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Suggestions For Raising Emergency Capital

April 23rd, 2017 Posted in learning about money
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There might come a time when your family needs cash in an emergency. Maybe you’ve suffered home damage, and you can’t afford the repairs. Perhaps you’ve got to stop working due to illness? Whatever the reason, finding the money you need is often hard. That said, there are many ideas people tend to ignore. With that in mind, this article contains some “out of the box” suggestions you won’t want to overlook. Read the information carefully, and then see if any of the concepts could work for you. At the end of the day, you need to try everything possible to get back to stability.

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Remortgage your family home

The easiest way to get the money you require involves remortgaging your family home. If you’ve made repayments on your current deal for more than ten years, you could place thousands in your accounts. You just need to search for the best remortgaging offers around at the moment. If that doesn’t work, you could always sell your home and downsize. Even so, there are comparison websites you can use to spot the best deals. Don’t make the mistake of using the same company you’re with at the moment. In nearly all instances, you will find better rates elsewhere.

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Auction your valuables

If you’re one of those people who likes to collect rare items or artwork, now could be the perfect time to sell. When all’s said and done, it’s better to have a roof over your head than a pack of original Star Wars figures. That is especially the case when you consider that some collectibles sell for thousands of dollars. Take a look at everything you own, and then browse some auction sites. If you discover you have something worth a lot of money, you should sell it as soon as possible. It could help to get your family back on track. Also, you can always buy another item when your finances are in order.

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Sell your structured settlement

Lots of people accept structured settlements these days when it comes to injury compensation and court cases. That means they’re awarded some money, but they get it in installments. Most folks don’t realize this, but you can sell that settlement and get a lump sum. So, perhaps that’s a potential solution to your financial issues? A CBC Settlement Funding structured settlement review highlighted the ease of the process. You lose some cash, but at least you get a bulk payment. With a bit of luck, you could have the money in your accounts in a couple of days.

Now you have some alternative ideas for raising the money you require; we hope you won’t get too stressed. There is always a solution if you keep your eyes open and try different avenues. In cases where you can’t find the cash, you just have to contact your creditors and explain. They will then come up with an affordable arrangement after considering your position. At the end of the day, it’s in their interests to do that.

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Teaching Your Kids To Help Their Kids Make Smart Financial Choices

April 19th, 2017 Posted in financial literacy for kids, learning about money
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Money isn’t the most important thing in this world; family is. Nonetheless, your family can benefit greatly from making smarter financial choices. Furthermore, it’s never too early for the children to start learning. They will inevitably pick up habits from their parents and their grandparents. As Grandma or Grandpa, your job is to ensure that those influences are of a positive nature.

The only way to accomplish this challenge is to work together as parents and grandparents to ensure that the children get the very best support. Here’s what you can do as the most senior member of the clan to make it happen.

Lead By Example

You can’t possibly expect your children to become educators unless they’ve been educated themselves. Therefore, financial responsibility needs to start with you. Only then will it trickle down to your grandchildren.

At your advanced stage in life, life insurance should be one of the top items on your agenda. You can visit lifeinsuranceforseniorsover80.com for more info on the best deals and coverage around. Once this is in place, you’ll gain a huge sense of relief knowing that the family is in a better position. Frankly, that’s one of the best parting gifts you could ever leave.

More importantly, though, your commitment to the cause should encourage your children to employ better habits too. If that doesn’t result in a better financial education for the grandkids, nothing will.

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Make A Joint Investment  

Investing savings in an effective manner has become more important than ever, especially as we are living longer. With the cost of living climbing at a far too rapid rate too, building that nest egg for future years will be vital for your kids and your grandchildren. Subsequently, this is one area where you can have a telling influence on their futures.

As an older and wiser member of the family, your input can be extremely useful during this time. The best way to handle this is to be actively involved. Real estate is a particularly popular option for joint family investment. Understanding the different types of ownership, along with the other key elements, will serve all parties well.

In addition to boosting the financial futures of yourself and your children, it will have a huge impact on the grandchildren. Not only because the profits gained will have a direct influence on their lives, but because they’ll pick up important life lessons too.

Teach The Importance Of Budgeting

Even if you live a self-sufficient life, there’s no doubt that you will have encountered moments in earlier life where every penny counted. Your children probably have too, but may have forgotten those lessons now that their troubles in the past. But guess what, those difficult moments are still to come for your grandkids.

With this in mind, cutting unnecessary overspend is something the whole family should be involved in. Whether it’s using coupons for cheap groceries or tailoring broadband packages isn’t overly important. Reducing waste removes financial strain and leaves more capital for life and investments.

Embracing those improved habits is one of the greatest life lessons that you’ll ever impart on both generations. Do not underestimate it for a second.

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Encourage An Appreciation For Hard Work

No two families are identical, especially with regards to financial standing. Whether you’re rich, poor, or somewhere in between will have a major impact on many factors. Regardless of your unique situation, though, gaining an appreciation for the value of money is important for all.

Helping your child help their children to achieve this is best done through making kids work for their money. Of course, young kids shouldn’t be made to do some overly strenuous work. Still, using chores and other tools to promote the feelings of satisfaction gained from working is beneficial. And it will go a long way to aiding them through later life.

In truth, this financial astuteness also encourages an improvement to general personality too. For this reason alone, it’s one of the most important tips you could ever apply.

Be Prepared For The Worst

It’s one thing to get yourself in a comfortable situation for the moment. But what would happen if an unexpected issue occurred? As a wise head, you’d probably be ready to roll with the punches. How about the kids and grandkids, though?

If the answer isn’t an emphatically positive one, a change needs to be made. Workplace injuries, car accidents, and other issues could change a life in a heartbeat. Those impacts aren’t limited to health either and will cause financial problems. Learn about the available legal help at munley.com to help keep the whole family protected. Even if there isn’t a problem yet, knowing how to deal with those situations will remove a huge sense of fear.

Home security and similar preventative measures should also be on the agenda.In an ideal world, they’d never need to use those facilities anyway. Nonetheless, it’s imperative that your kids are aware of them. In turn, they can ensure that their children don’t enter adult life ignoring those factors too.

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Avoiding Temptations

Perhaps the most valuable lesson to teach your family is to stop rushing in to make luxury purchases. Let’s face it; clever advertisers are fantastic at encouraging us to spend money that we don’t have on things we don’t need. While life is to be enjoyed, putting ourselves under long-term stress is not an option.

Therefore, teaching the importance of organization and prioritizing is pivotal. Mortgages, debt repayments, and bills should always take precedence over personal treats. Even if your grandchildren are young, teaching them this at an early age is advised. After all, financial responsibility is a key life element that schools fail to acknowledge.

Once again, the only way to achieve greatness is to work together as a family. If you are repeating the same values that their parents are teaching, the grandkids will soon take note. A brighter financial future for the entire family awaits.

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3 Ways To Inspire Your Child To Make Good Financial Decisions Through Life

April 14th, 2017 Posted in financial education, kids and money, teaching children about money, teaching kids about money
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Time spent educating children is time that is never wasted. Unfortunately, despite school teachers and the school faculties best intentions, it’s difficult to fit in every lesson at school that it takes to become a responsible, sensible person in later life . Kids have a lot to deal with, not only growing up and coming to terms with their identity, but also increasing levels of responsibility as the years pass on.

Filling your child’s head with knowledge is fantastic, and will surely help them in later life. But giving them guiding principles to live by through inspiration and demonstration is more valuable than anything you can tell your kids. So how do you kindle this burning fire of curiosity that children seem to so naturally emanate? Here is a list of 6 different methods you can use to not only teach your child or pupils positive life lessons, but to bond with them as well.

  1. Take an interest in them.

Kids are naturally attention hungry, especially from those they rely on. If you water them with this special ingredient of available openness, listen to what they’d like to achieve in life, and stimulate a few ideas based off of what they say, you can really open their mind from an incredibly young age.

For example, let’s say your daughter says she’d like to ride horses and play with ponies all day when she’s older. Perhaps you could suggest she’d like to be a vet, and help all animals who are poorly feel better! Or perhaps she’d like to open a sanctuary for horses and donkeys. Sit back and watch as her eyes widen with excitement. Keep this up and she’ll start believing she can do anything, which, of course is absolutely true.

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  1. Help them envision their future life.

Helping a child envision their future life is something that is immensely beneficial to opening up their horizons. Of course there’s no need to come to concrete answers, and this exercise should be fundamentally fun. However, sometimes it’s great to stimulate their imagination. For example, you could ask what sort of pets they’d like as an adult, what countries they’d like to visit, or you could go to a website like Pink Realty to give them an idea of the house he or she would like to throw family parties in one day.

  1. Show them the benefits of saving money.

Kids are impulsive, and most adults are too. It’s a good idea to show them, through subtle, unintrusive ways, the best way to manage money effectively. You don’t have to sit them down and teach them the finer methods of understanding balance sheets, but perhaps giving them a small allowance to earn (if old enough,) and letting them spend it once a month only will teach them the value of saving in order to acquire higher value items, or replacing items they didn’t think they lost. You can also tell them in a way that will make them proud of you how your savings have helped you pay for unexpected bills etc, and they will slowly (hopefully) start emulating your habits in their teenage and young adult years.

These three combined steps will not only help your child begin good habits in a way that will bring you closer together and give them a slight understanding of how you run your family, but they will desire to emulate you. Kids are impressionable, so make sure to use this to their advantage.

This will hopefully provide the correct attitude that will stop them making big mistakes in adulthood. You can be sure then that you’ve covered at least some of the bases your tough job of parenthood requires you to address.

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Unlock The Door To Financial Freedom

April 13th, 2017 Posted in learning about money
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Adult life will often take people by surprise. Most don’t expect to be thrown into a world of bills, debts, and other money problems. But, the world of finance is a cruel one. And, it doesn’t treat anyone kindly. This makes it extremely important to be prepared for unexpected issues and have the knowledge to set them right. Once you achieve this goal, you will reach a new level of financial freedom that you’ve yet to experience. To help you out, this post will be going through several areas of finance that every adult should consider. And, some ways that can be used to improve your current situation.

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  • Savings

The path to financial freedom starts by spending as little money as possible. Most people will get through a large chunk of their pay within the first few days of getting it. When you have money in the bank, it can be easy to feel like you don’t have to be careful. This will often lead to impulse buying, which isn’t good for anyone. So, when you first start budgeting; it’s important only to spend the money that you absolutely have to. If this means missing out on some luxuries for a while; that’s alright. You can use these items as motivation to get you through the saving. Thinking about what you miss will make it easier to drive yourself to success. The money that you save from this should be put away safely, though.

The money that you save won’t be much use while it’s sat in your account. And, you might find it hard to save without a goal to reach. It’s best to try and save enough money to cover at least three months of living. This will give you more than enough money to resolve most issues before they impact your life. And, this gives you a reasonable goal to reach. This money should be kept in an account that is designed to make a large amount of interest. Most banks will offer small savings accounts, which allow you to have access to your money instantly. These are perfect for most.

  • Debt

Some people will find that their issues are more than just a lack of money. A lot of people have debt to deal with. But, this sort of issue can be very hard to deal with. Thankfully, if you’ve followed the first step to save and put your money away; you’re already on track to start paying off your debt. If you can; you should aim to save alongside repayments. This will mean that you’re making progress in both areas. And, will help you to reach your goals faster, too. A lot of companies that offer loans will also offer you the chance to rework your repayments; if they’re too hard to make. This gives you the chance to get some help with your loan.

Throughout this stage, you have to be very attentive. It’s easy for money to disappear without a trace when you’re not watching it carefully. Money gets spent; then, you will forget about it. And, soon enough, this could make it impossible to pay back your loans. There are loads of tools that can be used to help you to monitor your money. Systems like Quickbooks give you a great chance to get control of your money. And, they’re not expensive to use. Along with this, it’s important to learn when is best to take a loan. A lot of people find themselves in a bad situation with debt because they have to get a loan in an emergency situation.

But, this nearly never has to be the case. If you monitor your money all the time; it will be hard for future issues to slip through the net. You will have a good idea of when you will need the money. Using this sort of practice will help you to predict how much money you will need long into the future. Instead of having to rely on getting money quickly and paying high-rates multiple times; you could get a larger loan to cover everything. Or, if you can see that your current debts are getting to a low enough level; you could consolidate them all into a bigger loan. Having your debts in one big loan will usually mean that you’re paying a lot less interest back. You will only ever have to pay money to one place. And, you will have the chance to spread the loan over a longer and more reasonable period. These are all great benefits to those in debt.

  • Income/Outgoings

There are other considerations that have to be made; when you’re working on your money. A lot of people don’t earn as much as they should for the work that they do. Thankfully, this is easy to check, too. Most countries will have resources available to help you find the average rate of pay for your position. If you’re paid less; you could talk to your employer about a raise. This might not work, though. In this case, it could be worth having a look at some similar jobs. You may find that you can get a very similar job in the area, with higher pay. This could make life much easier for you when it comes to sorting out your money.

To further help with your financial situation, you could also look into some other ways to make some money. Most people have skills or interests that can be translated into income. For example, you might really enjoy playing musical instruments and have the right skill level to teach them. In most places, you don’t need any specific licenses to sell this sort of trade. So, you’d be able to do it freely and easily. When looking for chances like this, it’s best to do loads of research. Most people will ignore most of the options in front of them. But, to get the best chance at making money; you have to take advantage of everything you can.

Sorting out your financial situation won’t be easy. But, likewise, living without enough money all the time will be very challenging. You have to consider which of these lives you’d prefer to lead. If you make a difference now; you’re much more likely to have a comfortable future. If you don’t, though; you’ll be happier now. But, life could get very hard later on.

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Your Guide To Purchasing And Moving Property

April 12th, 2017 Posted in Property Investment
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Moving home is a tough and complicated process – so when the time comes to move home, and your kids are demanding answers, it can be fairly easy to dumb down the process to buying and selling. We have this much money and bought this house is what you might say, and while it is true, it’s an extremely diluted process. While that knowledge is invaluable, any extra information that you can impart on your children will help them down the line – when the time comes for them to move home!

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The first thing to do when moving home is to complete the purchase of a new home. This is usually done through a mortgage – money borrowed from the bank to be paid back over the course of time specifically with the home in mind. In some cases, properties are bought outright, but a mortgage is most common. You need to work out what you can afford and a good way of estimating is basing money off of the mortgage deposit. Ten percent is the usual borrowing limit so $10,000 dollars will likely give you the ability to borrow up to $90,000. This means that $100,000 is your range for buying. This will differ from lender to lender. Once you know how much you can spend, you’ll need to locate the perfect property. This is easily done thanks to estate agents and real estate websites which afford the buyer an in-depth look at their new home. You can get a better look at a home by arranging a visit, or viewing. After one, or multiple viewing of various properties, you might have identified the perfect property. This is a stage where you can feel free to negotiate a price. You could possibly get the seller to drop their asking price slightly to either bring the property into your price range – or you could simply do this to save cash and increase the power of your deposit/down payment to reduce your monthly mortgage repayments.  There are a number of things you need to think about when negotiating a price on the home. If you low-ball the buyer, you might insult the seller and miss out on a good home that you’ve taken the time out to identify. Of course, you also don’t want to pay more than you need to. Thankfully, there is plenty of data on hand… Look at sales in the same area as the potential new home. Is your offer in line with these sales? Did these sales go for an amount lower than the actual asking price? If the mean price of homes in the area matches the asking price, you don’t want to dip down on the offer much at all. It also depends on the market; some areas get snapped up quick, others don’t. If you’re on a high-interest market, a strong offer is going to be needed if you don’t want to lose out, but you’ll have a lot more leeway in other markets. Finally, consider how long the home has been on the market. If it has been up for a while, you’ll have a better chance of a lower offer being accepted.

Once your offer has been accepted, this is where things get a little bit tricky. Contracts need to be signed, and you can be caught out here by the seller or their legal team. Contracts need to have clauses inserted which mean that you can back out of the sale if there are issues with the home. These issues can also be used to leverage a price reduction on the home. This is the time for you to pay for a professional home inspection which can bring defects in the home to light. A price reduction can be asked for upon discovery of issues, while major problems can be a total dealbreaker. Now is the time to find out. Once this stage is over, you can submit your final mortgage application, go over the costs of closing and then sign the contract. It goes without saying that this part of buying a home is full of legal lingo – and if you don’t understand anything you need to find a conveyancing solicitor who can help. This is worth doing anyway as these professionals can sort out a lot of issues to save you the stress of doing so.

The closing stage of purchasing a home isn’t just about signing on the dotted line though. Firstly, you need to make sure nothing has changed within the property since your inspection. Then, all the money needed for the purchase needs to be paid into the seller’s account. This is now a good time to review the paperwork that needs to be signed so that you can triple check every clause in the contracts. You need to work out how much you’ll be paying each money and agree on your final mortgage deal. At this point, you’ll know exactly what is expected of you by your lender and you can now sign on the dotted line. A move in date will be discussed and that’s it, you’re a home owner!

Moving in is a big deal, so get everything boxed up well in advance. It’ll be worth your time to organize a professional cleaning of your new home so it is perfect upon your arrival. You might have already organized some contracted renovation, so this might delay your true moving in date. In any case, get all your stuff packed up and ready to be moved into the home. Book a removal company well in advance of the moving date and pack up. If you’re selling your current home, do a top to bottom sweep and rid yourself of everything you don’t need while leaving a clean house behind you.

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That’s just about everything you need to know when moving home, it’s a complicated process and the more knowledgeable you are at the start, the better you’ll handle the inevitable curveballs that will come your way during the buying process.

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