Published November 6th, 2011 at 9:48 pm in Budgeting with no comments
Tagged with budgeting control
Emergency funds are considered to be a necessity as far as financial security is concerned, since it can provide one with financial resources that one can resort to and depend on when an emergency arises such that when one is sick and have the burden of paying huge medical bills, or unexpected home or major car repair.
When one has no emergency fund, one can be obliged to acquire debt on your credit card that might take several years to repay with interest that would later cost so much more.
However by putting an extra thirty to fifty dollars every month in an individual “emergency savings account” one can be secured with what emergency the future may bring. In doing this, it is recommended that one regards the emergency fund as an additional bill, to be punctually paid each month.
Yes, one can and should budget and allocate the extra money for emergency fund, as this is very significant when one refers to his “financial future”. Here, the goal is to create savings from budgeting your income; the emergency savings should ideally be equal to at least three months your living expenditures.
What’s important is that you should steadily put a certain amount of money aside, and only use it for real emergencies.
Not like an investment, the success of one’s long-term savings funds does not really count on the amount of return or interests but on placing a fixed amount of money away constantly and steadily so to have immediate access to it at all times.
In spite of one’s financial status, the initial step in the process of constructing an emergency fund is by knowing where your money is presently being consumed or spent.
When one recognizes and determines where one’s earnings are spent, then it will be easy for one to choose and make a decision where to trim down expenses. In other words, budget.
Budgeting is putting or setting aside money for anticipated and unanticipated future use. It is here that one sets up a goal so as to save. So set an emergency fund as your goal.
Read more of this >>
Published November 6th, 2011 at 9:47 am in Accounting with no comments
Tagged with Accounting
A balance sheet is a quick picture of the financial condition of a business at a specific period in time. The activities of a business fall into two separate groups that are reported by an accountant. They are profit-making activities, which includes sales and expenses. This can also be referred to as operating activities. There are also financing and investing activities that include securing money from debt and equity sources of capital, returning capital to these sources, making distributions from profit to the owners, making investments in assets and eventually disposing of the assets.
Profit making activities are reported in the income statement; financing and investing activities are found in the statement of cash flows. In other words, two different financial statements are prepared for the two different types of transactions. The statement of cash flows also reports the cash increase or decrease from profit during the year as opposed to the amount of profit that is reported in the income statement.
The balance sheet is different from the income and cash flow statements which report, as it says, income of cash and outgoing cash. The balance sheet represents the balances, or amounts, or a company’s assets, liabilities and owners’ equity at an instant in time. The word balance has different meanings at different times. As it’s used in the term balance sheet, it refers to the balance of the two opposite sides of a business, total assets on one side and total liabilities on the other. However, the balance of an account, such as the asset, liability, revenue and expense accounts, refers to the amount in the account after recording increases and decreases in the account, just like the balance in your checking account. Accountants can prepare a balance sheet any time that a manager requests it. But they’re generally prepared at the end of each month, quarter and year. It’s always prepared at the close of business on the last day of the profit period.
Published November 5th, 2011 at 9:47 pm in Loans and Mortgages with no comments
Tagged with long-term loans
Being a co-signer on a personal loan for a friend or family member is a very generous offer as it will likely mean the difference between them being able to qualify for such a loan and not being eligible. However, the decision of being a co-signer for a personal loan should not be made lighter. It is the responsibility of potential co-signers to educate themselves about how this situation affects them, especially with regard to their responsibility to the loan should the borrower default.
Most co-signers don’t realize that this loan is going to show up on their credit report. Keep in mind that this might affect your ability to get your own loan down the road as the personal loan you co-signed on with by used to calculate your debt to income ratio. It can also affect the interest rate you get your own loans at. If you feel it is a good idea to co-sign a personal loan for a friend or family member, do so with the understanding that after a set amount of making on time payments the borrower will attempt to redo the loan under their own name only. The more money you co-sign for, the longer you can expect to be a part of that loan.
Since the loan can both positively and negatively impact the credit rating of the co-signer it is important to set the loan up so that they co-signer can access the account information. This will allow you to find out what has been paid on the loan and what is still owed. Make sure the lender will inform you of any late payments or non-payment issues with the borrower as soon as they happen. Too often co-signers aren’t aware there was an issue with the loan until it has already impacted their credit.
While co-signing a loan for a friend or family member can help them, be aware of how it will affect not only your credit but your relationship as well. Nothing can sour relationships faster than money issues. It is important for a co-signer to look at the circumstances that lead to the individual needing one in the first place. If it comes down to simple money mismanagement, then you aren’t doing them or yourself any favors. However, it is the result of circumstances they had no control over you may want to consider it.
To minimize your risk as a co-signer, don’t make it habit of offering to do so for friends and family. The word will spread like wildfire with more requests heading your direction. If you don’t feel your own credit and finances can’t hold up if the borrower doesn’t repay the loan, then do not co-sign for a personal loan. It can be difficult to say no, but it is important you are able to.
You might consider having the borrower provide your with verification that payments are being made including regular statements or cancelled checks. To further reduce your risk as a co-signer insist the borrower purchases personal loan insurance that can cover loan payments for a particular amount of time due to unemployment, illness, or death.
Co-signing a personal loan for someone is more than giving your signature. You are putting your financial history and worthiness on the line for that person. It is important that you carefully review the borrowers need for the money as well as their spending patterns. If they owe other people money or continually live beyond their means, walk away with a clear conscious. There are times that being a co-signer on a personal loan is the right thing to do. Only you can make that decision. If you decide to go forward with it make sure you can afford the cost of any missed payments and that the lender is going to keep you informed on the payment status on the personal loan.
Published November 5th, 2011 at 9:52 am in FOREX with no comments
Tagged with market
The forex market is all about trading between countries, the currencies of those countries and the timing of investing in certain currencies. The FX market is trading between counties, usually completed with a broker or a financial company. Many people are involved in forex trading, which is similar to stock market trading, but FX trading is completed on a much larger overall scale. Much of the trading does take place between banks, governments, brokers and a small amount of trades will take place in retail settings where the average person involved in trading is known as a spectator. Financial market and financial conditions are making the forex market trading go up and down daily. Millions are traded on a daily basis between many of the largest countries and this is going to include some amount of trading in smaller countries as well.
From the studies over the years, most trades in the forex market are done between banks and this is called interbank. Banks make up about 50 percent of the trading in the forex market. So, if banks are widely using this method to make money for stockholders and for their own bettering of business, you know the money must be there for the smaller investor, the fund mangers to use to increase the amount of interest paid to accounts. Banks trade money daily to increase the amount of money they hold. Overnight a bank will invest millions in forex markets, and then the next day make that money available to the public in their savings, checking accounts and etc.
Commercial companies are also trading more often in the forex markets. The commercial companies such as Deutsche bank, UBS, Citigroup, and others such as HSBC, Braclays, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, and still others such as Goldman Sachs, ABN Amro, Morgan Stanley, and so on are actively trading in the forex markets to increase wealth of stock holders. Many smaller companies may not be involved in the forex markets as extensively as some large companies are but the options are stil there.
Central banks are the banks that hold international roles in the foreign markets. The supply of money, the availability of money, and the interest rates are controlled by central banks. Central banks play a large role in the forex trading, and are located in Tokyo, New York and in London. These are not the only central locations for forex trading but these are among the very largest involved in this market strategy. Sometimes banks, commercial investors and the central banks will have large losses, and this in turn is passed on to investors. Other times, the investors and banks will have huge gains.