Why you should invest in gold in 2013?

Why you should invest in gold in 2013?

by Roman on February 22, 2013

Anyone who watches the markets knows how well gold has done in the past few years. An investment in gold has done much better than equities or real estate in the last couple years. In all reality, most experts would agree that gold has a lot of room to grow in the future. While no investment is guaranteed, you should feel very safe by investing in gold given the current economic and political landscapes. Here are four reasons why you should invest in gold in 2013.

1.Government Policies

Most people are realistic when it comes to our government. Our government leaders from both sides of the aisle have created policies that have brought on economic problems. With the value of the dollar declining, gold is going to have another great year. As our government fails to fix the problems, inflation will start becoming more prevalent, and gold is a great hedge against inflation.

2.No better alternative

When you factor inflation into the mix, equities and real estate have performed poorly in the past decade. It appears that housing is going to be stagnant for at least a few more years. Equities have had a nice run, but valuations are now rich and it appears the market will be heading sideways or down for the foreseeable future. Gold has provided investors with a solid and safe return in the past few years and 2013 looks great for gold.

3.Not making more

Gold is a commodity, and with developing economies growing at a fast pace, gold is necessary. Gold is used in the production of electronics and other goods that people use every day. With the countries of India and China growing at a rapid rate, it has never been a better time to invest in gold.

4.Other governments

Not only is the United States government ignoring the problems, governments around the world are not helping either. All over Europe, Asia and the Middle Easy, governments are printing money in order to avoid recessions. This has a huge effect on currency and the value of currencies. Gold should continue to be a great investment as long as governments around the world are not fixing the problem.

Gold has been a great investment in the past five years. There is no reason why gold will not continue to be a great way to make money. For the foreseeable future, it appears that there will be sufficient problems around the world to merit investing in gold. While there is no guarantee, anyone who invests in gold should do very well over the next decade.

 

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Saving money on gifts and presents

5 Tips to Save Money on Gifts

by Roman on January 22, 2013

Even though we’ve just finished with the biggest gift-giving holiday season of the year, chances are you’ll encounter a gift-giving occasion soon: a birthday, a wedding, a baby shower or a colleague’s retirement party. And when you consider that Valentine’s Day is a only a month away, then graduations are around the next corner, it’s enough to make your wallet nervous!

Never fear. You can still make an effort to give gifts without going broke. Here are a few things to look out for that may help:

1. Clearance items

Especially if you have a kid in school, taking the time to stroll down the clearance aisle every so often will save you lots of money. Consider keeping a gift closet or storage box at home, and stash “classic gifts” you buy on clearance (things like unisex toys, crayons, books or games). For adults, you can find soaps, stationery or other trinkets that make for great gifts in a pinch.

2. Bonus buys

This can include things like gift cards with purchases or doubling of items. For example, if your garage or mechanic offers a gift card with an oil change, pay for your oil change and pass along the gift card. Gifts with purchases (offered by companies like Lancôme on sites like Sephora) include full-size items you can combine with other things to create inventive gifts. Other great bonus buys include “twofers,” or double items within single packaging (coffee cups, CDs or DVDs with other merchandise). If you wish to pair things like this, put them in a basket and top it off with a jaunty bow.

3. Online or mobile codes

Sites like Retail Me Not offer codes that expand your gift giving options. Also, become familiar with your favorite store’s sale cycles. Do they have gift rates for certain seasons,or offer free gift shipping? Remember, the cost of the gift extends beyond the item itself. If you pay $3 for a gift but spend $35 to ship it, have you really saved any money?

4. Magazine subscriptions

Although many people now read their magazines on Kindles or tablets, there is still a market for paper publications, and many of them offer two-for-one subscription rates, so if you know someone who loves a specific magazine, but doesn’t have it delivered to their door, consider gifting them a copy (or 12).


5. Gifts of yourself

Before you envision hokey dyed-macaroni necklaces and misshapen clay consider giving of yourself. Do you have a skill that is highly sought after, like painting, massaging or even dog walking? Even if (especially if) your gift is time, consider how valuable an hour of reading to your grandmother with cataracts would be. Fashion a little gift book on your printer or head to Kinkos and kick in the $.05 for the envelope. It will be priceless.

It really is the thought that counts when gift giving. Taking the time to choose something that will be appreciated is a gesture that speaks volumes — and you won’t necessarily have to break the bank to do it!

About the Author:

Mandy Fricke submitted this post. She works in community relations for Earn MBA Degree, which helps you explore MBA degrees. Outside of work Mandy enjoys biking, reading and traveling.

 

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Apple and Steve Jobs

Can Apple Continue to be the Market Leader in 2013?

by Roman on January 20, 2013

As you can see, the market has not been favoring Apple in the past 6 months. The stock is down almost 20% in the past 3 months and down 15% in the past 6 months.

In the beginning of 2012, Apple (AAPL) was a true market leader. If there was a downturn in the market, traders would flock to AAPL stock for safety. I remember seeing traders actually shorting PUTs for huge profits because every dip in the stock would get aggressively bought up. Apple stocks had closed at $405 a share at the end of 2011. In 2012, the stocks had peaked at $705 following the release of iPhone 5. But for the last six months, there have been cases where Apple Stocks have fallen considerably. For e.g.:

  • After the launch of iPhone 5, several analysts had cut the stock ratings to “neutral” from “buy”. The general market sentiment was that “the iPhone 5 was a good phone, not a great phone.”
  • Apple had a disappointing response and the stock fell by 3 percent when the iPhone was launched in China, falling as low as $509. Although later on, it was said that the iPhone 5 received an “explosive” response in China, the stocks did not echo the same sentiment.
  • There was also a time when Apple shares had dipped to $497.

Following are possible reasons which might be affecting the stocks:

Steve Jobs’ demise took a toll on Apple

The day Steve Jobs had passed away, Apple Stocks dipped a little and then rose again, making it clear that people believe in the brand Apple. Analysts believed that Steve had done his role as a CEO and the company was in good hands even after his demise. But at the back of everyone’s mind, there was a fear that Apple had lost a visionary and a Creative Genius.

That trend however has changed in the past few quarters. I think especially after Steve Job’s demise, AAPL has been on a slow decline. Wall Street is holding AAPL guilty until proven innocent after his departure. The sudden lack of innovation and the disappointing iPhone 5 has left the stocks bleeding.

Lack of innovation

IPhone5 was just a device between iPhone4 and iPad. Smaller iPad and bigger IPhone is what people called it. After the release of the iPhone and a thorough analysis of the device by experts, people claimed there was nothing revolutionary about the product. Apple claimed that the response was explosive in the US, but many analysts believe that a weekend sale of 2 million units in a country whose population stands at somewhere close to 400 million is not out of the world.
Experts think the iPhone 5 was rather disappointing given the fact that we are used to be blown away by Apple products. Despite the high sales, the stocks did not respond the way Apple might have anticipated.

Stiff competition from other Smartphone makers

The Smartphone market was something which was almost literally carved out by Apple and it was the undisputed leader for quite some time. But as it has always been, staying on top is the most difficult of tasks. Apparently, innovation, which was the key to Apple’s success, was not their savior this time around. Companies like Samsung and HTC are catching up with Apple. Samsung released the much hyped and very successful Galaxy SIII which was deemed as the best smart phone of the year. Samsung holds the title of the top smartphone maker for the year 2012 and we don’t see Samsung stopping at that. The year 2013 is going to be even tougher for Apple, at least in the Smart Phone category.

Tax loss selling

We saw huge selloff in the past few months in Apple. Some traders are attributing that to tax loss sell at the year end. If that is true, we should see a strong bounce soon in the stock price

Tendency to sell before earnings release

Apple reported disappointed earnings in the past quarter, i.e. growth decelerating. Given that, investors and traders want to get out of AAPL stock before next earnings release to avoid another major drop in the stock price if earnings look bad again. We have to look at Netflix (NFLX) as a recent example of where a leader turned into a dog stock status on earnings decline.

We are talking about the most valued company in the world which has indeed been the market leader for quite some time now. But looking at the present scenario, I don’t think things are going to be that easy for Apple. The competitors are fast catching up and it’s time for Apple to do what it does best, INNOVATE.

 

About the author:

Punit Gupta is an entrepreneur and full time stock trader. Punit specializes in building startups by bootstrapping. Currently Punit is developing a brokerage selection platform, Best Trading Brokerage. Punit attended Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta and worked with an Atlanta based startup for 7 years before quitting to start his own venture

 

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Six easy tips to protect yourself online

6 Easy Tips to Protect Yourself Online

by Roman on October 4, 2012

Anytime you are on the Internet, you need to take steps to protect yourself online. If you do not it can be very easy to lose all your money.

The first thing to know is that if you use the Internet, there is no 100% secure step that guarantees that your information is safe. If behemoths such as Google, Sony, and Symantec (a company that makes virus-scanning software) are hacked in the last 12 months, you probably understand why it impossible to be connected and 100% secure. However, by following the following six easy steps, you can drastically reduce the chances of compromising your information online.

Tip #1 – A solid password

A complicated password is not a guarantee, but it certainly helps. However, that is where the problem starts for most people – how do you come up with a difficult to guess password that is easy to remember? A combination of special characters, lowercase, uppercase, letters, and numbers is your best bet. Be sure to avoid information that is intricately connected to personal information such as your mother’s name or your date of birth. If you have a Facebook or LinkedIn account, you would be surprised how easy that information is to track down.

Tip #2 – Keep your passwords separated

You do not use the same key to your home, office, and car, and you should not use the same password for your work login, Facebook account, email account, and Internet banking account either. If all passwords are the same, once someone compromises your Facebook account (to give but an example) they will also have access to your email. From there it is easy for them to get into your online bank account or other information if the passwords are the same.

Tip #3 – SSL spells safety

Okay, so SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) does not really spell safety, but it does help keep your personal information secure. If you are getting ready to provide sensitive information (think a social security number or credit card information) be sure to check the lower right hand corner or top left corner of your browser and find out if there is an SSL icon (the icon looks like a lock and lights up green). When you see that icon, it means that there is a secure and encrypted connection between you and the server. If the site does not have a secure connection, you are better off buying elsewhere.

Tip #4 – Scanning for threats and updating

Unfortunately, those unscrupulous hackers are becoming smarter by the minute it seems. Whereas before viruses and Trojan horses were only a problem if you opened the wrong email attachment, now visiting a compromised site with the wrong type of browser could get you infected. Be sure that you always have the latest updates of your browser and that you have your anti-viral and anti-malware software running.

Tip #5 – Of course you can trust your “bbank”

Whenever you are browsing the web and something does not look quite right, be on the lookout for possible misspellings. The moment you spell the name of your bank, Disney, or Google wrong (again, just examples), you might end up on an entirely different site. There are people that do nothing but buy up misspelled domains and make money from them.

Tip #6 – Have you been breached? Time to make some changes

In the event that someone does manage to get into your account, most people only change their password. They believe that this will be enough to deter a future hacker. However, how did the hacker find out your information in the first place? It is not just good enough to change the password, but change the security questions that many sites ask for as well. You could have a seemingly unhackable password, but if someone already knows the answer to your security questions, they will get right back into your account.

The truth is that when it comes to Internet security, you are putting quite a bit of trust in the hands of the people you provide your information to. However, when it comes to information breaches, 90% of it rests on the user while approximately 10% of the breaches rest on the people responsible for protecting your information. Follow these six tips and you are on your way to a safer online experience.

About the Author
Jane Warren enjoys providing advice and valuable tips for consumers that are looking to protect themselves better online. Many of the articles Jane has written deal with Internet security and provide insight into the concept of how someone is better able to protect their identity online.

Jane also is a big animal lover. Read about some of her tips and suggestions at her blog. Be sure to properly protect your animals this season with appropriate fleas and ticks treatments as recommended there.

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