Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Beginners Guide To Stock Market Investment


What is the best advice to help start off a Beginner Guide To Stock Market Investment? Don’t try to learn everything at once. Instead, start by creating an investing plan. Then research the opportunities that match up with your goals. You can always expand your research as your investment knowledge and confidence grows. The creation of an investment plan starts by first identifying what you want to achieve, and how you will be done. On a sheet of paper, write down the amount of money that you can afford to invest on a monthly basis. Next write down the reasons that you want to begin stock market investing, and assign an amount of money to each investment goal. Then, separate them into categories:


Short-term investments - Less than a year – i.e., a vacation or money for the holidays. Short-term goals can often be met through the use of a CD or by opening a money market account.

Certificates of Deposits (CDs) are a good safe way of investing for beginners, and are offered with various maturity dates and interest rates by banks and brokers.

Money Market Accounts are also a safe bet. They are offered by banks, and are therefore FDIC insured. They are also very liquid. They usually come in two flavors: tax-free and traditional accounts. Look around for the interest rate that will come closest to meeting your investment goal.

Mid-term and long-term goals usually involve working with a broker to invest in the stock market and/or taking advantage of various opportunities offered by your State or employer.



College funds:

Every state now offers a 529 Prepaid Tuition Program

The Coverdell IRA (formerly known as an Educational IRA) can be opened through a brokerage firm.



Stock Market Investment
Retirement Planning:

401K's are offered through employers.

Traditional IRAs and Roth IRAsare both available through brokers.


Stocks on the stock market involve more risk than other methods of investment for beginners. It is therefore recommended to start with mutual funds or work with a broker under a managed account.

Mutual Funds are lower risk because they are diversified. They are made up of many different stocks. If one stock goes way down in price, the overall mutual fund only goes down a fraction of the amount. Mutual funds are divided into numerous risk categories such as: Capital, Income, Growth, and Aggressive. You would choose one based upon your goals. Research and compare the various funds in that category through either your broker, or online. You’ll also want to read the fund’s prospectus for an overview of the mutual fund’s risks and performance history.

Bond Funds are like mutual funds, and are separated into various categories organized by their term length. A beginning investor should select the term-length that best meets their investment goals then research and compare the various bonds offered. Each bond has a prospectus that you will also want to read to fully understand the bond’s risks and performance.

Beginner Guide To Stock MarketArt and Collectibles Investing For beginners, art or collectibles is very risky, therefore invest in something that you are either passionate about or that you truly like. Maintain a narrow investment focus, get involved in your investment’s community and follow a trend. You will be in it for the long-term with no guarantee of certain returns.

Hopefully this short stock market for beginners guide has made a few things more clear for you. Whether you are investing in bond funds, art, or stocks, it will always be important to do your research and know what you are buying. Learn as much as you can from books or articles, and then do specific research on each individual investment. It may seem like a lot of work. As you probably know though, success with anything involves lots of small amounts of practice or learning that adds up to a champion athlete, or in this case, a successful investor. I have been looking to invest in the stock market pretty soon and I just wanted to share what I've learned through research.




Remain blessed

Friday, August 6, 2010

The Gift of Prayer


Do you pray? Do you pray often, or only occasionally? Is prayer important to you?

I ask you these questions because prayer and praying are essential for your life of faith. Like breath to the human body, prayer makes the spirit live. Without it, faith dies. On the other hand, a person who prays grows in spirit and life.

Let me tell you some things that may encourage you to pray.


Prayer is a Gift of God

To begin with, prayer is a gift of God. "Gift" is a good word to describe prayer, because praying is not something we can do of ourselves. " We do not know how to pray as we ought," scripture says. Prayer is a gift God must give.

And God gives that gift generously, without consideration of our worthiness or our unworthiness. Sinners as well as saints can pray. People of every religious tradition receive the gift. In fact, every human being is able to pray.

Yes, all are called to pray. All receive the gift. And, surprisingly, sometimes those thought to be "ungifted" pray best and are graciously heard. That's the lesson Jesus taught in his parable about the Pharisee and the Publican who together went up to the temple to pray. The Publican, an outsider who thought himself unworthy of approaching God in prayer, was found more pleasing by God than the Pharisee, a professionally religious person, who prayed so effortlessly.

Prayer, then, is God's gift to the strong and the weak, to the smallest child and frailest of the old. It's given to those who say, " I'm not really religious; prayer is beyond me." It's given to everyone, no matter who you are.

That's not to say we can't refuse to pray or we can't neglect it. Like any gift, prayer must be received. If someone gives you a beautiful piece of clothing, you may use it or not. You may take it and wear it. Or, you can throw it in the back of your closet and never look at it again. The piece of clothing becomes a gift unused. "If you knew the gift of God," Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well. A Gift was there before her eyes, but she was blind to it.

How tragic to go through life leaving the gift of prayer unused!


Prayer: God's Search for Intimacy with Us

Why does God give the gift of prayer? The main reason is because of love for us. God looks for intimacy with us. How strange that sounds! God all-sufficient, all-powerful, all-knowing, wishes to draw close, to communicate, to speak to us, to seek our response, to hear our prayer. It may seem unbelievable, but it is true.

At the same time, by praying we fulfill the desire we have as human beings to know God. After all, we are made in God's image. Something in in our being thirsts for intimacy with God. That thirst is described in the psalms, O God, you are my God, for you I long. For you my soul is thirsting. Like a dry weary land without water... so my soul longs for you, my God. Something in us cannot be satisfied unless we are draw near to God. "Our hearts are restless," St. Augustine says, "until they rest in you." By praying, we rest in God.

The church in her formal prayers often humbly acknowledges that prayer is God's gift and asks God to give and strengthen that gift in us. At the beginning of her daily prayers, the liturgy of the hours, the church prays two verses of the psalms.

O Lord, open my lips
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

O God, come to my assistance.
O Lord, make haste to help me.

Simple, truthful words. I cannot open my lips in prayer unless God give me the gift. O God, come and assist me; help me that I may approach you.

And God does give this beautiful gift. In prayer God comes and helps; God invites us into the divine presence where we can open our lips and our hearts. There God welcomes our slightest word or cry, our smallest effort.

Delighting to give us the gift of prayer, God wishes that we come near to share our hearts and minds, our very life with One who loves us. Prayer is God's precious gift; cherish it always.




Remain blessed

Thursday, August 5, 2010

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.



Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will direct your paths.

Proverbs 3, 5-6

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