Where Can You Buy Mutual Funds?

For those that are new to investing and have decided that mutual funds are the way to go, the next logical question is how do you go about purchasing them? There are many different ways to go about investing in mutual funds, and you have several different options to choose from. 

One of the most popular ways to buy mutual funds is directly from the companies. The type of fund you want to look for is a no-load mutual fund. No-load funds are free from fees and additional costs that load funds tend to have. Since you’re going directly through to the fund company, you will save a transaction fee that you would normally have to pay through a broker, and since you aren’t paying any fees, all of your money goes towards investing. 

Going about investing directly is easy. Once you’ve chosen the company you want to deal with, you simply fill out an application, enclose a check for the amount you want to invest and mail it in. It couldn’t be easier. 

Another popular way to buy mutual funds is online through a broker or through a mutual fund superstore. Most of these online superstores like T. Rowe Price or Wells Fargo (there are many others, as well) don’t charge any transaction fees for their services because the fund you end up buying will reimburse them. Be careful though, these online superstores often sell funds that do carry transaction fees or they carry load mutual funds that can come with some steep fees of their own. Make sure you read all the fine print and know what you’re investing in before you buy it. 

Maybe the most common way of buying mutual funds is through your work’s retirement program. Your 401(k) account is most likely tied to mutual funds so you may already be a seasoned mutual fund investor and not even know it. To find out more about the funds your retirement plan invests in, you can visit the website of the fund that your 401(k) invests in. 

If you have signed up for a 529 College Saving Plan, than you’ve bought into mutual funds. These brand new plans are made for families who are trying to help their kids through college. Their main benefit is the tax laws that are used for withdrawals from the plan. In most cases, if money is taken out for education expenses, it’s tax free. This is an ideal plan for most families who are worrying about paying for college. 

A final way that you can invest in mutual funds is with a financial advisor. While this way would be a bit more costly since you would have to pay the advisor, you are bound to make the best mutual fund investment choice for you. 

Buying mutual funds in this day and age of the Internet is easier than it has ever been. But be careful, make sure you crunch the numbers and make an educated choice and you can be well on your way to financial freedom with mutual funds! 

Using a Co Signer to Boost your Credit

Having a co-signer on a loan application can either be a good thing or a bad one. This can be anyone that you know like a friend or family member who agrees to share the responsibility for repaying the loan if you cannot make the payments for some reason. Usually it is a parent that will co-sign for a child who has no credit or low credit. It can be a good way to build your good credit up and get the results that you are looking for. In other cases, the co-signers good credit may help someone with poor credit get a loan that they would otherwise be denied for.

We all start out with a credit score of 0. Having no credit score is almost as bad as having a bad one. There is no record of your credibility, which is not very convenient if you are a young adult trying to get a loan for a home or car or college education. There are parents or guardians who will understand the meaning of having credit will put their child’s name on a utility bill and let theme make payments from a job or pay for it themselves. As long as the bill is paid in full and on time, it will put a positive reflect on the person’s credibility. It will be a lot easier to move into the adult work of making a large purchase like a first home when you have good credit to your name.

For the person that has managed to make a bad name for himself or herself in the world of credit and they are in need of a loan, they may have to rely on a co-singer to help them out of this jam. No one wants to be in debt and a family member or friend will be more understanding than the institution from where you want to borrow the money. A co-signer must have a good credit score and they must be willing to take over the remaining money that is owed on the loan for any reason if the primary borrower cannot make payments.

If you are in debt and you cannot seem to get a break, a co-signer could be what you are looking for. No matter what your reason for bad credit, it is up to the lender to approve or deny you based on the facts of your credit report. As long as you know someone who has good credit and enough trust in your ability to repay the loan that you are looking for, you may have a good chance to get back to where you want. A co-singer is a good way to establish or re-build good credit for you.

Credit and the Law

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act says that all lenders will apply the same credit standards to all the consumers no matter what their race, sex, marital status, national origin, religion, age, or public assistance program that is involved. This does not say for sure that the loan approved or credit will be given to you. It will give you an equal chance to obtain credit. The only good measurement for creditors to use is your ability to pay the debts that you owe.

Many of the applications will have questions about some of the above things. However you are not required to answer them on an application for credit. These may be asked because of the fair housing laws or affirmative action laws but these are at your discretion. You should not be asked about your material status, unless your partner will help you secure the loan. You may be asked your age because of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, but only to determine if you are old enough to have the credit. This means that you have to be over the age of 18 in the U.S.

Creditors must tell any applicants of their decision within 30 days. If the application is not approved, the creditor must provide a written statement that has full detail of the outcome or decision along with the reason for the denial and the information on the applicant’s rights. This act will help to seal for certain it is kept with all applications for credit no matter who the applicant is.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act will also give people the right to see their credit report. To make this better, everyone is entitled to a free credit report every 12 months. This act will help people to receive their credit history for all three national credit-reporting agencies. When you are reviewing your credit, you can dispute items on the credit report and this will allow the consumer to control some of what the credit reporting agencies have against them. If the correction to your credit in not right, you can also add a statement of 100 words or less to help clarify the item that you want to dispute.

The act was started to uphold the accuracy and privacy of a person’s private information in the credit report. It was passed with the intention of preventing identity theft, which has become more popular in recent years. By reviewing one’s credit report each year, he or she will be able to determine if any kind of identity theft has happened.

Both of these acts will protect you by helping the fairness of the lending industry while allowing you to take control of your credit history and making sure that it is accurate. If you want to maintain good credit, you need to learn as much about it as you can. Understanding these laws means that you are taking a good and positive step in creating good credit for yourself and making it possible to have a more stable financial future. 

What Is Your Risk Tolerance?

One of the biggest parts of investing is determining your own risk tolerance. When most people think of risk tolerance, they think, “How much can I stand to lose before I start to struggle.” Risk is a huge part of investing because it dictates what sort of mutual funds you can put your money into, how much money you can invest and for how long. Knowing your risk tolerance is one of the biggest keys to successful investing.

Risk is usually defined as short term volatility in prices or variability in prices. But there is a whole other kind of risk at the other end of the spectrum. The risk of not meeting your goals by investing. The main reason why anyone begins to invest is to meet goals that they have set for themselves. The most common goal in investing is saving money for retirement or for that second home. Risk goes both ways, there is the chance you could lose your shirt with an investment, and the chance that if you don’t take enough risks, you won’t meet the goals you’ve set for yourself.

The first thing you need to do is to take a personal assessment of your own risk and develop what is known as an investment personality. Everyone’s personality will be different, they are unique like fingerprints. Some investors can stand to take some big chances now with the lure of a potential payoff down the road, while others who may not have much time between the time they start investing and the point where their financial goals need to be realized and can’t take big risks. A good barometer to judge what your risk will be is how will you feel in your capital goes up, down or stays the same? Are you willing to be patient and accept small increases, or do you want to see the most possible movement? If you’re sitting at your computer right now ringing your hands in fear that you might lose money on your investment, you should already be able to tell exactly what sort of investor you are.

 Assessing both ends of your risk tolerance is quite possibly the most important single financial decision you can make. Knowing how much money you can invest, how long you need to invest it for and what kind of mutual funds you want to buy into is very important. Once you determine your own risk tolerance, you will be ready to take the next step and start investing.

What Is Automatic Investing?

For many, the idea of investing in mutual funds, stocks and bonds is appealing, but it all seems too complicated. Too much jargon, too much danger, too much hassle. Thankfully, the companies that run mutual funds know this and have come up with a way for new investors who may not have a big wad of cash to invest right off the bat.

It’s called automatic investing and it is highly recommended for those new to mutual funds and for those that want to invest but don’t have a lot of up-front funds.

Automatic investing is done through a mutual fund company, and what happens is, you sign up to purchase a set amount of funds either every month or every few months (usually quarterly). You buy a bit at a time, whatever you feel you can afford, and your shares are managed by the mutual fund company. It is a great way to watch a nest egg form from money you didn’t even know you had.

A great part about automatic investing is that most mutual fund companies are so excited to get new investors in, they will waive most if not all transaction and investment fees for those that are signing up for automatic investing. They understand you may not have a lot of extra cash to throw away on fees and they want you to get your feet wet with mutual funds.

Maybe the best part about automatic investing is that it is a very disciplined form of investing. Instead of opening up an E-Trade account and investing from your home computer, an investment expert at the mutual fund company that you invest in will handle your shares and in this case, it is probably best to let the experts handle it. It’s extremely tempting to chase mutual funds when investing yourself. You hear the latest news about funds that may be surging and its tempting to take your money and jump on the hottest fund, but disciplined, long-term investing is a much more beneficial way to go.

Whichever company you choose to use for automatic investing will supply you with a prospectus that will outline all of the fees that may or may not be associated with your account. This is key since you’ll need to know what any possible cost might be for things like early withdrawals.

For many, automatic investing takes the guesswork and the fear out of mutual fund investing by allowing a large amount of money to build up over time. Contact a mutual fund company to see if automatic investing is right for you!

Building Your Event Planning Business

Owning any sort of business often takes time to grow, but building an event planning business is one venture that typically takes a considerable amount of time. The main reason for this, however, is because you are typically working with one or two customers or clients at a time and the way advertising works in the event planning business much of the time is through word-of-mouth. Event though word-of-mouth advertising is an excellent way for prospective clients to be told about your services and business, it is also a very slow way of spreading the word about your particular services. However, there are some other things that can be done in addition to the word-of-mouth advertising taking place, but that will of course require advertising and a lot of marketing on your part. If you don't have a degree in business marketing or the like then here are some suggestions of how to advertise your event planning business from the ground up:

Use Business Cards

A great way to spread the word about your business is through business cards. The most obvious people that you will be giving your event planning business cards to are the clients you'll be working with. On the other hand, there are many people who contact retail stores and other service businesses and ask them whether or not they can place their business cards on countertops or somewhere within their company's building so that prospective clients and others will be able to pick one up when needed. Of course this often requires that you pay a fee in order to be able to do so, but using business cards in this way is a great idea to spread the word and make sure that your name is out there!

Use Professional Correspondence

Aside from business cards for your event planning business, another great way to make sure that the public knows about your services is to use professional correspondence with everything that you send out. For example, do you have a professional letterhead that you use when billing customers? Using that professional letterhead with your company name, logo, and contact information is very important so that others will know how to contact you when you're needed. Another method of professional correspondence for your event planning business is through email. Do you have a professional email address that you can be reached at? An example of a professional email address of your business may be something like, "name@businessname.com." Of course, this will also require money or some sort of fee, but setting up an email alias for your business is very important!

There are many other things that one can do in order to build his or her event planning business services. Advertising in newspapers or placing information brochures on doorknobs throughout your neighborhood are two other excellent ways to advertise and grow your client base. All in all, all of these methods are sure-fire ways to spread the word about your services!