Investing

It doesn’t seem like much.

A 2% management fee for a managed fund. A $9.95 transaction fee when you make a stock trade.

There is no getting around fees in the investing world.

You’re going to pay them at some point. However, you can reduce what you pay in fees — and you should. You might be surprised to discover how much money you are wasting, and the long-term impact it can have on your real investment returns.

Why You Absolutely Must Pay Attention to Investing Fees

[Read more…] about Why You Absolutely Must Pay Attention to Investing Fees

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of E*TRADE for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

There are three main realities that will erode your real returns on investments: inflation, fees, and taxes. 

There isn’t much you can do about inflation, other than to plan ahead, but you can reduce your fees and taxes. DIY investors have an advantage when it comes to fees, but they might have a bit more trouble when it comes to reducing the taxes they owe on their investments.

With tax season in full swing, now is a great time to review your investing strategy, and consider ways you can reduce your investment tax liability — and keep more of your earnings.

Are You Using the Tax Tools at Your Disposal?

[Read more…] about Taxes on Investments: Are You Paying Too Much?

What do you think of when you think of investing?

If you’re like me the thing that comes to mind are stocks. It’s the standard isn’t it? When you watch the news you hear about the Dow and the S&P 500. These are the stock indexes, or the ‘market’ you hear about.

As you know it’s easier than ever to invest in stocks.

It used to be an investment for the wealthy but today you have low-cost online brokerages where you can buy stocks with virtually no minimums. You can even buy fractional shares (yes, you can buy a part of one share of stock.)

But stocks aren’t the only investments out there. You have an ever-growing choice when it comes to investing your money.

Investing is the most democratic it’s ever been. The ultra-wealthy will always have options that ‘every man’ can’t afford to get into but there are services out there that are helping bring the masses to investments that were once reserved for the wealthy.

These days you can be your own bank, be an angel investor, and even put money into a hedge fund.

Your road to financial freedom is bridged with a number of alternate investments.

Read on as I go into six better known alternate investments…

[Read more…] about 6 Alternative Investments Besides Stocks and Bonds to Help You Achieve Financial Freedom

Have you been looking to open up a brokerage account?

TradeKing has their very first Black Friday promotion going on now!

Here’s the TradeKing Black Friday Promotion:

Open up a new account (new clients) and fund it with $3,000.  Then make 3 trades within 180 days and you’ll be eligible for a $50 bonus.

You need to find your account within 30 days of starting your account.  The promotion runs from November 28, 2014 at 12:01 am EST through Monday December 1st, 2014 at 11:59 pm.

This is important – make sure you use the code BF50 when you open your account in order to get your $50 bonus.

A little about TradeKing

TradeKing offers up $4.95 trades.  That in itself is great but they also have no surprise fees, no account minimums, and great customer service.  Take a look at our review to learn more about TradeKing (make sure you come back and use the promo code BF50 to get your bonus).

Click here to learn more and open a TradeKing account.

*As always make sure you read all the fine print.