The Unique Finance Blog

As we enter a new year, we marvel at the mass media for once again missing the boat when it comes to investment news stories for 2006.According to the mass media, the Dow breaking into a new high was the story or the year. The Dow was up 14.7% last year which was an excellent year for the index. But uranium was up almost 100% (97%) last year. We have had a number of readers ask us why we are not more heavily invested in the mainstream markets; our answer is that we prefer 100% gains to 14.7% gains.

Mutual funds have grown in popularity over the last few years to the point where it’s harder to find an investor who is not using mutual funds than one who is. The popularity of mutual funds is no surprise when you consider that they are one of the easiest investments to use and require very little knowledge of the financial markets. There are 4 main advantages that mutual funds offer every investor, as you will learn in this article.

It’s the age old question asked by financial advisors, “Can you really afford it?” Unfortunately, most Americans, working as trained professionals in reputable industries, and filled with an innate sense of entitlement, will answer that question “Yes. Of course I can afford it.”

There are a number of certificate of deposit products that CD providers offer to investors, which include short-term and long-term CD’s. Given this, investors need to research on the different kinds of CD products so that they can pick the best CD product for them. In doing so, it would be a good idea to start their research on some of the most popular CD products because doing so can give them access to the CD product that they would want even during the initial stages of their research. Among the different CD products, one of the most popular is the one-year CD, as it can offer investors decent returns and minimal risk. Below are some helpful information with regard to this kind of CD product.

As of January 1, 2007, New York residents have been benefiting from a decrease in hospital bills, an end to the ‘marriage penalty’ tax, health insurance equality for the mentally ill, and an increase in minimum wage, which has risen from $6.75 to $7.15 an hour. The hourly rate for workers receiving tips has also risen from $4.35 to $4.60.

There is one thing we all share in common: our days on this planet will come to an end – probably by surprise. That is about as basic a ‘common denominator’ as you can possibly get. To protect our loved ones from having to endure years of court procedures and legal fees, the Revocable Living Trust (‘RLT’) is a widely-used way to avoid the two related court proceedings known as Probate and Conservatorship, and to pass our assets on to one’s loved ones with favorable tax planning.

Online options trading is fast becoming a popular way of trading options. It is fast and easy. Options trading is quite similar to futures trading. They both involve the process of buying stocks at a pre-determined price and selling them on the marketplace when the price is higher than what they were brought for.

Index Fund trading using technical stock market analysis can be one of the most profitable…or most costly exercises you will ever undertake.

While trading a basket of stocks has it’s advantages, such as removing the risk of any single company you own going bust and taking all of your money with it, stock indexes (on which index funds are based) can tend to be highly volatile, especially the smaller ones.

An individual who asked us what we do was astonished when hearing how we actually live. What seemed to bother her was the absence of regular paychecks and not getting a regular rate. The idea of working frenetically for several years in order to have passive income to ultimately support us for the rest of our lives was lost on her. Ironically, this person’s profession was real estate agent — another paid-by-the-deal career in which enormous financial returns are possible for the extremely motivated few who put in the effort.