Buy and Hold Investment Strategy

Written by Gary J


"Buy and hold" is one ofrepparttar most heralded investment strategies promoted today. "Buy and hold" is also one ofrepparttar 142572 few investment methods where you are guaranteed to lose money 2 out of every 5 years...so why do it?

Before expanding onrepparttar 142573 questionable value of "buy and hold", it's probably best to take a deeper look into who's spending their millions of dollars of marketing money convincing you that "buy and hold" isrepparttar 142574 best idea and why.

"Buy and Hold" Promoters

"Buy and hold" promoters vary but I'm going to single outrepparttar 142575 mutual fund( http://www.stockrhythms.com/investing-in-mutual-funds.htm ) companies at this point since they seem to haverepparttar 142576 deepest advertising pockets and are highly visible in their promotion of "buy and hold".

Mutual funds have a strong vested interest in having you buy intorepparttar 142577 "buy and hold" mentality since their entire business model depends uponrepparttar 142578 average investor keeping their money parked...through good times and bad.

Remember,repparttar 142579 mutual fund companies are earning a profit from your investment even while you are accepting losses!

So "buy and hold" is reallyrepparttar 142580 greatest investment strategy available, it's just a matter of perspective. If you like that your mutual fund company profits whilerepparttar 142581 Bear Market ravages your account value, then "buy and hold" is for you!

So let's look at some data to see how this really works.

"Buy and Hold" Facts

Between 1929 and 2002, there have been 14 Bear Markets with an average of 39% slashed offrepparttar 142582 value of stocks. During this 74 year period, it took an average of 3.5 years to return to breakeven!

Every time a "buy and hold" investor loses money in a down market, they lose invaluable time to reaching their financial goal. After eliminating overlapping Bear Markets, 41 years were spent suffering through a Bear Market or returning to break even.

In other words, "buy and hold" investors spend 2/3 of their time just to break even!

"Buy and Hold" Myths

My favorite myth or scare tactic used by investment gurus is; "buy and hold" investing is critical since you cannot afford to missrepparttar 142583 bull run when it hits. And they go on to cite what happens to those that missrepparttar 142584 "big days".

Ah...good point, what does happen? If you would have invested $100 in 1926 and just left it there until 1993, your investment would have climbed to $80,000. Conversely, if you had tried to timerepparttar 142585 market and missedrepparttar 142586 30 best months, your investment would have only been worth $1,200.

"Buy and Hold" Does Work Better?

So I've just convinced you that "buy and hold" does work better right? But what would have happened if you used market timing and missedrepparttar 142587 30 best months and missedrepparttar 142588 30 worst months? Your investment would now be worth $120,000 or 50% more than simple "buy and hold".

Life Insurance Settlement

Written by Grant Shellhammer


A new financial tool is now available for senior citizens. Life Insurance Settlements are quickly becoming a way for seniors to receive money from an under performing or costly life insurance policy.

A life insurance settlement isrepparttar sale of a life insurance policy (whole life, term, universal life, etc.) coveringrepparttar 142537 life of one or more individuals with an “ascertainable and limited” life expectancy. A life insurance settlement is usually most beneficial seniors overrepparttar 142538 age of 65.

Some basic qualifications for a life insurance settlement arerepparttar 142539 above-mentioned age and health requirement, policy is assignable and beyondrepparttar 142540 contestability period, andrepparttar 142541 policy must be issued by a US insurance company. The higherrepparttar 142542 insurance company rating could provide a higher settlement amount.

The policy owner is paid a lump sum in cash in exchange for transferring ownership ofrepparttar 142543 policy and premium requirements torepparttar 142544 purchasing funder or company. The amount paid torepparttar 142545 seller is stated as a percentage ofrepparttar 142546 policy’s face amount and is calculated based onrepparttar 142547 specific life expectancy ofrepparttar 142548 underlying insured. Each life insurance settlement amount is calculated on a case-by-case basis. The popularity of life insurance settlements is due torepparttar 142549 fact that if a policy owner was thinking about letting a policy lapse or surrender, they now haverepparttar 142550 opportunity to receive a payout larger thanrepparttar 142551 surrender value. “It just doesn’t make sense, that seniors nationwide are letting life insurance policies lapse after paying years of premiums”. “By just exploringrepparttar 142552 option of a life insurance settlement they could be gaining thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars they never knew were available to them,” says Grant Shellhammer of www.LifeSettlementPro.com. Another benefit is that there are no fees or obligations to have a policy evaluated to see if a life insurance settlement is available.

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