At last count there are about 23,000 mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) available to investors in the U.S. Picking from among them for your portfolio can seem daunting. Do you pay attention to past performance? fund management? or something else to find a suitable growth vehicle for your money?
When picking funds, all else being equal (i.e. youve already decided on an asset class and investment account), the most important factor for actual returns is expense ratio. This is the annual fund operating expenses fee charged as a percentage of invested amounts in the fund.
Lets look at how this affects your portfolio in detail.
Consider two funds, one with an expense ratio of 0.82% and another 1.44% [1]. Its easy to be lulled into thinking that theres not much difference between these funds.
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Tim Iacono comments on how recent news of Australias seemingly never-ending positive housing market streak reminded him of Americas own housing heyday five years ago. Both Australia and Canada have enjoyed sustained runs of promising house prices, and home prices down under are expected to see even more growth by 2013, according to a report from MarketWatch. For more on this continue reading the following article from Tim Iacono.
Admittedly, I dont follow the Australian housing market closely, however, along with Canada, two of the worlds never-ending housing bubbles do show up in the news from time to time and, upon reading this report at MarketWatch, I couldnt help but think back to the similar housing market optimism expressed in the U.S.
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Replying to comments teaches me many things, so I want to share one useful learning today. One of the NRI reader called Rahul was facing a strange problem, He had taken a home loan from ICICI bank few year back and now he wanted to pre-pay his home loan. However the problem was that he was outside India and bank wanted him to visit in person to pre-pay the home loan. The other way was to go through a Power of Attorney route which is extremely lengthy process.
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February 17th, 2012
Admin
Budgeting your money is a great way to gain control over your finances. Making a budget at least once a year will give you a financial snapshot of where you stand. Your budget will help guide you toward smart decisions with your money that can secure your financial future.
Calculate Your Income
The first step to creating a budget is to calculate all of your income. Decide first whether you are going to do a monthly budget or a yearly budget. Working with a monthly budget tends to be more accurate over the long haul. Determining your income will help you determine if you are spending within your means.
Calculate Your Expenses
The next step is to calculate your expenses. Include every bill that has to be paid on a monthly basis. If you decide to do a yearly budget, you can multiply your monthly expenses by 12. Read more…
The implications of CIBC selling FirstLine, if and when it happens, are manifold.
At this point, it can’t definitively be said whether CIBC will leave a foot in the broker channel.
Assuming it doesn’t, here’s our stream of consciousness on what this means…
On the gravity of this news…
- Lenders have come and gone from the broker market, but none as meaningful as FirstLine.
- FirstLine and its predecessor have been strong broker advocates since the 1980s.
- It was the top lender by volume less than nine months ago.
On who might buy FirstLine…
- Multiple parties have reportedly lined up to evaluate a purchase of FirstLine.
- Some think it could be a turnaround play if the buyer has a balance sheet to lend from.
- It’s hard to imagine how a smaller non-deposit-taking lender could successfully fund FirstLine’s sizable volume. Unlike CIBC, it
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Like other European countries, Portugal has seen a rapid rise in public sector debt. Since the start of the crisis in 2007, Portugese government debt has increased from 67% of GDP to 113% of GDP in 2012. However, Portugal has received much commendation from the EU and IMF for its stringent austerity packages. The concern for Portugal is that despite rapid cuts in government borrowing and a fall in the budget deficit, the debt to GDP ratio has continued to rise from 107% of GDP at start of 2011 to 113% 12 months later.
The Portugese economy contracted 1.5% in 2011 and is forecast to fall 3% in 2012. Unemployment has risen to 13%
Since austerity measures have been introduced, the budget deficit has fallen from 9% of GDP to 5.1% of GDP.
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The beginning of each new year brings many things, and for property owners one of those things is a Notice of Assessment from a property tax assessor. These are not tax bills and so many people ignore them, but they contain valuable information that every property owner should know. The primary reason notices should be examined is because a property owner may appeal numerous decisions a tax assessor may make regarding the value of the property. Main issues that may be appealed are the valuation of the property, the occupancy rate of a rental property, the classification of the property and possible any possible exemptions overlooked by the assessor. For more on this continue reading the following article from JDSupra. Read more…