The Durable Goods Report came out last week from the U.S. Census Bureau.  The numbers came out positive and gave the stock market a huge surge before the closing bell on Friday.  It was a sign of life for many investors that have been waiting in the wings to get back into the game.

The Dow surged to close up 200 from the previous close as the stock market closed for the weekend.  To many investors it was the indicator of good things to come.  At the very least, it gave traders and excuse to drive stocks up for a rally.

Here’s the stock market for beginners synopsis on the Durable Goods Report.  It does a survey of 4,000 manufacturers that make durable goods.  Durable goods is generally thought of as more expensive capital goods that last longer than 3 years.  This would be like semiconductors, trucks, manufacturing equipment, machine tools and goods like that. Read the rest of this entry

One of the most difficult challenges for teachers and parents is to get children to start thinking and planning for retirement. A 17-year-old who makes a hundred bucks a week might not see any reason to start saving now, when he’ll be making so much more in a few years…but life gets in the way, and the lost time can never be regained.

It takes a lot of money to retire, and every penny invested now is a quarter that doesn’t need to be invested later!

For demonstration purposes, let’s try a simple example. Suppose John makes $100 per week delivering pizza. On his 17th birthday, he decides to give up comic books and save $25 per week in a Roth IRA; because his tax obligation is essentially zero, this is the form of saving that makes the most sense for him.

Because he’s young and has plenty of time to rebound from market crashes, he invests his money in several aggressive mutual funds that return an average of 12% per year. Read the rest of this entry

Before we became a jet setting global village no one really thought much about the best place to retire. We lived, loved, worked and died pretty close to where we were born. But now that we are a very active and mobile society people approaching middle age begin to ask that question, “Where are the best places to retire?”

For many who have children they find their kids are scattered not just around the country by sometimes around the world. Historically retiring meant staying close to your kids.

With prior immigrant generations this typically meant moving in with your kids. Something that is still quite common in Europe today. But for North Americans the preferential breakdown of the nuclear family means their are no boundaries and many people are looking at the best places to retire abroad. In some cases it’s an opportunity to return to family roots. For others it’s a chance to live an exotic lifestyle and fulfill dreams. Read the rest of this entry

Who doesn’t want to invest in the stock market? These days, the internet makes it easy to invest directly in the stocks you like without having to go through a broker. So what do you need to know before you start trading shares online?

Start by learning about how the stock market works; you want to have a firm grasp of the terminology and be able to react quickly to relevant news.  Trading shares on the internet may be easy, but it’s also easy to lose money if you don’t know what you’re doing!

Find a low-cost trading site (you shouldn’t be paying more than $10 per trade online) but be sure that trades are executed immediately; you don’t want to move on a hot piece of information and have your trade delayed until the end of the week! Spend some time familiarizing yourself with how the website works and if there’s anything you’re not sure about, ask questions! Read the rest of this entry

Individual retirement accounts or IRAs are most commonly associated with adults; however, children and teenagers can also take advantage of this investment vehicle.

In fact, contributing money for your child’s IRA earlier allows him to get much more during his retirement years. If this sounds interesting to you then read on and find out how to open an IRA for your child.

In order to open an IRA account for your child, he or she must be under 18 years of age and must have had earned or must be earning his own income. This may mean a job over the summer, or even weekend babysitting jobs.

As a parent, you cannot make any contributions to your child’s IRA account. The income must be traceable, and while W-2 income is the easiest one to verify, other forms of income (such as those for babysitting, lawn mowing and the like) can also count as long as they can be tracked. Read the rest of this entry