Mark Angelo

Financial Planning is a must, it gives you an edge over others as you are putting time and effort into investing and saving your money as efficiently as possible. Here are few key points you must always remember while considering to choose a good financial planner.

Types of Financial Advisor:

There are many self-proclaimed gurus who would be ready to be your financial advisor. Be careful, understand the kind of financial advisors and understand how they classified. There are primarily three kind of financial advisors based on their remuneration methods.

The most important step while picking a financial advisor or a planner is to check if or whether he or she holds a CFP certification. Certified financial planners abide by the CFP Board and are 100% reliable.

There are CFP certified Accountants, Attorneys, Estate Planners, Insurance Agents, Investment Advisors and Stock Brokers working as financial advisors.

Fee-based financial advisors— These kind of advisors are relatively new in the realm of financial advising. Most of the times, they charge you a particular fee in exchange of the financial advice. These advisors usually work for other brokers and agents.

For instance, you can consider Stockbrokers, Attorneys, and Accountants under this category.

Commission based financial advisors— The insurance agents, registered representatives and the brokers come under this category. They usually sell you a financial product like mutual funds and various insurance policies. Upon doing so, these agents receive a commission for it. Be cautious, there is always a chance that the agents can sell you a financial product for their commission regardless of how useful it is to you, so caution is the key here.

Examples are Insurance Agents and Investment Advisors working for an insurance company.

Independent advisors and agents— These are the advisors that are not tied to any financial brokerage firm or any company. Therefore, your best interests are their best interests. There is no commission from any financial company involved. Examples include independent accountants and attorneys.

What Kind of Consultation Do You Need?

There are various methods of consultation needs one can have. You might be in need of hourly consultancy when you have a situation wherein you are unsure about the decision you must take. Buying a new property? Purchasing land or acquiring a business? Then you can always go with an hourly consultation. Any CFP certified advisor that suits your request needs to be approached.

Sometimes, you are in need of a more concrete plan and a detailed guide to achieve your goals. In such cases, you have to opt a rigorous planning services wherein your insurances, education costs, retirement corpus plan etc. are planned. For needs like this, you can opt for CFP certified Insurance Agents, Attorneys or Accounts who can give you a clear and a well detailed plan.

Also, in few cases, upon amassing a huge amount of money, a lot of people are not finance savvy enough to invest them in the right places and sustain the money with a steady flow of profit. In such cases, one must opt for an asset manager to help them with planning their money and procuring assets. In these cases, you can opt for a CFP certified Estate planner or an exclusive asset managers.

Mark Angelo co-founded the Investment Manager in August 2009 and two affiliated investment managers in 2000 and 2016.

Money has been around forever and for a long time it’s been hard for some to keep track of it or to even know what to do with it. From saving, to spending, to minimizing debt; it’s all more difficult than it sounds. Luckily, with the advancement of technology there are a plethora of ways to improve our finances. Whether you’re trying to save, or come up with different ways to keep track of your finances, here are 3 things you should know about money.

Be Mindful Of Scams:

When trying to do more with your money it is surprisingly easy to fall for all kinds of tricks. There’s always someone who’s trying to get your personal information and while it may seem easy to avoid, it can still happen. By keeping a close eye on your bank account or accounts you can be in the know about any suspicious activity or charges you don’t recognize. Today, you don’t even have to leave your home to check with the help of online and mobile banking. As long as you have a laptop or computer you can easily watch your account.

Keeping records of your monthly bank statements helps take it a step further. While mobile banking is convenient it is also common to look past or completely miss some information. Your bank statements show all transactions for the month and aids in you seeing your own spending and saving patterns.

Being Insured:

We all know how important it is to have insurance and you can get it for almost anything. While it is not easy to think about something bad happening, it is always good to be prepared for the worst. Having disability insurance or renters insurance can keep you secure in case of an injury that prevents you from working and from anything that damages your home like a break in or natural disaster.

Not having to come out of pocket during a time like this can keep your finances afloat and give you that peace of mind knowing that you don’t have to worry about something going wrong. Even though these instances are rare when it comes to money you can never be too cautious.

Minimize Your Debt:

Debt is an interesting thing. It’s not always bad but it is never good. Debt from going to college is completely different from having tons of credit card debt. For most, debt is inescapable but there are ways to keep it minimal. It’s fairly simple to go out and get approved for a credit card when you’re in a financial pinch but it can quickly get out of hand.

Keeping your debt at a minimum is a great way to keep money in your pockets. The less payments you have the more money you get to keep for yourself or other important things. It is hard to say when you will need a little extra money so having a lot of credit card payments isn’t good for your finances in the long run.

Money management is hard but there are multiple ways to make it easy. Just one change can make a huge difference in your financial freedom.

Mark Angelo is the Co-Founder of Yorkville Advisors.

Managing your personal finances is a very important responsibility that all people share. Unfortunately, many people will find that keeping track of their finances can be time consuming, expensive, and frustrating. Fortunately, there are five simple tips that can be followed to improve your personal finances.

Increase Income:

One of the best ways to improve your personal finances is to increase your income. While saving money and being frugal is important, having a good amount of income coming in is a necessity to build personal wealth. Some great ways to do this can include asking for a raise at work, looking for a new and better paying job, or finding additional ways to make some extra money on the side. Even small increase in pay can add up significantly over time.

Save for Future:

To build a strong personal financial footing, you will need to be able to save money for the future. It is very important to consider both your short-term and long-term savings strategies. Ideally, you should be saving at least 20% of your income in short-term accounts and long-term retirement accounts. This will provide you with a source of liquidity to reach short-term goals while also building a nest egg to rely on in the future. It would also be a good idea to take advantage of tax-advantaged retirement accounts as much as possible.

Consider Mortgage Options:

For most people, the monthly mortgage payment is the largest monthly expense that people incur. Because of this you, should look for ways to better manage your mortgage payments. While interest rates today are a bit higher than they were in the past, you can still save a lot of money by refinancing into a lower-rate loan. Furthermore, you may want to consider switching into a loan that has a shorter amortization schedule and provides you with even lower interest rates.

Look for New Rates:

While higher interest rates have made it more expensive to borrower money, it has made it beneficial for individuals that are looking to save money. Today, you can find great rates with savings accounts and other low-risk investments. However, to take advantage of these low rates, you will need to be willing to shop around to find the best rates that are available to you today.

Evaluate Investments:

Once you have built up a comfortable emergency savings reserve, you should focus on investing your personal capital. Investing in the markets will allow you to see your capital increase in value. While investing can be a good option, it is important that you stay on top of your investments and strategy. You should carefully review and consider your investment strategy at least a few times per year and make adjustments as necessary.

If you are investing with an investment advisor, or if you invest through actively managed funds, you should also spending time reviewing the fees that you are paying to see if there is a more affordable way for you to invest. This could increase your ultimate ROI.

Mark Angelo is the president of Yorkville Advisors.

  Working with a relative can be tricky waters to navigate, but the proper approach can point you toward a healthy, productive professional relationship at the office or worksite. To start, have a conversation with your relative about the situation and how to best handle the unique circumstances of working together. This conversation will ideally take place before you begin your professional relationship, but if you’re already well into it, it may not be too late to get on the same page.

Here are five possible questions to consider during that conversation:

1. Will you ride together to and from work?

Carpooling could save you and your relative both on gas money and can be enjoyable, but if you do decide to ride together, make some decisions ahead of time, like what time you’ll leave home for work and what time you’ll both leave the office to make sure it will work out logistically. It can also be a good idea to decide whether or not you’ll talk about work and your mutual colleagues on your rides together. Venting can be healthy, but it could create a division between you and your relative and the other people you both work with.

2. How much and in what manner will you communicate at work?

Will you work together on projects? If so, what are your standards for professional communication with one another? If you won’t work together directly, will you still visit one another throughout the day? If so, when and for how long? Will you have lunch together? These are important questions to consider when deciding what your working relationship will look like in contrast to your at-home relationship.

3. Will you talk about home life in the workplace?

Avoiding conversations about things going on at home or mutual relatives while at work and sticking to professional topics could be helpful in keeping both your minds on doing great work and could keep you from getting caught up in family drama on your employer’s watch.

4. How should you treat one another as colleagues?

Do you normally hug your relative when you see them? If so, do you hug your other colleagues as well? It’s a good idea to match your behavior with your relative to your normal behavior with other folks you work with. This communicates your commitment to professionalism to everyone in your office and a sets a clear boundary in your own mind that you’re at work and not at home.

5. How else can you keep home and work life as separate as possible?

It may not be 100 percent possible to treat your relative like just another colleague, but you should make that the goal. To the degree possible, agree that you and your relative will speak to one another with the same professionalism that you speak to everyone else at your workplace and hold each other to the same professional standard.

These topics may be a little uncomfortable in the moment, but having a challenging conversation now could help avoid conflict or hurt feelings later on and set you up for a great working relationship with your relative.

Mark Angelo is the co-founder of Yorkville Advisors.

Businesspeople are expected to look and act professionally during their work hours. As they work, they are expected to make important decisions that are fair and honest. There is a field that involves business etiquette, and another field for business ethics. Learn more about the differences between the two in the world of business.

Business Ethics Is More Risky:

Business etiquette consists of the proper actions and behaviors that are required to do business with other people. Business ethics are the values and principles that affect how fairly the professionals behave toward each other. The practices of both etiquette and ethics are needed by every successful professional or company.

For any business, violating a code of ethics has more serious risks and wide-sweeping effects. A discrimination or harassment lawsuit could bring down a high-powered business leader. Accounting scandals are known to have bankrupted some businesses. There are other ethics problems that include embezzling or the underpayment of certain workers.

Etiquette Is More Superficial:

Business etiquette affects common, everyday acts in the workplace. Wearing a uniform or clean, professional clothing to the workplace is the most basic form of etiquette. Showing up to a business meeting on time and completing work assignments by the deadlines are other examples.

Violating the code of etiquette has less serious consequences. All professionals are expected to practice email etiquette when they contact their clients through email. So, sending emails that are written in an informal, conversational tone is a minor offense. At the worst, practicing bad etiquette leads to a job termination. However, a widespread public scandal that could topple the company is not an effect of having improper manners.

Business Ethics Requires Training:

Every company has different training programs that involve ethics. From major corporations with thousands of employees to small businesses with 10 employees, all businesses have to follow certain codes of conducts. The most common programs involve training employees to prevent hiring discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying. There are also state and federal laws that prevent business people from mistreating others or they could face fines or imprisonment.

It’s common to make mistakes with business etiquette. However, making a mistake with ethics could cost you a job and ruin your employer’s reputation. Know the differences between the two, but also know that you cannot survive with only either one. Every professional needs both proper ethics and etiquette to be important members of the business world.

Mark Angelo co-founded the Investment Manager in August 2009 and two affiliated investment managers.

Running a business demands your utmost time and attention. Sometimes, we may find that those resources aren’t quite as bountiful as we’d prefer them to be: that’s where the organizational prowess of using a slackbot comes in. Powered through Slack, Slackbots operate like chatbots to help tackle everything from sending reminder notifications to motivating blurbs for boosting company morale. Implementing the use of a Slackbot should be a must for every company’s communication strategy. Continue reading below for five free Slackbots to help you get started on doing exactly that:

1. DBot by Demisto:

In today’s day and age, the importance of cyber security is not to be brushed aside. DBot by Demisto helps to give you and your team peace of mind by filtering through any links that are sent to the chat to determine if they are safe or malicious. By scanning each file, URL, and IP address that users share within the app, Dbot by Demisto is able to quickly alert your team of any threats or suspicious activity.

2. Howdy:

When you have a lot of people to manage, consistently checking in with every employee about their day or about their schedule or current projects might not always be realistic. Howdy helps you to drop a line to see how your team members are tackling their workloads. Simply instruct Howdy on what kind of information you’d like to gather from your team, and it will automatically gather that information and forward it to you. Whether you need an update on the progress of a particular project or just need to tally up what everyone is feeling for lunch, Howdy has got your back.

3. TimeBot:

Keeping track of everyone’s vacation days, sick days, and holidays can really fry your brain. Forget fussing with human resources and manage everyone’s work schedule with TimeBot! Simply instruct your team to fill out a personal time off (PTO) request command to TimeBot, and a few questions later, the record of their request will arrive in you Slack window! Once a team member’s request has been approved, TimeBot will notify the rest of the team of when an employee will be out of the office. As a bonus, TimeBot even has holiday reminders for over 100 countries!

4. Statsbot:

Utilizing mediums for analytics is crucial to having a successful business strategy. These mediums and all of their tedious numbers however, can get to be a pain, and a bewildering one at that! Have no fear, for Statsbot is here! Statsbot combines with Google AnalyticsFree at Google, Salesforce, and other analytic mediums to provide straightforward insights directly to your Slack account. Forget about hasting with a login for your Google Analytics account; forego all the extra steps and windows by merely typing in, “@statsbot summary last month” and let the brilliance that is Statsbot automation take care of everything for you.

5. Donut:

Amidst deadlines and workshops and project meetings, it’s important to not overlook the significance of fostering an authentically connected work environment through team-building. The Donut channel helps to accomplish exactly this by inspiring your employees to get to know one another. From weekly reminders that introduce two colleagues to one another, to memos that encourage them to meet up for coffee and a doughnut, the Donut slackbot is all about creating something meaningful outside of office walls!

Mark Angelo is the Co-Founder of Yorkville Advisors.

According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index, by 2021 video content will account for 82% of web traffic and will cross the threshold of a million minutes of video circulating the web per second. At that point, it would take someone 5 million years to watch all of the video content circulating the web. Just on YouTube alone, 500 minutes of video were being uploaded every second in 2015. There is absolutely no doubt that video consumption is increasing exponentially and will only continue to increase as the world only continues to become increasingly mobile. Smart businesses would be wise to take advantage of this trend, but finding ways of introducing video into your marketing strategy is not always that simple. For those looking to make the break into video, here are 3 great occasions to start your business’ video strategy.

1. Product launch:

There is probably nothing that goes more hand-in-glove with product launches than video. When you launch a new product, you want people to be able to see it, touch it, feel it, and interact with it. But first you have to get them in the door to do so. Video can give them a firsthand look at a product that can compel them to get out and see it for themselves in a way simple written descriptions or pictures just can’t. What’s more, with video, you can actually show the product in action and how others are using it, creating even more interest in the product.

2. Customer testimonials:

When text messages were first introduced, it brought on onslaught of misunderstanding until the advent of emoji’s. It turns out that human beings rely on a great deal of physical context to interpret the intended meanings of words. In addition, physical cues can also lend a great deal of weight to what the speaker is saying. While written customer reviews are highly influential, no amount of exclamation points will ever equal the weight of a person’s face lighting up when they talk about your product or service.

3. Social responsibility programs:

These days, most businesses have to do more than create and sell a great product or service, they have to also show they are responsible members of their community. In some cases, even the global community. In the digital age, you don’t just have clients and consumers, you have a following. To that end, people expect more from the businesses they do business with. They want to know not just about your product, but about your mission, vision and values as well -what you stand for as a company and how you give back to your community. Video is one of the best ways to spread that message. In the video world, there is a phrase “show, don’t tell” and if a picture is worth 1,000 words, even the shortest of videos is a novel. Rather than telling your followers about your mission, vision and values, you can use video to actually show them in action.

Mark Angelo co-founded the Investment Manager in August 2009 and two affiliated investment managers.

Fear (false enemies appearing real) applies a great deal for new investors who are less familiar with the potholes of the landscape. There are a few mind tweaks, however, that you can take in order to immediately get over this fear. Let’s take a look at these ideas.

Fear disappears when you accept that losses are inevitable:

The vast majority of the fear people have for investing is the fear of loss. People think that losing money in the investment world is somehow different from losing money paying bills, going to dinner or putting gas in the car. Honestly, it isn’t! Once you realize that investing involves risk, and you accept this, the fear goes away. You will likely lose money, and you will also gain money. The secret is to simply gain more money than you lose.

Having a plan to gain more money than you lose:

The next step in losing fear is gaining a plan. Even the best investors lose money. The secret is to have a plan to get it back.

Creating a plan requires a great deal of study. The more that you study, the better your plans for gaining money in the market will become. There are many tools that you can use in order to gain money. Not all of them will apply to you. Some of them are contingent on your personality – others are contingent on the types of investments that you like.

Choosing a niche:

Another thing that people do not understand about investing is that it is not something that is done from a birds eye view. You need to get your hands dirty in your investments if you are going to succeed with them. What does this mean? It means that you actually have to enjoy the companies that you are investing in.

This is actually a great opportunity. It means that you should only invest in companies that you have an interest in. If you have been using a certain type of product for your entire life, then you should take a look at that company first before you take a look at any other company. It is more likely that you will stick with an investment for a company that you enjoy.

Paper investing:

Another way to get rid of your fear for investing is to invest on paper first. You can very easily determine how good you are by simply following investments that you put on paper but you do not actually make.

You can actually create an entire portfolio for yourself in a notebook without investing one dollar into the market. Take the time to follow this portfolio for a year. If you cannot, then you know one other thing as well – you probably do not have the self-discipline that it would take to make money in the real market. If so, then you can completely get rid of the fear of investing by saying that you are not ready. Just quit. This may not be what you want to hear, but it is the truth!

You don’t want to quit. So get to work!

Mark Angelo is the co-founder of Yorkville Advisors.

Financial anxiety impacts more than 70 percent of American adults. If you’ve spent your childhood listening to your parents argue about money, or you’ve felt as though you’re drowning in debt, or you’ve worried about whether you’ll have enough for retirement, then you’ve probably experienced financial anxiety.

You may have felt financial anxiety if you feel depressed when you think about money, if you overspend, if you’re obsessed with being frugal, or if you depend entirely on others to figure out your finances.

There are things you can do to take control of this anxiety and manage your finances again. Let’s look at some of them now.

1) Face The Problem:

It’s too easy to bury your head in the sand when you feel overwhelmed with financial stress, but this is one of the worst things you can do. Schedule time with yourself or your spouse to look over finances and talk openly about strategies. Also, address your feelings about your finances and support yourself and your spouse with positive encouragement.

2) Practice Mindfulness:

Pay close attention to your feelings and your body responses as you study your finances. When you check in with your body, you’re better able to acknowledge and control your emotions related to money, rather than being controlled by them.

3) Find the Positives:

When you’re overwhelmed with negative feelings about money, a good way to change your thinking is to find the positives. Even if there are very few positive things, acknowledge them as often as possible. This can make a huge impact on the amount of stress you feel, and can help you approach money with less apprehension.

4) Change What You Can:

Even if your situation looks dismal, there is always something you can change. Create a budget, or have a closer look at your existing budget to see what expenses you can cut. Pick up a side job or address any spending problems you may have. Perhaps it’s time to return to school to qualify for a higher paying job. Whatever change needs to occur, it’s time to make it happen.

5) Seek Help:

It may be difficult to justify spending money to help save money, but professional finance counselors can make a huge difference. Many of these people also offer free consultations, and there is a wealth of debt management information online.

6) Hypnosis:

Hypnosis is effective as long as you allow it to be. Don’t look to hypnosis to change your behavior, but rather to change your outlook and your thinking patterns. Allow the suggestions to coach you out of an anxious mindset and into confidence and peace. There are many YouTube videos with hypnotic suggestions that will help ease your stress.

7) Self-Care:

Physical and mental health are vital to stress management. Eat healthy meals as often as possible, maintain your personal hygiene, get enough sleep, and exercise as much as you’re able. Poor self-care will only increase your stress levels.

Mark Angelo co-founded the Investment Manager in August 2009.

Passive investing is an approach to investing that combines two purposes simultaneously: Maximizing investment returns over the long run and keeping in check the high investment costs by minimizing transactions in the investment portfolio. The two purposes are not mutually exclusive. Frequent trading within the portfolio can run up expenses and decrease overall returns.

Passive Investing with an Indexing Strategy:

Index investing is one of the principal techniques used by investment managers when focusing on a passive investment approach. An index fund is a pooled investment such as a mutual fund or exchange traded fund (ETF) whose composition mimics a particular stock index such as the S&P 500 or Dow Jones Industrial Index. Index funds are not restricted to US benchmarks. Indeed there are also index funds for international and global indexes. Furthermore, index funds are not restricted to stock investment; there are bond index funds as well.

Index investing was made popular by the Vanguard Group, a mutual-fund firm known for conservative, low-cost funds. Your choices are by no means restricted to that firm. Today, many investment companies offer low-cost, broadly diversified mutual funds and ETF’s as important components of their offerings.

Keep Your Costs Low:

Keeping costs low is one of the main advantages of investing passively with index funds. Buying and selling within an index fund is generally done only to maintain the investment portfolio’s weighting approximate to its benchmark index. Consequently, transaction costs are ultra-low.

Diversification and Passive Investing:

A second, equally important objective of passive investing is diversification. It is the answer to the old adage “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Index funds commonly have many tens to hundreds of securities in their portfolios at any one time, making the effect of one company’s bad news minimal to the overall portfolio.

Tax-efficiency of Passive Investing:

Most index funds are highly tax-efficient. The relative infrequency of trading means that lower capital gains are realized each year relative to actively managed portfolios. By law, these gains must be passed on every year to the fund shareholders. If held in a non-qualified retirement account, these gains add to the holder tax liability each year. Passive investing inherently limits these pass-through gains, making tax time less costly for index investors.

Perfect for Arm-chair Investors:

Many folks are not high-powered investment managers and they know that. They want to participate in the market and build for their retirement but don’t want to get into the nuts and bolts of active investing. For investors like these, the passive investing approach using index funds is built-to-order.

Using index funds and ETF’s as the core of a long-term investment portfolio makes sense for many investors. Investor-advocate organizations such as Morningstar generally extoll the virtues of passive investing. The broad diversification, tax efficiency and low costs inherent in passive investing make sense for many folks desiring to achieve good returns on the investment of their hard-earned money and who may not be interested in more active forms of investing.

Mark Angelo is the Co-Founder of Yorkville Advisors.

It’s easy to fall prey to financial falsehoods that sound reasonable but may actually do your financial health more harm than good. It seems there’s no shortage of sources of personal finance advice on everything from savings and credit cards to retirement and buying a home. Here are 5 common financial myths that you are better off ignoring completely.

#1. I don’t make enough money to save:

Don’t assume that any amount of money you can set aside each month is too small to make a difference. Any amount of savings is better than nothing and the sooner you start this habit, the better it will protect you. Even saving 1% or 5% of your income can help you build an emergency fund to protect you in case of an unexpected financial emergency or begin building a nest egg for the future.

#2. A home is always a good investment:

Most people are taught that a home is always a wise investment and preferable to renting, but this isn’t always true. In many areas, rent is actually more affordable than owning a home, which comes with many hidden costs like property tax, maintenance, repairs, renovations, and yard work. Renting may be cheaper in the short term to help you free up money for paying off debt or even saving for your retirement.

#3. Carrying a balance improves your credit:

It’s a common misconception that you need to carry a balance on your credit card to improve your credit score. The truth is your credit score is influenced mostly by your payment history and credit utilization, or how much of your available credit you use. Using your credit card regularly and making payments on time is what builds a positive credit history, not the balance you carry. Carrying a balance on a credit card doesn’t just cost you in interest charges, it can even hurt your credit by increasing your credit utilization ratio. It’s best to keep your credit utilization under 20-30% for the best effect on your credit.

#4. It’s a good idea to get out of stocks when times are bad:

Market volatility is the price of great stock returns and there will always be times when your investment portfolio loses value. If you have a diversified portfolio, it will likely recover its value within 2 to 7 years of a market downturn. If you sell when the market is down, you are just turning short-term losses on paper into permanent and real losses.

#5. Estate planning is for the rich:

Almost everyone can benefit from estate planning, which isn’t just about avoiding estate taxes. A smart estate plan can ensure your wishes are followed in terms of financial management and health care if you are incapacitated. Your estate plan can also dictate who will care for your children if you pass away and who will inherit your assets. Estate planning can even be used to avoid the probate process for your heirs so they can access their inheritance quickly to reduce the financial burden of your passing.

Mark Angelo is the President of Yorkville Advisors.

Going to college and getting a higher education is a practical necessity today in order to achieve professional success. While going to college is very important, it is also extremely expensive. In many cases, people will end up spending more than $100,000 for their four years in college.

To help pay for the high expenses of tuition and room and board many people end up getting financial aid from the school they are attending. Unfortunately, many people end up being denied a part or all of the financial aid that they are seeking. While it can seem challenging to do so, there are several tips that can be followed to help anyone appeal a negative financial aid decision.

Appeal to Financial Aid Office Directly:

The first thing that you should do when you want to appeal a financial aid decision is to appeal to the financial aid office directly. The financial aid office likely used a very calculated approach when they were determining your financial aid need and qualifications. While they will all have a system for determining need based on income, assets, and student records, these offices will also be able to take other factors into consideration. In a letter written directly to the financial aid office, you should highlight other issues that could impact your need that may not have come across in your initial application. This can include a recent job loss, family member death, or sudden rise in other expenses.

Apply for Other Aid Through Admissions:

The financial aid office of a college typically focuses on providing students with need-based financial aid including student loans. However, there are other places in the school where you could also seek financial support. By contacting the admissions office of your college, you could learn more about grants and scholarships that are available. These are also often a preferred option as you will not be required to repay them upon graduation.

Show Competing Offers:

Ultimately, one of the best ways that you can show that you deserve financial aid is by providing a competing offer. When you are applying for schools, you should apply to at least three or four to ensure you are able to get into a good program. Once you have narrowed down your list, you should also apply for financial aid at each of these schools. If you are able to qualify for financial aid from even one of these schools it will act as a great competing offer that your target school may be willing to match.

Avoid Giving a Deposit:

When you are looking to go to a new college, you also need to avoid giving your school deposit until it is too late. Once you have given notice of your intent to enroll and your deposit, it will look to the school like you are locked in. Instead, a better option would be to delay your notification and deposit submission. The financial aid office may then offer you more money in order to entice you to commit to the school.

Mark Angelo operates as the President and portfolio manager for investments made by the fund and has seen more than 500 financial transactions during his time with Yorkville Advisors.

Financial careers are well-known as lucrative, high-paying paths for aspiring wealth builders. But not all finance jobs pay the same. A recent article appearing in Business Insider, in collaboration with the social website LinkedIn, reveals which finance jobs are the highest paying.

The article incorporated salary and compensation data from jobs “in the banking, capital markets, financial services, insurance, investment banking, investment management, venture capital, and private equity industries.” Keep in mind that many of these jobs provide total compensation packages beyond base salary, often including sign-on bonuses, stock options, annual bonuses, and commissions. The rank is ordered against Total Median Salary (TMS), which includes these extra compensations. TMS is often substantially larger than base salaries for financial jobs.

Managing Director:

TMS = $375,000. The managing director of a company is in charge of the whole business and included the big picture, the day-to-day stuff and everything in between.

Managing Partner:

TMS = $236,000. The holder of this position is a senior partner in the firm, charges with the overall practice, management and operations of the business.

Investment Banking Associate:

TMS = $235,000. The Investment Banking Associate helps in raising capital to enable the business to conduct their profit-making activities and to fund future growth.

Treasurer:

TMS = $200,000. Treasurer is charged with managing the cash and cash-flow of the firm, with the overall goal of forecasting and developing future cash management for the firm.

Director of Analytics:

TMS = $192,000. The holder of this position supervises the team that analyzes business performance against specific targets, metrics and benchmarks, with the goal of identifying area that need improvement.

Research Director:

TMS = $190,000. The Research Director plans and directs the activities and deliverables of the research staff, ensuring the research results are provided in a timely fashion to impact the organization.

Tax Director:

TMS = $187,000. Responsible for tax compliance, tax planning and income-tax accounting, the tax director often assists the Treasurer of the firm in assuring that taxes are payed in accordance to regulations while also ensuring that the company’s profitability is maximized.

Director of Financial Planning and Analysis:

TMS = $180,000. The person with this title is in charge of business forecasting. By scrutinizing the firm’s financial trends, this person recommends strategies for performance improvement.

Private Equity Associate:

TMS =$180,000. The focus in this position is to attract capital to the firm from institutional investors as well as from individuals who have major funds and are sympathetic to the business.

Director of Product Management:

TMS = $170,000. A critical job, this person develops and oversees the company’s product line, with an eye to maximizing business deliverables.

In summary, not all finance jobs are created equal but many are very high paying. Finance continues to be an arena where talented individuals will be compensated handsomely for the value they provide.

Mark Angelo is the Co-Founder of Yorkville Advisors.

IPOs, or initial public offerings, are an exciting time, both for the company going through the IPO as well as investors. Here’s everything you need to know about IPS from an investing perspective.

What is it?

An IPO is a process by which a company goes from privately held to publicly traded. There are many changes that take place within a company when this occurs and one one of the most important is that the company has to provide much more information than it did as a private company. IPOs are very public events and don’t happen in secret. At a certain point, the company will make an announcement of it’s intent to go public. There are usually months between this announcement and the actual IPO. A common primary goal for the company is to get a very large amount of money very fast, as both a number of shares to be sold and a price to sell them at will be picked. As an investor, there are a couple reasons to be interested in an IPO. Often, getting in on the ground floor is attractive in and of itself. Additionally, in many cases, the stock price at IPO is the lowest it will be for a very long time.

How do I participate?

You’ll need a brokerage account, and that’s pretty much it. Once the date is made public, you’ll be able to buy and sell the stocks after that point. When the date is announced, it will likely be accompanied by a price. Don’t be fooled! This price isn’t the ‘public’ price. This is a price reserved for a relatively small group of people, specifically picked investors or employees, usually. The picked investors are usually very, very large. The actual price you’ll pay is what is available on the open market and that may look nothing like the offering price.

Risks:

There are quite a few risks in attempting to participate in an IPO. Of course, this is an investment and all investments carry some risk. However, there are some additional risks for this particular process. One is that there is often a lot of media noise about an IPO for some companies. This can lead some to invest without doing the proper research. This is a big risk, as this is still an investment and should have the same amount of research as any other investment. In addition to this, many beginner investors view IPOs as sure bets. They aren’t. There have been as many huge IPO failures as there are fantastical successes.

Mark Angelo is the Co-Founder of Yorkville Advisors.

If you want to build wealth beyond what your ordinary income can furnish, learning to invest is one of the most important things you can possibly do. To be a successful investor, there are some basic concepts and tips that you should learn and apply whenever you plan to buy shares of a given stock. Here are three of the top investment tips you should always keep in mind.

Invest Based on Fundamentals:

Too many investors look at day-to-day gains or losses as the measure of whether a stock is a good buy or not. Historically, however, the best way to invest in stocks is to buy shares of companies that are likely to appreciate over time based on their own business performances. Stock fundamentals include both quantitative and qualitative factors. Some of the more important quantitative factors include the company’s debt-to-earnings ratio, the profitability of the company and whether the business is growing yearly. Qualitative evaluation should include factors such as whether the company is in a good business niche and whether the current management seems to be making sound decisions. If you can answer these questions, you can perform a much more useful analysis of the stock than simply looking at share price history will allow.

Don’t Try to Time the Market:

As appealing as the idea of perfectly timing the market to buy stocks at the lowest possible price and sell at the highest is, it’s virtually impossible to do with any consistency. Investors who try to time the market often end up holding shares they should sell for too long in an attempt to get a higher price for them. A better approach is to find basically good stocks, hold onto them for long periods of time and sell when it makes sense from your own financial perspective. If you try to time the market, you’ll almost certainly blunder into bad buying or selling decisions.

Be Skeptical of Predictions:

Market analysts and financial leaders are in the business of making predictions, but they’re not always right. Investing in a stock based on someone else’s prediction about it can work from time to time, but it can also lead you into bad investments that fail to pay off. A good way to use the expertise of others to your own advantage is to look at stock predictions and then perform your own analysis to see if the predictions seem sound. When they do, you may have a real opportunity to buy a good stock. When they don’t, though, you should avoid investing in stocks that don’t seem to make good sense to you as an investor.

These are just a few of the basic keys to investing successfully. Though none of them may seem glamorous or secretive, they are all important things to keep in mind to avoid making unwise investments. If you invest your money with these principles in mind, you’ll have a much higher chance of achieving success.

Mark Angelo is the Co-Founder of Yorkville Advisors.

Many Americans put off investing because they believe they do not have enough money. In the past, it did require a substantial amount of money upfront to start investing. Most brokers would require a minimum of $1,000 down. Fortunately, with the digital revolution well underway, it is much cheaper to invest. The bottom line is, you do not need lots of money to invest. Here are three ways to invest with very little money.

Micro Investing:

Micro investing involves saving small sums of money to invest in stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds and index funds. Platforms such as Betterment, Acorns and Robin Hood allow you to invest with little to no money, and many of the platforms do not require account minimums. For example, you can invest small amounts of money in a portfolio developed by a micro-investing platform. The catch is that many of these investing platforms use sophisticated software to run their portfolios instead of human stockbrokers. That is why these companies can charge very little in brokerage fees and typically do not require any account minimums.

Commission-Free Exchange Traded Funds:

Exchange-traded funds, known as ETFs, continue to grow in popularity among novice investors with little money to invest. ETFs are marketable equities that track a specific index, such as the NASDAQ or the S&P 500 indexes. You can buy and sell ETFs just like you would individual stocks. Many brokers who buy and sell ETFs for investors do not charge any commissions. That is why ETFs are fast becoming one of the most popular investment vehicles for people with little or no money. For example, one of the most popular online brokers, TD Ameritrade, offers a comprehensive list of over 300 commission-free ETFs. For the price of a single share of an ETF, you gain exposure to a broad range of assets listed in a market index.

Company 401(k)’s:

Although it may seem like common sense to start investing small amounts into your company’s 401(k) retirement account, many Americans decline to enroll because the company automatically deducts the investment dollars from their paychecks. The problem is, many people are unaware that the deductions are so small, they probably would not miss the money. You can deduct as little as 1 percent of your paycheck into your employer’s 401(k) is you so choose. Combined with some of the tax benefits of 401(k)’s, that 1 percent gets smaller over time while still earning the same returns. If your company gives you an annual pay raise, you can start increasing your contribution each year.

Mark Angelo is the Co-Founder of Yorkville Advisors.

Smart investors are constantly searching for strategies that will help them save money while also accumulating more wealth. With that being said, here is a look at several investment strategies that wealthy people should consider using to accumulate even more wealth.

Focus On Tax Free Investments:

While the majority of tax reducing strategies do not necessarily benefit wealthy people, there are some strategies that can be used as assets for wealthy investors. Look at tax free municipals. A tax free municipal bond can help lower the interest rate on the bond.

Do Not Neglect Cash:

Many wealthy investors have a relatively high percentage of their assets in cash. Having a lot of cash on hand allows wealthy investors to take advantage of any sudden market opportunities as they arise. Without having a lot of cash, investors will not have the flexibility to adapt to the market.

Pay Attention To The Fees:

Investment fees can quickly accumulate for wealthy investors. Wealthy investors should do research on the different types of investment fees that they are responsible for paying. It may be more beneficial in the long run to look at other investment options.

Re-balance:

Wealthy investors should look to re-balance their portfolio. Without consistently re-balancing their investments, wealthy investors are at risk of seeing their assets improperly allocated. There should never be an over reliance on stocks or bonds.

Diversify:

Diversification is an easy way to avoid imbalance in a portfolio. Wealthy investors should have a diverse portfolio made up of assets in equities, bonds, real estate, and hedge funds, among other assets. Diversification helps reduce portfolio risk. Wealthy investors have access to more opportunities to diversify their portfolio.

Ask For Help When Necessary:

Many wealthy investors network with their peers in order to learn more about investing. Investment professionals can be a real asset as well, especially for investors who are unable to devote a lot of time to studying the market. Do it yourself investing has continually proven to be a mistake.

Go Private:

Wealthy investors are aware that large amounts of wealth are accumulated in private markets compared to public markets. Wealthy investors are aware of how lucrative investing in private businesses can be.

Develop Risk Tolerance:

Wealthy investors often take time before making the choice to invest. They look over any potential scenarios that could arise after they have invested. Successful investors have the risk tolerance to know when to make the right decision to invest and when to pass on an opportunity.

  Mark Angelo is the Co-Founder of Yorkville Advisors.