January 26th, 2012

Is It Worth it to Pursue Third Party Insurance?

Insurance cover isn’t just something nice to have anymore. These days, if you’re going to operate a motor vehicle, you will need to make sure that you have the appropriate cover. Third party insurance is the minimum cover that you can have in order to drive your vehicle day to day. Yet so many people select this insurance type without really thinking about what it’s going to cost them in the long run.

You see, third party insurance cover covers the damage to people, objects, or vehicles involved in an accident with you. It doesn’t cover you for anything related to your car, but it does indeed cover you for claims against you in an accident that’s deemed to be your fault.

So how much cover can you request for third party insurance? It depends — you can get coverage for up to twenty million pounds, but it may be costly. The more cover you ask for, the higher your rate is going to be.

Third Party Insurance

Third party insurance is great for people that have a much older vehicle that they can replace on their own. It’s better to pay for a higher level of cover if you can, because you will want to have protection in case your car is damaged in some way. Also, if your vehicle were to ever be stolen, you would not have any recourse under third party insurance cover.

Sometimes you will find that insurance companies won’t offer third party cover at all, or they will try to get you into getting third party fire and theft coverage. This means that you would have protection against fire and theft. If you’re in a riskier part of your city, then you might want to invest in this as a safety precaution.

Young drivers really might be better off getting a higher type of cover because their risk status might make third party cover too expensive for them. Insurance companies go off percentages and statistics, so they tend to feel that young drivers should have more coverage than older ones. On the flip side, if you know that you have a clean driving record and you have an old car, going with third party coverage can be the best thing that you could do.

What about damage to property? For example, if you get into an accident where you hit a traffic light or a stop sign with your car, your third party insurance cover would step in. You don’t have to make a claim — the other party would use your insurance information to call the company directly. The company will do everything on your behalf, as long as you have not violated any terms of your insurance policy.

In short, is it worth it to pursue third party cover in the UK? It definitely can be, so make sure that you do some comparison shopping and keep your eyes open!

January 12th, 2012

Want to Raise Your Income Potential – Start Thinking About Online Tests!

Working a regular job can be pleasurable or downright frustrating. However, what we really don’t think about is all of the benefits that we really can bring into our lives if we were to just use a little bit more strategy in our day to day lives. It would always be a better idea to think about what you can to make you current job better, rather than running around trying to look for new work. When you know that you have the skills to get things done, it can be really frustrating to not get your major career goals done. Yet it doesn’t have to be that way.

Let’s say that you want a raise. In most companies, raises go to the most productive people. The most productive people are often the people that are going to have the best set of skills that help the company move forward. So if you really want to follow suit, you’re going to need to go and figure out what you need to improve.

business goals

Online tests get you moving in the right direction. Most companies are going to want to see what you know, and what better way to do that than an online test? You don’t have to leave your desk, and you might even be able to take the tests at home and then go over the results with your manager.

Of course, you might have a company that isn’t sure how to help you bring out the most potential possible. This is something that you need to bring up to your manager. It might sound scary, but there are a lot of benefits for helping your manager in this manner.

For starters, you’re going to be seen as someone that takes initiative. Do you really want to go without the raise that could really make your life comfortable? Of course not. If you were to think about the way your life needs to be, then you would also be thinking about the money that you have to make in order for that life to become a reality.

Again, online tests are custom designed to help you reach your goals. Once you sell the idea of these tests to your manager, they can take it from there. They can design a test that discovers what you’re already good at and what other skills you need to develop. The more training that you receive, the easier it will be for you to become a top producer. Companies love investing even more in people that have a proven track record of performance. Of course, it really does all start with a single step!

January 2nd, 2012

Debt Relief Orders – Better Than Bankruptcy

If you’re thinking about trying to fix your financial life, don’t worry — you are truly in good company. Millions of people all over the UK have thought about trying to do something to improve their financial lives. Without a good financial life, it’s hard to really enjoy the rest of your life. You might think that you don’t have too many other options, but you might actually be surprised. It won’t be overnight, but it is quite possible to get your financial life back on track. Some people might be considering declaring bankruptcy, which is one way of getting a fresh start. Yet bankruptcy has many downsides, one of which is that it’s very expensive to file. So you have to make sure that if you are really going to pursue bankruptcy you really think about the benefits outweighing the downsides. What if there was an alternative that you could explore instead of declaring bankruptcy? There is!

Meet the debt relief order, which is designed to help you get a fresh start, especially when you have a low income. It is not a service for people that have a moderate to high income at all.

There are numerous restrictions and qualifications that you must stick to in order to pursue this option. The DRO requires that you have debts of 15,000 GBP or less, and a low income in comparison to your debts. You cannot have savings of more than 300 GBP, and you cannot own a vehicle worth more than 1000 GBP. So you need to make sure that you’re not violating either of these rules and you’ll be just fine.

Debt Relief Orders

You need to make sure that you get with an authorized adviser that will check if you meet the conditions or not. They will apply for the order on your behalf. The order is 90 GBP but this can be paid off in installments over six months. If you’re at the point where you need a DRO, then you can definitely appreciate this type of payment plan.

You also must make sure that you have spare available income or 50 GBP or less a month after paying your normal household expenses. As you can see, this is specifically designed for those with a very low income.

There are only a few types of debts that can be included with a debt relief order. These debts include credit cards, overdrafts, loans, rent, utilities, telephones, council tax, social fund loans, and buy now / pay later agreements.

If you are applying for an IVA, you cannot do a DRO. You also cannot apply for a DRO if you are trying to pursue bankruptcy.

Is this a good way to go? Well, that depends if you meet all of the requirements. If you actually do, then it means that you’re going to be in for some good news.

You won’t have to make any payments to those debts, and that means that you have time to actually save up some money as well. Your debts will be written off as well, which means that you don’t have to pay them.

Keep in mind that you need to let the Official Receiver know of any changes that happen during the time you have the debt relief order.

It’s a very restrictive process, but it’s definitely worth checking out if you really want to move forward. Check it out forward!

December 28th, 2011

Bankruptcy in England – What You Need to Know

No matter what country we’re talking about, it goes without saying that bankruptcy is a pretty painful decision that you will need to really be sure about before you take that plunge. You just need to make sure that you really have all of the right information before you make any type of decision. We know that if you’ve come to the point where you’re even considering bankruptcy that you aren’t doing this as an easy decision. it’s something that you really need to ponder carefully. Yet trying to find the right information online can be difficult as well. It’s a lot better to make sure that you have as much information as you can before you declare bankruptcy.

If you can afford it, hiring a solicitor specifically for the bankruptcy can be a good idea. This is a smart idea if you have assets of some kind. If you don’t have any type of assets, then you might be able to skip the solicitor and do it all yourself.

What you need to know first are the downsides to bankruptcy. Yes, we hate to start out negatively, but you have to know what you’re up against before you can think about anything else. It’s tempting to just push in and go for it, but the downsides can really push you out of the future that you’ve always wanted.

Bankruptcy in England

You have to know that even if you don’t hire a solicitor, you’re going to be looking at 700 GBP for your bankruptcy. It can be less than that, but you should budget at least that. And while you are bankrupt, you cannot apply for more credit in any way. You will have to wait some time before you can even begin to re-establish your credit.

Try to use this downtime as a way to re-establish your savings account and change your thoughts about credit. In fact, it’s been shown that people that don’t save really end up going beyond their current financial situation, causing them to end up abusing credit over and over again.

If you already own your own home, you might be required to sell it. Again, this is where the solicitor comes in handy — they can defend your assets to the fullest extent of the law.

Any luxury items will be sold off to satisfy your debts, and your car may be sold as well. However, there are ways to protect your car, especially if you must use it in order to continue working.

Business owners that declare bankruptcy will not be able to keep their businesses — the Official Receiver will close down the business, dismiss the employees, and sell off any assets that will pay those debts. Read more »

December 25th, 2011

Understanding the Difference Between Current Accounts and Savings Accounts

Banks and building societies generally offer customers in the UK two different types of accounts: current accounts and savings accounts. However, not a lot is mentioned on what would be the right one for you, as well as the differences between the two.

This guide aims to correct that problem straightaway.

You see, it’s all about how you will actually use your new account. Each type of account will offer different benefits as well as different restrictions that must be followed. How you manage your money is going to be very important in many ways, so you want to make sure that you actually take care of things carefully.

The difference is simple: a current account is probably what you’re looking for when you want to manage day to day transactions. You will be able to set up automatic payments, including standing orders and direct debits. You also will be able to issue checks and use a debit card that can be used to withdraw cash as well as pay for goods and services. It’s completely up to you how to handle your money. Some people like overdraft protection and check guarantee benefits on their current accounts, which means that they don’t have to face the risk of a payment not going through as planned.

current accounts and savings accounts

There are also package current accounts, which offer some neat features such as mobile phone insurance and breakdown cover in return for a small fee.

Compare that with savings accounts, that actually pay you some interest on your money. There are a lot of different accounts under this umbrella, including Cash ISAs and fixed term bonds. You can get a nice interest rate for a while, usually through a bonus interest rate.

Current accounts let you access your money a lot more than savings accounts do, but they don’t pay much interest — if they actually do pay any interest at all. You just need to look into what you want to do for the long run.

Current accounts are starting to offer interest rates, as banks have realized that people really want to have their money in one place and still see their money grow.

If you’re still not sure where to turn, you want to go back to the numbers. Make sure that you look at the interest rate, as well as how much money needs to be in the account in order to earn that interest rate. You will usually be required to keep a certain amount in the account in order to actually keep the account earning interest.

Don’t forget to really look at the fine print before you sign anything. The terms and conditions are what you will need to look at carefully. Don’t feel pressured just because the account might be part of a promotion going on at the bank. There will always be another promotion. However, if you don’t play it carefully with your money, you might be parted from it sooner than you think.

That’s why it’s so absolutely critical to make sure that you focus on the bigger picture and get your questions answered while you’re at the bank. Then you will need to take all of the information in mind to make your decision.

There’s no question on the importance of having a bank account — you just need to make sure you figure out exactly which one to get, and what terms and conditions go with it!

December 23rd, 2011

Income Tax For Newcomers, Take Two – Filing Your Taxes

If you read the first part, you already know that not only do you possibly owe taxes, but you have some relief and allowances to look forward to. This guide is going to cover how much income tax you actually have to pay, and how it’s calculated.

In order to figure out how much you owe, you have to figure out what your taxable income really is. This is done by taking your income and subtracting out all of your expenses and tax-free allowances. That number that remains is going to be your taxable income. So let’s say that you are left with a taxable income of 50,000 GBP. That would put you in the 40% tax band.

Income tax

You should also keep in mind that hit is for non-savings income. You will need to make sure that you’re looking up all of your taxable income by group — so you will want to look at the tax band for savings income as well as dividends.

Now that you know this, we can move on to the next step: actually paying the income tax.

It’s all handled through HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), which is where you will send your tax money to. There are some different situations that call for different ways to pay your income tax.

If you’re working as an employee, you’re actually in luck — your employer will deduct your income tax for you through your wages. They’ll send the deductions back to HMRC on your behalf. If you get a pension, the provider will do the same thing — deduct what’s owed and send you the rest.

This is referred to as Pay As You Earn (PAYE).

If you are self-employed, then you’ll actually need to register for Self Assessment and complete a Self-Assessment tax return. Thankfully, you can complete and file your return online or fill in a paper form. It’s actually better to file online because if you are owed money, you will get it back faster. If you owe money, you’ll immediately know how much you owe.

Self-employed people can pay their taxes in two installments, plus a balancing payment to make it less of a burden.

This is a great time to begin looking at your taxes and making sure that everything is in order. If you find that your taxes are too complicated, you really owe it to yourself to get in touch with a qualified tax preparer that can handle these things for you.

November 30th, 2011

Retirement, or College Savings – The Tricky, Sticky Situation

Your children are your life — and we’re okay with that. In fact, the children that mean the most to us are part of our lives too. It’s funny, the things you will do for your kids. Children and finances go hand in hand, but we often find ourselves worried about the future regardless. We want to send our children off to the best schools, but we also want to make sure that we can retire someday and not have to go into a job.

So the question is simple — do we focus on our retirement, or do we focus on our children’s education? Of course, upon asking you this chances are good that you would tell us that the situation is really not as cut and dried as we’re making it out to be.

College Savings

You see, tuition is not going to be cheap. Even if you live in the UK and your young student can go off to university without paying a lot of money, there are still going to be expenses. Room and board is one expense, and clothing, transportation, textbooks and other fees are another entirely. A computer — specifically, a laptop — makes things a lot easier as well. If you’re not willing to push forward and at least take care of your own needs, you’re going to feel resentful in the long run.

This is because retirement savings are a lot harder to replace than educational ones. Believe it or not, your child is going to have access to a lot of financial aid. Yes, they will have to make sure that they have good grades for merit-based aid, but financial-based aid is all about income. It’s all about enabling students to reach their highest potential even when they don’t have the money to do so. That’s the real backbone of any society after all — educated professionals and skilled workers. The power of seeing your children go on to really take on a great career can be worth it in the long run — and that’s something that we will not downplay in the least.

The best thing that you can do is make sure that you have an honest conversation with your children. Let them know what you can and cannot do. It’s cliche, but this is definitely a case where honesty is the best policy.  If they think that you’re going to pay for everything, they might not take the time to look for the right amount of financial aid. This can lead to disaster in ways that are hard to realize, so you need to make sure that you really do need your eye on the prize of retirement. When you are safe and secure, it’s also easier to help your children. You don’t want to find that you’re not able to get things done because you poured every last penny into your child’s education. On the flip side, you also don’t want to be selfish to the point where you put a wedge between you and your children. Your children are forever, and again — some people feel that it’s more than worth it to make sure that their kids are taken care of. It’s your world — define it in the way that makes the most sense for you!

Of course, even though we’re presenting the logical side, the emotional side cannot be ignored. You’re going to want to help your children even if it’s not the most logical thing to do. We don’t blame you for that, and if that’s what you want to do — we support that decision, too.

From a completely logical and financial basis, we think that putting your retirement as a top priority is a good thing. It’s just like paying off your mortgage — there’s no reason that you can’t take out an equity loan later on to help with your child’s education. It would still let you keep your home and you also get to make sure that your students are taken care of properly.

Now is the time to sit down with your financial blueprint and figure out what’s best for you. After all, the only thing that we can do is just give you general advice. It’s up to you to look at your financial goals and your children’s habits and see what will work out the best in your own situation. Why not start today? Good luck!

November 28th, 2011

Holiday Weddings Do Not Have to Mean Financial Ruin

If you’re thinking about getting married during the holiday season, chances are good that you’re in good company. In fact, you’re actually in really good company. A lot of people dream about going for a holiday wedding, only to find that things can be a lot more expensive than you might imagine. It’s better to really make sure that you’re going to be able to take care of just about everything and anything that comes up.

The reason why your pocketbook is about to take a beating is simple –everything is more expensive during the holidays. Add to this the reality that weddings are already expensive by default and you really do have a cause for concern. You’re going to have to realize that you just need to make sure that you really are willing to take care of things that come up.

The first thing that you can do for yourself is to make sure that you’re really willing to try to get things under control from the beginning. That means that you’re going to need to make sure that you have a good plan in place before you do anything else with your time. The last thing that anyone really wants to do is try to rush in without a good plan in place, and that’s going to be the reality of the situation. You can’t find yourself without making sure that things are in proper order, so you really want to be sure that you focus hard on what you want out of this wedding. A lot of people feel pressured to make their wedding into something that their family members really want to see come to life. That’s a really good way to have things spiral out of control.

Financial Ruin

Having a written game plan is going to make things easier. Once you know what you want your wedding to look like, you need to make sure that you are getting everything within your budget. Think about the features that are really going to matter. Do you have to print all of your guests a photo book with all of your picture pictures? No not at all. It’s going to end up making your costs go up. Why not just put your wedding photos online and have people look at them that way? It would be a lot smarter in the long run to cut down on your costs.

The more debt that you bring into a marriage, the more problems that you tend to bring on as well. Financial strain can split a couple apart before they have really had a chance to grow and know each other. So it’s really in your best interest to make sure that you focus on the things that matter rather than trying to think about what everyone else wants.

If you go online, you might be surprised at how many sites will help you design your wedding under budget for free. There are a lot of DIY wedding sites now because the age of the wedding planner has been taken over by the age of the Internet — people want to make sure that they are creating memories, not debts.

Avoiding debt to the best of your ability is going to really be the order of the day in more ways than one. You just need to make sure that you focus on what you really want to get out of the situation. Shouldn’t your upcoming wedding really be a celebration? Shouldn’t you want to make sure that you can really, really, really, focus on the person that you’re marrying before anything else? Don’t let finances take away the joy of what should be the happiest day of your life — start planning today, and good luck out there!

November 26th, 2011

Changing Your Spending Can Really Make the Difference in your Financial Blueprint

Spending. Saving. Spending. Saving.

We tend to go through a lot of different cycles in our financial lives. Sometimes there are moments where it can feel like it’s hard to stop spending money, and that life is just throwing obstacles in your way left and right. But what if you really overcome this and start having extra money? The temptation that you’re going to have to face is finding that you’re going to want to put your money in a thousand places, but maybe five are going to actually pay off.

It’s very easy to lose money when you don’t have a plan. We’ve talked about building a financial blueprint that you can use in order to get things done, but it will bed up to you to actually carry it out. Many financial planners talk at length about wanting you to have the best life possible, and this is definitely true. However, if you don’t believe it in your own heart, you’re not going to really want to get much of anything done.

Savings

So, what’s a person to do when they really want to move forward and really seize control of a greater life? They’re going to need to make sure that they focus on the bigger picture from start to finish, which would include thinking about the way they spend money.

We talk a lot about saving money, and it’s definitely a great way to grow your overall financial life into something exciting. Imagine a life where you can actually take a little bit of time off because you’ve got savings in the bank. When you don’t have savings, it’s going to be hard to actually do more than work all of the time. This is a life that nobody wants to live, but how does spending really play into it?

Well, the truth here is that you will have to try to think about the way you spend money. Chances are good that the beliefs you have about spending money is what’s going to play a big role in whether you reach your goals or not. For example, do you feel that you can never spend money? It might keep you from buying things that unlock new opportunities in your life. On the flip side, if you spend without thinking about it, you might be keeping yourself from an amazing life because you keep running into deeper levels of debt.

Obviously, everyone is going to have different ways of controlling their spending. But if you change the way you spend money, you might be surprised at what results you get. You have to start thinking about the role of money in your life and how you want things to be. If you focus only on the negative, you’re not going to be able to see the positive. But if you only focus on the good stuff, you might not see all of the things that can go horribly wrong.

Keep this stuff in mind as you begin working out your financial blueprint — you’ll get where you want to in good time!

November 11th, 2011

Original Creditors and Collection Agencies – Differences Between Them

One of the biggest reasons why people don’t try to fight their credit score is because of all of the different terms involved. Debts change hands all the time, so it’s hard to step back and realize exactly who owns your debt and how they’re supposed to take care of it. The trouble right now is that you’re going to have to really make sure that you’re thinking about your debt from start to finish — which means thinking about the type of collection that you’re dealing with.

For example, you might be curious about the differences between original creditors and collection agencies. The collection agency is the one that comes after the fact, while the original creditor is actually the one that you made the agreement to. If you got a cell phone from T-Mobile and you fail to make your monthly phone bill, the company is going to try to collect the debt internally. When they realize that you will not pay it, they will charge off the account by selling the debt to a collection agency. The company gets to make some money off the account, but the collection agency is the one that really scores big. Most people will not try to make any type of deal with a collection agency, just trying to pay whatever the CA tells them to.

original creditors

No matter if you’re dealing with an original creditor or a collection agency, you need to make sure that you know your rights. You need to make absolutely sure that you’re not just doing whatever the collection agency wants you to do. They might try to tell you that you don’t  have 30 days to validate the debt — or to get you to claim the debt on the phone. Never admit guilt to a debt collector because everything that you say is going to be recorded. Mind you that if you try to record them, they will hang up on you. It’s really dirty if you ask us, but it is what it is.

Your original creditor is generally going to want to do everything that they possibly can to avoid trying to sell the debt away. They want to keep you as a customer so if you really can make a payment plan with them, we suggest doing that. However, you also have to look at statute of limitations when it comes to all of your debts.

Generally speaking, original creditors aren’t going to mess with you on old debts — they’ve already sold it, and your debt has already passed through a lot of different hands. So you want to always make sure that you think about the status of your debt to begin with. There might be a point where you just need to abandon the debt rather than even give the collection agency the time of day. If a debt is outside the statue of limitations, they really don’t have any right to collect it from you anyway.

Now that you know more about the differences between original creditors and collection agencies, you’ll be able to make better decisions in the long run!

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