Let's Talk Money

Definition
An accredited investor is a person or business that is authorized to buy and sell securities without being registered through the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) 

Why It's Important
An accredited investor can invest in a variety of unregistered investments such as hedge funds, venture capital, and private equity opportunities.  But, of course, this status is not open to everyone.  In order to gain the status of accredited investor, you have to meet two different criteria:

1. The individual must have earned income exceeding $200,000 or $300,000 when combined with a spouse during each of the past two years with the expectation that it will continue.
2. The net worth of the individual or couple must exceed $1 million (excluding the primary residence)

Now, as I said before, it doesn't have to be individuals.  It could be a trust or any entity that meets the requirements.  

Eventually, I want to become an accredited investor!  All in due time!

Definition
A prospectus is a formal document required and filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that describes an investment offering to potential investors.

Why It's Important
The prospectus contains information about the company, it's management team and the latest financial performance.  It also states other information that the investor should know to make an informed decision like how the proceeds are used and risk factors.  Every investment available on the exchange market has a prospectus, even mutual funds. The mutual fund prospectus is slightly different as it describes the objectives of the fund and what philosophy is being used to pick the underlying stocks and bonds.  

The investment can't be sold until the prospectus is approved by the SEC.

Join Tiffany as she talks culture, consumer debt, and traveling through 25 states in 25 weeks with Dimitry Neyshtadt.  Learn how he lowered his living expenses by purchasing an RV and road-tripping!

About our Guest
Dimitry Neyshtadt created 90 Day Money Pro to ensure that any hard-working & motivated American would have access to the most important and critical tips to achieve Financial Independence. He’s been an award-winning financial advisor for the past 10+ years and has helped over 1,000 clients one-on-one to optimize their finances. He’s also a great speaker who frequently presents at colleges and universities, nonprofits, real estate agencies, conferences and meetings, and more. In 2019, he’s traveled 25 States in 25 Weeks on the “Money Pro Tour” while Full-Time RVing with @TheFinanceFrenchie, his 2-year-old dog Brady. Check out his great content on social media @90DayMoneyPro and his Podcast on Apple Podcasts & Spotify.

Like him on...

Tiffany talks about home title fraud, a fast-growing cybercrime that has gained a lot of traction in recent years.  Listen up to see what it is and how to protect yourself!

Links
www.moneytalkwitht.com

To pull your FREE credit reports, follow these steps: https://www.moneytalkwitht.com/blog/credit-part-1

Connect with Tiffany on Social Media

Facebook: Money Talk With Tiff
Twitter: @moneytalkwitht
Instagram: @moneytalkwitht
LinkedIn: Tiffany Grant
YouTube: Money Talk With Tiff Channel
Pinterest: Money Talk With Tiff

Definition
Market Capitalization or "Market Cap" is the value the market puts on a publicly-traded company. You can find market cap by multiplying the total shares outstanding by the purchase price.

Why It's Important
Market Cap is used to value and gauge the public opinion of a company. Amazon's market cap is currently about $856 billion (as of 10/11/19). That's huge! Their stock price is $1,731.92. You would think that the higher the stock price, the higher the market cap, but that is not always the case.

In comparison, Apple's market cap is $1 trillion, but its stock price is $236.21 (as of 10/11/19). This information tells me that Apple has more stocks outstanding than Amazon. Keep in mind that the market determines the market price, and every share a company sells is some ownership of the company. When you are researching what stocks to invest in, be sure to take a look at their market cap as part of your valuation.

When I bought my 2016 Honda CRV fresh off the lot (learn about her demise here), I didn't really understand car warranties. The salesperson was pushing it down my throat, and that should have been red flag number one! My grandfather advised me against purchasing it, so that should have been red flag number two. But, of course, I was hard-headed and bought it anyway. So, here is what I learned:

New Cars Already Have a Warranty
Most modern cars come with a 10-year/100,000-mile warranty on the powertrain that applies only to the original purchaser. In my case, I was the first owner, so I didn't really need an extended warranty. After 10 years, the value of the car would be so low, a warranty would be frivolous at that point. Why didn't I think about this earlier? I was clouded by the excitement of buying my very first new car that all common sense went out the window. I let the salesperson talk me into it because he mentioned all of the bells and whistles the car had and how the...

Tiffany answers a listener's question about student loan payback if the school that they attended closes.  While on the topic, she also covers other ways your student loans can be discharged or forgiven.  
This is a listener request episode.  If you want to have your question featured, please submit on our website.

Definition

A mortgage-backed security is a security backed by a collection of mortgages held by an organization.

Why It's Important
Mortgage-backed securities are a pretty complex topic to understand, so let me give an analogy.  Let's pretend one of the organizations (Ginnie Mae) goes grocery shopping.  In the grocery store are hundreds of thousands of mortgages on the shelf.  My mortgage is somewhere on those shelves, as is yours.  Ginnie Mae goes down the aisles and groups the mortgages in their cart based on creditworthiness and chances of getting their money back.  The ones with the highest rate of default are called sub-prime mortgages.  When they check out at the register, they put hundreds if not thousands in each bag and then resell the bags to investors.  The best mortgages have a lower return because they are not as risky.  The subprime mortgage bags have a higher return because they are the riskiest.  As I pay on my mortgage,...

Join Tiffany as she dives into homelessness and thinking of personal finance as a team sport with Rahkim Sabree!  Rahkim talks about financial empowerment, discipline, FOMO, and how to utilize your circle to get better results.

About Our Guest
Rahkim Sabree is a millennial author, speaker, personal finance expert, and co-founder of the not-for-profit An Extended Hand, Inc. which focuses primarily on empowering and educating those who are at risk of or currently impacted by homelessness.

Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/finance_fridays

Follow him on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unlimitedinvestmentinquiries

Like him on Facebook: https://facebook.com/unlimitedinvestmentsolutions

Links
Rahkim's website: https://www.rahkimsabree.com

Sponsor
Decluttr specializes in buying your used CDs, DVDs, Blurays and Games to help you make room and money! With Decluttr you can enter your items barcodes into our valuation engine and we'll give you...

Definition

Target date funds are mutual funds that change allocation automatically based on your target (goal) date

Why It’s Important

Target date funds are a great option for those that do not want to be involved with picking different mutual funds, stocks, and bonds to get the allocation appropriate for their situation.  Think of funds as big baskets. In those baskets, there are other little baskets of stocks. So, you become diversified by holding just one target-date fund. They also typically have low expense ratios.

You may be saying well this seems like a no-brainer. Why doesn’t everyone just pick target-date funds and invest?  Well, not so fast! Target date funds assume that every one that is going to retire in a certain year have the same situation.  What if you have a different situation than the average? That doesn’t make a difference to the fund managers that are making the determination on what to invest in.  I started with target-date...