Thursday, March 12, 2009

Helpful Financial Advice Online


How can you be healthy financially? Do you have any definite ideas? Here I am trying to share my thoughts with you.

1) Make a habit of saving - If you want to stay financially healthy then you must have this habit. How little and how much you can save it’s not matter too much but the important aspect is your saving habit. So try to save as much as you can from your total earning for future.

2) Know the difference between “need” and “want” - We must have the basic knowledge of the difference between the two word need and want. Food, water, cloth, shelter is your need whereas entertainment goods like a latest mobile or car are your want.

3) Live within your limit - You should know your limit of earning and expenses should also be within that range. If expense outgoes income then you are going to be in a downfall. So know your means of living in better ways to make your financial position healthy.

4) Make budget for new financial year - A better plan always make your goal successful. You must have a pre plan to be successful in your life. In the same way your financial healthiness depends on a better budget. So when a new financial year starts make a budget for the year and maintain your lifestyle according to that.

5) Be careful at the time of taking a loan - Most of us need to take loan sometime in our life. You must be careful about the repayment plan and the interest rate on that loan. Do some market survey about the interest rate before taking a loan. This kind of small but important decision can change your life.

6) Get relief from Debt - Some of us have already ruined up their financial position. Huge amount of debt already there with them. From this kind of position how can they come out? The answer is simple, pay out debt. But again the question may be asked that how can they pay when they don’t have enough amount to pay! In this position they can opt for the services of Debt Consolidation or Debt Settlement. But you need to take professional advice before taking any crucial decision.

7) Try to earn more - Before everything the most important advice may be earn as much as you can. Your huge earning can solve all of your problems. Never waste your time idly, try to invest your every moment in thinking of earning more and more.

If you do have further suggestions regarding financial healthiness please share with us as your comment. I will really appreciate your suggestions.

The right franchise can smoothen the business start up process


If you are thinking to start up your own business, you have to make a very important decision in choosing the right franchise. You will be able to overcome some of the stress and guess if you have chosen the right franchise. Most of the reputable franchisor will make you go through a rigorous screening process before they authorize you with the franchise opportunities. The process will become smoother if you know the franchisor and this will help in moving forward together with confidence.

If you have some land that can be offered to the franchisor, you will get some significant advantages in starting your business from the scratch. It is a good idea to get some franchise consulting before starting this business.

With a successful franchisor, you will be able to purchase a proven business model, rather than having to give your own time and build one. When you make your own product, there is a lot of testing of the product involved, tweaking and revising. The process is a lot smoothened after the franchisor has sold you the product.

When you deal with the franchisor, you will be ensured of getting quality products, job descriptions and training programs. If you start your own business, you will have to develop these things first by sacrificing the time left for your family, recreation and sleep.
You will get a lot of ongoing support, mentoring and training from the franchisor. Even though you are just the beginner, you will have great products with quality service that might be the biggest gain for you.

The franchisor will do the marketing and brand recognition for your business. If you are independent business owner, you are solely responsible to design, build and pay for these items.

The franchisor will purchase the products at the cheapest rates, providing some benefits to you. If you have your own business, cutting deals on small amounts of product, supplies can be an unforgiving bunch.

Franchising is closely regulated, thereby making the track records easier to access along with quality standards, and to solve problems should they arise.

Franchise business is good for someone who wants to start a business but you should be aware of the following disadvantages.

You will have to pay a fee for purchasing the franchise package. The fee keeps getting higher if you are dealing with a successful franchisor with lucrative products. In most cases, you will have to bear the monthly royalties and fees.

The franchisor will determine and limit the size of your territory, and control your expansion.

For most parts, you will be fully controlled by the franchisor’s methods, timelines and processes. Although purebred free-spirited entrepreneurs might eventually find franchise controls a bit stifling and want to move on, the franchise model offers an attractive option to get into business.

Getting out of debt

Getting out of debt
If you are in debts and you know the reasons of how you fall into this kind of mess, the pain does not lessen when the reality bubble bursts. In some ways, it increases the pain. It’s a human nature to put the blame on someone else when it’s a mistake done by them. Many people will often put the fingers at someone else: Greedy City fat-cats; blinkered Banks; flawed governance etc.

If you are in debts, first thing that you should know is not to panic. Creating panic will not solve the problems. Instead, deal with the situation and try to solve the problems. If your level of debt appears to be insurmountable, remains very similar to what it was ten years ago, then you must take the following steps:

Seek help: talk to your family members and friends. They will be a great help if they can bring you out of this financial mess. If you don’t get any help, then go to the citizen’s advice bureau. They will not offer any kind of financial help, but they will advise you ways to come out of your debt related problems and if needed, refer you to some debt expert.
Prepare a budget for yourself: Make a list of all your sources of income, overall expenses including emergency funds. Deduct one from the other. Divide the net balance between your creditors, apportioning the largest repayment to the biggest debt.
Never avoid your creditors phone calls if you have started getting late in your monthly payments or even if you are expecting to get late. Talk to them and explain your financial situation. Offer them a new repayment plan that you can afford. They will be willing to work on your terms because they want to get back the principal amount at least, if not the full interests and added fees. They will certainly not like the idea if you tell them that you will stay as a defaulter if they are charging their high interests and fees.

Approach your local authority to ask for a rate or rent rebate where appropriate. See if both could be made payable weekly. Never fall into any kinds of arrears with rates as this is a criminal offense, liable to imprisonment.

Ask the Department of Work & Pensions if you are entitled to any supplements: eg Family Credit.

Do not take out any new loans to pay off the existing debts. This simply increases the problems because the overall debts will keep multiplying over the period of time.
Find all possible ways to save money. The more you can cut down from your daily/monthly expenses, put it towards your savings. This will create enough funds during emergencies

Try to find any extra sources of income. Look for a second job, if possible.

If you have savings use them to pay off as much of your debt as possible. The interest you receive on your savings account is unlikely to be as great as the compounded interest payable on your debts.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Five steps formula to your success on the Internet


Internet is a great place to make money online. There are many people who are able to make handsome amount of money through Internet and there are others who are also using the Internet to make money, but they are able to make average money. The reason is that you have to compete with people from all corners of the world who are online with the same motive of earning extra money. You will find people from different countries, religion, different ages etc. The important things to consider when you are using Internet to make money are you need to have motivation and hard work. Here are the secrets of how to make unlimited money online.

The first step in starting a business is to decide what kind of business you will be doing online. You should be doing a thorough research before starting it.

Once you know what kind of business you will be doing, it is time to book the domain and find the hosting company. You should be able to find a good hosting company on the internet at a competitive price. Now that you have booked the domain, it is time to make your own website where you will show your product. If you are a programmer and know how to make a website, you have saved a lot of money in hiring a programmer. If you are not a programmer, you can find a lot of websites who will host your website with their sponsorship ad.

Marketing your website is the most crucial part of your business. A lot of your success depends on what kind of marketing you use at minimum costs. There are plenty of options available but the most important is search engine optimization so that you can target visitors searching for products that you have on your website. Find one top ranking SEO easy book and know how to keep your website at the top on the search engines.

Another easy way to earn money on your website is to use Google ad sense. If anyone who comes to your website clicks on the Google ad sense, you will be paid for each click from your website on the Google ad sense.

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act under the Consumer Credit Protection Act


The FDCPA was initiated in 1978 as a statute of law under the CCPA. Congress passed it as a law to protect and safeguard the consumers from any harassment by debt collectors. It is often reported that the consumers are more harassed by the collection agencies when a certain creditor hires or sells off the account to an outside third party. They start receiving harassing phone calls at home, place of work as well as their cell phones. Many people get furious by such extreme illegal collection tactics and file for bankruptcy. The congress had to take actions and that’s why the FDCPA laws came into effect. The biggest advantage of the FDCPA is that it allows consumers to dispute the validity of the debt and get all the required information from the collection agency when they try to recover money by false and misleading information. This was not possible before the FDCPA laws came into effect.

Debt collectors pretend to show themselves as “Factoring company” or “collection agency” so that they can create the scare among consumers and immune themselves from the FDCPA rules. A debt collector is a very normal person hired by the original creditor to recover the payments from the consumer when a certain account is past due. They don’t have any special powers and the consumers don’t need to be scared of them. Debt collectors will usually use two communication methods when they are collecting on a past debt. They will try to reach the consumer either by mail or phone.
FDCPA laws apply on the following types of debts:
- Auto loans
- Medical care debts
- Mortgages
- Credit card debt
- Retail business loans
The FDCPA does NOT apply to the following types of debts:
- Agricultural or farming debts
- Business debts

If a collection agency is violating the FDCPA laws repeatedly, you can sue them by pressing charges and get compensated up to the extent of damages. You can take legal actions against them within 1 year from the date they started doing the harassment. If you are able to prove that the debt collector has violated the laws, you will get the following compensation:

1) Cost of actual damages
2) Attorney fees and costs incurred by the debtor.
3) Additional damages of 1% of debtor's net worth, for a maximum of $500,000.