Over the past two to three years, most people have viewed the stock market with much uncertainty. Hence, investors, as an alternative investment strategy, have taken the plunge into the silver market. It is a huge task to determine whether investing in silver is the same as investing in a mutual fund or if it is something really different.

Fixed income investments have been a very popular form of investment. They usually pay the returns on a fixed, predetermined schedule, although the amount of the payments could vary. While the individual bonds may be the most-known kind of fixed income securities, the category of fixed income investments also includes money market funds, CDs, bond funds, and fixed income exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which shall be discussed in this article.

A bond fund is one of the popular investment pools. Basically, a fund that is invested in bonds or other debt instruments is called a bond fund; it is also known as a debt fund. Investments of bond funds may contain government, municipal, agency, corporate bonds and assets-backed securities. Some bond funds focus on covering the wide bond market by investing in both short and long-term bonds and some other bond funds focus on the narrower portion of the bond market investing in short-term treasury fund or a corporate high-yield fund.

Prepaid cards at one time were the last option for the individuals who couldn’t meet all requirements. However, in the mainstream financial market, there is an inclusion of new elements and features in prepaid cards. Therefore, they are one of the most popularly used financial products by consumers today. Prepaid cards with the best 50 US banks and credit unions accounted $118.09 billion in spending at the merchants in 2013 and a 6.1% expansion from the previous year.

Equity release is a means of keeping the use of a house or other objects which have their own capital value, while also obtaining a portion or a steady stream of income, using the value of the house. In this financial criterion, the “catch” is that the income-contributor should be repaid at an upcoming stage when the homeowner passes away.

A credit score is a numerical value used by the lenders in the US to determine the credit-worthiness of a borrower. A good credit score is an indication of the likeliness of the borrower to repay the debts owed by him/her. Along with a credit report, these credit scores help the lenders to assess the credit risks involved in lending a debt to a borrower.