Being young and in love is pretty much the closest we’ll ever come to feeling bulletproof. There’s an undeniable confidence that rises to the surface when you’ve got age on your side and a heart bursting with emotion. Colours seem brighter, food tastes better and risk is relegated to the back of your mind as you carry on with reckless abandon. Live in the moment, right? Wrong. Eventually the pitfalls will catch up with you and suddenly you’re partnered up but penniless. Rather than forget about your finances completely, a little bit of future proofing can be the perfect foundation for your happily ever after. Read on to find out the most common mistakes young people make – and you can avoid them. ... (read more)

Debt is an essential driver for growth in many businesses, and maintaining a sustainable level of debt as you grow can be a healthy way to finance your expanding business. However, having an unsustainable level of debt is all too common especially among small businesses. Every business should have a debt strategy that outlines how much debt is sustainable and how to manage or reduce debt.

Identify causes of debt ... (read more)

Check out this investing video series on www.kroijer.com by Lars Kroijer, who used to run a hedge fund in London. Basically it says you can’t beat the market, and explain why that is important.

For investors from Australia the message is – “don’t invest in Australia. You already have plenty of domestic exposure”. As an example, if you buy Australian stocks for your investment portfolio, you are adding concentration risk as you are already exposed to the economy via your job, house, insurance, etc. Instead you should try to decrease the correlation and concentration risk in a portfolio by investing globally. That way you lower the risk of losing money on your domestic investments at the same time and for the same reason (decline in local economy) that you lose your job, job prospects, your house is worth less, potentially your education worth less, etc. ... (read more)

The Bank of Japan has caught the attention for all stock markets. Their decision on monetary policy will have a lot of influence on global markets and economy as a whole. The Bank of Japan recently moved assets by the millions, causing changes in sovereign debt and trading funds. Seeing as this did not realise their goal of annihilating deflation, this bank went ahead to target the yield curve.

While working to maintain 10-year bond yields at zero, the bank also hopes to keep flattening rates at a minimum. This is a big decision that will most likely affect the bank’s profits, but what exactly does this mean for financial markets, and more specifically, for CFD traders? In case the plan drafted by the bank fails, is there a way that these traders can rise above the losses and find their ground again? ... (read more)