Daily Investment Tips

A good credit score is necessary if you want to get cheap loans. It is important you do your best to put your credit history in order to protect your credit score.

A credit score is determined by assessing a persons payment history, outstanding debt, number of years as a borrow and number of recent new accounts.

The following four credit tips will help you protect your credit score.

Start Borrowing Early

Start borrowing as early as possible. A person who starts borrowing money in college has an opportunity to develop a good credit history. By the time this person is applying for his/her first morgage he will show experience in his / her ability to borrow and pay bakc money. The important thing is to borrow small amounts that you can service comfortably.

Pay All Your debts In Time.

35% of your credit score is determined by how well you service your debt. Always pay your debt on time.

Dont Over Borrow.

30% of your credit score is determined by your level of debt. The more debt you are carrying the lower your credit score. Never borrwo more than you need.

Dont run away from your debts

If you are carry many credit cards this could indicate you are use one credit card to pay off another credit card. A sign you might be in financial trouble. Deal with all your debts at a time. When you borrow money to pay off an old debt you are only increasing the size of your debt. Asking for more trouble!

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Borrow Money, Borrowing Money, Cheap Loans, Credit Card, Credit Cards, Credit Help, Credit History, Credit Score, Credit Tips, Debts, Financial Trouble, Improve Credit, Morgage, New Accounts, Opportunity, Payment History

Gold is on the rise and when a commodity is this hot it is good to revisit its past. On this chart you can see how the price of gold has trended from 1970s – 1980s – 1990s – year 2000 and upto 2010.

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: 1970s, 1980s 1990s, Commodity, Dollar, Gold Chart, Gold Price, Price Of Gold, Price Trend, Trend Chart, Upto, Year 2000

The following factors are used in determining a credit score. Payment history, your outstanding debt, experience in borrowing and number of recent new accounts.

How Payment History affects your credit score

35 percent of a credit score is determined by your payment history. They check whether you regularly pay your bills or fines on time to your creditors.

How Your Outstanding Debt Affects your credit score

30 percent of a credit score is based on the amounts you owe each of your creditors. The more the more your credit score will suffer.

How much experience you have in borrowing and repaying money.

15 percent of credit score  is based on the length of your credit history. The older you have been a borrower the better (assuming you’ve made timely payments).

How The Number of New Accounts Affect Your Credit Score

Finally 10 percent of your credit score is based on how many accounts you’ve recently opened. Your score can drop if it looks as if you’re seeking several new sources of credit — a sign that you may be in financial trouble

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Credit History, Credit Score, Creditors, Financial Trouble, Money, New Accounts, Payment History, Timely Payments

The Internet Crime Complaint Center reported that Americans lost about $559 million to Internet thieves in 2009.

According to an article by bankrate.com, in 2009 and published at Yahoo finance, there were more online bank robberies than there were actual on-site bank robberies.

How Hackers are Stealing Your Bank Details

Hackers seems to have developed a virus that is designed to specifically go after online bank details

Banking Trojans — malicious code specifically designed for banking fraud. They are invisible and can steal multiple types of data, including passwords. Some more advanced types of Trojans can make fraudulent transfers and drain your account while you are logged on to the account online

Thats sound scary!!

Tips on How To Protect you account. Read this Yahoo Finance Article

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Bank Account Details, Bank Details, Bank Robberies, Banking Fraud, Fraudulent Transfers, Hackers, Internet Crime Complaint Center, Malicious Code, Online Banking, Online Crime, Passwords, Scary, Thieves, Trojans, Virus, Yahoo, Yahoo Finance

Its never easy for a small investor to invest in Gold. There are practical problems with owning gold. It’s heavy, and not easy for the average investor to buy, sell, ship, and store. Gold involves a lot of transactional costs.

Invest in Gold ETF

One easier way for retail investors or small investor can get exposure to gold is through exchange-traded funds. The exchange traded fund is a trading platform where investors can invest in funds that track a particular investment eg. gold, oil, emerging markets etc. Instead of directly buying a commodity, you buy piece of the fund which in turns invests directly into the commodity.

For example, the SPDR Gold Trust holds actual gold bullion. The PowerShares DB Gold Fund holds futures contracts linked to the price of gold, and the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF holds stock in gold mining companies.

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Commodity, Emerging Markets, Exchange Traded Fund, Exchange Traded Funds, Futures Contracts, Gold Bullion, Gold Etf, Gold Fund, Gold Futures, Gold Mining Companies, Invest In Gold, Investing In Gold, Market Vectors Gold Miners, Powershares, Price Of Gold, Retail Investors, Small Investor, Trading Platform, Transactional Costs, Vectors Gold Miners

Gold is hot at the moment. Gold is up a whooping 84% in the last 3 years. The gold investors who so it coming have made some serious money.

There are many reasons as to why gold has risen this high, one is the idea that gold is a safe haven. There is belief that the bailouts of the last 2 years will lead to inflation which causes devaluation of currencies and the only protection against all this is gold.

The idea gold is a safe investment goes back to medieval times. A safe investment means you cant lose your money. But the truth is you can lose your money in gold. What is needed is a change in sentiment and people who bought gold start taking their profit. The gold price trend will be in a reverse gear.

Risks of Investing in Gold

In a Business week interview Susan C. Elser, of Elser Financial Planning Indianapolis gave a good detailed analysis on the risk of gold investment,

Unlike other commodities, gold has few industrial uses. Unlike businesses owned through the stock market, gold earns no profits and doesn’t pay out dividends. Unlike bonds, no one pays interest to holders of gold. And, unlike insured bank deposits, there is no guarantee of your principal investment.

“There is no downside protection on investing in gold,” Elser says.

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Bank Deposits, Business Week, Devaluation, Dividends, Downside Protection, Financial Planners, Gold Commodities, Gold Investment, Gold Investors, Gold Price, Inflation, Investing In Gold, Medieval Times, Price Trend, Principal Investment, Safe Haven, Sentiment, Serious Money, Stock Market, Susan C

A green investing idea have come across is investing in a rooftop farm or garden. I first heard about rooftop farms in New York in a BBC program. At first i thought this was something new but after researching on the subject I discovered it is an idea that has been around for some time.

Rooftop farming is urban agriculture

Rooftop farms are cropping up on top of storied building in New York and across America. The farm owners are not just hobbiest, they are serious farmers trying to make a buck.

A good example is a group farm in New York called Brooklyn Grange. They were profiled in New York times. The group grow peppers, tomatoes and green vegetables. The vegetables are sold to local restaurants.

Making money in a rooftop farm

According to the team leader of the group, for such a venture to turn a profit you need a large space.

I noticed the members of Brooklyn Grange have to work as volunteers to cut cost. At the moment rooftop farming is still in its infancy, trying to find a business model that is profitable. The members of the partnership draw much satisfaction from doing something noble.

If you are interested in rooftop farming you may consider joining a  farm group partnership around your city. You may also start one but first make sure to know whether its legal in the first place. You don’t want to be breaking the law.

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Bbc, Bbc Program, Breaking The Law, Brooklyn, Business Model, Farm Group, Farmers, Farming, Grange, Green Vegetables, Infancy, Local Restaurants, Making Money, New York Times, Partnership, Satisfaction, Team Leader, Tomatoes, Urban Agriculture, Volunteers

If you have taken out a mortgage to invest in a rental property you will be responsible to paying the mortgage, taxes and cost of maintaining the house.

The owner of the real estate has two options on how to charge rent, In option one he charges enough rent to cover all of the above costs. In option two the real estate investor charges more in order to produce a monthly profit.

Although the temptation is on option two: to get a profit. It is not the best strategy, the best strategy is to be patient and only charge enough rent to cover expenses until the mortgage has been paid, at which time the majority of the rent becomes profit.

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Invest, Mortgage, Option One, Property Investment, Real Estate Investor, Rent Property, Rental Property, Taxes, Temptation

Warren Buffet is the best investor in the world, when measured by ability to accumulate money. His investment advice on the best time to sell you shares can be found on the following quote by him.

We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful. By Warren Buffet

By greedy he means when the market is in a bull frenzy and every Tom, Dick and Harry is buying stock. When everyone is buying prices tend to go well above their true value and that is when a smart investor should be thinking of selling.

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Attempt, Best Time, Buying Stock, Frenzy, Investment Advice, Money, Quote, Sell Stocks, Smart Investor, Stocks Shares, Tom Dick And Harry, True Value, Warren Buffet