Four Tips to Improve Your Finances

Most people would want to enhance their finances and live a luxurious life so they seek steps on how they can boost their finances, cut down their expenses and increase their bank balance. One of the best ways to increase your bank balance and income is to have financial investments. In terms of improving your finances, here are a few tips.

First, pay all your credit bills and pay back your debts. Once an outstanding debt is disclosed on your credit report, this will definitely have a negative impact on your credit score. That’s why it is recommended to always pay your debts on time and you can even decrease your credit card limits and expenses so that your debts will also decrease.

Second, pay your outstanding credit bill as soon as possible. Contrary to belief, delayed credit payment of a bill is actually recorded in your credit report every month, together with the number of days that you missed your due date. To avoid this, make sure to always pay your bills on time because this will work against the negative effects of delayed payments and helps your credit score to increase.

Third, you should not only aim to get a high credit score but also to maintain it once you achieve it. Again, make on-time payments so that you will have a good credit score, and in order to maintain it, make sure to pay in full as well. Moreover, if you pay your bills at once, this will also enhance your score much further.

Fourth, do not throw away your old accounts because this will be reflected in your credit score as well. The longer the duration of your credit background, the higher your score will be. In addition, be more cautious in opening new accounts as this can decrease your credit score, especially if they are too much.

5 Lessons to Ensure Children’s Financial Independence

Over the past few years, there has been an increase in the number of adult children living with their parents due to financial matters. As a result, preparing them to be financially independent is currently an important aspect of parenting. The following are five key lessons to impart to children to make sure they will have financial independence in the future.

First, manage small, everyday financial decisions. Teach your children to ask themselves whether or not they need to buy something and whether or not it is the best deal. Once they have this state of mind, they will definitely save lots of money in the long run.

Second, get rich slowly. Social media and reality TV shows have caused recent generations to think they can become rich and famous in an instant but the truth is this cannot happen overnight. One example of earning money slowly is compounding interest rates, which could lead to good savings returns.

Third, teach them financial discipline at a young age. For instance, you can put a portion of their allowance into a piggy bank or savings account as soon as possible because this will teach them that saving a small amount regularly can add up instantly.  They will more likely adopt this habit when they eventually have jobs and established their careers.

Fourth, encourage your children to have the spirit of entrepreneurship. Although our society prepares us to be good employees, successful people in places such as Australia are entrepreneurs. Encourage them to put up micro businesses but do not finance their business venture.

Fifth, teach them the difference between good debt and bad debt. Good debt is taking on loans to develop appreciating assets and investments, while bad debt is using credit to purchase a depreciating item. Moreover, encourage the use of debit cards rather than credit cards.

Mortgage Refinance Levels Reach High Levels as Mortgage Interest Rates Remain at Low Levels

According to the latest records from the Mortgage Bankers Association or more famously known as the MBA as of July. 20, 2012, the applications for mortgage loans have significantly grown by 0.9 percent compared to last week.

The tool used to measure the volume of the applications is the Market Composite Index, and the final result of last week’s mortgage loans has equaled to a 0.9 increase in the results of both the adjusted and unadjusted percentages compared to the previous week. The Refinance Index however, increased to about 2 percent this is the highest it has been since the April of 2009. The only results that have decreased are the Purchase Index which is being adjusted every season. The decrease has been noted at 3 percent, which is its lowest point since June of 2012.

Other results show that the refinance share for the mortgages has increased by 1 percent compared to the preceding weeks, the adjusted-rate mortgage or the ARM share is now 4 percent of the accumulated activities compared to the previous week as well.

The 3.74 percent average contract interest for a fixed mortgage rate has remained. This is the lowest it has been since the survey had begun. The points have also slipped to 0.43 from the previous 0.45 that included the origination fee in a loan-to-value ratio loan for 80 percent. Furthermore, the 30-year fixed rate has been under 4 percent since May 4 this year and the effective rate has also fallen from the previous week.

The 30 year fixed-rate mortgage loan’s average contract interest which is more than $417,500 has risen from 3.98 to 3.99 percent and its points have fallen from 0.32 to 0.28 with the origination fee for LVT loans offered in 80 percent rate.

The average contract interest rate for a 30 year fixed mortgage according to the FHA has fallen to only 3.52 percent which is the lowest it has ever been.

Savannah, Mo. Former Treasurer Faces 52 Federal Charges of Fraud

A woman is currently being charged of 52 federal offenses after she illegally got her hands on over $900,000.

Vicky D McDonell, a 61 year old is facing the federal grand jury for allegedly obtaining cash illegally from two companies from Savannah, Mo. She will soon be facing complaints of fraud; 44 of them are wire fraud, 4 are bank frauds, 3 mail fraud and aside from fraud she is facing a count for false statement. McDonell is looking at 75 years imprisonment if she is proven guilty of all the offenses.

The documents in court say that McDonell started to loot from the companies since 1997 when she held the position of treasurer and also a partner to MPC Billboards Inc. and Max Pro Consultants Inc.

These two companies are operational in Savannah, Mo., and are owned of business men Guy Defenbaugh, Fred Ramsay and James Morten.

According to the court, McDonell held the books of the companies, she also oversaw the operations in the office, she took head of the financial department, took care of the bills and billed and collected the account receivables from customers. She did all the financials for the companies without the supervision of the three owners; they had trusted everything to her completely.

The accused treasurer is being suspected of having written herself checks from the business to take care of her personal expenditures. These include her automobile payments, renovation and landscape makeover of her house, and even gifts. She also had unauthorized loans and checks written to her children and her mother for over $35,000 she has done this for almost 12 years.

Moreover, Ms. McDonell was said to have used the credit card of the company to pay for her own expenses and arranged that the cash statements would be mailed to her home address.

It was also said that she may have overpaid her own salary by $392,695. According to the FBI, she has given confessions to stealing some of the money. If she is proven guilty she is going to have to relinquish properties that she had gotten from the scheme and proceeds from $906,425.25 with interest.

Low Interest Rates are Not Good for the Future

If you are baffled with just how exactly interest rates relate with bonds and loans then you should not fret, MBAs are just as on the dark as you are in the matter.

The MBA are baffled right now with the issues in installment loan, and most especially the role of interest rates in the lives of the people and the economy. Interest rates have fallen so low during the recession that many individuals had failed to see how largely the country has fallen into debt.

It is a rule of thumb that lower interest rates mean cheaper loans. However, this requires knowledge from consumers about the operation of financial markets in order that they could comprehend the hazards of increasing national debt to the future of the economy of the country.

For example, when the government has more expenses compared to its revenues, it has to borrow money to balance out the loss. In order to do this, it would sell its bonds in to other financial intermediaries. When someone buys the bonds, the money earned would be now part of the U.S. Treasury and is used to pay for the debt of the government.

When economy is bullish like the recent situation in the US today, the savings would be higher compared to the investment opportunities in the financial market. The only positive news about the borrowing cost of the nation is that since the recession in 2008, there is a deficit of over $ 5 trillion and almost all of it will be soon be part of the Treasury bond of private individuals and banks in the United States and all around the world.

During the period of election, this problem will be left with economists, however it will remain as a hidden information from the public.