Personal Finance ? Why You Should Compare, not Despair
September 21, 2008
Sorting out your personal finances can be a tricky and exasperating time. Whether you are looking to obtain money through a loan, protect your finances with life insurance, medical, travel or car insurance, save some money through an individual savings account (ISA), apply for a credit card or a mortgage, change a telephone or fuel utility supplier, or simply decide what the best current account is for your needs, the choices are seemingly endless as well as being extremely complicated. They can also be potentially serious if you get it wrong. With so many options, and so many companies trying to get you to use their product, it is difficult to know where to turn.
The first method of working out your own finances is to review your needs and compare the products on offer to meet those needs. You could, if desired, visit the banks one by one, burning calories and shoe leather by doing so. Alternatively you may have heard of the World Wide Web, it’s like a sort of big and commercial version of Narnia and you don’t have to go through your wardrobe to get there. And no freaky men with goats legs ?
? not without a login and password anyway.
So, we present the concept of financial product comparison sites, which have been around in the UK since 1997, when small company called moneynet decided to break up the monopoly in the personal finance market. Over the past eight years, there has been an explosion in the number of UK sites seeking to provide information to enable consumers to make informed decisions on their personal finances. These sites provide free consumer financial product comparison services for credit cards, insurance, investments, savings accounts, mortgages, loans, as well as gas and electricity bill suppliers. Additional consumer information services are also often provided such as financial guides, financial newsletters and personal finance calculators. Moneynet, in particular, has a tool which allows registered users to manage all of their accounts online ? securely, including credit cards, savings accounts and current accounts.
You can also obtain financial advice from an independent financial advisor, but this is an expensive way of doing what could be done for free with a little effort. If you do your own homework, then you can use your time with an advisor more effectively by asking informed questions. You’ll have a better understanding of what you’re being sold if you’ve done a little bit of homework first.
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Resources:
http://paler.com/uk_financial_comparison_sites.html
http://www.moneynet.co.uk/
About Rachel
Rachel writes for the personalfinanosaurus Cashzilla
Rachel has been writing personal finance related articles for six months and has learnt so much about mortgages and life insurance, that nobody invites her out to dinner anymore. 
Simple Ways to Save Money
September 12, 2008
Things are so expensive these days. We seem to be hearing, and saying, that a lot lately at the gas pump, in the grocery store and especially when paying bills. But there are simple ways to help save money without making sacrifices in your lifestyle. Small savings can turn into large rewards for little effort.
Start with the small things. Eat out less, stay home more often. Invite your friends over for a potluck supper and rent a movie. You are still able to enjoy entertainment at half the cost of going out to eat and then to the movie theatre. My friends and I rotate whose house we will go to every weekend. Giving the house a thorough company-coming-over cleaning is then limited to once a month.
There are many, many ways to save money when shopping for your children. Their clothing can be purchased at a consignment or thrift store for half of the original cost. Many clothing items may even still have their tags, especially baby clothes. Set up a clothing swap with your friends who also have children. You may find that they can hand down clothes to your child that will be eventually handed down to their even younger child.
All children like to draw; the evidence is displayed on refrigerators across the land. Have you noticed that your office paper has been quickly disappearing? This phenomenon of missing printer paper can become expensive. Recycle your office paper for artwork. Or even re-use the paper grocery bags, they’re free!
Babysitting costs can add up. But you have to get away every once in a while. Try rotating sitting with your friends. We keep the kids on Friday night while our friends go out. They keep our kids on Saturday night while we go out. It reduces the cost of our night out on the town.
Speaking of those weekend trips out, don’t go crazy! It can be so very easy to spend a lot of money on the weekends. You’ve worked hard all week, and now you deserve to have fun. While that may be all so true, you might not be thinking about your overall budget. Plan activities that don’t cost anything. For example, instead of spending the weekend at the local amusement park, go to a new park and ride bikes through the trails. Picnics, hikes and scavenger hunts cost very little, while they create wonderful memories for your family.
When it comes time to purchase new appliances, look for the energy saving appliances. When you have to run several loads of laundry a week, you want to use as little electricity as possible. On nice days, hang your wash outside instead of using the dryer. Not only will you save money, but it can be a nice escape from your daily routine. Look at all of your appliances, and see how you can save money by using them smartly. You can turn your refrigerator down in the cooler months. Insist that no one is to stand in front of the fridge with the door open for more than fifteen seconds. Electric bills can add up quickly, so eliminate the waste of electricity by turning off lights when you leave the room.
One of the biggest ways that money is lost is through mismanagement. Credit cards may help you make ends meet, but if you can’t pay the entire balance at the end of the month they will cost you money. Interest charges and minimum payments can stretch out a small amount of money into a long payment period. Every month, you are losing money to interest. Overdrafting your bank account is another example of lost money. Even though you have overdraft protection, it will cost you in the long run. If you are charged $25 every time you overdraft, and you overdraft four times a month, you have lost $1200 a year to fees. What could have been purchased with that money? What would that money be in twenty years if you had invested it wisely?
There are ways to save money. It may seem as though a little bit here and there isn’t worth the effort, but believe me - pennies can turn into mountains.
Martin Lukac, California mortgage Lender (http://www.martinlukac.com), provides mortgage financing for purchase, refinance, bad credit, and more. Request a free quote or ask a question.
If All Things Are Possible, Why Cant I Balance My Checkbook?
September 4, 2008
For me, the most terrible time of each month is the day our bank statement comes. We commonly call it BSS (Bank Statement Syndrome). I don’t know why it is, but I have trouble getting the parsonage checkbook to balance with the monthly bank statement.
That ominous document intimidates me every time it arrives. After all, the bank’s business is keeping track of accounts. They have hundreds, maybe thousands of accounts and I have just one. On the surface, it seems a rather simple thing for me to keep our checking account up to date, but I assure you, it is not. Every time I try, I lose interest.
Keeping our checkbook accurately balanced is almost like a circus balancing act; everything is up in the air. No matter how often I add those figures, I never get the same result twice. I have resorted to adding up the figures at least three times and then take the average. So far, I’ve been batting a .195 and have been dropped by the major league, which has lost interest in my career. This may satisfy my conscience but it does little to appease the accounting department of my friendly banking institution.
The thing flustering me more than anything else are those fees. The average bank has more fees than a West Virginia hound dog has fleas. Everything I turn around there is another fee. (I need to stop turning around.) Somebody needs to invent a fee powder.
Each bank must employ a stable of employees whose only job is to dream up these fees. How else can you explain it? These fees are creative enough to cover every aspect of a person’s wallet, retroactive three generations back.
To open an account there is a fee. Each account carries a monthly maintenance fee. I have been paying this monthly maintenance fee for several years and I have yet to see someone from the bank come out and mow my lawn. What is this maintenance fee? What are they maintaining? They certainly are not maintaining my checkbook. With all the fees I am paying, I would expect someone from the bank come to my house, sit around my table, and help me balance my checkbook. I would supply the coffee and donuts -for a small fee of course.
Another thing I do not understand is the ATM fee. Why do I have to pay money to the bank to get my money out of the bank? Whose money is it anyway?
I think banks offer monthly bonuses to the employee who comes up with the most creative fee for that month to impose on its customers. Fe?Fi?Fo?Fum all those bank fees are dumb.
Once upon a time and far far away, banks would bribe customers with toasters or umbrellas to open accounts with them. Those very days are over, you can be sure. Now, I’m the one bribing the bank to keep my account with them.
Last week I slipped the cashier the usual quarter and asked her to make sure my deposit got in my account, please. I do not know whether it is bribery or just a gamble and probably would do better with the Florida lottery.
I would not mind it so much if only my checkbook would occasionally agree with the bank statement. It takes a lot of effort on my part to keep some semblance of order in my checkbook. I am not always as successful as I would like. I make mistakes and sometimes they cost me. At my bank when I bounce a $3.75 check, I have to take a second mortgage out on my house to pay the fee.
I would close my account and transferred to another bank that there is a closing fee, a transfer fee and a fee that has no explanation whatsoever. Just a goodbye jester from my bank, one last chance for them to screw up my checking book.
Some people think God should do everything for them. All they have to do is sit back and enjoy themselves and God will do everything for them. A prevalent attitude about faith supports this erroneous notion. Someone once compared this idea of faith as putting a “nickel in the slot and pull the lever” and you get what you want.
Some things in my life only God can do and I need to understand what they are and allow Him to do them. However, some things in my life God expects me to do. God will never do these things for me. I must come to grips with this distinction. If I don’t, my life will be miserable.
Some people are sitting around waiting for God to do something He is expecting them to do. As they wait, they become frustrated and start accusing God of all sorts of sinister things.
Part of getting to know God is understanding this. What is my responsibility as a Christian? What does God expect from me?
An Old Testament verse puts much of this into perspective. After Solomon dedicated the Temple God responded by saying, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV).
For the most part, many people are sitting around waiting for God to balance their checkbook when He has put the pencil in our hands.
Reverend Snyder is currently ministering at the “Family of God Fellowship” in Ocala, Florida. More of his articles are available for reprint at his website: http://www.godspenman.com/ Rev. Snyder is available as a guest speaker. He writes a weekly column and is the author of “You Can Always Tell a Pastor; But Not Very Much” available at: http://www.jamessnyderministries.com/
Personal Finance - Have Consumers Had a Belly Full of Personal Debt?
August 26, 2008
For months, we were trigger-swipe happy, putting our groceries, clothes, holidays and service charges on our credit cards. We wanted mortgages, we took out loans, we watched Property Ladder and What Not To Wear. Whether you were born middle class, had middle class aspirations, you became middle class through your spending. Debt united people around the UK, we sympathised with each other on what we couldn’t afford ? but it didn’t matter, we still bought it. Soon everybody had a bottle of Jacob’s Creek in their kitchen and olives and humous in the fridge.
Yet, it would seem as if a debt conscience is setting in. This morning, The Guardian printed a story based on the fact that Nationwide had reported a 0.2% decrease in the average house price, whilst the Times reported on a statement from the Bank of England, showing that credit-card borrowing was at its slowest rate for more than four years, with mortgage lending also very static.
According to the latest Department of Trade and Industry Survey, 5% of individuals reported finding their household’s debt repayments a "heavy burden" and 4% of individuals are currently behind in payments for at least one credit commitment or domestic bill over the past three months.
According to Credit Action, in December 2004, 1.2 million electricity and 1 million gas domestic customers were behind in repaying their debts to their supplier. Additionally 20% of people say that they often neglect checking their bank balance because "they are too scared to find out how much money they have", according to Lloyds TSB.
Credit Action also reported that the number of people searching for help to manage their debts had almost doubled in May in 2005, compared to figures in May 2004 and a survey from Relate revealed that 44% of couples find money to be a contentious issue in their relationship and a quarter of people in debt are receiving treatment for stress, depression and anxiety from their GP.
It doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom however. If you’re lucky enough to have no outstanding debt, you can keep you finances in shape by exploiting the services of sites such as moneynet, which provide financial product price comparison information and extensive consumer information guides. If you have any outstanding debts, you can seek advice from the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) or Citizens’ Advice and financial comparison sites like lowermybills and moneynet also provide detailed research on debt consolidation loans and debt management.
Resources:
http://www.moneynet.co.uk/credit-card-guide/index.shtml
http://www.creditaction.org.uk/debtstats.htm
About Rachel
Rachel writes for the personalfinanosaurus Cashzilla
Rachel has been writing personal finance related articles for six months and has learnt so much about mortgages and life insurance, that nobody invites her out to dinner anymore.
Help With My Annuity
August 18, 2008
The cries are heard from the distance, “I need help with my annuities.” Nothing has changed…just a lonely senior who can’t trust anybody with her annuity because every time she asks for advice, someone tries to make her invest in a different annuity…Sound familiar? Well you are not alone.
Often times when speaking to a senior about their annuities, I ask them their biggest complaint. Time and time again they say that it is hard to find someone who can help them with their annuity without trying to sell them another one. It is not uncommon. The truth of the matter is, many annuity agents are not out to help the client, but to help themselves (I am sure you are not surprised). They want to make the “fast buck” without regards for the client’s needs or investment objectives. The unfortunate part is that, this isn’t going to change.
Honest help with an annuity is hard to find. Insurance agents don’t get paid for their time, they usually only get paid for making a sale. So it’s no wonder why they always recommend another annuity. I once visited someone who needed help with an annuity that an agent “talked him into.” The problem was, in order to get into this annuity, the agent talked him into surrendering his old annuity and paying a $13,000 surrender charge to do so-AND THE ANNUITY HE PUT HIM INTO WAS WORSE THAN THE ANNUITY HE GOT HIM OUT OF…When I asked him why he called the other salesperson in the first place, he told me he just needed to make a small withdrawal from his annuity and didn’t know how…And the agent tricked him into switching it into another annuity and paying a huge surrender charge which he could never recover due to his age…Fortunately it wasn’t too late and we were able to reverse his transaction.
However, good help is hard to find. There is no doubt. This may come as no surprise but my recommendation to anyone who needs help is to first purchase the book “Annuities: The Shocking Truths Revealed.” Sure, I wrote it and sure I have a vested interest in saying that, but at least it talks about annuities in a way that anyone can understand them. And at least it points out all the things people who own annuities or are looking for annuities need to be careful of. Most importantly, it points out the dirty little secrets that agents never tell you about annuities.
The bottom line is this. If you need help with your annuity, you need to be vigilant. Many agents are out there for their own good and you must be aware of this. Utilize your resources and learn the right questions to ask your agent before making a decision (Also found in the book). Sure, you may just give up and never get help but the worst decision is no decision. Help with your annuity is hard to find, but not impossible…that’s why I wrote the book!!! Good luck and remember…
Ignorance is not bliss…
Tony Bahu is also the author of the controversial document, ‘Annuities: The Shocking Truths Revealed’, which reveals the secrets that the banks and insurance companies don’t want you to know. For more information visit http://www.annuitymd.com
Save Your Money, Dont Give to Charity Scammers
August 10, 2008
**If it’s Spam, it’s a Scam!- If it sounds too good, if it shows up in your bulk folder or your spam folder - don’t touch it, just delete it
**Check out the charity- You can find some charity info at the BBB site www.give.org
** There is no deadline to give- Take you time. Charities don’t have deadlines, but scammers do to stay under the radar. Tell them you will think about it. If they use high pressure tactics, they aren’t worth it and more than likely aren’t legit.
**Ask Questions- Found out the location of the charity, how much of the money is for Administration use and how will the money be used for the needs. If 50% or more of your donation goes to executives’ salaries, administrative cost and fundraising, skip them.
**Get information in Writing- Have them send you a brochure, a graph of their previous divisions of money, and their 990 tax form information that they file with the government.
Charities are required to provide Form 990 information on request (This excludes churches, synagogues and other places of worship. Don’t be fooled by their ‘tax-ID number’ these are only needed to for employer verification.
**Check out all charities for Police and Fire Departments- Check them out first, get the name, address and phone number to contact them back and do follow up.
**Get a Receipt- Preferably one with the charity name on it. A paper trail is always a good thing.
** Don’t donate with cash- Again the paper trail idea, check or credit card is best.
**Be protective with information- Don’t give information out over the phone like credit cards or personal information, unless you have checked them out or dealt with them before.
**Get the exact name of the organization- Many have names similar to legit organizations. They may change the wording slightly to throw you off.
**Contact the authorities- Police and or FBI can be contacted, have as much information as you can with you to give them. Even recording a call can be helpful if you get regular calls, make sure it is allowed in your state or if you have to let them know you are recording them.
The BEST way to give to charities is to contact them after you have done your own research. Don’t let the scammers scare you off, Please do give of yourself, time or money. Print out or email these tips to others who may not be aware.
Dawn writes for the site FrugalforLifecom and is a resource for those looking to live frugally, save money and live below their means in a materialistic society.
