According to Forbes, two new records have been made this year 2011:

1) Total number of Billionaires (1210) and

2) combined wealth of them ($4.5 trillion).

The new comers to the list are mainly from Brazil, Russia, India and China. The most surprising is that Bill Gates now moved to the 2nd position and the person who has beaten him is Carlos Slim from Mexico.

Here is the list of top 10 Billionaires in the world:

No. 1 Carlos Slim Helú & family

Net Worth: $74 billion
Source: Telecom
Citizenship: Mexico

No. 2 Bill Gates

Net Worth: $56 billion
Source: Microsoft
Citizenship: U.S.

No. 3 Warren Buffett

Net Worth: $50 billion
Source: Berkshire Hathaway
Citizenship: U.S.

No. 4 Bernard Arnault

Net Worth: $41 billion
Source: LVMH
Citizenship: France

No. 5 Larry Ellison

Net Worth: $39.5 billion
Source: Oracle
Citizenship: U.S.

No. 6 Lakshmi Mittal

Net Worth: $31.1 billion
Source: Steel
Citizenship: India

No. 7 Amancio Ortega

Net Worth: $31 billion
Source: Zara
Citizenship: Spain

No. 8 Eike Batista

Net Worth: $30 billion
Source: Mining, oil
Citizenship: Brazil

No. 9 Mukesh Ambani

Net Worth: $27 billion
Source: Petrochemicals
Citizenship: India

No. 10 Christy Walton & family

Net Worth: $26.5 billion
Source: Wal-Mart
Citizenship: U.S.

So far, I have done two smartest things in this year. One is I started with a Roth IRA for myself and my wife. I chose Fidelity because the startup fee was relatively low and my 401K is with them. I dumped a lump sum amount of $2500 into FLATX for my wife and FSEAX for myself. It would have been more beneficial for me if I had it started sooner due to seeing it getting compounded. Now I just have to keep up the habit of contributing yearly.

The other smart thing that I did this year and I will do it again in the next year is getting taxes done early. We got our tax refund. It’s a lot easier to get it done ASAP and out of the way. There’s no more scrambling for receipts and papers like it happened last year.

However, apart from these two smart things, I did one stupid thing and that was to chase past returns. I assumed that the emerging markets will stay hot. I calculated my last year’s return and put 40% and 50% in the funds I bought positions in and got excited. I bought the hype of a growing economy in China, and an oily beast in Brazil. I was under the impression that these two economies of the world will do better than the United States over the next few years in the financial realm. I was aware that past results don’t predict future success and realize that it’s risky but I figured that I have a long investing career ahead and it was time to go for big returns now.

I admit that I was tempted with the thought of making more money in quick time, even though everything I read is contrary to making fast money. Investing can be very boring. It is important that you get a well diversified index fund with very less fees and invest systematically, the same amount no matter until what you’re done working. I agree I wanted to be a little flashy and take a shot at some bigger returns. I understand what it happens if I try to jump at things that sound almost too good to be true. We will see what happens over the next few years.

By the way, I saw my 401K recently pasted a landmark of $20,000. My goal is to have at least $30,000 in there by the time I reach the age of thirty.

What is the smartest or dumbest money move that you have made this year?

A particular mutual fund investment’s failure or success does not depend on their previous or present performance. It may be very attractive to buy funds when they are doing well in the market; however you being the new investor it is not advisable to buy funds depending on their past performance. The reason behind this advice is because you as an investor would want to buy mutual funds when the rates are low and sell them at the maximum price as much as you can.

Funds that are currently established have limited number of stocks in the market. This makes easy to analyze which stock is doing well and which one is not doing well. The stock that is doing well puts a huge effect because of their size being small and it is easy to evaluate this smaller stocks. It is very hard to remain at the same or top position as far as the stock market is concerned, that is the reason why we feel the effect to be less when the stock market is growing.

If you want maximum benefits from your mutual fund investment then you need to follow religiously the expanses and the tax charges that are applicable on these mutual funds. Some fund’s fees would cost you more than the other ones; in this case you should be able to negotiate the price in the market or with the stock broker in order to get good returns as an investor. In the long run if your fees or taxes are increased even by smaller percentage then it could be that your hard earned returns is being enjoyed by someone else. Being an investor it is very important to learn how the government taxes are applicable on your mutual fund investment. So the best ways to know about all this taxation is by reading prospectus that are available at the firm offices.

To buy bonds securities and stocks, a mutual fund manager always finds different ways to pull information from different small investors. This means that your investment is being analyzed by different buyers and you need not make any more investment on that particular mutual fund. Well if you are planning to buy different type of stocks that are available in the market then the investment might be required. However if you have sufficient funds then you could even go for international funds, which would give you more returns than the domestic funds.

There is an element of risk taken by the fund managers in order to get healthy returns. At times you may not agree with fund manager’s risk taken on the investment since you may not be thinking as he is doing. As far as we know, all mutual fund investment bears a minimum risk which is important to acknowledge.

As a human being we encounter common financial issues all most every day. If you know how to handle these common financial issues then you will have an upper hand then many other people who tend to pulverized when it comes to face these common issues. Realize these common issues in yourself and take control of your own life.

You know emotion run stronger than your thoughts, so one must know how to deal with this kind of situation. It is always difficult to make emotional decision and here we make mistake. Financial decision should be made by your brain rather than making it by heart. You may be offered a high return on the investment that you are making; however you should be intelligent enough to know the facts by making the right decision.

With facts there is fiction too, so you should be capable enough to distinguish between facts and fiction. If you are not expertise in the field of finance, then you tend to take suggestions from others which might not be the fact, perhaps it could be fiction. So it is necessary for you to know how to separate facts and fictions.

There is always a chance of you getting into a catastrophic financial risk. Many a times many people tend to get carried away by the high returns that are promised by the lenders. Do not take such financial risk be very sure about the program before you get into it. You should always keep your savings for emergency situation, there will be time when you will be tested with your intelligence on how you should use your savings make sure that you make use of your logical brain to tackle these kind of situation. It is very difficult in life to recover from any catastrophic financial failure.

Last but not the least do not focus too much of your time on money. Many people give the priority to the money than life, which is absolutely wrong. Just do the Wright thing in life an you will see that money is following you, in the long run you would see that people who run after money ends up with nothing. These kind of people end up spending money rather than making it because their focus is only money. They are different aspect involved in our life apart from money. I believe health and happiness comes first than any other things.

If you have any kind of financial emergency, having an emergency fund in your savings account is always helpful to cover the needs. Many people borrow money from their friends, family members, getting cash advance from their employer or getting a loan at very high interest rates. If you are falling short of cash and you know the payday is still a few days away, there are ways to bridge the gap.

Most of the people live from one paycheck to another paycheck and this is certainly not a good way of living life in this expensive world. Many students when they step out of the college get overwhelmed by their student loans and they feel like they will never come out of it. There are ways to resolve all kinds of financial problems by personal finance planning.

It is very important to prioritize your personal finance. The examples mentioned above are just a way to resolve the financial dilemma. What happens if you have already used your savings account and you don’t have anything left in it? What happens if your boss, your family or your friends are not willing to offer you any more advance.

These are tough economic times and that’s why it is important to do a proper planning of your personal finances. If you are an average earner and you live life way beyond your means, you will not have any money left just in case if some kind of emergency happens in your family. It is quite possible that you might be already overwhelmed by your existing debts at that time. Here are a few tips that everyone should follow, just to give a head start.

The most important thing in life is to live within your means unless you can afford to go beyond it. With the easy use of plastic money, you might get tempted to buy the new gadget that you always wanted to have or you want to pick those trendy clothes in the store that you just “must have”.

When you are driven by such kind of temptations, wait for a moment and think that you may get that item easily by using the credit card. But do you have the money to pay back your credit card bills within the due dates.

Monitor the ins and outs of your finances and have a savings plan. This is another crucial part of planning your personal finances. Always try to stick to a monthly budget and don’t increase your debt to income ratio. If you have little money left, then you should not be spending any more than you have to.

Another important way of planning your personal finances is to have a perfect control on the use of credit cards. Excessive use of credit cards more than your income will not only put you in the debt trap, but will also spoil your credit ratings.

With these personal finance planning tips, you can sharpen your money management skills and experience the financial freedom that you deserve.

1) Never give your checking account number and the routing number to any unknown person. If you are going to make payment transactions with a company, make sure that you have researched on that company with the local authorities and the Better Business Bureau. If you are thinking of doing business with some company for the first time, give your checking account information only if you have initiated the transaction. Scammers will take the bank account number from you and withdraw funds by creating a demand draft. This is also known as remotely created check. They might also try to do an electronic transfer if they get the access to your account. Don’t give our credit card or the debit card number to anyone whom you don’t know. If you fell into the hands of a scammer, they will take out all the money from your checking account and make your account overdrawn. You can get your name removed from the telemarketing calls by registering on the National Do Not Call list on the website https://www.donotcall.gov

2) Review your monthly statement: When you review your online statement, make sure that you check all the debits, automatic payments, and other withdrawals. If you see an unauthorized transaction, notify your bank immediately and dispute it.

3) If you face any problems with your checking account, notify your bank immediately. The sooner you alert your bank when you face a problem, it will get resolved at the earliest. In some cases, your bank will request you to notify them in writing. Keep everything documented and get the problem resolved by the bank as soon as possible. If any kind of fraudulent activity is taking place in your checking account, then you should contact the attorney general’s office.

4) If you don’t have enough funds in your checking account, don’t write any checks or authorize debits by any company. This will cause your account overdrawn and your bank will charge a NSF. If some company is authorized to take out the money on a certain date when you don’t have the funds ready in your account, then you should call the company and work out prior arrangements to change the payment date.

5) Know your rights under consumer protection laws. Every consumer has certain rights under the federal electronic fund transfer act. If you face any problems with your checking account regarding a demand draft or an electronic transfer done, then you should be able to use your rights under the EFTA.