Category: Finance

In a previous article I made a comparison between mutual funds and investment clubs. I wanted to give a few more details on why I think the analogy works. Not because I think mutual funds are the greatest investments in the world, but because they have a lot to offer beginning investors.

Mutual funds are like training wheels. They help you keep your balance when you’re learning to ride the investment cycle. As with any new endeavor, to be proficient, you need to jump in or jump on. Learning theoretical information without putting it into practice is impractical.

Show me a cook that hasn’t experimented with recipes and I show you a mediocre or bad cook. Find a person that took a dancing class and just read the book and they’ll dance like their looking at foot silhouettes. A person that reads everything on art theory but never picks up a brush can’t be called an artist.

The same is true with investing. However, a cook that makes a bad souffl√© can throw it out and start over; a dancer can replay music and retrace steps; an artist can start a new drawing. With new investors it’s not that easy to recoup loses. So how do you get the experience without exposing yourself to undue risk?

Earlier, I used the metaphor of training wheels with mutual funds. Now let me tell you why in the context of investing. For one thing, when you invest in a mutual fund you’re trusting the investing expertise of someone else. The fund manger’s sole purpose is to select a portfolio with high performing securities.

For fund mangers, investment clubs and individual investors, exposure to risk should be the biggest concern. Creating a balanced diversified portfolio is one solution. The more stocks you have in a portfolio reduces risk. Then you’re not relying on one stock’s performance. That’s the advantage a mutual fund offers. This kind of investment is considered to be common yet effective. To some degree an investment club can do the same thing depending on the amount of financial resources its members have. Next, the investment objectives should be the key principles governing how any portfolio is managed.

Reading a fund’s prospectus is a good way a beginning investor can get a feel for a fund manager’s investing strategy. I’m not advocating reading the whole thing, but just the areas that deal with the fund’s philosophy. One great advantage today is that most prospectuses are on line. Sometimes the prospectus will even give a listing of the portfolio’s holdings.

If major holdings from the fund are listed this can be an extremely beneficial tool new investors can use. Sometimes there’s an explanation for the choices. This can give valuable insights into a professional manager’s mind. Don’t worry if you don’t grasp everything at first that will come with time. You might even surprise yourself with the things you do know. In time you’ll be looking at investments from a keener perspective. That feels good and then it starts to get fun.

We, like thousands of other former students, have to budget our money because of our student loans. Although we are in the 40-50-year-old range, we still have graduate student loans that carry a hefty interest rate. We are determined to pay our debts off quickly, but we needed a budget and a plan to stick to the budget to do so. If you are not that good with making budgets and want some help with that, then on https://www.velgenklere.no/ you will find the best hacks that you can try in order to create you budget and stick to it till the very end. Moreover, you will find some other practical tips that are going to help you greatly as a student.

When creating our budget we used free online tools to help guide us through the process. Our budget gave us an idea of how much we had in fixed bills and how much we had in disposable income. Having these numbers allowed us to set realistic goals for paying off our student loans and credit card debts as quickly as possible.

Now that we could see how much we owed and how much we were making, we knew we had to save as much money as possible to stick to our budget and to meet our goals. We started paying attention to where we were spending. This also helped us stick to our budget.

Staying Healthy Saves Money

It is easier to prevent a medical condition than to fix a medical condition, as Dr. Oz says. As nurses, we know that medical bills can quickly outpace any other expense so we keep our medical bills down by maintaining our health. We stick to a healthy diet, exercise regularly, take vitamin supplements, get enough sleep, and get regular annual checkups.

In order to work out regularly, I have a gym membership that I have had for more than 15 years. My monthly membership fee is $16 per month. To add my husband onto my membership would cost an extra $70 per month. Instead of joining my gym, he joined a free community gym that he found, by doing this he saved us $840 per year.

We haven’t needed any type of emergency services and we are not on any prescription medications, this saves us a lot of money. Not being on any prescription medications is, sadly, a feat our doctors say is quite unusual for people our age. Staying healthy also allows us to keep our sick time in case we need to use it in the future.

Savings At Home

We used to spend $27.00 per movie ($21.00 for two tickets, $6.00 for one popcorn) on movie theater dates. Instead of going to the movies, we have Netflix. We get unlimited movies and we use the service at least three times a month, saving us $81 per month or $972 per year.

We switched out to compact fluorescent light bulbs, use minimal lighting, unplug appliances, wash clothes in cold water, use power strips that we turn off, use fans instead of air conditioning, and open the curtains to let the sunlight in instead of using lights. These changes have lowered our electric bill from $120 per month to about $70 per month saving us $600 per year.

Savings At Work

We used to buy lunch at work but found that we were gaining weight and that our money was going out quickly. We started packing lunches to work and it resulted in significant savings. Between the two of us, we save at least $48 per week or $2400 per year.

I used to buy a little snack three times a week while at work. The snacks cost at least 75 cents. As I noticed my weight starting to creep up, my doctor told me that stopping the snacking would help me lose weight (he was right!). By skipping the snacks I saved at least $112.50 per year.

So far we have paid off one credit card and two student loans. We continue to look for ways to cut spending so that we can be debt-free. We have found that keeping track of our budget, setting realistic goals, and seeing our debt amounts decrease helps us to stick to our budget. Paying attention to where we were spending added up to big savings. The more we save now, the brighter our future will be and we are looking forward to a very bright, debt-free future.

Many people don’t know how to go about getting derogatory information off of their credit report. They assume that if they paid the debt or did their part to take care of the problem, it will automatically show as corrected on their credit report. Often times it does not.

The first thing you should do is get a free credit report from each of the three credit repositories. You can do this by going to annualcreditreport.com. Here you will be directed to the three credit repositories, Experian, Trans Union and Equifax.

Choose the free credit report, you won’t get a credit score with the free credit report but this is fine for trying to fix your credit report. Once you have your credit report repaired, then you may want to pull your credit score to see where you stand. The credit score of the bank can be looked at Omalaina website. Different tips are provided for changing of the credit score of the financial institutions. 

Getting your credit report is quick and easy. Just follow the instructions on the screen. You will have the option of pulling and printing a report from each of the three repositories. You will want to compare them to one another. One may have derogatory information on it that another one may have removed. And you will want to make sure it is off of all three repositories.

Once you review each report and you know what you want to have removed from them you are ready to write your letters. You will need to write a separate letter to each repository. Each letter may be different depending on what information is on each report that you want to dispute. This letter will be short and to the point. You will need to have your name, address and social security number on the letter. Address each item that you are disputing in separate paragraphs and type the information just as you see it on the credit report. For instance:

Judgment docket #2INDC-1011-93-5588: State of Indiana dated 3/93 for $1,100.00 was paid in full on 5/98. Receipt attached.

Attach receipts or documentation to support your claim. If you don’t have receipts, you can still dispute a claim. Just put all the information in the paragraph as best as you can remember it. The repository will have 30 days to go to the company filing the claim and get a response from them. If they don’t respond in 30 days, the repository is obligated to remove the claim. Of course if they do respond that it is in fact paid, they will also remove it. But if they respond that it is not paid, it will remain on your credit report.

The address for Experian, Trans Union and Equifax will be at the bottom of the respective credit reports. You can also go to their web sites for their address as well. Their web addresses are:

• Experian: www.experian.com
• Trans Union: www.transunion.com
• Equifax: www.equifax.com

This should be done once a year to make sure that your credit report shows what you think it should show. When your credit report is accurate, your credit score should improve. Then you will have the best opportunity for obtaining loans and credit cards and getting better interest rates and terms.

The good thing about tax credit is that it has the ability to increase your tax refund. Thus, as a taxpayer, it is important that you are aware of the qualifications for this tax credit. To help you out, here are some of the eligibility concerns about tax credit. 

The only eligible are the low to moderate-income earners

The EITC or earned income tax credits are only limited to low to moderate-income earners. Basically, taxpayers should file as individuals or married filing jointly. Taxpayers should also be 25 years old or more but should not be over 65 years old. Despite the eligibility of low to moderate income earners for the EITC, there are still other factors for consideration like the filing status, variation of income and the number of qualifying dependents that affect eligibility. 

Self-employed individuals are also qualified

One of the misconceptions of people when it comes to EITC is that only employees are qualified. But the truth is, even the self-employed ones are eligible. The IRS considers all income that is earned for the credit. The factors considered in this aspect are tips, wages, salaries, long-term disability benefits, net earnings, and gross income.

Investment income may lead to disqualification

If you have other income aside from your regular work like investment income, you may not be qualified for EITC. This only applies when your investment income is greater than 3,600 dollars every year. Investment incomes also include dividends, stocks, inheritance and rental properties.

Changes in Eligibility

Taxpayers must be aware that the EITC eligibility may change every year. Some of the factors that might affect your qualification include change in marital status, new job, employment situation, unemployment etc. Thus, always check on some tax preparation Roseville tips to be informed.

A little knowledge about bitcoin is good enough but when you decide to buy or use bitcoins for any transaction or application, you should be aware of a few important things. Although, there is nothing tricky about learning to use bitcoins. There are many websites on the internet which provide free assistance on the bitcoin transactions. There are a few requirements when you talk about bitcoin transactions which are very simple. Buying bitcoins can be done in numerous ways easily without any hassle. One just needs to be aware of the right information about buying bitcoins.

Bitcoin Superstar is a trading platform of bitcoins where there can be numerous ways through which one can buy and bitcoins for trading. There are various applications of bitcoins and one can find its use very easily. There are numerous benefits of bitcoins that people get in terms of ease and safety of transactions. Bitcoins allow big transactions within seconds without posing any problem or any delay.

Usage Of Bitcoins In Gambling

Bitcoin gambling is like a growing trend in the gambling world. Nowadays, almost all gambling and casino websites are making bitcoin gambling available with them. There are many offers and deals that are provided to the people who go for bitcoin gambling.

The people are given free bitcoins to try the feature of bitcoin gambling for free The websites ensure that there is no problem in bitcoin gambling. The transaction which takes place in bitcoins is very swift and error-free so that the people don’t have to struggle using their bitcoins which they may have won during gambling.

Bitcoins have taken over as one of the most commonly used currencies when gambling online as it is quick and reliable. One can use bitcoins and be quicker than ever before.