For conservative investors and for investors looking to diversify their portfolios, convertible debt is a luring option to consider for investment into growth-oriented companies. A convertible debt security is a security that can be swapped for a specified amount of stock at the option of the issuer or borrower. They are less volatile instruments that carry features of both stocks and bonds. When the stock price of the company is on a rise, these instruments proffer excellent returns on investments, and when the stock price falls, they provision the security of consistent coupon payment returns.

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Art - Originally patronized by keen aesthetic connoisseurs as a medium of creative expression, it has increasingly transformed its alluring appeal towards enrapturing the eyes of sharp-eyed curators as an alternative investment. These works of major artists have progressively served as a medium of tangible investment offering excellent diversification benefits as the returns generated by these investments are significantly uncorrelated to traditional stock and bond investments.

While art has its many advantages of being a tangible investment, uncorrelated to financial security investments, the disadvantage is that these investments are illiquid and are susceptible to asset bubbles. Off late, Art prices have been soaring peak to peak. An indicator is the Moses Mei Fine Art index that measures the performance of U.S. postwar and contemporary art, which rose 55% on an annualized basis for 2006.

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Typically the articles on this site address investing through stocks, bonds and mutual funds. However many people have made their fortunes, or at least a comfortable living, by investing in real estate. Whether we turn out to be real estate moguls like Donald Trump, or just need a roof over our heads, we all need to make real estate decisions at some point in our lives.

There are many choices that need to be made when you’re building, buying or remodeling a home. Certainly style is one of them – you want your home to look nice and serve as a representation of your personality. Comfort is another one high on most peoples’ lists – you want your home to be a place you can relax and unwind. Now what about the financially driven decisions you make with respect to your home?

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As an entrepreneur myself (BlueEye Design Co.), I am always interested in hearing other success stories and business venture ideas that have been made into reality. The team at 22Dollars recently returned from a week long trip to Nassau, Paradise Island in the Bahamas. We wanted to take a moment to talk about our experience and the grand opening of The Cove Atlantis - the newest branch of the Atlantis megaplex resort that caters to the ultra wealthy. After all, what is the point of investing if you can not have fun with the money you make right? So this was our chance to get away from the north country and see the once in a lifetime event.

For those of you not familiar with the Atlantis resort, it is a legendary and lavish property on Paradise Island, near Nassau in the Bahamas and just a hop from Florida. The property dominates the island’s real estate and is a major contributor to the island’s economy, employing some 6,000 residents. Sol Kerzner (Kerzner International Chairman) built the celebrity magnet that boasts a Royal Tower bridge suite that will run you a cool $25,000 a night. Even if you do have the cash however, you will have to wait till the year 2011 when the next free available week for the suite is open.

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Subprime loans are special types of mortgages made to consumers with less-than-ideal credit. They charge higher interest, but involve less scrutiny of income. Because subprimes make it easier to borrow, many overextended homeowners find themselves in serious financial trouble.

In reaction to unprecedented rates of foreclosures and loan defaults, Congress recently opened hearings into questionable lending practices. Some subprime lenders blamed the problems on their customers: While they agreed that unscrupulous lenders sometimes prey upon consumers, more often than not it’s the borrowers themselves who invite their own financial difficulties by piling on too much debt.

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Every individual saves to consummate some financial goal in the future. It could be saving for retirement, purchasing a house property, education, vacations etc. Whilst most of our needs may be current, we do tend to direct a large pie towards saving for our long term goals. While this is an ideal praxis, in the long term, our invested capital faces market risks, credit risks, currency risks, liquidity risks, default risks etc. Most of these center on the kind of asset class and quality of investments we buy into. However, each long-term investment faces risk from inflation, which escalates cost of living on one hand, and shaves off our investment surpluses on the other. In other words, inflation increases the prices of our essential commodities and attenuates the value of our money.

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Globally it is becoming increasingly discommodious to raise capital through public fund raising (IPO's). The costs of going public are escalating year on year. Costs relating to meeting SEC requirements and of getting timely and proprietary research coverage is rising. The demand of IPO's has been volatile in 2006, with the backlog of IPO filings rising. High disclosure norms and postulations from public, government, and press is leading to high correlation of company results with markets, companies are impelled to amenably meet or beat quarterly revenue and earnings estimates. Furthermore, increasing scrutiny surrounding public companies and corporate governance is corroborating the cause of companies to stay private.

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