Moneywise24 Personal Finance

Stock market sure have been on a roller coaster ride lately. First the terrible unfortunate events in Japan and the Middle East caused markets to rapidly decline, after which they recovered for the most part. At a later point, concerns over Greece took over, and stock market took a dive starting in April.

Earlier this week, the Greek parliament agreed on cost-cutting measurements, which was confirmed by a second agreement today. This decision frees the way for further financial support, such as today’s agreement between the German government and banks to support Greece with an additional 3.2 billion Euros.

One thing is certain: markets are emotionally loaded. Fear, relief, and euphoria seem to dominate the daily trends. As of yesterday, many markets are back on a rise due to relief regarding the situation in Greece.

But will this last? That is the question.

Although the economy has improved in many areas, many areas are still having a hard time, such as housing or unemployment. Markets have recovered greatly from the recession, many stocks having exceeded its pre-recession prices, but economic recovery is still in progress.

It is hard to really look at where the markets are going; they are extremely emotionally loaded at the moment, and they move according to what is “hot” and what is “not”. On the short term, markets may recover from the decline over the past weeks, and months. But will markets keep the positive trend and recover further? Read the rest of this entry →

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There are many different ways to invest; all offers available today make the world of investments one big jungle, and it is hard to keep up with developments. There are tens of thousands of stocks to choose from, countless derivate products (with new products being introduced regularly), bonds, mutual funds, hedge funds, speeders, sprinters, and the list goes on.

Although it might be fun to screen stocks and other market products, dig into their fundamentals and conducting extensive technical analyses, this is often not an option for people, who either have a limited understanding of investing, or who simply do not have the time. Additionally, investing in single stocks often requires some substantial amount of capital, which especially beginning investors do not have.

An alternative to picking individual stocks and investing several thousands of Dollars or Euros is to invest periodically and automatically. Automatic investing is usually applied with mutual funds. It simply means, that a specified amount is automatically taken from your account, and it is invested in a mutual fund of your choice. It happens automatic, without you having to do anything.

Although I am on top of the financial markets myself, and I like conducting analyses on stocks, I also do automatic investing. Automatic and periodical investing in mutual funds have a number of great benefits.

Small capital Read the rest of this entry →

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Tipping is often a sign for outstanding service, and I know that I usually tend to give a tip. But how much tipping is actually usual, or even expected?

Tipping for me is pretty much a dilemma: on the one side I am trying to live frugally, expecting a good service at a restaurant or bar to be included in the price, but on the other side I have this urge to give a tip for good service. I guess it is a cultural thing I have been brought up with.

In German, for example, tipping around 5% – 10% of the total price is fully accepted. In fact, this is about the rate in Europe in General. Although tipping in Europe is not mandatory, it is expected; not leaving a tip is a strong sign of not appreciating the service. In some countries, such as the Czech Republic, it is noted on the bill that a service charge is not included on the bill. However, this service charge is not included anywhere, and it is a sign that a tip is expected.

So, why do we tip anyway?

Personally, I find the entire concept of tipping very outdated. As the tip is a sign of outstanding service, the tip may be seen as an additional commission on top of the base salary. There are two criteria, which need to be fulfilled to make this possible: Read the rest of this entry →

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Whenever I do my shopping, I am always trying to find the right mix between paying a low price and getting as much as I can for that price. But how cheap can I go? In fact, what is cheap anyway, and what is fair?

I know I am not the only one. In the supermarket, I observe people fighting over the cheapest tomato. Or, where the pre-packaged and cheaper meat is sold out, the butcher is lacking customers due to its higher price; people will massively buy T-shirts or jeans as soon as they are on sale, and it does not seem to be of any relevance whether they actually need it or not.

So how does a jeans end up costing 15 EUR in some shops anyway? There is the cost for fabric, the cost for shipping, and last but not least the cost of labor.

Several documentaries brought me to the other side of the world: to Laos, to China, or India. I observed on television, how laborers in China sleep in tiny one room barracks, usually rooms are shared with two or three other roommates. Working hours are long, payment is little. Read the rest of this entry →

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Last week I was enjoying my annual leave to the fullest; I stayed home for the first part of the week (which motivated to write the article How To Spend A One Week Holiday At Home), in the second part of the week I visited the wonderful city of Prague, capital city of the Czech Republic,  with friends.

I can’t stress enough the great time we had. Architecture is absolutely stunning, the food is great, and Prague is quite an inexpensive city.

Actually, Prague can be inexpensive, but it can also get quite expensive. Me and my friends intuitively did all the right things to stay on a low budget as much as possible; I spent around 250 USD during the 3-night stay, and that is including the costs for the hotel.

During our stay, I recognized that we kept our expenses relatively low by looking at three key things. I guess it can be applied to many touristic destinations.

Hotel

Hotels can be quite expensive, and sometimes you pay a fortune for hotels that are crappy and dirty. Often, hotels located in the city center are simply too expensive. They know they can afford this, as many business people and more wealthy tourists want all touristic attractions around the corner.

We stayed in a hotel in the area called Karlín, which is directly next to the city center. We could either walk to the city center within 15 minutes, or take the metro for 2 stops. There was enough parking space for our car, and it was free. In addition, there as a supermarket in the area, and some restaurants and bars for a last drink before going to the hotel. Read the rest of this entry →

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