Financial Goals April 2011 Update – Short Term, Mid-Term, and Long Term

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Back in January of this year, I laid out my short term, mid-term, and long term goals for the 2011 year. I do this once every year as part of my goal to create what author David Bach calls a Purpose Focused Financial Plan. The goal of this system is to employ money in your life in a way that matches your life values and dreams.

You can read more about my journey to create this system at the following links – Creating a Purposed Focused Financial Plan & My Personal Finance Journey’s Investment Strategy.


As part of making this system work, I wanted to give an update on how I’m doing so far this year with the goals I established. Overall, I feel that I am doing a satisfactory job.

Updated 13-April-2011

Short Term (< 1 year) Goals:

• Contribute $5000 (or $420 per month) to my Roth IRA with Vanguard this year (maximum allowed) – Have contributed $2,640 so far this year. This puts me a little ahead of my target of $420 per month, but that’s all right. 
• Reach net worth target for this year (not displayed here) – Ongoing – getting closer and closer! Requires 20% increase in net worth. May not be possible to obtain, but will attempt.
• Maintain target 6-9 months of expenses in cash reserve fund in Dollar Savings Direct account – Correct for this month, but ongoing.
• Rebalance mutual fund portfolio to meet asset allocation target %’s (75% equity, 25% fixed income overall) – Correct for now, but ongoing.
• Obtain 15% ownership / equity in condominium – Ongoing – currently have 10.11% ownership.
• Put together a will and have it reviewed by a lawyer – Will completed. Not yet reviewed by lawyer.
• Continue to save money for trip to Grand Canyon – Ongoing – need to figure out when to take this.
• Upgrade condominium with investment in stacked washer/dryer combo – $1000 for unit, $1000 for labor/installation – Currently saving $87.50 per month for home maintenance and upgrades – Ongoing, but on track.
• Invest $500 in Microloans for Latin America in 2011 ($41.67 per month) –Ongoing – Have invested a total of $208 this year so far to working poor fund in Peru. This comes with a pretty nice 3% interest rate. Note: I use Microplace.com to invest this money. It seems to work well and be dependable.
• Donate $1,150 to Multiple Sclerosis Foundation in 2011 (5% of income) –Done. So far, I have raised approximately $3,800 to support finding a cure for this disease. If you’re interested in making just a $10 donation to my ride, click here.
• Save 3% of take home pay each month (after taxes) for Dream Account. On target – Have an automatic transfer each month from my Bank of America checking account to my ING Direct high yield savings account.

Mid-Term (3-5 years out) Goals:

• Continue contributing $5000 to Roth IRA each year
• Reach intermediate net worth target (not displayed here, but is 2X my current net worth)
• Own a rental property by 2016.

Long-Term (>5 years out) Goals:

• Obtain a net worth of $1,000,000
• Own a home free of mortgage payments
• Own a vacation home in the mountains somewhere remote
• Accumulate enough funds not have to work, but will probably anyways because I would get bored. 

How about you all? What are your financial goals for 2011 and beyond? Are you all staying on target in reaching those goals?


Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://indiejourno.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/financial-planning.jpg

Blogging Goals Update – April 2011

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In January of this year, I wrote a post detailing some of my blogging goals, targets, and dreams for the year of 2011. When I did this, I also added a reminder on my Outlook calendar to track our progress pertaining to these goals each month. 


I have been sort of bad in that while I have been tracking these goals offline, I have not published an update on my blog in three months (only so many hours in the day, right?!). 


My goal for today’s post is to rectify this!

By tracking blogging goals, I am hoping that it provides us with more accountability and visibility to what we are doing and where we want to go with this community/blog.

So, here goes! The blog goals for 2011 are as follows, with progress updates given in bold type, current as of April 2011.

How about you all? What goals do you have set for 2011?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://bobhyatt.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/03/07/goals.jpg

The Comcast Soap Opera Continues!

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Dictionary.com defines the word “soap opera” as “a serialized drama, usually dealing with domestic themes and characterized by sentimentality.” That sounds about right for my relationship with Comcast!

In the ongoing, drama-filled saga that is my relationship with Comcast (my cable internet provider), there has been a recent occurrence that I wanted to fill everyone in on!

Background

In my last post regarding Comcast, I discussed/ranted about how Comcast’s customer service team tried to hide the cheaper, Economy, internet package from me when I requested a lower priced service. I was doing this because my Performance internet promo offer was running out and threatening to revert to the $60 per month pricing.

As a result of this post, we even attracted the attention of Comcast’s social media team, which was concerned about me voicing my negative experience with their customer service team, and wanted to correct it. This was very considerate of them. 🙂

In the end (after 2-3 repeated phone calls to the Comcast customer service line), I was able to downgrade my internet service to the $40 per month Economy package two months ago. And, with automatic payments with my Chase Freedom Credit Card enabled to pay my internet fee each month, I figured that I would just be able to sail off in to the internet sunsetting horizon for months to come! Guess again, Jacob! Comcast had other plans for me!


Current Affairs


Having set up my account for auto-payments for my $40 per month Economy internet package fee and being told by the Comcast rep that my account was paid in full until the April billing cycle, I figured my affairs were in perfect order.

However, on Thursday of this past week, I received an email from Comcast (my BEST friends!) saying that I owed them $80 for two billing cycles + late fees for not paying my March balance.

In other words, my account had been marked “delinquent.” Now there’s a lovely word, isn’t it!? Nevertheless, this special occasion called for another lovely call to Comcast’s customer service line! Yah!

Surprisingly, Comcast’s customer service rep was quite pleasant this time. She saw that my account was correctly set up for auto-payments and acknowledged that the error was due to a glitch in their online payment system. She even took off the late fees! Quite nice!


And, on top of this, the customer service rep told me about a 6 month promotional deal for the Performance internet package (faster than the Economy package I currently have) for $20 per month. I jumped at this opportunity because this was half of what I am currently paying.

Furthermore, after checking on Comcast’s website, I found out that they are also currently offering a promo for Blast internet (super fast speed!) for only $30 per month. This is a reminder to us all to keep checking with our utility providers to ask for discounts periodically. It can really save a lot of money!

Is Comcast going to be responsible for making my credit score go down?


Needless to say, I was surprisingly satisfied with my Comcast experience for once. However, one question remained in my mind – would Comcast’s mistake in marking my account as delinquent make my credit score go down?


My initial guess to this question was that it most likely would negatively affect my credit report. However, I wanted to do a brief investigation just to make sure. Listed below are several useful/illuminating links I found on the subject:

Privacy Rights.org – Description of Credit Score Calculations
WikiAnswers – Effect on credit score of late internet bill payments
CreditBoards.com – Effect of utility payments on credit score

The general consensus from the above resources seems to be as follows – “The late payments won’t affect your FICO credit score unless the account gets reported to the credit bureaus. Most utility companies don’t report their accounts unless the debt gets charged off. However, there are some utilities which report to the CRA’s (credit reporting agencies = credit bureaus).”


So, I basically take this as, “it depends on the company.” 


Recommended Action Step


Since it appears that the effect of your payment history with utility companies on your credit report varies quite a bit, I would recommend that everyone check their credit report for free once per year (using Annualcreditreport.com) to see which of your utility accounts is actively reporting.


Personally, I just checked my credit report (hadn’t viewed it since March of 2010, so it was definitely time to look again!), and none of my utility bills are being reported. Therefore, I think I may have dodged a bullet on this mistakenly-delinquent Comcast account problem. Good to hear!


Also, be sure to do yourself a favor and place a recurring, automatic reminder on your electronic Google or Outlook calendar (and sync the two) to check your credit report for free once per year on the site above. I just did!


How about you all? Have you had any interesting experiences with Comcast recently? Has your credit score ever been negatively impacted by a mistake in billing such as this? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://www.businesspundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/comcast.jpg

Yakezie Blog Swap # 5 Roundup and My Favorite Pick

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On Friday of this week, My Personal Finance Journey participated in the 5th ever Yakezie Blog Swap. 

In this event, members and challengers of theYakezie Personal Finance Blog Network paired up and traded posts amongst themselves on the common topic of “what motivates us to be financially responsible.”

My Favorite Swapped Post

After reading through all of the posts for this week (there were a lot of great ones!), I’ve decided that my favorite one was written by Justin from Money is the Root.

In this article, Justin explains how he had two parents with very different viewpoints and actions regarding money. However, he explains how through a lot of sacrific, his mother was able to support him going through college and getting his MBA in finance from The University of Michigan. Quite an inspirational post!

You can read the whole article at the link below!

What Motivates You Financially? – Just from Money is the Root

• Khaleef writes about how how his faith drives his finances here at My Personal Finance Journey.
• I share the three things I do to keep focus and motivation at KNS Financial. These include keeping on target with my Purposed Focused Financial Plan, updating my net worth and financial goals, and keeping myself accountable by posting these updates on my blog.

How about you all? Which post was your favorite? And more importantly, what motivates you financially? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://26.media.tumblr.com/51oitr3wVqin3ncrpC4CQf7fo1_500.jpg

My Personal Finance Journey Vs. The United States of America – How Much Do You Save For Retirement?

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For most of the first year of My Personal Finance Journey’s existence, we were running a poll on the left sidebar of the site. This poll was seeking an answer to the question below:

What percentage of your salary do you contribute to your 401K retirement account each month?


In the course of the year that the poll was running, we received a total of 97 votes, with the answer distributions as shown in the pie chart below:

As you can see in the chart, the majority of people on My Personal Finance Journey save approximately 5-10% of their income for retirement each month. This is very good! Great job readers!

Second place was saving 10-15% of your income, and third place was saving 5% or less.

How Does This Compare With The Rest of The United States?


So, we were able to see that the majority of MPFJ readers save 5-10% of their incomes for retirement. Having established this, we then wanted to see how these numbers compare to the rest of the country.

In a study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute of 401K plan usage in the USA, the results below were found:

• On average 401K participants saved 6.8% of their salary on a before-tax basis. 
• So, it looks like our results above were fairly representative!
• The typical American household, headed by a 43-year-old, has retirement savings of $18,750.
• Yikes – this is a little on the low side!
• The typical pre-retiree household (age 55 and up) has a retirement savings of $60,000.
• Also yikes! I don’t think this will be enough money for them to live on. 
• Save some Social Security benefits for my generation! Don’t use it all up! 🙂

Thanks so much to everyone for participating in the poll. Now that this one has been wrapped up, the next poll (up now!) will be asking about savings accounts interest rates you all are earning.

In today’s age, interest rates on savings accounts are going lower and lower, and I think doing a poll such as this would be a good way to make sure we’ll all getting the most competitive interest rate possible!

For example, DollarSavingsDirect.com is currently offering a 1.00% APY interest rate on their FDIC insured savings accounts. On the other hand, Bank of America is offering 0.05% APY. WOW!!!! That is barely anything!

Let’s all make sure we’re not on the wrong side of that coin!!

How about you all? Were the results above indicative of how much you save in your 401K account? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!


Also – please share what sort of interest rate you’re currently receiving by voting in the poll on the left sidebar of the site.

What Motivates You To Be Financially Responsible?

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Click here to enter my free giveaway for 5 copies of H&R Block At Home Premium Edition

This is a guest post from Khaleef from KNS Financial (and Fat Guy Skinny Wallet, where he is tracking his struggle to lose 100lbs) as part of the 5th Yakezie blog swap. This week, everyone wrote about what motivates them to be financially responsible. You can view my post at Khaleef’s blog too by clicking here.

When the idea of writing about our financial motivation first came up, I was nervous. I knew that my biggest motivation may be offensive to some. Before you read this please know that is not my intention at all – I just want to share what is on my heart.

This is only the second time that I’ve ever done a guest post, so I want to first thank Jacob for giving me this opportunity!

My motivation to be financially responsible can really be broken down into three main areas: 1) Being a steward of God’s provision. 2) Having a good testimony before others…and 3) Freedom! Let’s take a look at each one in detail.

Financial Motivation: Stewardship of God’s Provision

The main thing that motivates me to be financially responsible is my devotion to God. The bible is clear that Christians are slaves to Christ (and He is our Lord)! That means that everything that I have is subject to God’s will and His word. This includes my marriage, my time, my devotion, my desires, and even my finances!

The bible makes it clear that we are nothing more than stewards over what God has given to us. As a steward, I do not have any rights, but merely responsibilities. It is not my money to begin with, but God has blessed me with what I have, in order that I might carry out His will.

It is just like a man going on a journey and leaving a steward in charge of his possessions. The steward would be expected to live off of the provision of the owner and to take the rest and use it the way the owner wants it used. The steward has an obligation to make sure that the owner’s will is being carried out by using the possessions in the right way (according to the instructions left by the owner)!

Many people (including me when I first became a Christian) see the bible as only dealing with deep, spiritual matters. But what I have found is that the bible is full of commands about how we are to handle our finances. This is because how someone views, and reacts to money, is usually a clear indication of what’s going on in their heart!

Here are some of the broad topics that the bible addresses when it comes to financial matters. These are the things that motivate me to be financially responsible on the major issues.

We are told to honor the Lord with our wealth (Proverbs 3:9-10), and in 1 Timothy 6:17-19, we find instruction on how to practically carry out that command:

For us (because I know that I can speak for my wife in this matter), we try to remain focused on the fact that it is God who provides for us. This helps us to avoid putting our trust in “the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy“. We know that we have a future in heaven, and so we do not agonize over earthly riches, nor stress over financial setbacks (as long as they are not the result of poor financial management).

The fact that we are to honor the Lord with our riches, and that those who are rich are given clear instructions on how to handle their money, shows that God does not hate wealth or wealthy people – in fact, Deuteronomy 8:18 teaches, “But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth…”!

We are told that debt is equivalent to slavery (Proverbs 22:7) – this is something that I am currently feeling firsthand! This is why I hate debt the way that I do…it usually stems from poor money management (yes I know that some people use debt as leverage, but most don’t), and it puts you in a place where you can’t give to help others!

In our finances, we are expected to give our best and first to God! God commanded the nation of Israel saying, “You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God” (Exodus 23:19a) and when detailing the offerings that went toward supporting the priests He says, “You shall give him the first fruits of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first shearing of your sheep” (Deuteronomy 18:4).

Proverbs 11:24-29 tells us that we are expected to be generous and ready to share! We are also commanded to be fair and compassionate in our dealings with others (Proverbs 3:27:28). In fact, the bible is very clear on how workers, managers, and business owners are to conduct themselves (Ephesians 6:5-9; Amos 8:4-6).

All these things enter my mind before I make any decision on what to do with my money. However, the instruction doesn’t just stop at these larger principles. This post would turn into a book (hmmm…that’s not a bad idea 😉 ), if I were to list every little detail. However, the bible does give a lot of practical instruction on things like giving, Christians paying taxes, get rich quick schemes, investing, and even becoming a cosigner on a loan.

As I said earlier, as a born again believer, I am a slave to Christ and I find joy in obeying God’s commands. It isn’t always easy to do, but I know it’s right, and I know that God will bless me when I am obedient. So, my primary motivation to be financially responsible is to be a good steward over God’s provision.

Testimony

Well, after I just wrote about my primary motivation, it would be a horrible thing if you found me constantly violating these biblical financial principles! If I claim to have this God-given desire to follow these commands, and then you see me doing other things with my money on a regular basis, a couple of things may happen.

First, this sort of hypocritical behavior can lead someone to conclude that my Christian faith really hasn’t done anything to change my worldview. I would give someone cause to blaspheme the word of God, and consider it to be a lie! When it comes to matters of sin, salvation, hell, and heaven, no one would care what I have to say, since I’m not even being faithful to simple things like money management!

So, I am motivated to live out these things so that I don’t cause someone to have a low view of God or the bible.

Second, another believer could witness how I mismanage my money, and conclude that this is how a Christian should behave (especially since many people are not taught what the bible teaches about finances). They could say, “Well, if Khaleef went out and borrowed a bunch of money in order to buy electronics, cars, a house, or vacations, then I guess it’s okay for us Christians to do that”! I do not want my actions to lead someone to go against God’s word!

Freedom

Because I am currently in debt, this is a huge motivation for me! We manage our finances the way that we do (what many would call conservatively), because we eventually want to be free. Whenever we have to make a decision concerning our finances, we always have to think about our debt! This is why I fully understand what the bible means when it says, “The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” ~ Proverbs 22:7

If we want to move, or make a purchase, or pay for an item to be repaired, we have to consult our financial master (debt) to see if we can do it. Our giving has been hurt, and we are not able to help people the way that we want…all because our master won’t let us!

I would love to be able to work from home and build up my financial consulting and tax preparation business (and also work on my websites)! Being able to spend the majority of my days with my wife would be such a wonderful blessing! Once we are out of debt and have adequate savings, we plan to make this a reality (as long as it’s in God’s will).

So, being free from debt, and free to serve God completely with my finances is a huge motivation to be financially responsible.

Final Thoughts

I know that many of you who read this are not Christians. However, I feel that the beauty of what the bible teaches about finance is that if you apply these principles to your life, you’ll most likely become a better financial manager! Trying to avoid debt, get rich quick schemes, and chasing after money with no real goals in mind, will automatically make you better off!

Just be sure that before you make a financial decision, it lines up with your ultimate goals in life. No matter what your motivation may be, you will need discipline and an ability to think about the long-term in order to make it!

How about you all? What motivates you to be financially responsible? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.

• I am very honored to be hosting just your second ever guest post Khaleef! It’s an honor to have someone which as well-established of a blog as yours here at MPFJ!
• @ We are told that debt is equivalent to slavery (Proverbs 22:7) – I didn’t know money was so directly addressed in the bible! Interesting!
• @ The idea of Khaleef turning his ideas in to a book – I actually think you might be on to something there. How is the market for books on Christian finances? I have never looked, but it might be an opportunity to take advantage of!
• @ The ideas in the whole article – It’s very interesting to me how motivations for something can be very different, but the end result/goal is the same. 
• For example, Khaleef wants to be debt free to have the freedom to better serve God, whereas my motivation for being debt free is more to have the freedom to travel, move where I want if life events occur, etc. The end goal is the same (being debt free), but the motivations are different. It is interesting to me.

***Photo courtesy of Goldemberg Fonseca

Can You Be Denied Approval For a Credit Card Because You Have No Credit Card Debt?

Well folks, I think it finally happened; I’ve actually been “punished” for being too fiscally responsible. Haha!

Yesterday, I was trying to take advantage of one of the free money promotions I posted about (the $100 cash back bonus for signing up for the Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard).

After entering in the normal pertinent details for applying for a credit card, I received the usual “you’ll receive an answer in several business days” message. I thought nothing of it.

To my surprise, this morning, I woke up and had the message below in my email inbox.

Dear JACOB:

Why we’re writing you
Thank you for applying for the Citi(R) Dividend Platinum Select(R) MasterCard(R) account. Unfortunately, we are unable to approve your request for the account at this time because of the following:

Your credit bureau report shows you have no revolving accounts with a balance.

How about that folks? The way I read this news is that I was denied the credit card because I have no credit cards on which I am carrying a debt balance from month-to-month.

In other words, the credit card companies are not making money off me (except for the fees they charge the merchants for each card transaction I make – which by the way, MAKES THEM A LOT OF MONEY).

After half-way coming to terms with what had just transpired, I then did a quick Google search to see if this had happened to anyone else and if they could shed some light on the situation (see the link below for details of my findings).

Google Search For Reasons Why I Was Rejected For Not Carrying a Balance
CreditNet.com Discussion Board About Being Rejected For Not Carrying Balances
CreditBoards.com Discussion Board – Being Rejected for Having No Credit Balances

As it turns out, this has happened many times to people applying to CitiBank credit cards. And, the only thing that the others could figure out was that they were rejected because they were currently paying off their balances in full each month.

What Can You Learn From This?

I think the key thing to learn from this is 1) to not apply for CitiBank credit cards for free money bonuses unless you are carrying a balance month-to-month on your credit cards and 2) to stick to what you know is right and keep paying off your balance in full each month (even if society seems to be enticing you to SPEND, SPEND, SPEND, AND SPEND MORE).

How about you all? Have you ever been denied a credit card for seemingly strange/weird reasons? What did you do about it? Did you ever get the company to overturn their decision? 

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/cafecredit/27297023342/sizes/l

Free Money Promotions Catch-Up!

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Welcome to My Personal Finance Journey! If you are new here, please read the “About” or “First-Time Visitor” pages to find out more about us. If you would like to receive free updates on articles like this by email, then sign up here or you can subscribe to the RSS feed. Also, check us out on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for visiting! Keep on learning!
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Click here to enter my free giveaway for 5 copies of H&R Block At Home Premium Edition

It’s been quite a while since I reported on the various free money promotions around the web. So, today, I wanted to fill you in on all the deals I’ve caught wind of in the past few months so that you can take advantage of them, if you are a finance nerd like me!

Listed below are the free money bonuses currently available for signing up for no annual fee credit cards.

•  Citi Dividend Platinum Select Credit Card
• Get $100 cash back after spending $500 in the first three months of opening the account.
• 1% cash back on all purchases.
• Click here to apply.

Remember: When you sign up for these credit cards to get the free money bonus offers, follow the instructions below to avoid damage to your credit score:

• Keep the credit card account open after completing the initial requirements for the free money promotion. 
• Schedule an automatic, small charge each month on the credit card to extend your credit history. This benefits your credit score.
• And, going along with the second piece of advice above, schedule an automatic payment of your credit card balance each from your checking account.
• Lastly, I would not recommend signing up for all of these at once. Typically, signing up for a new credit card every 3 months is considered “almost too much.” I would stick to doing two per year or so.  

How about you all? Have you taken advantage of any free money promotions lately? Which ones were they? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy of http://instructors.dwrl.utexas.edu/schell/sites/instructors.cwrl.utexas.edu.test/files/images/free-sign.gif

Time is Money

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Click here to enter my free giveaway for 5 copies of H&R Block At Home Premium Edition

Today’s guest post comes to us from Les Roberts. Enjoy! 

How about you all? Where in your day do you find yourself wasting the most time? What steps do you take to make sure you stay on target? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.

• @ Social media websites that distract from efficiency – For my generation, perhaps the biggest time-spending black hole is Facebook. Many times, I find myself going to Facebook between tasks. However, my time would most likely be spent elsewhere.
• @ Spending too much time on email – Another enormous “time-suck” for people in today’s age is email. In a book that I read recently, it is estimated that people spend an average of 2 hours on their email each day. This is truly amazing! I admit that I need to do a better job of spending less time on email as well!
• The two best books I know of that offer systems to assist in email overload are 1) The Hamster Revolution by Mike Song and 2) Getting Things Done by David Bach. 
• For details about The Hamster Revolutions system, click here.
• @ How to reach the end of the day and accomplish what you wanted to – I read recently somewhere that a good way to ensure a feeling of accomplishment at the end of each day is to make a mental agreement with yourself twice a day – 1) When you get in to the office in the morning, agree with yourself what you will feel good about getting done with that day, and then 2) at lunch time, reassess where you are and if that goal is still reasonable. This way, you hold yourself accountable for what you get done, and will be more likely to stay on target.
• @ Taking a break from your computer screen – This is something that I am a strong believer in. When I am blogging and am having to spend many hours in front of the computer screen, I often find myself feeling zoned out and in a sort of trance. Taking a break and even reading something away from my screen will help get me “back to the real world.” 

***Photo courtesy of http://www.timeforresults.com/images/TimeIsMoney.png

Best Ways to Get Started With Investing Online

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Today’s guest post comes to us from Stella Workman. Stella is a freelance writer who normally provides savings accounts reviews.

Best Ways to Get Started With Investing Online

The best ways to get started investing online often begin with identifying those investments that carry lower risk and understanding those investments thoroughly. Learning the basics of any market is essential to successful investing.

Stocks

The stock market is now more accessible than ever and is also one of the best ways to get started with investing online if you have studied the market and how it works. Stocks are generally considered a higher risk investment than some other markets but also can have nice returns if you are successful with the investment.

You can now invest in most stocks online with less than $100. The key to making a sound investment in the stock market is studying the history of the company that you are interested. Most companies with a steady increase over the past several years are a good stock investment.

Affiliate Marketing

Unlike traditional investments, such as stocks and bonds, affiliate marketing is quickly becoming a popular way to invest online. Large companies often offer customers a chance to advertise their products on a personal or business website in exchange for a small amount of profits that come from sales through those advertisements. If you already have a website then affiliate marketing may be one of the best ways to get started with investing online.

Affiliate marketing isn’t for everyone, however. You do need a space to advertise for other companies and will usually make much smaller profits through this type of investment than with traditional stocks. If you are looking for one of the best ways to get started with investing online and prefer a much less risky type of investment, then you may want to consider a 401k or other type of diversified account.

Diversified Accounts

A 401K account is a diversified investment that is typically a long-term investment. One of the best ways to get started investing online is to find an account that allows you to invest on a regular basis over the span of time. Each time you add money to the account the company will invest small percentages in several different types of investments.

With a diversified account you have a great chance of seeing returns on the investment and successfully lower the risk of losing your entire investment. This is a type of investment that generally lasts for ten years or more, however. There are other types of diversified accounts that you can invest in, as well.

The Bottom Line

When searching for the best ways to get started investing online, your knowledge is the best tool you have for making the decision. Since there are so many options, it is usually best to choose one type of account and stick with it until you have a good working knowledge of how to make sound investments.

How about you all? Where do you invest online? Do you worry about the security of sharing your information online, or are the protection measures taken these days enough to give you peace of mind? 


Share your experiences by commenting below!

Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.

• @ Investing in stocks – Personally, I don’t partake in investing in individual stocks, nor do a recommend it for normal individuals. Why is this? The evidence (70% of investment professionals fail to beat the market indices) simply doesn’t support the idea that us regular “Joe’s” can pick stocks well.
  
• Instead, I personally follow and recommend a passive investing strategy, which involves buying and consistent reallocation of index ETFs or mutual funds.
• However, if you are interested in investing online in individual stocks, I would recommend using a deep discount brokerage. The cheapest and easiest to use one that I have found is Sogotrade.com.
• @ Affiliate Marketing – For me, I don’t really consider this to be a form of investing. It is more of a type of business opportunity. There are some great affiliate programs available out there (FlexOffers, LinkJunction, etc). However, my favorite simply has to be the Amazon Affiliate Program. Why is this? Simple. You need to buy items on Amazon any way. Why not give some “love” to the site that steered you there in the first place. 
• Caution – Affiliate marketing is not to be confused with multi-level marketing / business opportunities, which involve selling product while at the same time trying to add people “under you” in your network. I have participated in several of these home business opportunities and was very sorry that I did in every instance. Live and learn right!?
• @ Investing in diversified accounts – Another great option for investing in this type of account is opening up a Traditional or Roth IRA. My favorite place to do this is Vanguard, since they offer the lowest expense ratio mutual funds. 

***Photo courtesy of http://www.cyclingfans.com/2009_giro_d_italia_columbia_highroad_team_time_trial_start_line.jpg