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How Will Trump’s Presidency Affect Trading Markets?

In one of the biggest political upsets in recent memory, Donald Trump was named President-elect following the results on November 8. While he will not be inaugurated until early next year, we are already seeing the effects of his campaign in the market. Here we take a look at three popular trading markets and assess the changes that Trump’s future presidency could prompt.

Currency Exchange

Currency exchange was the first market investors expected to see the influence of Trump’s presidency. Election night is typically a time of volatility for the market anyway, but what we saw last week had even experienced investors scrambling. During the course of the evening, we saw GBP/USD slightly rise before crashing and then surging to new heights as the night went on. As we can see from FxPro, the election also played a huge role in emerging markets, with the Mexican peso plunging to a new low following the shock results.

While in the short-term it’s safe to say that the market will remain volatile, predicting anything further into the future will be more difficult. The Federal Reserve meeting in December should give us our first insight into how the market views the situation. Last year, we saw the Federal Reserve raise interests rate by a quarter of a percent and Chairwoman Janet Yellen recently gave an indication to expect more of the same next month.

Precious Metals

Just like with Brexit earlier in the year, economic uncertainty resulted in a significant rise in the number of people looking to invest in precious metals. By the time it emerged that Trump had triumphed over rival candidate Hillary Clinton in the election race, gold had surged to nearly a six-week high of $1,337.40 an ounce. In the following days, the market began to stabilize, especially after Trump’s conciliatory speech in which the Republican candidate appeared to tone down his typically exuberant rhetoric.

Since then, the market has continued to react. The Wall Street Journal reports that gold prices are now at a 5-month low due to the stronger dollar and renewed optimism over potential growth under Trump. Those who rushed to buy have been advised to hold on to their assets for now, though, as the price is expected to rise in the medium-to-long-term as we learn more about Trump’s geopolitical policies.

Real Estate

Of course, Trump himself made his name in real estate so his impact on the market will be interesting to see during his tenure as President. During the course of the election, Trump made big promises to invest heavily in the nation’s infrastructure. On his website, the President-elect notes that he wants to transform America’s “crumbling infrastructure into a golden opportunity for accelerated economic growth” with over $1 trillion of investment over the next decade.

In an industry where optimism and consumer confidence count for almost everything, it is perhaps not surprising that many investors are optimistic about the future. However, others have noted that Trump’s potentially strict immigration policies could be problematic. According to a report by Bloomberg, one in four constructions workers are foreign born and 40% of new home buyers are expected to come from overseas in the next ten years.

Achieving Financial Independence before Your 30th Birthday

By Frugaling 1 Comment

Why is it that everyone seems to talk about achieving financial independence, but few people get there? Well, because it takes definite, deliberate, disciplined and proven efforts to get there. It doesn’t just happen.

The best time to aim for financial independence is before you hit 30 years. Unfortunately, that’s often the last priority on the mind of this age group, as they’re often preoccupied with immediate luxuries and gratifications like buying a car.

Contrary to what most under 30 think, attaining financial security doesn’t suggest a life of self-deprivation. You can still have fun while at it. Here’s how.

Commit to living spend less than you earn

Committing to and mastering this attitude is just about the most important step to securing your financial future. It’s the single step that will keep you constantly liquid to meet the other targets. It’s a sacrifice you must be willing to undertake to be in control of the future. The earlier you learn the technique, the less uncomfortable it gets as you go along.

Form the habit of tracking your spending

On the surface, this might look a bit tedious but you can get creative with it and have fun. More vitally, the reward attached to tracking where your money goes outweigh whatever inconveniences you have to put up with in letting go of some immediate surplus gratifications.

Apps like B make it less of a chore taking control of your money. This money-saving app has clever tools, including a tagging function that helps you keep track of your spending and know it looks like it’s time to spend or save cash.

Take risks — calculated ones and seize the moments

it’s more prudent and safer taking risks when you’re young. You may get into a bit of some bumps along the way, but that’s okay. Mistakes give you more wisdom and better financial education than successes.

Besides, you recover faster when you’re still under 30 years, and you have many years to do that. So, seize good business opportunities and take calculated risks. These opportunities might be not be available later in life.

Keep moving forward with your career or business

This should complement your disciplined spending and tracking lifestyle. Earn more and spend less. To earn more, make sure your income is on a steady increase as you go along in your career or business while you keep your spending at a moderate level.

Personal Finance – 3 Ways to Invest Your Savings

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A couple of years ago, I started questioning what I was saving my money for, I am not a frivolous spender nor a reckless gambler when it comes to finances but I decided to look into ways in which I could use my savings to grow my wealth. I’ve since used the money that I have saved, or at least some of it, to take advantage of various financial opportunities that I wanted to share, so if you have saved up some money through the years then here are some tips on how to put it to work.

Stocks and Shares

A slightly different way to invest your cash when it comes to the stock market is to trade the stocks themselves as opposed to betting on their rise or fall. Naturally when it comes to owning stocks, you will only want the price to grow and the real trick is knowing when to sell them. Stocks are a slightly more secure way of investing your cash than spread betting as should the price go down, you can simply keep hold of your shares in the hope that they will once again rise. Many stocks offer dividends which can give you a small payout each year and act as something of a loss insulator should prices drop. From a tax point of view, you will pay capital gains of between 25-39% on any stocks sold in their first year and around 15% after the year is out. Like spread betting, you can start trading with as little as $100.

Spread Betting

Spread betting, in a nutshell, is about gambling on the future price of various markets such as currency, oil, commodities and stocks and shares. One of the biggest bonuses of this type of investment is that spread betting is considered by the government as a form of gambling and as such you will not pay taxes on your profits, an appealing option and one that can prove to be very fruitful. You will naturally need to have a firm grasp of the markets to which you will be betting on and be able have good analytical skills in order to see which way the market is heading. You can start out with companies such as ETX Capital with just a few hundred dollars and you can bet on prices for the day or even a longer period of time. Spread betting is exciting and can be a great way to grow your wealth.

Start-Ups

There are more businesses being created than ever before and if you have an eye for what will become successful then you could stand to make a healthy profit by investing in these businesses during their early years. Start-ups rely heavily on private investment and if there is a new business entering into an industry that you are already familiar with then you could be best placed to invest your money in their new idea. Ensure that you negotiate a good contract for your investment as there are a lot of risks with new businesses, 54% fail within their first 3 years and the last thing you want is for your investment to turn sour.

Benefits of a 15-Year Mortgage

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Most homeowners choose the standard 30-year fixed-rate mortgage when buying a home. While a 30-year mortgage offers lower mortgage payments, it also means paying tens of thousands more in interest. Many people buying a home automatically shy away from a 15-year mortgage due to higher payments, but the potential savings may be so high that it’s worth reducing your expenses or buying a smaller house to make it happen.

Here are the most important benefits of a 15-year home loan that you should consider before buying.

Reduced interest charges

Let’s assume you buy a home for $260,000 with $52,000 down for a total mortgage of $208,000. While the rate for a 30-year mortgage may be around 3.65%, the interest rate for a 15-year mortgage may be just 2.70%. This gives you a monthly payment of $957 for a 30-year loan and $1,407 with a 15-year mortgage.

While this big difference in monthly payments turns away many buyers, it’s important to focus on the cost of your mortgage over the life of the loan rather than focusing solely on the monthly payments.

Over the life of this 30-year mortgage, you will pay a total of $136,700 in interest. Compare tat to just $45,100 with a 15-year loan — a savings of more than $91,000! You can find out just how much you could save in interest with a 15-year mortgage by using a mortgage interest calculator.

Build equity faster

One of the most overlooked benefits of a 15-year loan is the ability to build equity in your home faster than with a 30-year loan. This is because fixed-rate loans have amortizing payments with the payment applied to interest and principal every month. A 15-year loan needs to be paid off faster, so more of your monthly payments will go toward the principal balance rather than interest.

In the above example, the first monthly payment of $957 for a 30-year loan will break down to $316 toward principal and $641 in interest. After five years, $379 of every payment goes to principal and $578 goes toward interest which means you will still be building equity very slowly. After five years of monthly payments, you will have built up just $20,800 in equity.

15-year mortgages work more in your favor. Your first payment of $1,407 breaks down to $939 in principal and $468 in interest. After five years, you will be paying $1,072 a month toward principal and just $335 in interest with total equity of $60,200.

Because you will build equity faster, you will have a buffer against changes in real estate prices and you’ll have equity you can tap with a home equity loan or HELOC if you need to. This can also potentially make refinancing your loan easier down the road because you will have a lower loan-to-value ratio with less risk for the lender.

Pay off your mortgage faster

Finally, a 15-year mortgage can help with paying off your mortgage early — a dream for many homeowners. Not only can you avoid having a mortgage hanging over your head for 30 years, you still have the option of making additional payments to principal over the course of the loan, whether you add a bit to your monthly payment or make lump-sum payments with your tax refund. A shorter loan term can help you live mortgage-free earlier in life so you can focus on savings or retirement.

About 85% of new mortgages today have a 30-year term, but it’s important to explore all of your options. A 15-year mortgage means making half as many mortgage payments and saving thousands in interest over the life of your loan while paying a lower interest rate. If you can afford the higher monthly payments of a 15-year home loan, there is almost no reason not to do it.