Finance And Mortgage

If you make regular overseas transfers you can often get caught out by large handling fees & excess charges through standard bank transfers. When making regular payments though you’ll want to get the best currency exchange rate possible and keep costs down. Through independent foreign exchange specialists you can often get preferential rates to those offered as standard with most current accounts. The below identifies 10 key steps to ensuring you keep your costs down to a minimum and get the best value for your exchange:

1.     Use a specialist company who can obtain the best currency exchange rate from banks.

2.     Use a money comparison site to find a company, but investigate them before signing anything. The best currency exchange rate, while important, is not the only consideration.

3.     Ensure the company is FSA regulated.

4.     Try to work out how often you’ll transfer money, and how much.

5.     Now investigate options to get the best currency exchange rate. If you’re setting up a plan to pay bills over a period of time you can fix your rate for, say, a year.  The charges might be higher, but the ability to know in advance exactly how much you’ll be paying out and avoid nasty surprise fluctuations could be invaluable.

6.     For smaller transactions using the current rate the charges can be just a few pounds. If you make regular transactions you won’t necessarily get the best currency exchange rate doing this, but if you have more flexibility you can be savvy and monitor the market to only make transfers when the rate’s good.

7.     Some companies offer 0% commission and no charges on large transfers. Can you take advantage of this? Can you pay your bills as several big lump sums rather than monthly, or school/university fees at the beginning of the year rather than per term?

8.     Check the company’s minimum and maximum transaction amounts. You shouldn’t have an upper limit, and minimum transaction amounts are generally around £500.

9.     If you’re buying currency in a one off lump there’s no reason why you can’t get the best currency exchange rate possible by telling your broker to buy when the rate hits a certain point. Make them play the market to your advantage.

10.  Don’t be afraid to ask your broker for advice and insist they monitor rates to ensure you’re always getting the best currency exchange rate available.

As identity thieves become more of a threat to individuals and businesses, many people wish they had someone-or something-to watch over and guard their valuable financial information.

While most consumers can’t afford a financial bodyguard, many are taking advantage of a real-time identity management service that can potentially avert identity crimes.

I consider one service, Identity Sweep, developed with MyPublic Info (MyPublicInfo.com) and Affinion Group (www.affiniongroup .com), a leader in credit monitoring and identity theft, to be more proactive than any other. It may be the consumer’s best chance at avoiding identity-related criminal abuse. Identity Sweep protects consumer identities in three ways:
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Switching your job? Retiring? Congratulations! A window of opportunity opens for you with the Rollover Individual Retirement Account or Rollover IRA.

In an era of corporate restructuring and outsourcing, Rollover IRA is among the most powerful means available for securing one’s retirement. Yet, its potential to enlarge one’s assets for the sunset years commonly remains under-appreciated.

The Rollover IRA dramatically increases the range of choices available to you for investing your retirement savings. By offering investment choices hitherto unavailable in employer-sponsored plans such as 401k, 403b, or Section 457 plans, Rollover IRA provides you the means to have direct control of and more aggressively grow your nest egg.

This article discusses the advantages of Rollover IRA over employer-sponsored retirement plans.

So, if you are leaving your job and have accumulated assets in the employer-sponsored retirement plan, continue reading this article to learn about your options and more.

Four Options

You have four options on what you can do with your savings in your employer-sponsored plan when you are switching jobs or retiring.

1) Cash your savings.
2) Continue with the retirement plan of your previous employer.
3) Transfer your savings into the retirement plan sponsored by your new employer.
4) Set up a Rollover IRA account with a mutual fund company and move your retirement savings into that account.

Unless you have a pressing need, it is best not to cash your retirement savings. First, cash withdrawals from the retirement plan will be subject to federal and state taxes. Second, your retirement savings diminish and you will have fewer assets to grow tax-deferred.

While the three other options will not erode your retirement savings and will allow it to grow tax-deferred, they are not equal in their ability to help you boost its growth rate.

Increased Investment Choices

Most employees earn meager returns on their employer-sponsored retirement plan savings. A Dalbar study reports that the average 401k plan investor achieved an annual return of just 3.5% during a 20-year period when the S&P 500 returned 13.0% per year.

Part of the problem stems from the fact that most retirement plans offer only a limited number of investment choices. A Columbia University study finds the median number of mutual fund choices in 401k plans to be just 13. The actual number of equity mutual fund investment choices however is less, since the median number includes money market funds, fixed income funds, and balanced funds.

With fewer investment choices, employer-sponsored plans limit your ability to take advantage of different market trends and to continually position your retirement savings in mutual funds with superior risk-reward profiles.

If you set up a Rollover IRA with a large mutual fund company such as Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price or Vanguard Group, you will break the shackles imposed by your employer-sponsored plan and dramatically increase the number of mutual funds available for investing your retirement savings. Fidelity, for example, provides access to several thousand mutual funds besides the more than 180 mutual funds it manages.

Setting-up the Rollover IRA

Let’s say you decide to move your retirement savings to a Rollover account with a mutual fund company. How do you make it happen?

Contact the mutual fund company in which you wish to open an account and ask them to send you their Rollover IRA kit. Complete the form for opening the Rollover IRA account and mail it to the mutual fund company. Next, complete any forms required by the retirement plan administrator of your previous employer and request transfer of your assets into the Rollover IRA account.

You have two choices for moving your retirement savings to your Rollover IRA account. One is to elect to have the money transferred directly from the employer-sponsored plan to the Rollover IRA account. This is called direct rollover. With the indirect rollover alternative, you take the distribution from the retirement plan and then deposit it in the Rollover IRA account. Unless exceptions apply, you have 60 days to deposit the distribution and qualify for tax-free rollover.

Boosting Your Rollover IRA Performance

You need a strategy to benefit from the wide range of investment choices available in the Rollover IRA. You can develop the strategy yourself or leverage ideas from investment newsletters such as AlphaProfit Sector Investors’ Newsletter to enhance the growth rate of your nest egg.

AlphaProfit’s Focus and Core model portfolios have grown at an average annual rate of 33% and 21% respectively, compared to an average annual return of 13% for the S&P 500 Index from September 30, 2003 to March 31, 2006.

Let’s say you transfer $50,000 from your employer-sponsored retirement plan to the Rollover IRA and the wider range of investment choices helps you increase your annual return from 8% in the former to 12% in the Rollover IRA. At the end of 20 years, your Rollover IRA will be worth $482,315, more than double the $233,048 it would be worth had you stayed on with the employer-sponsored plan — that too without any cash additions to your Rollover IRA.

Adding to Your Rollover IRA

You can leverage the potential of your Rollover IRA further by adding to it each time you change jobs. With the Rollover IRA already setup, all you have to do is to instruct the retirement plan administrator of your last employer to transfer assets to the Rollover IRA. There is no limit on the amount of money you can transfer.

You may also add money to your Rollover IRA through regular annual contributions. They are however subject to the annual limit for IRA contributions.

Summary

When you are switching jobs or retiring, the Rollover IRA opens a window of opportunity for you, widening the range of investment choices for your retirement assets hitherto not available in the employer-sponsored plan. The self-directed Rollover IRA empowers you to construct and manage a mutual fund portfolio to boost the growth rate of your retirement savings.

Notes: This report is for information purposes only. Nothing herein should be construed as an offer to buy or sell securities or to give individual investment advice. This report does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation, and particular needs of any specific person who may receive this report. The information contained in this report is obtained from various sources believed to be accurate and is provided without warranties of any kind. AlphaProfit Investments, LLC does not represent that this information, including any third party information, is accurate or complete and it should not be relied upon as such. AlphaProfit Investments, LLC is not responsible for any errors or omissions herein. Opinions expressed herein reflect the opinion of AlphaProfit Investments, LLC and are subject to change without notice. Read the rest of this entry »

HUD reverse mortgages can be a great tool for Seniors that are looking for additional funds for retirement. Through a HUD reverse mortgage, seniors can tap into the equity from their homes without having to make repayments.

HUD Reverse Mortgage Eligibility

Homeowners must meet the following criteria in order to be eligible for a HUD reverse mortgage:

- Homeowner must be age 62 or older.

- The home must be owned free and clear or have a mortgage balance that can be paid from equity.

- The home must be a principal residence.

- The property must be a single-family home, a one-to-four unit dwelling with one unit occupied by the applicant, a manufactured home (mobile home), or a unit in condominiums or Planned Unit Developments.

- The property must meet minimum property standards.

Homeowners that qualify can receive payments in a lump sum, on a monthly basis, or on an occasional basis as a line of credit. At a later date the payment options can be restructured if circumstances change.

Guidelines on HUD Reverse Mortgage Amounts

The amount that can be borrowed on a HUD reverse mortgages is determined by the following criteria:

- The borrower’s age – The older the borrower the more that can be borrowed against the value of the home

- The loan interest rate – Obviously the lower the interest rate the more that can be borrowed.

- The home’s value – There is no hard limit for home value to qualify for a HUD reverse mortgage, but the amount that may be borrowed is capped by the maximum FHA mortgage limits for an area. This means that owners of a high priced home can’t borrow any more than the owners of homes valued at the FHA limit.
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With a large number of individuals and families literally living from one paycheck to the next, a great number of payday lenders are offering those who are strapped for cash with a way to borrow against the guarantee of their next paycheck. For many, life’s unexpected problems often result in a cash shortage, utilities being turned off or car payments being late. Luckily for those who are in immediate need of funds, payday loans often provide the answer to an otherwise serious problem.

Below are 10 tips to using payday loans and lenders. As is the case with any loan, carefully consider the company and its reputation before moving ahead with the loan process.

$If at all possible, repay the loan in full during your next payday. This is a better option than the refinancing of payday loans, which will result in additional fees and interest.

$Do not use payday loans for vacations or unnecessary incidentals, such as jewelry or expensive clothes. Instead, payday loans should only be used for necessities, such as doctor visits and medicine, groceries, utilities, fuel, car repairs, etc.

$Before accepting a payday loan from a lender, make sure that you have read and understand the entire contract. Always read the fine print and ask questions about anything that you do not understand before signing on the dotted line.

$When dealing with a payday loan lender, check out their reputation with the Better Business Bureau.

$If you plan to apply for payday loans, make sure to have copies of your most recent paycheck stubs and contact information for your current employer.

$Payday loans are not commonly granted to self-employed individuals because of their unpredictable income. Rather than applying for payday loans, a self-employed individual may wish to consider a secured personal loan.

$If you find that your payday loans have been refinanced multiple times and are becoming unmanageable, consider applying for a credit card that offers 0% APR for 6-12 months or one with a low introductory interest rate. Upon approval and receipt of the card, use the available credit to pay off your payday loan in order to prevent it from continuing to roll over and increase time after time.
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