Understanding Commercial Mortgages

Welcome to the world of commercial mortgages. This booklet is written to the individual who is venturing out into the world of commercial investment. It is written to introduce you to some of the differences between residential loans and commercial loans and hopefully help you to be more profitable in your quest for diversifying your income through commercial properties. I will endeavor to teach you the who, what, and why of commercial loans. A big part of your success as a commercial investor is in choosing the right mortgage for the property so it just makes sense to learn about commercial mortgages. What follows is the straight scoop on commercial mortgages. Knowledge is power; my goal is to give you that knowledge-accurate knowledge. And so, let’s begin.WHO?Who lends the money in the commercial realm? This is the first and possibly most important difference between commercial and residential. Yes, you apply to a large lender or bank or some financial institution whenever you do a residential loan. But the money is not really lent by that institution. It is for a few days. But ultimately they sell the loan to FNMA or FHLMC and get reimbursed the money. They just keep the servicing rights. Fannie or Freddie then bundle all those loans and pass them through to investors as mortgage backed securities. In other words, the bank is not really lending their own money. It is not that way in commercial. In the commercial realm, most loans are done by banks and it is their own money. They take the money on deposit with them and loan it out to different companies. There is no giant like FNMA waiting to reimburse them. If that loan goes into default the bank is stuck unless they can sell the property for a profit. Because of this, they are much more picky than they would be on residential loans.But that is not all. 80% of all businesses fail within 2 years and if someone does fall into financial difficulty they will let their commercial investment go before the house that their wife and kids live in. Commercial loans are investment loans and you know full well the rules are stricter on investment loans. Because each piece of property is completely different, commercial deals are not hard and fast. No standard qualifying ratios here. The property is more important then the borrower. You can have an excellent borrower but have a bad property and no one will buy the loan. I had a loan officer call me mad as anything that his client’s loan was denied by our underwriter. His message was something like this, “I have a guy with perfect credit, great income, a property worth $450,000 and all he wants is a little cash out loan of $300,000. You must be an idiot if you can not get this loan done.” So I pulled the loan, and much of what he said was true. The borrower’s credit was perfect and his income was good-except on the property. The property itself was losing money. His borrower told him the property was worth $450,000 but based on the cash flow, it would not appraise for more than $150,000 (more on appraisals later). No one is going to loan $300,000 on a place only worth $150,000!In talking to him, it turns out he has been trying to get it approved for over a year! Commercial loans are deal specific. Understand that the bank is loaning their own money and they will be very picky on what they will lend on. The good news is that if the deal is good, there is more than enough commercial money available-banks WANT to lend. They are just more careful when it is their own money.WHAT?What takes commercial deals so much longer than residential loans to close? Rare is the commercial loan that closes in less than 1 month and the rate for those quick-close deals is much higher. Small commercial loans will usually take 2 months and large commercial loans can take as much as 4-6 months or more! Many factors go into this-the appraisal, the broker themselves, the title, and especially the borrower. Let’s start with an appraisal. It will rarely be ordered before the loan is approved and the borrower has committed. This could be weeks into the deal. Once ordered, an appraisal on a commercial property will often take a month and it could be longer if the property is large and has mixed use. That is because the land under the commercial property is just one part of the equation. The properties value ultimately will be determined by its’ cash flow. The appraiser of a commercial property has to get the financials on the property and compare it to similar properties in the area. If my apartment complex is 80% rented and the average complex in the area is 85% rented it will effect my appraisal. How the property has been managed is important. How quickly the appraiser can get that information is important. The appraiser often must contact an owner and get information direct from them. It is not as easy as pulling up an MLS listing. Don’t trust someone who says they can turn a commercial appraisal in less then a week like a residential appraisal. That person does not understand commercial.You must be careful in choosing a broker or banker to help you. A broker often can drag the file because they do not get the information needed up front. If my apartment complex is running 30% vacant compared to most places running 25% vacant then I need to explain that and have a business plan ready that explains how I am going to change that. Most brokers will send a deal in with a residential loan application filled in, a credit report and two years tax returns and think the loan can get approved. Then when asked for the stuff that is really needed-3 years operating statements, business plan for the property, etc. they balk at getting it. The loan will never get approved just based on 2 years tax returns and a credit report. Why? Because the property is the most important factor. If you get the right documents in a timely fashion, however, then your loan will move through much quicker and actually have a chance of getting approved. Because title on commercial property often involves such things as environmental and zoning issues, it can take 30 days as well. One 10 Million dollar deal got hung up on environmental issues for 3 months! The more complete the information up front-the quicker you can close.Finally, the other big drag on commercial closing times is the borrower-and I don’t just mean dragging on getting documentation. It is important to remember time frames, if you are under contract, you have 45 days of underwriting and appraisal time from the time you stop shopping, provide everything, and commit to a lender. You CAN’T SHOP A COMMERCIAL LOAN UNTIL THERE ARE JUST 30 DAYS LEFT! If you do, you will end up with a high rate, quick close loan, or asking for an extension and risking losing the entire property if the seller got another offer. It is not worth losing out on a property that will yield you thousands of dollars of profits in a month over 1/8th percent in rate which may mean $50 a month saved! Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. Understand the time frames and operate appropriately.WHY?WHY invest in commercial real estate then? If the loan criteria are tougher, and the deals take longer to close-why not just stick with residential investing? Because, commercial properties are much lower maintenance properly managed. You can rent them out triple net lease and have the customers make all the repairs. You are typically dealing with a large building built very well and not a house with kids. These properties are not used like a residential house-people don’t live there and so the life of the property is extended. And even if you are dealing with a multi-family property where people are living, you have diversified revenue. One apartment complex may have 20 units in it and so if one renter moves out you still have 19 other rents coming in. The commercial mortgage is actually your best friend because we take into account vacancy rates when underwriting the file and make sure that the property still cash flows EVEN with average vacancy rates for the area. You KNOW your return on investment going in and the risk is mitigated. PLUS, you get all the normal benefits of investing in Real Estate: appreciation, but you get to depreciate the asset on your returns, steady money with minimal effort, and a hedge against inflation that is tough to beat.Commercial real estate investing can be lucrative. If you are a business owner, buying a property and fixing your payments instead of rents that escalate yearly is a smart move. Either way, commercial real estate is a smart choice. Making the right choice on your mortgage can make all the difference between a good investment and a great investment. I hope this helps clarify commercial mortgages some, for more info or assistance, please feel free to call the representative who sent you this report.Best Regards!

Small Business Accounting Software – How to Buy

Small business accounting software / Small business bookkeeping software — How to buy.

There are lot of small business accounting / bookkeeping softwares out there. If you are a small business owner looking for a good software, you are bound to get overwhelmed by the endless list pretty quickly. Which one to buy? What features do they come with? Should I get all the features or just the ones I need? The questions go on and on without answer. If this is what is happening to you, don’t despair. There is hope. Read on. By the time you are done reading this short post you will be armed with all the knowledge you need to make an informed buying decision. First some questions about you.

How big is your business?
Small business as defined by Small Business Administration is any business that is privately owned and employs less than 100 employees. Good enough. If we analyze this definition a bit closely we will quickly see that 100 employees is a big number. Assuming that you are paying $3000/month to each employee you are paying out $300,000/month as salary. If you own a business this big chances are you will not be looking for an accounting / bookkeeping software via internet. Sales agents from software companies will be waiting at your door to sell their software to you. Going by the fact that you are searching for a small business software on the internet you probably own a much smaller business. How much smaller? I think you own a business that has less than 5 employees. Most probably even less. Just one employee. Yourself.
What are you selling?
Are you selling a material product? or just services? Do you make the product or just buy it pre-made? Do you have a real store or you are selling via your web site? How do you find your customers?
How much is your data volume?
If you have a thriving business then you will have good data volume. How much it it? How many orders per month? How many new customers per month? How do store the data? How much data? What is expected growth rate of the data
Do you have a web site?
Nearly all businesses, big or small have web sites these days. Do you have one? If not your should get one. Would you like your software to integrate seamlessly with your web site? Would you like to be able to access your small business accounting / bookkeeping software via the internet?

Your choice of small business accounting / bookkeeping software will depend upon the answers to above questions. Assuming that you have one person company you want something that is easy to use, some that can be accessed remotely form anywhere and it can grow with your company. Right? … Right!

OK, one more thing that we did not discuss. Underlying technology. Even though it may not be visible, it is very important to know what kind of technology your small business software is using. After all it is the bed rock on which the software is built. Things may get a little complicated here but I will try to make them as simple as I can.

Every small business accounting / bookkeeping software essentially does one thing. It store data. Data is information about your business. Customer names, addresses, products, orders, invoices … all are examples of data. So for a small business software to work efficiently it should be able to store data efficiently. Not only that, it should also be able to modify and retrieve data efficiently when you need it. After all what is the use of a black box software that cannot provide you the data when you need it. You still with me? Good.

There are two ways to store data.

Flat file
Relational
Flat file method uses flat text files, much like notepad files, to store data. It is old and archaic.
The reason: it cannot hold any relationships among data entities. e.g. you want to store customers name and their invoices. You know that one customer can have many invoices. So to store customers and their invoices you will have to repeat customer name each time you store an invoice. Just like below.

customer1 — invoice1

customer1 — invoice2

Problem with this approach is that you have to repeat the customer name every time you want to store an invoice. This is not efficient.

Relational method uses relationships to store data. It is more efficient. Look at the same example that uses relational method. It uses customer name only once.

customer1

– invoice1

– invoice2

Elegant isn’t it? You bet. It is much cleaner, more efficient and easier to read. If you are still with me we are almost done. The whole point of the above song and dance was to show you that relational storage method is superior to flat file storage method. It should be an important factor to consider when you buy your small business computer software. Now, there are five major small business accounting / bookkeeping software.

Quickbooks from Intuit , Simply Accounting, Peachtree (again from Intuit), Sage and Microsoft Small Business Accounting Software. Agreed?

Now the bombshell. None of these small business software use relational storage method! Can you imagine? Wait there is more. All these are propriety software written by the big companies who use large scale ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software that runs on unix (not windows or mac) and uses relational database (relational storage method) to run their own businesses. Did you get what I just said. Let me rephrase. All these so called best small business software companies DO NOT USE THEIR OWN SOFTWARE. They use relational storage software, but they sell you non relational storage software in the name of small business software. The reason? Relation storage method is very expensive. Well not any more!

There are many new small business software now available that use the relational method. These are based on open source relational databases and are accessible from anywhere via Internet. More over they use GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). These new breed of software are called small business ERP software. They knocks the pants off the old and archaic so called best small business accounting / bookkeeping software listed above. Your next question would be… “Can you tell me a name?” Well of course. You can try TooLERP [http://www.toolerp.com] for starters. It is elegantly written using mysql relational database and apache web server.

Easy Home Based Business – Home Based Business Checklist Revealed

There are some important aspects that you need to consider when starting a home based business with a network marketing company or a multi level marketing company because the home based business industry can be very over whelming and if you want to be successful then you are going to need to run an easy home based business.

Why?

Because there is a new person joining this industry looking to start a home based business for themselves every 17 seconds so it is very important that you can offer an easy home based business for even a newbie to run and become successful with.

What are the things to look out for in a company that can provide this easy home based business?

You want to join a company that has a great business overview webinar that you can send your prospects to so you don’t have to do any selling because the best way to sell someone on something is to let someone sell themselves.

You want to be in a position so you can just focus on your prospect, find out why are they looking for a business and what they are looking for in a business.

If you join a company that has a great business overview webinar then you can follow this four step system to create an easy home based business for yourself.

1 – Generate a lead

2 – Have a conversation with your prospect, qualify them to attend the business overview webinar.

3 – Send them to the business overview webinar

4 – Call back and collect their decision

Your entire business model should revolve around this four step system, these are the action steps that will make you money in your easy home based business if you’re not closing sales and bringing people into your business you aren’t making money.

OK so let’s face it without a constant supply of leads this four step system just doesn’t work so when it comes to choosing a company to join you absolutely must have a training centre that teaches you how to market using the internet.

You want an internet marketing university that you can plug your new business partners into so they to can learn the very latest internet marketing strategies for generating targeted leads for their business, leads are the life blood of your business! Without leads you don’t have a business.

If you are putting in the hard work you want to be getting paid the big bucks for your efforts so when you are searching for the right company to join you want a compensation plan that is going to pay big dollars, you don’t want to have to bring 100 people into your business just to make $1000, you want a compensation plan were you can make $1000 – $14000 from bringing just one person into your business this is called a top tier compensation plan.

The compensation plan is a very important part to your home based business because this is your pay structure and you want to maximise your efforts by getting paid big dollars, this makes it all worth while also allowing you to transition from your current employment to working full time on your home based business.

One of the most important aspects to think of when partnering with a company to start a home based business is that you must have a passion for the product or opportunity that you are selling, you want to partner with a company that is closed to your heart and passions because at the end of the day this is a business and if you don’t enjoy working on your business then it just becomes another job.

Partner with a company that has all of the points that I have mentioned and treat it like a business not a hobby, follow the four step system and you can’t go wrong.

Is a Home Based Business Opportunity Credible?

How can you become financially independent?

You worked hard and you squeezed almost everything you have just to pay all your expenses, however, at the end of the day you realized that what you earn is not enough. Well, can you imagine a lifestyle wherein you only have to work 4 hours a day and yet you still earn twice or even thrice as much as what you earn right now? You know what? That can happen through a home based business opportunity. Throughout this article, you will discover important principles before getting into a home opportunity, and hopefully will make you say: Yes! I can be financially independent.

What is a home based business opportunity?

A home based business is simply an investment or any kind of business that you can work at the comforts of your home. This is the dream of many people. And I bet you also want the same thing. So, what are the things you should know?

How credible is the opportunity?

There are lots of websites out there claiming that they have the best home based business opportunity, but many of them are actually gimmicks. So, what is the number one rule? Make sure that you are looking for a 100% legitimate home based business opportunity. You need to look at the credibility of the business. That is the number one principle you have to consider before going into any home based business opportunity. I know, it is not easy to see that right away, that is why we need to make some thorough investigation and research. How can you do that?

Well, you got a lot of resources that you can actually use or avail of. Number one is through the internet which is very accessible. Do a little surfing through the net or spend considerable time reading testimonials about this type of business. Surely, you will know and learn more about it and find out the type of business which can actually work for you. You can also find more about it in magazines, journals and e-books that talk about home based business opportunity. Reading them can increase your knowledge and enhance your skills for brighter and promising business opportunities.

Are those enough? No, because you have to be confident with yourself in dealing with the kind of business that you decided to get into and leave no room for doubts. You will try to be clear of everything and resolve issues that you may have about the home based business opportunity that is of interest to you. You can even call or send inquiries via email from those offering such information through websites. And if certain answers are a bit doubtful or suspicious, you can consider looking for another search. Now, have I got your minds tweaked about a home based business opportunity, what should you know next?

Is there a home based business opportunity that would interest you?

Just like you, when I first heard about this, I was very skeptical. But now, I want you to think differently-to have a positive doubt about it. It is okay to be cynical at first, but I assure you that a home based business opportunity is the key to your financial independence. How cool is that?

With a home based business opportunity, you get thousands of options, products, and services that you can use to run a business. You can work on stuffs that interest you the most and thus, provide you maximum commitment and motivation every day. If you are musically inclined, you can set up your own online music store. Or if you love sports, you can sell athletic goods as well. This is how a home based business opportunity becomes flexible for you. You can get out of your shell, and do what you love. What do you think? Do you enjoy your work at the office?

At the start of this article, I asked you how you can become financially independent. I do not know what your answer is but what I do understand is that you are creative and you have goals to become rich. Today, you realized that a home based business opportunity is what you need to make it happen. Now, if you want to find out more about it and understand how I became very successful with my own home based business, please visit my website.

Questions First Time Investors Should Ask Before Investing

It is easy to find people’s opinion on how to invest in the stock market as everyone has a different angle on what to expect in the stock market at every point in time, but most of the time people’s opinion may be very confusing. The most common problem that new investors do have is how to determine good investments from the bad ones, what to invest on, what time to invest among others. Some of the questions that you need to answer so as to make a good decision when you want to invest are highlighted below.

Is This a Good Time to Invest in Stocks?

On the off chance that you are taking a gander at money markets amid a lofty decrease, you may think it is a terrible time to begin investing. On the off chance that you are taking a gander at it when stocks are reviving, you may think it is a decent time.

Neither one of the times is fundamentally great or terrible in the event that you are investing for the long haul (10 years or more). Nobody can anticipate with any level of assurance which way the share trading system will move at any given time; yet over the long haul, stock markets has constantly moved higher. Each bear advertises is trailed by a buyer market (when stock costs rise). Verifiably, positively trending markets have endured any longer than bear markets, and the additions of buyer markets have more than counterbalance the misfortunes in bear markets

How Much Risk Should I Take?

A standout amongst the most essential fundamentals of investing is the cozy relationship amongst risk and returns. Without risk, there can be no profits. You ought to will to accept more risk on the off chance that you are looking for more noteworthy returns. In that regard, risk can be something to be thankful for, yet just in the event that you take into consideration adequate time to let the inescapable market cycles happen. By and large, in the event that you have a more drawn out venture time skyline, you ought to will to expect a more noteworthy measure of risk, on the grounds that there will be more opportunity for the market to work through the here and there cycles. Generally, understanding financial specialists have been compensated with positive long haul returns.

New investors are regularly encouraged to put fundamentally in common money, which can give moment enhancement, offering the most ideal approach to lessen risk. By putting resources into a couple of various shared assets speaking to various resource classes, (for example, expansive development stocks, global stocks or bonds), you can lessen unpredictability significantly promote without yielding long haul returns.

On the off chance that you are beginning an investment program by investing incremental measures of cash on a month to month basis, you will profit by dollar cost averaging. When you invest an altered measure of cash on a month to month premise, you get some share costs at a higher cost and some at a lower cost because of market changes. At the point when the market decreases, your settled dollar sum will purchase more shares. After some time, the normal cost of your shares ought to be lower than the present market cost. By utilizing dollar cost averaging, your drawback risk will be alleviated after some time.

What Is My Investment Goal?

The most vital question to consider before making any invest is, “What Is My Investment Goal?” Your ventures will contrast boundlessly if, for instance, you are attempting to spare cash for retirement as opposed to attempting to spare cash for an up front installment on the house. Things being what they are, ask yourself, “Is this venture prone to help me meet my objective?”

What Is My Risk Tolerance?

If your investment objective is to profit as would be prudent and you can endure any hazard, then you ought to invest in the National Lottery. Putting resources into lotteries, be that as it may, practically promises you won’t achieve your venture objective. There are speculations for each level of risk resilience. But if you are not a high-risk taker, investing in long-term investment is the key.

What Happens if This Investment Goes to Zero?

Among the 12 stocks in 1896 stock list, only General Electric is still in operation, the other eleven firms in the first record have either gone bankrupt or have been gobbled up. There is a genuine plausibility that any investment you make could go to zero while you claim it. Ask yourself, “Will I be monetarily crushed if this speculation goes to zero?” If the answer is yes, don’t make that venture.

What Is My Investment Time Frame?

As a rule, the more extended your investment time allotment, the more risk you can take in your investment portfolio since you have more opportunity to recuperate from a mix-up. Likewise, in case you’re putting something aside for retirement, and you’re decades from resigning, putting resources into something illiquid (like an investment property) may bode well. “Does this venture bode well from a planning perspective?”

When and Why Will I Sell This Investment?

If you know why you are putting resources into something, you ought to have an entirely smart thought of when to sell it. On the off chance that you purchased a stock since you were expecting 20 percent income development for each year, you ought to anticipate offering the stock if income development doesn’t live up to your desires. On the off chance that you purchased a stock since you enjoyed the dividend yield, offer the stock if the profit yield falls.

Who Am I Investing With?

It is extremely hard to judge the character and capacity of anybody in light of a two-passage portrayal accessible in an organization’s yearly report or a common store outline. However, you ought to at any rate know with whom you are entrusting your money. What is their past record? Things to hope for are long fruitful track records and good dividend and turnover.

Do I Have Special Knowledge?

A celebrated investment expert feels that normal individuals have a tremendous favorable position over investment experts in fields where they work in light of the fact that no investment professional will ever know more around an industry than somebody who works in it. Ask yourself, “Am I putting resources into something I know something about, or am I putting resources into something that some specialist know something about?”

I couldn’t care less how great something sounds. In the event that I don’t totally see how it functions, I won’t put resources into it.

In the event that an investment can’t be clarified obviously, it implies one of two things:

The individual clarifying it doesn’t comprehend it either, or there’s something about the investment that the individual is attempting to stow away.

On top of that, one of the greatest keys to investing admirably is adhering to your arrangement through the good and bad times.

That is difficult. Indeed, even the best investment methodologies have enormous down periods that make you reconsider. Adhering to your arrangement in those extreme times requires a practically religious-like conviction that things will pivot.

Furthermore, the best way to have that sort of conviction is to comprehend why you’re investing the way you are and what every bit of your arrangement is accomplishing for you. Without a solid comprehension, you’ll more likely than not safeguard at the main indication of inconvenience.

Why Do I Still Own That Investment?

It is a smart thought to intermittently look through your investment portfolio to ensure regardless you need to claim your stock. Offering an investment for a misfortune or offering a major champ is exceptionally troublesome. Be that as it may, the greatest distinction amongst beginner and professional investors is that professional investors don’t have passionate ensnarement with their investment and can strip themselves of their investment without kicking themselves if the investment keeps on picking up esteem.

Should I Be Managing My Own Investments?

It is extremely difficult for beginner investor to perform well than a professional investment expert. If you don’t have sufficient energy or slant to deal with your investment, you ought to think about paying an expert to do it for you. Every investor wants to make profit, so there is no harm in trusting your investment in good hand.

Forestry Investments – Past Performance and Investment Options

Investors looking to diversify their portfolios and insure their wealth against the ravages of volatility in traditional markets, will most likely have come across a range forestry investments, promising to generate superior inflation-adjusted and risk-adjusted returns for the long-term investor.

But how have timber investments performed? And how does the smaller investor participate in this interesting alternative investment asset class?

Firstly let’s look at the past performance of forestry investments, as measured by one of the main timber investment indices, the NCREIF Timberland Index; according to this basic measure of investment returns in the sector, this asset class outperformed the S&P500 by some 37 per cent in the 20 years between 1987 and 2007. When stocks delivered average annual returns of 11.5 per cent, forestry investments returned 15.8 per cent.

At the same time, returns from investing in timberland and woodlands have been proven to display a much lower volatility, an attractive characteristic for today’s investor.

Previously, the majority of investment returns from forestry investments have been mopped up by larger, institutional investors such as pension funds, insurance companies and university endowments, who have collectively placed over $40 billion into timber investments in the past decade.

So on to the second question; how do smaller investors participate in this kind of alternative investment?

According to a study by Professor John Caulfield of the University of Georgia, returns from forestry investments are three-fold;

An increase in timber volume (biological growth of trees), which accounts for some 61 per cent of return on investment.
Land price appreciation, accounting for only 6 per cent of future returns.
Increase in timber prices per unit, delivering the final 33 per cent of investment returns for timber land owners.

So the best way to harness the performance of timber investments is to take ownership of trees, either directly, or through one of the array of forestry investment funds or other structures.

Timber REITs

One way for smaller investor to participate in timber investments is through a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT). These investment structures are like funds, in that investors can buy and sell shares in the trust on an exchange, the REIT acquires and manages timber investment properties, but unlike normal companies must pay out 90 per cent of their earnings to investors through dividends.

Some examples of Timber REITs are:

Plum Creek Timber is the largest private owner of timberland in the U.S. and the largest timber REIT with a market cap of about $5.6 billion, many investors have chosen this as their route into forestry investments.

Potlatch is also a timber investment REIT while

Rayonier generates about a 30 per cent of its REIT earnings from timber.

Weyerhaeuser has disposed of its paper and packaging businesses and will convert to a REIT by year end.

The Wells Timberland REIT is not publicly listed but may be available for purchase through Wells Real Estate Funds.

Another way for smaller investors to add forestry investments to their portfolios is to buy Exchange Traded Funds that attempt to track the performance of timber returns. This is less direct than owing timberland, or investing in a timber REIT, as the ETF may also invest in shares in companies involved in the timber supply chain including processors and distributors. This means that investing in forestry through ETFs exposes the investor to some of the volatility of equity markets.

The Guggenheim Timber ETF owns about 25 stocks and REITs involved in the global timber and paper products industry with a 30% weighting to U.S. companies.

The S&P Global Timber & Forestry Index Fund holds 23 securities and is 47 per cent invested in the U.S.

Timber Investment Management Organisations (TIMO)

Those with more capital to spare can participate in forestry investments through TIMOs, although the majority of these investment specialists require a minimum investment of $1 million to $5 million and a commitment to tie up funds for up to 15 years. TIMOs essentially trade timber land assets, acquiring suitable properties, managing them to maximise returns for investors, the disposing of them and distributing profits to shareholders.

Many experts believe that the active management style of TIMOs ensures that they can be more reactive to market conditions than REITs, and therefore don’t tend to fall and rise in line with the market quite as much.

Direct Forestry Investments

Those with access to sufficient capital and the appropriate expert advice can invest in physical properties. Commercial timber plantations are complex operations that require skill, knowledge and expertise to manage effectively and maximise returns whilst lowering risk.

For armchair investors, or those with less capital to spare, many companies offer investors the opportunity to purchase or lease a small portion or plot within a larger, professionally managed timber plantation. Investors normally take ownership of their plot and trees via leasehold, whilst the timber investment company plants, manages and often harvest the trees on behalf of the investor.

Options for investors range from species to species and region to region, with current opportunities in Brazil, Panama, Costa Rica, Germany, Nicaragua and other, more exotic locations like Fiji.

Investors should be wary as many of these direct forestry investments are frontloaded with enormous commissions for salesmen and promoters, with many offering ‘agents’ up to 30 per cent commission for the sale of plots to investors, and in many cases, no due diligence even exits.

In some cases, the Author has seen forestry investment plots in Brazil packaged and sold to investors for over £100,000 per hectare. Investor should seek advice from an independent consultant with experience of this alternative investment asset class, and who is able to present a complete suite of due diligence material, including an independent valuation of the forestry investment property on offer.

A New Way to Invest in Property

The two most frequently asked questions by investors are:

What investment should I buy?
Is now the right time to buy it?

Most people want to know how to spot the right investment at the right time, because they believe that is the key to successful investing. Let me tell you that is far from the truth: even if you could get the answers to those questions right, you would only have a 50% chance to make your investment successful. Let me explain.

There are two key influencers that can lead to the success or failure of any investment:

External factors: these are the markets and investment performance in general. For example:
The likely performance of that particular investment over time;
Whether that market will go up or down, and when it will change from one direction to another.
Internal factors: these are the investor’s own preference, experience and capacity. For example:
Which investment you have more affinity with and have a track record of making good money in;
What capacity you have to hold on to an investment during bad times;
What tax advantages do you have which can help manage cash flow;
What level of risk you can tolerate without tending to make panic decisions.

When we are looking at any particular investment, we can’t simply look at the charts or research reports to decide what to invest and when to invest, we need to look at ourselves and find out what works for us as an individual.

Let’s look at a few examples to demonstrate my viewpoint here. These can show you why investment theories often don’t work in real life because they are an analysis of the external factors, and investors can usually make or break these theories themselves due to their individual differences (i.e. internal factors).

Example 1: Pick the best investment at the time.

Most investment advisors I have seen make an assumption that if the investment performs well, then any investor can definitely make good money out of it. In other words, the external factors alone determine the return.

I beg to differ. Consider these for example:

Have you ever heard of an instance where two property investors bought identical properties side by side in the same street at the same time? One makes good money in rent with a good tenant and sells it at a good profit later; the other has much lower rent with a bad tenant and sells it at a loss later. They can be both using the same property management agent, the same selling agent, the same bank for finance, and getting the same advice from the same investment advisor.

You may have also seen share investors who bought the same shares at the same time, one is forced to sell theirs at a loss due to personal circumstances and the other sells them for a profit at a better time.

I have even seen the same builder building 5 identical houses side by side for 5 investors. One took 6 months longer to build than the other 4, and he ended up having to sell it at the wrong time due to personal cash flow pressures whereas others are doing much better financially.

What is the sole difference in the above cases? The investors themselves (i.e. the internal factors).

Over the years I have reviewed the financial positions of a few thousand investors personally. When people ask me what investment they should get into at any particular moment, they expect me to compare shares, properties, and other asset classes to advise them how to allocate their money.

My answer to them is to always ask them to go back over their track record first. I would ask them to list down all the investments they have ever made: cash, shares, options, futures, properties, property development, property renovation, etc. and ask them to tell me which one made them the most money and which one didn’t. Then I suggest to them to stick to the winners and cut the losers. In other words, I tell them to invest more in what has made them good money in the past and stop investing in what has not made them any money in the past (assuming their money will get a 5% return per year sitting in the bank, they need to at least beat that when doing the comparison).

If you take time to do that exercise for yourself, you will very quickly discover your favourite investment to invest in, so that you can concentrate your resources on getting the best return rather than allocating any of them to the losers.

You may ask for my rationale in choosing investments this way rather than looking at the theories of diversification or portfolio management, like most others do. I simply believe the law of nature governs many things beyond our scientific understanding; and it is not smart to go against the law of nature.

For example, have you ever noticed that sardines swim together in the ocean? And similarly so do the sharks. In a natural forest, similar trees grow together too. This is the idea that similar things attract each other as they have affinity with each other.

You can look around at the people you know. The people you like to spend more time with are probably people who are in some ways similar to you.

It seems that there is a law of affinity at work that says that similar things beget similar things; whether they are animals, trees, rocks or humans. Why do you think there would be any difference between an investor and their investments?

So in my opinion, the question is not necessarily about which investment works. Rather it is about which investment works for you.

If you have affinity with properties, properties are likely to be attracted to you. If you have affinity with shares, shares are likely to be attracted to you. If you have affinity with good cash flow, good cash flow is likely to be attracted to you. If you have affinity with good capital gain, good capital growth is likely to be attracted to you (but not necessary good cash flow ).

You can improve your affinity with anything to a degree by spending more time and effort on it, but there are things that you naturally have affinity with. These are the things you should go with as they are effortless for you. Can you imagine the effort required for a shark to work on himself to become sardine-like or vice versa?

One of the reasons why our company has spent a lot of time lately to work on our client’s cash flow management, is because if our clients have low affinity with their own family cash flow, they are unlikely to have good cash flow with their investment properties. Remember, it is a natural law that similar things beget similar things. Investors who have poor cash flow management at home, usually end up with investments (or businesses) with poor cash flow.

Have you ever wondered why the world’s greatest investors, such as Warren Buffet, tend only to invest in a few very concentrated areas they have great affinity with? While he has more money than most of us and could afford to diversify into many different things, he sticks to only the few things that he has successfully made his money from in the past and cut off the ones which didn’t (such as the airline business).

What if you haven’t done any investing and you have no track record to go by? In this case I would suggest you first look at your parents’ track record in investing. The chances are you are somehow similar to your parents (even when you don’t like to admit it ). If you think your parents never invested in anything successfully, then look at whether they have done well with their family home. Alternatively you will need to do your own testing to find out what works for you.

Obviously there will be exceptions to this rule. Ultimately your results will be the only judge for what investment works for you.

Example 2: Picking the bottom of the market to invest.

When the news in any market is not positive, many investors automatically go into a “waiting mode”. What are they waiting for? The market to bottom out! This is because they believe investing is about buying low and selling high – pretty simple right? But why do most people fail to do even that?

Here are a few reasons:

When investors have the money to invest safely in a market, that market may not be at its bottom yet, so they choose to wait. By the time the market hits the bottom; their money has already been taken up by other things, as money rarely sits still. If it is not going to some sort of investment, it will tend to go to expenses or other silly things such as get-rich-quick scheme, repairs and other “life dramas”.

Investors who are used to waiting for when the market is not very positive before they act are usually driven either by a fear of losing money or the greed of gaining more. Let’s look at the impact of each of them:

If their behaviour was due to the fear of losing money, they are less likely to get into the market when it hits rock bottom as you can imagine how bad the news would be then. If they couldn’t act when the news was less negative, how do you expect them to have the courage to act when it is really negative? So usually they miss out on the bottom anyway.

If their behaviour was driven by the greed of hoping to make more money on the way up when it reaches the bottom, they are more likely to find other “get-rich-quick schemes” to put their money in before the market hits the bottom, by the time the market hits the bottom, their money won’t be around to invest. Hence you would notice that the get-rich-quick schemes are usually heavily promoted during a time of negative market sentiment as they can easily capture money from this type of investor.

Very often, something negative begets something else negative. People who are fearful to get into the market when their capacity allows them to do so, will spend most of their time looking at all the bad news to confirm their decision. Not only they will miss the bottom, but they are likely to also miss the opportunities on the way up as well, because they see any market upward movement as a preparation for a further and bigger dive the next day.

Hence it is my observation that most people who are too fearful or too greedy to get into the market during a slow market have rarely been able to benefit financially from waiting. They usually end up getting into the market after it has had its bull run for far too long when there is very little negative news left. But that is actually often the time when things are over-valued, so they get into the market then, and get slaughtered on the way down.

So my advice to our clients is to first start from your internal factors, check your own track records and financial viability to invest. Decide whether you are in a position to invest safely, regardless of the external factors (i.e. the market):

If the answer is yes, then go to the market and find the best value you can find at that time;
If the answer is no, then wait.

Unfortunately, most investors do it the other way around. They tend to let the market (an external factor) decide what they should do, regardless of their own situation, and they end up wasting time and resources within their capacity.

I hope, from the above 2 examples, that you can see that investing is not necessarily about picking the right investment and the right market timing, but it is more about picking the investment that works for you and sticking to your own investment timetable, within your own capacity.

A new way to invest in properties

During a consultation last month with a client who has been with us for 6 years, I suddenly realised they didn’t know anything about our Property Advisory Service which has been around since April 2010. I thought I’d better fix this oversight and explain what it is and why it is unique and unprecedented in Australia.

But before I do, I would like to give you some data you simply don’t get from investment books and seminars, so you can see where I am coming from.

Over the last 10 years of running a mortgage business for property investors:

We have executed more than 7,000 individual investment mortgages with around 60 different lenders;
Myself and our mortgage team have reviewed the financial positions of approximately 6,000 individual property investors and developers;
I have enjoyed privileged access to vital data including the original purchase price, value of property improvements and the current valuation of close to 30,000 individual investment properties all around Australia from our considerable client base.

When you have such a large sample size to do your research on and make observations, you are bound to discover something unknown to most people.

I have discovered many things that may surprise you as much as they surprised me, some of which are against conventional wisdom:

Paying more tax can be financially good for you.

This one took me years to swallow, but I can’t deny the facts. The clients who have managed to get into a positive cashflow position have paid a lot of tax and will continue to pay a lot of tax, whether it is capital gains, income tax or stamp duty. They don’t have an issue with the tax man making some money as long as they continue to make more themselves! They regularly cash in the profits from their properties and reduce their debt, but always continue to invest and park their money where the return is best. In fact, I can almost say that the only people who enjoy positive cashflow from their investment properties are the people who have little concern about paying taxes as they treat them as the cost of doing business.

Just about every property strategy works. It just depends on who does it, how it is done, when it is done and where it is done.

When I first started investing, I went and read many property investment books and attended many investment educational seminars. Just about every one of them was convincing and this confused the hell out of me. Just when I was about to form an opinion against a particular property strategy, someone would show up in one of my client consultations and prove that it worked for them!

After testing many of these strategies myself, I came to realise that it is not about the strategy,(which is only a tool) but rather it is about whether the person is using the tool appropriately at the right time, in the right place and in the right way.

There is no such thing as the best suburb to invest in, forever.

If you randomly pick a particular property in what you think is the best suburb over a 30 year window, you will find that there are periods during which this property will outperform the market average, and there are periods when this property will underperform the market average.

Many property investors find themselves jumping into historically high growth suburbs at the end of the period when it is outperforming the average, and then stay there for 5-7 years during the underperforming period. (Naturally this can taint their view of property investing as a whole!)

There is no such thing as the worst suburb to invest in, forever.

If you pick a property in the worst suburb you can think of from 40 years ago, and pitch that against the best suburb you can think of over the same period of time, you will find they both grew at about 7-9% a year on average over the long-term.

Hence in the 1960s, a median house in Melbourne and Sydney was valued at $10k. The worst property around that time may have been 30% of the median price for then, which was say about $3k. Today, the median house price in these cities is about $600k. The worst suburb you can find is still around 30% of that price which is say $200k a house. If you believe a bad suburb will never grow, then show me where you can find a house today in these cities, that is still worth around $3k.

Median Price growth is very misleading.

Many beginner property investors look at median price growth as the guidance for suburb selection. A few points worth mentioning on median price are:

We understand the way median price is calculated as the middle price point based on the number of sales during a period. We can talk about the median price for a particular suburb on a particular day, week, month, year, or even longer. So an influx of new stocks or low sales volume can severely distort the median price.

In an older suburb, median price growth tends to be higher than it really is. This is because it does not reflect the large sum of money people put into renovating their properties nor does it reflect the subdivision of large blocks of land into multiple dwellings which can be a substantial percentage of the entire suburb.

In a newer suburb, median price growth tend to be lower than it really is. This is because it does not reflect the fact that the land and buildings are both getting smaller. For example, you could buy a block of land of 650 square metres for $120k in 2006 in a newer suburb of Melbourne, but 5 years later, half the size block (i.e.325 square metres) will cost you $260k. That’s a whopping 34% annual growth rate per year for 5 years, but median price growth will never reflect that, as median prices today are calculated on much smaller properties.

Median price growth takes away people’s focus from looking at the cost of carrying the property. When you have a net 2-3% rental yield against interest rates of 7-8%, you are out-of-pocket by 5% a year. This is not including the money you have to put in to fix and maintain your property from time to time.

Buying and holding the same property forever doesn’t give you the best returns on your money.

The longer you hold a property, the more likely you will achieve an average growth of 7-9%. But you will be bound to hit periods where your property outperforms the 7-9% growth and periods where it under performs the 7-9% growth.

The longer you hold a property, if its growth is at or above average, the lower its rental yields will become.

The longer you hold a property, the higher the capital gains tax you will need to pay when you sell, and the less likely you will be able to sell it.

The longer you hold a property, the more likely there will be a need for an expensive upgrade of the property.

The longer you hold a property, the more likely you will forget which part of the equity actually belongs to the tax man, AND the more likely you will be to try to leverage the equity that doesn’t belong to you. This can get you into a negative equity position with a negative cashflow forever, unless you have proper financial guidance.

Passive Investment Income

What are some ways a person can generate passive investment income? There are a number of ideas about it. Everyone has his own ideas about which one can be a passive investment income. We should have our own choice of investment. The wealthy, the marginalized, and the middle class people differ in their own preferences about investing their money. Now, let’s compare ways and opportunities according to some considerations such as safety, profitability, and also liquidity.

Safety means that your investment and the income are stable. The money that you invest could be prone to the changing market condition, economic slowdown, and social unrest. The point is that your passive investment income should always be there. In that case, it is safe to invest.

On the other hand, profitability is what we usually consider when we invest. We are supposed to believe that what is profitable is ideal. That’s right. But is it risky? Is my money stuck? Obviously, everyone would go for whatever gives them profit. Whenever we consider gains, the highest amount is always the best passive investment income. What we should consider here should not have been about the top gainers only. It’s should also be the safer ones.

Another significant factor that must be considered is liquidity. Let us suppose that we earn very attractively from our safe investment. What does that mean to us anyway? When you are ready to use your fund because you really need it and that’s the reason why you invested, is it possible to convert it to cash now? If there is no liquidity, our passive investment income is only an imagination. You would become wealthy only in your dreams. Liquidity is not only about the comfort of making a withdrawal. It is also about how smooth it is to invest.

Now, here are three kinds of investment we may consider whether which passive investment income is better for us. So, let’s talk about three kinds of portfolios such as business, stocks, and real estate.

Business is a personal activity that deals with economic factors that determines future gains. It is the chemistry of work and investment. This means that a businessman does not only wait for passive income, he should also work for it. Therefore, it is an active income and at the same time passive.

In the aspect of safety, business is not that safe. It is exposed to economic cycle. Businesses are under the supply and demand law. If the demand for their goods has been increasing, the price will also increase, and so will the supply. As time goes by, the demand will influence the supply to increase more. So if the supply is much greater, it will then influence the price to decrease. Consequently, businesses are getting more unstable and their future is turning gray. But, businesses may also get more resilient. As this type of investment is a little active, the active control of a businessman can manage a worse situation. Therefore, these two characters of investment regulate the cycle. Because of this, business becomes good. It is definitely a good example of passive investment income when it comes to safety.

In stock market, it’s the other way around. Safety is a very controversial issue here. Obviously, the risk involved here is very high. But the potential return is high, too. Passive investment income is more common in stock trading. Therefore, your income here is not the product of your active participation in the company. It is the product of your decision.

In the area of real estate, the lesser amount you invest, the safer it is. The bigger the investment you have, the riskier it becomes. But land alone is considerably not risky. The reason why real estate becomes a little risky is because the cost of structural materials is getting higher. Structural materials are also subject to the law of supply and demand. So, if we only rely on land for passive investment income by renting it out, our passive income will not be affected by any price fluctuation. Aside from that, structures depreciate over a period of time. Therefore, investing in real estate can be risky or safe depending on the kind.

In terms of profit, it is more attractive in business. In some businesses, you have to spend time before you earn regularly. Usually, the profit is negative especially if they are just beginning to operate. They should promote their brands and strengthen themselves in the market. When the consumers buy their goods, passive investment income begins. On the other hand, other businesses are doing well in the beginning of the operation. During the first stage, their sales shoot up. Subsequently, they grow very early. As time goes by, consumers get sick and tired of their goods. Consequently, these businesses reduce their passive income. Nevertheless, what is nice about business is the resilience to catch up with the competition. In business, the consistency of income is stable. One more advantage in business regarding this is the petty cash. Passive investment income in business need not come after a fixed cycle like that in stocks. There is always readily available petty cash.

On one hand, profit potential in stock investing is definitely high. As the character of stocks is risky, risk appetite causes the value of stocks to go up quickly. On the other hand, risk aversion and profit taking in the intraday trading can cause the value of stocks to go down quickly, too. Risk management in the stock market depends on the traders. Speculators enjoy their passive investment income from the price volatility while non-aggressive traders and investors get their passive investment income from dividends. Therefore, we can’t rule out the risk nature of stocks. When we gauge the balance between the energy we exert and the profit we earn, investing in stocks could be the most attractive one. We must not forget that passive investment income is an income that we could get without extra effort. If stock market really offers this potential, it must be a better option for passive investment income.

In real estate, how can we have a passive investment income? There is no doubt that one may enjoy his passive investment income in real estate without extra effort. The point is whether or not the ratio of profit is balanced with the investment. Surely, we can gain in real estate primarily because the usual investment is big as well. But always remember that you should pay the capital gains tax annually. This might explain why landlords do not solely rely on renting out their lots. Hence, land is usually developed to optimize the gains. Regarding the actual amount of gains, real estate could guarantee a better passive investment income. Therefore, we should really consider the ROI.

In terms of liquidity, it is somewhat less in business. Of course, liquidity still exists. However, much time is spent to put up a business, to start gaining, and even the time it takes to stop operating. Although the period of time executing all these can be determined according to a business plan, the process is still slower depending on the kind of business. Retail businesses are quite liquid whereas manufacturing industries are not.

Among the common types of investments known to many, investment in stocks is the most liquid one. You can open and close an investment account at your convenience. Moreover, you may select any available stock you wish to invest in. If you wish to have exposure in stock market, to take profit, or to pull out your investment, it won’t take that long. You may do so at any given time wherever you may be.

On the contrary, liquidity is a big problem in real estate. In business, there are still ways to determine it, but hardly in real estate. Usually, it is like a game of chance to sell even a small house and lot. Thus, investing in real estate, earning passive income, and even pulling out your investment will never occur overnight. It won’t matter if it doesn’t affect productivity. For instance, you have found a better opportunity that needs quick decision. Then, you think it best to change your existing investment into such a new one. Perhaps, before you are able to pull out your investment from real estate, your commitment to others will have already been canceled. In similar case, you might get stuck.

These are some ways a person can generate passive investment income. Whether you wish to invest in stocks, real estate, or business, you can always find an opportunity to generate passive investment income.

Ease Into the World of Investing

The United Nations does it. Governments do it. Companies do it. Fund managers do it. Millions of ordinary working people – from business owners to factory workers – do it. Housewives do it. Even farmers and children do it.

‘It’ here is investing: the science and art of creating, protecting and enhancing your wealth in the financial markets. This article introduces some of the most important concerns in the world of investment.

Let’s start with your objectives. While clearly the goal is to make more money, there are 3 specific reasons institutions, professionals and retail investors (people like you and me) invest:

For Security, ie for protection against inflation or market crashes
For Income, ie to receive regular income from their investments
For Growth, ie for long-term growth in the value of their investments

Investments are generally structured to focus on one or other of these objectives, and investment professionals (such as fund managers) spend a lot of time balancing these competing objectives. With a little bit of education and time, you can do almost the same thing yourself.

One of the first questions to ask yourself is how much risk you’re comfortable with. To put it more plainly: how much money are you prepared to lose? Your risk tolerance level depends on your personality, experiences, number of dependents, age, level of financial knowledge and several other factors. Investment advisors measure your risk tolerance level so they can classify you by risk profile (eg, ‘Conservative’, ‘Moderate’, ‘Aggressive’) and recommend the appropriate investment portfolio (explained below).

However, understanding your personal risk tolerance level is necessary for you too, especially with something as important as your own money. Your investments should be a source of comfort, not pain. Nobody can guarantee you’ll make a profit; even the most sensible investment decisions can turn against you; there are always ‘good years’ and ‘bad years’. You may lose part or all of your investment so always invest only what you are prepared to lose.

At some point you’ll want to withdraw some or all of your investment funds. When is that point likely to be: in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years or 25 years? Clearly, you’ll want an investment that allows you to withdraw at least part of your funds at this point. Your investment timeframe – short-term, medium-term or long-term – will often determine what kinds of investments you can go for and what kinds of returns to expect.

All investments involve a degree of risk. One of the ‘golden rules’ of investing is that reward is related to risk: the higher the reward you want, the higher the risk you have to take. Different investments can come with very different levels of risk (and associated reward); it’s important that you appreciate the risks associated with any investment you’re planning to make. There’s no such thing as a risk-free investment, and your bank deposits are no exception. Firstly, while Singapore bank deposits are rightly considered very safe, banks in other countries have failed before and continue to fail. More importantly, in 2010 the highest interest rate on Singapore dollar deposits up to $10,000 was 0.375%, while the average inflation rate from Jan-Nov 2010 was 2.66%. You were losing money just by leaving your savings in the bank.

Today, there are many, many types of investments (‘asset classes’) available. Some – such as bank deposits, stocks (shares) and unit trusts – you’re already familiar with, but there are several others you should be aware of. Some of the most common ones:

Bank Deposits
Shares
Investment-Linked Product1
Unit Trusts2
ETFs3
Gold4

1 An Investment-Linked Product (ILP) is an insurance plan that combines protection and investment. ILPs main advantage is that they offer life insurance.

2 A Unit Trust is a pool of money professionally managed according to a specific, long-term management objective (eg, a unit trust may invest in well-known companies all over the world to try to provide a balance of high returns and diversification). The main advantage of unit trusts is that you don’t have to pay brokers’ commissions.

3 An ETF or Exchange-Traded Fund comes in many different forms: for example, there are equity ETFs that hold, or track the performance of, a basket of stocks (eg Singapore, emerging economies); commodity ETFs that hold, or track the price of, a single commodity or basket of commodities (eg Silver, metals); and currency ETFs that track a major currency or basket of currencies (eg Euro). ETFs offer two main advantages: they trade like shares (on stock exchanges such as the SGX) and typically come with very low management fees.

The main difference between ETFs and Unit Trusts is that ETFs are publicly-traded assets while Unit Trusts are privately-traded assets, meaning that you can buy and sell them yourself anytime during market hours.

4 ‘Gold’ here refers to gold bullion, certificates of ownership or gold savings accounts. However, note that you can invest in gold in many other ways, including gold ETFs, gold Unit Trusts; and shares in gold mining companies.

With the advent of the Internet and online brokers, there are so many investment alternatives available today that even a beginner investor with $5,000 to invest can find several investment options suited to her objectives, risk profile and timeframe.

Diversification basically means trying to reduce risk by making a variety of investments, ie investing your money in multiple companies, industries and countries (and as your financial knowledge and wealth grows, in different ‘asset classes’ – cash, stocks, ETFs, commodities such as gold and silver, etc). This collection of investments is termed your Investment Portfolio.

Some level of diversification is important because in times of crisis, similar investments tend to behave similarly. Two of the best examples in recent history are the Singapore stock market crashes of late-2008/early-2009, during the US ‘Subprime’ crisis, and 1997, during the ‘Asian Financial Crisis’, when the price of large numbers of stocks plunged. ‘Diversifying’ by investing in different stocks wouldn’t have helped you very much on these occasions.

The concept and power of compounding are best explained by example. Assume we have 3 investments: the first returns 0.25% a year; the second returns 5% a year; and the third returns 10% a year. For each investment, we compare 2 scenarios:

Without compounding, ie the annual interest is taken out of the account.
With compounding, ie the annual interest is left (re-invested) in the account.

Let’s look at the returns over 25 years for all 3 investments, assuming we start off with $10,000 in Year 0:

With 0.25% return a year, your investment will grow to $10,625 after 25 years without compounding; your investment becomes $10,644 after 25 years with compounding.

With 5% return a year, your investment will grow to $22,500 after 25 years without compounding; your investment becomes $33,864 after 25 years with compounding.

With 10% return a year, your investment will grow to $35,000 after 25 years without compounding; your investment becomes $108,347 after 25 years with compounding.

This shows the dramatic effects of both higher returns and compounding: 10% annual returns coupled with 25 years of compounding will return you more than 10 times your initial investment. And 10% returns are by no means unrealistic: educated investors who actively manage their portfolio themselves and practise diversification can achieve even higher returns, even with some losing years.

People of all ages and backgrounds need practical and customised guidance in developing their financial knowledge and skills in order to reach their financial goals. In this article we’ve tried to describe in simple terms some of the most important concepts and principles you need to understand on this journey.