What You Should Know Before Buying Annuities

Americans hear a lot about the shaky outlook for Social Security. In the future, the federal program likely will play a smaller overall role in Americans’ retirement plans.

One way to fill in the gaps of a savings portfolio is to put money in annuities. With an annuity, you pay a premium in exchange for guaranteed income payments at regular intervals. It is most often used for retirement purposes.

The basic types of annuities are equity indexed, fixed rate and variable. The major advantage of annuities is that they all guarantee benefits such as tax-free growth, the ability to pass money directly to heirs or charities and an income stream for life.

Over the past few years, equity-indexed annuities have gained a great deal of popularity. They offer interest or benefits that are linked to an external equity reference – a stock index like the S&P 500, for example. But you get a guaranteed minimum return in exchange for a limited maximum return; that is, you get less upside, but also less downside, to your stock-market investing. Your principal is never at risk.

Fixed-rate annuities, on the other hand, guarantee an interest rate and a declared minimum. They have traditionally been the most popular annuities.

Variable annuities provide more options. They enable you to invest in stock, bonds, mutual funds and money-market instruments.

Reputable financial companies, like TrueYield Financial, want to make sure investors are comfortable when purchasing annuities. Here are some tips for the potential investor.

* Be sure the firm you work with is not limited to offering just one company’s annuities. There are many options available, so work with an agent that can get the one that best fits your needs.

* Understand what you are buying. Talk to your financial adviser or agent about which annuity may be right for your retirement portfolio. Fully understand the annuity contract you are considering.

* Define your goals. Annuities can be used to accomplish a number of financial goals. For example, they can supplement your monthly income or provide emergency funds. Decide which purpose your annuity will serve.

* Ask your agent if you have a “free look” period to review your annuity contract and make sure you have made the right decision.

* Investigate whether or not a bonus annuity is right for you. Bonus annuities credit premium bonuses to allow a retirement saver to make up for stock market loss or to provide an immediate boost to the account value.

Tips for Future Financial Planning Portfolio for Retirement Employee

Have you ever thought that how you should do future planning for your children? We are now discussing related to the opportunity that you should deploy your future planning. Opportunity means life insurance, mutual funds, equities and fixed deposit should all features are Financial Planning options for your children. And also you make plan for your retirement and other objectives, like as buying property, investment in various industries area and so on.

Mutual Fund:
Nowadays; mutual Fund is the most popular option. Mutual fund is the best option to make money from difference financial services. Investors can invest money in the different segments like gold, equities, debt and also property and various mutual fund schemes. Important thing is that investing and managing your money is need expertise skill. For example: The Fund Manager: Investors can get bunch of benefits by using experience of fund manager by paying a little fee at one time or annually.

Fixed Income:
Fixed income or Fixed Deposit, name itself suggests that fixed income, Get secure return on the maturity of the deposit. Positive point of Fixed Deposit is that investor will get fixed income at the time of maturity. This option is also very popular in different financial services. Fixed income has the capacity to convey a degree of constancy to the Objectives.

PPF:
Usually, Fixed Deposit by Banks has been well-known investment avenues in this part. Same, small investment schemes like PPF (Public Provident Fund) can also aspect in the group.

Life insurance is the one of the basic saving system of this type of portfolio. It is the essential requirement of Every Human being.

After retirement there are the most thing activities Financial Planning will acquire. If you dont know where the money is coming from once you have established working, you wont have a very pleasurable life.

Retirement from the any services which is makes considerable changes in employees life style. Different Occupations have different retirement ages. There are many reasons behind the employees leaving the jobs.

There are many person get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of their daily lives that they dont even consider having a retirement plan until it is too late. This is the main reason to lack of financial planning behind it.

Employees must need to start planning for this important thing. Now in these days, there are many finance company interested to help to employee for their retirement plan through different choices. And also they give much opportunity by conducting seminar for more information on this area. Because of financial companies have made research on the same and make database by gathering sophisticated data. These all companies have a lot of idea behind employees retirement planning.

And finally, we hope these article will give you more finance technique, more investment criteria and tips for financial planning. We hope your future after retirement is bright and your remaining golden year pass with enjoy.

Should You Retire?

Have you have reached retirement age and are contemplating whether to retire or not? Are you torn between retiring to your golden years or continuing to work for a few more? Here are a few tips to make your decision a little less painful.

1. Consider Your Age

If you are in the 55 to 65 age range, retirement will already seem attractive to you. First of all consider your age. Realistically speaking, we only have limited number of years on this earth. Look at what you would still like to accomplish with those remaining years. Would you like to spend time going around the world? Or do you have any goals you wish to fulfill if it werent for the daily grind of work? If that is so then you can factor in these goals and lay out a time table for your retirement and activities afterwards.

Another age-related issue to consider is your actual age. You actual age is a measurement to verify how old your body really is. Have ever wondered why some people look about 5 years younger than they really are? This could be because their bodies really are of that age. The factors that determine this aging are genetics, health habits, diet and others. If you feel that your physical age is way beyond working, you may choose to retire.

2. Health

Is your health preventing you from being productive in the workforce? Or is your health making work more uncomfortable for you as time passes by? You may want to check with a doctor for a total health evaluation before considering continuing with work

3. Family

Some people will want to spend more time with their families as the twilight years approach. You may want to factor this into your decision to retire.

4. Finances

Will you be financially capable of sustaining your lifestyle well after retirement? If your retirement savings are not up to par with your spending lifestyle after retirement, you may want to stick it out with work for a little while longer. You also have to consider the fact that some retirement plans become more attractive if you retire later. But if you have saved up enough finances to tide you over those needs and enough to cover unexpected expenses such as medical fees, etc. as well as expenses for your planned vacation trips and other goals, you will want to retire early.

Also consider the fact that many people who retire find out that life without an occupation will turn out to be very boring. You may want to keep in touch with your employer so that he or she may offer jobs that you can do on part-time basis such as consultancy, filling in for those on vacation, etc.

The Simple $10 Debt Elimination Solution

Ask a friend what resolutions they made for the new year and your bound to hear them reply Pay off my credit cards. Ask them how they planned on reaching that goal and many of them will not have a clear cut answer.

The obvious first step to paying off credit card debt or paying down credit debt load is to cut back or eliminate the use of your credit cards. For some people this first step can often be the most difficult. If youre used to spending freely with plastic and worrying about the consequences later, its difficult to break free from this buy now, pay later attitude.

To gain control of their careless credit card spending habits, some people cut up their credit cards therefore making it impossible to use them. Others lock up their credit cards or hide them in a safe place and vow to use them only in an emergency.

The second step to paying down credit debt is to pay more than the minimum balance due. Most credit card companies require a minimum monthly payment of 2.5% of the outstanding balance. For example, if you have an outstanding balance of $1100.00 on a credit card charging an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of 18.9% your minimum monthly payment would be $27.50. It will take you 66 months or 5.5 years to pay off your balance of $1100.00 making the minimum payments. The credit card company will make $676.94 in interest from your use of their credit card.

Monthly payments are purposely kept low by the credit card companies so that they can earn as much as possible from the interest rate charged to you the consumer. Paying just the minimum payment will keep you tangled in credits web for years and years to come.

If youve been paying only the minimum due month after month, ask yourself this question, Do I have an extra $10.00 I could apply to this months payment? Im sure that most of us could find some way to come up with an extra $10.00 for the month. Try cutting out a few cups of coffee or lunches at your nearby fast food outlets and in no time flat youll have saved up the extra money that you need.

Now, its time to unveil The Simple $10.00 Debt Elimination Solution. Take that extra $10.00 and add it to the minimum monthly payment above, therefore making a payment of $37.50. By adding just that $10.00 a month to your minimum payment, youll trim 23 months or nearly two years off of that credit debt! On top of that youll save $277.00 in interest alone! Thats money you can put toward savings or paying off other debts. Imagine how much youd be able to save if you applied this same simple strategy to each of your other credit card debts!

Paying down credit debt doesnt always mean having to make huge monthly payments or sacrifices. It just takes some basic planning and a simple effective strategy to make it work.

What Will You Do With Your Credit Card Debt? Credit

What Will You Do With Your Credit Card Debt? Credit Card Debt Solutions

With Consumer Debt at a National high, many Americans are faced with increasing credit card interest rates, minimum monthly payments, etc. It is becoming harder and harder to meet our monthly obligations each month and many consumers are looking for answers.
This article will give you a brief run-down of the options that are available today to help make the decision a little easier.

The first option is to keep doing what you are doing now. Make your monthly minimum payments, pay increasingly high COMPOUND interest and lose thousands of dollars over the course of several years doing so. According to Bankrate.com, the average household has approx. $30K in unsecured debt. Did you know that paying the minimum monthly payments will cost you $112K in interest and it will take you approx. 59 years, yes you heard correctly, YEARS to pay off? That is a definite financial choice that will put you in the poor house quicker than anything else. When you are paying interest like this, it does not even benefit you to save your money in a savings account, because the interest would not gain fast enough to offset the interest you are paying on your credit cards. So, what should you do? Consider the other options!

The next option is a Debt Consolidation. This is a generic term now being used but true debt consolidation is taking your current debt load and rolling it into a new loan, with interest over a longer period of time. You will either need some security like a home or bank account. You will pay interest that is non-compounded, which is definitely better than compound interest; however, you will spread your debt over a longer period of time and therefore shell out more cash than necessary. If you have a small debt load, under $10,000, This may be a good option for you if you dedicate yourself to making larger monthly payments than are required, paying off early if possible.

Another option is Consumer Credit Counseling . You will recognize these companies because they usually have a non-profit status. They are actually sponsored by the credit card companies themselves and they have what is called a fair share arrangement, meaning the credit card companies pay these companies to keep you paying them. Your money is not dispersed into an escrow account, but the cccs companies disperse it evenly amongst your creditors how they see fit. You will not experience any relief from your monthly payment since they will stay pretty much the same. Interest rates are lowered most often, but are not completely eliminated. I have heard many complaints that payments are skipped and facts show that most enrollees in this type of program quit after the first 12-24 months. The reason being is that your credit report is negatively affected closely to that of a bankruptcy. When lenders and loan companies see an account managed by CCCS, they view it the SAME as a BANKRUPTCY. These types of programs usually take about 5-7 years to complete. Once the program is completed, the creditors release comments about CCCS on your credit report. To Sum it up, you have no monthly savings relief, you still pay your entire debt plus interest and your credit is negatively impacted for 5-7 years.

The last option I will outline is Debt Settlement. This type of program is becoming increasingly popular because of its many benefits to consumers. Debt Settlement Companies are experts at negotiating your debt down, on average for all cards/accounts, to 40% to 70% of what you owe. One card may settle at 80%, even 100% in some cases, the next card could be 30%. The end result is an overall total average of 40% to 70% of all the cards. This will be based on who your creditors are and their criteria. Creditors are directed to speak only to Certified Debt Mediators once enrolled and the process begins. Enrollees are set up on monthly payment plans, usually at a savings of 50% out of pocket providing immediate cash flow. You will be set up with one monthly savings amount, which will be deposited into a secured trust account at a Bank. Savings amounts are YOUR money. Settlement Companies have no access to it, beyond their fees, and neither do the creditors. It is a secure, protected trust account. This is the money, as it accumulates, that will be used to settle your debts. The consumer will have control of their own funds throughout the whole process. The average time a consumer is in the program is 12-36 months. During this time, the creditors will be reporting late pays on the consumer’s credit report while this process is going on. As settlements are reached with each creditor, the creditors will report a settled in full, paid with a zero balance. So, ultimately, at the end of the program, then your debt to income ratio will have improved and your credit will begin to heal itself for the future. In addition, you will not have the long term effect of a public record as you would with a bankruptcy.
Debt Settlement Companies do charge fees for their service, because creditors are not in alliance with DSC’s and do not give them kick backs for payments like in Consumer Credit Counseling programs. The fees average 15%-18% depending on which company you choose and the quality of service they provide. Most established firms will offer an online back office in which you can track your payments and settlement activities. Often times, fees are looked at in a negative light. But if you actually do the math, the savings still add up to substantial amounts and your credit gets back in shape pretty quickly. For instance, for $30K in debt and fees at 15% or $4500.00, you will still have an average savings of approx. $10,500. That is nothing to sneeze at! If your credit is a concern, then you must weigh your priorities.

Becoming debt free will give you many more advantages in your long term financial path, then two years with some late marks on your credit report. You may even consider credit repair after you are out of this type of program.

Shares – Should I, Shouldn’t I?

Buying Shares

You should consider buying shares only if:

* You have at least one year’s income saved and available on demand

You need to have instantly accessible savings to pay for the unexpected. The unexpected can include funerals, washing machines or repairs to the car after an accident. The unexpected is just that, and you do not want to have to sell your shares at a time when their value may be temporarily low just because you have no other savings to cover that essential expense.

* You accept that share prices can fall and you might lose money

Intellectually you know that prices can fall, but you need to accept this as something that can happen to you. You must be comfortable with the idea of losing a good part of your capital, should the market fall, or the fortunes of your chosen company go down.

* You understand the stockmarket

Only a fool invests money in something that he or she does not fully understand. It is only by understanding the stockmarket that the investor can work out when to sell and when to buy.

* You have the time and ability to research which stocks to buy

Research into a company’s financial condition requires time and the ability to understand the company’s accounts. It is no good relying on the stock picks from the Sunday newspapers, as so many do. You need to understand terms such as yield, Price/Earnings ratio, historical debt, and many more. If your understanding of theese terms is less than complete then you should consider investing in unit trusts instead and use the managers’ expertise. Without this expertise you would be almost as well off putting your $5,000, or whatever, on a horse with a name you liked.

* The time is right

Consider timing your share acquisition to coincide with a general fall in share prices. Go against the herd. If there are few buyers then the price will be low and you will be able to acquire more shares for your money.

Similarly, when the stockmarket is high and everybody and their dog is talking about share prices then consider selling, because these are signs that the market has peaked and is only rising because of its momentum, rather than because of any intrinsic increase in value of companies.

What Is A Wage Garnishment?

A wage garnishment is a legal procedure through which a percentage of a person’s earnings are withheld by an employer for the payment of a debt. Most wage garnishments are made by court order. Other types of wage garnishments are of legal or open procedures made by the IRS or state tax collection agency levies for unpaid taxes and federal agency administrative garnishments for non-tax debts owed to the federal government.

Wage garnishments do not include voluntary wage garnishments. Some debtor’s may voluntarily consort with their employers to turn over a specified amount of their earnings to a creditor to absolve the debt voluntarily, without the use of a court order.

The Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor’s Employment Standards Administration has dispensed Title III of the Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA) to limit the amount of an employee’s earnings that are garnished and protects employee’s from losing their jobs if their wages are garnished for only one debt.

Title III of the CCPA is enforced in all 50 states, including the District of Columbia, and all U.S. territories and possessions. This is a law that protects everyone who receives personal earning and incomes, e.g. wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses or earnings from a pension or retirement plan. The CCPA also forbids an employer from discharging an employee whose wages are garnished for any one debt, regardless of the number of levies made or attempts made to collect that debt, because of one single wage garnishment. The CCPA does not forbid discharging an employee when an employee’s wages are separately garnished for two or more debts owed.

The amount of pay subject to wage garnishment is based on the employee’s disposable wages. This is the amount of pay left over after all legally required deductions are made, e.g. federal, state and local taxes, State Unemployment Insurance, Social Security or any other withholdings for employee retirement systems required by law.

Deductions that are not required by law and that may not be subtracted from gross earnings when calculating disposable earnings under the CCPA are: voluntary wage deductions, union dues, health and life insurance, charitable contributions, savings bonds, optional retirement plans, reimbursements to employers for payroll advances or merchandise.

Title III of the CCPA sets a maximum amount that may be garnished in any pay period, regardless of how many wage garnishment orders are received by the employer. For common wage garnishments, excluding those for child support, alimony, bankruptcy, or any state or federal tax, the weekly amount may not exceed 25% of the employee’s disposable earnings or by the amount by which an employee’s disposable earnings are greater than 30 times the federal minimum wage. If a state wage garnishment law differs from the CCPA, the law resulting in the smaller wage garnishment must be observed.

The Four Mandatory Buckets Of Personal Finance

I have already written about the financial necessity of saving a portion of any income payment that you receive. This means that a percentage of every single source of income is set aside, marked, or tracked as money that you cannot spend. This task isnt optional if you want to have some basic financial stability or start growing some serious wealth. Saving is the first step and it is the easiest, simplest, but the most emotionally difficult step. I know that starting to save money is emotionally painful because spending money is easy and pleasurable, while saving money feels difficult and challenging. But like any behavior, it becomes easier and natural the more you do it.

As a review, the billionaire John Templeton started out working during the Great Depression but he saved 50% of his income. This guy was serious! OK, you may have a lot of fixed expenses that you just cant cancel immediately, but at least enroll in financial nursery school by saving 1% from all the income that you receive. Or start with only $3 a month and then ratchet up your savings rate continually until you are at least over 10%; or if you are ambitious get it over 30%. (If you are trying to find the loophole, this savings is your after-tax income that you can spend dont count your 401K or medical savings accounts or any other qualified money that you dont have full/immediate access to spending).

The remainder of this article is about what to do with that savings. Economics is the study of allocating scarce resources. Personal economics are similar, but I think that it is better described as: The allocation of your income that you cant spend. If you dont spend this money, and maybe have it setting aside in savings account, what do you do with it? Do you pay down on a credit card, save it for a car, donate it to a worthy cause, or purchase a bank certificate of deposit? How do you go about deciding?

Well, I have given this some thought and have reached a few conclusions. It is my view that your monthly savings needs to be divided among four mandatory categories. By this, I mean that among the zillions of things you can do with savings, it is my view that four of them are absolutely mandatory. For example, if you earn a paycheck (and after all of the taxing authorities take their share) of $1,000 that you can deposit into your checking account and youve chosen a personal savings percentage rate of 8%, then you move $80 ($1,000 X .08) into a separate savings account. Now, you will take this $80 and divide it up into at least the four mandatory categories I am going to discuss, along with any other categories that you value. In this way youll have the whole $80 assigned to specific financial duties to meet your financial goals.

Here are the four categories in priority order:

1. The Vault this is your wealth account. Money gets deposited into this account and it never leaves, like a one-way valve. The Vault is invested and the principal is never spent. It will grow into the largest part of your net worth, generating nearly all of your investment income. If you dont start creating wealth penny-by-penny, youll never have any.

2. Soft Savings a delayed spending account. This money is marked for things that you want to buy, but cant afford to purchase with normal pocket money. For example, a house, car, boat, vacation, college fund for kids, planned medical care, clothing, jewelry, etc. But this also includes maintenance to your home, like a roof, new appliances, new siding, paint, landscaping, remodeling, etc.

3. Paydown Debt Balances making extra principal payments on your credit cards, car loans, and your mortgage. By chipping away at these expenses you will eventually eliminate them all, and then have more money available for other categories. Personal debt is the opposite of financial freedom and dramatically makes it more difficult to reach your financial goals. If you doubt this, look at the interest charges you pay each month and imagine if that money had been invested instead.

4. Financial Education books, magazines, newsletters, seminars, software, investment memberships. Also, hiring professional financial advisors, tax accountants, estate attorneys, etc. (Avoid free advice a buddy, your cousin, or a friends neighbor buy the best, most expensive professional advice you can afford).

As I mentioned before, you can put your savings into places that are only limited by your creativity. But it is my view that these four areas are so important that they need to be continually fed money in a systematic manner.

If you are missing the first account, The Vault, youll never have the money to start investing so youll never receive any investment income. This is pretty much the goal of all personal finance, to help you generate the most investment income. That is why this is the most important of the four categories, to get your money earning money so that you dont have to. (I do not consider any retirement accounts or qualified accounts to be Vault money. This is because you do not have direct control to invest the money or receive any investment income until the government decides that you can).

If you are missing the second account, Soft Savings, you either cant buy what you want, or you have to increase your personal debt. This is moving in the opposite direction of financial freedom you are reducing the amount of money that you can spend each month by the amount of the debt payment, and you are reducing your net worth by the principal and interest that youll be charged. Another symptom of a lack of Soft Savings is disrepair to your car, home, and health because you dont have the money for upkeep. Everything physical needs to be maintained, from your teeth to your vacuum, and it costs money to do so. This depreciates the financial assets that you own, and puts at risk the most important quality of life your health.

If you are missing the third account, Paydown Debt Balances, you are simply going to be the patsy in the financial game of life. People that are building their wealth collect lots of little interest payments from the people that are destroying their wealth by making lots of little interest payments money is transferred every month from one group of people to the other. Which group do you want to be in? Well, your Vault can automatically put you into the group of wealth-builders and your Paydown Debt account starts to extract you from the group of wealth-destroyers. The Paydown Debt account puts you on track to permanently extinguish all of your personal debt. The sooner a personal debt is paid off, the more rapidly you can take all of this money and put it into the other categories.

If you are missing the fourth account, Financial Education, you wont know how to captain your Vault, and you may run it straight into the rocks. Only you will manage your money in a manner that will be to your maximum benefit. So it is best if you pay to learn how to handle money and learn where to put it. But not everyone has an interest in these subjects, and that is fine. For them, instead of personally managing your money, you are going to personally manage your financial advisors. Youll be spending money and time to hire and manage the advisors to attend to financial details.

By allocating your savings into these four categories you are addressing the four most important elements of financial management. Youll be making certain that: Your investment income will always increase by adding to your Vault; youll have money available for extra expenses with your Soft Savings; your net worth will always be increasing with a Paydown Debt account; and youll intelligently learn how to lower your investment risk, raise your investment returns, and lower your tax liability with your Financial Education account. The only source of money to build these critical financial functions to increase your income, net worth, and stability is your savings you simply have to do it.

I recommend you fund these accounts simultaneously do not focus only on debt or only on education because I have seen how it is financially detrimental to do so. For example, lets say that you really want to paydown your debt so you dont contribute anything to The Vault. I have found that if you dont have any investments, your investing skills will be under developed. You will not know how to invest once your debts have been paid off, youll have no investment income to manage, you wont be looking for investing opportunities because that is something you cant afford right now, etc. And as a result, it will be harder to get into the investing game later, youll have more to learn in a shorter amount of time, and may just avoid it altogether and put Vault money into a low paying account.

How much do you allocate among the four categories? Anything more that zero! It is up to you, and your financial situation will fluctuate and be different from others. Just to get some starting percentages, below is my allocation. It is not a recommendation for anyone, it is just what works for me right now.

My current savings rate = 20% of all after-tax income.

(This does not include 401K, medical savings accounts, or other deferred/qualified withholding). This means that 20% of all cash income that hits my checking account each month is set aside into these categories:

1. The Vault receives 50% of total savings each month.
2. Soft Savings receives 20% of savings each month.
3. Paydown Debt receives 20% of savings each month.
4. Financial Education receives 5% of savings each month.
5. And that leaves 5% for other categories each month.

You may receive continual, ongoing income, in addition to some rare, one-time inflows of money. The percentages detailed above are how I allocate regular income savings. But if there is any one-time inflow of money (garage sale, bonus, extra project), then I take 90% of the proceeds and split it among the four accounts, and the other 10% is just spent. You can create your own money rules for different types of income; you can tell by my allocation percentages that my primary focus is to build up the balance of the Vault.

The amount of money that you can save from every source of income is your key to a brighter financial future. Contrarily, a risky and dimmer financial future awaits those that refuse to systematically save money. So be sure that you take the steps necessary to set savings aside and then simultaneously divide it among the four mandatory accounts by consistently allocating money to them. You dont have a financial foundation without these four accounts, but with them, you can build as high as your ambition takes you.

Saving Money With Government Auctions

Government auctions are where items that various government agencies have seized are sold, often at excellent prices. With a little knowledge, you can save some money with government auctions. Here is some basic information and tips to help you make the most of government auctions.

What items are for sale at government auctions?

Usually, big ticket items, such as vehicles, houses, land, boats, airplanes, computers, etc.

Where have the items come from?

Usually, the items have been seized by a government agency. Items might be seized in a raid, repossessed due to unpaid taxes, etc. Agencies that seize and sell items include the FBI, IRS, police departments, DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration), etc.

How are items sold?

Depending on the auction, items may be sold at an internet auction, at a fixed price, or at a conventional auction.

How can I find out about items for sale?

There are many ways to find out about items for sale. Searching the internet will provide you many websites that list government auctions. Some of the sites require a paid membership, others are free.

Tips for buying at government auctions

Look carefully at items you wish to bid on or purchase. Items are almost always sold as is, meaning that if it does not work as you expected it to, or other problem, arise, you cannot return the item.

If there is a preview for the auction you plan to attend, take advantage of it. In some cases, the items will not be available for review during the auction, so it is advisable to attend the auction preview to look at items you are interested in.

What other auctions can I attend to save money?

You may also want to check out foreclosed property auctions. Items at these auctions have been seized by a bank due to non payment of the loan on the item.

What If You Lose Your Job?

Recently I almost lose my job. It is cause by some misunderstanding. Luckily the misunderstanding got resolved and I manage to retain my job now. I am not here to talk about what is causing that misunderstanding. But I wanted to talk about what is my backup plan if I were to really lose my job.

When I got the news that I will lose my job, the first thing that I can think of is, how am I going to pay my bills, daily expenses, house loan, insurans etc. Luckily from time to time, I had save some money for emergency purpose. I calculated that I can live without a job for at least 6 months. That made me feel relief a bit. Other than some money in my saving account, I have some money in the stock market and unit trust.

I also have some money in my house loan account. For you information my house loan account is the kind of flexible loan payment account. Whenever I pay more, the extra money will be used to reduce my loan principal outstanding. This will reduce the loan interest. But I can still withdraw that extra money out anytime if I need it. I thought this is a very good feature. Every months I will pay extra money to the loan account. I aim to settle the house in less than 5 years. So up to now, I have some decent amount of money in the account. It can be used as my backup emergency funds. At the same time it helps to reduce the interest on my housing loan.

Back to the main topic, I seriously think that we should have some backup funds for emergency purpose. Nowadays Most of peoples financial situation doesnt even allow them to live for 1 single month if they lose their job. You may think this is not necessary, but wait till you get hit. Then you will know how tough it is. I would say we should have some emergency fund that allow us to live for at least 6 months if we lose our main income.