Five Investments To Avoid For The Long Term

This guest post is brought to you by SVB of The Digerati Life, a site that covers personal finance, ranging from reviews of online discount brokers to effective debt reduction strategies.

So you’re finally ready to invest for the long term and ready to receive a higher return on your money. The catch is that you’ll need to keep it somewhere for at least 5 years to really experience the benefit of long term growth on your assets.

If you’re ready to seek long term growth for your investment portfolio, then I’d like to point out those investments that you may want to avoid. The thing is, there are investments that are applicable for different purposes, and there are a few that may not fit your needs as a long term investor. For instance, many investments do not pay enough in interest to cover inflation and taxes on the interest you accrue. The rule of thumb is this: you want to receive returns that are higher than 6% on your long-term investments. Anything that yields 6% or lower in overall returns may not be as worthwhile because those returns are eaten up by taxes and inflation. That said, here is a list of the top five long-term investments you should avoid.

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12 Things About Wall Street That Should Still Worry You

Since the recession began, many of us have understandably looked forward to a recovery. From time to time, sudden spikes in securities prices have been accompanied by commentary from analysts that “the recovery is beginning.” However, it is wise to remember that markets are not independent entities that suddenly “recover” of their own accord. While many conceive of stock markets as impersonal mechanisms, economist Thomas Sowell reminds us that they are “as personal as the people in them.” Accordingly, several foreboding obstacles remain to be dealt with before the millions of people who buy and sell securities feel as comfortable doing so as they once did. Following are 12 of the most daunting.

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Men vs. Women: Financial Planning

Statistics show that men and women handle money differently. While there are exceptions to every rule, men generally are better prepared for retirement, are more willing to put money into savings, pay off credit card balances in full and are more educated about investing. Men are also more prepared for unemployment, which is fortunate because there are more unemployed men than women in the U.S. and the growth of the unemployment rate for men is currently outpacing the unemployment rate for women.

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Lessons I’ve Learned As A Long Time Investor

This guest post is brought to you by the Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life, a dame who enjoys the stock market, personal finance and of course, blogging!

When I first started investing, I was young and naive and did not have much of an investing plan. But I made a commitment to become a better investor. While it took a lot of mistakes and trial and error for me to become comfortable with the process, I eventually put together an investment plan that I’m happy with and which I now conform to as much as possible.

I’d like to share some thoughts and hard-earned lessons on this subject so you can avoid the mistakes I’ve made. To give you some idea, from the time I began investing around 20 years ago, I’ve been able to multiply my assets by a factor of 300. This was all achievable by simply relying on the long term upward trends of the markets as well as participating in automatic savings and investing programs that allowed me to contribute to my funds on a regular basis.

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