2009 January | FinanceDogma - Finance, loans, creditcard and mortgages

Settling your Debts

January 26th, 2009

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Debt is a major headache to every one of us. Too much of debts or liabilities can ruin a person’s life. It would also lead to unwelcomed psychological problems like Stress or Depression. You may have come across news which reports about a particular person who committed suicide due to surmounting debts. Debts can also cause other issues like seizure of your property (collateral security) if unable to pay a secured loan or difficulty in running your family.

Assets and Liabilities

To clear off your debts, you need to identify your assets (shares, home, land or property) and the total amount of your debts. This would help you to identify your net worth and also helps to take a decision to raise money by selling your assets like shares or surplus property. (more…)

Posted in Finance

Tags: assets, debt, debt consolidation, liabilities

Why to Insure?

January 18th, 2009

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Insurance plays a vital role in mitigating our financial losses that may arise due to unforeseen events. Any finance-minded person would buy an Insurance policy to secure himself or his dependants at the time of need. There are different types of Insurance policies right from Life Insurance to Home Insurance. One has to resort to the policy that covers his possible risks.

Health Insurance

As a human being we are prone to sickness at some or other point of our life. To recover from sickness, we need to undergo medical treatment. When it comes to medical treatment, we need to pay the medical expenses. When the treatment cost is high, it impacts our savings. This is where a Health Insurance policy comes handy. It covers the risk of medical expenses. (more…)

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags: car insurance, dental insurance, disability insurance, health insurance, insurance, life insurance, property insurance

Longer ring finger - More Money

January 13th, 2009

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A new research shows that stockbrokers with longer ring fingers make six times as much money as their rivals. According to this research, people with longer ring finger have been associated with higher exposure to testosterone in the womb, which has been linked to confidence, risk-taking ability, extra vigilance and quick reactions.

The research led by Dr John Coates, included 44 men in the study. Dr John Coates compared the profits of the traders over a period of 20 months with their finger-length.

Results showed that traders with long ring fingers made up to 11 times the earnings (averaging 6 times) of their counterparts.

“We were surprised to find that exposure to hormones in the womb had such a strong influence on future trading performance. But we should not conclude from this that only people with long ring fingers should be employed in the stock market,” said Dr John Coates.

Posted in Stocks

Tags: money, research, stock, stockbrokers

Multiply your Money

January 7th, 2009

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Money is a powerful tool that helps a human being to purchase things of his desire, buy foods, buy a home, buy a car, afford for vacations and what not? It is essential that we safeguard such powerful tool and make more money to lead a stress-free and happy life. It is not a good idea to possess all the money in our hand or as a single Investment. The surplus money we have apart from the reserves for our day to day expenses and emergency expenses can be invested prudently. There are various ways of multiplying your money thru various Investments.

Certificate of Deposit

Investing your money in the form of “Certificate of Deposit” in a Bank is the safest way but offers moderate return compared to other Investments. Some long term deposits may offer the benefit of Tax Savings. (more…)

Posted in investment

Tags: deposit, Finance, investment, money, Stocks

Think about Retirement

January 5th, 2009

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As we all are aware that our life is filled up with many stages, Retirement from regular job is a major part of such stages. We need to be proactive from the perspective of finance, at a younger age. We need to plan well on how we are going to lead or face our Retirement life. When thinking about Retirement, many may consider it as a period of rest and experiencing happy times with no job related worries. Well, while it is true that you no longer need to be afraid of your frowning Boss, there are other issues that you may undergo during Retirement life. Issues like Health and Financial problems top the list.

Speaking in a practical sense once you retire from your regular job, your monthly income comes to an end. You need to have enough money to make a decent living. While planning for Retirement Investments, you need to analyze the monthly expenses and other major expenses during your retirement life.

Employer Sponsored Retirement Plans

If you are employed in a Company, your Employer would offer you a Retirement Plan or Pension Plan. This savings would be of great help during the time of needs. Also this type of savings offers the benefit of tax deduction.

Life Insurance

As a person gets older, the risk of death increases. A Life Insurance is a great way to financially protect the family members or dependants at the time of his death (Insured). Premium amount paid towards Life Insurance is also considered as a tax saving investment in various countries.

Purchase of Home

It is better to purchase a home during the period when you are earning well. This would help you to reduce the rental expenses during the time of your Retirement. There are lots of Banks that offer Home Loans which you could avail to fulfill your dreams of owning a Home.

Posted in Finance

Tags: banks, home, home loans, insurance, pension plan, retirement

Mutual Funds

January 2nd, 2009

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Mutual Fund is an Investment Firm that raises capital through public and invests them in diversified financial instruments such as Stocks, Bond or Government Securities. The profit or loss accrued through such Investments will be shared by the Shareholders (Investors). Investment in Mutual Funds is a great option for Individuals who don’t have the knowledge in Stock Markets and also to earn more money than a typical Bank Savings Account or Certificate of Deposit.

Financial Knowledge

The Mutual Funds Investor need not bother about the Equity Market conditions after investing in Mutual Funds. The Asset Management Company (Mutual Fund firm) will have a group of fund managers who are experts in analyzing the Stock Market and invest the money of Investors wisely.

Better Returns

Mutual Funds have shown great results for Investors in the past. They offer good returns than Investments in Bank. Top Mutual Funds have generated 20 to 25% return in a year. Unlike Shares, the risk of loss is mitigated as the Fund Managers diversify the Investments which they predict to be more profitable.

Tax Savings Funds

There are many types of Mutual Funds. One such type is the close-ended Mutual Funds. Close-ended funds are those which can not be sold for a specific period from the time of purchase. The lock-in period may be 3 or 5 years depending upon the Fund Scheme offered. Closed-ended Mutual Funds offer tax benefits for its Investors. Although it is not possible to redeem your money once invested, many AMCs (Asset Management Company) offer the advantage of switching to a different scheme if you think the current scheme is not profitable.

Risk of Investment

Mutual Funds can also be classified as low risk, medium risk and high risk Funds. The Investor can choose the one that best suits his risk-appetite profile. Before buying any mutual fund, one has to assess the performance of the particular fund in the last 3 to 5 years. On the same time, one has to remember that past performance of a fund may not work the same way in the future years.

Posted in Stocks

Tags: bond, financial knowledge, investor, mutual funds, profit, return, risk of investment, shareholders

Know about Credit Cards

January 1st, 2009

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While using Credit Cards offer numerous benefits, one needs to be careful on choosing a credit card and should understand the right way to spend thru it. Improper usage or spending beyond your limit may lead towards debt. Although a credit card offers the advantage of paying the dues in small amount or a minimum payment, the card holder should understand that paying just the minimum amount due would take years to clear off the dues.

Shopping and Safety

Credit Cards are widely used for online purchases or conventional shopping expenses. It eliminates the need of carrying cash which carries the risk of burglary. Even if you lose your credit card, the Credit Card companies offer the convenience of immediately calling them and disable the particular card. You may no longer be liable for purchases made after reporting the loss of card.

Money at the time of need

Credit Cards offer the benefit of withdrawing money from ATM which is of great help when you are outta money. Even If you don’t possess enough money you could still afford to buy your desired products through a credit card and pay money after few days (next billing cycle).

Reward points

Most of the credit cards offer flashy gifts which could be purchased thru the Reward points. When you make a purchase through your credit card, you gain some reward points. Based on the number of reward points you have, you could redeem it to buy gifts offered by your Credit Card Company.

Choosing the Right Credit Card

Choosing the right credit card is a chaotic job for any greenhorn. You need to compare various credit cards offered by different companies. You need to analyze the APR (annual percentage rate), interest free period, Cash Advance facility, Balance Transfer facility etc.

Posted in Credit Card

Tags: american express, atm, balance transfer, cash advance, Credit Card, credit cards, interest rate, maestro, money, reward points, shopping, visa

Is Stock Market for me?

January 1st, 2009

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Investing in Shares or trading in Shares is one of the lucrative ways of earning money in a short period of time. In the same time, Investments in Stock Markets is risky and may lead you towards losses. Before entering into the world of Stock Markets, a person needs to gain a decent amount of knowledge about Share Market.

Apart from gaining knowledge about the basics of share trading, one needs to have enough money and patience to make profits. Share trading is the process of buying shares and selling it in a short period of time. In contrary, Share Investments refers to the process of buying shares and holding it on for a longer period like 1 year or above. Choosing the Share Trading or Share Investments is a personal choice of the Investor.
Market Sentiments

An Individual should understand that the activities of Stock Markets are prominently driven by the sentiments of Investors. If the sentiments are negative it would have a negative impact on the Stock prices and incase the sentiments are positive the stock prices would surge.

Stock Specific News

At times, the price of Stocks may be influenced due to stock specific news irrespective of the overall market condition. If there is a positive news, the specific stock would increase in value even if the overall Market is moving in a downward direction.

Global Cues

US Stock Markets (Dow Jones and Nasdaq) are considered the mother of all Stock Markets. The results of these Stock Markets have a great impact on other countries’ Stock Markets. Typically the price of stocks raises or falls depending on the global cues.

Demat Account

In today’s electronic world, opening a Demat Account has become a must for Stock Investors. A demat account is useful to buy or sell shares over the Internet and eliminate the need for physical share certificates. Market regulators in many countries have framed rules in favorable of the electronic delivery of Shares.

Posted in Stocks

Tags: exchange, invest, money, shares, stock investors, stock market, stock prices, Stocks, trading

Financial Goals

January 1st, 2009

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Financial Goals play a vital role in a person’s life to achieve his dreams and to financially secure himself or his family at the time of crisis. A proper financial goal can help to save better for future and manage your existing wealth in a productive way. Without a proper financial goal, a person may not be in a position to identify his future expenses or properly utilize the money in his hand.

Realistic Target

While setting a financial goal, you need to make sure that the targets set by you are realistic. If you set a goal that is very hard to achieve or beyond your capability, then it would be a waste of time and that financial goal will not serve its purpose.

Risk profile

If you are looking for high returns, then you must be prepared to take high risks. If you opt for low risk investments, then the returns will be of low to medium range. To take high risk or low risk really depends upon your personal financial condition, future expenses and of course on your interest.

Savings

A proper financial goal should always motivate the individual to save money. You can set a fixed amount to be saved in specific periods (based on your income). A real life example can be: My monthly income is $5,000. My monthly expenses are $3,500. I have a surplus of $1,500. I can hold $500 either by cash or at bank for emergency expenses. $1000 can be saved in some monthly savings plan, which yields good return.

Investment Strategy

The money you possess in your hand apart from the one for emergency expenses can be invested wisely in “Certificate of Deposit”, Mutual Funds or Equity Funds based on your choice. Investments help to increase the money you possess.

Posted in Finance

Tags: equity funds, Finance, financial goals, investment, mutual funds