Money Spotlight - making sense of money.

Managing Your Money

It's not tricky keeping control of our finances, it's downright scary. Each bill is another attack on our money. Our money tries to fight back with interest and returns on any investment. It's an on ongoing conflict.

In How To Manage My Money we will look at tools to help our money fight back so we can control the battle.

Making Money

Something which is constantly on our minds. There are many people who seem to attract money like a magnet and make making money look easy. However, we are mere mortals and most of us are not marketing gurus and captains of industry. So what can we do to make more money?

In our Ideas On How To Make Some Money section we will be trying to find practical ways of making money without necessarily risking too much of our time and money.

Saving Money

Why do we waste money? There are lots of tips and tricks out there which can help us save spending money and we will be looking to find ones which, over time, will save us significant amounts of cash and give some much needed relief to our bank accounts.

Saving money tips can be read in our How To Save Money Tips section.

Debt And Adverse Credit

The vast majority of us have debt and owe money to one company or another. However, like spaghetti westerns there is good debt, bad debt and just downright ugly debt.

In our Debt And Adverse Credit section we shall look at methods for how to reduce and hopefully extinguish our debt for good.

Savings

If we are in the enviable position of having surplus money to save, then where can we save it so it grows above inflation and is safe and secure?

In our Savings section we will examine the different saving options to us and why the interest we receive varies from one savings option to another.

Investing Money

Investing is different to saving money, in that there is a certain amount of speculation involved and does not provide guaranteed returns. Investing money is also a huge subject which we need to break down into different options.

The Investing Money section breaks down these options and we will have a look at the risks associated with each type of investment. In addiiton we will be looking at the latest investment services which are readily available to us to make the decision making easier and cheaper.

Loans

What are our loan options? Do we need a loan? Loans sound pretty simple but we want to look under the hood and see if we can identify how these work and how they are going to affect our future finances.

For info about loans, such as payday loans, unsecured personal loans, secured home equity loans, student loans and auto loans go to the secured and unsecured loans section.

Pensions

After our mortgage, our pension plan is probably the most important financial planning we can undertake. As well as the company sponsored 401(k) pension, you have the option of an additional private individual retirement account.

In our search for a best pension and retirement plans we will unravel some of the terminology and delve deeper into which types of individual retirement accounts are offered to us and what we should expect from a pension.

Home Mortgage

Mortgages are headline news these days, as many people are struggling to keep up with their home mortgage loan payments. How did we get into this mess? However if we need a new mortgage, what options are still available to us and how do we get the best and cheapest mortgage loan for us?

The Home Mortgage section investigates the current state of the home mortgage market and tries to find some trends for the future that we can take advantage of.

Real Estate Closing Costs

There are substantial costs in purchasing or selling a property.

For buyers these mean downpayments, appraisal fees, lender origination fees, home inspection fees, mandatory home insurance, land transfer tax, legal fees, utitlity fees and several others.

For sellers, the largest fee is to the real estate agent however there are others including legal attorney costs,country and state transfer taxes, deed title transfer fees and more which will add up to a tidy sum.

In our Seller And Buyer Closing Costs For Real Estate section we want to add up all of these fees and try and find out how they can be reduced to a minimum.

Credit Cards

In the past a credit card provided the simple function of easily accessible credit for the purchase of goods, but these days the credit card market offer different products to satisfy different requirements.

The Compare Credit Card Features And Offers section will be looking at who these different types of credit card are aimed at and what inventive new offers the credit card companies are releasing.

Auto Insurance

What's the better method, fault or no-fault insurance? What is an SR-22? What is a DUI? Which factors affect the price of our auto insurance rate? Which companies are offering special discounts? What information do I need to apply for an auto insurance policy? These questions, and more, are ones we will be finding answers to in our Auto Insurance section.

Home Insurance And Personal Property Insurance

Everybody who owns a property should have home building insurance since it is a requirement of our home mortgage lender that we have building insurance just in case the whole place just falls down and needs to be rebuilt.

Personal property insurance is optional and is not a requirement of our mortgage lender. In our Cover From Home Owner Insurance Policies And Personal Property Insurance section we will examine what is on offer and review the options provided by different insurance companies.

Life Insurance

When do we need life insurance or life assurance? What's better for us, whole life cover or term cover? The terminology can be confusing and what do we actually get in return for our life insurance premiums?

In our Life Insurance section we will be examining the terminology and the whole concept behind life insurance and what we get for it.

Home Mortgage Insurance

This type of insurance enables lenders to offer home mortgages to new home owners who can only provide downpayments of 20% or less on their purchased property. The insurance may be added ed to the mortgage or paid as a separate premium.

The Home Mortgage Insurance section investigates of this type of policy and who is offering what to us.

Business Insurance

Business insurance is not just about insuring our business premises and assets in case of a disaster, it's also about protecting our customers and workers.

As a business we are liable for the safe welfare of our customers and workers on our premises. We will also require insurance cover for the use of our vehicles and other equipment to provide us with 3rd party public liability insurance.

With more and more litigation taking place, we will see how we can protect our business against claims in the Business Insurance section.

Tax And Accountants

We have to pay tax but is there anything going on in the world of taxation which we can take advantage of. It's not about tax avoidance. It's about being tax efficient!

What do accountants provide? Is it just tax returns or are there other things they do which can be to our benefit.

In our Tax and Accountants section we try and find out what can help us reduce our tax bills.

Special Offers And Discounts

If we are in the position of being able to afford to spend some money then let's have a look at what special offers and discounts can be had.

We will be using the Special Offers & Discounts section to hunt for some of the great deals retailers are offering.