“It is best not to put all of one’s eggs into one basket!” This is most likely a statement that you may have heard many times throughout your life and when it comes to investing, this statement is a reality. Diversifying one’s investments is the main factor in making a success when it comes to investing. All of the people who have made great returns from their monies have been seen to develop investment portfolios that operate in different market sectors and we advise that you should do the same too!Developing a varied investment portfolio might include purchasing various shares and stocks that come from companies that operate in different business sectors. Methods used to achieve the desired objective may consist of buying government bonds, putting funds in money market accounts or maybe even into property i.e. buy to lets, houses of multiple occupancy [HMOs] and also the standard buying and renting out homes. The key is to invest in different market sectors.Over time all of the data shows that those who savvy investors who take the time to develop investment portfolios that are well diversified on average experience more stable & consistent returns on their investments this is when compared to those investors who happen to put their monies in one investment vehicle. By investing in those companies that operate in different market sectors [industrial, retail, consumer, business to business etc, etc] will mean that your risk factor is lower too.For example if you have invested all of your money in one company and that company’s shares goes down, you will lose some, a lot or all worst case all of your funds. Looking at this from another perspective if you happen to have invested in say shares from ten different companies and nine are doing well while one plunges averages say that you will still make some money or your losses will be minimized..A good investment diversification portfolio will include a number of fundamentals e.g. they will include stocks & shares, bonds, property and of course cash!! It may take time to develop a fully diversified investment portfolio. Depending on how much you have to invest at the outset you may have to start small say only investing in cash and then go onto invest in maybe property over times.This methodology may prove to be fine – however if you can split the investments that you make at the start – it will be a fact that your risk of losing your money will be much lower and as time passes you will see increasingly more attractive returns from your monies.The finance experts also say that you should spread your investment monies evenly among your chosen investments targets. Put another way – if you happen to start with an investment fund of £100000 & invest £25000 in stocks and shares, £25000 in property, £25000 in bonds & then decide to invest the other £25000 in a savings account that pays a decent amount of interest.This is the foundation to building a long term diversified investment portfolio and we see property to be one of the most tried to tested methods for delivering outstanding returns on ones investment funds.
Take Advantage of Online Finance Management Tools to Manage Your Finances Better
Managing your finances is not always easy. It is a time consuming task to keep track of all your bank accounts, credit cards, mortgages and various other details of your personal finance. Traditional way of book keeping doesn’t solve your problem and most good personal accounting software comes at a price.However, the good news is that there are better and free ways to keep track of your finances. What I am talking about here is free online personal finance management tools which not only help you manage your finances by making it easy for you to keep track of your bank accounts and other financial details but also makes it easy for you to take financial decisions wisely by providing sophisticated analysis. These online tools if used properly can be of great help as apart from tools to manage your various accounts they also offer tools which helps you to analyze your spending, project your savings etc..If you are still clueless about what I am talking about or have heard about online finance management tools for the first time, you may like to take a look at Mint.com. Mint is perhaps the most popular online personal finance management tool at the moment. It is a free service that integrates all your bank accounts, credit card accounts at one place which makes it easy for you to keep track of them. This saves you the trouble of keeping track of your bank accounts manually which can be quite time consuming if you have multiple bank accounts (we all have right?). Imagine all your bank accounts being tracked for debit/credit and being updated for you to view it on the same place. Sounds quite convenient, isn’t it? These online personal finance management tools provide you with exactly the same thing.Moreover the online personal finance management tools also provide you with customized analysis of your spending and projection of savings thereby enabling you to make better financial decisions.Security has been always an issue with financial matters, more so when it comes to trusting a third party website with your bank account details. But most of these websites works by authenticating your bank accounts in a standard secure way which doesn’t require them to store your account credentials and it is verified using standard gateways. This makes them more secure to use.These online tools only make your life simple by providing you with easier ways to manage your personal finances. You can try out any of these free online tools and know for yourself. There are many online personal finance management tools available today for you to take advantage of them. Just choose any of these services and manage your finances in a better and easy way
What Makes a Radio Commercial Effective?
In one sentence – A clear and concise message that drives the listener to do what you ask of them makes a radio commercial effective. Vague: Yes, True: Very. Radio commercials are effective when this principal is put into play in a very targeted manner at a very targeted audience. Bottom line, one size does not fit all when it comes to radio commercials. You need to know what you want to offer, and who you are offering it to. If you think you will save money by showcasing “EVERYTHING” in one commercial, you will be in for an expensive surprise, your message will not be targeted and won’t move anyone to take action after hearing your radio commercials. Why? Because chances are your competition stated much more clearly than you, the benefits of a specific product or service that they too offer, in effect – it spoke directly to the consumer who needed it in their radio commercials. Where as the “Everything” approach got lost in the shuffle.Sure, you may have an array of services or products that are amazing! But chances are, the consumer who hears your message is only interested in one of those services or products. If you want their business, they need to be aware that you offer it, and offer the best. If you want to focus on more than one product or service, than create more than one commercial to effectively communicate this point. In a perfect world, every time your commercial plays the consumer will drop everything they are doing, stop talking to whoever they are talking to, and devote 110% of their attention to your radio commercial, every word in your radio commercial and the lovely background music you picked out. However, we don’t live in that world. They will catch the commercial in small “snack size” pieces. The piece they catch, better be what you wanted them to hear.For example: If you are an office supply store and want to let the public know about your sale on ink cartridges, 90% of your commercial better be about ink cartridges, the other part about where you are and how to contact you. However all too often when this hypothetical store wants to push ink cartridges they create a commercial that is 10% for ink cartridges, 10% for software, 10% for cell phones, 10% for office furniture, 10% for sharpies, etc…. Not only will the consumer (who could really take advantage of the ink cartridge sale) not have any clue about the sale, they also tuned out the rest of the message because they had no need for the other product blurbs in the radio commercial. Had the commercial focused on their goal of showcasing “ink cartridges”, they would have likely known about the sale and made a note to go to this store.Not only does the commercial need to be focused, it needs to be compelling. Just saying “We have ink cartridges on sale”, is not enough. Radio commercials needs it needs to be relatable. The consumer needs to be put in a mental situation where they say to themselves “Oh yea… I know what they are talking about, I really need Ink Cartridges too”. This can be done through humor, scripted situational acting, a offer that is too good to pass up or a strong call to action, or the announcer making a compelling ploy that does not sound like he’s “selling” a product. Don’t just rely on the radio stations “free” production services to get you the effective script you need (most times, you get what you pay for). Making a relatively small investment and hiring a professional radio commercial production company can pay off 10x in the long run as compared to having an unqualified “free” production service do your commercial for you. If you’re going to spend money on a radio schedule, wouldn’t you want to put the most effective message possible on the air?So to review – An effective radio commercial consists of a clear and concise message: targeted at exactly the person you want to reach for the product or service you are selling. The radio commercial also has to have a very narrow focus speaking directly to that persons needs and emotions. The radio commercial is also needs a strong call to action that they consumer won’t want to pass up.