investors posts

Did You Miss Out on Your Share of $200 Billion?

By Selena Maranjian
The Motley Fool

You'll never have the chance to lose a whole $200 billion, but the odds are fairly good that, over the past several years, you lost your personal share of $200 billion in potential investment gains.

In fact, most people lose quite a lot of money over their lifetimes -- much of it needlessly -- thanks to a host of avoidable blunders in how they manage their financial lives.

To get back to that $200 billion figure, for example, a recent Bloomberg article claimed that overall, Americans lost out on about that much by pulling money out of the stock market after being the financial crisis that began in 2008. The article offered some alarming statistics, such as:

"The percentage of households owning stock mutual funds has also fallen, dropping every year since 2008 to 46.4 percent in 2011, the second-lowest since 1997, according to the latest ICI annual mutual fund survey."
During the market's rally since 2008, the percentage of retirement money invested in stocks fell half a percent, when it typically rises significantly during rallies.

To be clear, people have been socking away money for retirement -- but they've been favoring bonds and other non-stock investments, even in our current environment of ultra-low interest rates. That's problematic, since over long periods, stocks have tended to outperform bonds and other alternatives.

SLIDESHOW: 13 Stocks to Start Investing With in 2013

Tags: investing, investors, stock market, stock market gains, stock market losses, StockMarket, StockMarketGains, StockMarketLosses, why invest, WhyInvest

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Securities Regulator Hears from Regular Investors

by Danielle Arbuckle

Filed under: Investing

If you're a small (i.e., non-retail) investor living in Ontario with something to say about mutual funds, legal standards for financial advisors, or credit rating agencies, now's your chance to say it.

The Ontario Securities Commission's Investor Advisory Panel wants to hear from you. The panel was established a few months ago specifically to receive input from small investors when it comes to developing new policies. Earlier this month, the panel released its first round of initiatives and is inviting small investors to comment.

Specifically, the panel is looking for input on four things:

1. The Ontario Securities Commission's new point-of-sale rules, which aim to provide better information to mutual fund investors about the funds they buy. As of January 1, 2011, mutual fund companies must provide a "fund facts" document to investors who ask for one, but the commission is still developing other ways to improve mutual fund sales disclosure.

Tags: credit rating agencies, CreditRatingAgencies, financial adviser, Financial advisor, FinancialAdviser, FinancialAdvisor, Investing, investments, investors, mutual fund fees, Mutual funds, MutualFundFees, MutualFunds, Ontario Securities Commission, OntarioSecuritiesCommission, securities

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Peer2Peer Lending Comes To Canada As Borrowers Ditch The Banks

by Alia McMullen

Filed under: Banks, Budgeting & Planning, Credit Cards, Debt, Entrepreneurship, Family Finances, Financial Crisis, Investing, Loans

The global financial crisis has dramatically changed the way we access money. When the big banks turned their backs on thousands of consumers and small business owners during the credit crunch, those that had been shunned created a new way to provide financial support to each other. It's called Peer2Peer (P2P) lending, it's easy to use, and it's available to residents of Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec.

P2P lending has been used by charities, such as Kiva, for years to help finance people in third-world countries. However, it's only recently that P2P lending has moved into the mainstream consumer market, servicing everyone from the single mom who wants to pay off her credit card at a cheaper rate, to the young entrepreneur who wants to start a small business. Community Lend began operating in Canada early this year and is so far the only P2P lender in the country. It provides small loans of up to $25,000 that many banks turn their noses up at. Before P2P lending came about, many of these borrowers either went without or were forced to get the required funds by using their credit card, an option that usually results in high interest and fees.

So how does it work?