A GDP Backed Stock Index

Countries with emerging markets, possessing a high GDP growth rate and expect to experience the same in foreseeable future, can introduce a stock directly linked to the GDP growth rate.
Countries like Brazil, India, China, Qatar, Paraguay can directly create a link between a certain percentage of GDP growth with the stock index value. This will make the said stock more predictable and a direct representation of the country's economy.

Reasoning behind this idea is, I was wondering if, instead of investing in Chinese markets or any other business opportunities there, I could invest in something that is directly linked with the growth of Chinese economy. Idea might seem strange and opposing to the current orthodox ways of setting different stock indices--having indirect links with phenomenon such as GDP, Inflation, Dollar Value--- But not directly linked stock. But as a country, the concern is to bring in investments, orthodox or un-orthodox is not the question to be asked.

This approach can be, specifically, used by countries like India, Brazil, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, whose GDP's are on the rise, and they are expecting growth in the foreseen future. There are so many investors who are inclined to invest in such countries but find it difficult to look for 'real' earning opportunities. These investors, including myself, would feel more secure in investing a country backed stock---Yes! a Country Backed Stock!! This way investors can get much secured returns on their investments, and can predict the returns in a better way than investing in any corporation of that country.

On the other hands these countries will have huge investments flowing in and this, in turn, again increase their GDPs if these investments are used properly.

Stocks may be linked with GDP itself, or GDP growth rate, but all technicalities once taken well care of, this NEW STOCK INDEX can generate greater returns for the good of both investors and the growing countries.

 

Save your credit card while purchasing online

Many of us owning credit cards are, or should be, aware of the fact that Online Scams are becoming a very notoriously popular phenomena. There are many online scammers and hackers who are waiting for you to make a mistake online, provide your information to an unsecured website, and subsequently, lose money on your credit card. According a recent research by Master Card, online earning trends have considerably increased in cities like Dubai.

Purchasing online is very convenient and has many pros attached to it. So we cannot just advise to stop purchasing online by using your credit cards, rather there are some advices I would like to dart down below for consumers to be more careful regarding their credit cards usage online.

Use Famous and Secured Sites

There are many famous websites, such as ebay, amazon etc., where you can just go and purchase securely using your credit cards. But please make sure that you are using the website directly and not following a link from other website. Because there are many fraudulent websites which may hack your information this way.

For regular websites, in order to make sure if there is a secure connection between your explorer and that site, have a look at the URL: if it starts with [https://], you are on a secured page; if the URL starts with http://, you're not.

Further, Look for a padlock somewhere in your internet browser (explorer, firefox, safari etc). If there is no padlock on the browser somewhere then the page could be unsecure. If the browser does have a padlock, then it means that the website is secure. NOTE: The padlock is not shown on the website page (as this means absolutely nothing), rather the padlock that you're looking for is somewhere on the browser. Here are two examples of how the padlock can look:

Use Alert Pay or Pay Pal for online purchases

These are two very famous websites for making online purchases. You can register your credit cards with these sites, transfer funds there and make online purchases. They are very secure websites and are just like online bank accounts. This way there is a very secure third party involved in your transactions and your credit card information is not directly exposed to the suppliers.

(click below to join these sites now)

1. Alert Pay

2. Pay Pal

Money Expo Dubai , April 2011

For readers living in UAE, in general, and Dubai, in particular, Money Expo Dubai is a wonderful event when it comes to finance, investments and personal finance, investment banking and other related financial aspects. This event is for everyone i.e. individuals, companies, SMEs, banks, finance professionals, a general consumer, investors etc.

Financial education has always been on the weaker side in Dubai, I beleive, and individuals with heaps and heaps of financial assets do not seem to be in a habit of planning scientificaly to increase their wealth. Students of finance, based on my experience of teaching in a renowned banking institute in the area for a very short period of time, are weak in understanding financial concepts and then applying them in their daily life. So I would like to encourage all and sundry to visit this event and try to have a better understanding of the financial world.

This is The Largest personal finance and investment show in the Middle East and the first ever dedicated event of its kind to focus on the promotion of investment opportunities and wealth protection strategies for individuals, families and small businesses.

The MONEY EXPO will provide an ideal platform for financial institutions to meet consumers and interact on a one-to-one basis. This is the best opportunity of the year to market your products and solutions, educate and empower your current and prospective customers all under one roof. If you have an offering in one of the following areas: insurance, credit cards, mortgages, bonds, forex trading, savings plans, offshore tax, wealth management, debt management, commodities and internet marketing - contact us now to secure your place

So I suggest everyone should visit this huge event to benefit from expert view of Financial Gurus of the region.

Factors to Consider Before Investing

After discussing Differences between Savings and Investments, we will further discuss Investments to see what important factors an Individual Investor must keep in mind before making actual Investment decisions. From First and Seconds Lesson on investment, we have darted down certain points which classify investments from savings, and have noted few factors there that an individual investor must keep in mind to make wise investments, or even, to make investments at all or not.

This Lesson will cover in detail, factors and checks that are or should be backbone of investment decisions.

1. Avoid Hasty and Un-Planned Decisions. In a volatile market and financio-economical situation like present, it has been observed that investors are making rapid investment decisions without involving much planning and analysis. Investors, out of fear and/or lust factor, seem to have ignored and put aside their long term financial goals and all that long planning they had done in a normal market situation. This kind of behaviour must be avoided as it may, and mostly does, add to the already piling up losses. You financial plans may be revived, trimmed and modified but should not be completely ignored as you have had put some hard work and thinking while making those financial plans and setting your financial goals.

2. Draw or Re-Draw a Personal Financial Road Map. As discussed previously in my post on Having a Plan before Writing a Business Plan, we discussed how important it is to know and analyze one's personal financial position before making any kind of financial decisions. We stressed there that an investor(which in that case was for a proprieter) should first thoroughly analyze his current personal financial position, keeping in mind his future plans regarding his personal life, future major expenses, future earning options i.e. both expected amount and timings. One should have enough cushion for one's near and far future personal plans, and then see how one can set aside to invest into a new investment)
If you are already very much vulnerable to a financial crisis, based on your current financial condition and future expectations, you should avoid the idea of risking your finances even more by even thinking of a new investment.

3. Knowledge, Expertise and Skills related to Investment. It is always advisable to invest in something you have yourself knowledge and expertise of, instead of completely relying on Investment Managers(if you are going to hire one). If you think you have keen interest in an investment and it is not very technical to handle, you can even yourself manage your investment and save costs. But again it is more advisable to atleast have some guidance from one. Having knowledge and expertise of a particular investment class will enable you to make better decisions and look for more innovative and modern ways of investments. So even if you don't have know how and you trust a particular investment management company, before investing do detailed research and try to get as much as knowledge as possible of the subject, which in this case is an investment.

4. Asses you Risk Tolerance Capacity. Every investment involves some sort of risk, as this is something that differentiates Savings from Investment. If you are investing in stocks, bonds, real estate--there is definitely risk involved. As compared to depositing in Secured Banks. The reward for taking on risk is the potential for a greater investment return. If you have a financial goal with a long time horizon, you are likely to make more money by carefully investing in asset categories with greater risk, like stocks or bonds, rather than restricting your investments to assets with less risk, like cash equivalents. On the other hand, investing solely in cash investments may be appropriate for short-term financial goals. The principal concern for individuals investing in cash equivalents is inflation risk, which is the risk that inflation will outpace and erode returns over time.

5. Timing of Investment. Based on your Financial Position and your long term or short term financial goals, you should assess if this is a right time for you, financially, to make an investment decision. Jumping into an investment decision just for the sake of it can destroy your hard-earned earnings.
Moreover, you should also consider the timings of the economic cycle. You would need to check whether it is the start, mid or assumed end of a financio-economic cycle as you cannot make investment decisions in isolation from the current market conditions.

What is Loan Amortization?

Loan Amortization is a process where equal amount of monthly loan payments are made, with an interest portion and a principal portion.

Mortgage loans are prime examples of Amortized Loans. They have very long payment terms e.g. 30 years.  Interest portion, during the earlier months of the loan, is higher and principal portion is on the lower side.

Advantage of such a loan is that borrowers can plan their monthly expenses as the payments are fixed. But there are some disadvantages attached to this loan. In case of a home loan, for example, as interest constitutes a larger portion of the loan during earlier months of the loan, the borrower can only equitize small portions of payments made. Though, this can be overcome by paying extra payments and asking the lender, which may be a bank or some lending agency, to adjust these against the principal only.

Difference between Savings and Investments

In my previous post i.e.Investment Definition and Explanation, I gave you an idea and constructed a definition of investment in terms of Personal Finance. Now we further discuss the difference of Savings and Investments, and how we can chose between Savings and Investments based on these differences.

Difference Between Savings and Investment

Intent or Purpose: First difference is based on the intent with which money is kept aside for either Savings or Investment. Savings is the money or any other asset set aside with an intention to remove risk of loss, or buy something in the future etc, and NOT without any profit making intentions(except very nominal returns on savings which only cover expected inflation). Whereas Investment is purely with an intention to use money or any other asset with a hope to generate income in the future or a capital gain, and risk is an integral part of every investment.

Where Implied: Savings is mostly done with Banks, Other financial institutions or even at home in the form of Cash. Whereas usage of Investment is varied, i.e. investing in stocks, bonds, real estate etc.

Time: Time is another factor that differentiates between Savings and Investment. Savings are generally for a shorter period of time, with an intent to accumulate a certain amount of money. Whereas Investments are done, generally, for a longer period of time, and by a person who has a longer time horizon in his mind.

Source: Another very interesting difference that I have thought of, is the source of funding for Savings or Investments. Savings are funded, generally, by either reducing your current expenses or doing some extra work to have that extra amount available for Savings. Whereas Investments may have varied sources of funding. You may take a loan to invest, And of course you will never take a loan to Save, or you may use even your extra Savings for investing which normally many people do.

Returns: Value of Investments may fall or rise and you may not get your original investment back. Whereas in Savings you always get your original investment back (though its actual value might have been hampered by increased interest rates or inflation).

People save or invest money based on factors, such as availability of funds, sources the funds are coming from, liquidity and Risk and Return trade. Future forecast is another critical reason that helps in the decision of either Saving or Investing.

Investment Definition and Explanation

In order for the individuals, households and companies to actualy start investing, it is generaly a good idea to understand the concept first.

Investment is one of the fundamental concepts in finance. No financial discussion, website or blog is complete without defining and explaining investment. I intend to write about investment in detail with reference to households and individuals, as a tutorial, starting from defining and explaining investment as a phenomenon and then slowly incorporating complex topics in further posts.

Definition of Investment

"Investment is the concept of putting 'surplus' money to things such as stocks, bonds, real estate, starting a new venture, buying a capital good etc. with a hope/forecast to have capital gains or continuous streams of positive net income from this employment of money."

With reference to individuals, it is generally recommended to use surplus money for investments, as there is a very thin line between investing and speculating, so investment decisions should be made very wisely and with proper research and analysis. Investment always comes with a risk of losing the invested amount, and this loss would not be in the control of the investor then, it is always advisable to measure and research all risks involved.

Investment is a parallel concept to Savings, where savings is done with an intent to cope with increasing inflation, Investment on the other hand is done with and intention to earn revenue streams or have capital gains from money invested, and it also generates employment and increases the production level of a country. Individuals either save or invest their surplus money based on how much risk they are willing to take. More risk taking individuals prefer investing over savings.

Top Three Paid to Click Websites and how to earn on them

This post is to facilitate people who are interested in earning money from home or getting some extra income while surfing or working online.

Top Three Paid to Click Websites

Without wasting your time, I'm providing a list of Top Three, guaranteed Paid to Click websites. All of the below websites are reliable and accept some widely available payment methods, including PayPal and Payza. Payment proofs can be seen in the forums of these websites and also they are self-tested.
Here's the list:

Easyhits4u is a well established website for Traffic Exchange. They are one of the best and very trustable. There are so many ways you can benefit from this website. As a standard member, you get paid 30 cents for surfing 1000 pages and there is no limit on how many you can surf in a day. You receive 10 cents for each referral that has surfed 100 ads. Then you can use the credits earned on this site to advertise your other websites/blogs or even paid to click sites. 

Neobux is the best in the business when it comes to earning from Paid to Click websites. It is the oldest and very reliable paid to click website. Accepts both PayPal and Payza. You get paid for referring people and also when they click on the ads. Just recently they have increased the number of ads on their website and made it even better.

Trafficmonsoon, is a recently added giant to Paid to click business. It is very reliable and pays 1 cent for each click and 100% for referral clicks i.e. 1 cent. I've recently had a cash out from this website to my paypal account.

Let me know if you have any questions and I can help you set up accounts on these websites.

 

Five Critical Financial Mistakes Households Make & Ways to Avoid them

People generally are lazy and do not want to give their finances some healthy thinking. Whether it is a small start up company, household financial analysis and planning or any other aspect that we can relate to money. We only think about start planning our finances and do a bit of budgeting and start analysing our near and far future risks once we are buried deep into a financial crisis(Current financial crisis has proved that even Governments and large Corporation are no exception to this behaviour!!!). Cutting long discussion short, if we force ourselves not to commit below mentioned critical financial mistakes, it would definitely save us a lot of money.

1. NOT CALCULATING, FORECASTING AND MATCHING ONE'S EARNINGS AND EXPENSES --NOT PLANNING

This is a very general trend that people tend not to engage in calculations before when they really have to. Secondly, even if we do spare some time to do calculations of income and expenses for the current month, we do not forecast. We need to remove this behaviour and should start planning.
The process is very simple! Calculate your earnings for the current month and then calculate current month's expenses. Now incorporate the expenses you postponed from previous months, e.g. credit card or utility bills any loans you have taken from friends or bank loans you have not paid recently. You will have a Net Earnings Figure. Repeat the same process for coming 3 months at least so that you know how much you would be left with if you pay portion of these pending payments and your regular expenses.

2. NOT PRIORITIZING TRANSACTIONS

After doing all the necessary good work, people just jump into making decisions about what to pay first and
'very importantly' how much to pay.
Make a small priority list of payments. This hierarchy can be almost universal.
1. Pay/save for your needs first.
2. Pay loans which are interest based as they eat up your income to a great extent.
Now how much of these loans you should pay as an installment may or may not be in your control. If its a fixed monthly installment, you have no choice but to pay. But if you have, let's say, a credit card outstanding and you can opt to pay a minimum payment but you have few bucks extra, clear off the principal amount as much as you can.
3. Pay loans which are not interest based, let's say from friends, family members or any organization, and try to delay their payment further if it is possible by any chance.
4. Pay yourself! Yes, this part is very important that you should save a reasonable portion of your net earnings so that you can tackle any probable future financial crisis.
5. Pay for your luxuries. Although, I would strongly recommend that paying for luxuries when you have loans pending should be avoided. But if you cannot help it, AND you have reasonably paid all items mentioned above, pay last for your luxuries(Still Not Recommended if there are loans outstanding or credit card interesting bearing payments!!!)

3.NOT DECREASING EXPENSES TO INCREASE NET INCOME

People generally do not think on the lines that we can increase our net income ourselves (if our business income is not increased or salaries are staying same) by decreasing our expenses.
If our income is stagnant at one point, we should be more inclined to decrease our un-necessary expenses, like luxuries. We can avoid costly luncheons and dinners. We can be less brand conscious and put extra efforts in shopping and try to get best prices. We may need to shorten our list of 'so-called' necessities. For example, major necessities are grocery, utility, food and car, and children's fees may also be included(if you have children). Now include everything else into the category of a luxury for time being if you are short in cash. Even reduce the amount that you spend on necessities by consuming less electricity, making lesser and only necessary phone calls through your land line and mobile, purchasing a fuel efficient car if you don't have one already etc. So you can surely increase your net income by decreasing your expenses.
Because Net Income = Earnings - Expenses ---Remember!!

4. NOT STAYING UPDATED ON THE CURRENT MARKET TRENDS

We mostly believe that only finance/accounts related people need to have a look at the current market conditions and trends, which is absolutely wrong. These market trends, whether it is the value of our currency in specific or dollar in general, whether it is gold or oil price, whether these are any rules and regulations passed by the government, they affect us directly or indirectly. So we should develop a habit of giving few minutes of our daily routine to the business section of the newspaper or any web portal we read for News.

5. FINALLY, RESIGNING TO FATE ONCE IN A FINANCIAL CRISIS

When we are in a financial trauma, there is a general inclination that we get so messed up that all those plans we had set up, we stop working on them and make stupid decisions. NO! this should be absolutely avoided. If there is a way into a problem, there is always a way out!! We might have to redesign our plans, redo the calculations and revise our expenses, but we can always get out of a financial crisis, sooner if we plan again.
So no matter whatever the situation is, make financial planning, general analysis, and information gathering a part of your routine so that when tough situations may arise, you are ready!!!


Because Money Matters!!!

When Should I Refinance?

Refinancing is a financial term used for changing terms of your current debt, either with the same financer or with a different one, in order to achieve following goals:

To consolidate other debts into one loan. When you are having more than one debts and it is hard to manage them separately, you should refinance them into one loan to help ease the process of tracking your liability payments, and thus your monthly budgets. You may also be inclined to consolidate your debts to avoid fees and penalties on separate debts, and again, achieve the goal of easily managing your debts.

To take advantage of a better interest rate available in the market. If the interest rates have fallen from the time when you engaged into your current debt(s), you should refinance your debt(s). Here your judgement and financial observation would be required for deciding on when to refinance. If you feel that interest rates would go further down, you may opt to hold refinancing. But be very watchful and do no wait long enough and refinance as soon as you get best interest rates offers. To be more aware, always keep yourself updated with news and announcements from the Government and/or Central Banks regarding interest rates and other Monetary Policy actions.

To reduce monthly repayment amount. When you are paying an amount of money from your budget that is becoming un-affordable, you may opt to refinance.

To use cash for investing or more interest paying saving opportunities. If you are planning to use a portion of your budget that is going for extra payments for, either investing in some high interest paying opportunity or a better savings scheme, or even for retirement, you may also chose to refinance your debt and use the freed cash to invest.

To reduce or alter risk. When markets are volatile and interest rate is fluctuating so very often, and you are a risk averse person, you should refinance your variable interest based debt to a fixed interest rate debt to ease yourself of the stress of ever changing interest rates. If you plan to stay in your home for years, and you are currently in an adjustable-rate mortgage, you should strongly consider a refi. ARMs are incredibly dangerous - the financial equivalent of Russian roulette, but with multiple bullets. Refinancing into a 30-year fixed-rate loan may not cut your current monthly payments by much, but it gets rid of the risk that those payments will suddenly skyrocket.

 

Avoid Credit Card Fraud - Tips and Tricks

Our credit card information is very much vulnerable to theft and there should be steps to avoid this. Many people around us,whether online or offline, are always looking for a chance to steal this information and then use it.

1. Use CCs on secure and verified websites online. How you can judge that is not very difficult as most people think. Try to look for a third party verifiying seal. Like, there may be a seal saying 'Verified By Visa' or by any other well known third party certifier.

2. Sign your CCs as soon as you receive them

3. Do not let your CC away from your sight in any transaction you make as scammers may take a picture of your credit card, encrypt the information on in many ways they may be knowing.

4. Prefer merchants which ask you to sign the receipt instead of providing your pin number.

5. Only keep cards with you that you are most likely to use. Do not keep extra.

6. Always keep your pin number and card separately.

7. Shred anything with your card information written on it and dispose it off properly.

8. Review your statement regularly to check for any un-authorized transactions.

9. Set an alert system with the providers whenever a transaction is made.

10. Never share your CC information on un-secured plat forms.

11. Be VERY aware of spam emails---Beware of Financial Help Spams

12. Protect your PC/Mobile or any other device where you may store your CC information or may
use to make transactions through CCs.

13. Keep changing your passwords regularly.

14. Keep a list in a secure place with all of your account numbers and expiration dates, as well as the phone number and address of each bank that has issued you a credit card. Keep this list updated each time you get a new credit card.

15. Report stolen or lost cards immediately. The sooner you report the less likely it is that you'll have to pay for any fraudulent charges made on your credit card. Write down your credit card companies' customer service number now so you'll have it if your credit card is ever missing.

16. If you have just experienced a fraud, report to the provider immediately.

17. Keep all your account, credit cards and other important expiry dates, passwords in a well secure place.

Five Critical Financial Mistakes Households Make & How We Can Avoid Them

People generally are lazy and do not want to give their finances some healthy thinking. Whether it is a small start up company, household financial analysis and planning or any other aspect that we can relate to money. We only think about start planning our finances and do a bit of budgeting and start analysing our near and far future risks once we are buried deep into a financial crisis(Current financial crisis has proved that even Governments and large Corporation are no exception to this behaviour!!!). Cutting long discussion short, if we force ourselves not to commit below mentioned critical financial mistakes, it would definitely save us a lot of money.

1. NOT CALCULATING, FORECASTING AND MATCHING ONE'S EARNINGS AND EXPENSES --NOT PLANNING

This is a very general trend that people tend not to engage in calculations before when they really have to. Secondly, even if we do spare some time to do calculations of income and expenses for the current month, we do not forecast. We need to remove this behaviour and should start planning.

The process is very simple! Calculate your earnings for the current month and then calculate current month's expenses. Now incorporate the expenses you postponed from previous months, e.g. credit card or utility bills any loans you have taken from friends or bank loans you have not paid recently. You will have a Net Earnings Figure. Repeat the same process for coming 3 months at least so that you know how much you would be left with if you pay portion of these pending payments and your regular expenses.

2. NOT PRIORITIZING TRANSACTIONS

After doing all the necessary good work, people just jump into making decisions about what to pay first and 'very importantly' how much to pay.

Make a small priority list of payments. This hierarchy can be almost universal.

1. Pay/save for your needs first.

2. Pay loans which are interest based as they eat up your income to a great extent.

Now how much of these loans you should pay as an installment may or may not be in your control. If its a fixed monthly installment, you have no choice but to pay. But if you have, let's say, a credit card outstanding and you can opt to pay a minimum payment but you have few bucks extra, clear off the principal amount as much as you can.

3. Pay loans which are not interest based, let's say from friends, family members or any organization, and try to delay their payment further if it is possible by any chance.

4. Pay yourself! Yes, this part is very important that you should save a reasonable portion of your net earnings so that you can tackle any probable future financial crisis.

5. Pay for your luxuries. Although, I would strongly recommend that paying for luxuries when you have loans pending should be avoided. But if you cannot help it, AND you have reasonably paid all items mentioned above, pay last for your luxuries(Still Not Recommended if there are loans outstanding or credit card interesting bearing payments!!!)

3.NOT DECREASING EXPENSES TO INCREASE NET INCOME

People generally do not think on the lines that we can increase our net income ourselves (if our business income is not increased or salaries are staying same) by decreasing our expenses.

If our income is stagnant at one point, we should be more inclined to decrease our un-necessary expenses, like luxuries. We can avoid costly luncheons and dinners. We can be less brand conscious and put extra efforts in shopping and try to get best prices. We may need to shorten our list of 'so-called' necessities. For example, major necessities are grocery, utility, food and car, and children's fees may also be included(if you have children). Now include everything else into the category of a luxury for time being if you are short in cash. Even reduce the amount that you spend on necessities by consuming less electricity, making lesser and only necessary phone calls through your land line and mobile, purchasing a fuel efficient car if you don't have one already etc. So you can surely increase your net income by decreasing your expenses.

Because Net Income = Earnings - Expenses ---Remember!!

4. NOT STAYING UPDATED ON THE CURRENT MARKET TRENDS

We mostly believe that only finance/accounts related people need to have a look at the current market conditions and trends, which is absolutely wrong. These market trends, whether it is the value of our currency in specific or dollar in general, whether it is gold or oil price, whether these are any rules and regulations passed by the government, they affect us directly or indirectly. So we should develop a habit of giving few minutes of our daily routine to the business section of the newspaper or any web portal we read for News.

5. FINALLY, RESIGNING TO FATE ONCE IN A FINANCIAL CRISIS

When we are in a financial trauma, there is a general inclination that we get so messed up that all those plans we had set up, we stop working on them and make stupid decisions. NO! this should be absolutely avoided. If there is a way into a problem, there is always a way out!! We might have to redesign our plans, redo the calculations and revise our expenses, but we can always get out of a financial crisis, sooner if we plan again.

So no matter whatever the situation is, make financial planning, general analysis, and information gathering a part of your routine so that when tough situations may arise, you are ready!!!

Investment Options in Dubai

United Arab Emirates, in its own way, has presented the world a great deal of investment opportunities. In spite of a prolonged world wide recession, UAE has yet again started to emerge as an investment hub for many of the keen investors.

According to a report cited in Arabian Business Website, Dubai remains the most attractive city in the Middle East for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), despite the recent speculation over the emirate's ability to pay its debts. Over air traffic situation in Dubai specifically and UAE in general has improved considerably from last year i.e. around 8.7% more than it was in August 2009, which can be read as people have started to regain their confidence in UAE market, for shopping maybe, but definitely a portion of that will add to investments.

Now let's have a look at different investment options in Dubai.

National Bonds is a wonderful option for investors who have more inclination towards saving their money than investing. They had a profit percentage of 3.5% in 2009, and average stays almost the same. With your money completely safe, you can earn a reasonable percentage of profit along with monthly prizes which have attracted many residents.

For investors who are interested in Shariah Compliant investment options find this another reason to invest in national bonds.

Gold is a universal investment option. Although many would argue Gold has reached its high and now its time for the shining metal to jump down, I would predict a 5% further increase in Gold price before we can actually say that Gold has reached its maximum price. From an article in Financial Times I got to know that Central Banks are planning to buy 15 tonnes of the barbarous relic in 2010, flipping them from net sellers to net buyers for the first time in 20 years, a large Hedge Trader in Gold Anglo Gold Ashanti is spending $ 1.375 Billion to take its gold hedges off. And Dollars has had so many downward hits this last year and before that it is going to take so much time to recover, if ever, to come back to that standard strong Dollar it was once. Further people are getting more wary of the fact that they want to store something tangible, something that has a pure 'value' in itself, and is something that can be trusted upon no matter how low the world economies grow.

Even if the prices go down, but you have a long investment horizon, gold remains the best option -Secure and Tangible in terms of Value.

Starting a Restaurant is one of the options I've personally considered and worked on and have a detailed Business Plan available-A Pakistani Restaurant in Dubai/Sharjah. Reasons behind this are many. Firstly, I already mentioned that inflow of people in UAE has increased considerably and no matter whatever purpose these people are coming for, their presence increases the Foot-Fall in shopping areas, streets and entertainment areas of the city. And as we all know restaurant business is directly related to the foot-fall and people passing or living in a certain area, is a best option to start with.

Further, restaurant business is something that has done very well in Dubai for a long time. I have observed Pakistani and Indian restaurants with a small Set-Up but when I, roughly, tried to figure out using my past experience of working in a French Restaurants chain as a chief accountant and also detailed analysis of the restaurant industry, their Net Profits were never less that 50% per annum for almost 80% of those restaurants.

Buying Property in Dubai might seem a harsh suggestion based on what has happened with the real state sector in UAE in recent past. But my reason for suggesting this for any resident who is intending to live for a much longer term in Dubai, buying a property is a much better option that paying a fortune in rents. In addition, it is presently up to 40% cheaper to buy than to rent, so buying a big villa costs the same as renting a small one. The 10% down payment on a new villa is the same as the upfront annual rent payment. Rental yields of up to 10% are achievable in Dubai compared to under 5% in Central London.

Even if you plan to live in your home country, you can take advantage of the rents from your property in Dubai, which are Tax Free- very rare anywhere else in the world.

These were few of the options I recommend. Further, there are varied options. Like buying shares of NBAD, which has done so well in the recent past and seems to be doing so in the future. Venture Capital Investing where so many people have ideas but lack the required capital. Dubai is a much safer place for Venture Capital Investing because of its strong and clear laws about Business Relationships.

Crux is, Dubai has become a Business Hub, and yes it was much affected with the recession like all other metropolitan cities of the world, and have started to regain its confidence in the world wide investors which is evident from the fact that so many companies have recently registered in Dubai specifically and UAE in general.