Sunday, September 26, 2010

Financial Advice For Couples

Most couples often fight about money and make financial mistakes. Money problem is the most common reason of the arguments and divorces. Usually people have too much emotion about money and their money problems flourish.
The first question is what is better to have one joint account or two individual accounts? The right answer is to have three different accounts: two separated and one joint to see how it is to be a married couple and to take household expenses.
The next problem couples face is dealing with debts. Here your approach must be the right one too. If one spouse has debts it is wrong to force him or her to pay it off without your help. It would be better for your relationship to find the best way out and to cope with the situation together. It is almost unavoidable that one spouse has more debt than the other when they enter the marriage. The situation is quite usual and solvable if both are working for their future prosperity and family happiness.
You should keep your spending in check, because you both spend your family money but on different things. You just have to budget your expenses and decide how much money you need for your everyday life and how much for the big purchases.
It will be a good idea to invest your money and retirement savings wisely but not to keep it untouchable for years. But be careful with risky enterprises.
Try not to keep money secrets from each other because big financial secrets can ruin a marriage. You may be shocked if you find out some financial secrets that your spouse has.
Our life is full of emergencies and you should be ready to face them and have stable financial background. Anything could happen but you should not panic because it can lead to the wrong decisions. Just sit and plan for emergencies.
If you need an experienced saving money expert and need assistance in financial planning - feel welcome to get in touch with the registered financial associate and a member of the International Association of Registered Financial Consultants.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Personal Loans - Which Type Is Best for You?

When a more formal credit arrangement is necessary for a larger purchase, then possibly your bank should be the first place to go to request a personal loan. Just remember, borrowing money always comes at a price. The more money you borrow, the longer it will take to pay it all back and the more interest you will pay, making your purchase more and more expensive with each passing month. That is why it is so important to understand how interest works, before we begin talking about the different types of loans available to today's consumer.
There are two basic types of loan interest: fixed rate and variable rate. Both offer their own pros and cons and should be considered carefully before any type of loan is considered. Fixed Rate Interest is a set interest rate that does not increase during the life of the loan no matter what! However, should interest rates suddenly nose dive you will be stuck paying the higher rate for the life of the loan.
Variable Rate Interest, on the other hand can fluctuate dramatically depending on the terms of your loan. In most cases, the interest (and your monthly payments) increase to match the current rate. But, in a downturn, they may decrease. This type of loan can see a change in interest rate monthly, quarterly or annually depending on the terms of your loan, which can make it difficult to budget your incoming monies.
Why is it so important to understand the difference between a fixed and adjustable rate loan? Because it can have a dramatic effect your monthly payment now and for the years to come. Certainly, variable rates can be much lower, but they come with a big risk. If you are using that low starter variable rate to either qualify for loan at all, or to simply buy bigger, you may want to reconsider. After all, the odds are those payments will increase over time not decrease, and those increases can add up to hundreds of dollars per month. But, before you decide for or against either type of loan, let's look at their good and not so good points.
Fixed rate loans offer a more controlled way of borrowing money than the adjustable version can. Offering set payments throughout the entire loan term, fixed rates are locked in. Here are the main benefits of a fixed-rate loan:
1. Inflation Protection. Your payments can never increase.
2. Long Term Planning. Knowing what your payments will be allows borrowers to set long-term financial goals more easily.
3. Low Risk. By locking in your interest rate and payment amounts, you do not risk ending up with a loan payment you can not afford in the future. What you pay at the beginning of your loan is what you'll pay at the end of your loan. Do fixed rate loans offer any negative aspects? Certainly! Here are a few to consider:
1.Smaller Loan Capacity. Some borrowers actually qualify for less money since their payments will likely be higher with a fixed rate.
2. Higher Interest. Fixed rate loans traditionally carry a higher interest rate at outset than their adjustable counterparts.
3. Additional Costs. Fixed rate loans (especially mortgages) sometimes carry early-payoff penalty fees and other penalties not seen with other loans.
Variable rate loans are not all bad. In fact, they can offer some solid benefits, including more options and more flexibility. They can also be a great way to pay down a loan's principle more quickly. They also offer some borrowers the chance to borrow more than they otherwise could, since their payments start off lower and increase over time. When used responsibly, adjustable rate loans can help some borrowers get what they need now, even if they can't quite afford those larger payments today. Especially if they reasonably believe that they will be better equipped to handle larger payments later on.
Make sure to get all the information you need and so make an informed decision.

How to Get Out of Credit Card Debt With Professional Help

You can determine to get out of credit card debt and live happier if you realize that you alone can affect the challenge. Nobody will stop you from using your credit card ones it is issued to you but you will start feeling the hit when you spend uncontrollably and have huge debt liabilities on your neck.
In the first place, we should all tell ourselves the truth and mention that credit cards debts are avoidable unsecured debts. The mere fact that the debt is unsecured makes the lenders to hike the conditions, yet debtors close their eyes and spends as if they would never have to pay back. The reality starts donning on the debtor when he starts missing monthly repayments and begin to get interest rates and accumulated penalties.
There are debts that are unavoidable such as mortgage loans, education loans, car loans etc. but the worrisome part is if many people have these debts as well as the avoidable credit card debts. You have to be careful because nothing worries the heart more than a situation where you will need to use your credit card to pay medical bill only to discover that you had overshot your credit limit.
You cannot be thinking of how to get out of credit card debt when you could have controlled your spending and have your credit worthiness intact. You may not realize the negative effect of not repaying your credit card debts on time till you apply for another credit card, auto loan, or even mortgage. Once your credit report is sort, the mess you have gotten yourself into, financially, will unavoidably present itself.
I know of one person who can help you get out of credit card debt, that person is YOU. But there are certain things you should do to ease off the debt burden if you are presently in the unfortunate debt situation. The first thing you should do is to ensure that you gather the entire details of all your debt profile.
Ensure that you chronicle how you had been repaying and note why you shouldn't be able to continue to repay the full minimum monthly requirement. This is the first positive step followed by resorting to debt consolidation. You have to apply for debt loan to pay off your entire debt profile. This debt loan usually comes with very low interest rate and it will afford you the chance to have your debt in a single account after you have settled all your higher interest bearing debts.
If you have saving account in any bank, you have to use it to get out of credit card debt because it doesn't make any economic sense that you have money that is attracting 2 - 5 percent interest while your credit card debt is incurring over 10% monthly interest. If every other option fails, you can go for debt settlement. This will enable you to get some debt relief from your creditors so that you pay a small fraction of what you owe and walk away a free man.