October 15th 2010

Personal Finance & Personal Investing Tips



Once you have your personal finance house in order another area of finance, personal investing, looms as a challenge. How do you finance major goals like retirement? Personal investing is the answer, so here are some investing tips to help you avoid disaster.

Get your personal finance foundation on firm ground before rushing into personal investing in a big way. Poor credit and money management can force you into bankruptcy even if you have considerable assets. Scenario: You pay $1,000,000 for a house putting next to nothing down in 2006. The only real money you’ve saved has been in your 401k at work, which is 100% invested in stock funds and company stock. A few years later you lose your job as your employer falls upon bad times, the stock market falls like a rock, and your house is worth $700,000 if you’re lucky. Sound familiar?

If you can’t pay your bills you are technically insolvent. In the above case you go broke and end up with a lousy credit rating at the same time. The truth is that millions of Americans have invested in real estate they couldn’t afford and stocks investments they didn’t understand; and many paid dearly for their financial mistakes. Concentrate on personal finance first: your insurance needs, credit management, and a cash reserve to cover financial emergencies should be your first concern. The truth is that as long as you can stay current on your bills and you have an excellent credit rating, you’re still alive financially. Any weakness in the above personal finance areas makes you vulnerable to financial disaster.

Personal investing is the area of finance that puzzles many people, even some who are well off financially. After all, most folks work for a living and have no financial education, especially in the investment and investing arena. Stocks and bonds are not that difficult to understand, but without any financial education or background, they may as well be a foreign language. The best investment tip I can give an inexperienced or new investor is to start investing with mutual funds. These funds were designed for the investing public. They offer diversification and professional management at a reasonable cost. You can invest large or smaller amounts and have access to your money on any business day.

Now for some mutual fund investing tips. Different funds have different financial objectives, risks, and cost structures. Get your feet wet with the safest funds, money market funds. They pay interest in the form of dividends, their share price does not fluctuate, and the cost of investing is usually low. If you need some or all of your money back there is little chance of taking a loss. Once you have some money accumulated there start small in stock funds if you are younger, and bond funds if you are closer to or in retirement. Bond funds pay higher income in the form of dividends with moderate investment risk, while stock funds feature higher profit potential along with higher risk.

Mutual funds do the investment management for you. Your job is to pick the fund(s) that have the same financial objective(s) you do. The best funds in terms of the cost of investing are called no-load funds. They have no sales charges or commissions, and your total cost to invest can be less than 1% a year. If you’re ready to get into personal investing, look no further than mutual funds… the new investor’s best friend in my opinion.

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April 10th 2010

Going beyond cheap car insurance

Doesn’t it feel sometimes that when it comes to auto insurance it’s like playing the game no one tells you how to play it right and where the rules are written without your consent? Well, to ease the situation, here are some auto insurance rules most insurance companies won’t tell you about.

1. If your credit rating is good you will have better rates.

Most of the insurance providers, whether big or small, use credit information to determine the rates you will be charged with. That’s because numerous studies have shown that there’s a direct link between a person’s credit rating and the probability that the very same person would file an insurance claim. Those who have poor credit scores tend to file claims more often than drivers with good credit reports. And we know how insurance companies don’t like insurance claims.

Tip: If your credit report is not that good, don’t haste with buying auto insurance. First, make sure you have settled all your debts and closed unused credit lines. After doing this wait for a month and your rates will be much lower than you would expect.

2. The model of your car affects your premiums.

Insurance companies don’t disclose the exact methods they use to calculate their rates, but your car make and model certainly plays an important part in the equation. All insurance providers have charts on all car models and their respective insurance cost based on theft rates, repair costs and overall safety.

Tip: Try purchasing a car with reasonable repair costs, good safety scores and low theft rates in your area in the first place. This will always give you the chance of having cheap car insurance.

3. Bad driving means higher rates.

Most insurance companies will raise your rates up to 40% of the initial premium you’ve paid if you have a single at fault accident. However, not all companies follow this rule.

Tip: There are insurance providers that have higher tolerance for first-time accident drivers. So when you purchase your cheap auto insurance policy or ask the provider if they have such incentives and what are their rules.

4. If your friend borrows your car and ends up in an accident you will still have to pay higher premiums.

It doesn’t matter who was driving the car if it was with your own consent. It will be you who will file the claim and this will eventually lead to increase in your premiums.

Tip: In case you didn’t give consent on using your vehicle your friend will be liable for the accident. However, if he or she doesn’t have own insurance or the damage resulted exceeds the amount of coverage contained with his or her policy the other party may come to you in order to settle additional medical and repair costs.

5. Official cancellation is required when switching providers.

You are free to cancel your policy any time you feel the need to. All that is required is to inform your current provider in written form.

Tip: After you have searched for cheap auto insurance and chosen another provider you can simply contact your insurance agent and inform him that you want to cancel your current policy from a certain day. In most cases the company will send you a filled out form where only your signature will be required.

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November 9th 2009

Why Car Loan Refinancing Has Become More Popular?

Refinancing Loans

Have you ever thought about refinancing your current car loan? In the past few years, automotive refinancing has become more and more popular – especially as the interest rates that independent used car dealers and even new car dealerships charge continue to go up. There is something you can do about it. You can decide to stop these higher payments now and opt for car refinance to bring your payments down. After reading this article, you may be interested in automobile refinancing for a new car that you have just purchased recently, or auto refinance for a used car.

 

There a few reasons why someone may want to refinance their auto loan. First, depending on your financial situation when you first applied for a car loan, you may have taken a “no credit” or “bad credit” Car Financing at a very high interest rate. If you have made on-time payments since, and possibly have other good credit marks from other companies (credit cards, mortgage, utilities, and others that report to the three major credit agencies – Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian), then regardless of your previous bad credit history, an auto refinancing loan can probably get you a much lower rate than you are paying now. In this way, diligent payments and hard work to clean up or create a good credit history to start with will pay off by giving you a much more affordable payment now.

 

Another reason why some people may be in the market for car loan refinancing may be that they had made a mistake when purchasing their vehicle to start with. Maybe a high-pressure salesman put them in a new car that is far too expensive for their current income. (This can happen easily and it is why it is a good reason to have the car in mind that you want to buy before you go to the dealer’s lot.) Or, because of poor credit, an auto loan with a very high interest rate was given. Often dealerships will take advantage of people in these circumstances and try to give them the highest interest rate possible, sometimes more than 25%! As people are pressured to make a decision on the spot, many times they take the bad loan to be able to drive away immediately, only to be sorry after they see how much the high payments will really impact their lifestyle.

 

If someone has good credit and they are looking for the lowest rate, Car Financing is a simple matter. There are many companies to choose from and most can offer you a much lower rate than you are paying now. However, you absolutely can also refinance a car with poor credit. Auto refinance with bankruptcy or repossession, while it can be a challenge, is possible and there are many companies out there to work with. Online car refinance lenders are typically able to help most people out of their bad credit car loans and into an auto refinance loan that more adequately matches their needs.

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September 8th 2009

Where Can I Get My Free Credit Report and Other Questions Answered

Credit Reports


et your free online Experian Credit Report at the FreeCreditReport web site when you sign up for a free trial of Triple AdvantageSM Credit Monitoring. Simply fill out your information for identification purposes, answer a few questions and your credit report will be available to you on-line, in no time at all, once your identity has been confirmed.

Your Username and Password will enable you to view your credit report on some of these services for 30 days over the Internet in the most secure environment that they can provide. You will also have access to an array of benefits located in services like – My Credit Center.

Getting your free Credit Report and Credit Score is the first step in knowing your credit. Monitoring your credit report allows you to stay on top of your credit on a daily basis.

You should do this to take the guesswork out of what/\’s happening with your credit.

Your credit is one of your most important assets. Having good credit means you should have more options to borrow money at the lowest cost and from the best lenders. It also means that others who look at your credit such as landlords, insurance companies, or even prospective employers re less likely to turn you away or penalize you because you have poor credit.

Your personal credit report contains such information as your name, current and previous addresses, phone number, Social Security number, date of birth, and current and previous employers. Your spouse/\’s name may appear on your version of the credit report, but it will not appear on the version that is provided to others. This information comes from your credit applications, so its accuracy depends on your filling out the forms clearly, completely and consistently each time you apply for credit.

Creditreport.imess.net is worth a try. Many people say they have used it to monitor their credit and some have said that they also cleaned off some bad items from their credit report. You can apply for a free initial plan and get your scores and reports for free.

In all your thoughts about credit reporting do keep in mind there are 3 reporting agencies. If you keep track of when you pull each of the three then you can spread it out to one every 4 months. That would be ideal if you could do that.

Freecreditreport.com, Experian, Transunion, Equifax are all in it to make some money from providing these reports. So many people are asking where they can get a genuine free credit report without having to give up my credit card information and sign up for some monthly membership or a dumb “identity theft monitoring alert” service?

Unfortunately, in order to get your credit report a lot of the websites ask for your credit card information. They do that so when you sign up for a free trial if you don/\’t cancel within that time they can charge your account. Myfico.com is one of the best ones out there. I understand that users have reported that they signed up for there free 30 day trial and also cancelled it before the 30 days was up and indeed didn/\’t get charged anything.

What is a free credit report?

The answer lies in the last three words of your question and is self-explanatory. A free credit report is when a credit bureau provides an individual a copy of their credit report without a charge.

It/\’s exactly what it says it is. A free credit report.. in other words, you don/\’t have to pay for it.

Am I entitled for a free credit report?

I am not sure whether this is correct, but I have been told that residents of Colorado, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, and Vermont are entitled under state law to one free report per year from a credit reporting agency. If you are a resident of Georgia, you are even entitled to more reports at two each year.

This is very useful especially if you have been denied credit on the basis of information in a credit report.

Who is eligible?

I am not a legal expert but I did find a statement on the web that said that based on the Fair Credit Reporting Act, sections 612 (b), (c), and (d), you are entitled to one free credit report per year directly from a credit reporting agency only if you certify that you are unemployed and seeking employment in the next 60 days, you are receiving public assistance, or you believe there are inaccuracies in your report due to fraud or have been denied credit because of information on your credit report. To get your free credit report, go directly to a credit reporting bureau and have proof of the criteria that entitles you to receive your free credit report.

Information here should not be construed as advice and it is offered without legal responsibility or liability. It must be emphasised that you should consult a professionally qualified individual or company (such as an accountant, financial adviser or solicitor for example) should you need advice on your financial situation, as they will be able to tailor their advice to your situation accordingly.

Find out the true Free Credit Report Secrets and know more than 95% of the public about what the lenders know about you! Or, for something completely different visit our Dog Breeds web site.

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