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SHOULD YOU INVEST FOR YOUR FUTURE?I would say Yes.Hence, investing has become increasingly important over the years, as the future of social security benefits becomes unknown.In these hard times, people want to insure their futures, and they know that if they are depending on Social Security Benefit, and in most cases retirement plans, they know that they may be in for a rude awakening, when they no longer have the ability to earn a steady income. Investing is the best answer to the unknowns of the future.Over the years you may have been saving money in a low interest savings account. Now, you want to see that money grow at a much faster pace. Perhaps you’ve inherited money from a relative or you realized some other type of windfall, and you need a way to make that money grow. So, investing is the answer.Investing is also a way of getting the things that you want, such as a new home, a college education for your children, or expensive ‘toys.’ Of course, your financial goals will determine what type of investing you do.If need to make a lot of money fast, you would be more interested in higher risk investing, which will give you a larger return in a shorter amount of time. If you are saving for the far off future, such as retirement, you would want to make safer investments that grow over a longer period of time.To create wealth and security are the overall purpose of investing, over a period of time. It is also important to remember that you will not always be able to earn an income … you will eventually want to retire.You also cannot depend on the Social Security system to do what you expect it to do. As we have seen with Enron, you also cannot necessarily depend on your company’s retirement plan either. So, again, investing is the key to insuring your own financial future, but you must make smart investments!INVESTMENT STRATEGYIn most cases, investing is not a sure thing — it is more or less like a game – you will never know the outcome of the game until it has been played and a winner has been declared. When you play almost any type of game, you should have a strategy. Investing isn’t any different – you need an investment strategy.The strategy in investment is basically a plan for investing your money in various types of investments that will help you meet your financial goals in a certain amount of time. Each type of investment contains individual investments that you must choose from. A clothing store sells clothes – but those clothes consist of skirts, dresses, shirts, pants, undergarments, etc. The stock market is a type of investment, but it contains different types of stocks, which all contain different companies that you may invest in.You must first research and research some more, otherwise, it can quickly become very confusing – as there are so many different types of investments; there are each individual investments to choose from. This is where your strategy, also combined with your risk of tolerance and investment style will all come into play.If you are a beginner and just starting in investing, you should have a financial adviser, who will advise you before making any investments. Your financial adviser will help you develop an investment strategy that will not only fall within the bounds of your risk tolerance and your investment budget, but will also help you achieve your financial goals.You should invest money with money that you don’t use and never invest money without having a goal and a strategy for reaching that goal! This is absolutely essential. Nobody should ever hand their money over to anyone without knowing what that money is being used for, and when they will get it back! If you don’t have a goal, a plan, or a strategy, that is essentially what you are doing! Always start with a goal and a strategy for reaching that goal!Your Present Situation Should Be Stabilized Before You Think Of InvestingBefore you even think of investing in any type of market, you should really take a long hard look at your current financial situation. Investing in the future is a good thing, but clearing up bad – or potentially bad – financial situations in the present is extremely more important.Check your credit report. You should do this once each year. It is important to have a clear report, and to clear up any debt as soon as possible. If you have set aside $25,000 to invest, but you have $25,000 worth of bad credit, you are better off cleaning up the credit first!Firstly, look at what you are paying out each month, and you should get rid of expenses that are not necessary. For example, high interest credit cards are not necessary. Pay them off and get rid of them. If you have high interest outstanding loans, you should pay them off as well.If nothing else, exchange the high interest credit card for one with lower interest and refinance high interest loans with loans that are lower interest. You may have to use some of your investment funds to take care of these matters, but in the long run, you will see that this is the wisest course of action.Get yourself into good financial position – and then enhance your financial situation with sound investments.It does not make sense to start investing funds if your bank balance is always running low or if you are struggling to pay your monthly bills. Your investment money will be better spent to rectify adverse financial issues that affect you each day.While you are in the process of a clear-up in your present financial situation, make it a point to educate yourself about the various types of investments.This way, when you are in a financially sound situation, you will be armed with the knowledge that you need to make equally sound investments in your future.INVESTING FOR YOUR RETIREMENTRetirement it might be right around the corner OR it may be a long way off for you – No matter how near or far it is, you have absolutely got to start saving for it now. However, in these days, saving for retirement isn’t what it cut out to be with the increase in cost of living and the instability of social security. You have to invest for your retirement, as opposed to saving for it!Let’s us take a look at the retirement plan which is offered by your company. At one time, these plans were quite sound. However, after the Enron upset and all that followed, you are not secured in the company retirement plans anymore. If you choose not to invest in your company’s retirement plan, you do have other options.First let’s see, you can invest in stocks, mutual funds, certificates of deposit, bonds, and money market accounts. You do not have to state to anybody that the returns on these investments are to be used for retirement. Just simply allow your money to grow overtime, and when certain investments reach their maturity, reinvest them and continue to let your money grow.You can also open an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). IRA’s are quite popular because the money is not taxed until you withdraw the funds. You may also be able to deduct your IRA contributions from the taxes that you owe. An IRA can be opened at most banks. A ROTH IRA is a newer type of retirement account. With a Roth, you pay taxes on the money that you are investing in your account, but when you cash out, no federal taxes are owed. Roth IRA’s can also be opened at a financial institution.Now here is another popular type, of retirement account is the 401(k). 401(k’s) are typically offered through employers, but you may be able to open a 401(k) on your own. You should speak with a financial adviser or accountant to help you with this. The Keogh plan is another type of IRA that is suitable for self employed people. Self-employed small business owners may also be interested in Simplified Employee Pension Plans (SEP). This is another type of Keogh plan that people typically find easier to administer than a regular Keogh plan.Whichever retirement investment you choose, just make sure you choose one! Again, do not depend on social security, company retirement plans, or even an inheritance that may or may not come through! Take care of your financial future by investing in it today.I hope this helps you in your future financial plans.

The United Nations does it. Governments do it. Companies do it. Fund managers do it. Millions of ordinary working people – from business owners to factory workers – do it. Housewives do it. Even farmers and children do it.’It’ here is investing: the science and art of creating, protecting and enhancing your wealth in the financial markets. This article introduces some of the most important concerns in the world of investment.Let’s start with your objectives. While clearly the goal is to make more money, there are 3 specific reasons institutions, professionals and retail investors (people like you and me) invest:For Security, ie for protection against inflation or market crashes
For Income, ie to receive regular income from their investments
For Growth, ie for long-term growth in the value of their investmentsInvestments are generally structured to focus on one or other of these objectives, and investment professionals (such as fund managers) spend a lot of time balancing these competing objectives. With a little bit of education and time, you can do almost the same thing yourself.One of the first questions to ask yourself is how much risk you’re comfortable with. To put it more plainly: how much money are you prepared to lose? Your risk tolerance level depends on your personality, experiences, number of dependents, age, level of financial knowledge and several other factors. Investment advisors measure your risk tolerance level so they can classify you by risk profile (eg, ‘Conservative’, ‘Moderate’, ‘Aggressive’) and recommend the appropriate investment portfolio (explained below).However, understanding your personal risk tolerance level is necessary for you too, especially with something as important as your own money. Your investments should be a source of comfort, not pain. Nobody can guarantee you’ll make a profit; even the most sensible investment decisions can turn against you; there are always ‘good years’ and ‘bad years’. You may lose part or all of your investment so always invest only what you are prepared to lose.At some point you’ll want to withdraw some or all of your investment funds. When is that point likely to be: in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years or 25 years? Clearly, you’ll want an investment that allows you to withdraw at least part of your funds at this point. Your investment timeframe – short-term, medium-term or long-term – will often determine what kinds of investments you can go for and what kinds of returns to expect.All investments involve a degree of risk. One of the ‘golden rules’ of investing is that reward is related to risk: the higher the reward you want, the higher the risk you have to take. Different investments can come with very different levels of risk (and associated reward); it’s important that you appreciate the risks associated with any investment you’re planning to make. There’s no such thing as a risk-free investment, and your bank deposits are no exception. Firstly, while Singapore bank deposits are rightly considered very safe, banks in other countries have failed before and continue to fail. More importantly, in 2010 the highest interest rate on Singapore dollar deposits up to $10,000 was 0.375%, while the average inflation rate from Jan-Nov 2010 was 2.66%. You were losing money just by leaving your savings in the bank.Today, there are many, many types of investments (‘asset classes’) available. Some – such as bank deposits, stocks (shares) and unit trusts – you’re already familiar with, but there are several others you should be aware of. Some of the most common ones:Bank Deposits
Shares
Investment-Linked Product1
Unit Trusts2
ETFs3
Gold41 An Investment-Linked Product (ILP) is an insurance plan that combines protection and investment. ILPs main advantage is that they offer life insurance.2 A Unit Trust is a pool of money professionally managed according to a specific, long-term management objective (eg, a unit trust may invest in well-known companies all over the world to try to provide a balance of high returns and diversification). The main advantage of unit trusts is that you don’t have to pay brokers’ commissions.3 An ETF or Exchange-Traded Fund comes in many different forms: for example, there are equity ETFs that hold, or track the performance of, a basket of stocks (eg Singapore, emerging economies); commodity ETFs that hold, or track the price of, a single commodity or basket of commodities (eg Silver, metals); and currency ETFs that track a major currency or basket of currencies (eg Euro). ETFs offer two main advantages: they trade like shares (on stock exchanges such as the SGX) and typically come with very low management fees.The main difference between ETFs and Unit Trusts is that ETFs are publicly-traded assets while Unit Trusts are privately-traded assets, meaning that you can buy and sell them yourself anytime during market hours.4 ‘Gold’ here refers to gold bullion, certificates of ownership or gold savings accounts. However, note that you can invest in gold in many other ways, including gold ETFs, gold Unit Trusts; and shares in gold mining companies.With the advent of the Internet and online brokers, there are so many investment alternatives available today that even a beginner investor with $5,000 to invest can find several investment options suited to her objectives, risk profile and timeframe.Diversification basically means trying to reduce risk by making a variety of investments, ie investing your money in multiple companies, industries and countries (and as your financial knowledge and wealth grows, in different ‘asset classes’ – cash, stocks, ETFs, commodities such as gold and silver, etc). This collection of investments is termed your Investment Portfolio.Some level of diversification is important because in times of crisis, similar investments tend to behave similarly. Two of the best examples in recent history are the Singapore stock market crashes of late-2008/early-2009, during the US ‘Subprime’ crisis, and 1997, during the ‘Asian Financial Crisis’, when the price of large numbers of stocks plunged. ‘Diversifying’ by investing in different stocks wouldn’t have helped you very much on these occasions.The concept and power of compounding are best explained by example. Assume we have 3 investments: the first returns 0.25% a year; the second returns 5% a year; and the third returns 10% a year. For each investment, we compare 2 scenarios:Without compounding, ie the annual interest is taken out of the account.
With compounding, ie the annual interest is left (re-invested) in the account.Let’s look at the returns over 25 years for all 3 investments, assuming we start off with $10,000 in Year 0:With 0.25% return a year, your investment will grow to $10,625 after 25 years without compounding; your investment becomes $10,644 after 25 years with compounding.
With 5% return a year, your investment will grow to $22,500 after 25 years without compounding; your investment becomes $33,864 after 25 years with compounding.
With 10% return a year, your investment will grow to $35,000 after 25 years without compounding; your investment becomes $108,347 after 25 years with compounding.This shows the dramatic effects of both higher returns and compounding: 10% annual returns coupled with 25 years of compounding will return you more than 10 times your initial investment. And 10% returns are by no means unrealistic: educated investors who actively manage their portfolio themselves and practise diversification can achieve even higher returns, even with some losing years.People of all ages and backgrounds need practical and customised guidance in developing their financial knowledge and skills in order to reach their financial goals. In this article we’ve tried to describe in simple terms some of the most important concepts and principles you need to understand on this journey.