Posts with keyword cpi→
“Real” and “nominal” interest rates
(This post is a part of the series on Basics of Finance and Investing.)
You have bought a 1-year CD for $10,000 at 5% interest rate. After one year you collect $10,500 – a gain of $500. What is your real gain? This depends on what $10,000 can buy one year later, compared to what it does now.
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Inflation bites harder on super-rich
The recent Forbes list
has some of the most expensive items, whose prices have increased from last year by an average 6%, more than double the CPI (standard measure of inflation). A few of the biggest rises are:
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Why should we invest?
(This post is a part of the series on Basics of Finance and Investing.)
The short answer to this question is that we should invest to be able to shift our purchasing power from the high earning phase of our life to the low earning phase. Many of us earn more than we need to spend in our working life (note the italic – some of us spend more on our wants rather than our needs). It is the exact opposite when we retire – we spend more on our needs than we earn. Therefore, we must have adequate funds available when we retire to live out the rest of our life.
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Online banking – a great alternative
Last week’s Money magazine ran a short feature on online banking, which seems to be the order of the day. Gone are the snaky queues at our neighborhood branch, often with a growling stomach yearning for a delayed lunch. This visual is still futuristic, but the day may not be that far away, with virtual banks sprouting up everywhere like wild mushrooms.
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