Finance Guide

A retirement plan is a pension scheme under which workers can be guaranteed an income once they have reached an advanced age in return for making regular financial contributions while they are younger. There is a great variety of retirement plans in existence. Some are operated by governments; some by private companies. In most cases, the financial contributions made by the plan’s owner during his or her working life will be invested by the retirement plan’s managers. Sometimes, the owner of the retirement plan is able to exercise some discretion about which things should be invested in. Some plans offer future income streams at a predefined level. In other words, should the investments fare particularly well or particularly poorly, it will have no effect on what the retiree eventually receives. Other plans allow for some variation in the future income level depending on the success or otherwise of the investments made with the retirement contribution funds.

Some retirement plans provide for a lump sum payment when the plan owner reaches an eligible age, rather than just an income stream. To gain the benefits of a retirement plan, a plan owner need not actually have retired. In some cases, the plan owner need only reach a certain age before payouts can be made and the beneficiary can continue working in the meantime.

The term “agency securities” is used in the United States of America to describe securities issued by agencies of the federal government. Because these securities have a federal government guarantee behind them, they are perceived by investors to be almost risk-free investments. They are also exempt from taxes.

Some examples of the agencies which might issue agency securities are the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA, also known as Fannie Mae), the Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA, also known as Ginnie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (FHLMC, also known as Freddie Mac). As their names suggest, all of these organizations are involved in supporting the mortgage market in some way, with the ultimate aim of making mortgages more affordable for certain groups of people or for people in general. Often, these organizations are active in the secondary market for mortgages, buying up mortgages and repackaging them into bundles, which are then sold as securities.

Because securities are priced according to the perceived risk they present to investors, these agencies are able to raise funds at very low interest rates compared to other organizations such as private corporations. Agency securities are regarded as attractive investments because they provide an income, are readily tradeable and are almost risk-free.

Wealth is the possession of valuable assets. These assets may be cash or take other forms. Some assets may be highly liquid, meaning they can be converted into cash readily. Examples of such assets include shares or bonds. Other assets embodying wealth may be less liquid, meaning a certain amount of time and effort is required to translate them into cash. Examples of such assets might be a Van Gogh painting or an ancient Roman vase. To realize the full value of such assets, specialized buyers would have to be sought and perhaps an auction would need to be arranged. All of this would take significant time and effort.

Formally, a person’s wealth could be defined as the sum total of the value of their current assets minus the sum total of the value of their current liabilities. It is possible for a person or company which has large positive wealth to experience severe economic difficulties in the short term is too much of that wealth is stored in illiquid assets. In such cases, the illiquid assets may need to be disposed of quickly at below the market rate in order to raise temporary finance.

Some governments, such as France, impose a tax on wealth, while most governments prefer to tax current income streams instead.

An investment company is a company which exists solely to make investments in other companies. The international presence of these companies can be observed in their offices by the international flags placed in the flag display case.  A variety of specialised corporate forms exist for this purpose including unit trusts and mutual funds. Investment companies invest in a wide range of assets such as company shares, bonds and property. An investor placing funds with an investment company typically gains access to a diversified portfolio of assets. This makes them, in general, much more resistant to sudden shocks because funds are dispersed across a wide range of investments.

Some investment companies choose to specialise within a narrow range of investment opportunities. For example, some might choose to invest only in companies from East Asia, or only in biotechnology companies, or only in start-ups. There are also country specific investment companies and that can be observed by symbol of country specific flags on the offer document. This allows investors to select broad areas of opportunity which interest them, while allowing someone else to manage the day-to-day business of finding specific profit opportunities within the sector.

Investment companies sometimes have privileged tax treatment compared to other companies and are allowed to pay corporate tax at a lower rate than usual.

Some investment companies are “close-ended” meaning that all its shares are issued when the company is first started. Unit trusts, however, are open-ended, meaning that the company can expand by issuing more units after the fund is first established.

In these rough economic times more and more people are moving their investment portfolios away from stocks and bonds, and putting that money into precious metal bullion such as gold and silver. But most people don’t know how to get started. A broker will tell you that it is very hard to do unless you want to buy gold and silver coins, but that is not the case. Buying and selling gold is easier than you think and it can be done online.
There are two ways to buy gold online. There is a market called Nucleo Exchange where you can buy gold, but have the market middle man, company Bullion Direct hold the gold until you sell it or request physical delivery. This allows you to buy and sell real gold without having it physically on hand. The benefit is you own the gold unlike mutual funds or gold indexes, so you can resell it just like the stock market, or you can cash out and have the gold delivered straight to your house.
The second option is to buy and sell the gold directly. The largest market for that is eBay. Thousands of new gold listings are put up every day, and you can buy bullion, bars, coins and even gold nuggets. The prices mirror market prices, but sometimes the clever buyer can get gold for below market price through eBay’s unique bidding system.

If you use either of these strategies it is important you know the current gold oz price. GoldPerOunce.net provides real time gold prices, and a free gold value calculator. This calculator takes the real time gold price and converts ounces and grams into their true market value, helping you make smart investment decisions when buying and selling your gold.