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For people considering an annuity, the decision process is a daunting task. Interest rates play an important role when grading a specific product. The maze of information available causes a person to lose confidence in the final decision.

There are some key interest rate components to focus on that should filter out the irrelevant information and make the decision process quite a bit easier. Since variable and equity-indexed annuities float with the stock market, a broad focus on interest rate components is irrelevant. Let’s focus on Fixed Annuities.

There are four key interest rate components in an annuity contract. This should help investors understand where to direct the most attention.

Base Guaranteed Rate: This is the contractual minimum rate that the annuity will yield. This rate will range from 1-3.5% except in the case of a CD-Type Annuity, which will lock a higher rate for the life of the contract.

Continue reading ‘Analysis of Annuity Rates’ »

When it comes to financial problems and their solutions, everyone has their own unique set of circumstances, which makes their situation unique, and hence, the solution also being unique instead of being generalised. Hence, one should keep in view that whenever you are thinking about bankruptcy or IVA, it is important to remember that one cannot really choose one over another because each of the solutions is unique to different people.

Questions like the nature of work, income, home ownership, retirement and the amount owed in debt are important in order to decide whether to go for bankruptcy or IVA. Both of these insolvency solutions keep your ability to borrow limited during the time they are in progress. For about six years, both bankruptcy as well as IVA affect your credit rating and make it rather difficult to get credit. There are certain kinds of debts like secured debts or court fines that can be written off neither by bankruptcy nor by IVA.

Continue reading ‘Should I Choose Bankruptcy Over an IVA?’ »

Bankruptcy is a very sore subject, that many people do not want to consider. More and more people in the USA and the UK are filing for bankruptcy, not knowing that there are easier options than losing everything.

How to avoid bankruptcy:

1. Financial activities are monitored closely by our tax offices, you may not think that, but when you put money into the bank, the tax office automatically receives notification of the transaction. Always pay tax on anything you earn, or you will find yourself being caught out later down the line

Continue reading ‘My Alternatives to Bankruptcy’ »

Where does a person go to satisfy their desire for a safe investment with a reasonably high-yield? Looking through the best search engines on the web doesn’t offer much of an answer.

You will likely find several investment offerings ranging from tax liens to real estate funds yielding 12% or more that are commonly solicited. The fine print likely suggests that the investor bears all risk associated with such offerings. So much for safety!

If you want true safety, you really are stuck with government notes, certificates of deposits etc. As of this writing, five-year yields for treasury bills are under 2% and CDs average around 3%. For safety these days, high-yields go out the window as well.

Many investors who either need a place to stuff cash or need to ditch the volatility of the current markets are having a hard time finding the best of both worlds: a high-yield safe investment.

Continue reading ‘High Yield Safe Investments’ »

A lien is a security interest held by a lender or service provider on an individual’s property, effectively turning the property into collateral pending payment of the outstanding amount owed. A lien may be consensually applied to property, as is often the case with mortgages (especially second mortgages) and “mechanic’s liens” related to financing property improvements.

A lien may also be non-consensually imposed, frequently by tax authorities to secure the payment of taxes and penalties owed or by the courts to secure the payment of amounts handed down in a judgment. Although there are many types of liens, all of which have different effects, most liens have three primary effects.

The first, and most important, effect is to create the possibility of the creditor or service provider taking control of the property if certain conditions are met. Unlike most Common Law jurisdictions, in the United States a lien generally does not result in the creditor taking actual possession of the property, but it can under certain circumstances. These circumstances vary by the type of lien in question, but the ultimate point is to give the person owed money a secure interest in the property. Some, though not all, liens are also exempt from being discharged even through bankruptcy proceedings.

Continue reading ‘Your Credit Score – The Effect of Liens’ »

Financial products, like everything else, evolve over time. Financial institutions are constantly working to develop new products that will give them a competitive edge against other companies. The market nowadays is flooded with too many new, flashy products that are really untested in the long run.

Some very simple economic and physical laws govern how money works. In an attempt to appeal to more clients and crush the competition, insurance companies hire mathematicians to tweak those laws, formulas and equations to create a product that looks like a new gold standard. In order to account for excess risk exposure, the fine print in the contract will usually make up for anything that seems to good to be true.

I am reminded of a great quote from Warren Buffett: “Beware geeks bearing formulas.”

Much more can be accomplished if an investor sticks with simple products and a better strategy. When push comes to shove, fixed annuities can perform as well or better for a solid retirement plan that any of those flashy indexed and variable products. With a fixed annuity, you know what to expect and that’s exactly what you get. Simple products do that.

Continue reading ‘Why I Like Fixed Annuities’ »

Credit repair is sometimes truly such a complex task replete with demanding technical jargon and numerous steps that it can cause problems for the seasoned of so-called professionals. Thus, it is perhaps inevitable in the process of credit repair that people make errors. In this article, I hope to point out some of the more regular credit repair errors so that your credit repair efforts will not go to waste with a silly mistake that should have been avoided in the first place. Let’s start with the first – and that is trying to make countless in doubt entries.

One concept most have is they must to dispute with the big three all the destructive issues on their report. What does the act really say? What the act states is cleanly, if the disputed entry cannot be substantiated in 30 days is must be removed from the report. When most people glance at this, they believe they must argue every single issue on their credit history and the truth is you do not have to argue it all. Your just wasting your time doing that. Another oversight is you believe or others tell you to declare bankruptcy and it will clear up all the issues and this is NOT the case 80% of the time. Continue reading ‘How to Repair Credit – Knowing How to Do it Correctly’ »

So who needs credit counseling? Anybody whose debt loads are running high and who are thinking of filing bankruptcy, need counseling with their finances. Counseling services are meant to negotiate with your creditor for lower payments. More and more counseling on credit services are seen as they are encouraged by the payment system that is called the ‘fair share’.

If you are able to handle your finances well and pay your bills in time you are one amongst those who don’t need counseling. But if you see your bills mounting and you are panic stricken with too much debt to handle, you can seek help from a debt counselor. There are tell-tale signs to understand when you need counseling. They are:

• When all that you think you can afford to pay is the minimums on your credit.
• You have been late with your payments on one or more of your bills.
• Collection agencies or creditors are pestering you to pay up.
• You have not been able to negotiate with your creditors for an affordable payment plan.

Continue reading ‘Credit Counseling – How Does it Help?’ »

That is a simple question with a detailed answer. There are a lot of reasons why annuities are the perfect product for certain people.

Stock Market Volatility- safe steady growth has always held up competitively against the high risk/high return ideology. Dramatic swings in the market seriously hinder long-term growth. See the section “which 10%” for an illustration of how this works. Growth within an annuity is stable and consistent, giving the investor a much better idea of what to expect.

Global Financial Uncertainty- Nobody knows what to do right now. Don’t let the widespread fears of the investor class deter you from achieving reasonable growth on your assets and also protecting them from eroding factors such as taxes and inflation among other factors.

Continue reading ‘Why Buy Annuities?’ »

Now, we all know what credit cards are, and they often rule the consumer capitalistic world that we live in today. In fact, in most developed countries, anyone and everyone will actually have their hands on a credit card, and the world often revolves around this plastic. So what you need to know about credit cards is often in the thick manual that they give out to you, but is that all that you know about credit cards? You need to know that there is much more information that you do not know when it comes to this plastic little entity that you keep in your wallet.

This is why this article is here to address one of the aspects of the credit card that most people and banks would like that you do not know about. Remember that the al mighty credit card is the main way that banks are making money from their consumers. Interest rates are actually earning banks millions of dollars a month, and you need to be able to find a way to negate this. This article will be talking a little on the credit card balance transfers and the things that you might be interested in knowing about this.

Continue reading ‘The Truth About Credit Card Balance Transfers’ »