Investing $10K in 2014
Investing $10K
in 2014
Sandra’s Investing Basics
By
Sandra Baublitz
Copyright
Content copyright © 2014 by Sandra Baublitz
All rights reserved
Smashwords Edition
Published in the United States
Cover Design: Jimmy Gibbs Fiverr.com
Please visit Investing.BellaOnline.com
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Disclaimer: The information and advice contained in this book is for educational purposes only. This information is not meant to be professional consultation. The author and publisher will not be held liable for any actions taken from the information in this book. Please consult with a licensed financial professional before implementing any of the information in this book.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my readers. Thank you for your support.
May you have a successful investing life.
Contents
1-Introduction
2-Prepare Yourself to Invest
3-Investment Plan Advantages
4-Designing an Investment Plan
5-What Is a Stock?
6-Stock Investing Terms
7-Stock Picking Philosophies
8-What Is a Bond?
9-Bond Investing Terms
10-What Is TreasuryDirect?
11-Municipal Bonds Explained
12-What is a Corporate Bond?
13-Bonds and Interest Rates
14-What Is a Mutual Fund?
15-7 Tips for Choosing a Mutual Fund
16-Mutual Fund Fees Explained
17-No - Load vs. Load Funds
18-What is a Target-Date Fund?
19-What is Socially Responsible Investing?
20-What is an Exchange-Traded Fund?
21-Index Fund Advantages
22-Ways to Diversify Your Portfolio
23-Diversifying With International Investing
24-Dollar Cost Averaging
25-How to Build a Simple Portfolio
26-Rebalancing a Portfolio
Appendix A-What is a Prospectus?
Appendix B-Monte Carlo Calculators for Retirement Planning
Appendix C-Recommended Reading
About the Author
1-Introduction
Congratulations! You have taken the first steps to a better financial future.
It is a wonderful advantage to have a lump sum to invest. A lump sum can jump start your financial future. I am sure you want to get the most from your money. Investing $10K in 2014 can help you do that.
Investing can be complex or simple. A simple plan will be much easier to put in place and maintain than a complex one. This is where Investing $10K in 2014 can help. Investing $10K in 2014 starts with some basic information on the types of investments in which you can invest. It explains stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. It is important to understand what you plan to invest in for your portfolio.
Investing $10K in 2014 will help you set up a simple and successful portfolio. You will have a sample portfolio to follow to begin your investing future. This portfolio will be easy to maintain. It will grow your money while you concentrate on your busy life without having to constantly worry about your portfolio.
It pays to have a plan that you follow each year. But with possible changes in 2014, it pays to tweak your plan accordingly. The stock market did very well last year. Whether it continues this year remains to be seen. One very likely possibility in 2014 is rising interest rates. This will impact the bond portion of the portfolio. Interest rates move inversely to bond prices. This means that a bond fund can lose value when interest rates rise. How much it loses depends on the length of maturity of the bonds. You will learn possible bond moves to make in your portfolio to ease or avoid these losses in 2014.
Investing $10K in 2014 can be helpful to both those new to investing and to those who have investing experience. Investing can be easy to learn. It is true that many people have lost faith in investing in recent years. But you still can make money in the markets. More importantly, you need to be exposed to stocks and bonds because money market accounts just do not return enough for your future needs. There are many ways to reduce the risk in a portfolio. We will explore some of those ways.
Investing can be a fascinating journey. Investing $10K in 2014 begins you on that journey. Your future success depends on your present investing decisions. You can create a successful portfolio. Let’s go exploring!
2-Prepare Yourself to Invest
Are you ready to invest? That is an important question to ask yourself. It is natural to want to jump right into investing. However, a few steps of preparation will help to have a more successful investing experience.
Know Your Goals
It is important to know what you are investing for before beginning an investment portfolio. Different people have different goals. Each goal may require a different investing approach. Some goals are short-term and others are long-term. You may want to save for retirement, your child's college education or a new house. You may want to do all three. Multiple goals are fine, but each goal may have their own time horizons. For example, saving for a down payment
