SUN VALLEY, ID - JULY 12: Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, displays the Google's Nexus Q streaming media player and Google’s Nexus 7 Android tablet during the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 12, 2012 in Sun Valley, Idaho. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Now is the time to invest in Google and begin making a strong addition to your portfolio that will begin to generate income in a short period of time. There are millions of people interested in making money in the stock market, but most people have no idea about where to put their money. Since there are so many different options, people tend to choose stocks that are very popular at the moment. Selecting your investments this way could lead to taking on too much risk and increasing the possibility of suffering a loss. What you should do is choose stocks that would provide you with solid returns for years to come.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Facebook made waves on the NYSE recently as it went public in early May. Shares of the stock were snatched up at the initial price offering because of predictions that it would be a good money maker on the heels of its popularity when it was just a private company. The change in principle ownership did have users of the website worried though. Those that owned a Facebook profile became worried that Facebook going public would bring a lot of negative changes to their Facebook experience.  The truth is whenever company decides to go public there inevitably going to some changes that come along with it. What will be the future Facebook after IPO?

The Federal Reserve: The Biggest Scam In History (Photo credit: CityGypsy11)

As a result of the seemingly weak recovery of US economy coupled with the high rate of unemployment, a few top Federal Reserve makers of policy settled for a third purchase of bonds. As indicated by John Williams, San Francisco Fed president, little progress seems to have been made on their mandates and this calls for new strategies. On the other hand, Richmond Federal president Jeffrey Lacker highlighted on the current rifts at the United States Central bank and expressed his sentiments against bond purchases. The Fed has maintained low rates of standard short-term interest since December 2008, speculated to last till the latter months of the year 2014 in order to boost the economy.

English: Marcus Agius, British financier and businessman and Chairman of Barclays, speaking at the Confederation of British Industry's Climate Change Summit 2008 at The Royal Lancaster Hotel, London. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Barclay bank president resigns according to news sources. A CEO of one of the biggest banks has stepped down because of a scandal the bank reported on Tuesday. The resignation of Bob Diamond goes into effect right away.

This comes as no surprise since Diamond has always been viewed a very controversial figure in support of giving bankers large bonuses.

Donations (Photo credit: Matthew Burpee)

While some people are just catching on to crowdfunding, others have been savvy to it for years.  The idea behind crowd funding is quite brilliant: raise small donations from a high number of people to fund your project.  Most people don’t mind throwing in $5 to a project they find intriguing. Or at least if it’s someone they care about.  Thousands of films, documentaries, books, games etc. have successfully been funded. Sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are raking in the money by being the platform for these artists to fundraise.  Kickstarter has hit over a million dollars for a single project more than once.  So why isn’t everyone using crowd funding for projects? Well, it’s starting to look like small business and inventors are.

Retirement may seem like years away, but it will sneak up a lot faster than you think. Failing to plan for a comfortable retirement could potentially mean that you could be working until the day you die. Investing now will not only give you a comfortable nest egg, but it's going to allow your investments to grow over the years. To help you plan for a comfortable retirement, here are some tips you may want to use:

MarketWatch (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You might have heard of Cody Willard if you read financial and investment websites regularly.  He is the guy who edits the MarketWatch Revolution Investing newsletter and he also frequently appears on TV as an expert on frugal financial advice.  In addition to that makes regular appearances on popular Fox Business Network as well as CNBC.  This places Willard in a very good position to give advice to traders that wish to get the best insight on stocks and share trading.  If you want to improve your portfolio then this is where a subscription to the Revolution Investing newsletter can help as it in. Read the following review to find out more and see whether it would suit you.

English: Markowitz-Portfolio Theory, Investment Portfolio Management (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some people start making investments a little here and there to see how they do, others have a full plan for their retirement, and some even strive to make a full-time career out of investing. No matter what level of investing you are interested in, building a profitable investment portfolio is important for getting the maximum return on your investments.

Banks: they’re a necessary evil. They pretend to look after our financial interests but really they’re just looking after their own. Some banks are worse than others. For example, in South Africa, banks charge people to deposit money, withdraw money, transfer money (even between accounts in the same name), and make payments, and that’s not counting monthly bank charges and other ‘admin fees’. By and large, the interest rates that banks all over the world charge on loans also borders on criminal. So, who is on the consumer’s side? Who monitors banks and ensures that they behave as ethically as possible?

Enter bank examiners.

Bank examiners are the watchmen of the banking world. They poke around behind the scenes to determine whether banks operate within the rules and regulations, whether their policies are fair and ethical, whether their procedures run smoothly and whether staff follow these procedures, protocols and keep proper records of all transactions. Bank examiners all check to see that staff are properly trained and qualified for their jobs.

Bank examiners can work for governmental departments, regulating bodies and banks themselves – to ensure that financial institutions don’t incur any penalties owing to dodgy practices.

English: A graph showing the historical price of gold from 2000 through 12/19/2008. The graph is highly generalized from data garnered at kitco.com (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Keeping track of the price movements of commodity futures in the gold sector is definitely one of your top priorities if you are an investor in this commodity. Now the best approach in tracking the prices has to be a real time approach that gives the prices as they change every time. So why do you need to keep track of gold prices if you are an investor in the commodities futures?  Well price movements are the single most influential signals that can allow you to know whether you are making loss or profit. Furthermore they give a very good picture of the trends in the market allowing you the chance to trade accordingly. There are quite a number of ways that you can keep track of gold commodity prices - here are some of the best ones.