Suffering an injury is a terrible thing and while often the cuts and bruises will heal and fade in a matter of days, there are occasions where the pain becomes chronic, the injuries become debilitating and the psychological trauma becomes unbearable. In these situations you may start thinking about claiming for a personal injury.

Is it worth a claim? What will it cost? Where do you start?

Research

Your first step is to research as much as you can. In no time at all you will find stories and testimonies from people who have suffered similar injuries to you. Read their stories and take heart from the successes and learn from the failures.

During your research you should also start to seek out the right injury lawyers. The right lawyer, someone who will take on your case with care and strive to get you the right amount of compensation, is invaluable and care should be exercised to choose the one for you.

Take Advice

Another part of the research process is taking advice. There is no lonelier place than the feeling of being injured and alone so don’t try and do it all yourself!

Again, once you’ve found the lawyer for you they should be able to advise you and answer each and every question you have. Claiming can be a long process but they will guide you through every step.

Don’t Settle

As we said, claiming can be a lengthy process and you may be tempted to settle as early as you can. More often than not early settlement offers are made at a fraction of the true recompense deserving of the injuries.

Your research should back you up here as you will know how much compensation you should expect. Remember, it’s not greedy to ask for what you deserve.

Keep a Record

It will help your case greatly if you keep a diary as soon as you are able to after the accident. Keep a record of all of the pain you feel, tasks that you found difficult or were not able to do and any problems you have with sleeping or panic attacks.

Your medical records will show when you visited your Doctor and there will be a list of all hospital appointments but a personal diary can also be a powerful thing.

Don’t Panic!

Don’t panic at any point. As you start the process you are likely to be beset with worries that it all might not be worth the time and the effort. If that happens, speak to your lawyers for reassurance, talk to your friends and return to the success stories you found in your research.

The Global recession continues to affect us all in different ways, from increased taxes, consumer prices and a decrease in bonuses and benefits. However, surely the largest consequence of the banking crisis has been the steep rise in unemployment. With even large, well-established businesses going into administration, redundancy is becoming an unwelcome reality for those of us who never imagined that we would be claiming Job Seekers Allowance. Record amounts of job seekers are consequently applying for the same jobs resulting in a saturated job market and a disillusioned unemployed sector.

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes!

Far more frequently job centre advisors are suggesting retraining as a means of securing steady and lucrative long-term employment. Although we may have always worked in one particular sector of employment or even in an entirely identical position, we are now being led to believe that it quite literally is never too late to retrain and change our career direction. If you have been facing long-term unemployment, you could consider yourself as having nothing to lose! Further training and qualifications can either bolster your current skill-set (making it easier to take the next step up on a career ladder that has become somewhat stubbornly stuck), or provide you with a whole new direction and area of interest.

Opportunity Knocks

However, choosing to retrain is never an absolute guarantee of employment and could instead be seen as turning a negative situation into a positive one. You may well have always dreamed of the opportunity to turn a hobby or interest into your career, yet not wanted to rock the stable boat of the employment you either chose or were drawn into at an early age. You may have been unsure as to what your true passions were at that important, decision-making age and simply took an employment opportunity that was seen as sensible. You may have followed a family tradition. You may even have simply followed a path that emanated from a skill or area of knowledge that happened to be your foremost in your teens. Once wages are earned and increased, then promotions are gained and built upon, it is very difficult to stray from that comfort and regularity, simply to indulge your new interests or passions. Sudden and elongated unemployment could cause a very depressing and downtrodden outlook, or could conversely be turned into an exciting opportunity to bring about change. Retraining could ultimately lead to improved quality of life by bringing an end to unemployment and heralding a career that would increase your personal happiness on a daily basis.

Don’t Know Much About Therapy!

It may also be the case that a sector of employment that you may have the innate ability to excel in was not all that lucrative when you first entered the job market, or simply didn’t exist. For example, the world of alternative therapies is far more advanced, accepted and indulged in than ever before. People are looking beyond medical science when it comes to healing these days. We are also rejecting chemical solutions in favour of natural products and treatment strategies. Therefore, whether it be Reiki, homeopathy, reflexology or hot stone therapy, there is far more money to be made and new skills to be excelled in.

To Sir, With Love

You may also have worked practically within a popular profession such as, the law, performing arts and the media, politics or sport. There is always the option to use your years of expert experience to teach. Teaching has historically been a profession that people retrain to enter at many differing ages and has proved to be a steady and reliable source of income and opportunity.  As the government always wants to invest in education there are many kinds or bursaries, scholarships and fee wavering available. These pose as the encouraging enticement of subject experts into education; ultimately providing a financially sound retraining opportunity.

The Money Train

Financing retraining is a constant source of concern and enquiry for career changers. Other than government funding, there are also approved courses that can be undertaken whilst continuing to claim Jobseekers Allowance. Finally you could consider retraining for a new career as a financial investment in your future. With the reasonable and comparable interest rates within the competitive lending market, loans can be a viable way to fund further study.

The Simpsons have been around for somewhere close to 20 years, providing most Americans with untold amounts of laughter. However, its main character Homer also passes on an important financial message in nearly every episode. The tips very often come in the form of how not to do things. 

The big hearted fella always seems to be getting himself carried away when it comes to matters relating to finance. Thankfully he nearly always manages to get himself out of some situation or another, mainly from the help of others plus a little bit of luck along the way. 

This blog post will attempt to take an amusing look at a few of the situations that our larger than life friend has ended up in.

Business Opportunities

Homer’s attempt at starting his very own pumpkin business ended in near disaster. One episode of the hit series saw Homer exclaim, “This year I invested big in Pumpkins.” On face vale this might not be a bad proposition. Except for the fact that our hero followed up with, “they have been going up nicely during September and October; I’ve got a feeling that they are going to hit their peak sometime around January.” Homer quickly added to the statement by saying that, “this is when I intend to cash in.”

Clearly the humor in the above passage is there for all to see. However, there is also a key message included. Study the market as much as possible before trying to invest. By taking into account the risks and associated information you will be better placed to steer clear of a potential disaster investment.

The underlying message is that one shouldn’t look at business opportunities as a get rich quick method. Very often people end up losing more than they can afford in these situations.

Understanding Cash Flow and Profitability

Another important lesson that came courtesy of Mr. Simpson was during an episode in which he decided to buy an elephant. The beast was to be used to deliver profit via elephant rides.

The conversation between Homer and Marge went a little like this:

Homer – Look at this Marge, we made $58 today and all of it is profit. I must be the best businessman in the entire world.

Marge – Not so fast Homey, its food bill was $300

Homer – Please don’t humiliate me in-front of the money, Marge.

Earlier in the episode Homer came up with the idea to raise some cash from the sale of elephant rides, for which he set the price at $2. After the first day, Marge pointed out that they didn’t have a very good business as they had lost $242. Homer was a little aggrieved at this situation and decided to increase the price of the elephant rides. Sadly for our entrepreneur, the revised price of $500 per ride saw all of his customers take their business elsewhere.

The take-away here is that when a company spends more than it earns it will of course make a loss. When this continues for a period of time it will end up going out of business. Upon Marge’s explanation of the cost of feeding the elephant, they should have pulled the plug on this business venture.

The same principles can be applied to personal financing, continuing to spend more than you earn can only result in debt. The longer that this situation carries on for the more debt you will generate. Until such a time is reached when there is a need for consolidation or a cash advance to try to straighten things out.

Understanding the Value of Money

The final lesson in this blog post surrounds our friends misunderstanding of the value of money. One episode saw him exclaim to his doting son, “Bart, if we had $10,000 we’d be millionaires!”

The above passage can be wrapped up in much of the way that Homer leads his life. Almost, if not every day he can be seen lining the pockets of his good friend Moe. These antics see him blowing a good proportion of the family’s pay check. So much so that it seems the only way out of the impending financial doom is to come up with more and more hair brained money making ideas.

A last will and testament is a document that highlights how you will divide your final estate. If you are passionate about your personal finances, you should consider the benefits of how a will could help you.

• Manages how your debts should be dealt with: A will explain how any debts should be managed such as mortgage debt or personal loans. This makes sure that you don’t burden your family with debts that you could have. Endeavor to clear your debts in advance of writing your will.

Some sports teams, in their heyday, would have made for a highly dependable up bet. If the right software was available, like BossAction and similar provide now, many successful teams would have made gamblers a lot of money. 

Brazil is the most famous national team of the entire world. Sports betting websites all over the world recognise this, from sports betting iowa websites, to sports betting platforms in many other countries. In Brazil, boys dream extensively of wearing the yellow shirt. It is the most successful team in the history of the World Cup, winning five times. Brazil generally starts as favourites in the spread betting market, and last took home the cup in 2002.

Real Madrid is the best-supported team in Spain and some people say it is the biggest local football club in the world. It has won the European Cup an astounding nine times, of which five were in a row, from 1956 to 1960. David Beckham played for Real Madrid from 2003 to 2007.

Ferrari is one of the best teams in Formula 1 racing and dominated the field in the late 1990s and early 2000s, mostly thanks to Michael Schumacher, whom many people believe to be the greatest F1 driver ever. Spread betting punters often raked in huge sums from buying his total World Championship points, which frequently exceeded 100 points. 

Liverpool is widely regarded as the most successful club in English football, and has won the European Cup five times. Its peak was in the 1970s and 1980s under the revered managers, Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley. Liverpool has won the British Football League Championship a record-breaking 18 times, although not since 1990. The team's new manager, Rafael Benitez, has spent much money attempting to develop a Championship-winning team, and his most lauded achievement came in Istanbul in 2005, when the team overturned a 3:0 lead by AC Milan, the hot favourites, to win the final of the Champions League.

Manchester United regularly attracts sell-out crowds of more than 75,000 people, and its waiting list for tickets is the envy of many other clubs throughout the planet. It has won the Premier League a record 12 times. In 1999, it won a treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League, which was unprecedented. Manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, is the longest serving manager in England.

The New York Yankees baseball team hails from the Bronx area of New York. It has won the World Series 26 times, making it the most successful club ever. Its most famous players were the legendary Joe DiMaggio and Babe Ruth.

The LA Lakers basketball team has won the championship 14 times and achieved the longest-ever run of victories – 33. Famous players include Shaquille O'Neal, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Another player, Kobe Bryant, racked up an amazing 81 points in one game playing the Toronto Raptors in 2006. His achievement cost spread betting companies massive amounts.

The name of the Dallas Cowboys is one of the most famous in US sport. It won the Super Bowl five times, a record it shares with the Pitsburgh Steelers and San Francisco 49ers. This team holds a great many records for winning streaks and individual victories, but it was the consecutive three Super Bowl wins from 1992 to 1995 that sets it apart from rivals. The Dallas Cowboys have cost spread betting firms fortunes.

Rugby is the national sport of New Zealand. The All Blacks always perform the traditional Maori Haka dance prior to international matches. The dance was developed to intimidate opponents before battle. The All Blacks are often the clear favourites to win the rugby World Cup.

With such teams as these, you could be confident of not being one of the 90 percent of people whose trades fail.

A penny saved is a penny earned. Spread betting is as much about minimising losses as maximising profits. Traders will always make some losing bets, but the trick is for profits to outweigh losses. Stop losses are critical to saving money.

Anyone who follows spread betting will realise that a fool and his money are easily parted, and the risk and leverage of spread betting make this proverb truer of spread betting than virtually any other activity known to man. If you make a profit, you should resist the temptation to place another bet and hand the money right back to the provider. You should also research a company before handing it your money.

Some proverbs were specifically devised for trading, such as “Shrewdies sell, mugs buy,” “Let your profits run and cut your losses short,” and “The trend is your friend. Stay with it to the end.”

Though reports indicate that the national unemployment rate is dropping, there are still plenty of people out of work or underemployed. If you’re stuck in a job you could do with your eyes closed, but you’re afraid to quit in today’s shaky market for fear of not finding work soon enough, it may be time to supplement your income with some work on the side. 

There are 24 hours in a day and only seven or eight of them are spent sleeping. This means that every moment you’re not tied to the office, you can be making extra money. Read on for three ways you can branch out of your comfort zone and see profits along the way. 

Start a Business

Starting a business is not a guaranteed success. But, with a good idea and a well-laid plan, you can turn a fledgling business into an on-the-side moneymaker or full-fledged profession. Follow your passion and create a product so you can charge others to do something you love doing. Are you a tech whiz? Knitting guru? Baking master? Wherever your talents lie, leverage them to bring in some extra income. Start saving now and you’ll have a sizeable nest egg down the line.

Take up Day Trading

Buying and selling stock isn’t for everyone, and in fact, it has a low success rate. But with proper mentoring by industry professionals and taking a financial education course to brush up on skills, you can learn to day trade and manage your earnings wisely. You might need some start-up capital to start trading effectively, but with time, effort, and focus, you can bring in a second income through investing practices. 

Be a Writer

If you love to write, turn it into more than just a pastime. Turn it into profits. You can start your own blog or contribute to others as a guest poster. Get your name out there, build up your reputation, and people will pay you to write within your field of expertise. Use social media and SEO strategies to your advantage and you can grow your blog or website into a popular online destination. If you successfully create a blog with decent traffic, you can place ads on your site and bring in extra money with minimal effort. 

It does take some time to reap the benefits of a side profession but with dedication and hard work, you can earn a considerable amount of money without sacrificing the job you have. 

January is a popular time for families to get back in control of their finances. With many splurging over the festive period, now is an opportune moment to be frugal and allow time for recuperation. According to the British Retail Consortium, although 2012 only saw a 0.3% rise in spending on the high street, online spending rose by 17.8% compared with the previous year1 - it’s no wonder people are trying to cut back! 

Let 2013 be the year of transition. If you’re not in control of your finances yet, let this be the year to turn it around. Keeping an eye on your accounts and having a budget to stick to can be a huge help when it comes to your finances, by giving you the tools you need to know exactly where your earnings are going and giving you an insight as to what cutbacks you can make, if necessary. 

All that credit card debt? Let 2013 be the year to pay it off. Rather than chipping away at store cards, catalogues and credit cards from various lenders in the UK, consider consolidating them. Perhaps, if you already have the credit limit to do so, transfer the balances onto an existing card so that everything is in one place – even better if it happens to be the card with the lowest APR. 

With a recent rise in PPI claims, including 6000 bogus ones last year2, and the announcement by the FSA will be instructing banks to contact their customers who they know had PPI mis-sold to them, use 2013 to check out any UK PPI Solutions that may be appropriate to your circumstances. Were you sold PPI? Do you know if you were sold it? Even if you haven’t had a letter sent through your door yet, or the banks don’t have you on their list of people to contact, it’s worth checking through previous finance agreements anyway, just in case. 

The process of claiming back PPI in the UK can be as simple as you make it. With the banks being instructed to write between 4 and 12 million letters in due course3, some of which having started already, you could be entitled to a PPI return. With the help of claim management companies, the process can be super simple, because they do all the legwork. 

An estimated total redress of £8 billion is expected, with £1.9 billion having already been refunded to the consumers4. Receiving compensation from a PPI policy that you weren’t aware of can lead to a considerable boost in financial health, which could contribute massively to any 2013 resolution of improving your money matters. 

Small steps can go a long way when it comes to personal finance. Keeping a simple spreadsheet of incomings, outgoings and disposable income can mean the difference between staying afloat and dipping below zero. Putting any spare money into saving accounts can be a huge help for if something ‘big’ comes up, such as a car Ministry of Transport Test that’s worse than expected, or a new boiler. 

Spruce up your finances this year – who knows, next Christmas, you may not have to worry about how much you spend. Now wouldn’t that be nice!

Many personal testimonies reveal that they happened to go to the internet to buy auto insurance, only because they had forgotten all about it until it was the eleventh hour. And that is certainly one great convenience, one of time-saving and freeing us from depending on actual meetings and middle men. But really, the online advantage for buying insurance runs into many other more important areas.

Many auto insurance quotes can be obtained and compared before making our purchase. This can be done at least at two levels, one between companies and the other, between products or packages that each of them offer.

But there is a very important part that you must note in order to find the best auto insurance deal. And this is with regard to having a fresh and thorough assessment of your own peculiar needs for the insurance cover. This must be an updated list of information that you have with you before you seek quotes. For example, you may want to lessen or increase the number of people included for the auto insurance. Someone who is hardly expected to drive need not have that cover considering that it is not cheap. Meanwhile, you may want to include a youngster in your insurance as compared to having to go for a separate insurance for them, if they are expected to be given your automobile to drive on periodic occasions. There may be laws in different states that your vehicle is expected to travel in, which you want to abide by, or even risk getting disqualified from claiming your cover if required. 

The next line of working is to go to the best of the car insurance companies, especially who are known to offer good service and care. Check which of them operate online in proper ways to help you get the best auto insurance quotes from their own range of options to fit your need. The good companies will have many options for you to avail of discounts based on different criteria. These could come in the form of your driving history, certain memberships with bodies like AARP, NWF, etc. 

If you’ve ever considered trading Forex, have you ever wondered how you would go about it? The vast majority of traders will follow some sort of pattern in order to make an acceptable amount of profit, but there are a number of different trader types out there.

Day traders seek short-term gains, while Swing traders seek to make profit in volatile forex markets. Meanwhile, both Fundamental and Technical traders do a huge amount of research before they make their move during trading with varying results.

Long-term traders, as you might expect, are willing to bide their time before closing their trades, but whatever trader type you are, you need to be careful when Forex Trading with City Index. Choosing a currency pair is the first thing you should do such as the GB Pound/US Dollar.

Next, it’s important to choose a leverage scale you’re comfortable with, as forex trading is a leveraged product. You should also keep up to date with any changes in price, no matter how insignificant they may seem at first. Opening a forex trading account is vital too, and if you’re doing it for the first time, start off small so you know what to do later on.

If you're considering giving personal loans online, as a form of investment, there are many sites dedicated to peer to peer lending that can help you out. The very first question you have to ask yourself is how much you can afford to lose. No matter how tight the contracts may be, the market situation changes quickly, and, as with any form of investment, there is a chance that you may lose the money – so don't put in more than you can afford.

Think Like a Bank

When using peer to peer lending sites, you can either allow the respective company to administer your portfolio entirely, or you can interview the bad credit loan applicants yourself, and decide on a case by case basis. If you're just starting out and you're not entirely sure how things work, it is perhaps better to let the company make the decisions for you, since they already have the experience and some criteria in place to evaluate borrowers.

The system allows you to get considerable returns on investment, on average of 9-10%, so the profits are greater than what you can expect from mostly anything else available on the market today, but the risks are also considerable. Start with a conservative portfolio, and expand later, if you feel this is the right direction for you.

You will probably want to ask the applicants the same questions that a bank would normally ask: their credit score, their current income and income to debt ratio, and so on. Remember that most people use peer to peer lending because they cannot qualify for a loan from a traditional lender, so don't expect to see spotless credit history.

Don't Be Afraid to Say No

You take considerable risks with your money, so you naturally want to make a profit, not to provide charity or a public service. You will probably hear a lot of heartbreaking stories, and you will meet a lot of people in desperate need for financing, but you have to learn how to limit the risks. In other words, you have to learn to simply say no, when you feel the investment would be a wrong choice for you.

If things go wrong, and you have to recover your money via a court of law, you will be asked to prove that the borrower had a sound financial situation at the time when the agreement was signed, and you had reasonable ground to believe that he or she would be able to repay the loan on time. If you cannot prove that, the chances of ever getting your money back are slim, so weigh your options carefully.

The biggest issue with peer to peer lending is balancing privacy options with the right to access information about the borrower. For example, in some cases it may be important to find out why the applicant wants a loan – it's not the same if they need it to pay for a vacation at a luxury resort or for a home remodeling job. On the other hand, the peer to peer lending companies have consultants and procedures in place, so you can always ask for help if you're not sure what to do.  

It is often the most fundamental tools that we work with we give the least thought to – especially when monitoring our cash flow. Whether looking at personal or business finances, a computer doesn’t necessarily have to be of the highest specification to perform well but the software you run on it does.

Why is software important?

Software is everything. Unreliable software or software that regularly crashes can paralyse your business and personal finances. Internet banking is a convenient way to keep track of our money at all times but you may also rely on specialised accounting software designed to help you make intricate calculations.

From a business perspective, any problems with this software may mean that orders cannot be taken, stock cannot be despatched and even worse, staff won’t get paid. How long could your business run for if all your software crashed? Similarly, any disruption to the systems you use to monitor your personal finances would mean that your monthly budgeting could go out the window – leaving you at risk of accruing debt.

How can you get the most out of your software?

It is also worth remembering that to get the best out of your software you will need to periodically check for any updates. Updates correct any known issues or glitches with the software and can sometimes vastly improve the running, efficiency and performance. 

Similarly, there is a reason that software publishers bring out new updated versions of their programs: they are better. Old software may need to run on old operating systems which can be unpredictable and even vulnerable to security threats.

Every business and personal user should be running effective and fully updated anti-virus software to protect their data. The potential for catastrophe should your computer system become compromised by a hacker is colossal. For personal users, this could equate to fraud. For businesses, employees payroll details, names and details of clients as well as suppliers will all be on your computer system and anyone who gains unauthorised access to this information can commit numerous crimes and fraud with it. 

What software do you need?

Whether you’re looking to manage your personal finances or want software for business use, there are a few systems you should always prioritise. Accounting software is always a good place to start and helps you keep an accurate record of all your financial transactions. Budgeting software is also advisable and you should consider installing finance related apps onto your smartphone or computer tablet to allow money management to occur on the go.