Solved: An object has several forces acting on it. One of

Chapter 11: Basics of Investing  Key Point in Investing o Know your goals and risk tolerance o Pay yourself first o Brainless, painless investing o Don’t put all your eggs in one basket o Review and revise your investments periodically  Main Questions o Why do you want to invest  What is the goal o When will you need the money o How much risk are you comfortable taking  Must know your goals o Meet basic needs first  Liquidity, savings, debt management o Math your investments to your goals  If your goal is security, invest in safe assets  If your goal is income, invest in fixed income  If your goal is growth, invest in equities o Understand your investments  Goal and Risk Tolerance o Also need to know your risk tolerance o Main determinant is time  ST investments: use safe  LT investments: incorporate riskier assts  Main aspects of investments o Safety  Price volatility: how much a price bounces around o Income  cash o Growth  Does it go up in value o Tax implications  Taxable, tax deductible, tax deferred, tax free  Both IRA tax benefits for when you pull it out during retirement  Returns from Investing o Income  Interest  Dividends  Cash  DRIPS: dividend reinvestment plan o Capital gains  Capital gain= selling price – purchase price  Purchase price = tax basis o Paper gains  Diversification o Attempt to reduce your risk exposure o Investing in different assets within:  Different industries  Different economies o Theory: by spreading your investments over a wide range, you aren’t impacted when one investment goes down  Diversification reduce the impact of extremes o Reduces your risk exposure o Key to diversifying:  Negative correlations  Invest in different industries  Invest in different assets  What can you invest in o Individual stocks, bonds, cds o Mutual funds (active) o Index mutual funds (passive) o Asset allocation mutual funds o Real estate o Business assets o Collectibles  Stocks o Corporate stocks  Piece of the ownership of the company  Higher risk investment- highest return o Making money with stocks  Dividends  Capital gains  Common Stock – Terms o Ticker symbol  Stock market abbreviation for company o Last (or close)  Last market price from previous days o Hi/Low  Highest and lowest market prices during the trading session o Change  Yesterday’s closing price minus previous day’s closing price o Sales (1,000s)  Trading volume for that stocks (shares) o 52-week Hi/Low  Highest/lowest prices during the past year o Div Yield (dividend yield)  Total annual dividend/ current price  Quarterly dividend/ current price  Income stocks have high dividend yields  Growth stocks have no/low dividend yields o DRIPs  Dividend reinvestment plans  Take dividends in stock rather than cash o Beta  Measure of volatility (risk)  Market beta is 1.0  High beta = higher risk  Can be negative  Slope of the regression line for a firm’s stock return plotted against market return  Beta= CovFirm,Marketriancemarket o Stock Split  Attempt by firm to manipulate stock price  Convert existing share into new shares  Changes tax basis per share  Picking Stocks o Earnings history o P/E ratio (Price/ Earnings per share) o Dividend Yield (quarterly dividends)  (Dividend per share/ Price per share) * 4 o Beta  Measure of volatility o 52- week high/low o Invest in companies you know and understand  Buying stocks o Purchase through broker, financial planner, or directly from company  DSP =Direct stock purchase from company o Typically pay a commission on purchase and sale o Register your name or street name o DRIP recommended  Mutual Funds o Very popular investment assets o Pool of money invested by a manager o 1000s of mutual funds to choose from o Choose MF that matches investment goal o Main types:  Money market  Capital preservation  Income  Growth  International  Specialty  Balanced  Asset allocation  Mutual Fund Loads and Fees o Front – end load  Upfront fee that you pay when you purchase o CDSC- contingent deferred sales charge  A fee you pay when you sell shares of a MF  May be phase out over time o 12b-1 fees  A fee to cover marketing expenses o Operating fees  Fees associated with managing the MF  Lower fees for index or passive funds  Actively managed MF have higher fees  Types of Shares o Class A: pay a front load fee o Class B: pay a CDSC  Higher operating expenses than A shares o Class C: constant load funds  Highest operating expenses  Choosing a Mutual Fund o Match stated goal of mF to your goal o Look at historical returns o Look at expense ratio and loads o Look at manager and mgt. tenure o Different classes of MF  Basic Investment Strategies o Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA)  Investing the same dollar amount each period  Great to do through automatic paycheck deductions  Common sense in action  When asset prices are high, money buys less  Asset prices are low, buy more  Shorter term Investments o < 3 years, keep it safe  Savings, MMA, MMMF, CDS  Conservative bond mutual fund o 5-10 years, you can take more risk  Keep a portion safe  Invest a portion for growth and or income  As your goal approaches, move to safer investments  Asset Allocation o Long term investments o 100-age= % of portfolio in equities  Stocks, stock MF, real estate o Remaining portion invested in fixed income  Safer assets, but with lower returns  Reallocation o Refers to changing the target percentages for stocks vs bonds over time  2 parts:  Reallocate you existing portfolio  Reallocate your future contributions o Rebalancing: bring existing portfolio back in the target percentages  Reduce risk exposure