Putting your savings and investing on a set schedule also removes the potential for making poor choices about the timing of investments buys. Absolute market timing is rarely possible and often has more bad outcomes than good ones. There are too many unknowns that come into play when trying to find the best time to buy and sell stock, but buying shares of mutual funds with a SIP can have mighty long-term results....

The Mechanics of Mutual Fund Distributions The way funds pay their distributions is slightly complex, but it’s important to understand how they work so that you can avoid unnecessary headaches. There are two main types of distributions: dividends and capital gains. Dividends With dividends, funds collect income from their holdings, and they retain this income until they pay it out to shareholders. With bond funds, this income is typically passed along to investors once a month; in a stock fund, payouts can occur once, twice, or four times a year....

The vast percentage of futures contracts liquidate prior to the delivery period. Only a small number of these contracts go through the actual delivery process. Successful futures contracts depend on convergence, the process by which futures prices converge with physical prices at the expiration of the futures contract or delivery date. While futures prices are highly correlated with the underlying physical commodity price during the life of the futures contract, that correlation is not perfect until delivery....

Where they differ is that investors can trade ETFs throughout the day rather than only at the end of trading, and ETFs tend to have lower fees. There are ETFs that focus on all sorts of things, such as index ETFs that track a market index; actively-managed funds that aim to beat the market; funds that focus on income and dividends; and funds for everything in between. If you have a specific investment strategy, there’s likely an ETF out there for you....

High-Yield Savings Account A high-yield savings account is a deposit account that offers a higher interest rate than traditional savings accounts you might find at brick-and-mortar banks. Typically offered by credit unions and online banks, a high-yield savings account will pay you several times the national average of savings accounts. If you open one, you can make regular deposits and access your money through withdrawals or transfers to linked bank accounts....

Chip Somodevilla / Staff/Getty Images Chopra, the FTC commissioner named by Democratic President-elect Joe Biden on Monday to head the CFPB, served as the CFPB’s student loan ombudsman shortly after the agency was established, and was later its assistant director, leading its efforts on student loans. “Rohit Chopra is an incredibly strong pick to lead the CFPB,” Rachel Weintraub, legislative director and general counsel of the Consumer Federation, an advocacy group, wrote in an email....

Learn more about how to calculate this ratio, what it tells you, and how investors use it to guide their decisions. What Is Book Value per Share? Book value per share is one way of gauging the value of a stock. To better understand book value per share, it helps to break down each aspect of the ratio. The book value is the total equity, or net asset value, of a company....

Each of these two options has its benefits and drawbacks. Building a home, for example, can be time-consuming and expensive. When you buy a home, you’re limited to the available inventory. The best choice for you will come down to your own preferences for cost, time frame, and a few other factors. What’s the Difference Between Building a House and Buying One? Per the U.S. Census, the median sales price of new single-family homes in 2020 was $336,900, while the average sales price was $391,900....

To restructure a business successfully, a debtor must make strategic, fundamental changes to the company and also have the resources to conduct major upheaval. Historically, most successful restructures are carried out by large businesses, while small businesses have gone from bankruptcy to liquidation. However, a recently enacted federal law called the Small Business Reorganization Act (SBRA) aims to reduce restructuring costs for individuals and small firms. Learn how business restructuring really works and how it could help get back your business back on its feet....

When interest rates jumped to 18% in the early 1980s, many buyers were forced out of the real estate market, and creative financing sprang to life out of that need. A lot of homes for sale were advertised with the initials OWC, meaning the owner will carry (the owner financing). During this time period, anything and everything was done under the guise of creative financing. The pace was so frantic that many agents did not stop to consider whether the types of deals they were putting together were legal much less ethical....

Defining the Net Operating Income Metric Net operating income serves as a way to analyze the viability of a real estate investment property. Finding a property’s net operating income means figuring out how much money it brings in after covering all of its expenses and accounting for unrented time periods and expenses for maintenance and operations. While NOI can change over time as the property’s revenue and expenses fluctuate, lenders and creditors still find NOI to provide valuable information about whether the property earns enough income to support payments on its debt....

Some debts become time-barred after a certain amount of time. This time period, known as the statute of limitations, depends on the type of debt you have and varies by state. For the majority of debts, the time period ranges from three to six years. Once a debt is time-barred, it’s no longer legally enforceable. There are some things you can do to revive the debt and restart the clock for time-barred debts....

If you want to regain possession of your vehicle, you’re going to have to pony up the cash as soon as possible. The reason your vehicle was repossessed is that you were financially negligent, so to correct for that, you’ll have to do some quick catching up. Ways to Get Your Repossessed Vehicle Back Pay your back payments plus fees (varies by state and contract) Redeem your vehicle by paying it off in full Buyback your vehicle at auction Agree to an electronic disabling device File for bankruptcy...

skynesher / Getty Images Find out more about how to buy a foreclosure with an FHA loan, what the rules are, and the pros and cons of taking this route. Can You Buy a Foreclosure With an FHA Loan? Yes, you can buy a foreclosure with an FHA loan. The FHA offers mortgages that allow borrowers—even those with less-than-perfect credit—to have down payments as low as 3.5%. Although there are stringent property requirements and potential downsides to an FHA loan compared to a conventional loan, buyers can use FHA loans to purchase a foreclosed home as long as the home meets FHA standards....

Let’s take a look at how to get a mortgage without a job, what it looks like when shopping for one, and the downsides to acquiring a mortgage while unemployed. Mortgage-Shopping While Unemployed There is a wide variety of mortgages available for every type of customer. Specific requirements will differ, depending on the loan you’re seeking, but income is a pretty universal criterion in order to be approved. That said, it’s still possible to get a mortgage while unemployed; banks can and will consider nontraditional methods of funding your loan....

Oscar Wong / Getty Images The answers to these questions can be complicated by differences in state laws, rental companies, and coverage policies. Plus, some types of damage may also be covered by other types of insurance, such as health insurance or a homeowners policy. Learn the basics to get a sense of whether you need to purchase insurance, and so you know which questions to ask before renting....

Prepaid debit cards and paper checks are hitting the mail, set to arrive within the coming weeks, while a new round of direct deposits are scheduled for an official payment date of Wednesday, March 24. If you don’t receive a direct deposit by this date, your relief will most likely arrive in the form of a debit card or paper check. The $1,400-per-person payments—one of the major provisions of the American Rescue Plan relief bill—are meant to help struggling households and jump-start the economy as it recovers from the pandemic....

Learn how much college can cost and how to navigate college financial planning. Understanding How Much College Costs Although no one college education costs the same, you can start by looking at the average cost of tuition and fees. Room and boardBooksSchool suppliesA computer and other technologyLiving essentials like towels and bedding if living away from home To prepare for these costs, it helps to research all the schools you want to apply to and compare their tuition and fees....

For the purpose of filing a claim, your car insurance policy must define a “collision” very clearly. Your car must hit either with another car or it must come into contact with an inanimate object, such as a fence, guard rail, pothole, or pole. How Collision Coverage Works Most states have laws that require all drivers to have some degree of insurance coverage if they plan to drive a vehicle in the state, often to cover bodily harm and liability for property damage....

One tendency is that the stock market can become less volatile, flatten out, and see less volume in and around the New York lunch hour. Many day traders stop trading about half an hour to an hour before this slowdown kicks in and don’t trade again until well after the lunch hour, when volatility and volume pick up again. Other Common Tendencies 9:30 a.m.: The stock market opens, and there is an initial push in one direction....