Financial Future
It is true that he who fails to plan, has already planned to fail.Failure is a gradual thing as success or financial freedom does not just happen without planning for it.People that got rich legitimately continuously or consciously planned how to get there before getting there.Planning is one essential key to your becoming rich.Therefore success is not by chance but by choice.
Today is simply a result of the choice you made yesterday,and your tomorrow will be the result of the choice made today,therefore your financial future is the result of what choice you make about your money today.
Many people are suffering today financially because they failed to think and plan their financial future yesterday.Research reveals that 60% of home break-ups and divorce is due to financial problems.
Do you know that most stress is directly or indirectly related to money? Money problem or financial problem usually results in low self-esteem.It is obvious that money problems or financial problems are usually life-threatening,they can lead you to crime no matter what you profess to believe,it can affect your health,destroy your marriage and your sense of self-worth, so why not try to understand the road map to your financial freedom.
The way to financial freedom,if you desire it is as plain as the way to the market.Becoming financially successful has nothing to do with your age,race or location.The knowledge of how to be successful is more valuable than success itself.
Remember,if you don’t have a goal,you become a goat.Planning is the platform you use to process your thought to empower your progress in life.There are seven(7)basic secrets you must know about becoming financially independent.I will expatiate on these secrets in the next paragraphs.
Friends,God has not created you to suffer financially.Sit down and think; why are you not financially independent by now? Why are you not rich by now? It may be because you have not come across any of these secrets.Believe God for a change in your finances and he will give you a testimony.
(1)The Power Of The Mind
The first place to start your journey to financial freedom and then proceed to financial independence is in your MIND.Man’s greatest asset for wealth creation is his mind.The mind is the bedrock for an ideal life.The position of the world today is a product of some people’s mind.If you use your hands,you will feed yourself,but if you use your mind you will feed generations.Shout this
Online banking has quickly gone from just a novelty feature of brick and mortar banks to mainstream business as usual. Nearly every bank now offers some form of online banking with some banks existing primarily online only (such as ING Direct).
Many people used to paper checks, in person banking, and ATMs are often concerned about the security and accuracy of online banking. But online banking is actually a quite efficient way to manage your finances, pay bills, and get up the minute access to your spending habits and balances.
Benefits of online banking:
24/7 access: Except for occasional downtime to upgrade servers and sites, most customers using online banking having 24/7 access to their accounts. Some online banking sites even let users set up text and e-mail alerts about their account and some allow mobile access from cell phones.
Less fees: Since online banking allows you to check your balances and even debit card purchases and bill payments anytime, you can avoid costly overdraft and late fees by getting the latest information on your balances and accounts.
Payments: Many banks allow online banking customers to send bill payments right through the site. This can save time and money and ensure your bills are paid on time, every time.
Security: Online banking is often FDIC insured with the same standards as physical banking locations and the websites use high levels of encryption and security. Unlike physical banking, your account information is only seen by you and the bank’s system. This means your account numbers pass through far less people then paper checks and paper banking.
More money: As some banks begin to pop up as online only banks, the savings associated with not owning branches and a lot of staff gets passed on to you the customer in the form of higher interest earning accounts.
Saves paper: For all you environmentally friendly banking customers out there, online banking saves millions of pounds of paper a year.
Concerns with online banking:
Many people are concerned with identity theft and other security issues when banking online, especially since more and more people rely on online banking for everything from paying bills to seeing credit card statements.
To reduce security risks with online banking make sure the site uses encryption and secure site access (at the most basic you’ll see a little padlock icon in the bottom right of your browser indicating a secure server). Make sure the bank that runs the online access site is FDIC insured (for US customers).
Also make sure your computer is up to date and has it’s firewall enabled. You’ll want to make sure you have anti-virus software and the latest patches installed to greatly reduce the risk of programs like key-loggers recording and transmitting your passwords and account information to malicious third parties.
Be wary also of accessing your online bank accounts on unsecured wireless networks. While data encryption on financial sites is generally at the highest level of security, open wireless networks can still offer a chance for criminals to get some account information.
Overall, online banking is a great way to manage your money. You can even use free sites such as Mint.com to bring all your online financial accounts to one viewing site to organize, budget ,and see all your cash in and cash out.
Paper checks and physical bank branches will one day be a thing of the past I believe, online banking has gone well beyond the early stages where you might be able to log on and order some checks. Now most banks offer full feature secure websites to handle all of your financial life.
Have you ever gotten that dreaded letter from your bank saying that you have somehow overdrawn your account? You called up your friend who works at the bank, and after looking into the computers, he explains that there was indeed an accidental overdraft because a deposit was slow coming in, or a check came in a day early.
As an act of kindness and compassion, and due to your long-standing friendly relationship with the bank, your friend agrees that in this case, the bank will split the difference with you, and will waive half of the standard fee as long as you come down and cover the remainder of the overdrawn balance immediately. Sighing with relief, you agree and rush down to the bank, make the deposit and happy that you have dodged a financial bullet.
The next day, another overdraft notification arrives. This time, the notice states that several more checks have bounced, but once again were paid by the bank with the accompanying overdraft fees. You call up your friend at the bank again, and sure enough, he tells you that several other checks were charged against your account before your deposit was posted, and indeed, you now owe the bank several hundred dollars in overdraft fees.
He empathizes with your position, but now, there is nothing he can do to help. At least, he can do nothing unless you come down and sign up for some high interest overdraft protection account. If you sign up for a line-of-credit account, you will never again have an insufficient funds notice, but… you will also now be paying new monthly bank fees and charges.
Many people seem to forget when dealing with banks are that these friendly financial institutions are companies in business to make a profit. If you are a customer, then banks must be able to make your deposited moneys into a profitable asset for the corporation. If you are like many Americans, living paycheck-to-paycheck, you probably take advantage of one of the many ‘free’ checking accounts that has no minimum balance requirements. You earn no interest on your money deposited, but at least it doesn’t cost you anything. Or does it?
As a for-profit company, your bank has to have some way to turn your ‘free’ account into a profit. To do so, they design their system to ensure that at every possible chance, you are charged a fee. Whether this is a fee to withdraw money from an ATM (or even to check your balance at an ATM), a fee to ‘protect’ yourself from overdrafts, or by maximizing the fees
There is an interesting Catch 22 with the credit rating system. If you have always paid cash for your purchases, it would seem that your credit rating would be pristine. But in fact, you have no credit rating at all. In order to create a credit rating, you must borrow money.
You can gain a credit rating by making any kind of purchase on credit. If you make your payments regularly, you will have an excellent credit rating. Getting a credit card and using it is one way to build a positive credit rating. But if you need a good credit rating in order to get a credit card, you find yourself in a no-win situation.
Credit card companies want to give you a credit card but they are becoming more risk averse as more and more cardholders are failing to pay off their balances. To counter the high risk of giving a credit card to someone with no credit history, most companies will issue a special credit card that is completely safe from their point of view.
Essentially, they require that you pay a certain amount of money into a special account. This could be as little as $300. The card issued is only good up to this amount. Once you use up the money, you can deposit more money. The idea is that if you show responsible behavior under this no-risk situation, the company may eventually issue you a regular card with no need for a backup account.
When credit cards first became popular, companies would send them out without any customer request. I received two gas company cards in the mail before I had any kind of credit. Those days are over for good.
Once you get that first credit card, not backed by your own money, you need to be very aware of the dangers of credit card use. The first thing to notice, before you even accept a credit card, is the interest charged on your balance. If you’re wise, your card will be used as a convenience and you will pay off the balance every month.
Credit card interest rates are usually high, and they can change the rates at any time and for any reason. If you only pay the minimum amount, you will find yourself quickly falling behind. You must also be diligent in checking your statement to be sure you are not being improperly charged a late fee or charged for credit card protection you did not request. These are two common credit card scams.
A credit card is a great convenience when it is not abused. When you carry a balance on your card, you are essentially borrowing money. The interest can quickly put you in an uncomfortable financial position. Use credit responsibly and it can be a blessing. Otherwise, it is “user beware.”
Depending on how wealthy one is, who one’s financial planner is, and where one goes to find financial planning assistance can all affect what a financial planner does. Financial planners can include a wide range of professional, educational and experiential milieus. The advice received from different financial planners is likely to be slightly different depending on what financial products they are familiar with, their financial background, and how they perceive the client-planner relationship. The best financial planning services may include, but not be limited to all the following attributes, however this is not to say that all financial planners with such attributes may be the most suitable financial planners for all financial planning scenarios.
*Affordable costs
*Comprehensive, ethical, and well communicated advice
*Broad range of financial product recommendations
*Life stage and life goal specific assistance
*Detailed and skilled financial tactics and strategies
*Certification and/or licensed in a particular area of expertise
FINANCIAL PLANNING ILLUSTRATION:
Sometimes a financial planner can help one not make a bad financial decision. For example, before cashing out a large sum of retirement funds to invest in a condominium, consider the tax consequences of withdrawing such a large sum of money on annual income. If the retirement funds withdrew are $250,000.00 and the retiree was in the 25% tax bracket the year before, that individuals income for the year could quite possibly rise into the 35% tax bracket making the tax on the retirement funds $25,000. Good financial planners can help with decisions like these to avoid unnecessary costs and consequences of financial decisions.
In addition to assisting with costs and consequences of financial decisions, a financial planner can help one achieve one’s own financial goals. That is to say, the interest of the client should be more important than whatever financial products the financial planner may be trying to sell. Some financial planners may not sell any products and simply help one re-organize one’s finances for improved cost savings, greater income retention, wealth creation, retirement planning etc. A few of the key areas a well-rounded financial planner may be able to help with are the following:
*Retirement Planning
*Wealth Building
*Budget planning
*Cost management
*Insurance needs
*Taxation issues
TYPES OF FINANCIAL PLANNERS:
As noted above, many types of financial planners exist,
Every person that attempts their own financial management will experience some level of risk when trying plan their financial future. Financial stability can become uncertain from year to year and the many things that play into these fluctuations can make it difficult to predict how stable the financial future will be. In many cases, situations that are beyond the person’s control can create chaos to the person’s financial planning, such as death, illness, or the loss of a job. Sometimes, predictable events can greatly affect one’s personal financial situation because the person failed to take into account just how much the event will end up costing them. Reviewing the events that could have an affect on your financial situation and adapting your finances prior to these events occurring can help you effectively manage any risks you may be taking with your financial future.
Allowing for a small amount of risk when planning for your financial future is not always a bad thing. Assuming some risk with your finances can actually help them quickly grow, such as investing in stocks in the stock market. The trick is to know when to hold on to assets and when to get rid of them to reduce the impact on your account balances. The most difficult thing is learning how to manage the risk that you take. A few mistakes may be made in the quest for a person to gain the experience needed to manage risk effectively, but knowing some of the pitfalls ahead of time can prevent you from making a major mistake.
Limiting The Risk
Most of the time, when financial mistakes are made, a person will find themselves facing a large deficit. The wrong thing to do at this point is invite more risk to recoup any losses the person has realized. This may result in the person facing even greater losses than they were exposed to before they doubled down on the amount of financial risk they were taking. The most appropriate action would be to accept the loss as a learning experience, then find ways to reduce your exposure until your financial stability returns to its previous level.
Any major financial decision should be well researched before any decision is made in order to successfully manage your financial risk. Before buying a stock or making a major purchase, research the company itself rather than listening to what is telling you about those particular stocks. Stocks can rise very quickly and can fall just as fast, taking your finances down with it if you have invested heavily in a particular company. Take the time to look at the positives and negatives of each financial decision to greatly reduce your exposure to risk in your financial future and increase your ability capitalize on good opportunities.
I’ve stopped watching the news.
That’s right, I haven’t watched the news for at least a week. At first it was hard – especially at breakfast, when the staple television program was the Today Show’, Good Morning America’ or, in the case of my father, Bloomberg Business News’. It was hard not to be caught up on all the madness around the nation, much less the world.
When you begin to look at the television programs that have showcased themselves as news broadcasts’, one seems to find that they look less and less like informational presentations and more like entertainment shows for the masses. With local news becoming available at least 9-10 hours a day, and 24-hour-news channels cropping up all over cable and satellite networks, the media looks to be saturating the market and the masses with non-stop transmission of information.
Can you say information overload’?
However important it may be, the facts and figures we get 24 hours a day, seven days a week are not as important as what is going on in our own lives. Yet for most of us, going without watching the news is like going without television – why watch if you’re not wanting to stay current on the issues of the day?
Of course, the news wouldn’t be so divisive if it weren’t transmitting what some call depressive reports and stories. Some even go so far as to say that the media has some sort of bias that turns the bulk of the reporters to pessimistic beats.
However, the reason why the news is never good is not about a reporter’s bias, or about the tone of the news broad casted throughout the air. The problem lies not only in ourselves, but in our elected officials, network CEOs, and prominent celebrities, artists and entrepreneurs.
Think for a second; what is the news, anyway? When you realize just what the news is, and who does (and doesn’t) run it, you begin to understand the critical underpinnings that shape and mold the news features showing today. Without viewers, the news would not exist – and neither would their advertisements. In order to pull a large audience, the news of today has to adapt to the changing marketplace of cable and satellite TV – intense graphics, forceful background music and multiple visualizations on-screen are all part of a concentrated campaign to attract more younger, diverse viewers.
Of course, all one has to do is recall the saying of old when it comes to news broadcasts –
“If it bleeds, it leads.”
This is truer among larger national news networks, of whom small, pointless idyllic stories that balance out the grim, horrendous headliners just don’t seem to make the cut when it comes to prime-time. Only on a slow news day do we hear what some people would call “good news” from these channels.
Let’s also look at the society we live in. If the world were full of good news and good events, that’s probably what would be covered. Bad news is cheap, easy, and attracts more attention among our society than good news.
Until we find a way around this, the news will ultimately be “Murphy’s Law”; whatever it is, it’s sure to be bad.
With all the attention online banking has received in the last couple of years, it seems there are new online banks popping up everywhere. Users are choosing online banking for its ease and convenience. And while issues of identity theft are important factors to consider with online banking, it has not stopped people from utilizing the Web to streamline their finances.
Even more importantly, recent studies suggest that Internet banking doesn’t just make life easier, customers who choose it seem to be more satisfied with their bank. The two areas of greatest satisfaction fall in the categories of the convenience online banking provides and the ability to pay bills online. One recent industry report indicated that satisfaction with online banking services is up 5.5 percent. The report also shows that users who pay their bills online experience not only satisfaction with the ability to bank online, but with their specific banking institution, suggesting users have strong confidence in their bank’s ability to secure identity. In fact, similar reports have also shown that those who pay bills online retain their business longer at a particular bank than those who do not use a bank’s online service.
As a result, banks are seeing tremendous growth in online service. One major commercial bank cited that in 2004, there were 3.4 million customers paying bills online, followed by an increase to 6 million online bill payers just a year later. Many bankers believe those kinds of increases are the result of services such as online bill pay that customers find most appealing.
Many first-time users come to online banking to access their account information such as account balances and check activity. That is followed by the ability to transfer funds between accounts. And finally, many users then move into online bill pay. Perhaps they start with paying a few utilities online at the utility’s website. They may then look into the online bill pay service offered by their bank. Now, banks are seeing more and more users receiving bills electronically.
Yet for some bank customers, concerns about identity theft keep them from trying online banking. Interestingly, their counterparts who do use the Internet to conduct banking do not seem to hold those same perceptions. Most are satisfied with the level of online security offered by their banks. The challenge then for banks lies in the continued education of their customers to try online banking and discover for themselves the high level of security in place at most banks. Once those customers give online banking a try, perceptions of risk seem to decrease, reports indicate. Surprisingly, these same reports discovered that today’s security measures put in place by PC users and banks have many ID thieves targeting potential victims offline.
The following are a few tips to consider when choosing an Internet bank account:
1. The Annual Percentage Yield (APR) may be higher with Internet bank accounts, and therefore one of the most important attractions for those looking for a high yield. Conducting transactions online may save the bank money, and those savings may then be passed on to the online customer, most often in the form of higher savings rates.
2. Ability to access money. Online users need to consider what steps are involved in accessing their money in an online account.
3. Ability to link accounts. Users want the ability to link various accounts to one another, making it easy to move money seamlessly between online bank accounts.
4. What types of additional services are available? Potential users should be interested in not only banking online, but purchasing CDs, applying for a mortgage, and paying bills online.
5. Security. Users must confirm that their online bank is FDIC insured and that the security system can be trusted.
6. Ability to set up automatic savings account. There’s no reason not to save today with an online account that electronically deposits money into a savings or money market account.
January 24th, 2010 in
banking |
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So, you have planned to avail a credit card. No doubt, it is a good decision. With a credit card, you will get a proper monetary back up. But in case if you want to avail a credit card that will suit your requirement, a bit research for credit card deal will assist you a lot. In order to get a number of credit cards deals, you can apply for various banks, credit card agencies etc.
What do you do with credit card deals? It will assist you in finding the right credit card. How? These are mentioned briefly:
•Comparing various credit card deals will help you get the right credit card. Credit cards are of different types and each type has a distinct feature. If you are in search of a suitable credit card, comparing various credit card deals will pave your way. Check various rates, facilities, perks and advantages of these credit card deals. Ultimately, it will assist you in finding your desirable credit card.
•While comparing various credit card deals, verify the APR of various deals. Based on the APR or annual percentage rate, the interest rate on your credit card balance will be decided. So, find out which deal offers a credit card at a lower APR.
•Reward program will be considered as well during the comparison. Though most of the rewards programs are little bit same, but usually it varies from deal to deal. While checking various loan quotes, check which program is more profitable for you.
•Annual fees of various credit card deals are also a vital consideration in the comparing process. Like, reward programs, it also varies from deal to deal. Try to find out a deal that is free from any monthly or annual fees. In such cases, if you do not use your card much, you need not spend anything for the card.
•In case of staying away from any sort of hidden cost, comparison of various credit card deals works well. It will enrich your knowledge about APR, reward program and perks of a credit card. So, you can easily make out if any hidden cost is charged on the card.
Finding credit card deals is not so tough. As it is said before, you will get it from various credit rating companies, banks etc. If you are short of time, you can opt for the online option, which is easy and less time consuming.
Various credit card deals can be your true assistance, if you are in search of a credit card. Such deals will help you to grab the credit card that would be just perfect for you.
January 24th, 2010 in
finance |
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The meaning of investment banking is not the financial investment in the banking sector. But in fact, investment banking is a kind of banking function which is used to help clients in creating wealth and funds. The commercial banks use this type of banking in accord with sensible and practical use of the available resources. Not only this, investment banking and people engaged in this sector also provides advice on how to transact in business they are currently in.
Through investment banking, companies can create funds in two ways. They can either draw on public funds from capital market by releasing the stock i.e. corporate finance or they can go to venture capitalists or private equities to become share holders in their company. The field of investment banking is also engaged in giving advice and consultation on how to manage various takeovers and merging i.e. [M&A] merger and acquisitions. They also provide companies with ideas on how to declare public offerings and manage their talents. The handling of mergers and acquisitions come under the corporate finance function of the investment banking. The margin between investment banking and other forms of banking has been very unclear for a long time now and for the same time; the function of this banking sector has grown to covering every field of wealth management process of corporate as well as individual persons.
Corporate Finance: this is the sector where investment banking works and supports companies the most in getting extra money. Lets take an example that a company needs more money to finance the market research of a product to-be launched to stay forward in competition. Here, investment banking can help you by getting your company’s shares sold and raising funds for you. The other way, how an investment bank can get you money is by trading in stocks on behalf of their clients.
[M&A] Merger and Acquisitions: this point doesn’t have any explanation and it can be defined only through an example. Let’s take an example of a company who is going strong in business and market and wish to buy another company just to add more authority to their name and business. Professionals from investment banking sector makes them realize that on merging; both these companies can be a great group and can acquire major part of the market and also the business. They also tell them what are the other benefits of getting merged and also what is the right time according to market conditions for both the companies to get merged into each other.
Among other important functions that investment banking sector performs, sales is the most important one. Sales persons from investment banking sector performs the tasks of a professional sales person. These sales people convince investors and develop relationships with them to sell their stock. They are also ready to provide advice relating to stocks and trading. This advice makes buying and selling of stocks and other business transactions very easy. Research programmers are present to analyze the working and if some shortcoming is seen, they also help by suggesting them the right time to transact in stocks.
January 23rd, 2010 in
banking |
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