By Mika Hamilton

A bond is a debt security, by which you are lending money to a government, municipality, corporation, federal agency or other entity known as the issuer. In return for investing in the bond, the issuer promises to pay you a specified rate of interest during the life of the bond and to repay the face value of the bond (the principal) when it becomes due.

Why Invest in Bonds?

It is always prudent for an investor to maintain a diversified investment portfolio consisting of bonds, stocks and cash in varying percentages, depending upon individual circumstances and objectives. Bonds help you to diversify your portfolio, thereby, reducing your risk exposure.

Investing in bonds provides a predictable stream of income and repayment of principal.

Bonds maturing within three to five years will hold on to the value that they are worth. They offer some protection against stocks related losses in a portfolio.

The negative side of investing in bonds:

All investment products have drawbacks. Bonds are no exception. Some of the negative aspects of investing in bonds are:

Most bonds have a call option. This gives the issuer the right to call back the bonds held by investors generally after five to ten years. When the issuer calls back a bond, it pays your principal back along with the accrued interest and perhaps, a small premium. Issuers adopt this strategy when they can obtain money at interest rates lower than that of the bond in question.

When interest rates go up, the price at which the bond can be sold goes down. If you are forced to sell the bond due to pressing circumstances, you may not back the entire amount invested resulting in losses.

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By Jeff Lakie

If you are new to investing, or even if you’ve been playing the market for a while, investment options can be overwhelming. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds. How do you pick the best place to invest your money? That’s quite a decision!

Here are some tips that can help you get started:

If you are planning for a long-term investment, it may be wisest to go with stocks. History shows that stocks outperform other investing options over the long term. For example, from 1926 to 2004, the stock market had an average annual gain of 10.4%, compared with only 5.4% for bonds and even less for other forms of investing.

That said, stocks may not be such a good option for short-term investing. They tend to be more risky and can undergo severe losses. Unless you’re planning to keep your money there for a long time, you might not want to weather the stress of the stock market’s ups and downs. Overall, a company’s earnings are going to be the biggest player in a stock’s fluctuation.

If you’re willing to take a little bit of risk with your investing-or a lot-you probably will notice a bigger payoff. Stocks, for example, are a riskier investment than bonds. But again, stocks tend to bring in a much higher return. On the other hand, there is also the chance that your stock will dip and you may suffer a great loss. That’s all part of the game.

If you’re looking for a low-risk, surefire investment strategy, U.S. Treasury bonds may be the way to go. The government has a lot of power over these bonds. Because of this, investing in these bonds is generally considered risk-free. Keep in mind, however, that bonds don’t do so well when interest rates rise. Conversely, when interest rates go down, bond prices rise. This is particularly true with long-term bonds.

To be safe, the best advice is to diversify your portfolio. If you practice investing in a number of different areas, you are least likely to lose it all. (Remember the Enron scandal? Don’t make that mistake!) Some investments will go up, others will go down. But at least you can be pretty sure you won’t lose it all.

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Author: Vincent Stevenson

It’s the number one mistake made by speakers. We all like to think that we know our stuff, and many people do. But that alone will not engage your audience. Albert Mehrebian the US Educational Psychologist’s research demonstrated that only 7% of your presentation’s impact will be your words. Only 7%… This is worrying for subject matter experts. You could prepare for weeks, select the best words and key messages, you could have the best introduction, middle section and ending than any speaker on the bill, but your impact could be negligible. A few year’s ago I became a school governor and as such, I was offered training sessions by my local Education Authority. The general standard of the 2 hour presentations was good. One evening, the guest speaker, a man who had worked in education all his life with a career that spanned being a headmaster, Ofsted inspector and a senior role in the Ministry of Education and Science; what this fellow didn’t know about the history of secondary education was not worth knowing. However, he ended every sentence with a pronounced hmmmmmmmmm. Imagine that 6 times per minute, for two hours…. I nearly lost the will to live.

Tip – Listen and react to feedback from your colleagues. Somebody over the course of his career must have mentioned it to him. If your company culture prohibits you from giving constructive feedback, seek professional help. Advice from consultants is more likely to be accepted because it is seen to be given objectively.

2. Speaking too fast.

Nervous and inexperienced speakers always remind me of the 100 metres sprint. They hear the gun, they’re out of the blocks fast and they can’t wait to get it over with. This is not unusual – it is the normal reaction to any potentially stressful situation. Let’s close our eyes, do it, and get it over with. It’s a bit like going to the dentist. However, some speakers do not even devote themselves to such minimal preparation.

The secret of success in all activities is preparation. Watch yourself on video and ask yourself if you’re delivering too fast.

3 Keep it short and simple and always leave them wanting more. The best way to maintain the attention of an audience is to start with a gripping opening, develop a maximum of three themes or key messages, and conclude with a message that pulls the introduction and key messages together with impact. An experienced speaker can make this look simple and seamless, but we’re looking at perhaps 0.001% of the population. We all need help developing this skill. If you speak for over 10 minutes it’s almost inevitable that the structure will suffer and you will lose your audience because you haven’t signposted your structure well enough. Tell them what you’ll tell them, tell them, and tell them what you’ve told them.

Tip – keep it short and simple and use your best material at the beginning and the end of your speech. Start and end with impact.

4. Maintaining eye-contact with your audience. For the new or inexperienced speaker, eye-contact is one of the hardest aspects of speaking. Eye contact does not come easily to the novice speaker. Indeed, in some cultures young people looking directly into the eyes of their elders is seen as a mark of disrespect. Concentrate on your audience’s needs. Remember that without audiences, we do not need speakers. Making eye-contact and engaging your audience is critical to success. It shows respect and demonstrates confidence. We listen and learn most from confident speakers. Life is a busy place, and when we invest time in a speaker, nobody likes to feel they have wasted their time.

Tip – if you find eye-contact difficult, try it out with friends and family in regular conversations. Impact is everything. It’ very difficult (almost rude) to disengage eye-contact with somebody when you’re having a pleasant chat. Bear that in mind when you’re making a speech and you’ll do very well.

5. Speaking in a dull and monotonous voice. Throughout our professional careers, how many times have we endured the monotonous speaker?

In my case rather too often. Tonal variety is what adds massive impact to your speech or presentation. We need some highs and lows allied to seamless changes in pitch and pace. These effective techniques help to keep your audience engaged and participating in your presentation. Mehrebian’s research demonstrated that 38% of what an audience remember is down to the effective use of tonal variety. A massive 55% relates T your body language. If you send a mixed message, don’ be surprised if the message is dropped. A key factor in any speech or presentation is simply this:

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