In a bad economy, the general consensus is to cut back on spending and follow a good budget. Unfortunately, that’s about the only time many people monitor their spending and cut back. It doesn’t matter how the economy is, you should always follow some sort of financial plan.
What is a Financial Plan?
It is exactly as it sounds. It is a plan for your finances, now and in the future. It should include financial goals and a good budget to help you complete those financial goals. Financial goals can be things like getting out of debt, buying a house, retiring, paying for your kids college, etc. They can be long term goals and short term goals.
To put a plan behind these goals, you must have desired dates of completion. For example, you might want to retire by age 65 and pay off your house by age 50. Determine how much money you need to put towards each of these each month in order to complete these goals.
Financial Planning Software can Help
If you are a bit financially challenged and are having trouble crunching the numbers, you can ask for help from an accountant or financial planner, or you could try using financial planning software designed for such activities. If it takes some time to figure out how to use formulas and software, it’s worth the time you put into it. Knowing that you’re on track with your financial goals is a good feeling. Without planning, there is a slim chance it will happen for you.
Follow your Budget
Your budget is probably the most important part of your plan. You need to include everything, but you need to follow your budget consistently to get the progress and results you are hoping for. Plan a budget out telling yourself how much money you can spend in each area of your life. You don’t need to cut out all fun expenses when you have a budget. That is part of why a budget is so great. You can plan to save and plan to buy the things you really love, too.
Over time, you will need to modify your budget. That goes without saying and is fine. You might incur new expenses, and you will make more money as time goes on. Modify your budget wisely. Use increases in pay to reach your goals faster and to have fun.
It is more important than ever, to make sure that you are getting as much as you can for your money and it should be no different for your home insurance policy renewal. You can save money by caring out some of these simple tips and knowledge that has been acquired.
First make sure you shop around and get as many home insurance quotes as you can taking all factors into consideration like, excess, levels of covers and exclusions. There are many handy comparison tables that you can find on the web, compare all features and discounts that are available.
Get into the habit of checking your policy cover on a regular basis, so you’ll know that you’re not paying too much for cover that you don’t require. Do you really need accidental damage and personal possession cover?
Do you have a security or smoke alarm installed in your home? Household insurance companies will give you a discount if you have an approved burglar alarms system fitted. Joining a neighbourhood watch program may also lower your premium too.
Combined buildings and contents insurance is not always the best way to save money, separating these two policies could give you a greater saving. Check out the Churchill home insurance policy here.
Think about increasing the amount of voluntary excess to a higher amount, this will definitely reduce your premium straight away, but if you do need to make a home insurance claim in the future, you will have to pay with excess amount to the insurance company.
You might want to look around for multi product discounts when trying to buy a new home insurance policy. Some insurers offer a ten per cent multi policy discount when you buy car or travel cover as well.
These cost saving tips should help you on your way to getting a cheaper home insurance quote. You don’t have to implement all of them, it would be great if you could, but you’ll find that doing a couple of them can make a big saving on your next buildings and contents insurance quote.
The end of the year is a busy time for everyone and it is also a time of year when finances can get a little bit out of hand. This can be due to the fact that it has been a heavy festive season already or perhaps the general state of the economy has got you down. Whatever the case may be you should not feel as if there is nothing you can do. There is definitely some bankruptcy help for you out there if there is no alternative or debt solutions you can come up with.
A lot of people will find as if there is not really an alternative to bankruptcy when it comes to this type of situation and that they are not going to be able to get out of it. But this need not be the situation at all if you know where to look for help and there is definitely some out there. Many times credit card debt is the reason they have to look to this type of action. In fact filing credit card bankruptcy is one of the most common reasons for getting debt relief among most Americans. They get too far gone in their credit cards and cannot manage money well so they end up filing.
Your first port of call should perhaps be your bank manager. Now you might be scared to go and see them and they might be a little bit annoyed at you to begin with. But this is not the situation at all in the long run because they want to make sure that you are able to service your debt. In the current economic climate they are likely to be more approachable when it comes to sorting your problem out.
If you do decide to visit the bank manager then it is also important that you get the timing right. Don’t leave it to the last minute because this means that they are going to think that you have tried to avoid the situation as much as possible and that you are not going to construct a workable plan. You basically have to show your commitment to improving the situation. If you are going to file for bankruptcy help then be sure you have exhausted all other alternatives. Filing chapter 7 or 13 is no laughing matter and it takes years to recover.
Of all the things a person has to pay for, one of the most frustrating is car insurance. This is because unless you use it, it seems like you are throwing money down the drain. As a result, this article is going to discuss three facts about car insurance.
First, while many insurance companies will try to tell you otherwise, there is not an inversely proportional relationship between the amount of your monthly insurance premiums and the level of customer service you can expect to receive. Just because your car insurance is more expensive than another person’s insurance, doesn’t mean you will receive better customer service or less of a difficult time when it comes to filing a claim. It is very feasible for someone with cheap car insurance to get the same level of service as someone with very expensive car insurance.
Second, the length of time that you have been a customer of an insurance company will work to your benefit. There is a noticeable trend for car insurance companies to reward customers for their longevity by offering lower car insurance premiums. Therefore, we recommend you carefully consider whether moving from one insurance company to another is in your best interests.
Third, while the car insurance companies will try to portray the illusion that they offer the cheapest car insurance for all of its customers, the fact is that an insurance company will usually only offer the cheapest car insurance for one category. As an example, a car insurance company may specialize in providing cheap car insurance for women or cheap car insurance for young drivers.
As we have demonstrated, not all car insurance companies are created equal. If you remember these three car insurance tips, we are confident that you will be able to find a great deal on car insurance. Just remember; searching for car insurance may feel like a burden, but it is not nearly as bad as the burden of unnecessarily paying more than you have to for car insurance.
If you are going to be using nation auto finance to finance your car you want to make sure that you get the best price possible on your car. Even if you are using a different place that offers non secured loans for car financing you still want to get the best price possible on your car. The reason for this is that by getting the best price possible on your car you will only have to finance a certain amount of money, the less money you have to finance the better your loan terms will be and the more money you will save on interest throughout the years.
When buying a car the best time to purchase a car is at the end of the month. The reason for this is that at the end of the month many car dealers are more interested in making the sale no matter the price that they want to win any contest that the dealership is sponsoring for the month. If the car dealer wants to win the contest they will be more willing to negotiate because they want to make the sale, car dealers are less likely to be as open to negotiations at the beginning of the month.
You should also have good credit; the better your credit rating is the better loan terms you will be able to find. Non secured loans are based on credit scores, the better your credit score the more choices you will have when choosing a non secured loan. Part of the loan terms is the interest rate you will be charged, the higher your credit rating the lower your interest rate options are going to be.
Finally when talking to a national auto loan lender never tell them how much money you can afford to spend on your car payment each month, if they know this information there is not going to be any room for negotiating.
It’s never easy having bad credit, no matter what you’re trying to do financially. But it’s even harder to get someone to give you a mortgage or some other major loan. However, if buying your own home is on your wish list, don’t think that its out of the question. The first thing is to know how to purchase a home with bad credit. That will depend upon what your credit history includes. After that, you just need to start meeting with home loan companies and see what the best offer you can get is.
If you simply have bad credit as a result of unpaid credit card bills, student loans, or some other “benign” sort of debt, then cheer up. You should be able to get an FHA loan without terrible difficulty. That will probably be your best bet. If you can’t manage to qualify for an FHA loan, you can turn to other companies that are willing to give mortgages to people who have bad credit, but know that those mortgages will be at higher rates.
If you have gone through a bankruptcy or foreclosure, then you will be in a bit more of a serious situation. Lenders take these things very seriously, particularly with regard to foreclosure, and you may have trouble finding anyone who will give you a loan at this point in time. If you want to apply for an FHA home loan, there will be a mandatory waiting period in either of these cases. If you have just had a bankruptcy, you will have to wait two years before applying, and if your bankruptcy has included a foreclosure you will need to wait a full three years.
But don’t let waiting get you down. You can use that time to catch up on your bills and improve your credit, so that when you are able to apply for that mortgage, you can get it at much better rates than you would now.
Gold bullion investing is a great way to better diversify your portfolio with a very stable investment that is almost always profitable. There are many different ways that one can invest in gold bullion and depending on the manner in which you choose to invest, you may be able to make some fairly descent profits in the long-term.
This gold bullion can come in many different forms. It can exist in a bar form, as a coin that is printed by the mint or by the refining company, or even as a certificate that represents an actual gold bullion bar which is maintained in a secured precious metals depository.
In the case of the bar and coin form, you can easily purchase these from your local coin collection shop. The will usually be available in 1 and 5 ounce bars, but may also be available in larger sizes too. You will have to pay more per troy ounce then the going spot rate so keep this in mind when making your purchase. When it comes time to sell the bullion, you can actually sell it back to the same exact shop you bought it from; but keep in mind that their buying prices will fall below that of the international spot rate. The same can also be said about investing in gold bullion coins, but these may also be purchased directly from the mint in un-circulated form.
The certificates though, have to be purchased through a broker. These are pieces of paper that represent an actual bar of gold that is held under tight security in a vault somewhere; but it is none the less an actual bar. These certificates are usually purchased at the going market rate and sold at the same amount, but in general you will not find them available in small proportions like what can be found at the local coin shop.
Investing in gold is often done during periods where inflation is thought to rise. Generally it is not for long term investing.
Recently I went to lunch with a friend of mine and the discussion of personal finance and health came up. We actually at the time discussed two different items “personal finance health” as in the health of your finances and then “personal finance and health” as in how you financial situation can affect your physical health.
1) Personal Finance Health
My wife and I got married in April 2009 and since then we really have not really discussed finances other than opening a joint checking account. Is this a bad thing? Maybe. But we are both financially responsible and neither of us spend too much money.
Recently we decided to make a spread sheet of all of our various accounts(savings accounts, checking accounts, 401ks, IRAs, and other investments) so we can do a month on month camparasion to see how we stand financially.
Right now on average our savings climb month over month but we really do not keep track of what our real networth is. This is going to change.
See right now we know we are financially healthy, but we do not have an easy place to see exactly how we are doing. Soon each month we will know our exact personal finance health.
2) Personal Finance And Health
We have some friends that spend spend spend and do not really have that good of personal finance health(see #1 above). They are also not doing well with their physical health. They are always worrying if they can do something because of the issue of not having enough money.
This is taking a toll on both their physical health and health of their marriage. See if they worked on their personal finance health(see #1), the physical damage and emotional damage to their marriage would be reduced to an almost non issue.
A mortgage finance company is a company that finances(provides) mortgages to individuals for houses. There are also commercial mortgage finance companies that do that same thing but for business owners. Loans provided by finance companies are often then sold to Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae. These are government sponsored privately run companies that purchase “loan packages” from the mortgage finance companies.
Residential mortgage finance is what we know today as home lending or a company give you a loan for a set amount of years. For example a conventional 30 year loan term or a 15 year term.
A mortgage finance calculator will provide a lot of information prior to you going and speaking from a loan officer from a bank or lending institution. Finance calculators will help you make projects about your housing or loan details and help you make the best decision based on the numbers.
You can also find a variety of mortgage finance calculators on the internet by doing a Google search.
Yes even homes with a garden .
Well I have tried avoiding a “best of” style post but at the same time I am looking at increasing the quality of my personal finance articles here at APF.
Every day is a learning experience and I think in the coming months my posts will increase in both quality and quantity as I myself dive deeper into personal finance and what makes us tick financially.
Here are my personal favorite personal finance blog posts over the last few months:
This post discusses how to survive in these tough economic times. The simple things usually have the most impact on your life.
This post discusses ways to save money in every single area of your life. Including saving money on cable TV and saving money on groceries.
This is my favorite subject, how to plant a backyard garden to save money on produce.