Summers are normally associated with heat, rising temperatures, hot humid conditions, heat strokes, summer related diseases, sweat, losing tempers due to heat. But summers in India relate to other interesting activities also. Summer holidays make children squeal in delight and they are free from dull boring routine of school life and have all the time to play, dance, sing, to watch movies, television, eat junk food and drink different cold drinks and beverages. Also, summer is the best time for children to travel and visit some of the most exotic places in India. Mothers on the other hand are free and have more time on their hands and indulge in shopping in a big way and they are the key decision makers and influence the way shopping or travel, entertainment is planned. A recent survey has [...] 

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If you have ever holidayed in a country with a different currency you will be familiar with exchange rates and the effect they can have on your purchasing power. Most of us ‘shop around’ to find the best rates for buying and then potentially selling back our currencies. If our domestic currency is strong our ability to spend is increased and our holiday is much improved. Forex trading is the act of buying and selling currencies against ‘each other’ in order to make money on the price fluctuations. Those who thought currency trading was the reserve of the big traders like Deutsche Bank or Goldman Sachs may be surprised to discover the general accessibility of the market to the casual speculator. Online forex has thrust the average man into the currency trading business and can offer [...] 

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Wouldn’t it be handy to have a financial dictionary close at hand, just so that you know what the hell someone’s talking about when they throw about terms that you’ve no idea about? Well, if you ever have thought that today is your lucky day. This here is a financial dictionary with some of the simpler terms for you to wrap your head around. Enjoy. Pre-tax: Pre-tax means simply that no tax money has been cut off as yet. Generally, it is used to denote retirement account such as a Traditional IRA for example. You can invest pre-tax money into these retirement accounts and pay tax later on only when you have taken out some of the money. This is a great way to defer taxes and laugh at the taxman when he comes calling. After tax: As opposed to the more traditional IRA, your pre-tax dollars [...] 

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Using some form of proactive management, such as active fund managers, might actually be a better idea as compared to something such as indexing. Those that advocate indexing will tell you that the index cannot be beaten, that future performance can’t be predicted. Far from it, investors can actually settle upon funds that do better than the benchmark does after costs are factored in. and sometimes, this kind of performance can be quite significant rather than just negligible performance. And this is done by seeking out active fund managers that offer a more proactive management as compared to indexing. The key to making this work lies in picking out actively managed funds that have  a high active share and a low to moderate level of tracking error inherent to it. Studies done by experts [...] 

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Depending on how you use it or understand it, compound interest is either your most trusty ally or your worst enemy. In many ways, it is like a loaded gun. It’s not dangerous in itself. It’s the person wielding it that makes it dangerous. Indeed, Albert Einstein was known to have said at one time that compound interest was the “Eighth wonder of the world”. What exactly inspired him to say this is unknown, but truth be told he was right. Compound interest is a great way to make your money make money for you. It is a supremely powerful financial force and it can help you shape a better financial future. But what is amazing is that there are still people out there that do not understand exactly how they can use it or abuse it. In the simplest of terms, compound interest is the [...] 

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Ever heard of Microsoft? You know, that company that made a fortune by selling the software that your computer (and 90% of all other computers in the world) runs on? Yeah, that Microsoft. It’s run by a bit of a looney tune who took over after Bill Gates left the company (he must have become bored of almost sinking in the greenbacks) and that Looney’s name is Steve Ballmer. Many feel that Steve Ballmer is a bit nutty, but we contest that claim; we would rather opine that he is a very shrewd cookie. So shrewd in fact that he sold off some $1.3 billion worth of Microsoft shares recently and labeled it as a tax saving measure. That erodes his holding in the tech giant by 12%, but Steve Ballmer released a statement saying that his sale had nothing to do with a lack of confidence in the [...] 

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