The Senate has approved President Donald Trump's selection of Jerome Powell to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve beginning next month.
Source CBNNews.com http://ift.tt/2n5hI7z
الثلاثاء، 23 يناير 2018
Know Before You Amazon Go That Your Privacy Will Be Low
Forget about being anonymous when you shop. In the new Amazon Go store, every single thing you buy is linked directly to you.
Source Business & Money | HowStuffWorks http://ift.tt/2G9esAd
Source Business & Money | HowStuffWorks http://ift.tt/2G9esAd
Know Before You Amazon Go That Your Privacy Will Be Low
Forget about being anonymous when you shop. In the new Amazon Go store, every single thing you buy is linked directly to you.
Source Business & Money | HowStuffWorks http://ift.tt/2G9esAd
Source Business & Money | HowStuffWorks http://ift.tt/2G9esAd
Here’s How Much Bank of America Customers Will Pay for Having a Low Balance
Almost every one of us has a checking account. For many of us, that checking account is the way we pay our bills and budget for our lives.
It’s not where we store an abundance of money.
Most banks offer this service for free with certain stipulations, hoping that once they have you as a checking account customer, you’ll also get a savings account and loans from them.
Recently, some Bank of America customers who have enjoyed a free eBanking checking account got a surprise.
What Bank of America Will Charge Customers With Low Balances
For years, Bank of America has offered an eBanking checking account that allowed consumers to keep a free checking account if they agreed to go paperless and handle most transactions via ATM or online transfer.
No more.
Bank of America has eliminated its eBanking checking account and moved those customers to what it calls a Core Checking Account. Members who don’t fit certain criteria for this account may be charged a $12 monthly maintenance fee.
To avoid this fee, customers with a Core Checking Account will need to either have at least one direct deposit of $250 or more each month or maintain a minimum monthly balance of at least $1,500.
Wait. What? Yep. That’s right. Bank of America wants to charge you money for not having enough money. As if outrageous overdraft fees weren’t enough!
To be fair, checking accounts are expensive to maintain for banks. More banks are charging a monthly fee to customers who don’t maintain a minimum balance, The Chicago Tribune reports.
Yikes.
Students under 24 who are enrolled in high school, college or a vocational program are exempt from Bank of America’s fees.
Not everyone is taking this news lying down. There is a petition on Change.org asking Bank of America not to end its free checking. At the time of this post, that petition had more than 50,000 signatures.
If you have regular direct deposits coming into your account, this may not affect you. And if you have $1,500 in your checking account at all times, you may want to consider upgrading to an interest-bearing checking account to cash in on that idle money.
Here’s What to Do to Avoid Checking Account Fees
If you’re one of the many people whom Bank of America will switch over to a Core Checking Account and won’t be exempt from the fees, there are better options out there for you.
First, if you don’t want to switch banks, dig into your financial situation. Does your employer offer direct deposit? If you can get your paycheck via direct deposit, you may have solved the issue. Otherwise, you might want to consider the Bank of America SafeBalance Checking Account. While it does have a $4.95 monthly maintenance fee, that’s less money wasted, and you also don’t have to worry about overdrafts. On the downside, you won’t actually get any checks, but how often do you really need those?
Switching banks can be a pain, but it’s worth it if it will save you money and headaches.
Not sure which bank is right for you? We graded eight checking accounts so you don’t have to do the legwork to find a new place to store your money. Some banks can even help you get your paycheck faster.
Whatever you do, don’t lie back and simply let your bank take $144 of your hard-earned money away from you every year. There are far too many better options out there. Go find one!
Tyler Omoth is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder who loves soaking up the sun and finding creative ways to help others. He’s paid far too many bank fees in his days. Catch him on Twitter at @Tyomoth.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2n58mc9
Don’t Fly Often? You Can Still Save Money With an Airline Rewards Program
While many Penny Hoarders find great deals on flights by shopping around for the best price, sometimes loyalty to one airline can pay off — thanks to the benefits of airline rewards programs.
But which airline’s program offers you the most bang for your buck?
Last week, WalletHub released the results of its 2018 study on airline rewards.
It compared the rewards programs of the 10 largest domestic airlines and looked at 23 key metrics, including value earned, miles expiration and membership perks, to score the best frequent flyer programs.
Recognizing not all members of frequent flyer programs are, well, frequent flyers, WalletHub separately scored which programs are best for light travelers, or those who only spend an average of $453 a year on airline expenses.
WalletHub found Delta SkyMiles to be the best rewards program for light flyers (and for average and frequent flyers, as well).
Delta’s program allows members to rack up miles that never expire, plus members can earn miles from partners, including hotels, rental-car companies and even other airlines.
Southwest Airlines’ Rapid Rewards program was ranked second for light travelers, and Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan came in at third place.
WalletHub ranked Spirit Airlines’ Free Spirit program as a the worst for light travelers. Frontier Airlines’ Early Returns and Sun Country Airlines’ Ufly Rewards rounded out the bottom three.
To find out more about WalletHub’s frequent flyer program analysis, see its 2018 airline rewards study.
Nicole Dow is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She often flies on Spirit Airlines and is a member of its $9 Fare Club. She’s a satisfied Spirit customer, despite the airline’s poor reviews.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2F8Kb2P
Breaking Away from Financial Dependence on Your Parents
In the past, I have looked at how parents can help their adult children move from a state of financial dependence on their parents to a state of financial independence from their parents – http://ift.tt/2C5zfX3
But what about that situation from the other side of the equation? What if you are financially dependent on your parents but don’t want to be? Maybe it’s due to personal pride, maybe you are tired of parental interference in your choices, or maybe you want to give your parents more life options. Whatever the reason, moving from financial dependence on parents to financial independence from parents is a big goal and a big step for many.
For me, this was never really a choice. My parents almost entirely cut off financial dependence when I was eighteen and I moved out to attend college. I would stay at their house during semester breaks and they helped with a few things irregularly when I was a student, but even those things faded away within a year or two.
For others, the process isn’t so simple. Many parents are uncertain as to when to cut those ties, particularly following periods in which their children struggle with the challenges of young adulthood and transitioning into professional life. For children, the desire to be independent is sometimes in conflict with other desires, like the security of having easy financial backing and the perceived emotional needs of their parents and of themselves.
Yet there often comes a point where children want financial independence from their parents. Here are some steps for making that happen.
Start Practicing Basic Life Skills
One of the biggest anchors for ongoing financial support between parent and child is the child’s difficulty in managing many of the basic skills of independent adult life. A financially dependent adult child may be reliant on the conveniences of things like having food prepared for them or even things like having someone clean for them or do laundry for them. This might occur because the child is still in the home or because a parent is footing the bill for these services outside the home.
The first big step that should be taken on the path to independence is taking on the responsibility for those basic life skills for yourself. Learn how to prepare your own food. Take responsibility for cleaning up your own possessions and doing your own laundry.
If you live at home, take on some of these tasks for the entire family. Start making dinner on a regular basis. Handle all of your own laundry and even handle the laundry for shared items like towels and kitchen cloths. Clean up your own living area and all shared areas, too.
These basic steps are part of independent living, and the more practiced you are at them, the easier they become. If someone else is handling these things for you, there is some form of expense involved with it when you’re truly independent. Learn how to do them yourself so you’re not reliant on services or on your parents to handle life skills.
Learn How to Live Frugally
The next step is learning how to live frugally and have a grip on your spending choices.
The most important thing to recognize is that frugality doesn’t mean “cheap” or “deprived” – it simply means asking how to get the most value out of every dollar you spend. Many people translate that idea into doing without things they enjoy or alienating people around them, but both of those things are just examples of not considering value very well.
Common smart frugal tactics include choosing to buy store brand versions of common purchases, making things like coffee at home rather than buying it from a shop, using a grocery list when shopping at the store, bargain hunting for the best price on a particular item, closing up the air drafts in your home so you’re not heating and cooling the outdoors and wasting energy, and negotiating a better deal on your cellular contract.
The key is to try lots of frugal tactics, see which ones work well for you, and then do smart things with the savings like, well, making ends meet without parental financial support. The best frugal tactics become lifelong habits that people keep using over years and years and years, with the savings being channeled into accumulating less debt, even if it only amounts to a quarter here and a dollar there.
Here’s a classic article I wrote on 100 great ways to spend less money.
Establish a Budget for Yourself That Comes Solely from Your Own Income
Along with learning how to do things for yourself and get by on less money should come a basic effort to learn how to budget.
A good budget starts with a real look at your spending and your income and how to make that spending fit within your income. You should build it by looking at bank account statements and credit card statements to evaluate how much you spend in a typical month, then compare that to how much you actually bring home. If you find you’re bringing home less than you’re spending, then you need to use your spending record to figure out what areas you should be cutting back on.
The process of actually assembling a budget, by pulling out all of those bank statements and credit card statements, is usually an eye-opener, as it’s often the first time that people sit down and look at how much they’re really spending. Often, it’s a shocker – you find that you’ve spent $300 at the coffee shop or $400 on some kind of entertainment or $1,200 eating out during the last month and it seems almost unreal.
This process is supposed to be hard and may mean that you cut some things that you really don’t want to cut. This is because you’re living far beyond your means. A big part of financial independence is figuring out how to live within your means. That’s often not an easy thing to swallow, and it may mean some radical lifestyle shifts. If you’re not willing to make those shifts, then you’re not ready to be an independent adult.
Find Your Own Place to Live
Another step that’s often a key part of the process of working toward independence is finding a place of your own to live. Many young adults move back in with their parents upon completing schooling for a number of reasons, but that creates a level of financial dependence because the children are usually not assuming the full cost of independent living. Moving out into a place of your own is a major step toward financial independence from one’s parents.
If you currently live with your parents, one of your first major goals on the path to financial independence should be finding a place of your own to live. Figure out what that will cost, assemble a budget, and see what you can find.
If you find that the cost of a place to live on your own is prohibitive, you have a number of options. One option is to seek roommates and live in a shared apartment or house. Another option is to consider moving to a less expensive area where you can still find work.
One common argument against this is that renting is “throwing your money away” and by living at home, a child is able to save for a down payment on a house. If that is the parent-child arrangement and the child is saving a monthly amount that’s equal to or greater than the cost of living in an apartment and contributing to the chores of the house, then it becomes more of a co-living arrangement and less of a financial dependence situation.
Stop Using Your Parents for Anything Other Than a “Last Resort” When Solving Problems
Another challenge on the road to financial independence from one’s parents is the ongoing temptation to use your parents as an immediate fix to all problems. If you are living a financially independent life, then your parents should only be a “last resort” for serious problems and shouldn’t be relied on for anything more than advice or simple non-financial help.
When a crisis strikes in your life, can you handle it on your own? Try to figure out how to solve issues on your own without parental intervention, especially financial intervention.
If you’re consistently finding that you do not have the financial resources to handle emergencies in your life, then you need to start building a personal emergency fund. Contributions to this fund should be part of your monthly budget, and you should be moving that money into a savings account that you never touch except in the case of a genuine emergency. One good approach is to have that account be held at a bank that you don’t regularly use – an online bank like Capital One 360 or Ally is a good choice.
Use Ongoing Financial Support Solely for Debt Elimination
You may find that, during this process, your parents insist on maintaining financial assistance for you. That’s fine. Your goal should be to live solely on your own means, and what your parents choose to do should be independent of that.
If you do receive regular financial gifts from your parents, use that money to make extra debt payments and nothing else. If they give you $500 a month, write an extra $500 a month check to your student loan company and try to live on what you bring in.
Using their income for lifestyle “perks” is a continuation of financial dependence, as you’re living a life that’s beyond your means.
Cut Costs
Although I mentioned frugal living before, I’m coming back to this here because it’s so important. You have to know how to cut costs, and that doesn’t just mean buying store brands and skipping out on a night at the movies with your pals.
Assuming you’ve made a budget, as suggested earlier in this article, you should strive to be cutting every single line of expense in that budget. How do you cut back on your food costs? How do you cut back on your electric bill? How do you cut back on housing costs? How do you cut back on transportation costs?
There are lots of things you can do with almost every category of your budget. You can call service providers to get bills reduced or find better plans. You can learn to handle tasks yourself. You can use mass transit or a bicycle instead of a car. You can intentionally choose lower cost options for almost everything.
This needs to be a mantra for you. How can I live a joyous life while spending less? Look at everything. Leave no stone unturned.
Don’t Use Credit Cards During This Transition
Credit cards can be an enormous financial crutch. If you can’t live through a month or two without adding to your credit card balance, then you are going in the opposite direction of financial independence. A consistently growing credit card balance means you’re financially dependent on credit cards.
The best solution during a period of time in which you’re trying to become financially independent from your parents is to just completely eliminate credit card use from your life for the time being. Cut up your cards and don’t use them at all. Delete your number from online sites. If you have something that must be paid using a credit card, use a prepaid card or an alternate system.
If your answer to this is “I can’t…” then you’re not living a financially self-sufficient lifestyle. The only reason a person would need a credit card is if they are spending more than they’re bringing in or are living so close to the edge that they need the card to make it to the next paycheck. In either case, the real solution isn’t credit cards. The real solution is tightening your budget.
Look for Part Time Work or “Side Gigs”
If you’re not currently bringing in enough money to make financial independence possible, then you need to start looking at ways to bring in more money. One very efficient way of doing this is to get an additional part time job or start some kind of “side gig.”
There are almost always part time jobs available, no matter where you’re at. It might take a bit of legwork to find them, but they’re out there. It just might not be what you expect or initially want.
As for a “side gig,” your focus should be on things that quickly translate to income, even if it’s not particularly efficient. Doing things like Fiverr generally offers a pretty low return on your money, but it does have the flexibility of being available whenever you have a spare hour or two.
The goal here is to find ways to get more money into your pocket now so you can begin to move toward independence.
Don’t View a Job as “Beneath You”
Many people, particularly those freshly out of college, view many job options as “beneath” them. They won’t consider working entry-level retail and thus won’t even bother applying for such a job, preferring instead to be jobless.
Don’t. That’s a mistake. No job is ever “beneath” you if you have goals in life.
Yes, working in entry-level retail might not be the glamorous job you were hoping for, but it keeps money coming in. It helps you pay bills and start paying down your debts. Having a couple entry-level jobs can add up to enough to let you start moving toward independence. Plus, most entry-level jobs have the advantage of being off your mind the second you clock out, so you can retain your focus for other things (like a hunt for a better job) when you’re elsewhere.
Switch to a “Career” Mindset
Another trap that many financially dependent people fall into (and even some people who have broken free of their parents) is viewing their job as nothing more than a job – a place where you give some time and energy and receive money in return and that’s it.
Never, ever treat your job as solely that kind of an exchange. Instead, look at it as a piece in a larger puzzle of a career, even if the job is very entry level or not even in your actual desired career path.
Here’s a question to ask yourself about any job: beyond the income, what can you get out of this job to fuel your next professional step, one that may lead to better pay or opportunity for advancement? Can this job help teach you leadership? Communication? Can it give you good recommendations? Can you learn any marketable skills here? Is there a way to advance in this path?
Almost every job has something you can add to your skill set and something you can add to your resume. Those things go beyond just collecting a paycheck. Look for them. Execute them.
Set Clear Goals for Yourself
Where exactly do you want to be in one year? Three years? Five years? Now, what’s the difference between where you’re at now and those places? Making up that difference is your goal. The gap between where you are now and where you want to be is the very foundation of a good goal.
Start setting some goals for yourself, but rather than making them all about the destination, focus on the journey. What do you need to do in order to make this happen? Focus on that. Your goal shouldn’t be to get a $50,000 job in two years. Instead, you should ask yourself what you need to do to maximize the likelihood of getting the job, and then make your goal oriented around nailing those steps.
Define a few key goals in this way, focusing on the steps you can take care of to make them happen. Good goals are specific (meaning it is abundantly clear what exactly you’re doing), measurable (meaning it is very clear whether you’re succeeding or not), actionable (meaning it is all about action you take, not about what others are doing), and time-bound (meaning that you have a certain deadline – preferably a tight one – to take care of it).
For example, you might have a goal of completing two career-oriented certifications in the next two months. That’s a great career-oriented goal! You might have a goal of living only on your own income and building a $200 emergency fund in the next month. Again, that’s a great goal for independent living!
Set goals. Keep your eye on them, every day. Take actions every day to move toward those goals. That’s the only way you’ll get there.
Talk to Your Parents and Involve Them in This Process
As you move toward independence, it’s important to remember the other stakeholder in this process – your parents. You need to talk to them openly and involve them in this process, all the way along. Candor is needed here. Be clear that you wish to become independent and ask them for ideas on your goals and plans.
What you’ll find, the vast majority of the time, is that your parents will become allies on this journey. Almost always, your parents want you to find independence and want to help you get there, and dependence only occurred because they wanted to shield you from some of life’s rough edges. Showing that you’re trying to take this on yourself is a sign of maturity that most parents will relish.
You’ll probably hear a lot of compliments during this process, but you’ll also hear some criticism, too. Your parents may not love your plans and may offer suggestions. Take their criticism seriously, even if it hurts. Try to figure out how that criticism translates into something meaningful that you can take on.
Respect Their Wishes, But Make Your Own Decisions
Remember that parents come in all shapes and sizes. Some will be clingy, while others will push you out the door. Some will be very hands on while others are hands off. Some will be very supportive and helpful, while others may be narcissistic and mostly interested in their own feelings.
Respect who your parents are and what their wishes are, but in the end, these are your own decisions. Use their input as a tool and even as a guide, but don’t allow them to make the decision, especially if you feel it’s wrong for you. If they can’t rationally explain why they want you to do things a certain way, then it’s a sign that you should trust your own reasoning.
Your goal here is your independence. Ideally, you can do this while maintaining a great relationship with your parents, but that’s not always a given. Respect what they’re saying, but make your own decisions. After all, this is your life.
Final Thoughts
Eliminating financial dependence on your parents is a huge step toward your own financial independence. It allows you to stand on your own two feet and fully make decisions on your own behalf, and it allows your parents to break free too and use their resources fully on their own life journey.
It’s not going to be easy, but the rewards for everyone involved are tremendous. It’s a new level of freedom for you and, surprisingly, a new level of freedom for your parents, too.
Good luck to all of you!
The post Breaking Away from Financial Dependence on Your Parents appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
Source The Simple Dollar http://ift.tt/2Dz5yy9
Pizza Hut Is Giving Away Free Pizza if This Super Bowl Record Is Broken
Who can forget the beginning of the 2007 Super Bowl between the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears? It took only 14 seconds for the Bears’ Devon Hester to make history.
As camera flashes flickered, Adam Vinatieri of the Colts kicked off. From there, it was all Hester. The rookie speedster took the rock 92 yards, untouched, to paydirt. His opening kickoff return to score was the fastest score in Super Bowl history.
This year, Hester and Pizza Hut are betting that no one can do it faster.
Hut Rewards Is Betting on the Super Bowl
Pizza Hut’s customer reward program, Hut Rewards, uses the slogan “Get Rewards Faster.” Under the program, every $1 spent equals two points. Once you earn 150 points, you get a free two-topping pizza.
As an incentive to get people to sign up for Hut Rewards, the pizza chain signed Devon Hester on as a spokesperson. Here’s the pitch:
“I’m teaming up with Pizza Hut to challenge players in this year’s Big Game to score a touchdown faster than I did in 2007. If they do, and I hope they do, Hut Rewards members will earn free pizza.”
That means if you join Hut Rewards and someone runs the opening kickoff for a touchdown faster than Hester did in the 2007 Super Bowl, you’ll get a credit for a free medium two-topping pizza.
Is it possible? Sure. While the Eagles didn’t have any returns for a touchdown this season, on Nov. 12, 2017, the Patriots’ Dion Lewis took just 15 seconds to return a kickoff 103 yards for a score. That sort of speed is on par with Hester’s. You’d just need a short kick and bad coverage. It’s not likely, but it could happen. Sign up and see what happens.
It’s not like you’re waiting for the Vikes to win a Super Bowl. (Too soon?)
Tyler Omoth is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder who loves soaking up the sun and finding creative ways to help others. He’s pretty sure he pulled a hamstring just watching that Dion Lewis highlight. Catch him on Twitter at @Tyomoth.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
source The Penny Hoarder http://ift.tt/2rBcHsm
Looking for Legit Work-at-Home Jobs? Here are the Top 100 Companies with Remote Jobs
By Holly Reisem Hanna Are you ready to work from home? With advances in technology and with corporate attitudes towards telecommuting turning around, there are more remote positions than ever before! To help fast-track your job search, FlexJobs, an online job board that specializes in flexible, freelance, and remote positions has created an amazing list […]
The post Looking for Legit Work-at-Home Jobs? Here are the Top 100 Companies with Remote Jobs appeared first on The Work at Home Woman.
Source The Work at Home Woman http://ift.tt/2n48s2W
Pension calculators: What are they and how can they help you?
Life expectancies are ever-increasing; the average UK male is expected to live to 79.2 years, and the average female to 82.9. Therefore, understanding your pension pot and the money you are saving for retirement is something worth considering.
It can be hard keeping track of how much money you’ve put towards your retirement, especially if you’ve accumulated numerous pension pots over the years. Add to that the state pension, and you’re left wondering how much that equates to, and whether you’ve paid into any other pots you’ve since forgotten about.
Further, even if you may know how much you have currently saved in your pension pot(s), you’re unlike to know how much it will be worth when you retire.
That’s where a pension calculator comes in. There are several free tools online that will calculate the amount you’ll need to save for retirement to maintain your current lifestyle, and work out how close you are to that figure. Here Ellis Bates share three options that you can put to the test.
Money Advice Service
Money Advice Service (MAS) is a free and impartial service set up by the government, to provide advice on all things money-related.
It has an entire section on the website dedicated to planning for retirement, and this includes a pension calculator.
The calculator has five steps, that shouldn’t take you any longer than 10 minutes to fill out. Start by inputting your date of birth, gender and the age you’d like to retire at (this can differ from the age you qualify for state pension, which you can find out here).
You’ll then need to enter your current salary, so that MAS can work out how much you need to save to maintain your lifestyle.
You will also be asked to fill out the total amount in each of your pension pots, including any contributions either you or your employer currently make. MAS will then calculate your pension when you retire, should your contributions remain the same.
It’s easy to see how much of a shortfall or surplus you have, compared to your desired amount. By moving the sliders to adjust payment contributions, you can see how much you’d need to invest each month to reach your target.
MAS’s calculator is quick and easy to use, and provides a great base to plan your retirement.
Aviva
Insurance and savings company Aviva also have a comprehensive retirement section on their website, including their own retirement spending calculator.
Similar to MAS, Aviva’s calculator is slightly more detailed in that it asks several medical questions (height, weight, whether you smoke and any known medical conditions), so it can tailor life expectancy according to your lifestyle and adjust your pension.
Simply fill this out, along with the same details that MAS requests (gender, age, current salary), and Aviva will show you a list of possible outcomes of how much your pension could be worth by retirement age. The outcomes depend on whether you draw your pension out all at once, or take a specific amount out each year.
Like MAS’s calculator, you can then adjust the monthly contributions to see how you can increase your pension over time.
If you already have an Aviva account, then the process is even quicker, as existing pension details will auto-populate.
Whilst the final results page may not be quite as easy to scan-read as MAS’, if you scroll down you will see a similar set of sliders, which will automatically adjust your pension projections.
Nutmeg
Nutmeg is an investment management company that also has an easy-to-use pension calculator.
The difference with Nutmeg’s pension calculator as opposed to MAS’s and Aviva’s is that information is inputted on one page only, as opposed to multiple slides. It only takes a couple of minutes to fill out the details (desired annual retirement income, current value of pension pots, age and desired retirement age), and on the right-hand side you’ll see your pension pot increase or decrease depending on those factors.
Nutmeg’s pension calculator may not be as comprehensive as the other two, but it allows a quick insight into what your pension could be worth over time.
Based on the details you provided, Nutmeg will calculate how much your monthly contributions need to be to reach your ideal total, including a graph showing how the value of your pension could grow over time.
Final thoughts
Paying monthly contributions into your pension fund is a great start. It is important to be aware of the total figure you need to save, so you can adjust your payments accordingly.
Using one of the above online pension calculators can help you with this, providing you with details on total figure you need to save and how much you should be putting away each month. That makes it easy for you to start planning ahead.
Whether you want a quick evaluation of your current plan and what you need to save, or a more detailed version, these three examples are all effective pension planners and it is worth testing them out to find which one suits you best. For a more in-depth evaluation of your options, speak to a financial adviser.
This article first appeared on our sister website Money Observer
Section
Free Tag
Related stories
Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/2G8sWjR
Everything you need to know about cryptocurrency
Virtual currencies have been grabbing the headlines over the past few weeks, so here’s a guide to how they work and why I’ve invested in them.
You know how when you make payments through your bank or you get money in from someone, you see those transactions on your statement? It’s a list – or ledger – of money in and money out, possibly including bank charges and interest.
But what if you didn’t feel like doing these transactions through a bank? In fact, what if you were so angry at the destruction caused by some banks and governments during the financial crisis 10 years ago that you didn’t want any of your cash to go through their books, particularly if, as in the case of Cyprus, you felt they could take your money? In 2013, bank customers in Cyprus with more than £85,000 in savings had a large chunk of their money confiscated by the government.
That’s why, around the time of the financial crisis, some clever technology bods decided to create a system of money transfers that would circumvent banks, governments and any central authority. That’s how cryptocurrencies came into being.
What are cryptocurrencies?
Cryptocurrencies include the likes of Bitcoin, Dash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple and Verge, to mention some of the top few of the thousand-odd that now exist in the ‘crypto-sphere’.
They work on ‘Distributed Ledger Technology’ (DLT), also known as ‘blockchain’, where that ‘bank ledger’ can be found on thousands of computers (soon to be millions) around the world, recording your transactions many times.
Having a bank ledger on lots of different computers makes it safer because you have many unconnected individuals dealing with it rather than one central authority that could take the law into its own hands. In theory, at least, this makes transactions fraud-proof.
For a start, the rules of cryptocurrencies insist that you can’t rub anything out. Again, this is to counter fraud: no one can do something and then say they didn’t do it.
Also, they’re called cryptocurrencies because the transactions are made secure by cryptography – puzzles – that can only be solved by computers working very hard. The people who run these computers, solving the puzzles, are called ‘miners’ and they earn digital ‘coins’ for doing the work.
Different cryptocurrencies work in different ways – for example, Bitcoin has a finite number of coins, is very inflexible and takes a lot of energy to ‘mine’. Others, such as Ether (Ethereum), are more flexible and cost less to ‘produce’. Ripple (or XRP) is not as decentralised as other currencies because it has no miners. Instead, transactions are powered through a centralised blockchain to make it more reliable and fast. So purists say it shouldn’t be counted as a proper cryptocurrency.
What is the blockchain?
Blockchain technology has many more potential applications than currency and financial transactions.
As it is decentralised and not subject to the whims of, say, a corrupt government, it is potentially a much safer way of recording transactions and social actions. It has the potential for use in areas such as:
- Births, marriages, deaths. These and many other registrations that are currently overseen by civil servants could be done more efficiently, accurately and honestly using distributed ledger technology.
- Education. Educational establishments could record classes taken and exams passed on blockchain and they could enable students to customise their learning with a network of instructors and educational materials around the globe. This has the potential to circumvent universities and colleges and enable people to pick their own tutorials and lectures from around the world.
- Medical procedures and history. If these are recorded on blockchain, then wherever you are in the world, medical professionals can pull out your records and see what can be done if you suddenly fall ill.
- Property transactions. Buying and selling houses could be carried out on blockchain, which could make many aspects of what estate agents and conveyancers do redundant.
- Voting. As no person, party or organisation can mess with the number of votes cast if they are recorded on blockchain, it could be a fraud-proof way of defending democracy, particularly in countries where vote-rigging is the norm.
The blockchain can be programmed to record virtually everything of value to societies, from birth certificates to social security cards, and anything else that can be expressed in code. This potential is why a lot of investors are more interested in putting money into blockchain technology than they are into cryptocurrencies.
What are ICOs?
Right now, every week there are new ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) and ITOs (Initial Token Offerings – pretty much the same thing) offering new solutions based on blockchain, looking for investment. The majority are not worth considering.
ICOs can be seen as the third wave of the blockchain/cryptocurrency revolution. Speculators, hoping to ride the next bitcoin-like wave, are scooping up new coins, or tokens, in ICOs (and ITOs).
These are the ‘crypto’ version of IPOs (Initial Public Offerings). With an IPO, a company will float itself on the stock exchange to raise money from investors in return for shares.
With ICOs, it’s much, much riskier. Businesses – mostly just start-ups – go to the public for investment but in return they offer simply ‘tokens’, essentially no more valuable than air miles or Tesco Clubcard points.
These tokens are ‘coins’ that you can use within the ecosystem set up by that company or organisation or, in some cases, swap them for strong ‘fiat’ currency such as pounds or dollars. [Fiat money is currency that a government has declared to be legal tender, but it is not backed by a physical commodity.]
The tokens have no inherent value unless the business itself does well. If it does, then the rewards to the investor are exponentially great – in other words, your investment goes up very fast and very high (sometimes 100 times).
This ‘token’ idea isn’t just about making a quick buck on your investments, though, it’s a whole different philosophy of doing business.
“You take the idea of the coin in a blockchain and you abstract it out to anything, literally anything that can be turned into a token,” says Lex Sokolin, global director of fin-tech strategy research company Autonomous Research in London.
“For example, instead of having advertisers pay Facebook to reach you and me, advertisers can pay us directly, because we control tokens that can monetise our attention.”
The potential for the ‘tokenomy’ is huge as it can enable businesses – and even governments – to have direct engagement with their users, and bring more potential customers in, with rewards.
But being paid in tokens, which could shoot up in value and drop like a stone within 24 hours, is only for investors who are not easily seasick.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) warns that these are “very highrisk, speculative investments” and as most ICOs aren’t regulated, there is no protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or the Financial Ombudsman Service if something goes wrong.
Because these are early-stage projects, there is also a good chance you’ll lose your entire cryptocurrency stake, warns the FCA.
The FCA says you should fully research the specific project if you are thinking about buying digital tokens.
It adds that you should only invest in an ICO if you are an experienced investor, confident in the quality of the ICO project itself such as the business plan, technology, and people involved, and you’re prepared to lose your entire stake.
If the dotcom boom was the Wild West (and it was), the crypto boom is the Wild West on acid.
My blockchain investments
I wouldn’t describe myself as a speculator. Generally, I have a long-term view. I’m a ‘buy and hold’ kinda gal, but I have become fascinated with blockchain technologies and the slew of interesting cryptocurrencies and DLT-based businesses that have sprung up in the past year.
Most of my crypto-investments are in businesses that I consider have a long-term, rosy future, but I have made a bit of cash in short-term buying and selling recently, primarily with Ripple (XRP) – a relatively new cryptocurrency. I did that by buying CFDs (another very risky product) in Ripple on the eToro platform. I made $3,600 on a $1,000 investment in three months, which was good enough for me.
The platform’s trading fees are built into the trading spread. The main fees of interest are the withdrawal fees, which are $25 (£18.52 at the time of writing) per withdrawal.
I have also bought Ethereum, which I prefer to Bitcoin as it is more flexible and, I think, scalable.
But my main investments have been in some ICOs, which I did on the recommendation of Aditya Nagarsheth, who runs Red Pill Enterprises, a casual ‘friends and family’ syndicate that specialises in crypto. It charges a 20% fee, but it’s all unregulated (they’re getting regulated status soon.)
Through it, I have put money into three ICOs which have already gone up by at least 10 times in a couple of months. I’ll be interested to see how they do in the next couple of months.
Health warning
Be warned: all the products mentioned above are very risky.
I don’t recommend that anyone invests in them unless they really know what they’re doing.
Only people who already have a decent chunk of cash in traditional investments, such as pensions, equities and property, should even consider dabbling in crypto.
You should only put in money that you can bear to lose, particularly when it comes to ICOs. These are like Venture Capital investments and even traditional VC investments have a very low success rate (about 2%).
“Only put in 1% or 2% of your liquid investment capital,” warns Mr Nagarsheth, as “the market is extremely volatile and it’s still very under-regulated”.
Even if your investments do well, it’s very easy for you, or the company you have invested in, to be hacked and drained of money. For example, in 2014, fraudsters hacked into the Tokyo-based Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange and helped themselves to $473 million in Bitcoin. The hack eventually led to the bankruptcy of Mt. Gox later that year.
This is why individual investors tend to be very cagey about what cryptocurrencies they have invested in – and where they are storing them – because it’s too easy for hackers to relieve them of their tokens.
Many now keep them in what is called ‘hardware wallets’ – ie, a USB key which, ironically, they often keep in a bank vault. If they keep the ‘tokens’ in a digital wallet they often go to extreme measures to hide the ‘private key’ that opens the online wallet, including splitting it in two and giving one part each to different friends or family members.
Does crypto have a future?
Blockchain technology is particularly exciting, and tech-savvy millennials are already buying into crypto as the currency of their futures.
However, it’s clear that we are in a cryptocurrency bubble now, like the dotcom bubble in the early 1990s. But, as with the internet bubble where companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Google came through the crash and went on to rule the world, so there will be crypto businesses that rule the waves later after the rest have crashed and burned.
The task for any savvy investor is to pick the long-term winners and not just try to make a quick buck.
The family of crypto investors
TV director Jeremy James*, 31, got into cryptocurrencies in December 2017. “I was quite mindful of diversifying my portfolio from the beginning,” he says. “I’ve got Bitcoin (£400), Dash (£300), Ethereum (£500), Litecoin (£400) and Ripple (£800). I’ve carried out all my transactions through eToro because it makes it easy. In some of the other exchanges, you have to trade with crypto, not pounds, which is complicated.
“I also copy a couple of successful investors on eToro, both of whom have money in traditional businesses as well as cryptocurrencies.”
Jeremy also introduced his siblings to cryptocurrencies. His brother David, who is 35 and works in finance, has invested £1,000 in Ethereum and £2,000 in Ripple primarily. His sister Sarah, 32, has put £400 into Ethereum and £400 into Ripple. She also invested in an ICO where she tripled her money.
“I try to be quite realistic about my investments,” says Jeremy. “I don’t necessarily think I’ll be massively rich out of this but it’s in the back of my mind that this is my big opportunity to make serious money in the way that I don’t see I will ever do through my job, living in London.
“It can be pretty addictive to keep checking the rates every day. It’s so volatile you feel you must keep looking. My Ripple holdings were £1,000 this morning, then it was £500 in the afternoon and then £700 in the evening and that’s just one day!
*Name has been changed.
Jasmine Birtles is a financial journalist and founder of MoneyMagpie.com.
My experience buying cryptocurrencies
By Edmund Greaves
I decided to buy a couple of very small holdings of cryptocurrencies in January 2018. I bought £10 worth of Bitcoin and £10 worth of Ether. Currently due to significant volitility, I have made a loss of £1,93 on Ether, and have lost £3.37 to Bitcoin.
I don’t have enough confidence to invest my life savings in cryptocurrency because of its volatility. A lot of my friends have also invested small amounts, just because it makes following developments a bit more interesting
How I bought my first cryptocurrency
I decided to buy cryptocurrency with an app called Revolut, which is UK-based and regulated by the City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority. It also offers other services such as currency exchange and mobile only current accounts.
Revolut says trading through it is more cost-effective than other platforms as there are no hidden fees.
It applies a 1.5% mark-up during the exchange process.
The company offers trading in Bitcoin, Ether or Litecoin. Buying the cryptocurrencies was very straightforward. The major drawback to Revolut is that it costs £6.99 a month for the premium service, which includes buying cryptocurrency – although I have signed up for a free one-month trial.
Section
Free Tag
Related stories
Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/2rB6kVY
Your Credit Report Doesn’t Care What Your Divorce Decree Says
There’s no sugar coating the fact that divorce can be an emotional nightmare. Legally dissolving a relationship where you once promised each other “until death do us part” is rarely pleasant.
However, it’s not only your emotions that can take a hit when you go through a divorce. Your credit reports and scores could be in for a tough time as well, even if you think you’re doing the right thing via your divorce settlement.
What Is a Divorce Decree?
One of many unpleasant tasks your divorce attorney may help you to navigate during a divorce is the division of your marital assets and debts. When it comes to splitting the responsibility for the debts you acquired during your marriage, you must either come to a settlement with your ex or the court may come to a decision for you both.
Once your divorce is finalized, you’ll receive a copy of a document known as your divorce decree. A divorce decree is the official, legal end of your marriage. The document details, among other things, the court’s final ruling regarding any debts you and your ex acquired during your marriage. The divorce decree will give details about which spouse the court has deemed to be responsible for each individual debt.
The Bad News about Divorce Decrees
For a lot of people, the following statement comes as a bit of a shock: Your creditors and debt collectors do not care about your divorce decree.
Furthermore, a divorce decree isn’t going to do anything to protect your credit. Your lender wasn’t a party involved in your divorce. Therefore they’re not going to honor any new agreements you made with your ex-spouse, nor are they bound to accept a judge’s decision regarding whom the court may hold responsible for a debt.
A divorce decree is not going to supersede the original agreement you made with your lender or credit card issuer. It won’t negate your legal obligations to repay a debt. It won’t protect your credit reports from damage if your ex doesn’t continue to make payments on joint debts. And it won’t protect you from being sued.
Your divorce decree does NOTHING to separate you from debts you were obligated to pay during your marriage. Your divorce attorney should explain this to you.
Solutions for Joint Accounts
You and your ex-spouse have separate credit reports. Your reports do not merge when you get married, nor do they separate when you get a divorce.
However, if you jointly applied for any credit cards or loans with your spouse while you were still married, then those joint accounts will most likely show up on both of your credit reports, even after your divorce is final. If any of those joint accounts are managed poorly after your divorce, then that mismanagement will likely damage all of your credit reports and credit scores.
It’s always a good idea to maintain credit independence whether before, during, or after marriage. However, if you already made the mistake of opening joint accounts with your ex, then the best way to protect your credit moving forward is going to be to separate those accounts ASAP.
If possible, you may want to start by paying off and closing any joint credit card accounts. Closing credit card accounts is generally a bad idea, but divorce can be a special exception to this rule.
With larger debts such as mortgages and auto loans, it’s best to refinance those debts into the name of the spouse who will be maintaining ownership of the asset. If refinancing isn’t feasible, then another option which often works well for separating spouses is to sell the asset (i.e. the car or home) and then use those funds to pay off any jointly acquired loans.
The only way to effectively protect your credit (and the credit of your ex-spouse, for that matter) during a divorce is to completely eliminate all joint debts one way or another. Anything short of this option could ultimately come back to bite you down the road. It’s much easier to divorce your spouse than it is to divorce your creditors.
Related Articles:
- Honey, I Wrecked Your Credit
- Save Your Finances (and Maybe Your Marriage): Invite Your Partner on a Money Date
- What’s Worse, Bad Credit or No Credit at All?
John Ulzheimer is an expert on credit reporting, credit scoring, and identity theft. He has written four books on the topic and has been interviewed and quoted thousands of times over the past 10 years. With time spent at Equifax and FICO, Ulzheimer is the only credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry. He has been an expert witness in over 230 credit related lawsuits and has been qualified to testify in both federal and state courts on the topic of consumer credit.
The post Your Credit Report Doesn’t Care What Your Divorce Decree Says appeared first on The Simple Dollar.
Source The Simple Dollar http://ift.tt/2n5jkgW
"I’m selling a house for the first time, how do I choose an estate agent?"
Q
I’m selling a house for the first time and need to choose an estate agent. What do I need to ask, how do I differentiate them and how much trust should I put on the initial pitch they’ll give me?
A
Estate agents should be masters of sales patter given that’s the whole purpose of their job, so yes, you’re going to be greeted by the same marketing spiel from all of the agents you invite round. But hopefully they’ll be saying all the right things to show they are local experts.
For example, they need to impress you with their local expertise on house prices; do they know about the house down the road that your friend just sold for a price you still can’t quite believe? Do they know what the local buyer demographic is and how your house will appeal? Just don’t bother putting much stock on their claim that they have someone on their books right now looking for just this property; they all say that.
But which local estate agents should you approach? Word of mouth recommendations from friends is a good starting point. But this isn’t a window cleaner – they’ll be selling your biggest asset and you’re paying them thousands of pounds in commission. So do some research yourself. You need to know the facts: how quickly they tend to sell homes like yours, how often they achieve the asking price, and how much they charge. Our EstateAgent4Me tool allows you to compare agents by these performance indicators with the latest data from thousands of websites.
It’s also worth researching how various agents market their properties on Rightmove and Zoopla. Are the descriptions thorough? Are the photos good quality? A good agent will invest in marketing - but make sure the cost of that is not an added extra.
When you know which agent performs best, you need to get at least three of them round to hear how they work and get a valuation. Don’t take the valuation as gospel. Ask each of them to explain how they came to that figure. Some agents will exaggerate to win your business, others will go in deliberately low to make their job easier if they get the listing. Do your own research.
Crucially, ask to look at their terms and conditions. What tie in period do they offer? We would never recommend signing any contract that ties you to an agent for any more than six weeks.
Find out what their typical commission is and compare that with others. Estate agents normally charge between 1% and 2.5% +VAT for a sole agency agreement. Negotiate the commission down. If you’re still not comfortable with a commission payment because it feels like too much money for the service you’ll be getting, consider an online agent. These agents tend to charge a flat fee instead, but the cheapest deals mean you pay up-front. You can compare online agents for free using our tool.
For more information read “We used online estate agents and saved thousands”
Check out their opening hours. Far too many agents are closed evenings and weekends - the times when most people are house hunting!
Think about how involved you want to be with viewings. Some agents will handle all viewings for you, others will want you to show prospective buyers around.
Ask how they will market your property. If they are a member of On The Market, the industry owned portal, they will only be able to list the property on either Rightmove or Zoopla. If you want your home on both, make sure they’re not an On The Market member - online agents are not allowed to join On The Market.
Finally, think about which of the shortlisted agents you get on with and trust. Having a rapport with your agent makes the selling process much, much easier!
Paula Higgins is chief executive of property help portal, the HomeOwners Alliance and is one of the organisation’s co-founders.
Section
Free Tag
Related stories
Source Moneywise http://ift.tt/2DzJnrK
الاشتراك في:
الرسائل (Atom)