FNTN

Archive for the ‘Finance’ Category

Introduction.

As the festive season draws to a close it’s time to start thinking about your New Year finances. That isn’t just about how you’re going to pay off any debts from Christmas – but how you’re going to keep yourself out of debt in the New Year. With job insecurity looking to be a cloud hanging over us all and, despite what the politicians may be saying, the recession still making tough times for everyone – it has never been more important than now to take control of your finances.

Control that credit score.

One of the most important things to do right now is to control your credit score. The lower your credit score the more you’ll have to pay in interest on any loans you take out. Despite what you might read in some finance articles – there’s no problem at all in taking out a new loan, providing you can repay it without any difficulty. The main reason most folk get into trouble when trying to repay a loan is not paying off the capital they borrowed – but paying off the interest. If your credit score is low you will pay high interest on new loans and might even have to apply for bad debt loan at a swingeing interest rate. Improving your credit score can be achieved by simple and small steps like making sure you always pay at least the minimum monthly dues on credit cards or current loans and mortgages.

Save for the future.

Saving for the future is also a great way to take control of your finances. If you can save money – you might not even need to take out a loan should the need arise. However, your saving plans should look further ahead than the next few months. Planning and saving now for your retirement will have a positive impact on your future wealth at retirement. If you’re not already enrolled in an employers 401(k) scheme – you’ll probably qualify for a Roth IRA, giving you tax deductible benefits. One thing to be careful of here though is using your pension savings to spend on anything at all. You must resist the temptation to use the pension fund as a piggy-bank, to be raided when you need to buy something. Think of your pension savings as being utterly out of reach and if you need something you haven’t got the cash for – then bite the bullet and take out a loan.

Introduction.

Everyone wants to save more money these days, but we’re not all that committed to actually giving anything up in order to make those savings. So, we hope you’ll find these easy savings tips helpful and that they will get you thinking about about other ways that you can save money – without compromising too much in your life style choices.

Your smart phone.

You know you’ve got to hand to those guys at Apple – they did a fantastic marketing job, making us all believe we couldn’t possibly survive without an iPhone. Don’t worry, we’re not suggesting you ditch your smart phone in favor of an old cell phone model – but you really should look at that top of the range iPhone contract you’re on. After all what do you use your smart phone for the most – Facebook, Twitter, email, messaging, calls … you know what guys – other smart phones do all that as well. Moving away from the iPhone could save you anything from $200 to $500 a year.

Avoid peak times.

Why do services cost so much more at peak times like weekday rush hour, or Saturday mornings? Simple, everyone wants to use that service at that time. So, another easy way to save money is to avoid doing things at peak times. OK, perhaps you can’t avoid traveling to work at peak times – but what about that gym membership that entitles you to use the gym after work and week-end mornings – the peak times. Simply by changing your gym membership to off-peak could save you another $50 a month or $600 a year!

Eat your way to savings.

We spend inordinate amounts of money on food a year. Just by making your own sandwich for lunch, rather than buying one from a deli, just once a week could save you $300 a year, take your own flask of coffee too and that could be well over $500 saved – just for doing it once a week, easy savings or what? Similarly cut down on the home orders, creating your own meals and meal plans is great fun and you can guarantee yourself to be eating more healthily. If you order even something like a couple of pizzas a week for home – that will be another $1000 a year you’re spending, cut it down to once a month and you’ve immediately saved nearly $750.

See how easy savings can be!

If you follow just the ideas we’ve listed above you will save yourself at least $1000 a year and could even save yourself up to $2000. Now that’s a lot of money – money you can then treat yourself with on something special.

Introduction.

If you haven’t got any debts to pay off – then lucky you, but the fact is that for the vast majority of Americans they have debts to pay off in the thousands of dollars. Those debts aren’t just for big sums like your mortgage but will include smaller credit card debts, personal loans and quite probably an auto loan too. Of course no one likes or wants to be in debt, so in order to really get stuck into debt reduction – what should your priorities be in paying off your debts?

What’s the most expensive debt?

You should really focus your attention on paying off the most expensive debt as quickly as possible. But what is the most expensive debt you have? If you have a mortgage you may well think that this is the most expensive debt as it will in all probability be for the greatest amount, almost certainly in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, as a mortgage is a long term debt, relative to other loans, it will, or at least should, have a much lower interest rate than a personal loan debt or your credit card debt etc. So, leaving aside your mortgage for the moment, your most expensive debt is the one that is costing you the most in monthly interest payments – and that’s the one to concentrate on reducing and paying off as quickly as possible.

Reducing massive debts.

Your ability to reduce your debt does, of course, depend on the amount of disposable income you have from your pay check. If you should have credit card, personal loan or auto loan debts in the $10,000s then rapidly paying off high interest loans may be beyond you. If you are in that position then you should look for online debt consolidation loans, which will bring all your debts in to one with a lower overall interest rate. As stated above – a mortgage is a massive debt and will, over the period of the mortgage be very expensive in the amount of interest you pay. If you feel you’re paying too much mortgage interest – look for online mortgage refinance deals to lower your mortgage interest.

Introduction.

All over the country at this time of year college graduation ceremonies are releasing thousands of former students into the real world of having to deal with their own finances – on their own! So, ahead of beginning that first job what graduate finance tips can we give them?

Student debt.

The first thing to get their heads around is the amount of student debt they have and how that will impact on their future spending and saving. Most students will have more than one student loan and clarifying exactly how much they owe in total is an essential step to take. Only then can they determine how much they’ll have left out of their monthly pay checks to live off. To keep track of all the student loans and their various repayment dates and amounts can be a complex business, so if they’re not very well organized a debt consolidation loan tailored to student debt might be worth considering.

Budgeting for the future.

To be able to cope with student debt means having a budget and sticking to it. Whatever your pay check will be always take out of it your student loan repayments, your rent and, if you have one, your auto loan. What’s left is then yours to spend – but, remember that putting money aside for utility bills, transport costs to and from work and food all come before deciding how much to spend on leisure activities. Being a graduate should mean that you’re able to negotiate a remuneration package that includes health insurance and a pension plan. If not – then you need to seek expert advice on saving for insurances and pension plans as soon as possible. The first few months out of college may well seem tough financially – but you’ve got the degree and so should, as you gain more work experience, quickly be able to increase your earnings and clear your debts.

Introduction.

Entering into the main summer vacation period for most Americans going abroad, it’s always a problem to know what to do for your vacation cash. Should you take a big thick role of notes with you, rely on your debit or credit cards for cash or take travelers checks? In actual fact the very best solution is to have a mix of those things available to you – and we hope you’ll find the following helpful in deciding exactly how to organize your vacation cash.

Cash in your clip or wallet.

Arriving at a foreign destination and assuming that you can pay for a taxi or the train fare to your hotel location in dollars can be a risky business. If you have to pay in the local currency you’ll be at the mercy of the airport bureau de changes and their foreign exchange rates (FX) and commission charges. So. it’s always a good idea to make sure you leave the USA with at least enough local currency to get you through the first couple of days. But, don’t just accept the FX that your High Street bank offers you. Check online for FX deals to convert your dollars to other currencies – many of which will get the foreign currency to you the following day.

Credit cards and debit cards.

Always useful in an emergency, there’s absolutely no reason at all why you shouldn’t use your credit or debit card abroad Taking cash out on a credit card card at home or abroad can be expensive, so if you want to draw cash in the local currency – best to use the debit card. However, using your credit card to pay for goods/ gifts whilst abroad can still make sense. You’re not spending the cash in your pocket and the credit card should give you some insurance should the gift be faulty or damaged.

Travelers checks.

Again, don’t just accept the travelers check offers from your local bank – look for online deals giving you a better FX rate and zero commissions. Also, remember fewer and fewer hotels cash travelers checks – which means going inside a bank in the country you’re visiting to cash them. Foreign banks operate differently to ours – and that’s not just to do with the language. For example, I speak Italian and love going to Italy but – Italian bank opening times and the routine you have to endure to get in to an Italian bank, just have to be experienced to be believed. So, if you need cash quickly, or even worse urgently, travelers checks are not always the answer.

Introduction.

Everyone is totally used to using their plastic to pay for things these days and for most of us using plastic means using a credit card rather than a debit card. Why do we prefer to use a credit card over a debit card - simple, because we can actually get more out of a using a credit card than a debit card. Just to prove the point let’s have a look at how we can set about making credit cards pay.

Credit cards and financial protection.

A major advantage of using a credit card to pay for something is the financial protection it will give you. The logo on your credit card is as good as taking out an insurance policy on your purchase every time you buy something. This protection covers you for fraud, if you can prove someone else made a purchase on your card without your permission, the theft and/or damage of your new goods, usually within the first thirty days of purchase and can even guarantee you a refund if you pay for something over the internet that never gets delivered.

Money for nothing.

Time after time you can read articles bemoaning the interest rates that credit cards charge. For sure, we should all look for the lowest interest rates possible on our credit cards and regularly pay off our credit card debts – but you know sometimes you can get some good out of your credit card by way of reduced costs and special offers. For example, if you rent a car and pay for it with your credit card the auto rental company will in all likelihood not charge you extra for the insurances. When booking a hotel they’re more likely to hold a room for you if you use a credit card and will certainly be more willing to bill you on departure rather than wanting payment in advance. Reclaiming flight expenses in the event a flight cancellation can be so much easier if you’ve booked with a credit card rather than a debit card and, if you’re abroad, getting cash out with your credit card can quite often be better for you when it comes to foreign exchange rates and expenses.

Introduction.

So convenient, so quick, so easy and so inexpensive compared to shopping on the High Street we all love shopping online. Whether it’s for something electronic like a new netbook or GPS unit, clothes, white goods, holidays or furniture – to name but a few of the things you can buy online – they’re all available and at great prices. The problem is that with most folk using their credit cards to pay for shopping online it can be all too easy to run up a large credit card debt. So what online shopping tips should you follow to keep your spending in check.

Delivery charges.

The one thing you can guarantee with online shopping is that you’ll always feel that you’re buying into special offers and great deals as the online stores don’t have the overheads of the High Street stores. So buying online should be a less expensive deal all round – but is it? If you’re being charged a small fortune in delivery charges then the saving you make on the item could quickly disappear. Don’t forget too that those delivery charges are all going on your credit card and that means even more credit card debt to pay interest on.

Card charges.

These can be a particular problem when buying things like theater tickets and flights, you go through the booking process, send your card details and then suddenly find that an extra $5 or $10 has been added to the bill as a debit or credit card charge. Which might not be a problem on the occasional purchase but you could soon end up with an extra $100 on your credit card – charged by the credit card company for the privilege of using their credit card!

Online reviews.

A sensible thing to do before buying something new online is, of course, to check what the online reviews are saying about the online store and the product you want to buy. However, be prepared to spend a few minutes thinking about exactly what the reviews are saying. If they’re full of comments that folk can leave without giving a name or just full of product plugs and over the top reviews – be wary, be very wary!

Introduction.

Here at FNTN we are as concerned as anyone else to help you avoid getting into credit card debt. However, for all the articles you can read on the internet regarding the potential pitfalls of having credit cards there are also times when you will appreciate the fact that there are actually advantages to using credit cards. So, let’s explore a one of the situations in which using your credit cards could actually be quite a sensible thing to do.

When financial emergencies arise.

These days, if you’re earning enough to cope with your normal monthly bills then you probably feel that you’re doing OK and are able to keep yourself out of debt. Which is fine until an emergency occurs that means you need to make a big cash outlay quickly to cope with something. Dependent on your monthly paycheck this could be something as relatively small as the wash-tub needing replacing through to needing to buy a new car due to an auto wreck or re-roofing your property after a storm. Sure, some of these things you might be able to claim for on insurances – but how long will it take to get the payment made to you? For anyone who is unable to save regularly to build up funds to cover such emergencies – using their credit card gives them immediate access to the cash they need, without having to organize a new personal loan.

Credit card virtue limits.

If you think using your credit card as an emergency cover fund will be a good idea you first of all need to set yourself a credit card limit for emergencies. How big should that notional fund be? Well the answer to that question is one that only you can determine, but we can offer some guidance here. First off, you need to know what the maximum is that you can draw on your credit card. It’s no use thinking you can use your credit card to cover a $10,000 emergency if your credit card limit is $5,000. Secondly, having decided how much emergency cover you might need – work out what the repayments will be and that you know you’ll be able to make the monthly repayments without getting into debt. Finally, if you’re in the habit of using credit cards, make sure you’ve one that has nothing owing on it – so you can max it out immediately if necessary.

Introduction.

You know – it’s not just taking out too many loans that can cause you to fall into debt, one of the quickest ways to fall into debt is quite simply not to manage your approach to financial matters effectively. So, what advice might help you in avoiding poor financial management so that you can either avoid debt or at least be able to quickly pay off any debts that you have accrued?

Debt – deal with it!

First off – those credit cards. If you seem to be paying a fortune every month and yet never see the capital owed reduce, then you should look online to transfer your credit card debts to cards with lower interest rates or, even better, ones offering 0% interest for 6 to 12 months. That really will let you attack the outstanding credit card debt. When it comes to personal loans, having multiple personal loans is a killer when it comes to good financial management. Look online for a debt consolidation loan that will bring all the outstanding debts into one loan, with one rate of interest, requiring you to make only one loan repayment a month. Regarding your mortgage, if you are in arrears with your mortgage payment, look online for a new mortgage deal that either extends the repayment period to reduce the monthly repayments and/or offers a lower rate of interest.

Plan ahead.

The first thing you must do is be prepared to accept that you have debt and it won’t magically go away. This is where financial planning really comes in to its own. Having begun to sort out your finances an unexpected expenditure can really throw your plans, say you need a new wash tub or tires for the car. To cover these eventualities you must start to save a little from your pay check each month, look for high interest savings accounts online. Ultimately, if you are in debt, good financial planning will also mean accepting that sometimes you just can’t afford somethings. So be prepared to accept that things like a new TV or cell phone,whilst the old one is still working, might just have to wait for a few more months.

Introduction.

Across the country countless millions of dollars worth of free and discounted goods and services are being lost simply because folk can’t be bothered to read what’s on a promotional discount coupon. You know what I mean don’t you, all those coupons in the paper and discount coupons that you’re given when paying at the store check-out – they all just go straight in the garbage without even being glanced at!

Too good to be true?

The reason we all discard these great offers to help us save money is we simply think there must be a catch to it. All they want is to get us into their store or business and then try and sell us something at the full or a higher price instead. Or perhaps they’re somehow going to defraud us. It’s interesting that we all will take notice of discount coupon offers from the big name and well known stores and services, but smaller ones we are more wary of. Well of course you need to be on guard against identity theft and having a regular credit score check will help you to avoid id theft, the fact remains that only a tiny, tiny, number of discount coupons are anything other than a company trying to help you save some cash off a product or service.

Start looking for local discount vouchers.

Do you want to know why so many local businesses send out discount coupons – it’s to try and get your business away form those big name operations whose discount coupons you will take notice of. So, if you see a discount coupon that’s not for Walmart, or Ford or Disneyland etc – then at least take the time to read it as it could be offering you a great deal on theater tickets, restaurant, teeth whitening … etc.  Don’t forget too that you can find loads of discount coupons on the internet to spend in both online stores and in the High Street. Online discount coupons are big business worth billions of dollars a year – the offers are out there waiting for you to save money on all sorts of products, so don’t let them pass you by.