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Dropping the financial ball is something that may happen inadvertently when we allow debt to go farther than we can run with it. Staying away from debt is sometimes hard because countless expenses sum up through the month and control can easily slip out of our hands. However, you can prevent this from happening and yet stay away from debt by simply analyzing your actual financial situation and the way that your organize your expenses.

Planning is the Key

You cannot anticipate unexpected expenses coming your way, but you can plan those that occur regularly to find out how much money you have to work with for something else. Creating a monthly budget is a great aid, because you cannot only plan the payment of bills, food, gas and daily living expenses, but also serves to determine how much money you can save, and make that money a cash fund to be used for unexpected expenses rather that borrowing money when an emergency takes place.

Avoid Loans Above All Else

No matter, if you are considering taking out an “inoffensive” payday loan, a personal loan, car loan, business loan, mortgage or home loan. Loans are usually the starting point for major financial problems even if you have the certainty that you can repay your debt. People often forget that if they are borrowing $100 will not have to repay $100 but a considerable amount after interest rate, finance fees and particularly with payday loans, very high interest rates.

Plastic Money is Dangerous

Another source of debt can be found in your credit cards. The more credit cards you have, the easier it is that you can become trapped in debt sooner or later. Be wise to use your credit cards only when you need them, even if you have only one, but if this not your case, determine which one charges the least in interest rates and make this your main credit card, but only to be used when you need are forced to pay with a credit card.

Cash is Still the Leader

No matter if people turn their heads back to you when paying with cash in a restaurant, do it anyway and you will be far from dropping the financial ball, as they probably have done sometimes. Cash is worth more than plastic money because it has immediate acquisitive power, can be use to buy almost anything, and does not generate interests.

If you stick to these simple principles, you will be on the right pathway to stay away from debt, and you can learn many other tips that will enhance your household economy.

If you are considering purchasing a life insurance policy in order to protect your family in the event of your own untimely demise, there are a few different types of plans that need to be taken into consideration. Each has their own pros and cons, and covers you in a variety of different types of situations. Several of the more common types of life insurance policies that you should study in-depth include;

• Term Life

Term life insurance is the most basic form of life insurance that currently exist. You purchase coverage for a price, for a specified amount of time. If the individual that owns the policy were to die at any point during that time, the beneficiary of the policy would receive the value of the policy. It is easy to see why term life insurance has become a popular option for individuals that want to secure their family in the event of their untimely passing.

• Whole Life

Whole life insurance is actually very similar to term life insurance, but differs in one major aspect. Instead of only covering you for a specified amount of time, whole life insurance actually covers you for the entirety of your life. With the purchase of your policy, premiums for whole life insurance will remain constant throughout the life of the policy.

• Universal Life

Universal life insurance is another common type of insurance that is offered by a wide variety of different companies. Universal life differs from the other options because it allows you to place any amount into the plan, over a set minimum premium amount. The company will in choosing investment vehicle, usually consisting of bonds and mortgages. The returns from these investments going to cash value account, which you can use against premiums, or allow you to build upon your policy. Depending on the type of universal life insurance policy that you choose, the beneficiary you may receive different types of payouts, with the most common type of payout being the face value of the policy based on the investments and premiums.

• Variable Life

Another common type of life insurance is variable policy life insurance. With variable life insurance, there are going to be a wide range of different investment products that are available to you, including stocks that allow you to grow your life insurance fund for your beneficiary. Returns on investments can offset the cost of premiums with these plans, and beneficiaries usually receive either the face value of the policy, or the face value of the policy plus part of the proceeds found within the cash account.

Moving ranks close to root canals on the list of items people would rather avoid. Here’s six questions everyone should ask themselves to help make moving less financially stressful.

1. How Much Are You Moving?

Whether you have the contents of a dorm room or a three-bedroom house can make a large impact on the cost of your move. Each box and each piece of furniture will carry its cost in time, sweat, and cash. Pare down as much as you can. Donate and trash anything that you haven’t used in the last a year to free up moving space.

2. How Will You Store Your Stuff?

If you are moving to a smaller place or have a temporary lull until the final location is available, using storage units might be necessary. Again, rent the smallest unit available that will hold your items and be sure to use sturdy stackable containers that are moisture-resistant. Look at the design of the new home and plan ways to store and organize your belongings before moving in.

3. Will You Need Outside Help?

If you have furniture or major appliances, you should request help from friends and family. Use their help to navigate large items with a dolly into the moving van. If friends or family have trucks or trailers, use those before resorting to renting a moving truck. Unless you are moving extremely large amounts, you likely won’t need to hire a moving company.

4. How Much Do You Need for Utilities?

Make sure to reserve some money in the budget for new setup of utilities. Many require a deposit, installation fee, or other initial costs. This includes electric, water, gas, cable, phone and internet, and garbage removal. Also, if you are the owner of the property, you’ll want to change the locks.

5. Where Can You Find Packing Supplies?

Buy your materials in bulk from a warehouse club or shipping outlet rather than the moving company. Or better yet, ask local retailers if they have boxes that they can give you for free. Make sure to clearly mark each box for the room it belongs to. Keep one “open first” box that includes toilet paper, cleaning wipes, trash bags, and whatever you need to sleep the first night. In all the chaos, it will be nice not to have to hunt for those items.

A lot has been written about strategies to get out of debt, plan a budget, and stick to it. If you want to be one of those success stories of people who have clawed their way out of debt on their own, that’s great. If you’re digging out of a particularly deep hole, or your shovel is disproportionately small, you may quickly realize that getting out of debt on your own is an all but impossible task.

As calls from creditors start harassing you at all hours of the day and you watch your monthly statements steadily increase, it may seem as if bankruptcy would easily solve all your problems.

This is rarely the case, so today we’re going to talk about the range of professional options available to you. In Canada debt program options include: Credit Counseling, Debt Consolidation Loans, Debt Settlement, Consumer Proposals, and finally, when all else has failed, Bankruptcy.

• Credit Counseling

A professional brings years of experience, a greater knowledge of your options, and, most importantly, a non-biased approach to your finances. They’ll help you examine your income and expenses and come up with a short and long-term plan to get you out of debt and keep you out.

This may also include negotiating with creditors in an effort to reduce the amount of interest you pay, lowering the monthly payments to make them more manageable, and lengthening the deadline for payback.

One thing credit counseling won’t help with is actually reducing the amount you owe. That’s fine – you DO owe the money, but if you’re truly in trouble, you might need a more drastic option.

• Debt Consolidation Loans

Debt consolidation takes all of your debts and pays them off under a single loan. That loan is now your only debt. This is incredibly helpful because you’ll only have one monthly payment, which is easier to track, plan for, and pay on time. It’s also possible to negotiate a lower overall interest rate. On top of all that good news, you can also lower your monthly payment to something you can manage more easily.

The drawback to a lower monthly payment is that it could end up taking longer to pay your debt consolidation loan off than it would just paying your debts back.

• Debt Settlement

Hiring a debt settlement specialist to negotiate your debts might be the best decision you can make. By speaking to each of your creditors, they’ll work on your behalf to lower the total amount you owe, lower interest rates, and set up comfortable monthly payments.

• Consumer Proposal

Despite it’s rather passive name, this is an official agreement between you and your creditors to settle your unsecured debts. You’ll work with a licensed bankruptcy trustee, and this option is pretty much the last step before bankruptcy and WILL negatively affect your credit score and borrowing ability.

The world of binary options trading has gained greater prominence as more people become attuned to the trading benefits offered. The simplicity of making money from what amounts to a higher/ lower choice of asset price direction, coupled with the potential for high profits has helped to fuel an ever greater uptake from this method of trading.

The accessibility of this trading method has also increased interest in this form of investment. It is so easy to get yourself up and running. Account opening only requires a small deposit and contracts can be placed on any of the major global markets from just a few dollars.

Here we take a look at three key advantages of using binary options as an investment vehicle and make a case as to why you should take a look at this trading method as a viable and simple way to get started with financial trading.

1. Access Global Markets

When you first open you account with a binary options broker you may be surprised to see the wide range of assets that are available for trading. Unlike when trading with Forex brokers for example, you are not restricted to the assets on which you can profit. All of the major financial asset classes are offered, including Forex currency pairs, Stock Indices and Commodities. It is also possible to profit from movements in some of the largest global companies with contracts available for purchase on major players such as Google, Amazon, JP Morgan and Coca Cola.

This wide range of markets means that it is nearly always possible to find an opportunity to take. Furthermore trading can take place on your account wherever you are based in the world, as at some point, somewhere, a market will be open for you to analyse and trade.

2. Weekend Trading

If this ability to trade a wide selection of different markets during the week is not enough, you can also opt to trade at the weekend with some brokers. While the markets themselves are closed at this time, many brokers offer the facility to place a limited amount of contracts on certain assets over the weekend. Due to the market being closed and the trader not knowing where the market will open first thing on a Monday morning, the returns offered for these trading positions tend to be high. Many of these contracts yield well over a 400% return.

While there is much more speculation involved with these positions, they nevertheless can provide a good way in which to make a high gain on your investment. You just need to select your opportunities carefully and only use small amounts of your capital when trading these outcomes.

3. Profit From Different Price Outcomes

While binary options trading is often thought of as profiting from a higher or lower movement of an assets price, there are in fact many ways in which they can be used to capture market moves. While the Call and Put option are the most easily recognisable of the binary trade, there are an increasing number of new contracts now available. These will allow you to profit from a range of different market outcomes.

The most popular of these newer contracts are the One Touch and Boundary range. The key benefit of these is that you can use them when no trends are present and markets are simply looking to ‘mark time’. These provide a further way in which you can use binary options to keep building up the value of your investment over time.