Money Forecast: Six Budget Steps That Will Be Useful Year-Round

In these tough economic times, it is more important than ever to make sure that you have budgeting skills. The ability to keep a good budget is the first step on the road to financial health. Here are six tips you can use year-round to keep your budget on track.

Sit Down and Do the Math

The only way to keep a budget is to create a budget. To do this, you need to add up all of your income. Next, add up all of your monthly expenses. Subtract the expenses from your income. The remainder is the money that you can use for optional things like entertainment. Although this step seems easy, if you are not in the habit of doing this it is easy to overspend in small areas that don't seem to make an impact. However, if we are looking at the overall year, small purchases can begin to grow overtime.
Know Your Expenses

Many people do not really know their expenses, which throws the math off on their budgets. If this sounds like you, then you should carry around something to add up your money whenever you spend it. If you do this for one month, then you will know exactly how much you spent that month. Knowing this will make it much easier to set your budget.

Use Computer Budgeting Software

Don’t make it hard on yourself to keep a budget. If you use a budgeting software program like Quicken, it will save you’re a lot of headaches and make it a breeze to keep track of your budget. This will help you get a visual of where your money is going and how you can cut back.

Stop Eating Out

One of the biggest spending leaks people have in their budgets is eating out way too much. If you are guilty of this, try making your lunch at home. Skipping paying for lunch from a restaurant everyday will save you a ton of money.

Protect What You Have

Unexpected expenses can ruin your carefully planned budget. Make sure to avoid this disaster by protecting yourself with insurance. This will prevent you from destroying your budget when the unexpected occurs. Also, be sure to check out home security system to protect your valuables at home. The security will then provide a discount from the insurance companies because you are more likely to be covered during a natural occurrence or a theft, making sure you are covered from every angle.

Treat Yourself

Part of that budget you drew up should include savings, and a portion of that savings should go to buy you something big you want. It could be a car, trip or any other big thing you crave. You need this type of positive reinforcement to keep you on track with your budgeting.

If you follow these six tips, you will find it easy to keep your budget all year. Take it step-by-step and always look for ways to improve your budgeting. The rewards of fiscal responsibility are wonderful.

Best Tips For Becoming Financially Ready For Retirement

Entering retirement phase of life used to be a matter of age, and most people have a defined retirement benefit plan offered through their employer, once you reach a specific age, you can retire and start receiving those benefits. Even if you plan to rely on social security as your main source of income for your retirement expenses, most people retiring need to have a plan in place for their finances in case anything happens.

Today, the issue of retiring is much less dependent on the person’s age, than it is based on how much money they have saved up for their retirement. Because of the major decline in employer-sponsored retirement plans and the rise in 401(k)s and IRAs, planning to successfully retire becomes a priority. Below are some great tips to make sure you are financially ready to retire.

Planning Where You Will Live

Several retirees in past generations would move from their family homes in the Northwest or Midwest to live in the sunnier states of California, Arizona, and Florida to escape the cold. Today, many find they can make their retirement savings last a lot longer by moving to other states when they retire. Find a place that lets you do what you love, while still offering good retirement plans and standard of living.

Retirement Plan

It’s important you have an organized plan for how you will put money away for your retirement, and to implement that plan as soon as possible. Estimates are that more than one-quarter of the people working in the United States have under $1,000 in their savings account – including funds for retirement. It will probably be a long time before these people can financially afford to retire. Build a retirement plan early in life, and implement it as soon as possible.

Financial Obligations

Unfortunately, not everyone goes into their retirement years with no debt. Instead, many still have mortgages on their residence, co-signed obligations for the college education of their children, and some are still paying off their own student loans. This can add up to a lot of consumer debt in addition to credit cards. Before you decide if you are financially ready to retire, have a solid understanding of your financial obligations and debts so you don’t eat into your retirement funds.

Your Health

The biggest expense for most people retiring is ongoing health care. Even with the most recent health care reforms, the costs for health and medical services continues to increase, and it will probably increase even more. Be completely honest with yourself and identify the potential health care expenses you will face during retirement so you can plan accordingly. Remember, the time might come when you have to consider assisted living homes, or retirement communities to live in with limited medical help available.

By planning ahead, you can feel sure that when you are ready to retire, you will have the finances to make it happen. Use these tips and some smart financial advice to make your retirement dreams a reality.

Why Business Is Booming In The Gold Industry

You are probably wondering how any industry is going to do well with the current economic hardship that we, the United Kingdom, and many other countries all other the world are facing at the moment.However, there is one industry that is booming in this time of economic crisis, and that is the gold industry, especially many metal commodity specialists that are providing their customers with tax free gold, such as Physical Gold.

What is tax free gold?

The clue is in the name, you do not pay tax when investing in this type of gold.
There are also a large amount of benefits that come attached with investing in tax free gold, for example, these gold coins are low gold price with a high buyback price. The small coins also allow for easy, cheap and secure storage. This is a main concern of many gold investors, as there are storage options available but they do some at a price.

Uncertain times

In this climate, no one knows what is coming around the corner. This is where gold comes in as a sensible option for many who are looking to keep their money safe and secure. This is why gold is often referred to as an insurance policy in terms of money as well as protection for your wealth.

This uncertainty refers to governmental uncertainty, financial uncertainty and foreign issues / war uncertainty. When your money is invested in tax free gold, it is essentially locked and therefore no one a part from you can touch it.

Future proof

Gold is seen as a future proof investment. This is because the demand for gold is always going to be there. Gold is so widely used within many industries at this current time, including technology, space exploration, medicine and dentistry.

With growing technological and medical advances, the need and demand for gold will only go up and will not diminish.

This is why gold is doing so well in terms of an investment choice, as the demand will always be there and so it will be hard to lose any more, providing you do everything correctly of course.

Great for pension security

Pension gold is doing great at the moment. This is mainly due to the fact that prices are so low for pension gold at the moment that many people are choosing to put their money into gold to secure it for the future.

Coupled with the fact that gold is now considered a SIPP (Self Invested Pension Plan), many are now turning to this means of making sure they can enjoy retirement with no worry about financial hardship.
Altogether, the gold industry is doing so well at the moment due to a number of factors which make gold a desirable investment choice for many. The fact that tax free gold has a high buyback rate, it is future proof and it is great for pension schemes makes it a favourite commodity to invest in.

Investment Properties: The Purpose of Chain of Title Report

When it comes to property, most people want to be able to make some kind of investment. Some people end up using a system known as “flipping” which causes the property to pass from one owner to another within a very short space of time. As a result, it is important to take a look at the different requirements that banks will give you if you want to take out a loan for a specific property. It is interesting to note that there are a lot of people who end up artificially inflating the prices of houses. As a result, this can end up causing a lot of problems within a local area’s property market. This is sometimes viewed as fraud and therefore banks and lenders will usually require what is known as a chain of title report.

A chain of title report is also a document that many would like to view as part of the purchasing process to know the history of the property. This is especially true with businesses. property owners need to know how the property was used in the past for historical accuracy as well as for environmental purposes. With this report, you will know exactly what the property was used for and if you need to go ahead with further testing on the property such as an environmental data assessment. 

What is a Chain of Title Report?

In essence, a chain of title report is simply a report on all of the people who have owned the property within a certain period of time. Depending on the bank or lender you get, you will usually have to have a report that stretches back at least two years. This tends to be one of the more standard requirements, so it is usually nothing to worry about. Of course, there are some banks that will only allow one person to have owned a property within at least the last year. This is where the bank decides to take a close look at fraud and makes sure that prices are not being inflated artificially.

When it comes to a chain of title report, you need to make sure that you get all of the necessary information. A lot of people may be concerned when it comes to buying a house, or even if they are just investing in the property. You therefore end to take a look around at the different banks in order to see what they will accept. Some banks can be a lot stricter than others and this can end up causing people to run into problems.

When getting a chain of title report, always make sure to tell the truth to your lender. The last thing you want is to be done for fraud. It may be nerve-wracking especially when you feel that there are not many lenders out there who will be happy to lend you money. What you need to do is make sure that you keep an eye on the property’s value and make sure that you speak to a lawyer if you happen to have any concerns. This will allow you to find out what can be done when it comes to getting a loan for your property.

To obtain this report, you will need to visit local government offices such as the Courthouse in the county in which the property resides. The courthouse will be home to the information and records you need to begin your search. Speak with employees of the Title Department to be able to learn how to begin your search. You may be given access to a computer database and can simply use the address to find the previous owners of the property. every search will be different based on where the property is located but with a friendly nature and a little investigating, you will be able to determine who owned the property before you and how it was used.

Author Bio:

Ashley is a freelance writer and blogger. She writes for a wide range of different companies and creates website content for different websites. She has found that Chain of Title Report are essential to investment success. 

How to Overcome a Personal Finance Crisis in Retirement

retirement (Photo credit: 401(K) 2013)

Having financial troubles when you're retired is the pits. A financial crisis can strike at any time, however, and completely wipe you out. You've got little or no savings, and you just don't know what you'd do if you had to pay for a major car repair, a new furnace, or if you had to loan money to a friend in need. 

Go To Work Part-Time

One option that many seniors consider these days is going back to work part-time. Part-time work can include anything from a dietician or nutritionist to a mediator to Santa Claus during Christmas time. Now, dressing like Santa might not seem like it would rake in the big bucks, but it can. If you negotiate a 40-day season contract, you can reasonably earn between $10,000 and $50,000, depending on where you live.

That's more than some people make in an entire year. Of course, it all depends on your expertise. Entry-level Santas only make $10 per hour. 

Sell Your Annuity Payments

If you're desperate for cash, selling an annuity payment can help. This is mostly a last-ditch effort kind of thing though. Most courts in the U.S. make it difficult to sell payments to a third-party funding company unless there's a good reason for doing so.

Basically, you must prove that you will be put into a better position financially if you sell the annuity. Since annuity payments protect you from the possibility of spending through all of your retirement, many judges are reluctant to allow these transactions to go through. But you can convince a court if you wanted to, say, pay off a large debt or debts, if you were planning on using the money for emergency purposes, or if you needed the cash to pay for health insurance deductibles or an expensive medical procedure. 

Get a Reverse Mortgage

Reverse mortgages were popular in the mid-2000. They've mostly fallen out of favor because they were oversold. Still, for the right person, a reverse mortgage could be the right move. Basically, a reverse mortgage turns your home into a sort of savings account. Your home's equity is opened up, and you're allowed to spend it "at will."

Some companies encourage you to use an annuity in combination with the reverse mortgage, but many do not.

Now, because it's a mortgage, it's technically a loan against the property. The bank charges interest and fees, like closing costs, so there's a lot to consider before rushing out to sign paperwork.

One of the benefits of this type of loan, however, is that it does not need to be repaid prior to your death. If you plan on staying in the home forever, the reverse mortgage will be repaid either by your children or the home will be given back to the bank and the bank will sell it.

You can get around this by buying a life insurance policy that's just large enough to pay off the mortgage when you die. That way, the house stays in the family, but you get the lump sum of cash you need right now.

Anthony Jensen has worked with a number of retirees. He is thrilled to help people through difficult financial times.

Advice for Job-Seeking Caregivers

Individuals seeking employment as caregivers are in a great position; the demand for caregivers is at an all-time high. 

According to the Pew Research Center, an average of 10,000 Baby Boomers in the United States turns 65 years old every day.

The need for caregivers will only continue to increase as Baby Boomers enter retirement. Government studies estimate 7 in 10 Americans over the age of 65 will need long term care at some point. 

Being a carer takes a lot of patience and empathy, but it can be a highly rewarding career that enhances the life of those that are looked after. If you were to take on one of many Jobs for live-in caregivers in Philadelphia, you'll always be looking to give your services to clients that really need it in order to enhance their quality of life. 

Services can vary depending on the needs of your senior you will work for. For example, some individuals simply need companionship, safety supervision, and assistance with daily activities. Others require more help with hygiene and medical needs such as being reminded to take their medicine. Live-in caregivers can also help with transportation needs, cooking, running errands, and light housework.

It’s important that, as a caregiver, you understand how to give off a good impression throughout your job search in order to succeed at landing a job in this high demand market.

Creating a resume may sound obvious, but many people applying to be a caregiver skip this step entirely. Bringing along a professional resume that lists your previous employment and any related experience will help tremendously. 

Even if you have no prior professional care giving experience, you should list other jobs you have had to prove you are a dependable employee. Include any community volunteer or charity work you participate in, as well.

When you are searching for interviews, use social media to your benefit. There are tons of job listing sites for caregiver jobs NYC and many websites specifically designated for potential caregivers. 

Make detailed profiles and scour the online listings to find agencies and opportunities that match your needs. Do some research in advance to be sure you understand the average pay for caregivers in your area, both at agencies and when working independently, in order to decide your best route.

Always arrive early to an interview, dressed in clean, simple clothing that you would wear on the job. Being reliable is a vital part of being a caregiver and showing up a few minutes early never hurts. 

Ask questions and prove that you have done some research on the company, its mission, and how it is run. Demonstrate your ability to communicate effectively and solve problems, which are two huge parts of being a successful caregiver.

Don’t be afraid to be friendly and laugh when talking with a potential employer. People want to know that you are not rigid and serious and will be able to connect with others, especially the person for whom you provide care. 

Be warm and show that you have a sense of humor. Explain why you became a caregiver and display your passion for the profession.

A Scan Foundation report estimates that 27 million people in the United States will need long term care by the year 2050, and the need for caregivers will continue to increase as Boomers retire en masse over the next few decades.

Connecting and engaging with your potential employers can make all the difference in finding a caregiver job that fits what you are looking for. 

Take time to think about why you chose the path of caregiving, be genuine and honest in your interviews, and you may find the job search process just a bit easier!

About the Author: Barbara Davis is a big fan of all things N'awlins. When she is not exploring the culturally rich nooks and crannies of The Big Easy she enjoys working on her freelance writing career, frequently writing on such topics as retirement, Baby Boomers, and health care.