By financen | October 11, 2020 - 5:37 pm - Posted in Home Buyer, Money and Banking, Save Money

Everybody wants to buy a home at some point in life. You want to work very hard so that you can buy a home and you can call it your own property. But owning a home is not an easy job. It involves a lot of challenges, especially if you are buying it for the first time. Following these tips will help you overcome those challenges as a first time home buyer.

Before you go ahead and buy a home, you need to first evaluate your long term plans. You need to make up your mind and figure out what you want to do in future before making this big decision. If things are not planned properly, then you might later on regret on taking this step. The home that you plan to buy should suit to your lifestyle and requirements. Whether you plan to buy a townhouse, condo unit or a single family unit, you should plan things carefully and make sure what you need.

Buying a home is the biggest investment you will do in your lifetime, so you need to contented with the neighborhood and the house should fit what exactly you want in a home. This is a big decision that you are going to take not only for yourself but for your entire family.

Another important thing to consider before buying a home is the amount of investment you have fixed for it. Though you must have thought some thing about your home and what it should be like, you also need to make sure how much you can afford for that house. If you are applying for a loan from the bank, you need to calculate the total cost of the home and your monthly installments that you will have to pay to the bank. Make sure that you are able to afford the monthly payments otherwise you will be at the risk of losing your home if you default in your payments.

As for the actual home buying process, it may not be as simple as it may seem. You need to be well prepared for all challenges that might come in your way; the headaches, hassles, paperwork, terms of purchase and other details you will need to remember about the house itself. If you face any difficulties, you can always take the services of a professional real estate agent. He will help you to negotiate the best price and also find an ideal home keeping in mind the future resale value of the property. The real estate agent will do all the paperwork involved in the buying process.

If you are looking for the best deals, compare the selling prices of comparable homes in that area where you are buying your home. You can also do your research on the internet and collect useful information. It may be possible that you find another home with the same features as the one you want to buy, but available at a much cheaper rate. So that will be a good amount of savings before you invest your money in that property.

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By financen | July 21, 2020 - 11:17 am - Posted in Save Money, Travel Finance

Many people don’t realize the importance of traveling to different places. It actually changes the environment around you and gives you peace of mind. Travel does not mean only fun, enjoyment and refreshment. The way we get busy in our daily life, it is a must to travel for a change to your mind and health.

When you travel to different places, you are able to do things that you would have never done in your daily life. When you are out to travel, you are away from your busy schedules, from your computer, TV etc. you will get more free time to talk with different people and see different cultures.

saving money for travelPeople travel for a variety of reasons. Some people travel because they want to have fun and enjoy good time. Others travel as a hobby. In big cities, it can be an escape away from the hectic pace of life. There are some other people who travel just to change and move to a different place.

Here are the main benefits of travel:

Stress relief: When you travel to a different location, there is a change in the environment and you get free from your everyday responsibilities. This gives you enough time to relax and rest. When you are on a holiday, you don’t have to set up your alarm clock to wake you up and go to office. This takes away a lot of mental stress and you can sense freedom. Stress relief is the major reason for traveling. The thought of traveling to a new place gives you the immediate sensation of excitement and stress-free feelings. Travel is a great way to connect you with the nature. It gives you a lot of relaxation mentally and physically.

Physical benefits: You may not get a chance to exercise amidst your busy schedules. But when you travel, you walk more frequently whether riding the subway or exploring the streets of a historic city or even visiting a museum. When you lay out on the beach, your body gets a high dose of vitamin D from the sun. This makes your bones strong and you get positive emotions. You also get other benefits like lowering the risk of diabetes, weight loss and reduce cholesterol level. Medical experts say that you should travel once in every six months for keeping your heart in good condition. And you also get better sleep after traveling throughout the day.

Cultural benefits: When you travel to new places, you get to know about that place and meet new people. When you interact with different people and see how they accomplish their goals, you get to learn some new ideas that you can implement in your life also.

Relationship benefits: You get some free quality time to spend with your family members, or friends and this will enhance your mutual bond. Meeting new people in new locations can result in a long term relationship for many.

Happiness: Many people relate happiness with travel. They buy souvenirs just to remember their vacations. They also take pictures and print it so that they can remember those trips that were about tasting new food, beautiful sights, historic moments and new music. Hence traveling becomes more addictive especially when you have more time and money, and many people enjoy it as a hobby.

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By financen | November 22, 2017 - 6:04 pm - Posted in Money and Banking, Save Money, Savings

Here are the leading tips for saving money on your next broadband deal.

1) Bundle Items:

The best way to go is to set up a broadband bundle because it will reduce the rate you end up paying. For example, do you have a TV and home phone deal with the same supplier? What about your mobile phone? This is an excellent way to bundle them together for a cheaper deal. However, the one issue is you will not be able to compare prices while doing so. This is why you have to keep an eye out for potential discounts.

2) Compare:

It is important to look at the options out there for your needs.

Are there other cheaper Internet providers in the area? Use a price comparison site to help out and make your life easier.

Some of the ISPs you should be researching include Sky, TeleTalk, Plusnet, EE, BT, and Virgin Media. Check uSave for the best prices.

3) Increase Contract Length:

This can be a good idea for those who are setting up their contract. You can aim for a longer term as this settles the agreement and makes it easier for the supplier to reduce your rate. They will want a customer for longer, and this is the best way to entice them to lower the price. For example, you could end up getting a far better deal on an 18-24 month contract in comparison to a monthly agreement.

4) Decrease Broadband Speed:

What is the maximum speed you require? You can look to aim for a lower Mbps speed as it won’t cost as much. It is all about recognizing the speed you need and what they are giving to you. Some may market a higher speed but deliver far less making it useless to pay more. You need to think about fiber rollouts too and ensure this is incorporated into what you are getting at home.

5) Assess Usage:

Cheap broadband deals tend to reduce your download limits or don’t give you a high allowance. ISPs aren’t going to put restrictions in most cases, but it can happen so keep an eye out for this as soon as possible. You don’t want to get duped with a proper limit that isn’t in line with your usage patterns. For example, they may end up giving you only 1 GB per month when you need a lot more. This is why you should go for an unlimited package as it will save you a lot of money that may have gone towards usage costs.

6) Find Deals:

You need to look for monthly deals that are appealing and targeted towards new customers. This is how you can get a better deal at the “true cost.” You want to think about all costs such as installation, activate, hardware, and delivery before figuring out what a fair deal is.

This is where a lot of people look for freebies such as free routers in the deal. This can be an excellent way to save.

7) Find Hidden Fees:

Are they putting hidden fees in their agreements?

You want to look for these details before you are docked extra money for moving properties or getting a new line. This is something you should be looking to negotiate with customer service before they charge you. If not, you should look to go with someone else as soon as you can.

Always compare rates and see what they offer for free.

8) Aim for Freebies:

Always look to get your hands on freebies because they will offer them to you in a good deal. Things such as tablets or game consoles may be up for grabs if you look for them. This is great for those who want to get a cheaper deal and may like the idea of a freebie. Even if you don’t want the freebie, you can flip it for cash down the road. This can help reduce the rate you are paying even more!

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By financen | March 18, 2017 - 5:54 am - Posted in Save Money, Savings

Life can throw you a curve ball at any moment and you won’t know what hit you. This unpredicted curve ball can come financially as well when you need lots of money very urgently. Setting aside money every month can contribute to making an emergency savings fund and makes it easy to have cash during the times of need.

Meaning of emergency fund

When you have a financial shortfall and have a fund to lean back on which can support your life even further for more time and in the case of emergencies is an emergency fund. Having a savings account is thus important when you fall short of cash or in the case of unforeseen incidents.

When you start saving and not use it for a long time it makes up for a long-term savings fund as you would have accumulated lots as you wouldn’t have needed it in the past. So the idea is to have two funds which you can use depending on the type of crisis.

Double planning

Money matters are always stressful and you must have a plan to fall back on if something goes wrong. Therefore you can use plan A and plan B in terms of emergency funds with the following emergency fund tips.

Divide your funds into two which will make up for your plan A and B. Having two emergency funds does the trick to lessen your burden and they are given below.
Short term emergency fund – Use this short-term emergency fund when you have an immediate requirement of cash and when you have none of it. When there are immediate emergencies like a car accident or breakdown or making an emergency payment use this short-term fund to keep you going and not falling behind on anything.

Long term emergency fund – In the long run somewhere down the line you will need a huge sum of money for meeting up with unforeseen expenses like when there is a natural disaster and damages your home or a family member falls ill and needs an immediate operation. With this case, you must remember to have sufficient emergency fund allocation in your account.

These two steps become a stepping stone to save for any unexpected situations.

How to save?

In this growing world, everyone has various needs and wants and satisfying them can take a whole lot of money so the question one often asks is how to save. If one wants to create an emergency fund consider to cut down your expenses and wastage of money. Saving little every month makes a big difference if it is too much then consider putting money aside every three months or six months. You can also consider emergency fund investment option where you invest in a fixed deposit. With these measures, one is sure to build their savings and use when required.

How should the fund be?

Your fund must have certain qualities that will make it easy to use and you must not have any trouble in getting the cash and hence your fund should have the necessary qualities.

Low risk – When you are making long term savings by investing in bonds or shares you need low risks as you cannot afford to have a loss when you are trying to save money.
Liquid cash – Your savings must be in liquid cash if not all some of them as emergencies can crop up anytime. Assets like bonds and shares must be able to convert into cash easily.

Accessibility – One must be able to access cash in a short notice for which short-term funds need to be created and the long-term funds can be accessed when you have a bigger emergency.

Steps to start saving for the unexpected
Getting started is the most challenging part in saving for the unexpected but with the breakdown of the steps one can easily get started and gain momentum. Here’s how you can build your fund.

Crack it to the basic step – Select what type of fund you want long or short term after this see how much you can contribute towards your fund every month and how you can achieve the target.

Cut down on the unnecessary – If one can cut down on unnecessary expenses like buying things you already have and eating out this can lead to more contribution towards your fund.

Automatic transfer – If you find it troublesome to manually make your emergency fund create a separate account and make an automatic transfer to that account.

Transfer investments – when you invest in shares and get the returns directly make it transferable to your emergency funds.

Reward yourself – When you achieve the given target of your savings reward yourself by doing something other than the usual for yourself. This will encourage you more and bring in confidence.

Summing it up

Savings are a blessing in disguise in case of emergencies, be it big or small. It is important to have money set aside for any type of unforeseeable situations. Start saving now and not worry later is the biggest point of having an emergency saving fund.

Peter Christopher is the finance blogger at Finance Care Guide and a guest columnist for many blogs that deals with personal financial management. He has devoted himself to full time speaking, writing and consulting on personal finance management. Visit him on Google Plus and Twitter.

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It may be the season when the pumpkin spice lattes when the leaves are changing. The holiday shopping rush is not too far away. You may be getting ready to prepare your gifts list, there are a few tips that will give you a head start and keep your budget intact.

As per the National Retail Federation, holiday sales are expected to increase 3.9% to $602.1 billion in the month of November and December. This number is a little bit higher than the 2012 3.5% rise in sales, and the forecast is also above the 10 year average of 3.3% growth. This NRF forecast is deeply blending the confidence of the consumers, consumer credit, disposable personal income and monthly retail sales releases.

Experts believe that this season’s spending increase is nominal, and many companies are also seeing average spending on the uptick, at about $160 per person this year. The shopping season stretches for a longer duration over the next few months leading up to the holidays.Money

This is that time when you can use it to your advantage. You can start purchasing from now onwards so that you don’t have everything bundled up in November and December. It will create a big pressure in your wallet.

There are a variety of shopping deals during the holiday season. The first set of deals start rolling out in September and October on apparels. This year you can expect many good deals on apparels due to weaker back-to-school shopping period. Put your hands on the layaway programs as early as possible. Go out and buy the best toy for your child at a much cheaper price.

Once the clothing sales are over, the prices on electronic goods will start going down. This will happen sometime around Thanksgiving. You can expect the maximum savings on that particular day. You can also save a good amount of money on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Many companies offer lucrative deals to entice the consumers to come off their couch and get into the store.

The final sale starts in the month of December around Christmas time. This is the time when stocking stuffers put their items on sale. You will get good deals on different accessories along with consumer electronics.

This year mobile companies will also do good business from the previous years because they will allow their customers to shop from anywhere and anytime.

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By financen | October 23, 2014 - 6:40 am - Posted in Money and Banking, Save Money, Savings

If you can learn how to save money, then you will know how to spend wisely. It is an art of knowing on what you need to spend necessarily and not on what you want. Many a times, we spend a lot of money on different things that are not practical and are bought on impulse. There are some practical tips that will help you to avoid such unnecessary spending.

        1. Going for second hand items – There are some items like furniture or curtains that can always be bought second hand. As long as your personal hygiene is not in question, you can always go for used items. It will save you a lot of money.

      2. Stop doing unnecessary expenses – Many people like eating out in fancy restaurants or going to their favorite coffee shop. You can save a lot of money if you can skip going to these places. This will also enhance your culinary skills that you never thought you had.

       3. Stop going to places where you feel tempted to spend – Many people like going to the malls and see all kinds of fancy items that will tempt you to spend. Before you can realize anything, you might have purchased many items that were not at all necessary because the saleslady sounded so convincing. If you want to save money, then you need to stop going to such places where you feel tempted to spend.

      4. Finding out ways for practical entertainment – Many people like watching movies or listening to their favorite song, but that does not mean that you have to spend every time on the matinee shows or go to see a concert only to see the artist singing your favorite song. Many movie studios do free advanced screening to promote their film. You can also try to get free tickets for night shows and watch your favorite movie. And if you want to hear your favorite song, go online and download it free of cost.How-to-Save-Money

It is not at all tough to find ways of saving money. Instead of going to the store, you can try online shopping where you get good discounts and other items at a cheaper price. When you are able to buy things online, it means that you don’t have to drive and burn fuel. If you are a student or you go to work every day, then you can talk with your colleagues and arrange a carpool. This is another good way of saving money in gas and parking fees.

There are many other ways of saving money in your everyday life. No matter, how much you save, always remember that a penny saved is a penny earned.

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