Plan Ahead for Short Term Emergencies

An emergency may be unexpected, but it is not necessarily unforeseeable. If you’re not planning for life’s emergencies ahead of time, you may end up turning to short term loans as your only way to finance them. However, there are other ways to stash away emergency cash for when life hand’s you one of its little emergencies. Medical Expenses Health insurance is one way to plan for medical problems you can’t predict, but are due to happen. To plan even further to pay for co-pays and the deductible, you can also set up a flexible spending account with your company....

5 Things you Need to Know about Financial Spread Betting

Financial spreading is an area of interest to a lot of people, who are keen to increase their income by speculating on financial markets. However, many people lack the confidence that comes with understanding, to immerse themselves into this type of trading. Here we will take a look at 5 points that you should be aware of, in relation to financial spread betting. Hopefully, this will give you a greater knowledge of this practice, and maybe you will even invest to try and turn a profit. But before you do, read on. 1) You can trade tax-free If you gain...

Buying Property: Three Key Points to Remember

There are three key financial elements to remember when purchasing a property.  These are crucial, to ensure that investors get a property to suit their lifestyle, and something within their budget. The process of purchasing a home varies slightly, depending upon whether the investor lives in England and Wales or Scotland.  Borrowing Estimate  Before looking at property for sale at Zoopla.co.uk or similar sites, it’s important to speak with a mortgage advisor. They will calculate the size of the deposit, how much the investor earns and their credit rating.  Then work out a maximum loan amount.  Gone are the days...

529: It is never too early to start

With so many people I know having children, this question comes up a lot.  What is a smart investment that you can give a baby?  As a parent it is essential to start saving for your child at a very young age.  The power of compounding can work wonders! Today more than ever people are entering college to pursue advanced degrees.  I think setting up a 529 plan for your child is a great decision for their future.  Who knows what the future holds but you can be certain that saving for an education for them is a safe bet. ...

Gas prices got you down?

I was sitting there having a mind freeze on what to write and I looked over to my wife and asked her for a topic.  She said, “gas.”  Sitting there thinking that was out of left field, I pretended not to hear and said huh.  Gas prices, Ahh gotcha! Well if you haven’t noticed gas has been creeping up, it seems as though every time I drive past a gas station it is 10 cents higher than it was an hour ago.   I read an article the other day that crude prices over $100 a barrel are going to be...

National Financial Literacy Month: What it means to you!

What a great success the Roth IRA Movement was.  In a few days we are going to enter National Financial Literacy Month, what a great month to celebrate it, ohhhh the coincidence it also happens to be my birthday in April too!  National Financial Literacy Month came about in 2004 when the Senate passed Resolution 316 which officially recognized April as my birthday National Financial Literacy Month.  Originally started as youth financial literacy, it was realized that we all need to be well versed money and personal finance.  For my Canadian friends sorry we will have to wait until November...

Roth IRA March Madness Style!

Shhhhhhhh…..can you hear that….that’s right  baby it’s the Roth IRA Movement.  So here is how the movement got started; Jeff Rose went to speak at his alma mater and polled the soon-to-be graduating seniors, and not a single one of them raised their hand when he asked if they heard of the Roth IRA.  Here we are today a group of about 150 bloggers preaching to the nation and hoping they listen.  For my friends following along on twitter it’s: #RothIRAMovement In case you were one of the ones polled, here is what a Roth IRA is:  The Roth IRA...

The Best Financial Lesson I Ever Learned

The rule of thumb is that bonds are for retirees.  I am 35 years old and I love bonds.  When I was really young, I remember receiving savings bonds for my birthday.  I had no idea what they were at the time.  I was told by my father that they were going to be worth “a lot” of money some day.  Every year I would get these pieces of paper that were going to be worth “the number listed at the top left corner”. Fast forward to the 90’s and the Internet boom.  The Internet boom created a huge jump...

Congratulations: You won $1,000,000 you can claim today or in 5 years, which do you choose?

Sure we would all choose take it today, but there is a finance theory behind why you may want to take it today.  Ever heard of the expression a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow but less than a dollar yesterday.  Well if not, now you have today we look at the time value of money.  What the time value of money calculation and the principle means is that a dollar today is not equivalent in value to a dollar tomorrow or a dollar yesterday.   It is a very simple principle to understand, but can have big...

Week 5 Recap: A Month in and I am here to stay for the long haul!

Well here it is the Five For Friday.  Another week has come and gone and we continue to pump out the articles.  It has had its share of ups and downs over there past month and a half, from late nights to early mornings.  A lot of great comments and plenty of feedback received via email.  Thank you and keep those suggestions coming.  I really appreciate it.  Here is what I have been reading this past week that has really kept my interest and even provoked some commenting.  Homeownership may not be for everyone but here are some lessons learned. ...

Beta is not just your parent’s old videocassette recorder it is a financial ratio

What is beta? Why beta?  Well it is the volatility of the stock or portfolio to the market as a whole.  This conversation can get really deep really quick if we start discussing various financial models and the actual calculation of it using regression analysis.  If you would like to know more drop me a line and we can discuss more in depth. What can it really tell us about a stock or portfolio?  Well when you look at a stock that has a beta that has a beta of 1.0, this stock would typically move with the market.  What...

I’m a baller – I own rental furnished apartment properties

Well I am not new to the rental property thing but I will tell you how it all started.  It all started a few years ago about rental properties when we were looking to move out of our furnished apartment for rental because our landlord was driving us crazy.  We were aggressively scouring Craigslist to find an apartment.  Well we found an apartment, ground level which means no stairs! We decided to grab it as soon as we saw it; we definitely thought the rent was well below market value.  Come to find out the gentleman was getting ready to put...