Investment world

Ron Baron says Tesla's problems are only temporary. Tesla Inc (Nasdaq: TSLA ) has its fair share of detractors, but one of the company's largest investors is convinced that Tesla's share price still has explosive long-term potential. Baron Capital founder Ron Baron says investors that are hung up on Tesla's cash burn are being too short-sighted, and patient investors have some huge gains ahead. Baron Capital has roughly $27 billion in assets under management, and Tesla currently makes up 1.6 percent of its portfolio. Baron first bought Tesla stock in 2014. "I think we're going to make 20 times our money because the opportunity is so enormous," Baron said on CNBC Monday. He said cash burn is forgivable for a company like Tesla, which is aggressively building factories and infrastructure for the future. Tesla has said it expects its Model 3 gross margins to be "highly positive" by the third quarter and has assured investor

Make budgeting easy by using the right method and online tools. For many consumers, the cornerstone of a healthy financial life is a strong budget . "A budget is a very powerful tool," says Jamie Ebersole, acertified financial planner in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts. "It gives you the ability to think further ahead so you can make plans for goals coming up." There's no one-size-fits-all strategy for building and maintaining a budget, experts say. Instead, savvy consumers may need to try a few strategies, tools or tactics to land on the one that works best for them. If you've tried unsuccessfully to budget before, changing up your budgeting strategy may be the key to doing better in the future. Here's what to know about creating a budget – and maintaining it over the long haul. Understand what a budget is. "[A budget is] an organizational tool to help you identify how it is you want to spend your money," says Douglas B

Learn how to break bad habits, fix your finances and reach your money goals If you're always running out of cash before your next paycheck, you may be in a recurring cycle of mismanaging your finances. Of course, some low-paying professions can contribute to your financial woes. But maybe you're carrying too much debt . Or perhaps you're not budgeting well or you don't know where your money is going each month . While there are dozens of factors that could be keeping you in a cycle of struggling to pay your bills and eliminate debt , ask yourself if you're always broke due to any of these reasons – and learn how take action and boost your financial well-being . 1. You haven't planned ahead. "The primary reason people run out of money is a failure to understand just how much more expensive life will get over time," says Mike Pruitt, a certified financial planner with MBE Wealth Management in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. And if

Japan's economy contracts 0.6 percent in Jan-March quarter, as spending lags. — Japan's longest straight period of expansion in nearly three decades ended in the first quarter of this year as the economy shrank at an annualized rate of 0.6 percent. Growth for the previous quarter was also revised downward according to data released Wednesday that reflected weaker spending by consumers, businesses and the government. On a quarterly basis, Japan's gross domestic product dipped 0.2 percent, the Cabinet Office reported. Analysts had expected a contraction, the first quarter pullback in two years. It ended the longest straight period of uninterrupted growth since the late 1980s. "There wasn't any particular driver for the weakness — private consumption and public demand were flat while investment spending and net exports fell slightly," Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economic said in a commentary. He forecasts that growth will slip to 1.2 percent thi

The big day is finally here: Bitcoin Cash is going to receive several software upgrades that are expected to help the network process more transactions than Bitcoin. Rather than taking place at a specific block height, the hard fork will begin today, May 15 at 16:00:00 UTC. What can you expect from the hard fork?  The new upgrades will: Increase block size from 8MB to 32MB, allowing for faster transactions Expand data carrier size to 220 bytes Enable smart contracts The team behind the upgrade recommends that full node clients and miners upgrade their software to Bitcoin ABC 0.17.1, which was released back in April. It should be noted that, while this software upgrade is considered a hard fork, Bitcoin Cash holders will not receive any new coins, nor will a new cryptocurrency be created. If everything goes smoothly, the value of Bitcoin Cash’s old blockchain will be canceled, and BCH holders will be able to continuing using their coins on the new blockchain without a probl

A long-awaited change is finally coming to the international world of finance. Turns out, Ripple is no longer the only cryptocurrency project to be utilized by banks. Bitbond, an online lending platform from Germany that is only 5 years old, is  using Bitcoins to provide international loan payments . The bank is currently processing payments worth approximately $1 million in a month. The majority of clients are small businesses with loans of $50,000 or less. Germany is a global leader in cryptocurrency adoption, second only to the United States. Although not a major bank, Bitbond can set a precedent for the other, even more conservative establishments in the banking industry. The official website of the company states: “By innovating in the fields of payments and credit scoring, Bitbond makes financial inclusion a reality around the world. All payment transactions on Bitbond are conducted via the bitcoin blockchain. Therefore, our service is available worldwide via the internet