Archive for the ‘Finance’ Category

It will happen

Most of us, if not all, aims to have an automobile of our own.  Having our own automobile has numerous benefits, such as the comfort, convenience and safe travel that it brings! Think about it, you no longer need to wake up early in the morning, wake your kids early, prepare breakfast just to catch the bus and be at work and at school in time! With your own automobile, you and your kids can stay in bed longer than usual, since you don’t have to worry about so long lines of people, numerous stop-over and traffic!

The numerous benefits that automobiles provide is undeniable, but it is undeniable that automobiles are quite expensive, and if you do not have enough cash to pay for it in full, availing of auto loans is your next best option! However, auto loans can be strict they require a lot of documents, and for people with bad credit scores, getting a car would be impossible! But that concept has changed! People with bad credit scores can now avail of online auto loans!  Applications for online auto loans are relatively easier, faster and more convenient! Who thought that bad credit scores can prevent you from getting that automobile you need and want? With online auto loans it will happen!

Accidents and Small Loans

Most people experience financial downfalls in spite of a steady paycheck or income. This is because most income is given in a regular cycle. However, life does not work in regular cycles but rather in sudden, often unforeseen, events. These events can catch an individual at times when cash is low, often in between pay cycles. Such events, although common, can be not as costly as some might expect. A broken tail light on a car and/or an accidental sports injury often require only a small amount to remedy, easily covered by the next paycheck. However, these types of damage and injury often cannot wait.

Also, traditional bank loans can take a long time to process and usually not available for the amounts in question. Thus, most people resort to a  Payday loan of some sort. Fortunately, there are lending institutions out there that offer these small scale loans that tide people over until the next payday. They charge interest of course, but the convenience they offer more that compensates for it.

The Good and the Bad

People can fall into such financial difficulties that can force them to acquire loans with unscrupulous people. These loans often have uncontrolled interest rates and non-payment can lead to a world of problems. Thus, people tend to pay more than they bargained for when engaging in such loans. People don’t deserve to live in fear like this, specially people who have legitimate jobs that just fell into hard times. Fortunately, there are people and institutions that give people the Cash Advances. These loans can help people pay off such “bad” loans and start a new life.

Thus, people can rest assured that there is this form of protection or social service available to them. People need to pay for loan interests but at least this is just money out of the pocket and not a world of pain and fear. Anyway, people with such “bad” loans also need to pay interest so the two loans are relatively comparable and the “good” loan is definitely very much safer.

The Emotional Side of Money

As Pete and Eleanor’s story so vividly shows, talking about money can allow you to build the life you want. In fact, we believe that financial security begins with a conversation—whether between spouses, between a parent and a child, or between an adult and an aging parent.
But these conversations aren’t easy, especially in the beginning. Most of us are used to chatting casually about the stock market or mortgage rates, but when it comes to candid, personal conversations about how much money we’ll need for retirement or how we’ll possibly be able to pay for our children’s college educations, the talk is much tougher. In a wealthy country where millions of investors have money in the stock market, there is still a desperate shortage of honest, candid talk about how we should be planning for the future.
And unfortunately, as Pete and Eleanor’s story also points out, not communicating about financial matters, from spending to investing to planning for the future, is an almost surefire way to undermine a relationship. So why, despite the obvious payoff and the equally obvious price of avoidance, do most people neither initiate nor participate in these essential family conversations about money? Because money is never just money, especially in the context of a family. For starters, money is tied up with our deepest emotional needs (such as security, comfort, success, and confidence) and fears (such as failure, inadequacy, and poverty) as well as with our sense of self- worth and identity. And ultimately, it becomes a reflection of our relationships. “In the first part of our marriage, there were all these inequalities, and money was a huge unspoken one,” says Pete. “Now it’s more of an equal playing field.”
Like it or not, even your parents’ attitudes about money have likely influenced yours. If your father or mother always tried to save that little bit, you may have adopted the same fiscally restrained habits. Or like a pendulum, you may do the opposite now that you’re an adult, refusing to let those money-saving tactics run your life. Either way, you’re reacting to lessons learned at your parents’ knees.
For example, I have a friend whose father used to drive her crazy with his penny-pinching habits: He phoned her only after five P.M. (he had one of those old-fashioned phone plans where the rates dropped at night), and he parked his car in a lot a mile away from where he was going if he could save a dollar. In response, as a young girl, my friend would call her dad whenever the urge struck, even if it was a mere ten minutes before the rates changed, partially to prove that her actions weren’t being dictated by the chance to save a buck. Valuing time and convenience more than economy, she often took cabs instead of buses and paid a housekeeper for cleaning she could easily have done herself. Figuring that you only go around once, she routinely indulged in expensive wine and topnotch restaurants. Only lately, many years later, has she come to recognize how much all those indulgences compromised her ability to save for her future and the things that mattered more.
My colleague Tom’s financial baggage also stems from his upbringing. Despite a steady income, his parents sometimes ran short of cash. Since Tom consistently held jobs as a kid—doing a paper route or umpiring Little League games—he usually had some cash on hand. “As a twelve- or thirteen-year-old, I was proud to always have a few hundred bucks,” he recalls. “I remember my dad and mom borrowing from me a few times to buy groceries or go out to a movie. In those pre-ATM days, I was like their bank for short-term credit.” Not surprisingly, this situation made Tom quite resentful in the long run, Thirty years later those emotions continue to affect how he deals with finances and money-related communication, but not in a positive way. Even today Tom never talks to his parents about their Financial position since it brings back uneasy memories. He and his wife don’t talk very much about their financial decisions or long-term p]ans either. While Tom attributes a lot of this silence to juggling two careers and raising two children, he also admits that his early negative money associations may play a part in his current attitude.

Starting the Conversation

When Pete, a longtime colleague of ours, married his wife, Eleanor, in 1973, it would have been safe to assume that she, being a banker, would handle the finances while he, then a schoolteacher, would take a backseat. Then their son was born with a disability and the couple decided that Eleanor should quit her job and stay home with him. Once Pete, who had returned to graduate school and obtained his MBA, became the only breadwinner, he also inherited the financial-decision-maker role. At the same time Pete—a generous, jovial, and articulate man— turned into quite the spender, thinking nothing of buying an expensive suit that he’d wear only two or three times. To compensate for his champagne taste in clothes, Eleanor, when she shopped at all, would do so at discount stores (a detail she kept from Pete, who would have been horrified). Sure, her husband’s income had shot up, but so had his appetite for luxuries, including high-priced cars.
“We moved to California from New York, and I saw everyone driving around in BMWs,” explains Pete with a self-deprecating laugh and the kind of regret that only hindsight can bring. “1 thought that must be the state car, so I went out and bought one.” Over the next fifteen years he bought another and another and another, just as soon as the mileage on the “old” car passed twenty thousand—or a newer model captured his fancy. Despite hefty sports-car price tags, he never thought to consult his wife about those—or any other— purchases.
That attitude, combined with an overall lack of communication, almost cost Pete his marriage. Since the couple never discussed money, let alone a savings or an investment strategy Pete never knew how increasingly resentful his highly educated wife, who had spent ten years in the banking industr)c was becoming about her lack of participation in the Family Finances or Pete’s spending decisions.
Pete and Eleanor may have avoided facing their issues, but they couldn’t escape the downfall of their marriage. After a separation of several months, the couple decided that divorce was inevitable, and together they headed to a financial planner to figure out how to split their assets.
But unlike so many similar stories, this one has a happy ending. “You guys obviously care about and love each other,” the financial planner observed one afternoon after numerous joint meetings. “What are you doing getting a divorce?” Thus prompted, Pete and Eleanor asked themselves the same question and subsequently decided to try to work out their differences. After months of marriage counseling and a lot of hard work, Pete and Eleanor learned how to communicate with each other about money and everything else. They identified what was important to them as individuals and as a couple.
The upshot? At forty-seven, Pete quit his job to devote himself full time to the nonprofit international health-related causes about which he’s passionate. Investments they’ve made together now Finance their lifestyle, one in which they agree on each and every sizable purchase as a team. “Though I’m ashamed of my past behavior, I’m also proud of our courage to stick it out,” says Pete. “It’s so much easier to walk away from very difficult issues than to confront them head-on, I am the better—and we are the stronger—for it.”
Pete and Eleanor’s new financial policies and procedures, along with their.ongoing discussions about values and priorities, led to their recently building a dream house in Sun Valley, Idaho. “In almost thirty years of marriage, this is the first major purchasing decision we ever made together,” admits Pete.
In short, Pete and Eleanor now make a point of dealing with their life together—and their money—as equal partners. Once every three months they meet with their financial advisor to review their finances and make (or revise) their money decisions for the next six months. Then they go out to a nice restaurant and discuss their decisions and plans. What better way to reaffirm your love for each other than to talk about the life you’re living now and your dreams for the future?

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