Personal Finance and Money Management 19 – Investment Return and Inflation Rate, Interest Rate, Market and Business Risk

As we mentioned in previous articles we know that our government only represents about 30% of our retirement income. The company retirement pension plan offers another 30 % and many of us do not have one. It is up to individuals to invest wisely short and long term in order to make up for the short fall if he or she would like to live comfortably after retirement without giving up some retirement plans. In this article, we will discuss investment return and inflation.

1. Inflation risk
Inflation means too much money chasing too few goods, and this results in prices for goods and services going up. Inflation may also be expressed as too much money having been printed by the central bank causing too much money compares to the same goods produced.
Sometimes with the economy’s down turn and to avoid the country falling into recession, some governments may overreact with stimulated packages, causing too much money in the market resulting in inflation. Normally, in the inflation period, interest rates to go up, all leading to a vicious spiral.
Inflation is measured by the annual percentage (%) change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
In this environment your investment’s real return must be higher than zero, otherwise you are losing money. Real return = rate of return of investment minus inflation rate.

2. Interest rate risk
Investment always carries interest rate risk
a) All long-term bonds are sensitive to ups and downs of the interest rate. When interest rates go up, long term bond prices suffer the most compared to short term bonds, and low rates do the opposite.
b) It is for your own investment’s sake by diversifying holdings and having debt securities with a range of maturities.
c) Common stocks are also influenced by high interest rates, because the high rates discourage business expansion. When the interest rate is down, businesses are likely to borrow for business expansion.

3. Market risk
The supply and demand law governs the marketing risk as follow:
a) When demand increases, supply decreases, thereby increasing the cost of the product.
b) When demand falls, supply increases at first and then it decreases.

4. Business risk
Investors are attracted to companies with growing or stable earnings, and they usually pay a higher price for investing in them, but under the down turn of the economy, the risk of earnings from the business decline, reducing not only your equity but also your return. It is for investor’s sake to defend against risks in your investment portfolio by understanding current economic conditions, knowledge of investments, and diversification.

I hope this information will help. If you need more information, you can read the complete series of the above subject at my home page:

http://lifeanddisabitityinsuranceunderwriter.blogspot.com/
http://financialinvesting09.blogspot.com/

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