This article is about the basics of investing in shares. It is a well known fact that the markets have outperformed other asset classes such as property over time. Investing in shares offer tax benefits, diversification, flexibility and control over your own financial future. Buying a share (or in other words the stock) means that you are buying a share of the company. You own a share of the profits, which are handed down to shareholders through dividends and you can also see capital growth as share price increases. The company benefits from listing on the stockmarket as they can finance their business or an expansion plan without needing to borrow money.

But before you jump into investing into any company shares, here are a few important questions to ponder and answer to help assess your own financial situation and your financial goals for the future: What is the outcome that you want to achieve from investing in shares? What kind of return would you like? Income from company dividends or capital growth? Are you aware of the risks? And are you prepared to take the risk of investing your capital in the sharemarket for the opportunity for a return?

Starting capital for investing in shares can vary greatly: but if you are looking to start with the minimal amount, you can start investing from $500 plus brokerage costs. However, most people start with $2000.

Another part of a sound comprehensive investment plan (of which investing in shares is one component) is considering your time frame as well as your age. For example, someone who is young have the time to risk a little more (since they have time to recover any major losses) but may have limited capital to invest with. Older people have less time to correct any major loss, hence have to choose more secure investments but are more likely to have more capital to play with.

Holding shares and investing in stocks may have tax implications and you may be eligible for some tax benefits. When companies have paid tax on their profits, as the dividends are distributed to the shareholders, tax credits which are called franking credits are included per share. The franking credits can then be used to offset the tax payable on your other income. Another tax benefit that may be available to you is a 50 percent discount on capital gains payable if you hold your shares for longer than 12 months. Please obtain professional advice from your accountant which suits your particular circumstances.

Investing in shares allows you the investor to diversify. This will spread your risk and you may choose to distribute your risk over different industry sectors such as financial services, healthcare or the risky exploration sector.

Another benefit in investing in shares is that you basically have flexibility of choice: you can buy or sell shares quickly as you please. For highly liquid shares, once you execute a sell order, you have access to your cash within two days. Compared to other investment classes (such as real estate) it may take much longer to exchange or liquidate your investment into cash.

Finally, choosing to invest in shares you’ve basically put yourself into the driving seat of your financial future. You’ve got the steering wheel and you are in charge of controlling your financial future – you have the responsibility of choosing where your investment capital will be placed and for how long. You may also choose to use a full service broker to give you further advice.

Budgets Don’t Work

I don’t believe budgets work for the long run. We have our unique and different ways of doing budgets. Some of us allocate certain amounts for each expense category. Some go by envelop ideas such as putting money in different envelops for different expense categories, and spend money from these envelops based on circumstances. The problem with budgeting is that we usually stick to it for a couple of months and then get bored and get rid of it. Although I don’t believe in budgeting, I do believe in tracking expenses. Why and how you should track your expenses? Let’s talk about it.

Track Your Expenses

Tracking expenses gives you a visualization of where your money is exactly going. You need to know this to cut unnecessary expenses and increase your savings. You can do all sorts of calculations and thinking in your mind to figure out where your money is going – but the real picture may not be the same as your mind tries to depict. Don’t be surprised if you see a very different picture than what you had in your mind. Spending just a few dollars here and there daily can add up to a large amount at month’s end and tracking expenses will show you how powerful it can be to cut once-daily visit to your coffee shop. Tracking expenses will gradually help you make better decisions.

How long should you track your expenses?

How long should you track your expenses? It all depends. You can do it for three months, one year or for good. If you are looking to take immediate action on cutting unnecessary expenses, three months of tracking will give you a fair idea. If you want an in-depth financial picture, I would recommend tracking for four to six months. If you want to keep track of your changing patterns of spending behaviour and make adjustments accordingly to meet your financial goals, I would recommend tracking your expenses on a continuous basis.

Personal Finance Software

Now, here comes the main question – What financial software you should use to track your expenses? Personal finance software programs like Quicken and Microsoft Money are able to keep track of your spending. However, I recommend a simple and easy to use web-based program called Expensr. Expensr keeps track of your income and expenses and tells you where your money goes. It is very simple to use and let me describe some basics you need to know.

Sign up for a free account. On the main page, on the top left, you will see five tabs. These tabs are Home, Accounts, Analysis, Budget and Community. Accounts and Analysis tabs are the ones you will be using most. Enter all your income and spending daily under Account tab. You can create multiple categories to categorize you entries. Entering an item is easy, and you should be able to do it in a snap. Analysis tab shows how much you are spending in each category. You can view this either in a pie chart or in a bar graph. Charts or graphs show spending trends. Trends can be used to see how your spending behaviour has changed over time, and you make adjustments accordingly.

Expensr has many other features. I mainly use it to keep track of my spending and income, and to plot graphs to visualize my trends. If you are looking for simple, easy-to-use but powerful personal finance software, expensr is your answer.

NB – Expensr is now Moneystrands. Read my Personal Finance Software Review to find out more about financial software.

For most households the monthly budget works something like this; every month money comes in and every month all the money goes out. Is this how it works around your house? Do you know where all your money goes? Unless you have control of where your money goes and how it works for you your future financial well being is on shaky ground.

If this is you then you seriously need to think about creating a household budget because your money needs a plan to follow. Just about everything you do in life revolves around a plan of some sort. Most jobs require some sort of plan it you want to be efficient and profitable. Successful businesses follow not only a business plan but they also have a budget which allows them to be productive and profitable. Look at it this way, if you ran the finances of a business the same way you run your household finances how long would your business last?

If you don’t like the word budget because it sounds too restrictive then consider creating a cash-flow plan. Whatever you wish to call it your money needs a plan to follow, unless of course you like living paycheck to paycheck.

Do you have financial goals? Are you doing anything to reach them? Are there things you would like to do but don’t really have any idea how you can do them because you don’t have the money? Here’s an idea. Write down what your goals are, where you would like to be financially in 5 years, 10 years, when you retire. Now off the top of your head think about what is standing in the way of your goals. Chances are you’re not completely clear as to what monetary obstacles stand in your way. You might have an idea but the picture is not clear.

A monthly household budget will paint a clear picture as to where you currently stand as far as your finances are concerned. You will see exactly where your money is going and this allows you to come up with a plan to take back control of your money.

Once you see where your money is going you can take the necessary steps to start working towards your financial goals. Do you have too much credit card debt? How about eating out 5 nights a week? Does that $400 plus car payment on a depreciating asset really help you meet your goals? These are just some of the question you’ll start to ask when all your monthly expenses are laid out in front of you.

The first time you write out your monthly household budget, or cash-flow plan, it probably won’t be real pretty. The important thing is you have taken the first step to taking back control of how your money works for you. Once you do that you can start building a strong financial future.

Procurement describes the acquisition of goods or services at the best possible cost, in the right quantity, time and place, for the direct benefit of the firm. The question now arises: how do you prioritize when you only have a limited amount of money to spend? That’s where the role of budgeting comes in.

A budget is a quantitative expression of financial plans. How are budgets useful? Budgets induce management to think systematically about the future. They also serve as a device for coordinating the complex operations of the business, and provide a medium for communicating the financial goals of the firm.

In order to be useful, the budget must be drawn up for a specific time period. Usually, the budget is drawn up for a year. The operating budget for the firm may be constructed in terms of programs or responsibility areas. The program budget is developed in terms of products that are regarded as the principal programs of the business. Such a budget shows the expected costs and benefits of various products and services.

A cost center is responsible for keeping track of costs and expenses. To assess its performance, the actual costs are compared with the budgeted costs. The latter represent expenses that should have been incurred, given the actual activity level. The variance between actual costs and budgeted costs is analyzed for control purposes.

What is the base for preparing the budget? A commonly used base is the level of operations in the current year. Using this, the expected and planned changes in the forthcoming year are identified to develop the budget for that year. Under this approach, referred to as the incremental approach to budgeting, the focus of budgeting is on the operations during the budget period.

In every firm, there is a critical factor which sets a limit to its level of activity. Often, the expected demand is the limiting factor that defines the scope and level of operations. When the demand is fairly strong, the limiting factor may be the production capacity of the firm, which cannot be augmented in the short run. For firms that do not have easy access to the capital market, finances may be a limiting factor.

Financial asset management, or wealth management as it is sometimes called, is the management of your financial assets. Many people know how to make money, but they are clueless when it comes to managing the money that they make in order to secure their financial future, or to reach financial goals that they have set. Management of your finances and your assets is not something that is limited to big corporations or even to businesses; in fact, many individuals can benefit from the advice of a financial manager.

What Do Financial Asset Managers Do?

A financial asset manager is a person that works with individuals or companies to meet the goals that they have set by properly managing the financial resources that they. Goals may include buying a first home or another home, saving for their children’s education, planning for retirement, or accumulation of wealth.

The Planning Process

Financial managers will work with their clients through a planning process that will allow the goals that they have set for their financial future to come to fruition. This may include analysis of the person or business’ income, taxes, expenses, current retirement plans, insurance coverage, trusts, wills, and more. This gives the financial asset manager an idea of the person or business’ overall financial situation so that strategies and objectives can be identified and then developed to achieve the goals that you have. The financial asset management process can include the following services: cash flow analysis, planning for taxes, retirement and education, estate recommendations, investments and review of your insurance to make sure that you and your family are covered completely with the types of policies that you need to protect your assets in the event of sickness or death.

Investments

A big part of financial asset management usually involves investments. A financial manager can help to identify the investments that can make your wealth grow, including stocks, bonds, index funds, mutual funds, and other securities that are publicly traded. Many people are a bit gun-shy in today’s economic environment when it comes to investing, so a good financial manager can help you find well-researched investment strategies to manage your wealth in a way that can secure the future that you have always envisioned and make the most use of the money that you have right now. Choose your financial manager wisely, and make sure that they are fully trained (usually with an MBA certification) so that you can feel more secure in giving them access to your funds.