting targeted prospects to your mailing list, and one of the best ways to source those targeted leads is through article marketing. With article marketing you write an article related to finance that editors and publishers can use free of charge if they show your ‘About The Author’ paragraph at the bottom of the article. The advantage is that your articles get read by people who are interested in your topic, in this case finance and investment.

You can make your finance articles available at article directories like EzineArticles and ArticleDashboard.

Another good way to attract targeted leads to your mailing list is to participate in online forums, discussions and even ‘Questions and Answers’ sites. Look for discussions and questions on related topics such as real estate industry, business trends, and investments with high returns  The great thing here is that you can find people who are seeking answers to specific questions to which you can provide answers.

Your active participation in these discussions also helps to build your reputation as an expert in the field. In your signature or profile be sure to include a link back to your own web page.

Take a minute to consider what magazines and journals are typically read by your target audience? Perhaps it is Smart Money or Businessweek. Perhaps there are also some smaller or local magazines that are popular amond your target audience. By taking out advertising in publications like these you can obtain highly targeted leads for your own mailing list.

Advertising through a search engine like Google or Yahoo is another way to reach a highly targeted audience who are searching for particular information. For example you might target people who are searching for keyword phrases related to investment advice, top stock picks, or investment funds.

With pay-per-click advertising networks you decide how much you will pay every time someone clicks on your advertisement and visits your web page. Two examples of advertising networks are Google AdWords and Yahoo Sponsored Search.

These are just a few of the ways you can gather new targeted leads for your mailing list. There are many more ways if you really want to build a big, responsive mailing list.

You’ve probably heard about real estate investment opportunities currently available in the US real estate market called “bulk REO”. Before we go any further, let me explain what a REO property and a bulk REO property is for the sake of those readers who are not yet clear about what this term means.

REO (Real Estate Owned) refers to properties which have gone through the foreclosure process and the bank now owns the house. It used to be that these properties would almost always sell at auction, largely to investors eager for a great deal on an investment property. However, the enormous number of foreclosures currently going on in the US means that many of these properties now go unsold and become the property of the bank or other lending institution.

Many people are changing their strategy to investing. Most savvy real estate investors, are changing from working the “pre-foreclosre” angle to buying direct from the bank’s REO departments. They are putting together purchase deals for multiple REO properties in the million to five million dollar range.

Maybe you’ve heard of people who talk about buying bulk REO properties in the hundred million and even billion dollar ranges. I’ve come to learn that in most cases these people are blowing a lot of hot air. Half a million to five million makes sense, but excuse me, a billion dollars? Think about it. A billion dollars is a thousand million-dollar properties, or two-thousand half-million dollar properties. What bank is going to have that many properties available to make a giant REO package like that?

Maybe these new “want-a-be” investors feel like they have to talk big numbers to be taken seriously. I don’t know. I have had people tell me that they a billion dollars instantly available in a bank account from a pool of investors. That tips legitimate sellers off that these people probably don’t know what they’re doing.

Do you have 1,000 million-dollar investors? If so, can I have their phone numbers? Honestly, if you could write a check for a billion dollars would you be spending your day combing through websites of unknown reliability wondering who you should make that check out to?

My point is this: if you’re serious about investing in multiple REO properties, there’s nothing wrong with being honest about how much you have to invest. It is a lot more realistic to find ten investors that are in for 0,000 each, or even 100 investors that are in for ,000 each, and there are enough low-priced foreclosure properties that a million could buy several of them at once in some markets.

I’m not saying that high volume REO deals don’t go down. I’m just saying that the scale is in the million dollar range rather than the billion dollar range. These bulk REO packages usually consist of a dozen or fewer properties, and they’re not the norm. The typical REO bulk packages consist of only two or three properties, and yes, they are done by ordinary investors like you and me.

Getting involved in the bulk REO business is actually a pretty simple process. It takes some legwork, but it’s eminently doable by a determined investor with some initiative.

The first thing you do is get to know the higher ups in local banks. These are the banks where the top brass are mostly local, and that have been banking in your area for awhile. Don’t start with Bank of America, because the chances of your talking to the top REO department officials with only a million bucks in your pocket are pretty slim.

Once you’ve got to know a handful of local bankers, mention that you invest in real estate and would really like to have a sit-down with the REO supervisor. But don’t do this unless you have the cash available to close a deal fast.

Your first REO purchase, and probably your second one too, should be a smaller portfolio of properties. This deal would demonstrate to the bank that you are trustworthy and have the cash to close a purchase quickly. Don’t screw this up, because if you get a deal accepted and something happens and you can’t close it, you can write off that bank for any future REO purchases.

After you’ve closed a couple of REO sales, it’s time to broaden your horizons a little. This is when you can start buying bigger “pools” of property at a time. You have to time it right to get the best deal. You know how people say that to get the best deal on a car you should go toward the end of the month when the sales people are all trying to meet their quotas? It’s similar with banks when a quarter is coming to an end.

At the end of a quarter, banks report their earnings. The top brass are thinking about what kind of bonus they’re going to get at the end of the year. These people do not want under-performing assets (like foreclosure properties) on their books. Knowing the quarterly reporting timeline, come to the bank officer you’re closest to about a month ahead of time and let him or her know that you would be willing to take several under-performing assets off their hands and would like to look at what they have.

From there, it’s time to negotiate. Don’t give them your best offer first. You know how it is, you come at the deal from both ends until you reach a happy middle. If you play your cards right, you’ll come away with several properties that you’ve bought at below market value. The bank crosses a few under-performing assets off their books, and their quarterly reports suddenly look brighter.

The key to doing this and doing it well is realizing that real estate investing is a business, and you should approach it as if you were a business: You, Inc. Like with any other business investment, you want it to increase in value so that you can buy low and sell high. You can’t look at it from the point of view of someone who’s “flipping real estate” (even if at some point you actually end up doing that). You have to come at it with a long-term perspective, and you have to know the market inside and out.

If you approach bulk REO investing as a business you’ll realize that you have a lot to learn, and you’ll take the time to learn it. Getting educated in bulk REO investing will put you miles ahead of the wanna-be’s who talk about billion dollar deals but never close them. As they say in Texas, they’re all hock and no spit. Applying solid business principles to bulk REO investing is the way to be successful at it.

Managing your investments becomes easy when you make it a habit to save, even if it’s very little money. You need to keep a meticulous account of personal income versus expenditure on a monthly basis before you start investing. Here are some steps you can follow:

A budget helps you identify problem spending areas and also helps regulate your cash flow. Tracking your expenses against the budget helps you control spending and free up cash to clear existing debt and save for retirement or your child’s education. For example, your budget allocation includes a certain amount for groceries for a week. You discover on comparing that amount against actual expenses that you have overspent on buying additional items that you did not really need. This will caution you against making similar expenditure next week and at the end of the month, you will end up saving money!

Are you surprised that paying off credit card debt is a step towards investments? Credit cards charge a high amount of interest along with the principal repayments. When you clear this amount, you’ll be glad to realize that all the interest amounts and late fees you paid to credit cards can be utilized for your savings and investment program.

Emergencies often arrive unannounced. Ensure that some money is set aside to cover monthly expenses for at least three months. These funds should be invested or set aside in instruments that can be readily accessed should you need cash. For example, keep these funds in a savings account in a bank or invest in a money-market mutual fund.

You can open a recurring deposit account. In this case a particular amount from your income gets deposited every month for a fixed tenure. You can also invest in a series of fixed deposits (FDs). For example, if your cash reserve is USD 24,000, this amount can be divided into six FDs of equal amounts, each with a 6-month maturity. At the end of 6 months, you’ll have a fixed deposit maturing every month. You can continue to roll them over to create a source of regular income and minimize risk.

You can get life cover, education cover and save for retirement when you invest in insurance. Besides this, you get tax exemptions to reduce your current tax payout. For example, you can invest in the insurance plans which offer not only life insurance, but riders for investment of the premium amount so that you get good returns when you retire.

Investing in a house is one of the best investments you can make. First, your payments towards interest and real estate taxes are tax deductible. Second, your property increases in value over time.

Your risk tolerance level goes a long way in defining your investment approach. If you’re not averse to taking risks, then you may want to invest in an equity based mutual fund. Else, you may want to invest in a plan that involves bonds and other safe securities. Also, ensure that you keep in mind your investment objectives before you subscribe to an investment plan.