investment terminology and types

Steve Wallace s.wal at verizon.net
Thu Jul 17 16:39:23 CDT 2003


On Thu, Jul 17, 2003 at 12:25:36PM -0300, Jon Lapham wrote:
> Derek Atkins wrote:
> >Jon Lapham <lapham at extracta.com.br> writes:
> >>In section "7.1.2 Types of Investments", I want to make a list of
> >>the general kinds of investments.  I have 3:
> >>
> >>1) "Interest-bearing ACCOUNT" (account is all caps b/c I don't like
> >>that word... a CD is not an account)
> >
> >
> >I'm not convinced these are really investments, per se.  A Checking
> >Account or Savings Account is just a "Bank" Type..  I wouldn't
> >consider it an investment.  Nor would I consider a CD to be an
> >investment.
> 
> Hmmm, well, this is the chapter on handling "Investments" in GnuCash
> (chapter 7).  So, I guess the first point is to define what an
> investment is.
> 
> So, your definition of an investment is something for which you could
> receive cap gains?  ie: something for which the resale value of the
> asset could potentially rise?
> 
> I do not necessarily agree with that, but I'm okay with this
> definition, but I just want to be explicit.
>
I think many people would consider CDs to be investments of a sort.  And
if you don't include CDs then what about Money Market Mutual Funds and
cash balances in brokerage accounts?  One commom complaint about Quicken
is that it is difficult to treat these like investments.  Most people
seem to want interest from these sources to be included in any
calculations of investment performance.

-- 
Steve Wallace


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