Summer Doldrums or Summer Glee?

The key to solid investing sounds quite simple in theory, but it is incredibly difficult to do in reality. The overall goal for investors is to find a stock that has a low value, buy it, wait for the value to rise, and then sell it to make a profit. In that one sentence, you get the entire essence of an entire line of work in which brilliant people, such as Scott Reiman, have had a lot of success. However, you can imagine how hard this is to do, so how have they managed it?

What is their secret?

While there are many things that you need to know if you are going to be a successful investor, one of the most important things to understand is the global economy. As the years go by, the world seems to be getting smaller and smaller. People are able to deal with other companies that are located in other countries and even in different continents. Despite this, many businesses work together closely developing products and service.

Parts could be produced in Japan, for example, only to be assembled in the United Kingdom. In this way, the economy of one country can be directly linked to the economy of another country. When the first country starts to struggle economically, it can have a trickle-down effect on the second country. If less parts can be produced, for example, then there are not as many finished products to be assembled. Because of this, consumers are not able to get what they want, and they do not spend their money as freely. They may spend it in other ways, or they may just hold onto it.

Opportunity Strikes?

This means that the economy can begin to look worse, and stock values may dip. However, this dip is not permanent. When the first company begins producing things quickly again, the economies of both countries can rebound, and the stock prices, which are tied to the overall economy, could begin to rise. Those who are very good at investing know how to look for these signs and signals in the numbers.

They can tell when things are shifting and when the economy might be coming back around. They can even tell which specific companies are involved in the process. They can then buy those companies’ stocks while they are still doing poorly, anticipating the upswing, and make a lot of money if they are right and the stock values begin to rise back up again.

Hold on to your Wallet?

With the stock markets wobbling again, some economies are looking ‘spent’ while others are raising their production, it’s hard to figure out which companies are worth looking at, and which are worth avoiding. What stocks are you looking at? What are you selling, too?

Worried about the price of Gold?

Gold has been on quite a rollercoaster recently from $1200 to $1800. But you may be wondering why gold is now more affordable!

Well, IMHO, one of the biggest reasons gold is priced down is that there are fewer expectations of inflation, economies are sluggish so aggregate demand for goods & services is slowing. So we’ll have higher unemployment, less spending power, and ultimately lower inflation.

This is certainly true in the Eurozone. And mostly true in the US. It’s only when there is excessive demand for products that prices will start to surge again.

However, there is also the opposite scenario: crash & burn. In which case, the West goes to hell in a basket; and price of gold goes through the roof again. We might see a little more risk-based fretting in the news… esp. with Greece & Portugal. Bond prices there are jumping again…

But ultimately, we’ll just muddle through. The type of scenario where growth is anemic, employment & wages stagnate, but not enough to trigger a flight to safety again. Expect Gold to wallow as a result US$1100~1200 until a firm direction is established to the upside or downside for the remainder of 2013.

Should you buy or sell gold in the meantime? What do you think?

Prepaid Cards: Bane or Boon? That depends…

For perhaps the largest selection of prepaid card plans in the industry, you can visit Kaiku (kaiku.com). Kaiku is well known for administrating many prepaid Visa card programs that are responsible for returning many individuals, families and businesses to financial health.

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No matter how much financial trouble you are in, a prepaid Visa credit card from Kaiku will always help the situation. Although the card can be used just like a Visa credit card, the prepaid option means that you will never spend more money than you deposit on the card in the first place. This means that your purchases will still go towards the improvement of your credit score, but you will never face the consequences of a late payment.

Kaiku offers both vanity prepaid cards as well as Visa cards from major banking institutions. You can also use Kaiku in multiple instances with many prepaid cards for different purposes. Kaiku also allows you to add money online with one of the most convenient and up to date deposit systems on the Internet today.

If you do not have the best credit or you are just looking for a credit card option that will protect your financial health, then you should check out Kaiku. You would do well to note that prepaid cards do have a variety of fees and charges including a monthly fee and a credit card deposit fee.

If you manage your withdrawals and account checks to in-network services, you’ll probably be fine; but if you travel a lot internationally or have to use a fee ATM service, it may not be particularly affordable. However, many pre-paid cards seem to offer similar packages.

The good news is: no need to pay interest rates on your prepaid card, so stuffing one in your wallet may be quite useful at times. Just remember to keep cash in it and monthly rates are $1.95. Oh, and don’t get a paper statement! That’ll set you back $2.95.