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9/15/2009

Helping Your Partner Cope With Debts

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how to make a debt does not become a couple problem

If you love the person contracted a debt can be generated a situation of conflict between couples, but also represent an opportunity to strengthen it.

Some tips to transform a potential crisis into an opportunity:

1 - The main thing is to offer your help to pay the debt (but not necessarily offering money).

2 - Then, make sure he or she wants their help.

3 - Develop a plan together to see how they can do to alleviate it. Can either one-or two-take a loan, get a second job, cut spending?

4 - Discuss with your partner politely what everyone can do to help pay that debt.

5 - Give your partner with money you can save each to deal with that debt.

6 - If she or he has a plan, reassure to do it.

7 - Consider a prenuptial agreement if the debt is for another previous marriage and you have substantial assets at stake.

8 - Support efforts by a partner service that debt, and evaluate ways to reduce costs of both.

9 - If the debt is causing relationship problems, please consult a professional to help them out of the "conflict zone".
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9/10/2009

Do You Really Need to Buy A New Car?

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I have notice that keep on changing new car has become a trend of today’s life in city. People keep on switching to new car for no reason. It seems like car has become a way for people to express and show their status. Every year there are so many new car models coming up. So they keep on changing the car whenever they saw some new models that they like.

I had even heard people saying this: ‘Since I need to pay for my installment every month, then why don’t I switch to a better new car?’ It seems like paying car installment has become part of people’s routine life where if they don’t pay for the installment, they don’t know what to do with the money. Maybe people have forgot that they don’t have to pay for car installment if they don’t want to.

I know that I may offend a lot of people by saying that buying a new car is not necessary. However what I am saying is not that you cannot buy a new car. But when you wanted to buy a new car, think about why do you want to buy it. Is it neccesary? Do you want to buy it because you need it? Or you want to buy it simply because you wanted to show off to people that you are rich. Do you buy the car to boost up your ego?

For me, I only buy a car when it is needed. When I say needed, I mean that I really need the car. Not for no reason, not for showing off purpose. If my house is located at an area where I have no access to public transports, then I will consider to buy a car. If my old car has too many problems, then I will consider to switch to a new car.

Currently I have a car of 5++ years old. I have no intention to change a new car right now as my current car is still in good condition. I plan to use the car for at least 10 years if the conditions are ok. Actually the car is currently used by my wife to drive to work. For myself I am actually taking public transport (LRT). I have no intention to buy a second car although there is no problem in getting one financially.

With this I can save at least RM1000 per month. I would rather leverage this RM1000 per month for other purpose for example paying extra for my house loan. This way I can finish my house loan faster and reduce the interest. Why do I want to increase my expense to somewhere that I don’t really need. I can even use the extra money to do some investment. This will improve my financial situation.


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9/07/2009

Credit Card Debt and Interest

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Debt, especially credit card debt can accumulate very fast and many people soon find themselves barely able to even make the minimum payments. Remember if you are late on only one payment, your rate could increase drastically.

Credit card debt is one of the leading cause for needing to file for bankruptcy or take out mortgage loans on your home or other drastic measures. Studies indicate that credit card debt is slowly making a consumers financial situation bad or worse than ever before, and can also cause psychological depression and contribute to lower GPA's and increased substance abuse among college students. Credit card debt can build up quickly, especially if you have more than one card and a habit of charging everything.

Interest

The interest is the money paid on a balance to a lender by the borrower, which is to be paid every month, if you roll over your balance from month to month. Interest doesn't usually go down on its own, and when only minimum payments are made your balance can grow to un-manageable amounts. If you are late on a payment your interest rates can increase to 35 percent, making it very hard to pay off balances. With interest rates still on the rise, there's no better time to take a good close look at your finances.

Payment

Debt, especially credit card debt can accumulate very fast and many people soon find themselves barely able to even make the minimum payments. Remember if you are late on only one payment, your rate could increase drastically. If you are not good at remembering payments, it's wise to set up direct debits to pay your credit card bills. It's always best to control your spending and try to pay more than the required minimum payment whenever possible.

The main problem with credit cards is that they make it very easy for you to spend money. The most important step take to reduce credit card debt is to not use your credit card for every little thing, use cash whenever possible. Studies show credit card debt is higher for males than female debtors, and even higher for joint accounts. The problem with carrying credit card debt is that the interest on the card will typically accrue much quicker when you only make minimum payments.
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9/04/2009

6 Keys to Buy Intelligent

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Now that the marks, credit cards and banks began the battle by launching various promotions every day of the week as a way to dodge the crisis, it also increases our anxiety to seize them. To avoid being caught in the middle of the fight or drown in a sea of glass, prices and products, there are some suggestions that ours is a happy shopping experience.


* Master your impulses. Do not go running to be the first to buy "that new outfit" that have recently started to offer local outlets. Take a break to decide if it is a priority purchase. Remember that in difficult times, it comes to saving and not add an extra expense to our ailing economy.

* Do not be innocent. Do not believe everything they say. Dude even the "offers-more-than-incredible" because they are just that, very credible. Many times these promises are conditional ridiculous. If you're tempted, do not dawdle. First read the fine print of ads and then re-think whether it is a fad or if you really need.

* Do not be influenced. This price war is a fatal attraction for "serial buyers" who, being in line to cash, if they see a product at a discount to hand carry it on impulse. It is proved that there are certain behaviors that allow trained salespeople know what potential client will make a compulsory purchase. Having self-control and be inflexible, is the watchword to prevent attempt to "sell" a combo that is not interested or is not safe to give a functional use.

* Concentrate on the details. Terminations and the type of materials determine the quality of a product, and not always guarantee it known brands (especially now, that make what little they get in a recessionary market). The price reduction should not mean a decline in quality. To save and make a difference in outlets or wherever, buy durable goods.


* Be selective. Promotions are an opportunity to invest in their image or that of your house and not to "spend" the first thing offered. Maximum rule applies: less is more. More quality, more durable.

* Be realistic. It is important to know, beforehand, your budget and what you get with that amount. Do not overdo the belief that their problems will disappear, magically, to use one or another credit card or have given product label. You have the power to say yes or no when it comes to your money.


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9/02/2009

10 Quick Tips To Save Money

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Money, according to a classical definition, is what money does. And truth, as they say, is like a rubber band. Stretch it and it can do wonders. So if we can really make money in order to do whatever we want, there is nothing like that.


To provide 10 quick tips to save money is almost like a first-aid approach to a very intricate problem perhaps faced by almost each of us. It is important to know how to manage money efficiently to ensure bulky savings. Whether to save some part of what we have to spend or whether to spend at all on a service or commodity should be the first question to be answered.


Firstly in case of large investments, the first step for a prospective buyer is to identify and correlate the valuable item or service with need or desire. It is better to test its utility first, for example, by borrowing it for a fixed time period. If you are satisfied and convinced about its necessity and think that you really need that, you may buy it. But to save money, you as a wise consumer must find the best seller in terms of comparative pricing, quality & market reputation.


For lower priced items, one has to shop for the lowest prices, also keeping an eye on the quality aspect. For example, if you take the instance of buying clothes, the best purchase is off-season discount sale, wherein you can get good clothes at cheap rates.


For financial investments, like the stock market, follow the golden rule of buying volatile stocks when the price of an item is down & sell it when it is at a high. The profit thus earned can be invested in the equity market for steady items.


Today's Internet has provided the best opportunities to shop vigorously for the best price before you actually drop the money. Especially for insurance, loan facilities and financial management, one is spoilt for choices. Proper analysis of rates and amortization goes a long way in saving even hundreds of dollars in a year.


Change of plan in case of services like telephone, insurance, etc. can save you costly dollars provided you simply have the knowledge about the best existing plan.


Making a monthly budget for buying the essential items and regulating the number of luxury items can yield considerable savings.


Expensive weekends and extravagant outings should be replaced by reasonable excursion for wholesale entertainment.


Proper food planning and food habits result in better living, both financially and mentally. Stay healthy and you can save on medical bills. Having a proper food plan also prevents food from being wasted.


Paying the bills within due dates provides invaluable savings, because, in this case, as you have to pay, it is better to pay in time to avoid penalty.


If you are an employer, you should encourage flexible job responsibilities for your task force, making each one compatible with the work within a department. This will help in cutting down employees cost and help complete a task within time, even if someone is absent.


There are obviously several other ways to save money and lead a frugal life without tension. It is always told that money saved is money earned. Just keep it in mind and stay happy.

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8/18/2009

How To Pick A Profitable Mutual Fund

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We have all heard the advantages of investing in a mutual fund over trying to pick individual stocks. First of all mutual funds hire professional analysts that are market experts and devout many hours of study to the various stocks. Unless you want to devout a large portion of your free time to the study of the financial reports, you probably won’t have as much information to make a decision as a mutual fund manager.

Then there is the well documented advantage of diversification. Risk is reduced by holding several non correlated investments. Put simply, some go up, some go down and combined, the return levels off the fluctuations, or risk.

Finally, a mutual fund offers smaller investors a chance to invest in small increments rather than having to save a large chunk of cash to purchase 100 shares of stock.

Given the above advantages, it’s no wonder that mutual funds have become a very popular form of investing. Now there are thousands of mutual funds to choose from, so how does one make a selection? Here are a few tips:

1. Do not be seduced to jump on the recently performing best fund. It may seem like the safe and rational thing to do, but like individual stocks, you want to buy low and sell high, not buy high and pray for more growth.

2. Even good funds may not be able to overcome the force of the overall market. You should be looking for funds that can exceed the broad market without increasing risk. Each fund has certain risk parameters that it is required to follow. Read the prospectus closely to understand what these are.

3. Limit the number of funds that you own. Unless you are trying to simply achieve the same returns as the broad market, diversifying into many mutual funds will not reduce your risk or increase your return by much.

4. Funds that become too popular and too big tend to slip in performance. There are several reasons for this.

Find more valuable mutual fund resources at www.best-mutual-fund.info

One final point to keep in mind is that the type of fund will totally depend on your investment objectives. There are certain funds that are designed for your objectives be they retirement, income, growth, funding the kids college, etc.
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8/16/2009

5 Simple Ways To Lower Your Monthly Bills

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Here you're going to learn several ways to save money every month by lowering your monthly bills.

There are lots of ways to save money, no matter how much of it you have - or don't have!

Having struggled for many years paying my own bills, I learned many ways to save money. From simple things like food, gas, and clothing, to bigger expenses, like insurance and your mortgage.

All you need to know is where to look to find the savings.

Several Ways To Save Money

The first thing you need to do is eliminate ALL of your unnecessary expenses:

• eating out on the weekends
• buying lunch at work every day
• magazine and newspaper subscriptions (especially those you can get online and at the local library)
• cable TV (you'd be amazed at how many other ways you'll find to spend your time once you get rid of cable TV)
• groceries (you can save lots of money with coupons and specials.)

It's OK to reward yourself once in a while, but if you are really looking to get out of debt faster, you owe it to yourself to save every single penny you can!

To find other ways to reduce your expenses, take a close look at your checkbook and credit card statements. You should also call your credit card companies to see if they will lower your interest rates, even if it is only for a short time.

You'll be amazed at how many ways you can save money, especially once you start looking carefully at how you spend your money every month.

Shop Around For The Lowest Prices

For those expenses you can't eliminate, it's time to start shopping around for the best prices.

Once I realized you can shop around for just about ANYTHING you spend money on every month, I learned how to save myself SEVERAL HUNDRED DOLLARS each and every month!

In fact, by shopping around I ended up saving myself more than $750 a year on car insurance alone!

The same is true of many of your monthly expenses - like long distance telephone service, internet service, all types of insurance, mortgages, and in some places even your utility bills.

It DOESN'T take any special skills. All it takes is a few clicks and you can save yourself a bunch of money in no time at all!

So, if you’d like to save yourself lots of money every month - and who doesn’t - start shopping around and looking for ways to lower your monthly bills right away!
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