When you hear advertisements claiming to "fix" your credit, you should consider changing the station. There is no quick "credit fix." The best that you or anyone else can do is identify and corre... |
Other than winning the lottery, it is impossible to obtain financial freedom without a financial budget. Developing and living by a budget allows you to track your income as well as your expenses.... |
The housing market is experiencing serious problems. With resets of Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM), hundreds of thousands of Americans are losing their homes. What can you do? Too often, homeo... |
Our Banking courses are designed to educate consumers on all aspects of banking. It includes basic topics on choosing a bank, learning the differences between banks and credit unions, properly ... |
The Budgeting courses not only show you step by step how to establish and maintain a budget, they also educate you on how to make the purchases you need without busting your budget wide open. I... |
Wealth creation is not limited to making more and more money. It also focuses on some of the schemes and scams currently flooding the internet, mailboxes and phone lines worldwide. Accordingly... |
Reuters - U.S. mortgage foreclosure filings dropped for a second straight month in February, and notched the smallest annual increase in four years as housing-rescue efforts contained activity, a report released on Thursday showed.
The dollar was mixed against other currencies Thursday, down against the pound and flat against the euro and yen, ahead of U.S. economic data.
As many Americans seek ways to save, people who lived through the Depression tell stories of life without luxuries.
Life Insurance
There are two types of insurance, term and whole (permanent). Term insurance is generally the least expensive and
least complicated type of life insurance. It provides insurance protection at a low cost for a specified period of
time. Whole, or permanent life insurance, is usually an appropriate way for people to meet long-term needs. Over
time, it may be the least expensive form of life insurance since premiums are fixed and it builds value. Plus,
this cash value accumulates on a tax-deferred basis and it can also be borrowed against in case of financial
emergency.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you have either a personal or employer-provided life insurance policy?
- Do you have other policies (i.e. burial, cancer, accident, etc.)?
- Do you have a Last Will and Testament or a Written Trust?
- Have you appointed an Executor to oversee your estate?
- Does your Executor or Beneficiary know where to locate your will or trust?
- Does your Executor know how you would like him or her to handle the proceeds from your policies after your death (i.e. give to children, grandchildren, alma mater, charitable trust, etc.)?
The answer to each of these questions should be “Yes.” If you have any “No” answers, do something about it today! If your only policy is provider by your employer, you should consider purchasing a personal policy because coverage often ends when you leave that job. If you have policies which were acquired several years ago, you may want to review them to see if an increase in benefits is warranted. For example, your five year old burial policy may be valued at $3,000 while the average cost for a traditional funeral today is between $8,000 and $10,000. Or, you may have allotted $20,000 for college costs when your daughter was born ten years ago. Unfortunately, the current average tuition for a public college or university is more than $12,000 per year and is almost $30,000 per year at private schools.