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Finding offshore accounts is as simple as using the right information to find the best choice for your investing strategy. However, choosing the wrong offshore bank could result in a number of senseless headaches and additional fees. In addition, it may not be a good vehicle for your investing strategy. Therefore, we have included a few tips to help you do a better job of finding offshore accounts which will be the best for you:

1. Pick an offshore bank that uses the common law over the civil law.

For most Americans and British investors, you will want to choose offshore jurisdictions where they follow the English common law. This is the system that is most like your current legal systems. Generally, you will find this in countries which were formally a part of the British empire. Some examples include the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Guernsey, Jersey and many others.

2. Choose a bank whose time zone is similar to yours.

This will help make it easier to make transactions and will not require you to stay awake in the middle of the night so you can contact your offshore banker. By choosing an offshore bank in a time zone that is similar to yours, you make it far easier for you to do business.

3. Avoid banks that have high wire transfer costs.

Wire transfers will most likely be your main course of sending money back and forth. Depending on how much money moving you anticipate for your investing needs, these wire charges can add up really quickly. For this reason, be on the lookout for offshore banks that offer reasonable rates for them.

4. If privacy is very important, make sure your offshore jurisdiction is strong there.

For many investors, privacy of their transactions and funds is their highest priority. For this reason, you should only select banks which have very strong privacy laws and regulations. However, even after selecting one, you must actively watch the jurisdiction for news that they may relax their privacy regulations. For investors that want the most privacy, you will have to stay vigilant.

By keeping these tips in mind, finding offshore accounts to meet your needs should be much easier. Remember spending a little time upfront with good research can you save you serious time, energy, and money down the road.

Actually if you think about it, the best investments for new investors is in the capital markets. This type of institutional investment is typically quite safe if you stay away from the speculative penny stocks. By avoiding those volatile penny stocks and sticking to your Googles and Walmarts and company's of this caliber your money is quite safe over the long term despite the historical ups and downs of the stock market.

Unfortunately for new investors, the stock market will appreciate by around 7% per year. That is nothing to write home about if all you have is two solitary shares of Google which at this time are worth around $800 The return in say ten years will be quite small even at 7%

This sort of institutional investing is perfect for individuals with deep pockets whose bank balance is $1 million dollars or more but terrible to think that a new investor may spend their $1000 dollars and get really not too much after 10 or even 20 years of patient waiting.

Many new investors therefore get a little more aggressive in their investment activity and I don't think that is necessarily a bad idea. It is quite true that investment with higher risk typically have a higher return too, but the risk is significant so losing ALL ones investment is sometimes a possibility. There are ways to hedge your high risk investments so the risk is significantly reduced and that is the way most new investors should travel because sitting it in the stock market for 20 years you may as well just leave it in the bank.

Let's face it, $600 bucks is not a lot of money, to many people it is quite a significant amount but when talking investment you are in affluent circles and the typical majority would consider your $600 dollars as not even a few cents in terms of investment capital.

Very little research and financial information is available for people who wish to invest and get a return but on small amounts of capital and the reason for this is that most investors are prudent and look for very very modest yearly returns but are usually very well funded and have millions to be careful with, so these are the people the industry caters for and not the small guy that has $600 dollars or a grand.

But in actual fact, if you think about it, $600 bucks can be turned into $1000 in under a week and $1000 could be turned into $2000 in another week and so on. If you understand compounding you will realize if you use a calculator right now that if you started with just $100 dollars today, you will have over $1.4 million dollars in just 14 months if you can compound your capital by 100% each month for 14 months.

Pretty amazing and true, the math says it is. But how could you compound your money every month by 100% Well...if you could compound your capital by 20% per week you would have your 100% per month. Now it starts to become more possible. What if you bought a bike this week for $100, something you noticed was very cheap and good value and you resold it for $120 that is a 20% return. I mean you made a profit even if it was an old second hand mountain bike right? So it is after all an investment. Could you think of ways to double your money every month for just 14 months?

Looking back over the years the current oil crisis is not something new but part of the big picture and the pattern of the economy. The economy goes in cycles as investors flock from one commodity to another. From real estate to oil, from gold to cash in the bank, from cash in the bank to internet start up...what? What did I just say?

You will realize there is something special about this economy, something never seen before. There is a new dance partner in the economic cycle and that is the internet. The first one was not just a boom it went nuclear. The heady days of the 2000 boom was a spectacle to watch as any mom and pop in their spare bedroom became an instant multi millionaire by simply making a website with some potential.

The people that make ipo's (initial public offers) which is how a company is floated on the stock exchange were making an absolute killing and so were the internet people making these websites because investor demand just saw no end in sight. This new player, the internet, is in existence due to the developed technology but something even more interesting has occurred.

In the years of the first dot com boom, there was crazy investor demand but it was mainly institutional investors and professional speculators. But today, due to current maturation of technology like cheap and prevalent broad band means millions and millions of people are participating in the internet. There is a more stable audience and therefore more profits to be made. Another dot com boom is in sight, it might come this year or it may eventuate in 5 years but this type of commodity is definitely going to be back and I see this time, the boom will go into the stratosphere.

What if instead of buying a $50 depreciating doo-dad, you bought $50 of appreciating Silver? Doo-Dads come in all shapes and sizes; clothing, food items, refreshments, home decor, automobiles, toys, sporting goods, electronics, kids toys, and the list goes on and on... Many people spend $100's per month on depreciating doo-dads. That's $100's in potential Silver Asset buying power. I can guarantee you; Silver will not end up in a garage sale two years from now selling for pennies on the dollar.

Here's the point. We all spend money on depreciating doo-dads. We enjoy our doo- dads, that stuff we acquire through life that we could probably live without. Doo-dads fulfill a temporal need. They make us feel warm and fuzzy for a short time. When the warm and fuzzy feeling leaves, we go out and buy another doo-dad and go through the same cycle again.

I have heard this objection to buying Silver, "I don't want to purchase Silver right now, the price is too high. What if the price goes down?" Humor me for a moment and let's put this into perspective. What if on an emotional whim, you purchased a $50 pair of shoes. (this goes for guys and gals) You purchase the pair of shoes to wear once in while. They sit in your closet for two years. One day while rummaging through your closet, you see your shoes. Your taste has changed so you throw them in the garage sale pile. What's more valuable, a $50 extra pair of shoes that you wore a few times over two years or some American Eagle Silver Coins. Even if the Silver depreciated by 70%, it would still be worth 4 times the value of shoes you only wore a few times. Silver will always be worth more!

Balanced investment strategy is perhaps the most followed and successful investment strategy for portfolio management. Its primary aim is to keep a balance between investment risk and return. A balanced investment strategy combines the merit of aggressive and defensive investing strategies.

Aggressive investment strategy involves investing in high return high risk investments with the sole purpose of maximizing return from investments. It involves allocating major portion of portfolio capital to invest in equities, equity based funds and highly volatile markets. Investors following aggressive investment strategy often look for comparatively short-term profiting and wish to invest more in growth stocks, and small caps and mid cap stocks. Advantages of aggressive investing include quick profit, high return over investment and no need of large portfolio capital. It can work really well for experienced investors and investors who are very strict in their money management. Disadvantages include high risk, high volatility in total portfolio value and no surety of profit. It less supports novice investors and investor looking for monthly earnings or living costs.

Defensive investment strategy is just opposite of aggressive investment; it's purpose is to preserve the capital and ensure some return from investments. It involves investing in low profit low risk investments like bonds, money market funds, treasury notes, and equities with minimum price volatility and good dividends. Defensive investors look for long-term profits and/or monthly earnings. Advantages of defensive investment strategy include reduced risk, predictable income, better investment planning and diversification of portfolio. This strategy mainly suits beginners. Disadvantages include low return from investments and requirement of high capital investments.

In balanced investment strategy, the investor tries to keep a balance between his aggressive and defensive behaviors. It involves balancing of both return and risk by diversifying investments in both high return high risk and low return low risk investments. Balanced investors often follow a portfolio capital allocation rule telling how much to invest in equities and bonds and how much to invest in treasury notes, precious metals and funds. Usually one portion of portfolio is actively managed and other portion is left to grow automatically. Balanced investment strategy can be slightly aggressive or slightly defensive with respect to investments made.

The greatest advantage of balanced investment strategy is the diversification of portfolio and hedging against high total portfolio value volatility. It is good for investors looking for medium-term (3 to 5 years) profits. Other advantages include flexibility in portfolio management, better results with better capital investments, (almost) predictable income and manageable portfolio risk. Balanced investment strategy support both beginners and experienced investors and can be an option for monthly earnings for living.