Many people see unsecured personal loans as an unsafe decision, but they are a viable option for many different cases. When you need an emergency loan to spend more money than your savings account can handle, or want to have the benefits of fixed monthly payments that credit cards just don’t offer, personal loans can be an easy and effective choice. Here are some instances where getting a personal loan can be a great idea! [Read more…]

Financial planners tend to work like entrepreneurs. It completely up to you to build your business, know the regulations inside and out and serve your clients.

You may work for a large financial institution, but you’re largely on your own. There are close to 300,000 financial planners in the U.S. The other planners are your competition and your colleagues.

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For anyone just starting out, the prospect of investing is precarious and intimidating. A few decades back, an investor would call a full-service broker to seek advice and pay outrageous amount of fees to make a single trade. Those days haven’t gone completely though.  [Read more…]

Life insurance is something that everyone should have, particularly if there are people who are financially dependent on you. After all, you would want to secure them financially after you are gone. When it comes to getting life insurance, age is a key factor that determines its need and cost. If you are planning to get it after 50, the implications may be different from those for someone in their thirties.

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Investors can become fixated on certain markets or asset classes, particularly if they achieve high returns, but given current global uncertainty, diversification is vital to ensuring that risk is properly spread across a range of markets, asset classes and regions. As the 2008 recession proves, by putting too much focus on one market without proper consideration for its debt load – e.g. the housing market and sub-prime mortgages- investors can cause financial ripples that lead to global repercussions. [Read more…]

Once you own a car, paying for auto insurance is inevitable.

You must insure your car against collision, vandalism, and damage. Some car insurance companies take advantage of ignorant clients and charge exaggerated premium rates.

If you’re not informed, you will pay high rates thinking that’s what everyone is paying. You don’t have to pay more than you should if you know the average rates.

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Do you care about the environment? Do you recycle regularly? But perhaps you are also eyeing up investing in fossil fuel companies as a way of beefing up your portfolio.

It is easy to think that investing in fossil fuel companies is a necessary evil that can be offset in other areas of your life. However, fossil fuels are not only quickly becoming unprofitable as the world changes they can also damage your reputation if you want to set up other businesses.

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About one-third of American households have saved $1,000 or less. Between long-term and short-term financial goals, $1,000 simply isn’t going to cut it. What about retirement, real estate down payments, or even a simple emergency fund?

The problem isn’t that people don’t want to save; it’s that they don’t know how. Setting financial goals — and reaching them — requires determination and strict budgeting. If you’re saving money without any thought, you could experience a financial disaster down the road.

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