Britons lending their friends £510m a year

Britons are handing more than £510 million a year to their friends and family. The average amount that is given is £116. Before you do this, you must concern all problems you can face. Almost 3.5 people have said that their friendship ended because of money. Those amounts don’t need to be this high. 29% says that is was an amount below £100.
Several reasons are revealed to declare this situation. The first one is that people just borrow the money to help their friends until pay day. So people don’t have to lend money at the bank and so they don’t have to pay rents. The second reason is to pay off personal debts, like holidays, home improvements… Also helping set up a business, buying presents and medical expenses are reasons to lend money from friends. Of course is the best thing to do when you need a large amount of money, to go to the bank. Yes, indeed, you must pay the rent, but isn’t that more worth than your friendship with other people? It’s a well-know fact that people split up for money and that friendships and for money. But I think that people ignore the fact that they can lose their friends, however it’s something very common.

Els

source: http://www.myfinances.co.uk/insurance/news/loans/unsecured-loan/britons-lending-their-friends-510m-year-$477180.htm

EIGHT MISTAKES OF FINANCIERS TO AVOID

Choose the strongest climber
Most of the financiers choose for popular, high stocks. You have to look up and study the losers of the past years. The losers has to prove them, but the combination between risk and gain is a lot advantageous.

Unknown investments
You have to choose two studies that consider to sell a stock and two with a positive advice. It’s possible to estimate the dis- and advantages.

Afraid to sell with loss
You can keep a stock when you know it very well and you’re abreast of the fact that the bad news is only expendable. But you better sell your stock immediate when the news is very bad. Example: An important product that catches a serious delay.

Sell the winners to fast
You have to make a difference between stable and secure values (ex: Unilever) and speculative and risky stocks (ex: Option). You can’t hesitate to carry in the profit when it’s 50% on speculative and risky stocks, because they are to dynamic.

Bet on one horse
It’s recommended to have ten, preferably twenty, different stocks in one portfolio from several sectors and to diversify between small, large and medium-sized concerns.

Search confirmation for your own opinion
You have to search elements that contradict your studies and investigations. The best investments were made by thinking in the opposite direction.

Unknown investments capacity
You have to make a decision that has a substantial influence on your investments portfolio, namely: how long would and could you miss your money?

to under-appreciate dividends
The half of the total benefit of stock investments on a long term comes from dividends. The importance of exchange profit is reducing as your investments term becomes longer.

Investments gain more and more importance. It’s possible to gain a lot of money but also to lose. It’s necessary to know useful, profitable things about the investments market. Investments are a very complex matter, it’s not enough to be the smartest.

Jan

http://www.trends.be/nl/moneytalk/acht-te-vermijden-beleggersfouten/site72-section83-article8498.html#articleContainer

You have to cover many bases when preparing a will

There are many practical issues that you should deal with to ensure that your affairs are in order. The first thing you should have is a valid will. Next, ask yourself if you are still happy with the beneficiaries you have named. Also consider whether your will is properly witnessed.

There are a number of things you should consider:

How you are married
If you are married in community of property, you and your spouse own all your assets and your debts. When you die, half of the joint estate will be that of your spouse.
If you are married out of community of property, you and your spouse each retain separate estates.

Appointing an executor
After you die, somebody needs to make sure your debts are paid and your assets transferred to the right people in terms of your will. That “somebody” is referred to as the executor of your estate.

Reducing executor fees
If you appoint anyone other than your spouse or a family member as the executor of your estate, your estate will have to pay the executor the fees set out by law. The maximum fee is 3.5 percent of the assets in your estate.

Cash for surviving spouse
Your surviving spouse will need cash to live on after they die while the estate is being wound up. once your bank gets wind of the fact that you are dead it will freeze your account. For this purpose, the spouse should have his or her own bank account.

Choosing your beneficiaries
If you belong to a retirement fund, you may nominate your spouse or children as beneficiaries of the fund.

Final wishes
Don’t forget to leave some instructions to your family about funeral arrangements after you die

I think that when you are a bit older and already have a familly, you should do this even when you don't think about dieing at all. You never know what could happen.

Kathleen Aps

Source : http://www.persfin.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=706&fArticleId=4070426

Why $5 million is the new $1 million

Who wants to be a millionaire? A lot of people I guess, but nowadays it isn’t longer a synonym for being rich. With the rising costs of living and with the long retirements, financial experts say that that the new benchmark is $5 million. Financial advisers say that the multimillionaire clients are the fastest-growing segment. Though we must ask our-selves the question why we need more money to survive. The answer is easily. Because we live longer, we spend longer money. Of course, as we see in the article isn’t money as much worth in one part of America as in the other part.
Most of the multimillionaires today made their wealth in three ways. The first one, the real estate market created an enormous wealth. The baby boomers have gained a lot of money with it. The next one is the business buyouts. The third one, the technology boom has created a lot of wealth, but it has left also a lot of millionaires in its wake.
But the latest trend with millionaires is that they use their money to try to effect the global change. They put also money in social causes, but they want a social return on investment for it.
Being a millionaire is a dream for many of us, but I think you may not underestimate the social pressure. People expect a lot of the wealthy people, but it’s indeed a fact, that they also must secure their future. As we see in the article, you can’t stop working after winning the big lot. So being a millionaire is nowadays not a security of a nice and wealthy life.

Els

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20586948/

First boomer applies for Social Security

The retired teacher from New Jersey is the first of her generation to seek benefits. People call it ‘the Silver Tsunami’ and it is an appropriate name because the Social Security trust fund is projected to go broke in 2041. President Bush had proposed changes to create private accounts, but it went nowhere in Congress. Bush’s budget director calls this a ‘fiscal train wreck’. The three entitlement programs make up nearly half of all federal spending, a share that is expected to grow.
A combination of benefit cuts and tax increases will need to be considered to permanently fix the Social Security shortfall.

In my opinion they had to take actions sooner. It wasn’t a secret that one day these baby-boomers, as they are called, would apply for Social Security. I think it’s an interesting and serious problem, certainly because this phenomenon occurs in several countries, even ours. I don’t understand why they didn’t take actions sooner since then, the problem has grown to an unseen climax. The fact that they want to raise the taxes is a negative thing, in my opinion, they don’t do nothing but adding to the problem.

Laura

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/16/pf/retirement/bc.apfn.boomersocialsecu.ap/index.htm?postversion=2007101610

Podcast 1

http://rapidshare.com/files/62208876/Podcast.wav.html

Els, Jan, Laura & Kathleen

RUSSIAN MOB CRACKED BELGIAN INTERNET BANKING

Fifteen Belgians with an internet account at Argenta, Dexia and KBC reported that their bank account was cleared. Someone has gained access to their internet account. The amounts and which technique the hackers used is kept secret by the direction of financial criminality.

The central system of the banks wasn’t cracked by the mob. The hackers have acquired the personal access code of the customers on their personal computer. It’s a new technique for the investigators because they are more conversant with “phishing technique”: the website of a bank is copied so well that customers are willing to trust their personal information to it.

The Russian mob has the ability to crack personal computers, bank systems, etc. Early 2007 hundreds of customers of Nordea (Swedish bank) were the victim of computer fraud through e-mails. Nordea blames the customers because they hadn’t installed the necessary anti-virus software.

The affected customers in the Belgian case are already repaid by their banks. In the mean time they have forced up the security to their sites and there weren’t any new reports.

In the Belgian case it’s the fault of the banks that some customers are hacked on their internet account. They have to anticipate to the highest security level so they don’t violate the faith of the customers. It’s not normal that they can force up their security after they were hacked. You give computer criminals the opportunity and time to crack your system. Banks have to recruit people who are specialized in internet security and they are obliged to follow the newest innovations.

Jan


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