In order to "trim some fat" off of such a budget, I would cut down on personal entertainment costs. If needed, all of the debts could be consolodated, and if there are extra uneccesary vehicles, I would sell those too. Anything that could be refina

2. Emergency savings are a must, and the reason for this is that if one becomes sick or injured and can't work for an extended period of time, they need to have enough saved up to live off of until disabilitiy insurance activates and starts sending checks. How much needs to be saved depends on how long it is before the disability insurance starts its convering, whether that is for 1, 3, 6, or 12 months.

Stocks are ownership in corporations, and not loans like bonds are. A company can either offer dividends, or not. A dividend is a stock owner's percentage of the profits. If a company uses its profits to expand, it doesn't offer a dividend. Such companies are still growing, and so usually have high capital gains, which is where the price of each share rises. If a stock is sold for more than it is bough, its owner makes a capital gain, and if the opposite is true a copaital loss is made.

In my own personal portfolio, I would have a large amount invested in high risk areas, such as junk bonds, high growth stocks, and even some real estate and collectables. I would put 60% of my money in the aforementioned areas. The next 20% would be safely put into CD's and treasury bonds, and the final 20% would be in a savings account for quick access in case of an emergency.

There are 4 types of investments. Fixed investments, as mentioned above, include such things as CD's. Next there are bonds, which come in 3 varieties: municipal, corporate, and treasury. Municipal bonds are loans to states and cities, and can be either high risk or low risk. Corporate bonds are for corporations, and again can be high or low risk. Both of these bond types can have risk ratins from A down to ccc, A being low risk, low return and ccc being extrmely high rick, yet potentially high return. Higher risk bonds are often times called junk bonds, because while they offer the prospect of above average yields, their prospective companies are in constant danger of going under, which would make the bond worthless. The third type of bond is the treasury bond from the Federal Government, and such bonds are very safe, low return investments. A bond's par value is how much the base value of it is, and can differ from how much money is actually paid for the bond. The yield to maturity is how much of a percentage is gained, and the coupon rate is how much is gained based both on the yield to maturity and the difference between how much was actually paid for the bond and its par value. Callable bonds are bonds that the company or group that you are loaning the money can pay you for at any time they want, and are undesirable (one wants a non-callable

Some common words found in the essay are:
, Federal Government, insurance company, mutual funds, life insurance, 3 6, low risk, type insurance, cash value, insurance company pays, actually paid bond, insurance cover, collision coverage, stop loss amount, contingent beneficiary,
Approximate Word count = 1786
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)