Why is Everyone Talking About Kiva?

My son came home from work yesterday and was going on and on about this new Entrepreneurial website called Kiva. He thought it was genius, pure genius. (He's 19). He explained that it allows individuals to make loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries which they can use to start up or continue their small businesses. I entered my car today and switched on the XM Satellite radio and there on the NPR station was an interview being played with Matt Flannery, Co-founder of Kiva. Hmmm, coincidence or not?

Kevin, along with his wife, Jessica, fought against a lot of naysayers in 2005 to get his site started. Friends said it just wouldn't work. An attorney told him it was illegal to give money to people in third world countries and then have them mail their loan payment back. So, Kevin researched the case law and policy on this topic, but could not find anything illegal about it. Venture capitalists did not see how anyone could make enough money on this type of deal. Foundations would not support the idea because it did not appear to be charity but instead, a type of commerce.

Kevin and Jessica went ahead with their plans for the site. Today, Kiva is one of the hottest sites on the web. When you visit, you can look up struggling business owners around the world and see their pictures. They receive recommendations by other Kiva uses. You are able to read their profile and decide if their business is something you would like to support. A tally shows how much money they need and how much they have received to date. You can start teams among your friends/family to give as a group. Team tallies are also displayed on the site.

Some loaners have even gone as far as visiting the Kiva entrepreneurs they have loaned money to. The site has been featured in every major magazine and many news shows. (Where have I been?) This site is hot because it lets a loaner feel like they are really helping a specific person. You actually feel like you are forging a connection with someone in Senegal, Peru, or the Ukraine. For example, Justina, Ayacucho, Peru is 48 years old and married with five children.

he sells potatoes from a stand in the Las Americas market, she also travels to regional fairs to sell clothing and buy grains. She is requesting a loan of $275 to buy more potatoes. As of today she has received $75. You can see her picture on line. She is just one of thousands of individuals affiliated with the site. You do not get this same kind of feeling when you donate to a big charity. You just don't. Check out the site. This is an amazing "Feel Good" site. You'll be talking about it, too. Very cool!

Assets, Owning Them the Wrong Way

Most of us have been taught that a dollar saved is a dollar earned. The use of coupons can save families quite a few dollars a year and add up to something substantial if invested properly.
This brings me to my point. Retirees own many of there assets like there home, and bank accounts in joint tenancy with sole right of survivorship. While this is a simple way to own assets. It could be a huge mistake if:

Your marriage goes down the tubes, your bank accounts could be cleaned out.

If one of you has a liability problem you both could lose everything.

I am not saying this is going to happen, I am saying review your situation.

One of the biggest ways retirees jeopardize their assets is by putting them in joint ownership with the kids. I know most people want to avoid the fees of going through probate which could save them thousands of dollars. When you think about it from the kids point of view putting their name of a valuable asset is a no-brainer. The problem could come when a kid runs into financial difficulty.

Creditors will get an opportunity to take this jointly owned asset from you to settle the debts. Yes it could all be gone.

Changing the registration of ownership to include the kids will trigger what is called a deemed disposition. In other words even though you did not sell the security the government will have considered you to have sold it and tax you on the capital gains.

You have to look at the way you own your assets in context of your whole financial situation. Asset ownership is a serious yet often overlooked area that can turn into a gigantic mistake that can jeopardize your retirement finances.

Gold Coins Make Great Investments For More Than Just Collectors

The value of the dollar is dropping, but gold continues to hold steady and even increase slightly in value. All this amidst some of the worst times the American economy has seen in many years. With the future of the economy in question, it seems like the perfect time for many to begin buying gold coins.

These coins have been popular with collectors for a long time, but today they are also seen as a way to protect one's savings. Adding gold to an investment portfolio is a very good idea, especially now.

The reasons for adding gold to your portfolio are numerous. Gold is one of the oldest forms of money, dating back thousands of years. It is a stable, tangible item, which means that it will be able to retain or increase in value. Another reason that people should add gold coins to their portfolio is that they are easy to obtain. They are also practical.

Another great thing about the coins is that they are quite easy to sell. Because of the ability of gold to retain and increase in value, you won't have trouble getting your money's worth when the time to sell comes. In addition, it is easy to determine the value of your coins at any time because the price of gold is tracked on the open market.

While the value of the gold itself is easy to monitor, one of the great things about coins is that they can be worth more than the gold they are made of simply because they are rare.

With all of the benefits that gold coins offer to the investor, it is easy to see just why they are so popular with investors. With the current state of the economy, it might just be a good time to start gathering coins.

Long Term Investing As an Optimist

It does pay to be a long-term optimist as I am. The easiest way to show the importance of staying invested is with the Rule of 72, which illustrates how compounding builds long-term wealth. To see how many years it will take to double your money at any compound growth rate, just divide 72 by that rate. Assuming a 7% compounding rate, your money will roughly double in 10 years. Over 50 years, you will have five doubles -with the last 20 years being the most important doubling points because you are working with a greater principal amount.

For example, $1 million compounding at 7% will grow to almost $32 million ($29.46 to be exact) in 50 years. In the first decade your money will double from $1 million to $2 million, in the second decade from $2 million to $4 million and in the third decade from $4 million to $8 million. Then it starts to get really interesting because the dollar amounts you are doubling are so much greater. In the fourth decade your money will double from $8 million to $16 million and in the fifth decade from $16 million to $32 million. If you can compound your money at 14%, then your $1 million will grow to more than $700 million in 50 years. In such case, your money will double about twice as fast- about every five years, not every 10 years- and so you will have almost 10 doubles over a 50-year period. This is why it is so important to stay invested.

Here are some of the best investment minds in the country offering their wisdom and insights on the issues confronting all investors:

-"Diversification is an established tenet for conservative investment." Benjamin Graham

-"To refer to a personal taste of mine, I am going to buy hamburgers the rest of my life. When hamburgers go down in price, we sing the "Hallelujah Chorus" in the Buffett household. When hamburgers go up, we weep. For most people, it is the same way with everything in life they will be buying -except stocks. When stocks go down and you can get more for your money, people don't like them anymore." Warren Buffett

-"Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections or trying to anticipate corrections than has been lost in corrections themselves." Peter Lynch, former Fidelity Magellan Fund manager.

-"Your success in investing will depend in part on your character and guts, and in part on your ability to realize at the height of ebullience and the depth of despair alike that this too shall pass." John Bogle, Chairman of Vanguard.

Many people are disappointed with investing over the last year. Even if equities deliver long-term returns in the mid single digits as they have in the last decade building a solid long term investment portfolio is still possible. From the quotes above, you can see that you must invest for the long term- that is a minimum of 10 years or more. Focus on the Rule of 72 and the stick with your plan and successful results are sure to follow no matter what the economy does.

HYIP Investments - Right Way to Earn a Million

Just about everyone would love to get rich quick, but finding a way to do so is not always easy. One way of earning a lot of money in a short time is through a hyip program. Hyip is short for high yield investment program and it basically does what the name says. A hyip investment will generally bring a much higher return on money invested than what is considered to be a usual rate.

Of course not every hyip program is good and there are some that are more legitimate than others. Finding the best hyip is not always an easy task and in order to do so you will need to do a lot of research on the company before making the final decision to invest money. However, it must also be kept in mind that luck and work on your part may also play a big role in how successful your hyip investment will end up being.

Another way of determining the best hyip is to read their terms of service and understand what they promise and to see if it is something that is feasible. Reading various forums on hyip is also a good thing to do before actually putting money into a certain program. There are often reviews of the hyip available now and many will tell you what they think is the best hyip to join. Since these writers have firsthand experience with the programs you have an even better chance of making the right investment.

A hyip monitor can also be a great help when trying to get the most out of a hyip investment. Going to a hyip monitor website can give you an idea of which hyip are the best available. You may also find a new hyip program that seems promising and if you get in fast, you can even increase the return on your investment. A hyip monitor is not just good for finding a potentially good program, but also to promote them. By creating your own hyip monitoring website you can advertise for the programs you are already a part of and by doing so will also gain referrals.
A good hyip investment can make you a lot of money, but since there are so many programs available you will have to think things through carefully before taking action. Taking the time to learn about a particular hyip program is not wasted since you will soon see a profit.

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Risk of Online investment

First and foremost you must understand that the reward is directly proportionate to the risk. That is what speculation is all about; you cannot expect to make a substantial return if you are not prepared to accept a certain amount of risk. Any experienced financial speculator will tell you that successful speculation involves being able to quantify risk. The amount of risk attached to any particular HYIP, is for the most part, unquantifiable.
Many of the genuine small Internet based HYIP's are considered high risk, as they are not particularly well thought out programs, often with no sound methodology from which to generate returns. They receive thousands of small deposits from participants, which only adds to the problem. The larger specialist programs, many of which are not plugged on the Internet, can be much safer in many respects, as they are usually run by professional traders who know how to generate returns using sound trading methods. They keep a low profile due to the risk of interference by some authorities, but this does not mean that they are not genuine investment programs.

There is yet another type of HYIP trading program which allows you to set up your own offshore company and a bank account, the funds are then traded through this account, but the program administrator and/or trader never has any kind of access to your funds, he/she only has the authority to place the trades on the account. This method of funding is without a doubt the safest that is available to the HYIP investor. The only risk is that which is attached to the trading method used to generate the returns, although most professional traders will operate with specific risk parameters in mind.

The program administrators should also be forthcoming about how they intend to generate the quoted returns. You should be extremely wary dealing with any HYIP that refuses to disclose details about their system, after all they are asking you to show good faith in them by investing your hard earned money, so they should at least be willing to tell you how they intend to generate the quoted returns. Once you know how a program works, you are in a much better position to be able to assess the viability of that program. For example there is one HYIP that claims very high returns from investing in domain names. This type of HYIP might have been feasible a few years ago, but is highly unlikely to be profitable these days. There have been many high profile court rulings against domain name speculators over the last few years, and registering domain names is hardly an area that requires specialist knowledge and expertise.

As a rule the larger the sum of the investment the safer the program is likely to be, assuming that you are afforded adequate capital security. The frauds are usually the ones that request small investments and membership fees, as well as offering referral fee arrangements. Programs operating in this manner can draw in a greater number of participants in a short time before shutting down. The larger programs tend to be much more professional, with their focus on making steady returns for investors and taking a small part of those returns as their profit. Most of the larger programs also appear to understand the need for frequent client communications, which is often an area of complaint amongst many of the smaller HYIP's. Usually your only source of regular information is the HYIP website (assuming they have one), and in many cases these websites are not updated as frequently as they should be.