Interested in investing for the long term? Can’t figure out a suitable option? Your primary aim is to get a decent return on your investments. Risks do exist in the financial world, which you can mitigate by diversifying your portfolio and combing the available options together.

The time period associated with long term investments is around 7 years or greater. Generally, you are on the lookout for return rates averaging to 8 % to 8.5%. High risks are expected for some of the options, but are usually acceptable because the returns are also worthy.

Before proceeding ahead, educate yourself on the various options available, and accordingly make a decision. Let’s walk you through the best choices for long term investments in Australia.

Savings Account

A savings account offers an interest rate of only 1% to 3%, but is still utilised by many Australians, simply because it is risk-free. You deposit a certain amount from your income monthly, over which interest is compounded.
You can open up a savings account with any bank of your choice, and can manage it through the offered app.

Bonds

Bonds are type of a loan, issued by the government and companies in an attempt to raise money. Investors lend an amount to the issuer of the bond for a certain time period during which they receive a return regularly. The return rates associated with bonds are higher than savings accounts.

Gold

Gold is a popular long term investment option, especially for those looking to diversify their portfolios. Gold always tends to maintain its values and cannot default unlike fiat currencies, which makes it a suitable investment option when economic disturbances and fluctuations are prevalent in the financial market. In such scenarios, gold responds differently compared to other assets, which helps you mitigate risks.

Investment advisors at goldbullionaustralia.com.au suggest that gold should ideally take up around 10% or more of your investment portfolio, but there can be variations. Once the value increases and you start realising returns, you can sell gold through simple processes to generate a profit.

Shares

If you invest in shares, it means you are a partial owner of the company. Your wealth grows when share prices increase and when you’re paid dividends. Shares are a risky investment option, and so it can be hard to figure out the ones that would maximise returns.

Property

Buying and selling property is a common investment strategy in Australia. You get money from the profits earned on the sale or as a regular income, if you rent out the unit or land. Property investment has become riskier these days, but you can address them through numerous ways.

Term Deposits

Terms deposits are god way to accomplish your long term saving goals. You put your money into a term deposit, which is then tied down for a certain period. Choose any suitable period from between 1 year and 5 years, keeping in mind that you won’t be able to make any withdrawals during this time. You earn an interest during this period, and aren’t allowed to make any withdrawals.

So which of these options have you already invested in? Do let us know what works best for you.

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The time is actually right and perfect for the primary buyers. Since 2007, as per the mortgage lenders council news, first, buyers have achieved the high ranking. Offcourse, as per the recent surveys did, the primary buyer is still facing some ups and downs when it comes to the buying of the property. According to MyVoucherCodes.co.uk poll, primary buyers relied on their current banks for lending instead of finding a mortgage deal in the market. The following tips are beneficial if you are new to buying a property and all ifs and about would be answered.

1. The 95% mortgage with unbelievable deals and rates for the first time buyers, you have to be realistic by thinking above the deposit to save some. There are lots of hidden costs included in buying a new property in London, such as surveying fees, solicitors, removal man and also you are eligible for paying new home stamp duty fee. Stamp duty is active in UK sand depends solely on the property price, in the UK the cost is around £125,000 and above.

2. There are many people involved in the property buying with whom you have to deal other than mortgage worker. The first one is the real estate agent and the second is the one that helps you in sale process- solicitors. You should contact a local solicitor if you are moving to a new area such as to north from London. The local solicitor is more informed about the local area, developments, and issues and can help you accordingly. They can give you in in-depth property information that makes the buying easy for you. If you are moving to north eats, contact the local solicitor of the new castle. Always go for the mouth of mouth, such recommendations are quite helpful in getting the right person for the right job.

3. People get trapped in mortgaged because of the knowledge gap according to the research of MyVoucherCodes. Always do your homework before accepting any mortgage, it can please you but might ruin you completely. You should evaluate its worth in the coming years and make sure whether it’s the best for you or no. Increase your knowledge about mortgages and know the difference between a variable, fixed and tracker before you make a final decision.

4. When you are done with a search of your dream house, make sure about its freehold or leasehold. Freehold homes and flats mean you own the property but not the land on which it is built. You can face a difficult situation in future when you are planning to sell the property, as you might inquire service charges subject to the lease length time.

5. At last, once you got your dream house, your next search is for furniture and other essential things. You must have some in hand if not then try gumtree, freecycle and eBay to get bargain items rather then getting financial stress. That’s human nature when we have a new house we want everything to be new. But in reality this is not possible every time, always fill the house with essential things first and then move on.

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The life of a landlord is a life of intense micromanagement. In order to keep many tenants happy, you are required to ensure that everything is maintained well from week to week. Not only that, but it’s a strange business to be a part of. There aren’t many other industries in which things may proceed routinely and without necessary interference for months, only to have every problem surface in one fell swoop. If you’re not prepared, you can be overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of responsibility you have to deal with.

Financially handling the life of a landlord could be considered another thing entirely. It’s important to know that while profitable, a landlord must invest as carefully as they profit. The income flow is relatively stable, but the outgoings could differ wildly from month to month. There are many reasons as to why this is, but seemingly less methods to control those fluctuations. In order to manage your finances well, it pays to know how to operate. Within time you will get the hang of this, but new landlords especially can find themselves overcome with financial burden in a business they once assumed to be smooth sailing.

The following tips may just help you make better decisions in this field:

Take Money Matters Seriously

Many landlords prefer to cultivate slightly less-than-ideal tenants so they do not risk a tenant leaving. This is because that can often lead to a lack of income for a month or many months as new tenants need to be found. This can be relatively wise. A tenant who pays on time might not clean as well, and that’s certainly more ideal than a supremely clean tenant who never pays on time. However, taking money matters seriously is essential. After all, you’re not in this business for the charity of it.

A good way to strike a happy medium between legal backing and solid tenant relationships is to lay out exactly the methodology your tenant must follow. You can clearly define these terms in your tenancy agreement template. This means clearly laying out late payment charges, perhaps asking for a form of security income in case they do not pay (such as a guarantor,) or even asking for months of rent in advance. It might mean asking for lower, more frequent payments to keep the cash flow effective, or even to ask for tri-yearly instalments to cover the future.

Taking money matters seriously is important to be respected as a landlord. Let one-time slide and you can, unfortunately, set yourself up for this to be the norm. It’s always best to cover yourself, so try to ask for at least one month’s rent in advance before your tenant moves in. This gives you a buffering time to evict if they neglect to pay on time, and keep your cash flow active. As a landlord you must always be thinking about sustainable income, and plan in advance for this.

Set Limits

As a landlord, you must also invest in your properties. This is a no-brainer. While it might be that the light bulbs should be replaced by a tenant, the bigger responsibilities are yours to handle. After all, this is your property. Now, you should set some hard and fast limits here. Let’s say the sofa in your property has a spring loose, and your tenants are demanding a new one. It might be perfectly reasonable to simply repair the sofa using a professional upholstery service, rather than outright spending thousands on a new fixture.

It might be that you choose to steam clean a mattress rather than purchase a new one. After all, as long as you’re providing a habitable, nice and clean standard of living, you should not be troubled into wasting money on unwise investments. It can also be wise to adjust rent over time to stay more compatible with inflation and the rising cost of living.

It might also be that within your contract you stipulate that utility usage is on an unlimited tariff. Of course, this should be subject to fair use. For example, a tenant who keeps their heating on full blast over the winter might find the property wonderful and comfortable to live in. When it comes to reading the electricity bill, you might have an argument to give. ‘Fair use’ is the sacred mantra for all tenants offering a form of unlimited payment. This allows tenants to stay responsible for unfair action, and prevent you from wiping your monthly profits simply trying to pay the bills.

Also, consider damage. Damage to property is something that is completely on the shoulders of your tenants. While you might allow for a lick of paint or cleaning out of good investing faith to cultivate the relationship, deeper damages may require you to bill the tenants or punish their security deposit. Do not be afraid to do this in the interest of being a ‘friendly landlord.’ You are a business, not a charity. Your tenants are allowed a license to your home, but it’s still your asset, and any damage could be considered vandalism within punitive laws if not rectified financially.

With these correct limits set, you have a much greater chance of setting the clear parameters within which your tenants operate.

Savings & Excess Funding

Things will go wrong. It might be you experience a hefty leak in two of your buildings on the same morning, and the carpet damage will take professional care to fix. It might be that you need to relocate a certain tenant to ensure their home is fixed. In these instances, heavy investment is required. This can be debilitating. However, if you’ve been smart about this, you will likely have at least a buffer of savings for you to dip into and try to improve your standing.

Financially handling this might be difficult, but by nesting away your profits you can potentially keep the sustainable profit going long term. Just as someone investing in automotive repair to allow them the potential of getting to work and earning, you must keep a ‘sustenance’ funding supply of sufficient breadth. This ‘rainy and annoying day’ fund will give you the means to keep your assets working for you, rather than against you. It also helps sustain tenants who see you take affirmative action in their interest.

With these small tidbits of advice, financially handling the life of a landlord will become that little bit easier.

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The idea of having an investment portfolio may conjure up images of suited and booted individuals, well-coiffed, pinstriped and ready for a day on the trading floor. While you may wish to invest in stocks and shares, you don’t have to be a professional to do it. Many novice investors are now choosing to speculate on a range of financial ventures rather than allow their tasty little nest eggs to accrue only the minimal interest as they wallow in savings accounts. Take a look at these options that you could explore to build your very own investment portfolio.

Property

Nearly everyone has a friend nowadays who has purchased a second property to rent out. Becoming a landlord is getting easier with the emergence of companies like 719Rent.com who will allow you to relinquish the practical responsibilities of being a landlord and just recoup the financial rewards. For a small fee, they will screen your tenants, sort out any maintenance issues and always remain up to date with current relevant legislation.

All you need to worry about is sourcing the property in the first place. It’s a good idea to stick to well established rental areas with high-quality housing stock. If you can purchase the worst pad on the best street and carry out some minor renovations, you can also outperform the market. Long-term, property is a sound investment if you ensure that the rental payments you receive each month cover your mortgage costs.

Cryptocurrency

While you won’t want to place all of your monetary eggs into the bitcoin basket, you could still jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon by using an exchange like the ones mentioned at techradar.com. The rollercoaster ride is not for the faint-hearted as daily falls in value can be as much as 35%, but equally astronomic rises have also been well documented. With Bitcoin ending 2017 at a value of nearly $20,000, it’s obvious why novice investors want a piece of the action. If you do invest in Ripple, Ethereum or Bitcoin, you need to keep abreast of the fluctuations daily and buy and sell at the right time. This is made difficult by a volatile market and no accurate way of forecasting values in the future.

Wine

The idea of investing in wine may seem like a novelty and a tad odd, but people have been doing it for decades. If you can do your research and locate a decent vintage year such as a 1982 Beaujolais or a 1991 Riesling, you could be onto a sound long-term investment. Buy a case or two, store it at a central facility and sit on your investment of wine. As the vintage becomes more scarce, it will gain an antique like quality, and plenty of wine collectors will pay top dollar for your rare bottles.

Having a portfolio of investments means spreading your risk. While you might want to have a dabble down all of these investment avenues, ensure that you hold some money back in your savings account for a rainy day and always keep your eye out for new and exciting ventures.

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Generally speaking, the kind of people who focus on retirement tend to be those who are fast approaching retirement age. But this doesn’t have to be the case! In fact, more people really should start thinking about their retirement sooner rather than later. You’re not going to be able to work forever, and when the day comes that you deserve to kick back and relax, breaking ties with the nine to five working world, you’re going to want to be able to live as comfortable a lifestyle as possible. This can only be made possible by having sufficient finances. Now, a retirement plan will be able to put all of this in place for you. But it’s always good to have a few ideas stored away and a few tricks up your sleeve just in case you find yourself in need of a little extra cash when retirement does come around. Here are just a few to keep tucked away in your mind.

Reverse Mortgages

By the time you’re looking at retirement, you may think that mortgages are a thing of the past. Hopefully, you will have already paid yours off. However, it’s always good to be aware that if you are looking for extra cash to make your retirement more comfortable, you can always take some equity back out of your property without having to sell up. This is where a reverse mortgage can come into play. In order to know exactly how much you can gain from a reverse mortgage, you will have to have a fair amount of personal information. This may include your property’s value, it’s age, and any repairs that it may need to be carried out. Your own age at the time of taking out the reverse mortgage would also be taken into account. However, for a more general idea of the money you could hope for, you can always use reverse mortgage calculator aarp.

Savings Accounts

We’ve all been taught since we were little that we should save a little cash for a rainy day. Well, believe it or not, there are likely to be more and more rainy days the longer you’ve been out of work. Many people find themselves becoming increasingly bored and wanting to treat themselves to something a little special to put a smile back on their faces. Savings accounts can provide these little extra boosts for occasional pick me ups. So open an account as soon as possible. Deposit money in it regularly. This can be a relatively small amount. Something that you won’t notice missing. The cash that you’d usually fritter away on bits and bobs that you really don’t need. However, these small amounts really will mount up over time, and way down the line, when you finally dip into the cash, you’ll really thank yourself for it.

These are just a couple of ways that you can make yourself a little comfier and more content in retirement when the time does roll around. While retirement may not be top of your priorities right now, it could take up a large part of your life, so keep it in the back of your mind at all times.

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