FINANCIAL FAQ
All Your Financial Questions,
Answered.
Go through the questions below to check if we already have a solution for your problem
The first step is to figure out a realistic financial goal for yourself and your family. Talk with your loved ones to ensure that everyone has the same goals in mind. Clearly not all families will have the same end goal – figure out what is important to you, whether it is early retirement, financial comfort, children’s education, travel, taking care of elders, or your children.
Someone starting their savings in their early 20s can save 10% of their income and have a sufficient nest egg, while someone starting in their 40s may have to bump that number up more towards 20%. This is all dependent on the time of your life that you choose to start, the size of your current nest egg, and the amount of money that you will need to retire comfortably.
It is always a good idea to contribute as much as possible to retirement plans, to take advantage of tax deferral and employer matches.
Generally people need around 80% of their pre-retirement income after they have retired for the first few years and then learn how to live on less. This will greatly depend on the expenses that you plan on having:
Another strategy worth following is to always have an emergency fund of at least 6 months of expenses. Considering your situation and the situations of the people that you depend on or depend on you, you can adjust the number of months accordingly, but 6 is a good ballpark number. This will also depend on how many bills you need to pay.
IRAs are just like any other investment – you should take into consideration how much risk you are willing to take on and act accordingly.
For people who are more risk-averse, fixed short-term investments could be more fitting.
Be careful about investing in municipal bonds – by doing so you will sacrifice return that would convert tax free income into taxable income.
Derivatives are investments whose values derive from the security which they are based on. Options can be useful in making a portfolio less risky. Derivatives can also be futures contracts or swap agreements.
Stock options are a contract that allows one to sell or buy 100 shares of stock at a given price and in a specific time frame. These can be traded on numerous exchanges.
When an option is bought, an investor will buy a premium, which is the commission plus the price of the option. If an investor is to buy a “call” option, they are predicting that the price of the security will increase before the option period expires; on the other hand, if the investor buys a “put” option, then they are predicting that the price will decrease.
This can be a useful tool in an investment portfolio, but not recommended for beginners, if you are interested in trading options, be sure to do your homework.
One of the main reasons small businesses collapse is they have a poor cash flow strategy. The most common reason for this is that many small business owners do not have a grasp on basic accounting principles. You should learn the basics to maximize your cash flow.
You can either keep cash on hand or in a business bank account in order to take care of the expenses. This will be enough to allow the company to pay bills, to supply investment capital and to have sufficient funds in case of emergencies.
An operating cycle begins with the buying of inventory, and ends with receiving the payment for the inventory. It keeps track of the transition of assets to cash. Normally, you purchase an excess of inventory so as not to exhaust your stock as soon as sales are made. Accounts receivable and cash sales will make up your sales. The normal payment date for accounts receivable is 30 days from the purchase date, which is applicable to both your inventory and products sold. Cash and accounts payable are lessened with an inventory payment is made. The collection of receivables will raise your cash. At this point, the operating cycle and the cash has made a full circle and will start again.
An analysis of the cash flow will demonstrate if the everyday operations produce sufficient cash to reach the obligation and the relation between large expenditures to pay for obligations and large inflows of cash from sales. With this information, it will be apparent if the inflows and outflows of your business have a positive cash flow or a net loss. Over time, important changes will be seen.
A projection of the monthly cash flow will uncover and eliminate any deficiencies or surpluses in the cash flow and show the relations between previous projections and actual figures. A business financial strategy should be changed to allow for more cash when cash deficiencies are discovered. If a surplus of cash is found, it may be due to excessive borrowing or money that should be invested. The purpose is to construct a strategy to allow a well-balanced cash flow.
Annualized return is the return on investment received that year. Cumulative return is the return on the investment in total.
For instance, the money gained in the first year of an investment would be the annualized return. The total return of investment accumulated at the end of the second year would be the cumulative return.
The rule of 72 is a quick way to calculate how long it will take your investments to double at different interest rates.
Take the rate of yearly return on your investment and divide 72 by that number. The result is the number of years it will take for you to double your investment.
The total return is the amount of money that a fund makes after reinvesting and receiving dividends. This will deliver the most benefit from the compounding interest. The total return is a way to accurately gauge the real return on investment that you will get with a mutual fund.
The yield is the amount paid annually by an investment. The yield is most commonly a percentage of the market price of an investment, which does not take into account the appreciation. Since money market funds and certificates of deposit don’t fluctuate like stocks and bonds do, the yield would be the same as the total return.
An annuity is an insurance contract – the insurance company invests in stocks and bonds on behalf of the purchaser with the tax deferred money.
When the purchaser turns 65 the purchaser will begin to receive payments, which will fluctuate with the prices of the underlying securities. An annuity will guarantee that the purchaser will receive payments until their death.
Annuity contracts will often carry various charges which vary from one company to another, and would be worth reading before purchasing. Since these are not securities, they are not regulated by the SEC.
You will not be able to withdraw any of the money in an annuity during its tax deferred growth period without incurring large fees. You will be charged 10% for tax code and the insurance will usually charge “surrender charges” on top of that.
There are a few choices that you have when choosing to collect your annuity. Some people opt for a lump sum, even though it negates one of the major features of the annuity: payments until death.
The amount of the monthly payments that you receive depends on:
There are various different settlement options. Be absolutely sure when you choose, because the decision will be final when you make it.
The tax rates will differ for qualified and non-qualified plans.
An annuity that is tax-qualified is one that funds a qualified retirement plan. When this qualified annuity is used it follows the same tax laws as these retirement vehicles, such as:
A non-qualified annuity is bought with after-tax dollars, but the benefit of tax deferred savings still applies.
Annuity payments to beneficiaries are subject to the same taxes that would have been collected from you.
These fees should be stated plainly in the prospectus.
Bond quality is the rating of the creditworthiness of an issuing organization. There are organizations that specialize in judging bond quality. The higher the rating, the lower the risk of the investment. The rating system uses letters A through D. The only bond considered to be risk free is the U.S. Treasury Bond.
| Highest Quality | Moody’s | Standard & Poor’s |
| High Quality | Aaa | AAA |
| Good Quality | Aa | AA |
| Medium Quality | Baa | BBB |
| Speculative Elements | Ba | BB |
| Speculative | B | B |
| More Speculative | Caa | CCC |
| Highly Speculative | Ca | CC |
| In Default | – | D |
| Not Rated | N | N |
Generally bond prices and interest rates have an inverse relationship – as interest rates drop, bond prices rise and vice versa.
Bond prices are heavily influenced by maturity – the longer the maturity, the greater the change in price for a change in interest rates. If interest rates rise, it would make a larger difference in the 20 year bond, as opposed to a 10 year bond. Because of this, bond fund managers will attempt to change the fund’s average maturity to anticipate changes in interest rates.
A “call” is when the issuer of the bonds has an opportunity to redeem the bonds after a certain specified amount of time has passed. This doesn’t guarantee a continuation of a high yield after the call date – it limits the appreciation of the bonds, and it makes the investment more risky. These call provisions can be complex, so it is best for investors that don’t have strong knowledge to avoid bonds with a call feature.
A bond mutual fund has within it multiple bonds, and for that reason it is impossible to lock in the payment rate or the principal, which you would be able to do if you were directly buying a fund.
A bond mutual fund is an investment company which manages a portfolio of individual bonds. The investors buy ownership in the company, and each share represents ownership in all of the company’s holdings. Managers will use these investments to buy and sell bonds that align with the objective of the fund.
Because a bond fund manager has more resources to deal with, they can invest in a vast array of bonds – many more than could any individual investor. There are also certain investments that cost tens of thousands of dollars a share – a bond fund costs far less.
Liquidity plays a major role in bond buying. If you purchase a bond individually and wish to sell it, you must find a buyer for your bond, but if you are invested in a bond fund, that fund has to buy your shares back at any time you wish.
All mutual funds distributions should be reported as income, whether you reinvest or not. Taxable distributions come in two forms, ordinary dividends and capital gains. The distributions of ordinary dividends represent the net earnings of the fund and are paid out periodically to the shareholders. Since these payments are considered to be dividends to you, they must be accounted for accordingly.
Capital Gain Distributions are the net gains of the sales of securities in the fund’s portfolio and will be taxed at a different rate than that of ordinary dividends. Yearly, your mutual fund will send you a form, called the 1099-DIV, which will have a detailed breakdown of all of these.
Funds will generally give you the opportunity to automatically reinvest in the fund. This does not prevent you from paying tax on your assets, but this reinvestment will prevent you from paying more “buy” fees to get into the fund, so it is advantageous.
Mutual funds sometimes will distribute back to shareholders monies that haven’t been attributed to the funds earnings. This is a non-taxable distribution.
Stocks are traded in quantities of 100 shares, called round lots. Any quantity of stock under 100 shares will be considered an odd lot.
Most stocks are common stocks. However, there is another type (known as preferred) which gives certain advantages regarding dividends. Generally, preferred stock holders do not have the same voting rights that the holders of common shares do. Common stocks are based on company performance, while preferred stocks will usually have a stated dividend.
It is fairly easy to invest in foreign corporations, because these corporations need to register these securities with the SEC. These companies are subjected to the same rules as U.S. companies.
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