Investing can be a daunting task for anyone, especially for those who are new to the game. With a plethora of options available, it can be challenging to know where to start and what investment vehicles to choose.
One option that has gained popularity in recent years is listed investment companies (LICs). In this beginner’s guide, we’ll take a closer look at what LICs are and how they can be a valuable addition to your investment portfolio.
What are LICs?
LICs are publicly traded companies that invest in a diversified portfolio of assets, such as stocks, bonds, and real estate. They are similar to mutual funds, but instead of investing in the fund directly, you buy shares of the company that owns the assets.
This allows you to gain exposure to a variety of investments through a single stock, making it an easy and convenient option for those who want a simple and diversified investment portfolio.
Benefits of Investing in LICs
Diversification: As mentioned earlier, LICs offer a diversified portfolio of assets, which helps to spread risk and minimize the impact of any single investment.
Professional Management: LICs are managed by professional fund managers who have the expertise and experience to select and manage investments on your behalf.
Liquidity: LICs are listed on stock exchanges, making it easy to buy and sell shares, and providing you with the flexibility to make changes to your portfolio as needed.
Potential for Higher Returns: By investing in a diversified portfolio of assets, LICs have the potential to deliver higher returns than investing in individual stocks.
Lower Costs: Compared to other investment vehicles, LICs often have lower fees and expenses, which can result in higher returns for investors.
Risks of Investing in LICs
Market Risk: As with any investment, LICs are subject to market risk, which means that the value of your investment can go up or down depending on market conditions.
Credit Risk: LICs may invest in bonds, which are subject to credit risk. This means that if the issuer of the bond defaults on their debt, the value of your investment may decrease.
Management Risk: The success of a LIC depends on the ability of the fund manager to make good investment decisions. If the fund manager fails to perform, the value of your investment may be negatively impacted.
How to Invest in LICs
Research: Before investing in a LIC, it’s important to research the company and its portfolio of assets to ensure that it aligns with your investment goals and risk tolerance.
Consider the Fund Manager’s Track Record: Look at the fund manager’s track record to see how they have performed in the past and whether they have a history of delivering good returns.
Diversify Your Portfolio: As with any investment, it’s important to diversify your portfolio to minimize risk. Consider investing in multiple LICs to achieve a well-rounded and diversified investment portfolio.
Monitor Your Investments: Regularly monitor your investments and make changes as needed to ensure that your portfolio remains aligned with your investment goals.
In conclusion, LICs can be a valuable addition to your investment portfolio, offering the benefits of diversification, professional management, liquidity, and the potential for higher returns. However, it’s important to understand the risks involved and to do your research before investing. By following these tips, you can ensure that you make informed investment decisions and achieve your financial goals.
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Staking cryptocurrency is a growing trend since it allows individuals to generate passive income from their existing cryptocurrency holdings.
Making money in the crypto space can be done in several ways. You can join in DeFi and stake your cryptocurrencies, acquire and keep coins with the expectation of price appreciation, or trade on price speculation via crypto CFDs.
In this post, we will define staking and walk you through the steps necessary to begin staking your own coins.
What Is Crypto Staking? How Does Staking In Crypto Work?
By "locking up" assets to maintain the integrity of a cryptocurrency network, "staking" allows users to receive a passive income from their cryptocurrency holdings without ever having to sell their coins. Investing in cryptocurrency through staking is equivalent to putting money into a high-interest savings account.
Staking allows cryptocurrency networks to obtain consensus on the status of transactions via a proof of stake mechanism, with the tokens themselves acting as a kind of internal security rather than the computer power and electricity consumed by the network.
This is demonstrated by the success of proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies like Cardano, Solana, and Polkadot in the cryptocurrency market. These networks are able to process a high volume of transactions with low transaction fees because of the various staking mechanisms they employ.
Blockchain infrastructures benefit from this because they become more adaptable, affordable to users, and eco-friendly. Besides improving cryptocurrency's safety, scalability, and efficiency, staking lets its owners make passive revenue.
To maximize their returns, many long-term holders are taking advantage of staking rewards. Staking, however, has some negatives, such as a reduced ability to sell assets swiftly in the event of a market downturn.
The network chooses validators according to the number and age of tokens they have staked. Staking more tokens for a longer period of time increases the likelihood of getting chosen as a validator.
Users that have a lesser portion of tokens have a decreased likelihood of contributing to the network's security and earning incentives as a result of their participation. Because of this, users with a lower stake make use of staking pools so that they can take part in the network.
Staking Pool Definition
To increase their chances of being chosen to validate blocks and receive block rewards, cryptocurrency network users can form staking pools by pooling their funds with other users.
Those who have stakes in the pool receive a proportional share of the block reward based on the sum of stakes they own. Staking pools, therefore, often result in lower payouts than individual staking. In contrast to the reliable and predictable payouts from staking pools, solo staking involves a significant investment in the crypto network.
Operators of staking pools, typically cryptocurrency exchanges, are in charge of maintaining the network's validator nodes. Participants in the pool are obligated to store their funds at a predetermined public blockchain address. The pool has a nominal price for this convenience.
Other options enable users to stake money from their wallets directly into pools. Cold staking is one method that allows users to participate in pools while still using their hardware wallet.
Users who don't feel comfortable managing and running their own node but still want to contribute to the security of the cryptocurrency network can do so through staking pools.
Why Is Staking Limited To Some Cryptocurrencies?
Whether or not a cryptocurrency network supports staking depends on the consensus process used.
Many cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Litecoin, are not stackable because of the consensus method they employ. The double-spending issue that plagued early attempts with digital currency is resolved by crypto networks thanks to their consensus processes.
These consensus procedures are resilient in the face of opposition because of the careful economics they employ. The economics of the first cryptocurrency networks relied on mining, the mechanism through which nodes competed to solve cryptographic challenges with computational power.
Tokens and transaction fees are awarded to the node that verifies the right set of transactions and solves the cryptographic issue first. Bitcoin mining has come under fire due to concerns over its impact on the world's energy supply.
Later, in 2012, Peercoin's developer presented the notion of staking as a solution to the problems with the proof of work consensus mechanism. By risking their tokens, nodes demonstrate their support for the right set of transactions without having to solve complicated cryptographic challenges. Staking is only possible in cryptocurrencies because only they use this particular consensus methodology.
However, in order to attain consensus, several cryptocurrencies use a hybrid approach, combining proof of stake with proof of work. Bitcoin and Litecoin are examples of very straightforward cryptocurrency networks that can function adequately using proof of work.
Moreover, proof of work is notoriously time-consuming and expensive, making it unsuitable for use in cryptocurrency networks like Ethereum.
How Are Crypto Staking Rewards Calculated?
Crypto staking calculators are utilized to determine the value of staking incentives. These calculators provide you with an estimate of the amount of interest you will get after the investment period has passed.
Calculators work with the number of tokens invested, the annual percentage yield, and the length of time the tokens are held. Be sure to do the math on the potential winnings from your bets before you place them so that you can pick the solution that works best with your goals.
What Are The Benefits Of Crypto Staking?
As is the case with all different kinds of investments, there are potential downsides as well as potential upsides. Find out more about the benefits of staking cryptocurrency below:
It validates financial transactions with a little amount of energy consumption.
A cryptocurrency network can have its own internal security without having to rely on third-party hardware.
Provides customers with the ability to generate passive income from their cryptocurrency holdings.
It contributes to increasing the scalability of cryptocurrency networks.
Provides an incentive for users to contribute to the safety of blockchains by reducing the required investment in their tokens.
Is Staking Crypto Safe?
There is some risk involved in staking, despite the fact that it is a revolutionary and relatively simple technique to generate passive income from your crypto holdings. Before staking their coins, investors need to be aware of certain risks, including the following:
Low Liquidity
When staking cryptocurrencies with a lesser market cap than Bitcoin or Ethereum, users frequently run the danger of being unable to sell their tokens once the staking time has ended. Choose a cryptocurrency that has a high level of liquid market activity and one that supports staking in order to reduce the impact of this risk.
Lockup Periods
Users will not be able to access their tokens while they are participating in the staking process since several staking protocols have lockup periods. You will not be able to sell the staked token in order to reduce your losses in the event of a personal financial crisis or if there is a significant reduction in the value of the staked token.
Alternatively, you may have to pay a high price to get at your tokens, reducing the number of tokens you have staked. Staking tokens without lockup periods is one way to deal with this.
Validator Limitation
In order to enhance their likelihood of successfully validating blocks, certain protocols mandate that validators keep their nodes online and operational at all times. In addition, validators need to exercise extreme caution whenever they operate a node.
If validators make a mistake and include invalid transactions by accident or if they default by going offline, they run the risk of having their staked tokens wiped out, which could include the tokens of individuals who are associated with that node.
Protect yourself from this by either becoming a validator by learning how to host a node or by staking your tokens with a trusted staking pool.
Conclusion
If you have cryptocurrency that you may stake and you do not have any immediate plans to trade it, then you should consider staking it. You won't have to put in any effort at all, but your cryptocurrency holdings will grow as a result.
What happens if you don't currently possess any cryptocurrency that you can stake? Researching cryptocurrencies that support staking is something you should do because of the potential returns.
There are many platforms that provide this service; nonetheless, it is important to determine whether or not each cryptocurrency represents a sound financial investment. You should only buy a cryptocurrency with the intention of staking it if you are also convinced that it is a suitable long-term investment.
The proof-of-stake system has proved useful, not just for cryptocurrencies but also for investors in crypto assets. Proof of stake is a method that can be utilized by cryptocurrencies to facilitate the processing of a high volume of transactions with a low associated cost.
Since you now have a better understanding of staking, you can begin looking into cryptocurrencies that have this feature.
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Running a small business in the market today can be quite demanding and involving, especially when it comes to the need for different skills, experiences, and competencies necessary to handle different tasks. As a business owner, you may need to hire the services of a professional consultant company to provide technical help where necessary. One of the commonly demanding tasks in a business that you may need to outsource services from a third-party consultancy company is in the area of accounting. The skills required to accomplish professional accounting in a small business are too involving in ways that small businesses often prefer working with external consultancy service providers. Working with a hired third-party company to manage your business’s accounting needs is advantageous in several ways.
It saves you money:
One of the key advantages of working with a consultancy company is that you get to save much on the cost required to get the financial services you need. When hiring an outside financial consultancy and accounting company to handle your business’s accounting needs, you are not mandated to provide the necessary resources such as office space, software, furniture, and other crucial elements that are necessary to facilitate the third-party businesses’ operations. Generally, this is an advantage to your business. The one-time contractual agreement between your company and the third party consultancy reduces the financial burden upon your business.
This is as opposed to a situation where you would be required to hire competent accountants and financial experts to handle your business’s financial and accountancy needs. In such a case, your business will be required to provide the necessary resources in addition to providing a competitive salary, benefits, and remuneration to the workers.
Saves on time:
Hiring the services of a professional consulting company to provide accounting consultancy services to your business gives you an opportunity to save on the time that may be dedicated to other tasks. Accounting is one of the most demanding business activities as it involves compiling accurate reports from thousands of transactions in a business. To be accurate in the accounting reports generated, one must put in much time and resources into accounting operations and calculations. As a business owner, the time that would have gone into performing the accountancy operations in your business may be allotted for other crucial business tasks.
Exposure to professional and competent services:
Professional businesses such as Gold Coast TW Accounting that offer consultancy services in the area of accounting and finance are normally competent enough to provide reliable and accurate services. Such consultants, as compared to hired accounting workers in your business, prove more resourceful in terms of providing accounting services with competence, confidence, and certainty. The results of the accounting process for your business may also come in handy with crucial interpretations that may help your business to improve on its financial performance in the market.
Contractual services:
For your business, working with a hired accounting consultancy company is much advantageous, especially since the contractual agreement between your business and the consultant can be altered to your advantage. The contractual agreement between your business and the consultant, in such a case, can be varied such that your business gets the upper hand in terms of the quality of service you receive.
In case the contract does not satisfy your business’s needs, you have the upper hand and capacity to terminate the contract at a moment’s notice and seek to hire the services of a more qualified accounting consultant who will meet your specific needs. This is as opposed to instances where you work with employees whose terms of engagement may be too complicated to terminate at once without causing legal repercussions.
Increased market exposure:
Whenever you hire external financial accountants to handle your business’s accounting operations, you get a significant level of market exposure. The professional accountants come equipped with knowledge on how other businesses in the market have been performing financially. Such knowledge may come in handy in cases where the consultant may provide technical insight on how your business is doing financially as compared to your competitors.
Besides, the technical expertise and advice provided by such consultants may also help in other areas of your business management. For example, the accountants may provide insights on how to simplify and increase your networking and market relationships with your customers and other businesses as a strategy of bettering your financial performance.
Unbiased results:
Hiring the services of a third-party company to manage your accounting needs in your business reduces or eliminates the risk of being exposed to biased accounting services. Professional accountants who provide consultancy services in businesses have zero tolerance for bias. Such bias may otherwise set-in in cases where internal accounting department workers willfully manipulate the accounting records to give you a false impression of good performance in your business. Having reliable results comes in handy as far as the long-term sustainability and survival of your business in the market are concerned.
Get the peace of mind:
Accounting operations in business are mind-bogglingly challenging to effectively carry out. The challenges associated with successfully carrying out accounting operations internally may deny you, as a business owner or manager, the peace of mind necessary to successfully undertake other tasks. Hiring the services of an external accountant to do such complicated and voluminous accounting tasks reassures you and gives you much time to focus on steering your business forward. Besides, the professional consultants know the precise records that they should go after in your business to do comprehensive and reliable accounting work.
In general, hiring an external company to manage accounting tasks in your business gives you a comparative advantage as compared to instances where you work with internally based workers hired in your business’s accounting department. The high-quality accounting services that you receive from such qualified personnel providing accounting consultancy services are crucial to the financial survival of your business. You may also receive an added advantage on the technical advisory you receive from the consultants on how to steer your business to financial success.
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Living and driving in Michigan will mean that you need to have Michigan auto insurance because the state requires all drivers to have adequate coverage if they are going to be on the road. Auto insurance will provide you and your family with financial and liability protection necessary in the event of any accidents or if you are a victim of theft.
The cost of insurance in Michigan has been rising the past few years just as the population has. As of 2019, Michigan has a little over 9.987 million people living in the state with a lot of the people in Detroit, Motown, Grand Rapids, Warren, Sterling Heights, Lansing, Ann Arbor, and Flint.
The Tort System:
When you are looking at Michigan auto insurance quotes you may run across information about the tort system which is used in a few states. This means that when an accident occurs someone must be held liable, or guilty for its occurrence. This person and their low-cost auto insurance Michigan are responsible for covering the damage and medical costs for both sides. The person who is guilty will then have the added repercussion of increased premiums.
Minimum Amounts:
Auto Insurance Michigan comes with a few different options. First, you will want to understand what kind of coverage you must have at a minimum, especially if you are considering a no down payment car insurance. The minimum requirement for Michigan state auto insurance is 50/100/25-this means 50,000 for any injuries to a person and 100,000 when more than one person is involved and coverage as the minimum limit for damage of 25,000 as the most basic requirements.
You should also check out sr22 insurance michigan if you're a high risk motorist. Because of these requirements, you should make sure to ask plenty of questions when getting auto insurance quotes in Michigan.
Getting Cheap Auto Insurance in Michigan:
Don't go with a no-name auto insurance company located in the middle of nowhere in Michigan. Go with trusted licensed MI insurance companies whom you can feel comfortable and secure that they will be able to go to should you get into any accidents. Shop around among different Michigan auto insurance companies to get the cheapest rate possible. More competition between the different auto insurance companies in MI means better savings for you, the consumer.
Remember to compare the entire policy and not just the price. Some car insurance companies may offer low rates but may not cover any more than what is required by law.
Another way to get cheap car insurance with no down payment in Michigan is to maintain a good driving history with no speeding tickets or accidents.
Other Ways to Lower Car Insurance Costs-
1. Auto Insurance Discounts:
Take advantage of special discounts available to those who insure their home and automobile with the same Michigan insurance company.
Other Common Ways to Get Discounts:
Be a good student
Get Car Safety Equipment Like Air Bags
Install anti-theft devices
2. Increase your Deductible:
Increase your deductible to the highest amount you can afford. The keyword is affording. The deductible is the amount you need to pay out of your own pocket before the auto insurance company starts to pay for anything. The higher amount your insurance deductible is, the lower your rate will be. Do not increase your deductible to $1,000 from $500 if you do not feel comfortable paying $1,000 out of pocket.
3. Insuring Home and Auto:
By insuring your vehicle and home with the same company, consumers can save as much as 20% on their total premiums between the two policies. Insure MI's free online form allows you to apply for a quote for the home and auto insurance combo to see how much your insurance policy will cost.
Insurance Fraud in Michigan:
There was a recent report that Michigan is the number one state in the US for cheap Michigan auto insurance that is a fraud. In fact, in 100,000 residents there were more than 150 cases of fraud. What this means for you is that when you are searching for cheap auto insurance with no down payment you really need to keep your focus on the traditional providers. If you end up driving under fraudulent insurance you can wind up with a ticket, your car impounded, and heavy fines.
Michigan does have a coalition working to eliminate this criminal offense. They work together with the different law enforcement departments to break up different rings. One raid, in particular, helped save more than 15 million dollars, which also helped to reduce their rates by close to 25%.
While getting the best auto insurance in Michigan may seem like you should hunt for the least expensive of the possible insurance quotes. Because of the minimum requirements and the high rate of fraud you should certainly consider taking your time, reading through the literature your company provides, and definitely going with a well-known company.
Compare Free Michigan Auto Insurance Quotes Online:
There are many insurance agents in Michigan who can provide you with top-notch quality customer service. Get cheap auto insurance rates in Michigan by comparing free online quotes from MI auto insurance companies in our network including reputable providers like Youngamericainsurance.net, Good2go Auto Insurance, or Rodneydyoung.net. Take advantage of many insurance websites’ free comparison service that allows you to fill out one form and receive offers from multiple competing insurance agents serving everywhere in Michigan such as Livonia, Dearborn, and Battle Creek.
Apply for a free no-obligation quote online and talked to insurance agents to see which policies may be best for your situation.
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