Welcome to Get Smart about Investing. We have all heard about the power of compounding before, but what does it really mean? Compound interest is when you earn interest on your interest or when the growth of your portfolio has its’ own growth next year.

If you invested $100,000 at 9% for 24 years, you would accumulate almost $800,000. If you invested $4,000 each year for 20 years you would accumulate over $200,000, even though you only invested $80,000. If you started really early, when you were 25 years old and saved $4,000 each year for 40 years, you would accumulate almost $1.5 million. That is the power of compound interest and without it, most of your financial goals will be very hard, if not impossible, to reach.

I’m Greg McGraime and Now You Know!

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Welcome to Get Smart about Investing. One of the biggest financial challenges we all face is that things are getting more expensive each year. The cost of medical care is going up, real estate taxes, cars, and certainly the cost of raising children. That’s called inflation. Inflation is the gradual increase in the cost of living each year. A dollar today doesn’t go as far as it did last year. In the 1960s, the price of a ticket to the movies cost 75 cents and now costs over $10. The cost of a gallon of gas was approximately 20 cents and now it’s more than ten times that. That’s the impact of inflation.

Historically, inflation has averaged approximately 3 percent each year. What that means is if you put your money under your mattress or leave it in a bank checking or savings account earning 1 or 2 percent, you are actually loosing value each year and falling behind financially. Think about it. The cost of things are going up 3 percent and you are only earning 1 or 2 percent. That is the reason you have to invest. If you don’t, you cannot make financial progress.

I’m Greg McGraime and Now You Know!

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Welcome to Get Smart About Investing. Did you know if you had invested $10,000 in Starbuck’s stock in 1995, back when it was a small company, and held onto it, your investment would have grown to more than $150,000 today? That is the power and potential of having a portion of your portfolio invested in smaller companies over the long term.

Researching smaller companies can be difficult for most people. If you’re not comfortable doing your own stock research, don’t let this dissuade you. Instead, take advantage of a professional money manager by using a mutual fund that focuses on smaller companies.

I’m Greg McGraime and Now You Know!

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Welcome to Get Smart about Investing. Your credit score is really important because it affects the interest rates you will pay on mortgages, car loans, and credit cards. It makes a huge difference if you are going to pay 8% instead of 6% on your mortgage, for the next 30 years, just because of your credit score. It’s hard to believe, but true, that your credit score also affects the premiums you pay for car insurance and homeowners insurance. To top it all off, many employers will even run your credit report before they hire you, as part of their background check.

The challenge is that most people don’t know what their score is or whether it’s good or not. Credit scores range from 450-850, the higher the score the better. A high score is considered 720 and above, a low score is under 620, and the average across the country is about 680. Make a point of getting your credit score at least once year so you know exactly where you stand.

I’m Greg McGraime and Now You Know!

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Welcome to Get Smart About Investing. Did you know that most large banks are only paying 1% to 2% interest on savings accounts? Maybe you have some cash sitting around as an emergency fund, or for an upcoming home purchase, or maybe you’re just not sure what else to do with it? Anyone with spare cash today should be earning a minimum interest rate of 4-5%. If you’re not, you are missing out.

Do some research and shop around. Money market funds can be great and usually pay 1%-2% higher than most bank savings accounts. No one in the history of this country has ever lost any money in a money market fund, so, needless to say, they are extremely safe. And don’t forget about new on-line bank accounts. They have the same FDIC insurance of the big banks without any of the overhead, so they can also pay you a much higher interest rate.

I’m Greg McGraime and Now You Know!

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Welcome to Get Smart about Investing. Many employees don’t participate in their company’s 401k plans and miss out completely on the tax savings and their company’s matching dollars. Everyone who has access to a company retirement account should participate. For employees that do contribute, most start with 3 or 4% and never increase it over time – not because they don’t want to, but because they don’t think to do it. The challenge is that most financial planners recommend saving 10-15%.

I have never met anyone who increased their 401k contribution by 1% and felt the difference. Let’s say you are saving 4% currently to your 401k. If you followed this simple plan of increasing your contribution by 1% each year; in 5-10 years your savings rate will be right where it needs to be. You’ll probably never know the difference. Contact your company today to increase your contribution by 1%. Shoot for financial progress not perfection.

I’m Greg McGraime and Now You Know!

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We at Now You Know Media are pleased to inaugurate our interactive blog system for our rapidly growing community of customers. As you may know, Now You Know Media is driven by its mission to create the very best educational audio programs and bring you the world’s best teachers. We believe that education is the engine for personal growth and that great teachers make learning and life-change possible.  Moreover, we understand that most people live very busy lives and are generally on-the-go.  So, we make our programs portable and easy-to-use on audio CDs and, soon, for download to your iPod, so that you can learn anywhere, anytime. This blog system brings you articles and daily writings from our experts to complement our audio programs. For the next month, this blog will start with Now You Know Wealth and Business, in which we bring you the articles and posts of our personal finance and business presenters. Through a nationwide survey of thousands of personal finance experts, Greg McGraime was chosen as one of the best speakers and presenters in the country, having presented at companies such as Google, Yahoo, Cisco, and Intuit, among other Fortune 500 companies.   Greg will kick off the Now You Know Wealth Blog with serial writings on investment, real estate, mutual funds, bonds, retirement, small business investments, and much more.  We are proud to bring you Greg’s expertise which is also featured in his Now You Know Media audio program titled, Get Smart About Investing.  In his course, you can learn the A-to-Z of investing and personal financial planning through 24 segments, each 25 minutes in length. Join Greg on this blog and enjoy his wonderful audio program as you unravel the mysteries of personal finance.In the near future, this blog system will also feature blogs from our other categories, including Now You Know Religion, Now You Know Health, and Now You Know Leisure. In Now You Know Religion, we bring you the world’s best scholars, theologians, and speakers on topics of religious history and spirituality.  You can learn about world religions and how these religions are shaping current world politics and spiritual ideas.  For example, Ambassador Akbhar Ahmed gives an engaging and thought-provoking audio presentation of Islam in the world today. Drawing on his experience as a diplomat on the world stage and a professor at American University, Akbar Ahmed delivers a brilliant lecture series on the spiritual and historical foundations of the Middle East. In his course, Encountering Islam, he teaches the basics of Muslim history and spiritual thought, and explains how this rich history has influenced modern world affairs. Father William Byron, former President of Catholic University brings new light to understanding Catholicism in What Would You Like To Know About Catholicism, a 36 topic course ranging from the basics of the Eucharist, bringing catholic spirituality into your daily life at work, and even covers the startling scandals that have shaken the Roman Catholic Church in recent years. To round this out, an amazing portrait of 2000 years of papal history is available through the renown historian, Fr. John O’Malley, covering all the popes from Peter himself all the way to Benedict XVI.  Now You Know Religion also embraces the interface of religion and science – what does it mean to be human in the personal and scientific sense and how can we make sense out of current debates on stem cells, cloning, and intriguing discoveries such as nanotechnology.  That course is presented by the Chair of Ethics at Georgetown University, Kevin Fitzgerald.Courses will soon be available on the parables, gospels, saints, and old testament, and much more.  Fr. Omalley is coming back for an encore after his extremely popular Papacy course, to bring you a course on the Jesuits.  How did the Jesuit order start, how did it grow; learn the remarkable history of trial and tribulation, faith and redemption in this 21 segment exploration of the Jesuits.Now You Know Religion also brings you several courses on spirituality and prayer.  Fr. Byron presents his reflective course on prayer, Let Yourself Pray, in which he discusses the various aims and styles of prayer, with inspiring passages relating prayer to all times and circumstances of your life.  Patricia Fosarelli, draws on her unique experiences as a spiritual director, scholar, lay minister, and physician to present Spirit Centered Life, in which she skillfully discusses the wide range of spiritual practices and how those spiritual practices can be discerned and adapted in your daily life. Now You Know Leisure is dedicated to creating personally enriching courses on topics such as wine appreciation and travel.  Many people love wine, but wine is more than a beverage – wine has a 3000 year history that spans the world and countless cultures, and has grown as an art-form.  Picking a wine and appreciating its beauty means knowing the vocabulary, history, methods of production, and ways in which the fine wines are judged by the professionals. Now you can participate in such refined and rare knowledge through our two courses, Joy of Wine: An Insider’ Guide to the Major Varietals, and Understanding the World of Wine.  Now You Know Health will be launching its blog in the time to come.  For young families, we understand how difficult it can be to understand pregnancy, preconception, and raising young children. So, we teamed up with some of the best physicians in the world to bring you Essential Guide To Pregnancy, Preparing for a Healthy Pregnancy, Caring For Your Baby from Birth to Age One, and Caring for Your Toddler Ages 1-4.  Take the guesswork out of health decisions and arm yourself with these programs’ easy to use information.Heart disease afflicts millions of Americans every year — but, it can be prevented! Now You Know Health teamed up with leading physician, Simeon Margolis of Johns Hopkins Hospital, to bring you this 12 part series on heart health. So, relax and enjoy the wonderful world of learning at Now You Know Media that we are so excited to bring you.   Browse our programs – Check frequently on this blog for new discounts and offerings, as well as the ongoing daily insights of our famous speakers.

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