What Are Bonds And How Do They Work?
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What Are Bonds And How Do They Work?

What Are Bonds? Bonds are a type of investment that is similar to stock in that they are a “loan” to a company or government that pays one back at a specific interest rate. Like a stock, money invested in bonds can be used to fund the operations of whoever offers the bond. Bonds are typically considered a “safe” investment because the price of the bonds you buy don’t change over time and pay out a “fixed interest” rate regardless of whatever is going on in the economy at large. Unlike stocks that can fluctuate in terms of share price…

What Is An Interest Rate?
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What Is An Interest Rate?

What is an interest rate? Interest rates are the rates at which you earn money with things like savings accounts, checking accounts, dividends, and etc. They are also the rates at which the amount of money that you owe on things like various types of loans and other debts increases. Most interest rates are what you can earn or get charged at a rate that happens per year. If you owe money on debt there is the principal, which is the money you initially borrowed, and then there is the interest owed, which is the money that is constantly added…

What Are BDCs or Business Development Companies?
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What Are BDCs or Business Development Companies?

What are BDCs or business development companies? BDC stands for a business development company. This is a type of stock that deals with businesses that invest in other businesses that are small, medium, or distressed businesses. They are somewhat higher risk, but like REITs, typically offer higher than average dividends. A BDC must invest at least 70% of its assets into private or public US firms that have a market value of less than $250 million. How are BDCs taxed? Business development companies are taxed in a similar fashion to REITs. BDCs, like REITs, are also required to distribute at…

What Are MLPs or Master Limited Partnerships?
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What Are MLPs or Master Limited Partnerships?

What are MLPs or Master Limited Partnerships? MLP stands for a master limited partnership. An MLP basically is a type of stock that exists as a publicly traded limited partnership. Everyone who invests in shares, or rather “units”, of an MLP is technically considered a “limited partner”. Master Limited Partnerships have two different types of partners. One type of partner is the “limited partner” which are the investors that buy shares or units of the master limited partnership. The other type of partner is called “general partner”, who are the people who manage the master limited partnership like hedge fund…

What Are REITs?
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What Are REITs?

What are REITs? REITs or real estate investment trusts are a type of stock offered on the stock market. As the name implies, it is a type of stock that deals primarily with all different types of real estate. There are REITs that invest in primarily commercial real estate buildings like those used by stores like Walmart, as well as for other types of businesses like restaurants, schools, factories, and etc. There are REITs that invest primarily in residential real estate, meaning things like single-family homes, multi-family homes, apartment complexes, and etc. There are REITs that invest in a mix…

What Are ETFs?
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What Are ETFs?

What are ETFs? ETFs or exchange-traded funds are funds managed by investment companies and banks like Vanguard, Charles Schwab, Chase Bank, Bank of America, Sofi, and etc. These funds are comprised of the shares of many companies and are collected in one large investment pool. Some of the more famous and well-known ones are the index funds. Index funds are funds that measure specific market indexes like the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and the Dow Jones Industrial average. All ETFs invest in companies that target specific companies in order to meet specific investment goals. The S&P 500 invests in the…

What Are Stocks?
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What Are Stocks?

What are stocks? Stocks are a form of investment where you an investor has partial ownership in a company that they buy stocks of. Stocks can be offered by a wide number of companies both big and small. They are offered by big companies like Walmart, Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft, and etc. They are also offered by smaller, lesser-known companies like Duke Energy Corporation, Twilio, Global Water Resources, and etc. There are actually several different types of stocks sold by individual companies that each have different implications in terms of how they distribute money to their investors, as well as…

What Are Dividends and How Are They Taxed?
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What Are Dividends and How Are They Taxed?

What are dividends? Dividends are a type of investment strategy where people will buy stock, ETFs, bonds, etc. and the seller of the shares of these investments will decide on and pay out a certain percentage of interest compared to the price the shares were bought for. These dividend payouts can be paid to the investor monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, or annually. In the case of Sofi Invest, they recently introduced a couple of new ETFs named TGIF and WKLY that pay their dividends weekly. The seller of the individual shares of these types of investments uses dividends as an added…