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Are you interested in investing in penny stocks? The stock market today is a good place to find these shares. Penny stocks have been both popular and unpopular over the past years and a lot of people have different ideas about whether you should buy them or not. By definition, it’s not a stock that is actually worth a penny, but rather that it is offered by a small to medium sized company. Nowadays, their value can even go up to $5 per share of the stock.

What is the definition of a penny stock?

The value of penny stocks is so low that they are not often seen on the regular stock exchanges for purchase and they are not monitored by the same government organizations that put strict requirements on traded stocks. This is one of the big reasons why penny stocks are more risky than regular ones.

Penny stocks are also risky because you must pay “over the counter” for them — in other words you get a quote for a specific stock and place an order. You don’t know how successful that company will be and it’s a bit like playing a lottery that has been fixed by the person running it.

The “pink sheet” market

Pink papers that penny stocks are often printed on, and on the NASDAQ, are the reason why these are often called “pink sheets”. Often you can lose a great amount of money on these stocks by investing in a share that you think will be successful, but it actually goes down or is removed from the market. It’s often hard to tell whether you are the one who got a company about to fail or whether yours will succeed.

Always do your research

When investing in stocks, it makes sense to invest in companies that inspire you. If you want to invest in penny stocks on the stock market today, then this is also possible, but it is still better to invest in a company that you think will succeed for other reasons.

For instance, if you had known that Apple’s iPod would have been so successful in advance, then you might have bought stocks in a small semiconductor factory in China, hoping it would be the one that would take up Apple’s business. This is how some penny stocks move from being a small or medium business to more valuable stocks that are now a successful corporation.

When you do your research in the stock market, you often come across trends that show which types of companies will succeed. This is often related to socio-economic, geo-political, environmental and many other factors. Having a good understanding of these topics, and much more, especially such as history, philosophy, science, engineering and so on, will help you evaluate which stocks are better to invest in, even if they are penny stocks.

The more your knowledge of world events, the less likely that your penny stocks and the stock market today will seem like a mystery or fortune telling.

Everyone needs to know their credit score. Credit scores are vital to getting just about anything in life these days, from a car whose interest won’t put you in an early grave, to a job that won’t work your fingers to the bone – actually, with a bad credit score, you’ll be lucky to get a job at all. Thus, monitoring your credit score is essential. One way to do this is to get a free credit report from one of the three credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Each individual is allowed one free annual credit report from each of these companies each year.

What’s on a credit report?

Your credit report will show your Credit history. Your credit history will display any outstanding loans, late payments, bankruptcies, or defaulted loans that have been sent to collection agencies. Sometimes, because nothing is perfect, your credit history will contain errors, such as a debt that was closed, or a bankruptcy that should have been dropped. If this happens, you can dispute the error, which gives the credit bureau 30 days to verify the disputed item. Often, it doesn’t take quite that long, and your credit score can improve drastically by removing these errors. Your credit report can be acquired from any of the three credit bureaus by visiting annualcreditreport.com, and submitting a request for your credit score from one, or all of the bureaus. Unfortunately, you can only get one per year. After that, you must either seek out alternative places to obtain your credit score, or possibly pay to receive it.

Credit Score

Just what makes up your credit score? Your credit score, also known as your FICO score, is comprised of several different things, each carrying different weights. Carrying the most weight is your payment history, at 35% contribution to the credit score. Thus, several missed payments can severely impact your credit score. Next, with a 30% contribution is debt. Your Credit Age, which is how old your credit is, contributes 15%. Generally, the older your credit is, the more stable it’s considered to be. 10% of your score comes from account diversity – having experience with different kinds of debt can actually improve your score. Finally, searching for new credit, such as applying for new loans or credit cards, contributes 10% to your credit score. Each new inquiry into your credit can have an impact on your score – and it’s not always positive.
What happens if you get a negative credit score? You can be turned down for jobs, car loans, home loans, or even insurance. There are ways to turn your credit around, however. The first is to check your credit score to get rid of any inaccuracies. You can report discrepancies to the credit bureaus, who will then verify it. Once those are resolved the next best thing you can do is make your payments on time, and make sure that you don’t let anything go to collections. It takes a long time, but continuing to make your payments on time will eventually improve your credit score.

Where to Get Your Credit Score?

Unfortunately, your credit score is not available on your free credit report. You can, however, access this credit score for free by using some online services, such as FreeCreditScore.com and CreditKarma.com. These services let you access your credit score for free either by enrolling in a free trial for a credit monitoring program, or by participating in offers from paid sponsors. FreeCreditScore.com is perhaps the best known of these services, thanks to the commercials with catchy jingles, sung by a band who warns of the dangers of not checking your credit score. There are other places where you can find your free credit score, as well, and they are easily found with a simple search. Beware, however, for there are numerous scams – so make sure you research a place before you submit sensitive information to any website.

Novated leasing is a contemporary manner in which a motor vehicle can be leased to an employee,
avoiding many of the common drawbacks associated with vehicle purchases or ‘company cars.’ Novated
leasing sees a tri-partisan agreement, with the vehicle leased by an employer who makes the lease
payments to a lease company and deducts the payments out of the employee’s pre-taxable income.
Novated leasing is an Australian innovation to provide benefits for all the parties involved.
Novated leasing allows employees the potential for significant income tax savings, providing all the
benefits of a new car at a lower cost as it essentially means that an employee makes repayments before
income tax is calculated on their wage. Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) applies to novated leases,which
considers many different aspects of a vehicle, not simply the purchase price, allowing competitive tax
advantages. Novated leasing can provide a viable measure for employee cost savings. It also compares
well when considered against a company car arrangement, as it provides greater flexibility to the employee,
including the arrangement that if termination with the current employer ceases the employee maintains the
car, taking over the lease payments from their previous employer, meaning they do not lose access to their
vehicle. An employee with a novated lease can salary sacrifice a portion of their wage to lease their vehicle
secure in the knowledge that they are contributing to their own future by investing in the vehicle, as they
retain any equity invested in the vehicle, rather than the employer maintaining the rights, as happens with a
company car scheme. Novated leasing also provides a significantly cheaper method for comprehensive car
insurance, saving the insurer substantial savings year on year. If an employer develops a novated leasing
scheme for many employees there is also the availability of volume discounts, leading to increased savings
for the employee.
Leasing through a novating third-party provides benefits for employers too; employee salaries can
be made more attractive by including a novated lease as part of a package, with little extra cost to the
employer and leased vehicles are considered less of a financial risk and burden than company cars. The
employer does not have to manage a fleet of company vehicles and assumes no real risk on the vehicle, as
all costs and repayments are the responsibility of the employee. The employer can also claim and Input Tax
Credit (ITC) for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the vehicle, making a novated lease GST
advantageous, as the purchase amount of the vehicle, effectively the sum borrowed from the Leaser, does
not include GST, which would be added to the amount if the car was purchased directly. Novated leases
require less administration time and costs than comparable company cars as the majority of the details are
administered by the third-party leasing organisation rather than the employer. Novated Lease vehicles are
also considered off balance sheet, as they are the liability of the employee, rather than the employer, a
marked difference to company cars.
While novated leases may not be for everyone, for those who want the surety and prestige of a
new car which they can call their own, this financing scheme provides a viable method to ensuring an
investment in motor vehicle equity. For the large proportion of the population, not only people on large
salaries driving expensive cars, this method of financing a vehicle can help them get ahead.
Novated leases are an ideal way for employees and employers to both benefit, with the employee able to
choose from the latest range of vehicles, be it an environmentally-friendly Toyota Prius, adventurous
Subaru Forester, an Australian-made Holden Commodore or even transport of the two wheeled variety if
motorbikes are to their taste. A novated lease allows sustainable repayments and the knowledge that end
of the lease period a car is available for the acknowledged residual value, a surety that employers,
employees and leasing agents can appreciate.

Everyone needs to know their credit score. Credit scores are vital to getting just about anything in life these days, from a car whose interest won’t put you in an early grave, to a job that won’t work your fingers to the bone – actually, with a bad credit score, you’ll be lucky to get a job at all. Thus, monitoring your credit score is essential. One way to do this is to get a free credit report from one of the three credit bureau: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Each individual is allowed one free annual credit report frome each of these companies each year.

What’s on a credit report?

Your credit report will show your Credit history. Your credit history will display any outstanding loans, late payments, bankruptcies, or defaulted loans that have been sent to collection agencies. Sometimes, because nothing is perfect, your credit history will contain errors, such as a debt that was closed, or a bankruptcy that should have been dropped. If this happens, you can dispute the error, which gives the credit bureau 30 days to verify the disputed item. Often, it doesn’t take quite that long, and your credit score can improve drastically by removing these errors.

Identity Theft

One thing that a free annual credit report can protect against is identity theft. Identity theft is when an individual’s identifying information, such as social security number, credit card numbers, and that information is then used fraudulently. Often, theives will take out loans or apply for credit cards using the victim’s information. Thankfully, this will show up on a credit report, allowing the victim to dispute the fraudulent activitiy. There is a problem, however, and that is depending on the *one* free annual report. Theives can strike at any time, and your credit may have taken a severe hit by the time you find it on the annual report. What, then, are you supposed to do? It can get very expensive to continue ordering credit reports, but fortunately, there’s another option.

Credit Monitoring Services

Credit monitoring Services are available to help protect your identity between annual reports. These services consistently check your credit to ensure that someone is not fraudently opening lines of credit in your name. By monitoring your credit score and history at one or all three of the credit bureaus, they check for suspicious activity, and then usually send you an email, text, or give you a phone call to alert you to the possibility that someone is committing fraud in your name. These services do cost money, however, with most running $10-$15 a month, or more, depending on exactly how closely they monitor your credit. Financial experts disagree whether these services are worth the money that an individual must pay. What they do agree on, however, is that these services are a good idea for someone that has already suffered from identity theft, or fears that their credit and identity has already been compromised.

Do-it-yourself Alternatives

There are some ‘free’ alternatives for those who just don’t believe that forking over $15 a month is worth the protection that the services offer. In addition to the free annual reports, you can place a 90 day fraud alert on your credit, if you believe that your identity has been compromised. This alerts you every time someone checks your credit, or starts an account in your name.  You can further protect your credit by paying to enact a credit freeze, which completely prevents anyone from checking your credit, or taking out a loan in your name. Unfortunately, this prevents creditors from accessing your credit, too, which may make it difficult if you want to buy a car during the freeze – and it costs money to place the freeze, and to lift it.