Unemployment is up, not too many job ads in the paper, and more job losses predicted. Share market is down (too few shares going anywhere but down mostly). Lots of cars and real estate being offered for sale. Bank interest rates going dowwwwn. Commodities prices out of whack. What do people who still have jobs and money invest in now-a-days? The world financial crisis is slowly catching up with Australia too!
It does make it tough, but I reckon there are some good opps in the sharemarket with 2009 shaping up to be a cracking year after the market was slammed in 07 & 08. That said, it'll probably be pretty volatile over the next few years. One thing that I've heard people talking about for getting good yield on your investments is hybrids, but alas, I know precious little about it.
at the moment I am not investing for the long term, I am simply trading this bear market rally. I'm setting trailing stop losses so that a reversal, which will come shortly, will take me out with most of the recent profit. This rally is not based on any improvement in stock fundamentals or World financial state but by a bunch of lemmings chasing rising stock prices like before. All the major countries are pumping money into the economies which will simply force prices up, dollar down and gold will rise again. A selection of good reset preference shares might be a good bet for the next 18 months returning 7 to 10% with low risk.
some of the risks of reset preference shares are (a) underlying risk of the company going belly-up - same as owning the ordinary share; (b) they should be linked to a margin above the CPI otherwise as inflation goes up, which it will with all the money being pumped into the economy, then those with fixed interest rates will become of less value; (c) if you need the money before reset or buy back then the capital value may be lower than the $100 issue price, however some Reset prefs are linked to the underlying share price of the company and can exceed the $100 (I don't think there are many of those left); (d) the company may change the rules and not buy back the reset prefs on the due date at the $100 face value but choose to extend the time frame just when you want the money to put back into a rising bull market. There are probably other issues but I'm not sure of them. I used to have a lot of Reset Prefs in my SMSF during the 2003 downturn but got rid of them as soon as the market started to pick up.
I'm from the UK and had my money invested in Hedge Funds, managed by a close friend of mine. He set up a business model some six years ago and has consistently made 15% - 20% returns every year, which is compounding -interest on the interest also! For the first couple of years I had just a small amount invested (what I could afford to lose), but then became hungry for more and borrowed loans to invest. I asked my fund manager if I could make a monthly withdrawal to cover the loan repayments which he said was fine. Now my loans are almost completely paid off, leaving me with the original loan amountl + much more still in the investment. My friend takes a small comission and has grown from the trading he did in his bedroom (and when his boss was not looking :) to owning a plush office and employing 9 staff. The recession has made him adapt his model to be more prudent and all I've seen is the ongoing rewards. As the day fluctuations of the markets still rise and fall in a predictable way, why isn't more people looking at hedge funds to beat the recession?
When a disaster strikes anywhere in the world it is our natural instinct to want to help in any way we can by sending food, clothing and money. However, where there is a disaster there are always plenty of people willing to take advantage of the sit…
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January 23
marc schwarz looking to change jobs to improve income level and to have money to play market in small way using derivitaves
The residential property market is expected to pare back to more moderate levels of price growth after a stellar performance for most of 2009, a survey finds.
You cannot imagine how many times I've heard business builders lament: By the time I'm able to smell the roses, I'll be too old to walk through the garden!
Hidden details about the interest charged on partly-paid or overdue credit card balances is unfairly costing customers, consumer advocate group Choice says.
Even as most billionaires saw their wealth increase in 2009 along with rising stock markets, some remain cautious and believe that 2010 will continue to test the global economy.
The central bank will almost certainly raise the official interest rate this week as it tries to keep inflationary pressures in check, and moves towards a more normal policy setting in 2010.
Twenty-seven million people around the world lost their jobs in 2009, the UN labour agency said on Wednesday, warning of a jobless recovery in a report released on the opening day of the World Economic Forum.