June 2013

Infographic: Bear vs. Bull Infographic. What’s Next For Gold?

What’s next for gold prices? Are you a bull or a bear about gold’s future? There are a lot of reasons to be positive or negative about the future of the price of gold. And don’t forget about inflation. Inflation plays a big role in the price of gold for investors. Gold prices gained about 9% in 2013 and inflation was next to nothing. If you were a bull on gold at the start of last year, that big move higher must have been great news. Add that momentum into this year’s forwards looking forecasts and many analysts believe we could see gold prices skyrocket. They’re forecasting gains as high as 40% next year! Now, if next year turns out … Read more

Why Are Younger Workers More Interested In Saving For Retirement?

by Guest Contributor

pension The current financial climate has brought plenty of uncertainty with it for workers young and old.

As incomes are being squeezed by high inflation rates and reluctance on the part of some bosses to raise wages in line with inflation, saving for retirement and the future might not seem like an option for many workers; especially those who are still saddled with student debts.

However, as a survey conducted by the National Association for Pension Funds revealed, younger workers who might be a long way from paying off debts accumulated while at university are more willing than their older peers. Surprisingly, a healthy 53% of 25 to 34-year-old workers said they planned to put some money in their pension fund over the course of 2013.

Youth trumps experience saving for retirement

While more than half of young workers said they planned on saving for retirement and the future, the same can’t be said of older workers. A disappointing 26% of workers between the ages of 35 and 44 said that they were willing to save for their pension at some point this year. The average figure for all workers stood at 38%, which equates to a disappointing less than four out of 10 people in employment.

Top 6 Tips for New Home Buyers to Get the Best Home for Your Money

by Collaborative Poster

With rent prices going higher and higher, all renters will reach a point where enough is enough. When a rent payment is more than a monthly mortgage payment, and they have nothing to show for the thousands of dollars at the end of a lease, frustration mounts. Here are some new tips for new home buyers. Many would-be buyers shy away from the daunting process of home buying as lenders put buyers through more scrutiny than ever before. But with high availability of homes, all-time low interest rates, and no-hassle lenders like American Financing, now is the best time to go through the extra effort to buy a home. When contemplating jumping into the home buying pool, please consider the … Read more

Need vs Want – How to Shop Sensibly and Stop Impulse Spending

by Guest Contributor

Are you an impulse shopper?Is it a need vs want? If you buy things you didn’t set out to buy, and do so on a fairly regular basis, it’s likely that you are.

Everyone has the odd impulse purchase every now and again, but if you’re doing it all the time and using your credit cards to make purchases, then you could have a bit of a problem. It’s time to cut down, and the way to do this is to distinguish between needing something and simply wanting it.

There’s no getting away from the fact that we live in a consumer culture. People like to buy things, and shopping can give many of us a bit of a high, which is why shopping is often called ‘retail therapy’.

However, most things that we buy aren’t things that we actually need, in the true sense of really needing something, because the things we crucially need to survive are things like food, medicine, a roof over our heads etc.

To cut down your spending, you don’t need to do away with everything but the basic things you need to survive. You just need to know the difference between purchases that are useful (i.e. a warm coat in winter if you don’t have one) and purchases that are simply frivolous (i.e. a new purse when you already have a closet full of perfectly serviceable purses).

Need vs Want – How to Shop Sensibly

How Investing Newsletters Can Make You A Better Investor

by Hank Coleman

The stock market itself is hot right now, and I think that it is definitely going to be a continuing trend higher this year. With all of the investment options to consider, wouldn’t it be nice to have some very helpful information to base your decisions upon? That’s why I’ve turned to investing newsletters to help me pick stocks. Online Investing Newsletters Are A Great Resource Sure you can go find information about which stocks to buy and sell by yourself, and you will still need to do a little bit of your own research. You don’t want to just take anyone’s word for it. But, investment newsletters are offered by some of the top financial advisers, stock pickers, and … Read more