Okay, so what in the world are they talking about when they call the stock market a bull or a bear? Bulls and bears? You’ll hear this a lot, so you should know what it means. A bull market is a stock market going up in value, and not just for the day, but over…
What Do They Mean When They Say “The Market Was Up Today”? You might hear it on the radio, in a news broadcast, or read it online. The stock market used to be this esoteric industry that only a few people were a part of and even fewer knew anything about. But then, as more…
Are you familiar with the dating app Tinder? It lets you view photos of people and slide their photo left or right, depending on if you like them or not. So how is the stock market like Tinder? For both, you have a large group of people coming together and they are all evaluating a…
Your Get Money Smart education would not be complete if we didn’t talk briefly about this next type of investment. Good news! In the last lesson, you learned not only about mutual funds, but you also learned about exchange traded funds, or ETFs, as they are called. ETFs are a little different from mutual funds,…
You will hear about different types of investments, things like individual stocks or bonds, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, REITs, and even limited partnerships. They are all a slightly different, so it makes sense to have a little understanding of what these are and how they work. Let’s start at the beginning. What’s an individual…
Let’s think about stocks and bonds in terms of a relationship. Stocks are like your boyfriend/girlfriend or spouse. You are connected with them. Their success is your success. If they get a promotion, you celebrate and reap the rewards. If they come home and tell you they’ve been fired, that has real repercussions for you.…
What are better, stocks or bonds? It’s kind of like asking, “What’s better, chocolate or vanilla ice cream?” Both are great for different reasons. First, why stocks? Well, stocks are ownership. This means if the company sells a lot of stuff, expands into different countries, and makes a lot of money, you get to go…
What’s a bond? In the last lesson, you learned about stocks, which is ownership in a company. What’s a bond then? Well, it’s not ownership. Instead, it’s an IOU. Imagine you have a friend who needs to borrow $1,000 from you. If you lend her the money, she gets the cash and you get what?…
Today’s lesson is capitalism 101. As an investor, my guess is a good deal of your portfolio will be in stocks and bonds. These are the two primary types of investments for most investors. Knowing the differences is critical in your journey to being truly money smart. You may already have a good grasp of…
Investing is good. Well, yes, but why is investing good? Uh, because you make money? Yes, that’s true, and how do you make money as an investor? As an investor, you invest and this investing makes investment money. It’s common knowledge. I’ve asked a lot of people over the years how an investment can make…