Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Even You can Retire Rich

Last weekend I really did something great. You want to know what? I went to my neighbor's house and took his interview. Mr. Jackson is a retired person. He have 3 children, Mary, Samantha and Joe. He still have loads of responsibilities on his shoulders, but he is happy because he had already planned his retirement earlier.

He said, "I always some portion of my salary, always invested in appropriate places and always lived within the income boundaries." All thanks to my wife Susan who at the age of 48 started working once again and contributed equally to the family income. Mr. Jackson himself confessed that he never thought what will happen when he get retires? He also told me that he should have made well plans at the age of 50 only which he did not. He said though he did few things correctly, most of the things done were incorrect.


Mr. Jackson has shared all his feelings with me, whatever he did wrong all he has shared in his interview. He said,"I never allowed this feeling to come within me that one day I and Susan will retire and after that who will take care of the family, my son being very young to earn for entire family. I never kept records of my pensions, social securities and personal expenses.

Second big mistake i did was that, I never consulted any financial planner or retirement expert for my finances. I needed an investment strategy that could have helped me in knowing the income of my family. Thirdly, i always made false implications regarding the share market. I made huge investment in 1991 during the Gulf Crisis. The result was heavy losses.

I made a wrong choice in terms of provident fund and pension funds. I had two options, one was to take maximum payment with the pension funds and the other was to leave some amount of money to my wife after i m dead. I chose the 1st option but now i m regretting thinking what will happen if i passes away tomorrow only.

Then i really took a wrong decision in terms of my retirement, if i would have waited for more 6 months i would have got full pension funds because i was about to turn 65 after that. As per new rules of the Government if you are 65 or above 65 then you will get full pension funds. Last but not the least I never stopped from spending. It is not at all a good idea for the retired persons to live on credit card debts.
With all these silly mistakes there are two things on which i feel proud of myself. First I joined a tax-friendly plan which helped me and Susan to grow our money. Secondly I created a gateway of exit for my family. It means that I hired a legal lawyer and asked him to prepare a will and the power of attorneys. I organized everything on time like marriage certificates, property deeds etc so they would be available whenever needed by our children in future.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

US Stock Fails to Lift after Inauguration of Obama

Americans were expecting a ray of hope, some new plans, some new ways, at the inauguration of Obama, facing the great pressure created by recession. Large amount of people were hoping that Obama’s taking office could bring forward great changes to the nation’s economic condition. But did it really happened? The investors worried about the economic outlook, sending financial stocks down to their lowest level in 13 years. After Obama's incoming address to the nation at midday in Washington, shareholders and investors pushed the S&P 500 Financials Index down by 17 per cent to below its lowest closing level since March 1995.


The poor investors as soon as the inauguration function got over, they went back to unloading stocks. Financial companies led the market lower as investors worried about the state of the world's banks. Reality is not same as the people expected it to be. The broader S&P 500 Financial Index dropped almost by 5.3%, the US market which began with billions of losses by Bank Of America that forecasted its losses for 2008 could top US$41.3bn (€32bn). Citigroup’s stock fell by 20 per cent to close at $2.80, below its lowest level since receiving money from the government bailout in November.


On the other hand State Street received $2 billion of funding from the US Government last year as part of the Treasury’s bailout of America’s financial sector. The Dow Jones industrial average is down 332 points at 7,949 level. That's a decline of 4%. Broader indexes fell more than 5%. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged by around 4% with a slump of over 300 points to below 8000. Broader stock indicators also fell sharply. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 44.90, or 5.28%, to 805.22, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 88.47, or 5.78%, to 1,440.86.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Genesis of Bad Credit

Credit world has become part of us nowdays. Today, banking institutions are more keen in providing different forms of credit from credit card to personal loans. Moreover, the amount of people with credit card is rising at an increasing rate. As far as i think hardly any people can do without credit. Bad credit situations in the form of court judgment, bankruptcy, and loan default is created due to lack of finance education among the consumers.


What does exactly credit means? It is nothing but getting a service or cash grant to use for your own purpose. In credit, you are often bound with an agreement to repay the loan or cash in future agreed the same with the lender. Credit exists in different forms like loan, mortgage, or credit card.Credit History of the borrower is checked thoroughly before you can get credit from any lending agency or institution. In case you have a bad credit history you will find it almost difficult to get credit any time you apply for it.


But you can reestablish your credit worthiness by improving your credit history or by building and repairing the credit history. This is what we called as " credit repair ". It is that process in which consumers having unfavorable credit histories can easily re-establish their credit-worthiness. The best part is you dont have to be dependent on any credit institutions to repair your credit, you can do that yourself too if you do it with proper dedication.


Remember one thing that if you repair your credit it will make it easy for you to get low interest credit, car or home loans.On the other hand with weak credit rating you may not be able to get loan or be subjected to high interest rates and several other unnecessary conditions.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

I want to be a Slumdog Millionaire

Are you among those financial success seeker who are interested in knowing only one thing that is how you can get out of depression and become financially free. If you are not looking for some help then you are most welcome to close this window and carry on with your other important work. But if you are really interested to become financially independent then I welcome you to study my tips so that your financial future is safe and secure.

I m not writing this post for myself but I m writing this post only for those poor people who have been through several financial websites promising you the secret to become rich. I am totally aware of this and that is the reason I m not comparing myself from those black sheep, I just want to prove that i m someone who really mean whatever i say.


What is the reason that people never get rich?? The reason is very simple that these people passes through a similar mindset giving excuses to themselves like " i m just unlucky " , " i m too old to earn more", "I don't get any opportunity" or maybe something like " my big family prevents me from saving money". I know many people who have created wealth without these perceived disadvantages. You have acknowledge one thing that is you create your own future and no other excuses should stop you. If you follow the below strategies, I am sure you yourself will discover the method of wealth creation. You will find a way that you can make money at any age, with any background, with little or no money and in any economy.




Once you realize that YOU are in total control of your financial success the next step should be to know these Financial Strategies. These steps you will not find in any book or Cds, these wealth creating steps are self made which all the millionaires of today posses and practices.


1.) Set Your Financial Goals of Life: wealth is something that you cant earn sitting at home, you need to have a clear financial goal for obtaining it. I asked many people that what goals you have set to become rich and I get a blank answer from them. This is a major reason they are never able to achieve enough wealth.

2.) Have a million dollar mindset: Always have a mindset like that of a millionaire. Adopt certain habits of millionaires and the moment this is done you yourself will feel the change within you.

3.) Increase Your Income heavily: This is very important is a way that is you will be able to craft out your proper financial plan. Crafting out the financial plan keeping in mind your income is itself a road to financial success.

4.) Craft out your Financial Plan: After setting targets and after you have decided how much you will accumulate, develop an efficient plan to achieve it. Always keep one thing is mind the moment you start taking action on your plan, your dreams starts becoming the reality.

5.) Reduce your Expenses: Dont keep this wrong perception that by increasing your income the wealth will automatically increase. Person earning $ 2000 can also broke and a person earning $ 20000 can also broke. The reason is that they dont manage the money they earn.


6.) Try to get Millionaire Returns: Build your fortune by increasing your income and reducing your expenses. Apply the theory of compounding with which you can turn your small finances into big ones.

7.) Fortune Protection: Hire insurance advisors, lawyers, accountants to protect your fortune from creditors and the government who can always take a big amount of your wealth in the form of taxes.


I personally believe that if you follow these steps today and apply them right now, you yourself will start feeling the changes. If after following these steps you still face the problem, feel free to contact me on my e-mail address.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Investing in Balanced Fund is a Better Option


Keep your emotions on check, a strict warning for those investors who loves to invest in this volatile market. When the markets are in good condition then our instincts compels us to join the market but when the market is down we are prone to sell out in panic. The best thing for the investors to do at this time is to remain quiet and keep track on their financial approach for the investments. The most effective strategy is to keep an investment portfolio invested across different assets classes.


A balanced fund which is invested in both share equities and investment bonds in equal proportions should be considered for holding a balanced fund. If we compare the same with equity funds that is suppose 85% the balance will be in fixed income securities and liquid assets.


The most important benefits of investing in balanced funds is that it gives you more stable returns because overall portfolio risk of a balanced fund is reduce automatically. The potentially higher but more volatile returns from equity investments are moderated by the fund’s investment in bonds. Secondly, it helps you to rebalance the portfolio by taking profits on equity investments which have appreciated and re balancing the portfolio to its original equity: bond asset allocation of 60:40.


Always keep in mind that a balanced fund will allow the investors to participate in long term capital growth of equity markets because a sizable portion of up to 60% of the fund is invested in equities. Investing in a balanced fund helps unit trust investors stay focused on achieving their long term investment goals without requiring them to evaluate the prevailing market cycle.

First Asian Economy in Recession

After revising the full growth estimates and eased monetary policies for the first time, government of Singapore and analysts declared that Singapore is the first economy of Asia to fall into recession. The city-state’s full-year growth forecast to was reduced to around three per cent citing a slowdown in the global economy and key domestic sectors by the The Ministry of Trade and Industry. The sudden move came when the ministry released the preliminary data showing that GDP declined by 6.4 % in the third quarter after contracting 5 % in the previous quarter.


The survey did not describe the economy completely in recession but a technical recession the two consecutive quarters were confirmed by the same. It was first time in more than four years as confirmed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. As we all know Singapore is south east Asia's wealthiest economy in terms of GDP per capita and other economic features but still it is entirely dependent on trade. This is not at all acceptable by the developed economies, particularly key export markets of US and Europe. Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast a 0.2 % rise in GDP which is a good sign.

Check out this cool video and you will get all answers to your questions:

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Lessons Learned from Collection Agencies

Today i must say that finally i have reached on a resolution regarding my credit disputes. I have understood one thing that at least from two credit bureaus the collection account is removed. I m still confused about TransUnion, but now since i have received the letter from the MD Penn Foster, i m sure that it will be resolved. Plus i will be checking credit reports with scores for the entire quarter and i have learned a lot in these few months that has taken to resolve my issue.


The most important thing that i have learned during all these processes is that when it comes to dealing with collection agencies, stay away. They don't care about anything but getting paid, so anything that you say will not have any influence with them. If possible talk to the original creditor first to try and solve the issue. If things don't work out then, go to the collection agency. I want to add an advise for all of you that only communicate to them in writing and do not sign any of the letters that you mail them (they can forge your signature). The most important thing to be kept in mind is that make sure that every letter is certified with return receipt requested. If they call, don't answer. Remember, everything must be documented in writing. Telephone calls are hardly documented and trust that all you'll hear are threats anyway.


For resolving credit report disputes sending the documentation via mail is very important. You won't believe when I called TransUnion once, the lady asked me when did I send my information and I had proof that I did. So i was like saved at that point of time. Also, when disputing your report, be persistent. If it is not to your satisfaction the first time, keep trying. It doesn't hurt anything and eventually they will get the message to fix your report.



Keep in mind you should never wait until tomorrow to respond to a letter you receive from the collection agencies or any of the credit bureaus. Try to reply on the same day if you can. Putting it off just makes the process longer and more frustrating for you.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Ignite Your Money Making this New Year


I believe that every individual wants to lead a happy and prosperous life. All of us have trained ourselves to become abundant in every area of our life, including money. Do you seriously believe you havent ignited your money making yet. Take a current look on your money status today. How much is in the bank account? How many assets do you have? And the most important among all is how happy and well satisfied you are with your money status. Do you feel completely relaxed with what you have or do you believe you have loads of limilations to fulfill the demands of your family? Does it becomes extremely challenging for you whenever it comes to your money?


Always remember that its better late than never. Perhaps this is the year to make you completely satisfied in your areas of money making. I believe only in one thing that the more money you have, the more you have to contribute. With this statement, i advice you to follow whole heartedly the following steps and tips. I promise, if you make these tips habitually by practicing them, you yourself will feel financially successful.


Keep one thing is mind, that the universe is ready to give everything to you, it just needs your permission in the way you want to accept them. First, Take Action Financial steps each day. For most individuals, money brings up fear and a lot of negative emotion. At the end of the day they practice taking no action with their money. In order to ignite your financial results, you will need to make managing, investing, saving, and increasing your income with money. You have to understand the right language of wealth building.

Make Conscious Decisions About Your Financial Future that is many people are eager to see the outcomes of what they would like to see unfold. Often people start thinking about their future. what will your financial status in coming years?, How many properties will you own? Think about it. Money is also about choices. The more money you have, the more positive choices you have.

Educate yourself and then educate yourself a bit more. Be Extra Appreciative of Financial Experts! Try to make more and more friends, consult with them your future plans. Commit Yourself To Stepping Out Of Your Financial Comfort Zone! Most individuals don’t understand they have financial comfort zones and when they step out of them, they perceive challenge or their fears that arise as a sign they should do nothing. Money reflects your innermost values and has the power to reveal you. True financial wealth is a place of security and abundance, where you are financially free to stop working for a living and start living for your work – your life’s work.