Personal Finance and Money Management

With a history of strong capital growth and relatively high-yields, the big four banks have been so attractive to Australian investors that these shares are likely to account for a significant portion of their portfolios. However, following recent volatility and potential low growth in the coming months, it is worth exploring strategies that allow investors to hedge these assets until the markets return to stability.

Derivatives are a popular way to hedge existing share positions, and two such derivatives are options and CFDs.

Hedging with options

An option gives the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset at a future date at a certain price, known as the strike price.

Full Article

Saving money is a worthless endeavor if you don’t really “save” it. Have you ever noticed that somehow your savings from altering your financial activities magically vanish? Do you find that the money just gets absorbed by something else. You need to “start saving your savings” to really make a difference.

Maybe you need to trick yourself into saving money. Maybe you’re one who sets a clock 10 minutes fast just so you can arrive “on time.” If this describes you, or if you’ve discovered that your savings seem to disappear like mine, you’ll love these sneaky savings strategies. How you use the mon

Full Article

The economy stinks. You and I know it, and the Federal Reserve knows it, too. That’s why they announced Operation Twist earlier this week. Operation Twist? What’s that, you say? It’s yet another attempt to drive interest rates down in hopes of spurring economic activity.

This time around, they’re targeting 10-year bond Treasury rates because lots of interest rates, including mortgage rates, are tied to the 10-year bond rate. In short, they’re planning on selling some of the shorter term bonds that they’re holding and using the proceeds to buy longer term bonds.

More specifically, over the next nine months, they intend to sell $400B in short-term government bonds and use the proceed to buy longer-term bonds. As demand f

Full Article

Mortgage calculation is the hectic task before buying a new home; including conditions, contracts and fee. Net surfing is the best way to locate a new home for homebuyer. Many sites are offering applications through which one can easily calculate his mortgage value before house hunting ever begins.

Minimum Requirements:

By providing information like total income of family, household expenditures usually monthly, any loans and credit card history, homebuyer can calculate his mortgage value. It’s the requirement that monthly expenditures cost should be no more than twenty-eight percent plus monthly loan payments should be under thirty-six percent. I

Full Article