| Asset allocation can help protect your portfolio
Over time, the value of stocks can go up and down. Bond prices fluctuate with interest rates, as do other types of fixed-income securities such as certificates of deposit and investments in money-market accounts. Predicting which investment vehicles are likely to perform better than others at any given point time is next to impossible. So how do you choose investments for your portfolio? The answer is to follow a risk-reduction strategy called asset allocation. By dividing your dollars among a variety of investments, you can decrease the likelihood that all the investments in your portfolio decline at the same time. Of course, by the same token, it's also unlikely that every investment in your portfolio would go up at the same time. Essentially, asset allocation diversifies your portfolio among several distinct asset classes.
Repossessions on the rise, Inland auto lenders say
Massive jumps in payments on home loans and an economy that's taking a beating are creating work for auto repossessors, say those who lend money on vehicles, take them back and study the trend. Individuals in the repossession, finance and research businesses say repossessions are taking place in large numbers because in some households, higher mortgage payments and other credit difficulties are eating up the money that ordinarily would be used for car-loan payments. Tom Kontos is vice president of Adesa Analytical Services, a unit of with Adesa Corp., which owns auto auctions in Mira Loma and San Diego. He said repossessions are up about 15 percent from last year. .
Margareta Pagano: Can the Nicky Clarke of Threadneedle Street snip his way out of this credit crisis?
Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, is hunting for new haircuts. Not for his own distinctive locks but as a way of breaking the gridlock in the inter-bank lending market. Like any good hairdresser, King is looking at much sharper styles, ways of making his clients not just look good but start lending to each other again. A number one comes to mind. But more of that later. King himself is looking much snappier than he did only weeks ago. His performance at the Treasury Select Committee last week was far more fluent. Paradoxically, his openness to Parliament about the severity of the financial crisis actually cheered the markets up (The one-month Libor rate dropped a bit), as did his admission that interest rates would soon be cut. But it was King's disclosure that he is working with the big clearing banks to find radical ways to resolve the credit crunch that is winning him brownie points.
Money at work : Westpac Cash Plus Trust
Brad Cooper, chief executive of Westpac New Zealand. What is it called and what sort of savings product is it?
The Westpac Cash Plus Trust. What is the company behind it?
This new cash fund has been launched by Westpac Bank, and is managed by its subsidiary firm BT Funds Management. It is a fund structured under the new portfolio investment entity (PIE) tax rules. Who is the target market?
The trust is aimed at investors on the 33 or 39 per cent tax rates who want a low-risk, tax-efficient cash fund. What return does it offer?
Westpac won't put numbers around likely returns but says, "There is no promised or guaran- teed return on this product. The investment strategy is designed to give investors a pre-tax return comparable with wholesale term deposit rates after fees".
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