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3 Brilliant Tips For Becoming A Landlord

December 23rd, 2016 Posted in Entrepreneurship
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The property development industry is highly appealing to any prospective entrepreneur or investor, so it’s no wonder that you want a slice of the pie too. Of course, it’s not quite as simple as diving in head first. As with any investment, you need a plan of action if you want to ensure that you’ll be getting the returns you need for the whole venture to even be profitable.

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Investing in the buy-to-let industry is not a decision you should take lightly; especially not on the basis of the success enjoyed by other property developers. In this current economic climate, judging real estate value and the returns on any investment, no matter how good the property, is a difficult task. It’s worth it when the investment turns out to be a wise one, but you’ve got to enter into this with a clear head.

  1. Don’t be tempted by low rates without thinking it through.

Eventually, all rates must rise again. If you purchase a property on the merits of it simply boasting a low rate. It might seem good for you on the investment side, but sometimes spending less today doesn’t necessarily mean more tomorrow. There were so many investors who bought during the growth period before the recession and were left in an awful situation by 2008 when mortgage rates skyrocketed and the property they thought they could afford a few years ago was now eating away at their investment, leaving them very little wiggle room and very little hope of a sizeable return any time in the future.

  1. A credit tenant lease is a fair way of borrowing money.

As with any investment, you get out what you put into it. That, for the majority of new property developers in the buy-to-let trade, involves borrowing money. Of course, the best method of financing real estate can seem impossible to figure out, because you don’t want to take risks and you don’t want a lender to turn you away if they think you’re ‘high risk’.

If you’ve got a plan, however, and you know how to turn your property into a lucrative development business opportunity, then borrowing might not be as hard as it seems on the surface. There are credit tenants who help new landlords to finance their properties on the condition that the rent is used as a form of security payment. This lease is one of the best ways to finance the real estate development on which you’ve had your eye for a long time, so it’s a great place to start if you’ve been wondering how to fund this venture.

  1. Marketing is key, because you’re letting and not selling the property permanently.

Once you have the ideal property and the funding to get it going, it seems like you’ve got everything figured out. Right? Well, not quite. Renting a property to a tenant is not a permanent deal. Once one or a group of tenants leaves, you have to be ready to fill the property with the next viable candidates; especially if you’ve got a lease which depends on the rent from tenants acting as a form of security payment.

Marketing your property properly will ensure that you’ve always got potential tenants interested in renting, should a tenant ever decide to move out. The key is to ensure that you have enough time during your notice period to find the next tenant; or, if it’s a new property, to find your very FIRST tenant. Whether you use a site like Rightmove or a letting agent, ensure that your property is getting viewed in some way or another.

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How To Plan Today For Your Child’s Tomorrow

December 22nd, 2016 Posted in kids and money
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Plan for your child's tomorrow

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You want the best for your child, and you’ve probably already striven to provide them all that you can offer. You might be giving them a great education and offering them some of the things you may or may not have had as a child, or simply treating them with kindness and teaching them the values you wish you’d known at a younger age. We’re all going to age, so it’s better to prepare today for that eventuality.

Of course, there are lessons to be taught to our children outside of moral values and what it means to be a good, well-rounded person. It’s never too early to start teaching them about ‘boring’ financial things, such as affording a home, or what to do with your finances so that they’re prepared for life after their career. These are all things the world forces upon us if we want to have a comfortable life, so it’s important that you don’t shield your children from them. Help them be as prepared as possible for the challenges they’ll face in the future.

Planning a will now could be a sensible move.

Yes, I know that’s a weird thought. Perhaps you’ve put off writing a will, but, as you may know from experience, life can be unpredictable. Planning a will today could help to safeguard your child, should the unimaginable ever happen. You want to keep on protecting them no matter what happens to you, and financial support is a vital way to do that.

Help them plan for their retirement.

That probably sounds insane, doesn’t it? Your child has yet to leave school or find a career of their own, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be thinking about what to do when they retire. In fact, this is the perfect time to do so, because it means they won’t have to worry about these things when they’re an adult. Think about the way you did things, and help your child do them in a better way.

There are so many ways you could help your child secure themselves for the future, before they’ve even started earning. Companies such as Blueprint Wealth offer self managed super fund services, as this could really kickstart your child’s future. If you’re not sure how to help your child put together some planning goals, there’s no harm in searching around for advice and help with doing so. Perhaps it took you too long to do so yourself, and you could’ve been better prepared if you’d done something earlier. Sound familiar? Well, there’s some great advice out there if you want your child to have better options.

At the end of the day, planning today is the best piece of advice I can give. Your child’s future is a long way away, so don’t feel too overwhelmed by the prospect of planning retirement funds and wills. Think of it as planning way in advance, because your child does have a lot of time before that day comes, and they should be spending that time enjoying life, rather than worrying halfway down the line if they should have done things differently in order to prepare for their financial future.

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Will Your Kids Be Financially Secure?

December 21st, 2016 Posted in financial literacy for kids, kids and money, teaching children about money
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Financing is a scary topic of conversation for most people. The majority of adults struggle to maintain a financially secure situation, but with children, the concept is foreign and boring. It can be hard to make the topic seem a little less dull when explaining it to your kids, but some of these conversations are better had now. I’m sure you’d rather you helped them now, as opposed to when they’re adults and they come back to you with financial problems out of which they’re struggling to wiggle.

The reason you should be asking yourself whether your children will be financially secure is because one day they’ll be sorting out their finances for themselves. There’s only so much you can help them, but one day you won’t be there and they’ll have to make decisions by themselves. It may not be a pressing issue on their minds now, but considering most adults are perplexed by money and how we’re ‘supposed’ to be using it, it’s best to ensure your child never ends up in such a tricky, confusion, unstable situation.

Aiming for success rather than money is a crucial skill.

If you’re in a financially secure position, the reason you most likely ended up here was through a good career at some point in your life, whether that was in the past or you’re currently in a very stable job. The most invaluable advice you can give to your children is to focus their energy on finding out what their true goal out of life is and pursuing their talents. Their skillset will lead them a good career and that will financially support them much more than any savings account or investment scheme.

Teach your children to take advantage of opportunities in life and seek out their own happiness and success before all else. If they think about this, money will come as a result. Just focusing on money can be a damaging way to live, as it doesn’t actually provide any solutions or methods to achieve financial independence and security. If your child ends up in a company with great career progression, they can chase goals rather than money. Of course, the two go hand in hand, so it’ll work out perfectly for them. It’s all about the right mindset.

Goals should be short-term.

We’ve already discussed the importance of reaching for goals and happiness, rather than simply money in and of itself. Of course, this doesn’t mean your children should be stretching endlessly for distant future objectives. When they become a young adult and enter the working world, they’ll still have their whole lives ahead of them. This will be a time for them to learn about the fine balance between socialising and working. They might benefit from getting help from companies such as Blueprint Wealth – financial advisors; as there’s only so much you can do to teach them how to use their money. It is their money, after all.

Of course, saving is still important.

Whilst building a career and striving for happiness is key, let’s not discourage the importance of saving. It’s always important to think about future investments, rather than encourage your kids to blow money as soon as they earn it. Some element of planning should be involved. That’s a crucial thing to teach your kids, because, as recent educational reforms have shown, we haven’t done a great job at educating the younger generation about debt as of the last few decades.

Whilst that may change in the future, it’s up to you to act now to educate your children. They might have a secure job, but they need to know what to do with their salary once they’ve earnt it.

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Help Your Child Achieve Their Dream Home By Teaching Them How While They’re Young

December 21st, 2016 Posted in financial literacy for kids, teaching children about money, teaching kids about money
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It’s never too early to start teaching your children about money. In fact, the sooner you start, the more likely they are to find financial security in later life. Having money awareness from the off will allow them to make stable life decisions. Most parents want their children to get all their dreams. This includes their dream home. Mistakes made early in life can stop that happening. Help your child make the right moves to ensure they get the home of their dreams when they’re older.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF HARD WORK

Teaching your child the importance of hard work is the first step in ensuring they achieve their dreams. When you’re young, it’s hard to take education seriously. Encourage your children to take responsibility for their learning. The better they do at school, the more likely they’ll be able to afford a house when they’re older. Encouragement is easier said than done. Helping your children realise their dreams will go a long way towards giving them an incentive. Remember that your dreams might not be the same as theirs. Take a step back and help them realise what they want. Have conversations about the future and see what their plans are. Children can get carried away. If they go off on a tangent, try to bring them back to the considerations they’ll face down the line.

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HELP THEM CHOOSE A CAREER

When you’re young, you’re asked to make the biggest career choices in your life. It seems strange when children rarely know what they want to do. Choosing the wrong subjects at school and college can hold your kid back. It can even stop them getting what they want. Without that good paying career, they’re unlikely to get the million pound mortgage and dream home. Again, be sure to let your children make their own choices here. The best thing you can do is make sure they’re aware of their options. It might help to show them what problems the wrong choices can cause. Give them an idea, too, of the financial situation each career choice would land them in. Children and young adults often make decisions based on what their friends are doing. Make sure your child knows which jobs offer the best future and makes decisions based on that.

TEACH THEM THE IMPORTANCE OF SAVING

Even with a high paying career, your child won’t be able to achieve that dream home without some savings. Teach them about the importance of savings from early on. If they receive pocket money, it’s worth limiting this. A smaller amount of pocket money each week will mean that they have to save up for the things they need. Financial knowledge is the whole point of pocket money, after all. Without starting early, your kid is unlikely to be able to afford a deposit or mortgage. Talk to them about your saving process, and what it has helped you to afford. Show them, too, what they could achieve with substantial savings behind them.

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Injuries In The School Yard

December 21st, 2016 Posted in financial literacy
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It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. You send your child off to school, and it’s already a big step for you, as the parent, to put the responsibility of your child’s safety in the hands of someone else throughout the day. Whether it’s your child’s first day of school or their last, the feeling of dread never goes away. You’re excited for them to learn, but nervous for them to find their footing as they grow in the world.

Of course, anyone can have a nasty accident and most people, of all ages, do at some point. When that happens, what do you do? Is it your fault? The school’s fault? Your child’s fault?

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No parents wants their child to ever be injured, but we’ve all been that age at one point and we all know how these things happen. Most injuries sustained by our children involve a few cuts or bruises, which is to be expected from playing around or getting a little too rough with the other kids, but what do you do when the injury is much more serious?

Much like any serious accident, if your child requires medical treatment for a broken bone, a pulled muscle or any other physical injury that might have resulted from physical education, or even playing on unsafe monkey bars, your first priority will be medical treatment before pointing fingers and calling out culprits.

Consult a doctor regarding the severity of the injury.

This should be the first point of call after your child is injured. You need to put their health first, as a priority, but it’s also important to get your head wrapped around the situation. How severe is their injury and how much is treatment going to cost you? Once you know all this, you can start to think about the compensation you may or may not be owed by your child’s school.

Many schools have been failing on issues of basic health and safety precautions, so you’re not kicking up a fuss by holding the school responsible if your child is injured. If they were injured through no fault of their own, especially if the culprit was equipment which was either broken and caused them to fall, hurting themselves, or equipment which was unsuitable for younger children to be using, such as more advanced climbing apparatus for older students.

If it’s not your fault, there are ways you can be financially smart about this.

Of course, if an injury happened at home, you’d just have to bite the bullet and accept the medical bill or other expenses, for the sake of your child’s well-being. However, when an accident happens on school property, it can often be the fault of a neglectful teacher or something as hazardous as ill-maintained equipment in the gym hall. At that point, your child’s injury wasn’t your fault, and you don’t have to endure the financial burden: https://www.injurylawyer.com/new-york/slip-and-fall-accident/

It isn’t fair for you to be paying huge sums of money you can barely afford simply because the school broke your trust. They have a duty of care to your child, and they have a responsibility to compensate you if they fail to look after your child.

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