Rate Of Return Archives

The Ultimate Guide to Earning a 10% Rate of Return on Your Investments

Are you getting the best rate of return on investment? Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine annually discusses ways to boost your investment yield in its latest issue. I have to say that I am always pretty disappointed with their recommendations. I love the magazine, but I didn’t really care for a list of mutual funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). But, I wanted concrete ideas on how to earn a 10% annual rate of return on my investments. US Treasuries are earning less than 1% and money market funds are not fairing much better. Certificates of deposit are barely scraping by at 2% or so even for the longest maturities. But, are these levels going to last? The stock market has … Read more

Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step Four – Invest 15% of Your Income for Retirement

by Hank Coleman

Baby Step 4 - Save 15% Of Your Income For Retirement

The last week, I wrote an overview of Dave Ramsey’s baby steps system from his book, The Total Money Makeover, and I have been dissecting each of his individual baby steps as well. The Total Money Makeover is a personal finance book that I highly recommend and one of the greatest personal finance books to read. Baby step 4 talks about investing for your retirement. Today, we will look at Baby Step 4 in more detail which is to invest 15% of your income for retirement. There are seven Dave Ramsey baby steps that you should follow in order that will lead you to financial peace. Dave Ramsey’s baby steps are… Baby Step 1 – $1,000 Emergency FundBaby Step 2 – Pay Off All Of Your Debt With … Read more

Benefits And Drawbacks Of Money Market Funds

by Hank Coleman

Money market funds are a lot like money market accounts and provide investors a little more return for their investment rather than just parking their hard earned money in a standard bank savings account. Money market funds are important pieces of the short-term credit markets and can be an excellent addition to an investor’s portfolio. Money market funds provide investors an great alternative to simply holding cash. They are great short term cash investments. Money market funds are deposit accounts that earn interest by investing in short-term, low-risk investments such as U.S. Treasuries, short-term bonds, certificates of deposit, and other conservative investment products that have very little risk of principle loss. Money market funds are a mutual fund that focuses … Read more

What Is Dollar Cost Averaging? – Advantages and Drawbacks

by Hank Coleman

Dollar cost averaging is a well established, tested, and extremely reliable approach to accumulate wealth. An investor who wants to put a lump sum of money into the stock market or mutual funds is wise to invest the money over a period of time in equal installments in order to avoid the devastating effect of a drop in the stock or mutual fund’s share price immediately after investing a single, lump-sum investment. What Is Dollar Cost Averaging? Dollar cost average, or DCA, involves buying the same dollar amount of an investment at regular intervals over the course of a set period of time. In doing so, the investor will purchase more shares of an investment when the share price … Read more