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Investing

The 4 Best Android Apps to Track Your Investments

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Stock trading happens throughout the day, but unless you’re a trader with a stock ticker on your work computer, you’re not always able to check performance. Maybe there’s a stock you want to trade, but you’re tracking it to find the ideal sale price. Or you want to buy, and you prefer to get the stock at the lowest possible price. Whether it’s research or investing, it’s difficult to simply log on to the major trading websites when at work, at lunch, or during a break in a meeting. Android phones make it far easier to track investments, especially when you’re using these four apps.

Yahoo Finance

Yahoo’s Finance app makes monitoring stocks easy and efficient. It has no trading capabilities and is strictly view-only. What makes it an excellent app is the fact that the interface is uncluttered, has all of the information you need and want for the stocks you’re tracking, and goes beyond just stock tracking. Intuitive navigation means there is a little learning curve needed to figure out how to do what and go where within the app.

The app lets users create a personalized watch list in order to get stock quotes and news relating to the stocks on the list. Compare stocks on full screen charts. It also tracks more than stocks alone. Keep up to date with information on currencies, bonds, futures, equities, and more. Yahoo Finance covers all of the basics and supplies vital information when you need it most.

Stock Quotes Live Wallpaper

Stock Quotes Live Wallpaper does what its name suggests: scroll stock quotes on the home screen. It’s mainly used for the simple purpose of seeing stock quotes at a glance. Just look at the phone to check the progress of certain stocks at any given time.

The app is straightforward to set up and use. Simply enter in the stocks you want displayed, dial in the settings, and apply. Users have the option to choose the display settings, how fast the stocks scroll, background color, and how frequently the quotes refresh. Powerful phones like the Galaxy S7 have the capacity to take on the operating requirements of an app such as this one. As long as the phone has a network connection, it’ll keep the information updated according to the refresh rate. For more information on the Galaxy S7, click here.

That’s all this app does, however. Taking action on a stock requires logging into a portal on a regular computer or trading app.

MSN Money

MSN Money works in a similar fashion to Yahoo, except it syncs across the desktop and cell phone. Information viewable on the Android is also viewable on the desktop. Any changes made on any device transfers to all. This function eliminates a lost trade due to a lack of consistency across devices.

The tracker lets users follow all of the major and minor stock indexes along with currency exchange rates and commodity prices. Simply put all stocks into the personal watch list and check on performance at a glance. No scrolling through several screens just to get one stock quote. MSN Money also carries the latest financial news and supplies targeted information for the stocks stored on the personal watch list.

Stock Tracker

Stock Tracker brings simplicity to tracking stocks. The app lets you create a personal watch list of stocks and graphs their performance. Choose from once-a-minute, daily, weekly, or monthly views to check out the performance of any given stock. Information gets updated in real-time which means no missing out on the latest change to a stock price. It also provides a news feed that updates whenever a relevent article gets published.

Keep in mind that Stock Tracker is straightforward and has few whistles and bells. But for clean, clear-cut stock tracking, it can’t be beat.

Stock tracking is a very personal activity, and these apps help you follow your favorite stocks. They’re feature-rich but won’t clutter the screen with unwanted information when all you’re interested in knowing is up-to-date performance. Check in at your leisure, or take a quick glance during a slow moment and get all your information in one place.

Image via Flickr by Microslervos; Creative Commons license

What to Do, Financially, to Weather the Coming Disaster?

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Our country — and by extension, your finances and mine — is in deep trouble. We are about to inaugurate as President a man whose mental stability is questionable; who announces his petulance in wee-hours tweets; who gropes women and brags about it; who exploits hatred and fear to gain power; who is at odds with the country’s intelligence agencies; who denigrates the disabled, the female, and the brown-skinned; and who “owes one” to the corrupt, thuggish leader of a nation that has been our enemy since shortly after the end of World War II. He is backed by a phalanx of extremists who want to reverse not just the ACA but the entire New Deal, which has been in place for almost 80 years.

The New Deal, we might point out, came into being in response to the Great Depression. Part of its purpose was to prevent a repeat performance of the Depression.

I believe that, in the near future, we are going to see a recession that will make the Bush Recession look like a cakewalk. The reason is that the dominant economic thinking among the doctrinaire right wing riding Mr. Trump’s coat-tails is simply wrong. It was proven wrong by the Great Recession, as it was proven wrong in earlier recessions.

Since 1948, this country has seen 11 recessions. Seven of them — 63.6% — were presided over by Republicans (Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush the Elder, Bush the Younger). Some of the economic downturns were precipitated by factors over which we had little control, such as rises in oil prices. Others correspond with rises in interest rates by the Federal Reserve or with monetary tightening in pursuit of a balanced national budget. Most egregious, from a political point of view, was the Great Recession, which was brought about by deregulation of financial institutions (a mainstay of voodoo economics). The Great Depression of 1929-33 was largely aggravated by “extensive new tariffs and other factors [that] contributed to an extremely deep depression.”

The pendulum swings. As we all know, things go one way for awhile, and then they turn around and go back in the other direction. For the past few years, we’ve seen a roaring economy. We can expect that it, like any hot economic period, will cool down. But I think the pendulum is going to swing, all right: waaayyyy in the opposite direction.

It would be good to position your investments in a balanced portfolio to include variable rate bonds and variable rate preferred stocks that pay decent income and aren’t as sensitive as stocks are in a downturn. In addition, some financial planners make it a policy to sell certain exposure to the market should it turn down below a certain level. This doesn’t protect from losses should the market sell-off, but should help cushion further losses in a market meltdown. Now is the time for you to speak with a financial planner about steps to take in managing your savings.

Additionally, you should be prepared for a period of unemployment. During the Great Recession, 10% of Americans were put out of work, a rate beat only by the Reagan recession (10.8%), the Great Depression (24.9%) and the subsequent 1937/38 recession (19%). That means having at least six months’ worth of living expenses in cash savings and possibly taking on a side gig now, not later, so that you’ll have something to fall back on should you lose your main livelihood.

Remember that many of us were never able to get jobs comparable to the ones we had before the Bush recession — large numbers of Americans are still unemployed or underemployed. After you become discouraged enough to give up seeking full-time work, you no longer register in the government’s unemployment figures, and so most of us in that category are simply not counted.

In addition to building cash savings, pay down debt and avoid racking up new debt, especially on credit cards.

Now more than ever is the time to live not just within your means but below your means. Good luck to you, folks. We’re all gonna need it.

 

5 Tips for Making your Rental Property More Profitable

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Looking to turn a higher profit from your rental this year? There are many ways to do this, if you implement your plans strategically and you are willing to invest. Below are five tips for making your rental profitable.

  1. Invest in Curb Appeal. The amenities within and outside of your property are an immediate turn on or turn off for potential renters. It’s simple—you just can’t raise rent unless the property appears worth it. For example, your building’s walls may need a fresh coat of paint. You could lose money and turn off candidates if they see that your walls are bright pink. Remember: what looks good to you does not look good to everyone. Always be safe with neutral colors because it allows the tenant to imagine their space without distraction. You want them to easily picture how they want to arrange their furniture and belongings. What’s more, potential renters will recognize if you are cheap. Do yourself a favor and invest in where it counts, whether it be the walls, flooring, kitchen and bathroom amenities, or cleanliness.
  2. Minimize Turnover Time. There are many ways to your properties occupied. The easiest way is to extend the length of your lease. Turning your property into a one-year lease instead of month-to-month will decrease the time and money it takes to advertise and show the property. Another way to do this, is to match the price of your area. If you do not have any features to offer that make your building unique and incredibly tempting—such as a prime location, or state-of-the-art kitchen—it will not be easy to draw in higher-paying tenants. Rental properties are always in demand it they come at the right price. Feel like you’ve gone too long without a single viable potential tenant? It may be time to lower your prices. Most landlords lower their rent to just below the market price in situations like these, and this could be the tactic to get your vacancy filled.
  3. Raise Rent. Contrary to the option above, there may be ways you can also raise the rent. In order to do this, you have to be strategic. One tactic is to raise the rent as the lease ends. If your current tenants are loyal and want to stay, they will pay slightly more. They may consider that the time it takes to look for a new rental is not worth it, or they may realize that moving may be too expensive. Over time, for instance, the fees of the Home Owner’s Association may force your hand to raise rent. You can also time the replacement or updating of certain features around the end of the lease. Doing so will encourage your tenants to stay, and persuade them to stay in their subtly renovated rental.
  4. Enforce Leasing Policies. This is especially true of late fees. This is important for two reasons: first, your tenants need to respect you as a landlord in order to keep your property protected; and second, you need to make sure you maintain your revenue stream so you do not find yourself in big financial trouble. One way to prevent this is to charge a late fee. Your tenants need to know that they are your landlord, not your friend. Be sure the tenants understand that they will be charged a fee if they do not pay on time. After all, they signed a contract that said they were financially able and responsible enough to pay, and they are bound to that contract. They need to know that this is a business, and they have a job to follow through on. The best way to prevent issues is to check if a tenant has ever been evicted. Past instances will be indicative of the behavior you can expect in the future.
  5. Offer services. If you own a single unit rental with a garden, offer a gardener at a higher rental price. Not only does it keep your rental looking nice, but it will appeal to tenants who want to live in a nice home. Or, if you own a multi-unit property, install washers and dryers—either stackable or coin-operated—and they will pay for themselves. Many tenants do not want to spend all of their time at a laundromat on a Saturday, so having washers and dryers on the premises or in the unit will be considered a luxury especially if these services are rare in the area.

Happy Days? Here Again?

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Hand holding chalk dollar growth chart on green blackboard
Hand holding chalk dollar growth chart on green blackboard

Welp, the stock market has gone SO berserk on news (presumably) of a bullying egotist’s election to the White House that happy days appear to be here again.

Yes, again. This month’s statements from my financial advisors show that my big IRA alone earned so much last month that the increase absorbed this year’s RMD (required minimum distribution) rip. The increase covered the entire $28,314 gouge with seven grand to spare.

Wow. Just wow. What else can one say?

Well. I could say I’d feel a lot happier about this if I didn’t suspect it ultimately will come at the expense of the American republic and of our children and our children’s children. But hey… let tomorrow take care of itself, eh?

Right.

Problem is, o’course, “tomorrow” is just a few hours away…

The credit union estimates that the downtown house M’jihito and I bought ten or twelve years ago (thinking he would live here about five years, get back on his feet after the penultimate recession, and then move back to San Francisco) is now worth about $35,000 more than we paid for it.

That’s nice. I guess. Well…except…

a) That ain’t what I’d call a grand return on investment (considering that we had to put about 40 grand into it to make it habitable…), especially after something over a decade.

But…

b) At least we’re not underwater anymore, lhudly sing huzzah.

My son is refinancing the loan, which as some of you will recall was a 30-15 deal…because we thought he would be outta there long before the 15-year balloon came up, and we thought we were buying at the bottom of a downward-heading market.

What we thought was…so magnificently wrong.

The credit union locked in a very good rate just before the Fed raised its rate, causing mortgage rates to jump. So if he gets this loan, he’ll be pretty well set.

He’s writing me out of the loan, even more lhudly sing huzzah. This means that if anything happens to him, God forbid, I will no longer be on the hook for the debt. If he goes belly-up (highly unlikely, with this mega-frugal kid), I will not have to pick up the mortgage. If he croaks over (hello, God? let’s repeat that: FORBID, got it?), I presumably will inherit the house but not a hundred grand worth of toxic debt. I would probably break even on the sale of the place.

Sort of. I’ll continue to contribute, since without a wife or a partner he would have to strain every gut to afford the house payments. Financial Advisor points out that in his misspent youth he earned exactly what M’hijito earns and he could’ve covered those payments…but the youthful FA did not live in 2016. Nor did he face a future probably devoid of Social Security and Medicare.

It’s such a pretty little house, historic in its years. Mid-century middle-class tract housing, from back in the day when America had a middle class.

(Think of that!)

He invited me and the pooches over for dinner last night, whereinat he created a pretty awesome home-made chef’s pepperoni pizza. With the gorgeous mahogany French doors and the solid mahogany front door standing open (we built a courtyard in front to slow the dog’s escape and add some “charm”), on a balmy Arizona winter night the place was just beautiful. If I could afford the utility bills, I’d love to live in it myself.

Ain’t a-gonna happen, though.

It’s in the Arizona Public Service power district — APS is just freaking rapacious. His house is much smaller than mine, he has a swamp cooler, and he’s penurious in his use of energy, but his power bills exceed my summer bills by upwards of a hundred bucks a month. I know I couldn’t afford that…so (God — listen up! — forbid) if anything should happen to him, I couldn’t even begin to think of selling my own house and moving in there.

In the bidness department, it’s been a busy week. We have a very  large project in-house — 475 pages, deadline January 31: the product of god only knows how many individual academic contributors, each of them fond of footnotes and references. Two proposed indexes came in; one sounds easy enough that I could probably manage it around the other project, assuming The Kid handles at least some of th’same. Together, they would bring in enough income to cover two months’ worth of target income for The Copyeditor’s Desk.

Which sounds nice until you realize we got hardly any work at all through the summer doldrums.

Alors… speaking of werk, now that the bedding is washed and several days worth of food is cooked and financial data (some of them) are entered and the hair is washed and set and the bathroom is cleaned and the kitchen is cleaned and the dog hair is laundered out of the dogs’ bed blanket and the pool filter is cleaned and the correspondence is tended to and a Christmas present idea is investigated and I still need to paint my face before tonight’s social event, it’s time to knock off the blogging.

And so, à demain…

Got a plan to hang on to whatever ill-gotten gains you’ve accumulated in the (no doubt brief) wake of the Trump triumph?

Image: DepositPhotos, AndreyPopov

Things to Know About Forex Trading

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philippine-stock-market-boardAlthough forex trading is definitely promising, there’s no denying that it has also caused major losses for beginners and inexperienced traders. Fortunately, you don’t have to experience this at all, as there are many ways to avoid forex trading problems and enjoy remarkable profits.

1. Choose Your Broker with Great Care

Many beginners fail to consider this very important point — they fail to realize that  to be successful in forex trading, they should choose their broker carefully. Having an unreliable broker can put all your hard work to waste. Aside from that, your expertise level and trading goals should match the details provided by the broker. Try to figure out the kind of client the forex broker focuses on. These should all be scrutinized with great care.

2. Create Your Goals and Stick with Your Plan

After figured out your personal motive for trading in the foreign exchange market, you can determine the time frame and create a feasible plan.

 3. Try to Determine Your Risk Tolerance and Your Needs

To profit in trading, it’s important to recognize your market. For that, it’s  important to know and recognize yourself first. Likewise, you should also ensure that your risk tolerance, as well as your capital allocation to forex trading are enough — these are some of the essential steps toward gaining self-awareness. Don’t forget to carefully analyze and study your own financial goals in forex trading as well.

 4. Your Account Type Should Be Based on Your Expectations and Needs

It’s important to pick an account package suitable not only to your expectations, but to your knowledge level as well. For beginners, the different forms of accounts given by brokers can be quite overwhelming. So, as a rule of thumb, it’s always best to opt for lower leverage first. Once you get a better understanding of trading and leverage in general, then you can to move into a higher level. However, if you’re a beginner, you need to develop your skill with a period of practice, using a mini account.

Generally speaking, lower risk also provides better chances for a beginner. Thus, you should make your choices based on what is most practical and effective for you.

 5. Start with Small Amounts and Slowly Increase the Size of Your Account with the Help of Organic Gains,  not Greater Deposits

When it comes to forex trading, the most useful tip for success is to start with small investments and lower leverage — you can eventually add to your forex account as it starts generating profits.

The reason for this is that larger accounts don’t necessarily give you more profit. Additionally, if you can also modify the size of your account through trading choices, it will be more beneficial for you. If not, then you know there’s no point in putting your hard-earned cash into your account, because you’ll just end up wasting it.

 6. Focus on What You Understand

What does this imply? If you’re not sure with what you’re doing and you’re not confident that you can defend your opinion with vigor and strength against critics, then it’s better not to trade at all. Likewise, you should not be trading with rumors and hearsay as your basis.

7. Pay Attention to One Currency Pair

Truth be told, the world of forex trading is not only complicated, but deep as well, because of the different characters and intents of market participants, as well as the market’s unpredictable nature. That said, it’s not easy to master the various kinds of business enterprise that go on in all the countries of the world. So, to prevent forestall problems, it’s best to restrict trading activity to a single currency pair you’re familiar with. Later, you can eventually move into other currencies.

8. Never Give Up

Last but definitely not least, have patience when it comes to forex trading. You have to know that you won’t magically become a trading genius overnight. It takes a lot of time, effort, and dedication to master this craft and once you do, you’ll start enjoying success through forex trading.

Image:
Philippine Stock Board. Katrina.Tuliao – https://www.tradergroup.org, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12262407

Managing Your Money: Check Out This App!

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Alex Moreno is a member of the Phoenix FinCon local. He’s created a cool app, called Balance My Portfolio to help keep your investment portfolio balanced in a timely and efficient way.

The idea of systematic rebalancing, he says, is “to bring your allocation back in line with your risk tolerance.” The app works toward this goal, and it also helps you to buy low and sell high. “When one asset class has gained more than another,” he explains, “this app tells you to lock in some of the gains by selling high and moving the profits into the asset class that is at a discount.

Balance My Portfolio — check it out!