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Blog Archives
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Retirement Myths
Retirement Myths It is an unfortunate fact that many Americans spend less time planning for their retirement than planning for their vacations. All it takes is intelligent planning ' and a clear understanding of the myths that hinder us from building a secure retirement. Consider the following myths: ' Myth #1: I'm too young to worry about retirement. You're never too young to make plans. The sooner you begin saving for retirement, the less you'll have to put aside. For example, if you ...› Continue reading•
What Roth Hath, Traditional Hath Not
What Roth Hath, Traditional Hath Not The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 introduced a new Individual Retirement Account (IRA) called the Roth IRA. The primary inducement to make contributions to the new Roth IRA is that distributions are tax-free if certain conditions are met. One drawback to the Roth IRA is that contributions to the account are never deductible. The passage of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act in 2001 provided for increased contributions going forward. For ...› Continue reading•
Retirement Tax Havens
RETIREMENT TAX HAVENS Financial planning is really life planning. Choosing a home, particularly a retirement home, involves many factors. With state and local taxes on the rise, retirees should look closely at tax matters when formulating their retirement financial plan. Retirees who plan on continuing to work in their "golden years" should know that state taxation of such income varies widely. Some states give retirees favored treatment on earned income, some treat retired seniors ...› Continue reading•
An Offer You Can't Refuse?
AN OFFER YOU CAN'T REFUSE? Many of us have heard the term 'down-sizing'. Down-sizing in corporations has taken it's toll on the American worker. Many people, ranging in age from their late 40s to early 60s, are faced with very difficult decisions. These middle-aged, middle managers are being asked to consider "early retirement." The offers from their employers may range from lucrative to paltry, but the decisions are difficult in almost every case. Let's review some of ...› Continue reading•
Wealth Building & DIY Financial Planning: Being Your Own Financial Advisor....A Good Idea?
For too long, too many people have handed over responsibility for their investment decisions almost entirely to their financial advisors. This is a bad idea. No one is going to manage your own money as well as potentially you could. The way I see it, anything you can do to create a better life for yourself and your dependents is fair game. So, becoming financially literate and reducing any over-dependency on financial advisors is part of this over-arching objective. Becoming financially ...› Continue reading•
It's Right Place for You - If You Need Independent Financial Advisor
Independent financial advisors are people who can help you to intelligently chart out your financial goals and set in motion the measures required to achieve this. A financial advisor must be capable of giving unbiased information, guidance, recommendations and warnings regarding the investments you already have or want to have in the future. Such trustworthy and reliable financial consultants can be chosen based on the reputation they have built over the years or previous experiences ...› Continue reading•
The Most Important Thing You Need To Know About Investing
The Most Important Thing That You Need To Know About Investing That is a very grand title for a newsletter. But, I kid you not, what I am going to discuss this month is a rather overlooked but massively important factor in the success or failure of an investment strategy. Every serious investor has thought through this element of 'the game'. Quite simply, if they have not, they are not. So what can be this important? SELLING. Simple, huh? Of course it is. When it comes down to it, most things ...› Continue reading•
More About Selling
More About Selling Last month, I wrote about the importance of selling when it comes to making money in the investment markets. Simply put, even the best investment in the world will lose it's appeal sooner or later. When that happens, or when another investment looks even more inviting and potentially profitable, a reallocation of capital involves selling up and moving on. Of course, there is another side to this: capital protection. Either your investment has increased substantially and you ...› Continue reading•
Homework On College Credit Cards
With credit cards dominating the market world today, even college students are already prospective clients of most credit card companies. This is because studies have revealed that most college students have difficulty in maintaining their expenses especially to those who are far way from home. That is why credit card nowadays had been a "must-have" for most college students. Basically, college credit cards do not differ that much to ordinary credit cards. In fact, college credit cards ...› Continue reading•
YEAR END TAX PLANNING AND PREPARATION FOR BUSINESSES - Tax Tips
CHECK BACK FOR UPDATED INFORMATION AS NEW INFORMATION IS UNAVAILABLE AT THIS WRITING BUT IS COMING SOON Now is the best time to start thinking about your year end tax planning for your business. These tax strategies can be put into effect by the end of the year and some as late as when the tax return is due. Planning now will save you money and reduce your tax liability not only with your IRS taxes but also with your state taxes. Here are tax tips that will help you accomplish your goal. DEFER ...› Continue reading•
YEAR END TAX PLANNING AND PREPARATION FOR INDIVIDUALS - Tax Tips
CHECK BACK FOR UPDATED INFORMATION AS NEW INFORMATION IS UNAVAILABLE AT THIS WRITING BUT IS COMING SOON Now is the best time to start thinking about your year end tax planning. These tax strategies can be put into effect by the end of the year and some as late as when the tax return is due. Planning now will save you money and reduce your tax liability not only with your IRS taxes but also with your state taxes. Here are tax tips that will help you accomplish your goal. HELP FOR ...› Continue reading•
Financial Planning For Teenagers
Financial planning is a topic of great depth and the exact nuances of the subject are not something which even grown-ups fully realize. The extravagant nature of many of today's individuals definitely point to the fact that they hardly know anything of value when it comes to financial planning. However, as adults and parents, it becomes our duty to make teenagers around us realize the importance of financial planning because habits inculcated at such a young age will help them to ...› Continue reading•
Guide to debt consolidation
A Debt consolidation loan is a loan used to repay several other loans. It is a single, low cost, secured loan. A UK Debt Consolidation Loan is a low cost loan secured on your UK home. It frees up the spare capital (or equity) in your home to repay your store card and other debts. The loan may have been taken due to debts incurred through personal loans, credit cards, overdrafts, or may represent any number of unpaid bills that have built up over time. Debt Consolidation Loan rates are variable, ...› Continue reading•
Financial Advices for Expatriates
A key concern for expatriates living abroad is the subject of money - where to put it and how to manage it. Previously, the expatriate had to entrust someone back in his home country to take care of his money for him (a scary thought in this day and age) due to a draconian banking system which did not allow for him to access his finances from abroad. Fortunately, international banking companies, parallel to how world economy has developed, have re-structured and globalized themselves. This ...› Continue reading•
7 Ways To Protect And Improve Your Credit Rating
Your credit score accounts for the amount of interest you have to pay for a loan or a credit card. Increasing your score in just a few points will make a big difference in the interest rate you will pay for a purchase. If your credit score is high enough, you'll have no problem qualifying for a lender's best rates and terms on auto financing, home loans and small business loans. The following are a few tips about how you can protect and improve your credit rating. 1 - Order Your Credit Report. ...› Continue reading•
Finances for the Freelancer
Budgeting and financial planning are great ideas, but how in the world do you budget or plan when you don't know from one month to the next how much money you're going to earn? You have months at a time when you earn very little money, and then during the prosperous months you're busy playing financial catch-up - and then comes another tough time. It's a difficult situation, but there are ways to approach the problem that, over time, will provide some stability for your finances. The first ...› Continue reading•
The Art Of Choosing The Right Financial Advisor
I love the smell of financial planning in the morning. To some its smells like a greasy breakfast of greedy financial advisors trying to sell you products you don't need and skyrocketing costs that eat into your nest egg. To me it smells like the granola of a healthy financial future. However, this is not about our breakfast preferences, this is about choosing the right financial advisor that will help you prepare and execute a financial plan that will achieve your financial ...› Continue reading•
Independent Financial Advisors
"Independent Financial Advisors Managing finances can often be frustrating, especially if you don't have the knowledge of financial jargons, market trends and investments options. Hence, in most cases, you need the expertise of professional financial advisors. With their experience and knowledge, they can guide you in your investments, long-term planning and taxes. Many times, although you realize that having a financial brain is a big plus, you wonder where you can find the right person - ...› Continue reading•
Debt elimination & debt consolidation can work together
Debt elimination has always been my goal. But on this day, when I received the bill for the sudden replacement of the clutch in my car, the VISA bill and word that my daughter needed orthodontics for her teeth, how was I ever going to realize my debt elimination goals? Does that sound familiar? It's totally frustrating. It's very easy to log your spending and identify high interest credit cards to pay off, but what happens when there is still more month left when the money runs out? In the case ...› Continue reading•
Repair Your Credit and Prevent Future Credit Problems
Wondering how to repair your credit? Consider these options. When should you consider credit repair? A lot of people assume their credit is fine, when in fact there may be mistakes applied to your credit report that you don't even know about. What if you are unaware of this and try to apply for a loan? There could be many reasons why your credit isn't as perfect as it should be. Maybe you were a couple of days late on a payment? How could this affect you? Why You Should Repair Your Credit? If ...› Continue reading•
Debt elimination & debt consolidation can work together
Debt elimination has always been my goal. But on this day, when I received the bill for the sudden replacement of the clutch in my car, the VISA bill and word that my daughter needed orthodontics for her teeth, how was I ever going to realize my debt elimination goals? Does that sound familiar? It's totally frustrating. It's very easy to log your spending and identify high interest credit cards to pay off, but what happens when there is still more month left when the money runs out? In the case ...› Continue reading•
Why You Should Read Personal Finance Blogs
Although still not a mainstream phenomenon, Personal Finance Blogs are an increasingly popular additional source of investing and financial planning information. Many people peek in sporadically to see what's generating buzz this week. As the arena gets more and more crowded, it begs the question: "What do the bloggers think of each other?" Some like the variety. "It's the wide range of perspectives and the timely information that I enjoy most about all the personal finance blogs out there," ...› Continue reading•
7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom and Wealth Building - Step
Copyright 2005 William Tan This is Step 5 of CashFlow Avenue's 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom and Wealth Building. STEP 5 - Arm Yourself with Options Trading Knowledge Today, we move forward to understanding the business of Options Trading. Just like when we get into any new business, we have to equip ourselves with knowledge of the business. Many amateur traders pay the ultimate price by "messing" with their hard earned risk capital and end up losing all their money. In any business, when ...› Continue reading•
UK Tax Returns...Wish You Didn't Have To?
/p> If you find yourself dreading the brown envelope with your self assessment tax return form coming through the post you are certainly not alone. Millions of people feel the same way as you and go through the same laborious process year after year. It is one of the most time consuming and futile exercises that there are. Add to that the fact that you begrudge having to give your hard-earned cash away anyway, the whole experience is rarely a positive one. Not only this, but the forms ...› Continue reading•
Easy Tips For Your Late Credit Card Payment
There are three reasons that you might have missed a payment on your credit card: either you can't afford to pay, the payment didn't get there in time or you just plain forgot. For whatever reason, there's one thing you need to do, and quickly - get on the phone. Then, apologise like you've never apologised before. Don't panic, stay calm, but make it clear to the customer service representative that you're very sorry. Say that things like this never happen to you. If you just forgot, then tell ...› Continue reading•
Credit Cards
You need to manage your credit cards wisely. Otherwise, you may end up in financial trouble. Unfortunately, there are many who don't realise that they may be making huge mistakes with the use of their credit cards. Here are top 7 credit card mistakes that card holders make: 1. Paying Just the Minimum Sum. The minimum sum is just an amount that you must pay back each month to avoid defaulting on the debt. If you pay just the minimum sum, the rest of your outstanding is subject to interest ...› Continue reading•
Pros And Cons Of Credit Cards
Credit cards are very convenient. There's no need to carry any cash; you can just take a credit card with you to the shop and charge for your shopping. When you shop on the Internet or over the phone, it's the only good way to make purchases online. This is more convenient than posting a cheque for payment. Like anything convenient, though, having credit cards have its cons. Not Keeping Track of Your Shopping Charges May Land You in Trouble. When you walk into that shop and hand over the card, ...› Continue reading•
What is a Reverse Mortgage?
Simply stated, a reverse mortgage is a loan that enables homeowners (age 62 and older) to convert part of the equity in their home into a tax-free income without having to sell the home, give up the title, or take on a new monthly mortgage payment. More and more homeowners are using this to supplement their retirement income, pay for health care, modify their home, or just get some cash for emergencies. Since this is a new product, some people have misconceptions of what a reverse mortgage is. ...› Continue reading•