September 2018 -

Creepy Cash: Scary Financial Issues & How To Solve Them

For a lot of people around the world, money is one of the hardest parts of life to handle. Even if you have plenty of it, there can be loads of different things which will impact your life in this area, and most people don’t know what to do when the scary stuff starts to been thrown at them. Thankfully, finance doesn’t have to be this way. If you take the right steps, it should be nice and easy to make some progress in this part of life, and this post is here to help you with it. By exploring some of the worst cases you could find yourself in, it will be showing you exactly how simple it can be to put yourself back on track.

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Poor Credit: Applying for loans, insurance, and even something like a phone contract will always involve some sort of background checks. Because you don’t go through this process very often, though, it can be very surprising when you find yourself being rejected by the services which you’re used to using. There are a lot of things which can impact your credit score, and it doesn’t have to be something which you have done wrong which will do it, but you will still have to be the one to improve it if you want to get back to normal. A credit restoration company can handle most of this work for you. They will give you help and advice, leaving time to take its course once you’ve followed it.

Overdue Bills: Everyone has had the horrible moment of realisation when a letter is popped through the door asking for months of missed payments to be covered all at once. When you’ve been ignoring your bills or have simply made a mistake which stops them from being paid, you will often find yourself in a position with very little time to get the money together to cover the amount which is owed. Some companies make a big deal out of this, while others are much kinder, and it is always worth making sure that you put the right level of effort in to solve an issue like this. By giving the bill holder a call and explaining the situation, you can usually have the money which is due split into much more manageable chunks.

Incorrect Tax: Finally, as possible the most worrying situation on this list, finding out that you’ve not paid enough income tax is never a pleasant experience. The organisations in charge of this in your country are unlikely to be kind when a mistake has been made. To help you out with this, a professional accountant will have the best experience and skills to handle this sort of concern, while also making it impossible to make the same mistake in the future. If you find yourself under investigation, it’s always worth doing some of your own research, ensuring that you take the right steps and don’t allow yourself to get into further trouble.

While money can be a very scary thing, it is also essential to modern life. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to live in a normal society, and this makes it worth taking action rather than shying away from the issues you might face.

6 Ways to Invest Small Amounts of Money (for Big Gains)

Often, people think you need a lot of money bore you can start investing, hence the saying ‘money goes to money’. This does not have to be the case. It is possible to invest smaller amounts and to watch them grow until they become much more sizeable. However, before you start any investing you should clear yourself of debt. The interest rates you are charged on things like credit cards is far higher than you can expect an investment to make for you.

Start With A Savings Account

There are many investments that need $500 to get started. This might not sound a lot, but if you are living on a budget it might seem impossible. Open a savings account with your bank and start to save a small amount on a regular basis. It will soon start to build and although interest rates are currently low, the bank will pay you something.

One good way to improve your savings is to make sure you’re getting the best deal on your household bills, that means your internet, energy, and gas bills. Search for an electricity company near me and reinvest your savings.

Betterment

The Betterment investment site does not have any minimum deposit to get you started. You have to answer a few questions so that your risk tolerance can be assessed and then a portfolio is created for you that allocate your investment to different funds. You do not have to concern yourself with the investment allocations as this is done automatically for very low fees. All you need to do is add more dollars as you want to.

Motif

This is an investment with a difference that requires you to start with a minimum of $250. You either build or invest in existing mini-mutual funds all of which are based on certain criteria. Each one is known as a motif, which is where the sites name comes from.

You can learn about each one by studying a Motif Review, and if there are none you like you can start one of your own.

Forex Trading

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Forex trading is one of the investments that most people are familiar with but think it is out of their reach. There is a long list of Forex companies that will let you start investing with amounts starting as low as $100. The brokers generally then take care of your investment, although you can be involved in the choices if you want to be. You need to discuss the matter with which Forex Company you choose to use.

US Treasury Securities

This might not give you the best return on your investment, but they will pay you more than a bank and are probably the safest way of all to boost your finances. You can start will as little as $100 and buy them from the portal at Treasury Direct. The terms run from 30 days to 30 years, and you need to be careful about the length you choose as you can lose out if you have to sell them early.

Invest in You

Instead of investing your money elsewhere, you need to ask yourself if it would be better to try and earn new qualifications or a totally new skill. The money spent on training could end up increasing your income dramatically, and that could be the best investment of all.

3 Ways To Get On To The Property Ladder in a Housing Crisis

Saving for you first home can seem like an impossible task with the huge deposits and increasing shortages of homes but there are ways you can get a leg up on the property ladder while saving a bit of cash in the process. Whether you’re looking for houses not far from the capital or somewhere a little further out you can find your dream home without having to worry about the finances.

Shared ownership

This scheme is perfect for anyone looking to ease their way into home ownership and might not have the funds for a 10% deposit. With this programme you can buy up to 75% of your home while renting the rest and avoiding a monumental mortgage. You will only have to pay a deposit on the percentage of the house you wish to buy so for 50% of a £200,000 home the deposit will cost just £10,000 unlike the £20,000 that would come with buying the same house without shared ownership.

The remaining portion of the home that you do not own will be owned by housing associations meaning you will benefit from far cheaper rent than if you rented from a private landlord. With a much more manageable mortgage on your hands you can choose to buy more of the house when you feel ready and eventually own your entire home. This scheme runs in almost all areas of the UK with even shared ownership properties in London if you don’t fancy the commute into the city anymore.

Help to Buy

This government scheme is another way to get a little help in owning your own home while being kind to your finances. Help to Buy offers a 20% equity loan from the government with no interest for the first five years and just a 5% deposit leaving you with a mortgage of 75% of the value of the home compared to the usual 90%.

All these homes are also new builds meaning you get a high-quality home for an affordable price. With houses for sale in Greenwich to Tenterden there is plenty of choice so you can shop around and find the right house in the right area for you whether your looking for a place to raise the kids or somewhere not far from work. Equity loans are also extended to 40% if you live in London leaving you with just a 55% mortgage making living in the capital far more conceivable.

Homes for Londoners

If you’re looking to live in the city but don’t dare face the huge expenses Homes for Londoners is a new scheme introduced by Sadiq Khan that aims to make housing in London genuinely affordable for those who are from the area and work in the capital.

With programmes such as first dibs, Londoners are given priority above overseas buyers when offers on a home are made. In addition, London Living Rent is another option if you are still saving for your first home and offers far less than rent charged by private landlords. With 90,000 homes in the process of being built and £3 billion set aside to tackle London’s housing crisis, London is set to become increasingly affordable over the next few years.

So no matter what your budget may be or what kind of home you’re looking to buy, there are plenty of ways you can get your hands on your dream home without it feeling like an uphill battle. Everyone deserves to have a place to call their own so take advantage of the options out there and you’ll be on your way to moving into your newly found abode.

Easy Ways to Keep Track of Your Finances

Tracking your finances doesn’t have to be awkward and it doesn’t have to be hard work either. There are so many benefits to staying on top of your finances and when you are able to do it efficiently, you will soon find that it has the ability to completely change your life.

Create a System

The first thing that you need to do is try and create a system. It is so important that you are able to be consistent. It doesn’t matter how you want to log your transactions because you have to be able to refer back to anything that you have spent money on quickly and efficiently. When you do spend money, make sure that you log the amount that you have spent, the category of the expense and even the date as well. You will soon be able to see a clear record of your financial situation and you can also see a general overview of where you are going wrong as well. By having categories, you can easily figure out what you happen to spend the most money on. These categories may include things like housing, utilities and even groceries as well. These categories can vary from person to person but they can be as general or even as specific as you want. The most important thing is to make sure that they align with your own goals.

Get an App

There are so many applications out there that you can use to try and stay on top of your finances. You’d be surprised at how easy they are to use and you would also be surprised at how much they could make a difference to your life. Some of them can even be synced up to your bank card as well so when you do make a payment, you can easily find out where it went to. This is a great method when it comes to staying on top of your finances and the main reason for this is because you don’t have to do a thing. All you have to do is keep checking your app from time to time and this is great if you are finding it hard to really get the time to stay on top of the little things.

Physical Records

Physical records are, in some instances, so much easier for you to stay on top of when compared to digital records. If you find that this is the case for you then you do really need to try and consider looking into this. Try and create pay stubs online free for example when you get paid. When you do this, you will be able to organise them in a folder and you can also keep any receipts that you have as well. This is ideal if you are a fan of traditional accounting and it also gives you the chance to see where your money is going in a physical form rather than just as an online bank statement so do keep that in mind.

Protect Your Financial Future With These Personal Money Hacks

Looking after your financial future involves taking charge of the present and planning the way things will work out. There are so many things that have to happen for you to have a more comfortable financial future, and the more you can do to improve things, the better it will be for you and your family. Think about what you can do to make things better and give yourself a little more breathing space financially.

There are a lot of things to keep in mind when you want to protect your finances, and you have to think hard about how you can improve your spending and saving. A lot of the things you need to be thinking about are things that you can do reasonably easily on a daily or weekly basis. You have to make sure you think about what it takes to become healthier financially in 2018. These are some of the wonderful hacks you can use to take charge of your cash right now.

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#1 Start a Savings Jar

You have to be proactive about saving money, but this can sometimes be the most difficult part of the process. So, you need to look at what can be done to save more and get a more positive outcome for the future. A savings jar is a good place to start because it gets you used to the idea of actually setting money aside and not spending it right away. It also increases willpower and helps you get the hang of making regular savings. Of course, you should make sure you set cash aside in your bank account as well, but this is another great way of doing it.

#2 Make Sure You Have Insurance

Insurance is a massive thing these days, and there are a lot of different types of insurance you can take out these days. You have to think about what you can do to get the right kind of insurance to suit your needs. Something like car insurance is absolutely essential anyway, and you’re going to need to have that. But it is also worth getting something like health insurance in case you get sick. That way you won’t have to worry so much about money while you are off work. Insurance is a good way of protecting your future, and something you need to look at getting right now.

#3 Launch Your Own Business

If you really want to take charge of things it is important to make sure you think about launching your own business. There are definitely things you need to think about when it comes to launching a business, and you will need to factor in costs in the first instance. However, there is a lot to keep in mind when it comes to improving your future prospects, and launching your own business gives you a platform to thrive financially in the future as long as you run it properly. This is one of the things that will help you look after your financial future right now.

#4 Educate Yourself About Loans

Before you commit to taking out a loan to help you, it is important to make sure you understand how loans work. There are so many different types of loan you can take out in 2018, and it is important to educate yourself in order to learn about the different types, and their terms. For instance, there are payday loans, guarantor loans, and mortgages, and you need to know about what all these are. If you can understand the way modern loans work you will know whether taking one out is the right choice or not, and this is crucial for protecting your financial future.

#5 Invest

Make sure you consider the right kinds of investments because these will help to set you up for the right financial future. There are a lot of different investment opportunities these days, and you have to make sure you make the most of them. But, the first thing you need to do is to make sure you understand what the different choices are, and how you can make the right investments. You should also look at investing in yourself these days as well. There are a lot of different benefits to doing this, and it is essential for helping you increase your prospects and advance your abilities.

#6 Sell Your Home if Necessary

There may well come a time in your life when you decide it is time to sell your home and move. It is essential to think about this as a way of making your financial future more comfortable because it represents an excellent way of improving things financially and making everything a little more comfortable. Downsizing frees up money and gives you a bit extra to save as a financial safety net, and this is important. You might be surprised by how much you can get for your money when you move, and this is something you need to think hard about.

# 7 Clear Your Debts ASAP

Debts can be an albatross around the neck of so many people these days, and the important thing is to make sure you are not one of those affected negatively by debt. It is so easy to get into debt these days, and once you slip into that spiral, it is so difficult to get out of it. Getting out of debt as quickly as you can is one of the most important things you need to keep in mind, and it is important to come up with ideas that are going to help you clear your debts. There are so many factors to keep in mind, but a good place to start would be to ditch the credit cards, and team up with a debt management company.

To Sum It All Up

These are some of the best hacks to keep in mind if you want to work on trying to improve and bolster your financial future. There are a lot of things that can play a part in this, and it is important to make sure you figure out what you can do to keep on top of things. This is something that plays a big part in the process of improving your money management and makes the future more comfortable.

Renting Vs. Buying: Why Investing Makes Financial Sense

If there’s one dilemma that most young people have it is this: should you rent or buy a home? It’s not just a case of doing what you want though, or at least, for most people it is not, it’s about taking your finances into account and being smart about the decision that you make. The question of whether renting vs. buying is best is a long-running one and not something that everyone can agree on. However, many experts believe that investing in property rather than renting property does make better financial sense.

The question is, of course, why have experts agree that paying a mortgage is a smarter financial move to make than renting? Studies have shown that statistically, buying a home works out 37.7% cheaper than renting a home, which is what makes it a far smarter financial choice. Taking that into account, what’s it’s vital that you understand is that various factors will impact the cost of purchasing your own home.

Taking all of that into account, you may still be feeling a little confused about whether renting vs. buying is best and why investing actually makes the most financial sense. To help you to better understand why investing in property is a better choice to make than renting, below is a guide to everything that you need to know.

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Compare the costs of each option

The first step that you should take is to sit down and actually work out how much each option will cost you now and in the future. What you need to consider is that however, then you also need to look at the price in the long-term and what you are getting for it.

You need to look at how much you will be paying each month for your rent or mortgage. Traditionally, mortgage payments were far cheaper than monthly rental payments, however for people with low credit scores and high-interest mortgages, that is not the case. So it’s important to take the time to look into this properly. Then there’s the concept of what you’re getting for what you’re paying to consider.

When you pay rent, you are essentially paying to borrow someone else’s property for a month. Each rental payment simply covers you living in the property, and that’s it. Whereas, when you buy a house and pay a mortgage each month, which doesn’t just cover you living in the property, but it also covers the cost of buying more of the property. With each month’s mortgage payment that you make, you are owning a little bit more of the property that you are living in.

Looking at it like this, it’s easy to see why so many people consider renting to be a waste of money. Each year you are paying thousands of simply to borrow a property, whereas if you had a mortgage you could be spending that money buying more and more of the property that you live in – it’s easy to see that renting does not make as much financial sense as buying your property.

Understand how repayments will work

Despite the fact that it’s clear that investing in a property rather than renting one makes better financial sense, the concept of actually taking out a mortgage and buying a house can be extremely stressful as there’s just so much to think about, such as whether purchasing a property is actually affordable at the current time. It’s one thing knowing that buying a property is the right choice for you, but it’s completely another being able to afford to purchase a house and cover all of the costs that come with doing so.

When it comes to better understanding how repayments for your mortgage will work, you may find that a usable housing loan calculator is an extremely useful tool as it can give you a better insight into how affordable taking out a mortgage could be for you. These kinds of tools take into account your deposit amount and use them to determine how much you will be expected to pay per month in mortgage payments and what your level of interest will be that’s added onto your payments per month.

It’s essential that when it comes to investing in a property, that you have a solid understanding of what is what when it comes to the costs associated with doing so. It’s important to remember, that in addition to the cost of the deposit for your property, there are also other costs to covers, such as the cost of hiring an attorney, the price of having a survey of the property done, then there’s also the fees that have to be paid to the agency that’s sold your home. It’s not just the deposit cost that you need to consider, but also the cost of everything else that comes with purchasing a home.

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Determine the monthly cost

The next step that you need to take is to determine whether the monthly cost of owning your own home is an affordable one. Other than getting home insurance, the chances are that actually, the cost of your monthly mortgage repayments may well be lower than the cost of paying rent each month, depending on the rate of interest that you pay and how long your repayment period is set to. For instance, the longer your repayment period, the lower the cost of your monthly repayments, and the shorter it is, the higher these repayments will be.

For anyone who is trying to keep the cost of their mortgage as low as possible, a longer repayment period is often recommended. You can find companies that offer repayment periods of up to 40 years, however, it’s important to bear in mind that often the interest that these companies offer is far higher than the interest offered for more common 25-year mortgages. What this means is that there are plenty of options for you to consider when it comes to making having a mortgage an affordable option.

What a lot of people find helpful is using a monthly budgeting app and putting in potential mortgage costs along with other expenses, such as bills and food costs, to determine if having a mortgage would be affordable to manage. It’s important that before you make a big financial decision like taking out a mortgage that you are sure that it is something that is affordable for you to manage.

Think about the future profits

Last but not least, it’s also important that you take the time to think about what investing in property would mean for your future. Unlike renting, choosing to purchase a house means having an investment for your future, because over time you are slowly buying more and more of your property from the bank or your mortgage provider until you own the whole thing.

It’s important to consider what this means for your future finances, such as the fact that potentially you could make a profit from your home if you improve it over time and its value increases and you then choose to sell. Having a home of your own could give you the financial support that you require in your future, such as being used to help pay for your children’s higher education or to support you as you get older. That’s what makes investing in property so amazing – the fact that it allows you to have a financial safety net as you get older. You can rely on that money and know that whatever happens, you have an investment to fall back on.

When it comes to choosing between renting or buying, there’s a lot that you need to consider. The fact is that as many experts have said, buying makes better financial sense as you are owning more of your home each time you pay your mortgage, whereas with renting you are simply paying to borrow the property and are not getting any type of collateral as a result. However, just because buying does make better financial sense than renting, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the best option for everyone.

Should you choose to purchase a property, you need to consider what associated costs come with doing so, such as the fees, for instance. Then there’s also the cost that you have to pay every month for your mortgage, although this is usually lower than paying rent, it’s important to spend some time working out whether this is an affordable cost that you are able to cover. You can’t choose to invest in property if you aren’t sure that doing so is affordable for you, which is why you need to be clear on the costs that are associated with purchasing property so that you can make sure that they are affordable before you take a leap and make an investment.