Perhaps you’ve never thought of “buying” your retirement. Yet that is exactly what you do when you put money into a retirement nest egg. You are paying today for the cost of your retirement tomorrow.The cost of those future years is getting more expensive for most Americans, for two reasons.
 
First, we live longer after we retire — with many of us spending 15, 25, even 30 years in retirement — and we are more active.

Second, you may have to shoulder a greater chunk of the cost of your retirement because fewer companies are providing traditional pension plans. Many retirement plans today, such as the popular 401(k), are paid for primarily by the employee, not the employer. You may not have a retirement plan available at work or you may be selfemployed.

This puts the responsibility of choosing retirement investments squarely on your shoulders.Unfortunately, less than half of all workers are earning retirement benefits at work, and many are not familiar with the basics of investing. Many people mistakenly believe that Social Security will pay for all or most of their retirement needs. The fact is, since its inception, Social Security has provided a minimum foundation of protection. A comfortable retirement usually requires Social Security, pensions, personal savings and investments.

That may sound like an impossible task. Many of us live paycheck to paycheck, barely making ends meet. You may have more pressing financial needs and goals than “buying” something so far in the future. Or perhaps you’ve waited until close to retirement before starting to save. Yet you still may be able to afford to buy the kind of retirement you want. Whether you are 18 or 58, you can take steps toward a better, more secure future.

http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/pdf/savingsfitness.pdf

Why Do Stock Prices Go Up And Down?

I’ll give you the short answer first!

Stocks go up because more people want to buy than sell. When this happens they begin to bid higher prices than the stock has been currently trading. On the other side of the same coin, stocks go down because more people want to sell than buy. In order to quickly sell their shares, they are willing to accept a lower price.

Having said this, we’ll take a look at the various reasons that cause traders to want to buy or sell a stock.

It is possible to look at the financial statements of a company and determine what the company is worth. Investors who take this approach are said to examine the company’s “fundamentals”. They attempt to find an undervalued stock – one that is trading below it’s “book value”. They feel that sooner or later other traders will realize that the company is worth more than the current price and begin bidding it up.

Another investment psychology it called the “technical approach”. This is when traders closely examine charts of the stock’s past performance looking for trends that they feel will be repeated in the near future. These traders also look at what is happening in the market as a whole trying to anticipate the effect it will have on an individual stock.

Sometimes companies trade at half their “book value” while at other times they may trade at double, triple, or even higher. When this happens it can create some sudden and large price swings. This volatility is what makes it possible to make large profits in the market. It is also responsible for huge losses.

The stock market is essentially a giant auction where ownership of large companies is for sale. If some investors think that a particular company will be a good investment, they are willing to bid the price up. By the same token, when many investors want to sell a stock at the same time the supply will exceed the demand and the price will drop.

Watching the stock market can be likened to watching a ball bounce. It goes up and comes down and then goes right back up. This can be extremely frustrating for many investors who want it to go up in a steady pattern. It is this volatility in the market as a whole and in the individual stocks that the experienced trader profits from. In the absence of a lot of experience, the individual investor needs a proven source of information and direction. The daily stock market recommendations from www.stock4today.com can supply this need.

Many investors (as opposed to traders) have a “buy and hold” philosophy. This would work well in a constantly rising market. Unfortunately, the stock market does not go up in a straight line. There are ups and downs that frustrate this type of investor. Today many investors have become “traders” who buy and sell on the fluctuations of the market and the individual stocks. These traders make money in any market – up or down!

Another well known investment site www.fool.com lists the following reasons for stocks going up and down:
Why Stocks Go Up

* growing sales and profits
* a great new president hired to run the company
* an exciting new product or service is introduced
* more exciting new products or services are expected
* the company lands a big new contract
* a great review of a new product in the press or on TV
* the company is going to split its stock
* scientists discover the product is good for something else
* some famous investor is buying shares
* lots of people are buying shares
* an analyst upgrades the company, changing her recommendation from, for instance, “buy” to “strong buy”
* other stocks in the same industry go up
* a competitor’s factory burns down
* the company wins a lawsuit
* more people are buying the product or service
* the company expands globally and starts selling in other countries
* the industry is “hot” — people expect big things for good reasons
* the industry is “hot” — people don’t understand much about it, but they’re buying anyway
* the company is bought by another company
* the company might be bought by another company
* the company is going to spin-off part of itself as a new company
* rumors
* for no reason at all

Why Stocks Go Down

* profits slipping, sales slipping
* top executives leave the company
* a famous investor sells shares of the company
* an analyst downgrades his recommendation of the stock, maybe from “buy” to “hold”
* the company loses a major customer
* lots of people are selling shares
* a factory burns down
* other stocks in the same industry go down
* another company introduces a better product
* there’s a supply shortage, so not enough of the product can be made
* a big lawsuit is filed against the company
* scientists discover the product is not safe
* fewer people are buying the product
* the industry used to be “hot,” but now another industry is more popular
* some new law might hurt sales or profits
* a powerful company enters the business
* rumors
* no reason at all

Author Bio
Harry Hooper has over 30 years experience in portfolio management. He is the senior stock tracker for http://www.stock4today.com.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com – Free Website Content

5 Tips for Repairing Bad Credit

Almost all of us are fond of overspending! We buy things we don’t really need. Once we see something that catches our eyes, we automatically buy it – often without even thinking if we still have money or not.

People usually do this in order to please themselves. And lots of them have their own credit cards as a reserve once they run out of cash. They tend to spend a large amount of money in order to serve their caprices or to make them feel better about themselves. Unfortunately, this never really works, and it causes more damage than it cures.

Almost everybody has a credit file, maintained by a credit reference agency. Many people have bad credit facts on their files, such as defaults and bad payment history. This means that when these people apply for credit, such as loans, mortgages, credit cards, car finance or even for a simple bank account, they may be turned away.

Sometimes these people are not even aware of their credit information and credit files, which cause them to have a bad credit.

Having bad credit can adversely affect every aspect of your life. A low credit score means severe financial limitations and difficulties. As if this is not enough, you will also have handfuls of credit councilors and other so called money managers trying to take even more from you with their debt consolidation plans that promise to “cut your payments in half”, “save you thousands”, or our personal favorite – “get you out of debt with the click of a mouse”.

If only our computer mouse had the debt relief magic that those bad credit spam emails promise. Although getting out of debt can’t be done with a click of a mouse button, it’s probably not as difficult as you think.

If you are in this kind of predicament, it is imperative for your financial stability that you do everything you can to repair it.

Now, you might be thinking exactly what is bad credit repair?

“Bad Credit repair” is a common term often used to describe a systematic process of rehabilitating an individual’s creditworthiness, or financial credit reputation.

It is a process that you can carry out yourself, and sometimes the steps you can take are simple. However many people find credit repair a difficult and discouraging procedure.

This process is usually initiated by obtaining copies of your credit report, reviewing the credit report for errors, omissions, and misleading information, and requesting corrections to such information by means of a formal dispute.

If you are worrying too much about your credit, conquer that feeling! No matter how bad your credit is, you can take the following steps to make it better:

1. Pay all of your bills on time. Decide if you have the income to meet all of your obligations. Remember, late payments (payments that are 30 days late or more) have a negative effect on your credit rating.

2. Lessen the number of credit cards that you have. This will reduce the tendency to overspend. Contact your creditors about your plan and close your other accounts.

3. Avoid bankruptcies. Bankruptcy may not the end of the world but it will be with you for years. It will stay in your credit report for at least years and hamper your ability to get credit in the future.

4. Request in writing that your creditors reduce the credit limits on your accounts to lower your amount of available credit.

5. Monitor results and stick to your plan. Review your file every few months to make sure that any errors that you have disputed have been corrected. After a period of time inquiries will no longer count against you provided you haven’t been applying for credit.

These steps can help anywone with bad credit. If you are in that situation, don’t be troubled. Bad credit can almost always be improved or corrected. JUST:

Set up your plan and stick with it!

Author Bio
If you have bad credit, or simply want to keep your finances in order, be sure to visit Gretchen Reece’s Credit Repair Tips site for more tips and strategies: http://www.credit-repair-tips.info

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com – Free Website Content