Diamonds are forever. We’ve all heard that statement before about these precious gems but now they are starting to be perceived in a much different manner: Growing wealth.

When most people think of investments, they usually think of the usual assets such as real estate, stocks, bonds and even gold. But for the first time, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) was debuted by PureFunds that focuses solely on diamonds and gemstones.

More diamond based funds are currently in the works, and it was only a matter of time. In October of last year, the U.S. consumer price index (CPI) marked a 12 percent year on year increase making a record high of 182.6 points.

These are definitely strong indicators of the value of investing in diamonds and gemstones with the trend likely to continue. However, as with all investments there, are risks involved. The following are three things that you should know before considering a diamond investment.

1. Educate yourself about the basics

Not all diamonds are created equal. Prices vary based on a number of factors including quality, color and cut. Before investing, there are certain requirements that need to be met first. The first is being aware of resale liquidity and having your investment confirmed by a specialist.

Establishing relationships with a diamond specialist will also help to give you access to dealer prices and will keep you involved in the entire process.

2. Invest in certain types of diamonds

It’s important to make investments that make the most sense for you.  Having a budget and doing some research can help you decide how much money you would like to invest, and where you would to invest it.  Never go into investing without a plan or without being knowledgeable about what you’re investing in.

Initial investments can start with those as recommended by the Rapaport Group: 1.01 to 1.49 carats, D-H color, IF-VS2 clarity and with Excellent cuts. These are simply guidelines as your investment objectives will vary.

3. Keep yourself protected

All diamond investments need to be thoroughly inspected for its quality and to ensure that you are getting what you are paying for. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is an authority for grading gems and includes detailed reports of all characteristics of the diamond including its color, clarity, cut and carat weight.

It’s important that your diamonds are always graded by the GIA. These measures ensure the quality of your investment. If you are serious about diversifying your investments with diamonds, be prepared to do your due diligence. You should always be 100% certain of what you are investing in.

Chuck Stevens is an avid blogger always looking to share his experiences and recommendations. He has been a financial advisor for over 10 years. You can follow him on Twitter @chuckstevens12.

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Travelling by sea has evolved from being a means of getting from one land mass to another to become vehicles of leisure and travelling. Buying a boat is expensive and can take you a long time before you save enough. There are many financing options that can provide you with boat finance but you need to consider some things before picking on a lender who will give you a loan at the best rates and terms.

Do Some Research

Before you go for boat finance, you need to know how much money you will need. To do this, you need to know how much the boat you desire costs and how much you have saved so far. You can easily go online and research about the different types of boats and the asking price. Decide whether you want a new boat or a second hand one.

Many public and private companies out there will extend loans to at an interest. Each institution has its own rates and repayment terms that you need to find out and compare. Having an idea of what each lender provides is important because you will get to enjoy the best deal. The interest you pay on the initial amount will depend with the period of the loan, type of boat you are planning to buy, your credit status, collateral and more.

Nowadays financing institutions provide 24-hour customer support. If you feel that you need more information on a given product, you can access the helpline at any time of day and night, making it convenient for you. Ask the representative to give you more information about the advantages and disadvantages of various packages and whether the loan rate is static or it changes with time.

Come Up With an Estimate

Using the online loan finance repayment calculator, you can come up with the total amount of money you need to pay back. This is determined by the amount borrowed, the repayment period and the rate of interest. Calculation is easy because it can be done online at the click of a button.

Know Your Financial Status

The most important thing you need to keep in mind when looking for boat finance is your financial status. The lending organization will look into your repayment history to find out whether they can trust you with their cash. Having a source of income or a stable job gives you an upper hand. Take out a loan that will meet your requirements as well as allow you to repay the loan and interest without draining your earnings.

From this discussion, it is now clear that applying for boat finance needs to be done with careful preparation in order to get the best deal. Make sure you get a company that is trustworthy and has a good reputation.

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Cycling is a great pastime for fun, health, and recreation. There has been an increase in the availability and uptake of boutique and high end bicycles in Australia. There are a number of specialist insurers that focus on bicycle insurance.

The first simple answer to this is that expensive bicycles are as easy to steal as cheaper ones – and that is easy. The next is that lightweight carbon fibre compound and other expensive alloy and composite materials are almost always impossible to repair. A frame broken in a driveway accident will usually require replacement. For an $8000 bike, that is not a happy proposition.

Aside from a clumsy to carry profile, and perhaps the proliferation of security cameras in city areas, there is not much to prevent a determined bicycle thief from making off with an expensive lightweight bike. Most expensive racing and off road bicycles are light, which makes them a favourite and easy target – easy to carry off and high value. Determined criminals know that parts are worth a lot of money, and so they are not shy to opt to break or cut a frame or remove a wheel to take the remainder of the unit. As with vehicle theft – the parts can end up being combined with those of other stolen units.

Bicycle insurance is still regarded as a relatively new kind of insurance product. It is important to read all of the fine print, do research, and seek the advice of a professional insurance advisor. As with vehicle insurance, the location where the bike will be parked and stored makes a difference. Different cyclists have very different insurance needs based upon the kind of cycle usage. If the bike is ridden to work daily and parked in an underground carpark, then the insurance profile will be different than that for a bike that is only used for professional racing. Transport on car racks involves certain breakage risks, and any bike that is left in a car park or driveway is at risk of both theft and damage by vehicles.

One way to insure a bicycle is with standard home and contents policies, or for professional cyclists there may be business type insurance policies that cover the bike as a part of insured equipment. However, there are some sound arguments for using a specialist bicycle insurer and bicycle specific insurance policy. As noted above, expensive bicycles have expensive parts or accessories, and there are often limits on what will be covered by home and contents policies. There can also be significant variability between the cost of insurance policies, and so shopping around is essential.

Joanne Lemke is a final year creative writing student at UOW, who is looking to break into the corporate copywriting space once she graduates and hopefully go on to eventually some day write a book around her other passions, namely business and financial changes.

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Everyone wants to make his or her first $1 million by 30, or so it seems. These days, making $1 million on your own accord, that is, without an inheritance or winning lottery ticket, can seem like a dream too good to be true.

However, this goal is certainly not impossible. With a combination of careful saving, audacious investing, and a large dose of patience, many have succeeded in making their first $1 million and a couple million after that too. Here we meet five people and hear their advice on how you can do the same.

The boring way

Jason, aged 45, explains that he made his first million ‘by saving and investing, then waiting a few decades’, or, as he rationalises, ‘the boring way’. Steadily working for various companies since the age of 22, Jason started earning 20K a year and today earns somewhere in the vicinity of 100K. Jason saved the majority of this, only splurging on a car and Mac laptop. Couple that with some smart investments in early purchases of Microsoft and Starbucks stocks, and you can see that earning $1 million is a task of much patience and sacrifice.

Enjoying the game

Terry, aged 30, recently hit $3 million in liquid net worth and explains that making money is like a game. ‘[I]f you enjoy playing it, then it becomes easier and easier with time’. Terry became saving as a high school graduate and college student, investing graduation monies into selling and reselling items online. After graduation, Terry started an eCommerce website alongside a job that paid 100K a year. His advice: ‘verse yourself on lots of different businesses [and p]lay for the long-term’.

Read up on it

Nathaniel, aged 32, hit the $1 million mark at aged 30, a big achievement coming from a farming family that struggled with their finances. As a teenager, Nathaniel saved money during the holidays by working for local businesses. He also started reading books on investing and money management, for example, by Robert Kiyosak. Buying his first home at 25, Nathaniel rented out two rooms, making a healthy profit and using the equity to invest in additional properties. As he notes sagely, ‘everything that I am doing is very long term’.

Buy and sell smart

Jodie, aged 38, has $3 million in net worth and exclaims that ‘it can be done’. Beginning at the age of 19, her simple philosophy is to buy and smell smart. At 19, she bought and sold clothes and cologne, making 3K. At 24, she did the same with Domain names, creating 100K. In recent times, she has invested in property and financial/auto stocks during the collapse, making upwards of $2 million. Her advice: ‘[y]ou just have to believe and keep parlaying to the next thing’.

Matching expenses with income

Elaine, aged 35, accumulated $1 million in net worth at the age of 30. She began saving as an investment bank analyst in a foreign country, working long hours and capitalising on a low local tax rate. Back in the US, she joined a private equity firm and began investing her liquid assets carefully in stocks. With a first child on the way, Elaine began to adjust her spending in line with increases in her wage income. She attributes her financial success to this mixture of careful spending and personal investment.

Note: some names have been changed.

Amy Hopkins is a university student and freelance writer who is interested in business. She has recently been reading up on managed funds.

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When you want to grow your money or just keep it safe, probably your first impulse is to look for a bank account that offers good interest rates and put it in there. This is how most of us will keep our money safe and amass a little interest over time, but are you really making the most of your cash when you put it away like that and forget about it? Could you be doing more with your cash or enjoying more benefits? Here we will look at how to get more from your money and how to choose the right account or service for you and your money.

Understanding Bank Accounts

Before you put your money into any account, you should make sure that you understand precisely what a bank account is and what it does. What you might not be aware of for instance, is that when you put your money into an account that money gets invested into properties, projects and businesses as though you were playing the stock market with it. The interest you accumulate is the customers’ cut of the profit the bank makes by making those investments.

Now generally this interest is pretty low in a current account, but you can make more interest by putting it into a range of savings accounts which generally make accessing your money more difficult. Because you take your money out of a savings account less frequently, the banks can make more profit from investing it and thus they can offer you higher APR (annual percentage rate). If you pay into an ISA that doesn’t allow regular access, then this will provide you with even higher interest.

Choosing the right bank account then should mean choosing the bank that you most trust, choosing the deal with the highest APR (make sure it’s cumulative interest) and choosing the one that offers the easiest access. In general you should also make sure that you have multiple bank accounts with different organizations. This will keep your money safer because it won’t all be in one ‘pot’ should anything happen to that bank, and it will also help you to keep track of your own money and to budget more wisely.

Other Options

The problem is though that with any bank account you will still only be taking a cut of the profit they get from investing your money – and a very small cut at that. There are ways you can increase this amount further though, which include investing yourself in stocks and shares (or bonds) or alternatively using something like a self-managed super fund which means essentially teaming up with some other people to invest your cash jointly and choose which investments you want to make.

There are also other ways you can keep your money safe which provide other benefits or which are more suitable for particular groups. For instance if you run a large business and are worried about potential bankruptcy you might be interested in asset protection in which case you may be interest in a Swiss Annuity which pays you back your own money with interest over a set duration. If you need to take out life insurance to protect your family meanwhile, then life assurance policies can help you to invest your cash while at the same time protecting your family and could be a great way to protect your family.

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