How to Read Financial statements

One sees Financial Statements as a bunch of numbers, another one sees a whole story about a company, its success story or big drama. How to understand the statements and what should you pay attention to?

Public companies provide different financial statements that can be vied and downloaded from Yahoo! Finance or SEC. Statements can be provided Quarterly or Annually. So it depends on you, whether you want to see a big picture or a more detailed and close view on the company. Here you need three main statements: Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement and Income Statement. Depending on what is happening in the company they might publish

What Company Should I Invest In?

Once you decide to start investing on your own you face a problem: What company should I invest in to have good returns and not lose money? Everybody faces this question. There are several tips on how to pick the stock that is the best for you.

1. What is your area of interest?

If you pick a company that you are going to invest in it means you will need to read about this company, its industry and all relevant news. If you are interested in IT you can try to search for companies in IT industry.

Mutual Funds vs Individual Stocks

Once you decide to start investing you might get puzzled by the options and institutions that offer investing services. Individual stocks, Mutual funds, ETFs, Brokerage firms, Derivatives market, Bond market are just some of the options. 

Some of the options are easy to understand and deal with whereas others need you to have knowledge and experience. The most common choice that a newbie investor might have to do is between investing in a Mutual fund or investing in an Individual stock. So how does it work and what's the difference between them?

June 2013 Top Reading

Here are the top articles that I've read in June and found very interesting to share with you:

 "Where to put money as you whistle past Wall Street Ghost of Crisis Past haunts investors five years after credit crunch trigger" by  Polya Lesova

Credit Cards That Give Free Money

Why would a bank give you money for free with no crazy interests? Well, they really do so. Just to attract your attention and make you get their card and become their client. Well it's up to them how profitable it is, but i think it is since they still have such offers. 

So when i was choosing my first credit card i found that Bank of America has a Cash Rewards Credit Card which gives you $100 after you in at least 3 months make purchases for $500. Well, great deal! You just use a card in stead of a debit card and then get $100 for being such a good obedient client. That is easy. They also give you cash back on your purchases of goods 1%, groceries 2% and on gas 3%. That is also easy! You just buy stuff that you always buy and you also get some cash back.

Credit Card Trap

At some point in your life you get to know what a credit card is. And it's a happy time because you can spend the money that you actually don't have. And what about paying back? Yeah, sure... some time later. That's what you first think when you get a brand new credit card with your name on it. 

Of course you already have a to-buy list with all the urgent stuff you need to buy right now. This extremely important and necessary 10th kitchen combiner with that cute yellow button or the 20th pair of shoes that will match that gorgeous dress that you are going to buy as well. And you can really buy it, because you have a magic card.