Free From Broke

A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks

Investing

Is Gold a Good Investment Right Now?

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Since reaching a high price of $1,913 back on August 23rd of 2011, gold seems to have fallen off the investment radar screen.

In fact it seems the only time gold is ever on that screen is when it’s on its way to establishing new record prices.

Now that gold has settled comfortably in the mid-$1,600 range no one seems to be paying much attention.

But how should we take that?

Will gold slowly drift its way back down below the $1,000 mark, or will it—as some claim—continue to rise to ever higher prices punctuated by periods of price stability? And should we even consider gold as an investment?

Why invest in gold at all?

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What is FOREX Trading and is it Right for My Portfolio?

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Sometimes sticking to stocks and bonds just isn’t enough for the investor that wants to make his portfolio a little more exotic.

For the aspiring speculator, a wide range of options are available: trading options, trading on margin, owning precious metals, and FOREX trading.

Be forewarned: you should never dedicate more than 5-10% of your nest egg to any kind of speculative trade opportunity whether it be picking individual stocks on your own or doing currency trading.  You can survive losing that small chunk of your portfolio, but not a significant portion of your assets.

What is FOREX Trading?

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President Obama Signs STOCK Act – No Congressional Insider Trading

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If you’re a retail or individual investor you may feel like the little guy can’t win in the stock market.

The individual investor is a little fish in the vast ocean we call the world’s investment market and only the biggest of the investors can actually get ahead.

Many of us have said that in the past but we were hoping that it wasn’t true.  The market is supposed to be set up so everybody has the same information and although insider trading is difficult to police, some high profile cases over the past couple of years have made big investors a little less likely to share illegal information when others aren’t looking.

How does it make you feel to know that insider trading was not only legal, but your elected officials were taking part?

Thanks to the recent signing of the STOCK Act, or Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge Act, members of Congress can no longer profit from insider trading. [Read more…] about President Obama Signs STOCK Act – No Congressional Insider Trading

New Federal Regulation for 401k Fee Transparency Rules

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Do you know how much it costs you on an annual basis to simply participate in an employer-sponsored 401k plan?

If you’re savvy, you probably already know that the mutual funds you select within your 401k plan have expense ratios.  That number shows how much out of every dollar invested you give to the mutual fund company to manage the fund.

On average actively managed mutual funds cost around 1% of invested assets (or $100 for every $10,000 invested).

But if you think that is the only fee being charged to you, prepare for a shock.

New 401k Fee Transparency Rules

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How to Invest In The Facebook IPO

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You almost have to have been living under a rock lately not to know that Facebook is about to become a publicly traded company and issue shares of stock.

Earlier in February, Facebook filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to start the process of offering shares of stock to investors in an initial public offering (IPO).  But, it will be next to impossible for the average individual investor to get in on the IPO action in the beginning when the stock starts trading.

Investment banks that handle the transactions for Facebook take care of themselves, their best institutional clients, and other mutual funds before regular small investors like you and me are able to buy shares.

Why It Is So Hard For Individual Investors

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