Author: Arabian Media staff

Want to strengthen your portfolio’s risk-return profile? Adding bonds can create a more balanced portfolio by adding diversification and calming volatility. But the bond market may seem unfamiliar even to the most experienced investors. Many investors make only passing ventures into bonds because they are confused by the apparent complexity of the bond market and the terminology. In reality, bonds are very simple debt instruments. So, how do you get into this part of the market? How do bonds work? Get your start in bond investing by learning these basic bond market terms. Key Takeaways The bond market can help investors…

What Is Joint Tenancy? Joint tenancy is an arrangement that allows beneficiaries to access your account without having to go to court. Couples and business partners can take title to each other’s bank accounts, brokerage accounts, real estate, and personal property as joint tenants with rights of survivorship (JTWROS). When someone dies, their joint tenants can access their assets without going through probate. Key Takeaways Some of the main benefits of joint tenancy include avoiding probate courts, sharing responsibility, and maintaining continuity.The primary pitfalls are the need for agreement, the potential for assets to be frozen, and loss of control…

Entrepreneurship is often cited as a major engine of economic growth, particularly in the United States. The actual picture is more complicated, however. Here’s what leading scholars have to say about the importance of entrepreneurship around the world. Key Takeaways Entrepreneurship can fuel economic growth under the right conditions and when people become entrepreneurs for the right reasons.It’s not a magic bullet for growth, however, particularly in less-developed economies.Social entrepreneurship can attempt to deliver both profits and societal good although often with mixed results.The level of economic development of a country can affect whether entrepreneurship will lead to greater economic…

What’s the most important thing to look for in real estate? While location is always a key consideration, there are numerous other factors that help determine if an investment is right for you. Here’s a look at some of the most important things to consider if you plan to invest in the real estate market.  Investopedia / Alex Dos Diaz Key Takeaways The most important factor in real estate investing is still “location, location, and location.”Property valuation is also an important factor to finding the best bargain.Your investment horizon will also determine which properties you look for.Cash flows and construction…

Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Edward Jones, LPL Financial, and Wells Fargo Advisors are the largest advisory firms by the number of investment advisers registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). They also hold a vast amount of financial advising assets for non-high-net-worth-individuals (HNWIs) in the U.S. These companies are the biggest in the industry for different reasons, whether it be low fees, staying power from being in business for a century or more, or growth through mergers and acquisitions. Choosing a financial advisory firm can be difficult, as there are thousands to wade through. Many have specific strengths…

Small-Cap Stocks vs. Large-Cap Stocks: An Overview Historically, market capitalization, defined as the value of all outstanding shares of a corporation, has an inverse or opposite relationship to both risk and return. Large-cap corporations—those with market capitalizations of $10 billion and greater—tend to grow more slowly than mid-cap companies. Mid-cap companies are those with a capitalization between $2 billion and $10 billion, while small-cap corporations have between $250 million and $2 billion. These definitions of large cap and small cap differ slightly between the brokerage houses, and the dividing lines have shifted over time. The differing definitions are relatively superficial…

Licenses vs. Permits: What’s the Difference? Licenses  Permits Expiration and Validity Longer-term or permanent Temporary and require frequent renewal Limitations and Restrictions Very few, if any More restrictive than licenses Style and Condition Often permanent and may come in card form Less permanent, such as a paper or sticker 1. General Business License Any business, including home-based businesses, must obtain a local city or county business license. This is a basic license that allows the holder to engage in business activities within the local jurisdiction. If your city or county doesn’t have a specific business licensing department, you can obtain…

This article is an on-site version of our The Week Ahead newsletter. Subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every Sunday. Explore all of our newsletters hereHello and welcome to the working week.Anniversaries are a theme for the next seven days. The G7, whose membership gathers in Kananaskis, Alberta, on Sunday will celebrate 50 years of the rich club’s existence — though this might be tested at the Canadian summit given tensions over US President Donald Trump’s tariff war, the Israeli-Hamas conflict in Gaza and Ukraine-Russia negotiations. This week will also see the US Army, America’s first…

Buybacks have become a popular way for a company to return value to shareholders, similar to a dividend. Instead of returning profits to shareholders in a quarterly check, the company buys its own shares on the open market, increasing its stock price. Although they attract frequent criticism, many companies prefer to spend their earnings on buybacks rather than dividends. Every year from 1997 to 2023, the value of stock buybacks for S&P 500 firms outpaced the value of dividends. In the 1980s, the dividend yield for the S&P 500 was typically between 3.5% and 5.5%. The last time it exceeded…

Many Americans dream of retiring with a million-dollar nest egg —Americans in general think you need about $1.5 million to retire—but the reality is starkly different. Using figures from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances (updated to 2022 but released in 2025), only about 2.5% of all Americans actually have $1 million or more saved in their retirement accounts—a figure that might shock anyone used to seeing financial media and their depictions of average Americans amassing enormous portfolio gains in recent years. Among actual retirees, only 3.2% have reached the $1 million threshold. Only 3.2% of retirees have…