4 Reasons Why You Need to Start Investing Today

4 Reasons Why You Need to Start Investing Today
If you have money that is lying around and not making much
in the way of interest, there are other ways that are more
profitable. By investing your money now, you can have much
more later - when you may really need it. Here are 4
reasons why you need to start investing your money today.

Increase Your Profit Now

If you have your money in a savings account only earning 1
or 2 percent, that really is not bringing in much profit
for you. When you consider that other forms of investment
could bring in a much higher percentage, then it is
actually like throwing money away that your money could be
earning now.

Various forms of investments will certainly bring you more
interest. You will need to decide what level of risk you
want to take with your investment money. It will range from
low risk such as with bonds, all the way up to high risk
with certain volatile stocks. By diversifying your
investment portfolio, however, you can set aside portions
of your investment money for different levels of risk, and
keep a rather good balance on the profit - depending on
your risk level.

Save for Retirement

If you are still young enough, you have time to make some
solid investments that would enable you to retire at a
decent age. It does depend, of course, on just how much you
have to invest, and how it is invested.

The sooner you start, though, the more interest and profit
can be gained from investing if you follow wise investment
strategies. If you do not know how to invest, seek the help
of someone who does. Professional financial investors are
readily available and may even be able to manage your
investment portfolio for you.

Do not forget that money earned for retirement could also
get in the way of getting Medicaid when you might need it.
There are ways to handle your assets beforehand but you
will certainly need to know what they are in advance of
actually reaching your retirement years.

Build A Legacy

If you start soon enough, you may be able to take some of
your hard-earned money and pass it on to future generations
in your family. Wealth can make a real difference in the
lives of your heirs and a good investment plan can help you
make that difference. Just do not forget to use some good
estate planning to ensure that the taxman will not get
about half of your estate.

As you start to consider investing, you certainly want to
get started by making wise decisions. A lot of mistakes can
be made in investing resulting in a lot of money being lost
unnecessarily. You need to read up on investment techniques
and how to plan a balanced portfolio. Another choice would
be to go to a financial planner and get good advice from
him or her concerning how to get started. Some of them may
even be able to manage your portfolio for you and ensure
that your money is being put to good investments which
means making a good amount of profit for you.

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Learn the investment strategies used by many wealthy people
to ensure their own futures, visit our website and request
your free DVD of a 3 hour seminars with Self Made
Millionaire Jamie McIntyre, visit
http://www.stockmarketaustralia.com.au

Small Business Accounting Software Is Simple Bookkeeping Spreadsheets

Small Business Accounting Software Is Simple Bookkeeping Spreadsheets
Accounting software is used by accountants to enter many
complex financial transactions into the financial books of
account and is almost invariably based upon double entry
bookkeeping principles. A major advantage to those
companies and the finance staff is the extent to which
financial information contained in the database can be
queried for financial control purposes.

An accountant needs to not only ensure the financial
records are accurate but also retrieve any part of the
accounting records to answer accounting questions on the
accounts, provide a legal basis for the transactions and
report the financial statements at regular periodic
intervals.

The small business has different accounting needs which are
better described as bookkeeping than accounting. For non
limited companies that do not need to produce a balance
sheet then a simple income and expenditure account can be
produced much simpler using single entry bookkeeping
principles.

Less financial control is often required from small
business accounting software as the bookkeeper is often the
owner manager who already has an intimate knowledge of each
transaction. Books are still required for tax purposes and
a solid requirement of preparing a set of financial books
for tax purposes is that each entry is supported by third
party evidence.

Examples of third party evidence would be sales invoices,
purchases invoices and bank statements. Financial
transactions where no receipt exists can still be entered
in the business books although all transactions not
carrying third party evidence could subsequently be
disallowed for tax purposes and certainly would be if the
amounts entered indicated unusual income or expenditure.

Producing an income and expenditure statement using single
entry bookkeeping is little more than making two lists of
financial transactions. Those lists being one of sales
income received from sales invoices or receipts issued to
customers and the other of purchase expenditure being from
purchase invoices received from suppliers.

To record sales income it would not normally be sufficient
to simply add up the total of the invoices as such a
summation does not leave an audit trail of the items which
have been included. A written list of sales invoices does
provide an audit trail.

Sales accounting for a small business accounting purposes
can be either a manual list of the sales invoices or by
using a spreadsheet package a list can be made on a
bookkeeping spreadsheet. Using a spreadsheet for the
bookkeeping has advantages as simple formula can be used to
add up the column totals.

The essential information to enter for a sales invoice
would be the date of the sale, name of the customer, sales
invoice number if applicable and optional a brief
description of the item sold. In the next column would be
the total sales invoice amount. If items like value added
tax are required to be accounted for then an additional
column would be required to accommodate the vat or sales
tax accounting.

A further small complication might be if at the discretion
of the small business owner additional information was
required from the bookkeeping records to indicate the
totals of the different types of products and services then
additional columns could be incorporated to enter the net
sales figures in these columns.

There it is then, a simple list of sales invoices to
satisfy the sales accounting requirements for a small
business where a balance sheet is not required.

On the expenditure side of the business the bookkeeping can
also be a simple list of the purchase invoices and receipts
showing the amount spent. The list should also produce an
audit trail by showing the date of the purchase invoice,
name of the supplier, purchase invoice for identification
purposes and the total amount spent.

Usually tax returns are the main purpose of producing small
business accounts and invariably some analysis is required
to show what the expenses have been spent on. That is not
difficult to achieve and as with the sales accounting the
owner manager can add additional standard columns to the
bookkeeping spreadsheet.

The expenditure analysis columns do not need to be a
different column for each type of expenditure. It is better
to set up and group the analysis columns in general
headings which can accommodate all the expenses.

Such columns may include stock, other direct costs,
premises costs, general administrative costs, transport and
delivery costs, repairs and maintenance, travelling and
hotel costs, motor costs, bank and legal costs and other
expenses. It is better not to enter too many items under a
general heading of other expenses as this is more likely to
be investigated as the type of expense has not been
precisely identified.

One important column to also include is for asset purchases
as fixed assets usually have different tax rules applying
to the claim of the expense against tax and should be
separated from other expenditure.

Having set up two bookkeeping spreadsheets the task is then
to produce the income and expenditure account by collecting
the totals of each of the analysis columns. The sales total
is the sales turnover from which is deducted the totals of
each of the expenditure classification totals with the
result being the net profit and loss of the business.

Where stock is bought and sold a further adjustment may be
required to account for the difference between opening and
closing stock. This is done by taking a physical stock
check and valuing the stock at the start and end of the
financial period.

On the income and expenditure account adjust the stock
purchases figure by adding the value of the opening stock
and deducting the value of the closing stock. The result is
not the stock purchases total as shown in the bookkeeping
spreadsheets but the cost of the goods which have been sold
to produce the sales turnover being reported.

Simple bookkeeping for a small business accounting purposes
can be two lists of sales and purchases supported with
sales invoices and purchases invoices.

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Terry Cartwright, an accountant at DIY Accounting designs
UK Accounting Software spreadsheets for companies at
http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/companyaccounts.htm and self
employed bookkeeping software
http://www.diyaccounting.co.uk/bookkeeping.htm

What Are Necessary Features Of A Solid Investment Portfolio?

What Are Necessary Features Of A Solid Investment Portfolio?
When you seek to create for yourself, or let an institution
create for you an investment portfolio, there are several
factors that need to play a part in it. The key idea with
an investment portfolio is balance, and a very important
second word would be protection. In order to get the best
balance and protection for your assets, it will need to
have the following 5 features.

Asset Management

Someone is going to have to be responsible for the
management of your assets in the portfolio. Whether you do
it yourself, as many people do, or let an institution do it
for you, developing a solid investment portfolio means that
it must be watched. Whoever has the responsibility needs to
be able to check it on a regular basis and must be
reliable. He or she should also be knowledgeable about the
markets in order to make the best decisions.

Along with the watching, however, comes the responsibility
to handle the assets to your best overall profit. Assets
need to be removed occasionally from one stock or mutual
fund and placed into a more productive one. The manager
will need to know when this is necessary, because moving
funds too often can only end up being more costly than it
is worth.

Multiple Instruments

Creating the greatest amount of profit also includes the
need to diversify. All of your assets should not be held in
one stock, or even in one type of stock, such as
communications. When all of your eggs are in one basket, it
is easy to lose them all at the same time. When you
diversify, however, and place some in various types of
stock, and some in bonds and mutual funds, what affects one
market should not affect them all.

Constant Analysis

In order to ensure the greatest amount of profitability in
an investment portfolio, it will need to be carefully
watched. Daily changes need not be observed, however, but
trends. The market overall fluctuates from day to day, but
a long term point of view should indicate general trends of
increasing or decreasing profitability. When the losses are
either too great, or appear to be heading for trouble, it
is time to make the transfer and place those assets into
more profitable instruments.

Performance Objectives

A good investment portfolio should have performance
objectives in place so that the one managing the assets
knows how soon to move the assets. If you want the highest
possible performance on your portfolio, then this will
necessitate a lot of changing instruments or stocks -
especially when the market fluctuates a lot - like it is
now.

Risk Toleration

You will also need to have some way to indicate how much of
a risk you are willing to take. Generally, the greater the
profitability, the greater the risk to your assets. Decide
on a percentage (that you could afford to lose, if
necessary) that you want to invest into high profitability,
and then leave the rest in a lower risk category. The lower
risk assets, a percentage of your portfolio, should
certainly include any money you intend to use for your
retirement.

----------------------------------------------------
Learn the investment strategies used by many wealthy people
to ensure their own futures, visit our website and request
your free DVD of a 3 hour seminars with Self Made
Millionaire Jamie McIntyre, visit
http://www.stockmarketaustralia.com.au

Why On Earth Invest in Thailands Bangkok

Why On Earth Invest in Thailands Bangkok
Thailand investment potential for overseas property buyers
are enormous. Expanding tourism, easy accessibility and low
property prices make for an investors paradise.

Thai culture has always been greatly influenced by China
and India giving an exotic blend for which The Kingdom of
Thailand has become famous. Buyers in Thailand tend to be
mostly investors who are looking to cash in on the booming
tourist industry however with increasing demand this is set
to change

Overseas investors will be pleased that Bangkok recently
opened a new airport, Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK), often
called New Bangkok International Airport, which is 25
kilometers east of downtown. This facility has flights from
all over the world on most major airlines. The old
international airport, Don Muang (DMK), is open for limited
domestic flights.

The Bangkok real estate market is one of the best for
international investors who are interested in the Asian
market. Research shows that the property market here is
much more affordable than other south Asian cities such as
Hong Kong and Singapore. Bangkok has a very nice climate
year round and is also close to many recreational
activities, such as beaches and tropical resorts.

Because of low labour costs and relatively inexpensive
housing, many multinational corporations have made Bangkok
one of their overseas homes. This has, in turn, drawn a lot
of international businessmen and expatriates to the city
looking for high quality housing at reasonable prices.
There continues to be a healthy demand for property,
meaning that investments should continue to rise in value
for the foreseeable future.

The city is one of contrasts, with its fast growing urban
skyline and many old temples and historical sights. It is
also growing increasingly cosmopolitan with high end
shopping, entertainment and fine dining. Because of
Thailand's strict foreign ownership laws, apartments and
condominiums are the option of choice for most
international property seekers in Bangkok.

The new property available in Bangkok is attractive to in
the middle and upper-middle income buyers. These properties
are typically one and two bedroom units ranging in size
between 45 square meters to 80 square meters. Moving up
towards the high-end market, new additions were seen in the
Sathorn, Silom and Sukhumvit areas, with the majority of
condo units offered being two and three bedrooms from 90
square meters to 190 square meters.

My other tip for the top in Thailand is the city of Pattaya
which is to be found on the east coast of Tourism in this
area appears to be increasing year on year. According to
the Tourism Authority of Thailand 5.8 million people
visited Pattaya in 2006. The combination of its big, wide
beaches, water sports, interesting attractions,
sightseeing, shopping, makes Pattaya's a great place to buy
property in Thailand.

In summary Thailand offers a host of opportunities for the
international real estate investor

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Buying property in Thailand needs advice and research
author Nicholas Marr has done this working with numerous
real estate agents around the world including agents in
Thailand means that his articles are informative and up to
date
http://thailand.homesgofast.com/