What To Look Out For When Choosing A Personal Loan…

With literally hundreds of personal loans on offer, it can be tempting to take the one that offers the lowest rate of interest.

However, while we all want to pay the least possible in interest on a personal loan, there are considerations that you need to make before signing on the dotted line. Otherwise, you could find yourself more out of pocket than you need to be.

Payment holidays

So, you’ve seen the advert that says “Get a loan today and start paying it back in three month’s time!” We think: “Yippee!, I have access to a wad of cash and it won’t cost me anything until three months’ time!”

Wrong. In most cases, you will be charged interest from day one of your loan. This means that for three months’ that wonga will be sat in your pocket or spent a new car / holiday / debt consolidation /new clothes and will be accruing interest!

Unless the terms and conditions of the loan say otherwise, this is how you will be charged. So, start paying back the loan as from the very first month if you don’t want to pay even more in interest.

Redemption penalties

Redemption penalties are normally hidden away in the small print and relate to charges levied if you decide to repay your loan early. Legally, lenders can charge you one months’ interest in lieu of repaying your personal loan early. And while most so, there are some nice, friendly personal loan provider who do not charge you, so keep an eye out for these.

Fixed rate

When choosing your personal loan, make sure that the rate you will pay is a fixed rate and not variable. With a fixed rate of interest, you will repay the loan back in equal instalments and at the same interest rate over the term of the lending.

With a variable rate of interest, this means that the interest rate can vary. And while it may go down, in reality, we all know that lenders are greedy and love any old excurse to make a bit more profit from their loyal customers and will therefore hike up the interest rates.

This will leave you in a position of not knowing how much your loan repayments will be from month to month – which is no good is you are trying to budget – plus it means that you undoubtedly pay more in interest.

Bear these three very important pointers in mind when shopping around for a personal loan, and you could snap yourself up a good deal on your personal loan.

Student Investing Makes You More Money In Todays Economy…

You may be wondering why as a student investing would be a good thing to do. You have little cash coming in and a lot of expenses going out. Could you not wait until you’re older, employed and no longer a poor student? Investing is one of those things though that pays you back, if you’ll excuse the pun, disproportionately.

Thanks to the compounding effect you will get a much greater return by starting now instead of putting it off even 5 years for example. You see it’s not just the amount you save over that period it’s the fact that your investment will have grown along with the stock market. And by re-investing your dividend income you can see your investment account grow even faster.

Obviously the markets can go down as well as up but over the mid to long term it’s fairly reasonable to assume they will rise. Just for the sake of an example the FTSE, one of the Worlds leading stock exchanges, at the end of Jan. 03 stood at 3567.4. Five years later it was standing at 5879.8 and that at a time of economic instability around the globe. Now as I said a moment ago markets can go down but don’t see that as necessarily being a bad thing.

Ok that might sound like crazy talk but that’s the reason you need to think like an investor. If you are in the market for the medium to long term you will see fluctuations – fact. But over time good quality stocks will always come good so if you can buy them when the price is low you will benefit far more when the market recovers.

If you decide to invest by making regular payments into a savings account you will notice the effect of compound interest even more. That’s because you will be earning interest on interest you have already accrued. By using compound interest you can get your money to work hard for you rather than you working hard for your money!

One of the other great benefits of investing while you are in college is that it gets you into the habit. After all if you have the discipline to save when your earning powers are limited you will almost certainly be able to do it throughout your life and reap the financial rewards. That really is a great reason to begin as a student investing right now.

The Retirement-Savings Vs. College-Savings Dilemma…

Before a child is born, every parent considers (even if briefly) the cost of raising a child and to put them through college. And the question about saving money that you’ll consider at some point is:
How do I evaluate whether I should be saving for my own retirement or saving for the kids’ college?

The obvious answer is to save for both. But few young parents have the earning power and lifestyle discipline to have extra money left over at the end of the month. It simply isn’t practical for most families or young parents to do so.

When it comes to paying for college, there are many resources to tap. The most common sources are student loans, grants, scholarships, tax credits, work-study, employer assistance, or financial aid from states/federal agencies/community organizations. If that isn’t enough, the student could choose a school with cheaper tuition, work part-time, or work full-time and postpone entering school to save up more money.

There is always a way to fund a college education or trade school training (even an expensive one).

But there is no way to finance a retirement. None. (You can apply for a reverse mortgage to spend the equity that you’ve built up in your home, but that is not a sustainable solution for most retirees). What do you think is going to happen when the baby-boomers start receiving social security checks in 2014. Do you think it will be more likely that social security benefits will go up or go down? Are the social security taxes that people pay more likely to go up or go down?

The underlying answer is that you need to personally save money for your own retirement; nobody is going to automatically write you a big check to spend however you want just because you don’t want to work anymore.

I’ve explained some of the details but the concise answer to the title question to this article is: always save for your retirement first, because no one is going to do for it for you. Save for college later when you are earning more money, and already have a great start on your retirement accounts. There are many ways to pay for a college education, and it seems there are more every few years. But as no one knows the future, your kids may not even have an interest or need for college based on their particular situation. In the meantime, over those same 18 years, you could have set aside a lot of money for your retirement.

Investing For College Students – It Can Be Done…

If you’re over the age of forty, you most likely have somewhat proud memories of not having any money when you went to college. In fact, the very idea of investing for college students was the last thing that would have crossed your mind. Let’s face it, most students attending places of higher learning are usually more concerned about the present than the future. Who’s having a party or what to have for a snack tend to be more frequent thoughts than how much the potential rate of return is on various investment vehicles.

Maybe there was a bit of pride in being penniless. It somehow made you a part of a large crowd. But more and more of today’s students are looking ahead. A lot of this has to do with how readily available information on investing has become. Younger people tend to be very internet savvy, and can easily see the benefits of investing for college students. They can then (with a few clicks of a mouse) use an investment calculator to see how even a small investment can grow into a large return through the magic of compound interest. They also see how important it is to start early, and how much larger the end result will be if they start as soon as possible.

Of course there are still plenty of college students who do not have a lot of extra money. In this case, the very first step is to create a budget that accounts for every penny coming in and every penny going out. If you have more coming in, then you now have a starting amount to invest. If your expenses are higher than your income, then you need to find a way to get more money. You can reduce expenses or get a job. Keep in mind that the more you can have for investing now, the more you will have later.

One common problem with investing for college students is that the amount they have available tends to be low. This makes it hard to invest through a professional broker, but there are still opportunities for investing. Even something as simple as a CD (Certificate of Deposit) can give you a bit of interest on your money. Starting an IRA (Individual Retirement Account) or a Roth IRA is also a good way to invest small sums of money.

The return on these types of investments may not be the highest, but it’s better than nothing (assuming they out-perform the rate of inflation). The other benefit is that it will get the investment habit started early, and that’s a habit that will pay dividends year after year.

Investing for college students requires nothing more than knowledge and some extra money. The more you have of both, the better off you will be. If there is any way you can do it, then investing while you’re younger is a smart choice that you will look back on fondly.

The Importance of Time Management for Students…

Are you a high school student or a college student who finds it difficult to manage your time? If you regularly find yourself having late night study sessions or if you miss important deadlines to turn in your homework assignments, you may need to learn how to make better use of your time.

As important as it is to hear that time management is important for all students, including high school and college students, you may be wondering why. In all honesty, there are an unlimited number of reasons why proper time management is important for students. A few of those reasons are highlighted below for your convenience.

Learning how to properly manage your time will not only allow you to complete your homework assignments on time, but it will also allow you to stay better organized. In fact, this is great because time management and organization go hand in hand. When implementing a time management plan, you are likely to get all of your affairs, including your car, desk, and locker in order. This allows you to easily find your books, homework, assignments, and other school supplies. Staying organized is key to staying focused and on task.

Another reason why it is important for all students, like yourself, to learn how to properly manage your time is because it is a good lifelong lesson. When you leave high school or college, you will likely enter into the workforce. Do you honestly expect to be paid to sit around and surf the internet or socialize with friends or coworkers? Jobs that allow you to do so are few and far in between. That is why it is important for you to learn how to effectively manage your time, as there are serious consequences for not doing so in the future.

From the standpoint of a student, proper time management can also make studying easier. When you are able to devote a specific period of time to studying, you are more likely to do so. This will also help to eliminate last minute cram sessions, which may occur in the middle of the night. The elimination of late night study sessions will not only help to keep you happier and better on your feet, but it will also help to improve your grades.

Speaking of better grades, that is one of the biggest benefits to learning how to properly manage your time. One of the many ways that you can better manage your time is by creating a to do list for yourself and by prioritizing. This should allow you to get all of your homework assignments completed on time and with ease. This is also likely to translate into better grades, since you should not have to rush.

The elimination of stress is another one of the many benefits to having a time management plan in place if you are a high school or a college student. It is no secret that college and high school can both be stressful on their own. After all, your grades may have an impact on your future job and your future income. With that said, proper time management will allow you to get your homework done and studying done in a timely fashion, eliminating many stressful and nail biting situations.

Now that you know just how important time management for students is, you may be curious as to how you can improve yours. There are a number of tools that you can use to your advantage, including to do lists, day planners, alarm clocks, and computerized calendar programs. Eliminating distractions, such as socializing with friends, television watching, or internet surfing, is another great way to make sure that you stay focused and on task, especially when completing a school project or studying.

Since your high school and college grades can have an significant impact on your future, start making better use of your time. As a reminder, there are a number of helpful time management tools that you can use to your advantage.