Investment Opportunities
Growth of personal finances is an important goal for most people; hence they are actively seeking ways of investing money and earning meaningful returns. Investment helps you plan your future and ensure that you can keep up the lifestyle you are accustomed to now and in the future. The upside of investment is that there are options for everyone; the risk-averse investor or investors with an appetite and tolerance for risk and the deep pockets or moderately wealthy individual. Here is a list of investment opportunities to consider.
Money Market Account
This is a deposit account that bears interests at the prevailing bank or credit union rate, but the interests are higher than those of normal savings accounts. The benefit of such investments is that they are safe investments by being insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, minimizing the risk exposure of investors. Money market accounts investors use customers deposits to invest in options such as government securities and certificates of Deposit; hence they can transfer the benefit to customers through paying higher interests. An alternative investment to money market accounts is the high-yielding savings account that operates under a similar principle.
Bonds
There are various types of bonds that present a safe investment opportunity for the individual. They are of two major categories; one that is issued by the government and two those that are issued by the private sector and are commonly referred to as corporate bonds. Bonds are instruments of indebtedness where investors loan the borrower, usually government or corporations, for purposes of financing operations or projects; they are experiencing cash deficits. Bond investors get a fixed return rate and are usually safe investments because there is a low risk of losing investment.
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
Real estate investments might be capital intensive but are some of the world’s most resilient investment opportunities. REIT companies manage and own real estate and particularly attractive for people who want to own real estate properties but do not want to engage in the day to day management. Additionally, since capital investment in this sector is intensive, some investors might not have such amounts of money to invest in owning real estate property. However, by investing the money they have in REITs, they generate a passive income stream. REITs specialize in a range of housing projects from warehouses, storage facilities, apartments, and retail spaces, and office spaces, among others meaning there is no shortage of investments in the real estate sector.
Stocks
Stocks are fractional shares of ownership in corporations, and that entitles investors or stockholders to a proportion of the corporations’ earnings or assets. Government legislation stipulates how stocks are to be traded in the stock exchange for investors protection from fraud. If you are willing to invest in stocks, you must do thorough research on the performance of the stocks that interest you to ensure that the stock picked for investment will bring the value of investments or whether you need to consider alternative investments.
Treasury Securities
For the risk-averse investors that only want to engage in the safest investments, treasury securities are your go-to investment. Treasury securities are floated by the government for purposes of raising money to cover its debt or finance projects. They include treasury bills that mature in a year or less, treasury bonds with a maturity of 30 years, and treasury notes issues in stipulated yearly periods.
While some of the opportunities listed are generally considered low-risk, it is important to note that there is still a likelihood of the investment not turning out the way we envision it. The performance of any investment is affected by various economic and political factors hence the need to temper expectations to avoid blaming investment companies for misrepresenting the kind of results they can deliver.