Best Finance Network
Get the best connectivity about finance.

In a sharp contrast with your domestic bank accounts, your offshore banking service will provide you with the option of choosing currencies to be held in your accounts. It’s really a valuable feature for all your offshore accounts as it provides you with the option of maintaining funds in a different currency than your domestic one. It’s of great help when the domestic currency is likely to get depreciated. It’s important for you to identify the factors that drive exchange rates. You must also understand the effects of maintaining your account with various currencies. Your deposits may yield considerable interest when you pick certain currencies for holding currencies. It might even contribute towards foreign tax liability. Depending on exchange rates and fee structure, you might need to bear the expense of exchanging currencies for making withdrawals and deposits.

Depositing with your Offshore Bank

International wire transfers are very effective in funding offshore bank accounts. Systems that make it easier for you to perform free electronic fund transfers through domestic banks prevent international money transfers. Sending or receiving funds compel you to pay your banks for international wire transfers. In comparison, it seems much simpler to opt for a wire transfer. Banks charge different amounts for wire transfers; that’s why it’s important for you to check out various deals. You have only a few good alternatives. Jurisdictions in foreign countries don’t allow you to accept domestic checks. It’s not a practical idea to carry funds on your own.

Withdrawing from your Offshore Account

In order to turn their services more convenient to users, a number of options to withdraw funds have been introduced by offshore banks. You may be allowed to access funds worldwide by any offshore banking concern that provides you with an ATM or debit card. You might need to bear a certain amount as fees for using international ATMs. That’s why it is essential for you to check out fees before opting for this method. These fees may even be minimized when you withdraw bigger amounts of cash for a single time.

Checking accounts are even allowed by a few offshore banks. A good number of customers don’t prefer this method as it demands a high degree of confidentiality. When you draw checks on foreign accounts, you may experience certain problems regarding their acceptance at foreign outlets.

You may consider using two accounts simultaneously – one could be your domestic account and the other one could be the offshore one. Offshore banking funds worth higher amounts can thus be transferred to your domestic account, so that you may access them easily. By following this method, you may actually ensure more security and privacy besides availing the convenience of services offered by local banks.

Keeping your budget balanced as a freelancer can be difficult. With a regular job, you have steady hours and a steady income that rarely fluctuates. There is a safety and a guarantee in your salary. Normal jobs provide consistent paychecks no matter what is happening in your industry. A freelancer faces a totally different world. You never know when your work will go through dry spells, and you must be prepared financially to handle these dry periods. Special budgeting tips may help a freelancer survive the hard times while they prosper in the good times. Consider these tips for a healthy freelancer budget.

Go All In

When the work is ripe for the picking, keep your nose to the grind stone. You should work extra if at all possible when there is plenty of work for your choice. As a freelancer you probably have a set amount of hours or projects you complete each week. When the work is steadily coming through, you should increase your schedule to match it. If you make extra money when it is there to be made, you can put some of it into your savings account and send money online to an emergency fund. You’ll inevitably find some times when the work isn’t so plentiful, and you should be ready.

Cut Down Costs

If you work from home, you already save money on gas. Did you know that you can also lower your insurance premiums on your vehicle if you drive less miles? If you report to your insurance company that you work from home, you could qualify for a discount due to driving fewer miles per year. You can also claim some of your needs as business expenses and get tax refunds for them. For example, you may claim your monthly internet bill in certain circumstances if you use it for your work. You may also be able to get a tax deduction for your cell phone bills if you use them for your job to communicate with other companies or workers.

With some smart planning, a freelancer can make the financial gains necessary to survive the harsh times. Make sure to check into tax deductions for business expenses. You may be surprised at what your tax representative can do for you. You will need to work hard when the work if plentiful so that you take advantage of the best opportunities. The freelancer life can work for you.

If you’re a movie buff and coincidentally enjoy watching the markets as well, it’s likely you’ve seen the movie Wall Street. The villain, Gordon Gekko, is a fictional stock broker who, while being exceptionally greedy, had a knack for managing investments. Albeit fictional, he became a huge symbol for all the negative aspects of a stock broker.

Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, even labeled the perpetrators of the 2008 financial crisis as “Children of Gordon Gekko”. The character is said to be loosely based on a collection of stock broker personalities including Michael Robert Milken who was indicted for racketeering and securities fraud back in the late 80s.

Obviously, this is not how the majority of stock brokers behave, so don’t let this movie skew your perception of the career. Rather, learn the true nature of the profession and gain insights from some of the most successful brokers and hedge fund managers who intend on building positive legacies for themselves. Here are four notable individuals who fit that description:

Chris Gardner

Well known for the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness”, Chris Gardner worked hard at Dean Witter Reynolds as an unpaid intern while homeless and caring for his only son in 1981. They would sleep in bathrooms and church shelters and he would be the first one in and last one out of the office aggressively calling potential clients. He eventually was able to pass the licensing exam necessary to becoming a stock broker. He later left Dean Witter Reynolds to work for Bear Stearns and became one of the top earners of the company. He now owns his own company Gardner Rich & Co LLC and has a net worth of about $60 million.

Ray Dalio

Born in Queens, New York, when he was 12 he bought $300 worth of shares in Northeast Airlines and ended up tripling his investment after the company merged. He earned his BA from Long Island University and his MBA from Harvard. Ray began his career in finance investing in commodity futures on the New York Stock Exchange. He also worked as a futures trader and a broker at Shearson Hayden Stone. He now has a net worth of about $12.5 billion and runs the largest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates. You can find an informative animated video titled “How The Economic Machine Works” on YouTube where he shares his extensive experience of the investment world.

David Tepper

He has been listed by Forbes Magazine as one of the 25 Highest-Earning hedge fund managers in 2013 and earned a whopping 61% return focusing on distressed bonds in 2001. He began his career in finance in the treasury department of Republic Steel in Ohio and later became a credit analyst at Goldman Sachs. The hedge fund firm he leads is Appaloosa Management and has earn substantial returns over the course of its history. In 2012, the firm earned a 30% return because of pinpoint exchanges on certain securities. He has a net worth of about $7 billion and engages in various philanthropic activities mainly in education and hunger. In 2003, he made a considerable $55,000,000 donation to Carnegie Mellon University’s business school. He’s leaving quite a legacy.

Bruce Kovner

This hedge fund manager has been around the block a few times, literally. He became a taxi cab driver at age 31 after quitting his Harvard PhD studies because of writers block. It was then when he decided to engage in derivatives by investing $3,000 from his MasterCard into soybean futures contracts. He didn’t accurately assess the risk of the investment when it grew to $45,000 because he waited till the price dropped to $23,000 before selling. He cites that experience as an important lesson in risk management. He eventually became a trader at Commodities Corporation which is now connected to Goldman Sachs. Currently he’s the chairman of Juilliard where he learned how to play the harpsichord. His net worth is $4.3 billion.

If interested in learning more about a career as a stock broker, visit http://www.stockbrokersalary.biz to read up on informative articles related to the profession. Also, find out how to market yourself as a stock broker to increase your client base.

Considering our invest goals is our very first step towards a successful investment. In order to choose your best investment option, you must determine the investment type that suits your requirements. Both investing and saving need to be defined ahead of all other things; in comparison to a long term engagement like investing, saving is an engagement for a short period.

Expenses like going out on vacations, paying fees for college tuitions, making a down payment for your home and buying a car are included within your saving goals. When it comes to savings, certain conventional investments may seem inappropriate as their value tend to fall with time. For successful asset management, you may seek guidance from an experienced financial adviser. CDs or online savings accounts that yield high returns may be considered as good options to secure your long time savings. You must compare various interest rates offered by online banks.

A proper financial planning takes all long term goals into accounts e.g. college tuition, inflation, retirement and other common investment objectives. Investing and saving are two categories that college tuition listed under them. The time frame you’ve selected will determine the group under which you’ll place each of them. Investments worth an intermediate length may demand more risks. For instance, you may take more risk towards investing money saved on your daughter’s college fund when he’s 10 years old than when she turns 18.

Pick the right investment vehicle

Your asset management plans turn successful once you pick the right investment vehicle after considering all major goals of investment. Remember, it’s not about jumping to the most lucrative offer that comes your way. You may begin with options that seem more interesting and funny like brokerage accounts, college saving funds, 401k plans and IRAs. Investment plans are usable only when they possess certain incentives or tax breaks for your benefit. Through your retirement years, you may enjoy tax breaks only when you choose retirement plans with tax advantages initially e.g. 401k and IRAs. For college savings you may opt for Coverdell ESAs and 529 College Savings Plans.

Open your investment account

An investment accounts needs to be opened as soon as you pick your investment vehicle and analyze your investment goals. It will just take a few minutes for you to start an IRA or get enrolled your 401k; it’s almost that simple. Opening your brokerage account could just be another option for you. It’s really simple to open your investment account; all you need to do is to fill out your information, sign it and shift funds to the account. Picking the best investment option often depends on identifying your investment types correctly!

No one ever wants to think that something terrible might befall them or their family, or even their car, flat or home, but unfortunately, these things do happen. Many wind up in quite large amounts of debt, or even bankruptcy, simply because something that they were unprepared for happened, be it an illness, a car accident, or even a home repair disaster.

In most cases, insurance will cover the necessary damages, but not always, and that is where the concept of having an emergency fund comes into play. An emergency fund, also called a rainy day fund by some, is basically just as it sounds a stash of money which has been saved and is to be used in the event of an emergency.

Many people stockpile their emergency fund for things like sudden car repairs, say on the way to the office the brakes on your automobile start squeaking, unless you have planned for brake replacements, or have your rainy day fund in place, it could be quite difficult to just reach into the wallet and fork over hundreds of pounds for an unexpected issue. Home repair problems are another big source of uses for any emergency fund, a flooded shower, a termite infestation, a hole in the roof, are all things that can put any sort of emergency fund to use quickly.

And in this volatile economy, building up an emergency fund is an intelligent idea for if another deep market fluctuation occurs and jobs are made redundant, getting sacked, while certainly an unexpected disappointment, might not be quite as terrible if a few months mortgage were sitting in the rainy day fund.

So how to get started, right then, first things first, take a look at your budget and determine just how much funds you will be able to put away. Next, set up an automatic withdrawal from your account, preferably right at the same time you might receive each pay check, then you won’t even know the money was ever there. Set up these withdrawals each month, or even every two weeks. After six months or so of saving, you will be pleasantly surprised to find such a tidy sum sitting in your emergency fund.

The goal of this fund is really to never use it. Do not borrow from the emergency fund to go on holiday, or buy the family Christmas gifts, the funds in that account are only be used in case of an emergency. Once this fund is set up, you will be able to rest easily that if any unexpected crisis were to occur, you would be able to finance it with the money in your emergency fund (or at least partially finance it), and not skip much of a beat in your regular financial life. It is a piece of mind that is relatively painless to set up and get going.