As depressing and as morbid as it is, we all have to consider writing our will at one point in our lives. This can, obviously, be done as early or as late as you wish. However, if you fear the worst, then it is best to have things sorted, just incase something tragic does happen. With that in mind, here are three important things to consider when sorting out your will.

Who Will Benefit From It

The likelihood is that you want those closest to you to benefit from your will. This can be achieved through inheriting your money or physical possessions. Collectively, this is considered as your estate. All of your possessions, finances, etc. must be laid upon somebody else upon your death. In most cases, a spouse or children will benefit from your will. However, this doesn’t always have to be the case. You can leave your estate to whoever you wish, or however many people you wish. If you are dividing up the shares of your will, then you will need to allocate a percentage to each person that you are leaving your wealth to. This can be easily calculated without too much trouble, or the need of legal support. There are also other factors that you’ll need to consider such as who will look after your children who are still minors (if applicable). You will also need to ensure that you have a secondary executor should your first die before you, yourself, have. 

If You Need Legal Advice

Others matters relating to your will may require legal advice as they can become a little complex. Firms such as Gillard Lawyers offer will writing packages and support to help you get those nitty gritty matters resolved. Situations that often require legal support when will writing are if you have a property with somebody who you are not married to, for example. If you’ve bought with a friend or relative, then this may be a bit trickier to sort out when will writing. For example, you may not want to leave the majority of your estate to merely a friend and would rather give more to your family. This is why it is incredibly important to write a will. Similarly, if you have a second spouse or children from another marriage, things can get tricky once again. So, it is advisable to seek legal advice on matters such as these. Likewise, if you have an overseas property or a business to pass on, then this will require additional, lawful help.  

Where You Plan To Store It

Finally, you need to consider where your will is going to be stored. In your own home probably isn’t the best of ideas. If you suffer a break-in and your will is stolen, modified or destroyed, then a lot of bad things could happen. Private details could be leaked, and legal battles could ensue upon your death if you have not realised that it has been tampered with. Therefore, it is probably worth storing your will with your bank or solicitor if you have taken the legal route. That way, your future is safe in somebody else's hands. 

Hopefully, this post has made will writing that little bit easier for you. Once it's done, it’s done. So, no need to worry anymore!

Car title loans present both advantages and disadvantages to individuals needing cash on hand the soonest possible time. The availability of cash to the borrower within twenty-four to forty-eight hours is the main feature of car title loans, which allows the person to gain a range of benefits depending on his current needs.

What are the things you should know about car title loans? Let’s find out.

How Car Title Loans Actually Work

With car title loans, the borrower would simply use his fully-owned car as collateral to a cash loan to be granted by his chosen lender. The loan amount, terms of payment, as well as the interest rate, shall be determined by the lender based on the market value of the car and the other factors affecting its value.

The beauty of car title loans is how quick and easy it is. You need quick and easy cash? No problem—if you have a car, you can get your cash while keeping your car, too. However, you must be careful in taking advantage of this main feature of car title loans. Otherwise, you might find himself more disadvantaged when it is time to repay the proceeds of the loan.

If the borrower agrees to the offer, he will simply surrender the car title of ownership and the car’s duplicate key to the lender. This means he gets to keep using his car while expecting to receive a cash loan within one or two days.

Some auto title loans can easily trap borrowers with their quick loan approval guarantee, shifting the latter’s attention away from the actual risk that they are putting their assets and themselves into.

Just imagine a car valued at $5000. The lender offers a $1500 cash loan with an interest rate of 20% monthly, payable in 30 days. The borrower agrees and gets his cash in just two days. However, while he gets out of his predicament with the quick cash, he also ends up risking losing his car for just the amount of the loan. Not to mention that he also loses $300 to the lender from the 20% interest in thirty days.

Furthermore, if the borrower decides to renew and extend his loan for another two months, he is also risking the total value of his car and even spending a $400 interest on top of it.

In reality, the borrower may risk more and lose more as this example is a simple principal plus interest computation. 

About Car Title Loans

Car title loans are popular because of it being a secured type of loan where the loan proceeds are based on the value of a surrendered asset. This means the borrower is not required to submit to a background and credit check.

Also, car title loans Fresno are paid over a short-term basis, which saves the borrower time stressing on it. This is if he has the money to pay the full balance plus the interest, of course. Otherwise, a new agreement with stricter terms and a higher interest rate must be signed just to not risk losing his car. As a result, he just prolonged and added more to his financial agonies.

Some car title loan companies can also be unforgiving and would have strict policies when a borrower fails to pay the loan at the end of the term. As a general industry practice, a car title loan company takes ownership of the borrower’s car as soon as his loan reaches default status. The company would in turn sell the car, and if it is sold at a value more than default loan amount, the company offsets the loan and gets to keep the profit for themselves. On the other hand, if the selling price falls short to cover the full loan balance, the borrower still needs to pay the difference.

If the borrower is particular with protecting his personal and financial information, the car title loan provider can guarantee him this. Unlike banks and other lending companies, lenders of this loan type will not look into the borrower’s credit history. The credit history will show personally identifiable information like date of birth, home address and social security number.  If not handled correctly, these details could be exposed and may risk the owner’s identity.

Moreover, the borrower need not worry about his credit score getting hit. Unknown to many, each time a bank or any entity performs a credit check; it negatively affects the overall score of the person whose credit history they are checking.

Hassle Free Loans

The initial impression most people would have for these car title loan companies are favorable. They extend quick financial assistance during emergencies, and only require documents from the borrower to extend their help.  But given both the pros and cons of car title loans, people must still be extremely cautious in choosing the loan company they would entrust their car to.  Just because these companies’ lent the cash without too many questions asked means they have all the right to exploit their borrowers.

It is difficult to spot car title companies that sincerely extend financial help to borrowers. Countless companies claim to provide worry and hassle-free loans in social media and in their own websites. To make it more convincing, some would have a number of testimonials from clients whose real existence people cannot confirm.

While it is only right to give these car title loan companies the benefit of the doubt, borrowers are highly advised to research not just online, but also in person. After a borrower gathers both positive and negative feedback about the company, it is wise to get a gut feel of what the company could offer by visiting them.

The moment the prospective borrower steps into the car title loan company, the general atmosphere and the behavior of the people he is going to meet could tell what kind of borrower-lender relationship he is getting into. Are both clients and employees calm and relaxed while communicating with each other, or is there an oppressive feel to the air? Is the company orderly, or are there documents lying all over the place? Scenarios like these call for the prospective client to just politely walk away and move on to the next company.

Different people may have varying views about car title loans. However, prospective clients should keep in mind that the true benefit of a car title loan is not determined by the process by which a person gets his cash loan, but how it quickly addresses emergency situations – like paying for a loved one’s hospitalization, which then provides a long-term peace of mind.

Few things in life feel more demoralizing than a massive amount of credit card debt. Every time you buy something, you’ll feel a twinge of guilt, knowing that you’re simply adding more to the balance. Since credit card interest rates are devastating, you’ll never come out ahead on your finances until you’ve paid off all the money you owe. Here are four essential Android apps to help you clear your credit card debt.

ReadyForZero

The name of the app should tell you what the focus of it is. The specific design of this software is to eliminate your debt, not simply reduce it. ReadyForZero offers tutelage in how to attack your debt aggressively. It shows visual displays of the hidden expense of credit card debt, which is the annual revenue from interest fees you’re paying bankers. The software will devise a plan to pay down your bills as quickly and conveniently as you can afford to. It’ll also send you achievement packages when you hit certain milestones, such as 25 percent of your debt paid.

ReadyForZero provides three tiers of service. The free version helps you build a custom payment plan and tracks your progress. The $10 per month version will actually make payments for you. It’ll perform single transactions or recurring bill payments, depending on your needs. It also teaches users how to change from monthly to bi-weekly payment schedules, increasing the number of annual credit card payments from 12 to 26.

For $15 each month, you can add the benefits of credit tracking, which is money well spent for most debt-ridden consumers. Plus, this package offers a debt freedom plan written specifically for the individual.

Debt Manager

Are you familiar with the Debt Snowball Method of repayment? Vaunted financial advisor Dave Ramsey champions this strategy. Even if you don’t know about it, you should quickly grasp the concept. A piece of snow evolves into a snowball because it starts small but then picks up speed and more snow as it rolls down a hill. The same tactic applies to debt management.

The underlying premise is that you should pay off your debts in order of precedence. You don’t rank them by the interest rate, though. That’s a popular misconception. Instead, you should prioritize paying off the smallest one, then the next smallest, and so on. Using this tactic, you’ll reduce the number of bills you have to pay each month, increasing your spending power for the rest of your debt.

Debt Manager is an app that adds the appropriate functionality to follow this strategy. It’ll assess which of your bills is the easiest to pay. Then, it’ll perform computations to tell you how quickly you can eliminate each of your debts. You can use this suggested timeline to evaluate your debt status. Debt Manager is only $0.99 as a download at the Google Store. It’ll be the best dollar you ever spend.

Coupon Sherpa

A subtle way to reduce your credit card debt is to enhance your current spending power. Every dollar you save while shopping is another dollar you can negate from the amount you owe. This app will update you on every potential deal on the items you buy regularly. Get in the habit of taking Coupon Sherpa with you on your smartphone everywhere you shop. Use the Samsung Galaxy Note 5’s 5.7-inch display to find coupons for what you’re buying, show the cashier, and you’ll pay the lowest amount possible every time you shop.

Monefy

Tracking your daily expenditures is a critical part of debt reduction. If you’re spending too much of your income on things you don’t need, you’ll never eliminate your debt. Instead, you’ll pay credit card companies copious amounts of interest for years to come.

Monefy attacks the problem in a clever way. It requires you to input every purchase you make into its system. Then, it identifies the wasteful parts of your daily lifestyle. Using this information, you will learn how to cut your daily expenses, giving you money you can direct toward your outstanding debt.

Getting out of debt can feel like a grueling process. When you download the apps above, however, you’ll feel like you’re taking control of the process as well as your own life, and you’ll have the power to clear your debt.

The stock market can be a very tricky and complicated market to understand. However, after you understand the basics and get the hang of how to buy and sell stocks, you just need to pick up on a few tips and tricks and you will be set. Stick to the basics, keep your plan intact and follow some of these to keep your investments strong and on the track. Also, I suggest checking out the Acorns website for helping managing your portfolio.

1. Limit Orders

In the stock market there is a difference in purchasing a market order and a limit order. Market orders are basic in that a broker processes the security trade at the current market price and that is that. Limit orders give investors a bit more control over the buying and selling prices. Before a purchase order is placed, a maximum purchase price is selected and minimum purchase price is selected. Those guidelines are used to execute an order. The price is what dictates the execution of an order. 

Limit orders can protect you because you can dictate the highest price you are willing to pay. Give this some thought as you begin investing.

2. Mutual Funds

Mutual funds are funds from a group of investors for investing into the stock market that are operated by brokers. The brokers who manage the money, attempt to produce a profit. Each person that invests is proportionally involved in the gains and/or losses.

Although mutual funds can provide great returns, many make the mistake of putting their entire stock portfolio into them. The problem is that they are high in fees and are loaded with regulations. The fund must outperform the market significantly to make much of a return. It’s very difficult to do; therefore, it’s best to wait on investing in mutual funds. Maybe if you have a lot of spare investing money you can arrange your portfolio so that you have some in a mutual fund, but definitely not all of it.

3. Invest in Good Companies

The best thing you can do to determine what stocks to invest in is to pick those of companies that are likely to be around for more than ten years and are going to be thriving and growing. You probably have a good idea of what companies those are. Start out picking companies that you know will be successful.

4. Ignore the News

The media is fantastic at scaring the public into making decisions. They will do anything to have something to talk about or cause a big story, especially when it is negative. The news can have a significant impact and influence on the general public. However, they have little influence on a company day-to-day. The ability to cause negative publicity can cause a public panic causing people to sell stock for no reason. This is what you want to avoid.

The point is, try to ignore the news as much as you can. The news is typically false or over exaggerating things. They want to cause people to listen or read their headlines and will do what it takes to get more press coverage. Do not let news cause an emotional decision.

5. Take Profits

At some point you will want to take the profits from some of your stock. Although it is good to hold onto stock at good companies for a long period of time because they can make you wealthy, you will not know how wealthy until you finally sell. Stocks do go down at some point and will not remain at the top forever. They will fluctuate, so pay close attention and sell when you think the time is right for a nice payoff. Always look for new opportunities and companies that you can gain from.

Becoming a landlord is a great way to make money. But there are also costs and financial responsibilities that shouldn’t be forgotten about. Here are the main financial obligations to be aware of.

Tax

There are a couple of different types of tax that you need to be aware of as a landlord. They are income tax and capital gains tax; these are the two types of tax that you have to pay. The income you receive from your rental properties will have to be added to your other forms of income and taxed as normal. On top of that, you will have to pay capital gains tax when it comes to selling the property. If you are not planning to sell the property, you won’t have to worry about this right now though. It only applies to homes that are being sold and are not the home that you actually live in.

Advertising

When you have a home that you want to rent out, you need to find a suitable tenant. Paying for adverts to find someone to rent the property does cost money. And you shouldn’t forget about this. You will have to think about which way of finding a tenant is the best one for you. You might think that you can lower costs by simply advertising on the internet. But you might not reach people as directly when you do this. You should consider using a property management company to find suitable tenants with good references. Companies like Froerer Real Estate can help you with this task.

Upkeep and Maintenance

It’s not just bad tenants that you have to spend money on. Even the best tenant will experience problems with their home. And those problems will require you to spend money to put them right. As the landlord, you are the one that has to cough up the cash to keep the place functioning. There are also the small upkeep and maintenance jobs that any homeowner has to take care of. For example, light bulbs always need changing, and fixtures need upgrading after a while. Over the years, these little expenses will add up, so you need to factor them into your budgets.

Safety Responsibilities

Before your property is safe and eligible to rent out, it’s up to you to make sure that it is completely safe. If it’s not safe, then you will be the one who will be held responsible if something does go wrong and someone gets hurt. When it comes to the safety of your tenants, it’s not something that you can afford to be dismissive of. First of all, you are obliged to make sure that any gas or electrical appliances fitted in the home are safe to use. Then you have to think about the issue of fire safety. Everything in the home should as safe from the risks of fire as possible. And you will also need to install the right alarms and other fire safety features. These things all cost money, but you have to take care of them.

So, is it that you’ve got some money and you want to see it multiply? Once you have your savings, budget and debt under your control, you might as well consider investing your dollars so as to make it multiply and help you earn money. However the investment world is fraught with risks and you have to be watchful about every single step that you take. People who get initially started with investment are overwhelmed about what to do and what not to do. If they’re not supported by some investment experts, they need to follow the required tips to become successful. If you too are a novice investor, here are some tips to follow.

1) Don’t be late and start investing now

You should know that it’s never too late to start investing and you’re never too young to put away some monthly amount and keep investing it. If you can afford $25 per month for investment, you should do that even. Remember that there will be ups and downs in the world of investment but that shouldn’t mow you down or discourage you from trying harder. If you start earlier, the compounding rates of return will become more by the time you retire.

2) Speak to someone who has enough knowledge

Next you need to watch out for your options or speak to an advisor who specialises in the type of investment you’re engaged in. Ask him whether or not you need to open a TFSA or a tax free savings account or whether you can invest in an RRSP or a registered retirement savings plan. Once you get to comprehend the various accounts and their significance, you can end up with taking better and appropriate decisions. 

3) Start with what you already know

One of the easiest ways of moving into the stock market is buying things with which you’re already familiar. If you already own an iPhone or an iPad, a good strategy would be to start off with Apple’s shares. But that should be separated from serious investing. If you’re in your 30s and you’re looking forward to making long term gains, your strategy for investment should be different. 

4) Diversify your investment

Experts always suggest that all your eggs shouldn’t be in the same basket. Either diversify or die! Exchange traded funds and mutual funds seem to be good products for people who are young and those who don’t have enough assets with which they can create a diversified portfolio. Whether you’re a novice investor or a seasoned one, you should always invest in different types of assets so that you don’t run the risk of losing on a single asset during poor economic conditions.

An eminent expert of Banc de Binary says that no matter what reason a person might be investing for, he should be extremely careful about the steps that he takes. This world can either make or break your future and hence it depends on you how you tackle your fortune.