They say you have to spend money to make money, and this is especially true when you're seeking financial guidance. Financial advisors are well-paid for their in-depth expertise and often help their clients through decisions like investing, retirement planning and long-term savings plans.
Although it's still wise to consult a professional before any major investments, you can educate yourself enough to confidently make your own personal financial choices without the help of a professional. Nine members of the Forbes Finance Council shared their best do-it-yourself tips for individual investors looking to better manage their finances. 1. Invest for the long term. The lure of a quick buck can guide investors to make certain investing decisions. But, unless you're a day trader, a long-term strategy is the best way to protect your assets while ensuring ROI in the long run. The market will fluctuate over time, but history shows that it tends to go up in the long run, so looking to the future will keep an investment plan focused and profitable. - Sari Holtz, DailyForex 2. Open a Roth IRA. If you're just getting started with investing, a Roth IRA can be a great way to start. Since it is a tax-advantaged investment, it allows your wealth to grow and compound tax-free. Your investments are initially taxed, so you can make withdrawals tax-free in retirement. And, you will typically have access to a wider range of investment opportunities with a Roth IRA than you would with a 401(k). - Elle Kaplan, LexION Capital 3. Don't follow fads. I believe that everyone can be successful in managing their own finances as long as they are well-informed. A common mistake I see individuals making is investing based on a trend or fad instead of research. Read everything you can get your hands on, and question unproven assumptions. - Mahati Mukkamala, Klaviyo 4. Purchase indexed annuities. Sold by insurance companies, indexed annuities offer a way to participate in stock market gains while limiting downside risk. When the market is climbing, you'll share in the returns, but you'll be protected from losses by a guaranteed return even when stocks fall. The guaranteed return means that even inexperienced investors can participate without big risk. - Danielle Kunkle, Boomer Benefits 5. Take advantage of money management apps. I personally manage my own money and regularly use apps like Mint and Robinhood. Mint keeps my personal finances in check, and I invest through Robinhood. Both have extremely low fees and are easy to use. Money management and investing aren't just for the pros anymore; the fintech trend has resulted in new resources and apps at your fingertips. - Rachel Carpenter, Intrinio 6. Invest in a lifecycle fund. Lifecycle funds require very little work on your part. Unless you really know exactly what you’re doing, it’s the best way to go. As long as you keep stashing money away, it should keep working for you. - Ismael Wrixen, FE International 7. Look into low-cost index funds. Paying investment professionals to manage your portfolio can often cost you a lot of money unnecessarily. When you add in the cost of actively managed investment options, the average managed portfolio will underperform the market. The best investment most people can make, whether they're wealthy or just have a few hundred dollars to invest is a low-cost index fund. - Paul Paradis, Sezzle Forbes Finance Council is an invitation-only organization for executives in successful accounting, financial planning and wealth management firms. Do I qualify? 8. Be resourceful with technology. In the technological era, everyone can be successful with their finances without professional interference. Take advantage of the resources at your disposal. Thousands of apps and websites can aid in the investment process. Record keeping is a must-do, and it’s the only true way to monitor and adjust for proper spending. - Ibrahim AlHusseini, The Husseini Group 9. Budget, budget, budget. Know how much you spend monthly and what you spend it on. If you're able save $500 to $1,000 each month and place it into an investment account, you will witness the phenomenon of compounding interest first hand. Making this systematic is the key to it actually happening. Don't look at saving money as an idea but as a way of life. You will thank yourself later. - Lance Scott, Bay Harbor Wealth Management Heading into the second half of 2017, we believe the elongated U.S. credit and business cycle – currently eight years old and counting – will continue through the end of the year. Yet for the first time in almost a decade, the risks to the global economy are centered in the U.S. and not in other major world economies.
Growth in much of the rest of the world is stable or accelerating. In Europe, a much-anticipated credit and earnings cycle is underway, while most emerging markets are recovering from their 2015-2016 slowdowns and recessions. In our view, the biggest threat to the global economy is the prospect of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) further tightening U.S. monetary policy. Against this backdrop, we believe: · Equities remain the asset class of choice. International equities are more attractively valued than, and likely to outperform, U.S. stocks. · Within the U.S., we favor growth companies in an environment where macro growth will continue to be scarce. · Long-term Treasury rates will remain low for the foreseeable future and send a message to the Fed to proceed with caution. · Emerging market sovereign and corporate bonds offer the most attractive value in fixed income for global bond investors seeking potential total returns. Market cycles ultimately end with tighter monetary policy and the yield curve inverting. We believe this time will be no different. Mutual funds are subject to market risk and volatility. Shares may gain or lose value. Foreign investments may be volatile and involve additional expenses and special risks, including currency fluctuations, foreign taxes, regulatory and geopolitical risks. These views represent the opinions of OppenheimerFunds, Inc. and are not intended as investment advice or to predict or depict the performance of any investment. These views are as of the publication date, and are subject to change based on subsequent developments. Carefully consider fund investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Visit oppenheimerfunds.com or call your advisor for a prospectus with this and other fund information. Read it carefully before investing. It’s beginning to feel like a summer lull out there for markets. But a herd of Fed speakers — including Janet Yellen — could break the pre-holiday spell and deliver a last-minute shake-up as this year’s first half wraps up today. Stocks don’t necessarily deserve a boost, with the Dow and S&P on track for their best first half in four years. And the NASDAQ is flirting with its biggest gain since 2003 (though techs don’t look too frisky in the early going). So, where to invest for the second half? Well, there’s lots of chatter about real estate investment trusts, aka REITs, after yesterday’s news that Warren Buffett has taken a big stake in Store Capital STOR, +0.71%. REITs can yield big profits — but only if you know which ones to buy, say Bespoke Investment Group analysts for our call of the day. “While the shopping mall REITs have been tanking, the REITs that lease out warehouses to tech companies that need space to house all of their servers and cloud data have been surging,” Bespoke’s team says. “The ten best-performing REITs in 2017 are all in strong uptrends, with the exception of GEO and QCP. If you’re a trend investor, you’ll like these charts,” the analysts add. (They’re referring to Geo Group GEO, -0.65% and Quality Care Properties QCP, +2.77 %.) In other words, tech-exposed and health-care real-estate stocks have had a stellar start to the year and are likely to keep going up. Traditional retail real estate such as malls, however, faces “Death by Amazon” as shoppers shift online. That means investors should avoid that type of building, according to Bespoke. “While there has been lots of brainstorming about what to do with malls that often look like ghost towns these days, we haven’t seen any convincing ideas yet (except maybe turning them into tech data centers!),” the analysts say. One of Bespoke’s picks also gets praise from Forbes and Seeking Alpha scribe Brad Thomas, who singles out CareTrust CTRE, +0.57% as a “REIT gem” set for relatively speedy earnings growth. As for Buffett’s REIT pick, that’s along the lines of what Bespoke is backing — less than 20% of Store’s portfolio is in traditional retail. Key market gauges Dow ESU7, -0.34% and S&P futures ESU7, -0.34% are slightly lower, while Nasdaq-100 ESU7, -0.34% futures YMU7, -0.26% are showing a bigger loss. The dollar index DXY, -0.02% is suffering, largely because a jump in the euro. The shared currency EURUSD, +0.0000% surged to a two-week high after hawkish noises from ECB boss Mario Draghi. That drove European stocks SXXP, +0.60% lower. Crude US: CLU7 continues to recover and is taking a stab at reclaiming the $44 level, while gold US: GCQ7 is recovering from its “flash crash” yesterday. The chart The sun is shining again on shares of solar-panel makers, which have been through a rough patch. Now they’re rallying, after President Donald Trump said last week he wanted to clad the long-promised border wall with solar panels, to help pay for it by generating power. That helped send the Guggenheim Solar ETF TAN, +1.01% up 8% last week — the best weekly gain since December 2015 — and it continued to rise on Monday. That means it’s now trading at an eight-month high, as this chart shows. Analysts don’t necessarily believe the wall-plus-panels will see the light of day. But it’s a positive development that Trump’s making a pro-solar statement, they noted, according to The Wall Street Journal. The buzz
Alphabet GOOG, -0.21% GOOGL, -0.34% is getting squeezed today after the EU’s antitrust body slapped the Google parent with a record €2.42 billion fine. Sprint S, +0.24% , Charter Communications CHTR, -1.52% and Comcast CMCSA, +1.11% are said to be in talks to bolster their wireless services. Pandora Media shares P, -1.66% is halted this morning and the rumor mill is going nuts. GM GM, +2.24% are waving another red flag for the car industry, warning its U.S. auto sales will fall short of forecasts. China’s Premier Li is touting the country’s “unimaginable job growth” at the annual June meeting of the World Economic Forum, which started Tuesday. All sorts of investing views have been getting shared at the Evidence-Based Investing Conference (West) The economy The flurry of Fed talk continues today, with Philly Fed’s Patrick Harker and Minneapolis Fed’s Neel Kashkari on tap. The highlight though is Chairwoman Yellen’s speech in London around lunchtime. On the economic docket this morning are the Case-Shiller U.S. home price index and the consumer-confidence index. See MarketWatch’s Economic Calendar. The quote “If, however, Mr. Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price.” — The White House accuses the Syrian government of preparing to use chemical weapons on civilians, including children. The stat 710% — that’s where Venezuela’s annual inflation rate stands, as the country battles with an ever deepening economic crisis. Professor Steve Hanke from Johns Hopkins University points out that it’s the first time inflation has spiked above 700% in the country since June 2015. |