Of the millions of Americans retiring each year, many have trouble with their financial planning. Read on for several helpful tips from a Round Rock Wealth Advisor. With a little luck and a lot of knowledge, your retirement won’t be a struggle. Don’t retire earlier than you have to. Technically, you can retire as early as 62, or as late as 70. But depending on when you were born, retiring that early can slash your benefits by thirty percent! This will also effect the amount of money your spouse gets. Keep your medical needs in mind. Before you retire, your Social Security taxes will pay for some of your health care as a retiree. However, certain medical services not covered by your hospital insurance will still cost you. Find out how much your monthly premiums will be ahead of time, and plan for emergencies. You should also see if you are eligible for financial assistance when prescription drugs are involved. Depending on your situation, you’ll be asked to provide different documents to the Social Security office. Here are some that are good to keep at hand: proof of your social security number, your citizenship information, your most recent tax return and W-2 form, and your military discharge papers, if you served before 1968. You might be missing one or two of these – but that’s is no reason not to apply, as the government can often verify this information online for you. The key to having a happy retirement is having a good framework for your hobbies, health, and happiness. This can only be achieved by planning far in advance – don’t...

If you want to be in a disturbing situation the quickest way to get into trouble is when you do not pay your mortgage and the bank sends you a foreclosure letter. When you do get yourself in that situation for whatever reason, going into a mode of not answering the phone and feeling sorry for yourself won’t do you much good. In order avoid foreclosure in Fairfax a short sale may be a viable option so it is of paramount importance that you get the best help you can afford for you to save your home and credit rating. Basically what happens in a short sale as the name implies is you sell your property at a huge discount wherein a lender may agree to execute a short sale while the homeowner is still making mortgage payments to avoid foreclosing on the home. Even with the foreclosure company acquiring the home for a fraction of the original mortgage amount, say they buy a home worth $100,000 for just $80,000, you still continue to owe the original amount. This yields to a 20% discount for the buyer. However, you will still need to deal with that remaining debt. The difference between the short sale price and the original mortgage can be paid through the two options offered by mortgage companies. By agreeing to any of these two options, it implies you agree to still owing a considerable sum of money on your mortgage. A foreclosure deficiency judgment or a 1099 form can be served by the mortgage company to claim the remaining balance not paid in the short sale. Based from the earlier example, with the use of a deficiency judgment the mortgage company can demand the remaining...

Bankruptcy may be seen as a quick fix solution to financial issues. However, the effects of bankruptcy are long term and can impair your ability to obtain employment, house, and any type of credit. It is important to weigh the pros and the cons of bankruptcy before making a major choice. It is a fact that bankruptcy comes with a number of benefits. First and foremost it annihilates most of your debt. It can aid you with repossessions, missed debt payments, defaults and lawsuits. It can get you started on rehabiliation if you have poor credit. Bankruptcy will hinder the phone calls from creditors, collections letters, repossessions, declined charge authorizations, cancelled credit cards, and lawsuits. You can also keep your car if you keep up on the payment; bankruptcy will also allow you to keep your home if you remain current on the payments. Bankruptcy will let you exit foreclosure and pay monthly payments on past amounts. Finally, it puts an end to creditors making a claim after it is filed, even if your financial situation changes for better or worse. Conversely, bankruptcy law can offer a “fresh start” but only every six years in most cases. Bankruptcy will stay on your credit report for ten years and hurts your credit rating severly. Additionally, filing bankruptcy may require a wait of two years before it is possible to buy a home. Some lenders allow for home loans after one year however. Bankruptcy does not annihilate most tax debt. It doesn’t whipe out student loan debt. You will need to give up your credit cards. It might cause you to lose...

I sit at my desk completely frustrated with Advanta. I opened up a business credit card with them 3 years ago and made a purchase of $6500 to help build my business credit for Rapid Recovery Solution, my Collection Agency. I have paid more then the minimum every month, on time. November 2008 I noticed that my interest rate seemed a little high. No where on my statement did it say the actual interest rate so I called the company. After 10 min or so I get a live rep on the line and they tell me it is 36.1%. Are they kidding, this must be a mistake. I have over a 750 score and never missed a payment. They said they sent me a notice in Aug that they are doing this due to a change in there lending methods. It turns out this is the second time this year they did this. I went from 8.99% in Jan 08 to 18.99 in Feb 08 to 36.1% in Aug 08. Now, being in the industry for over 10 years I know that I need to watch my credit. I look for charges I didn’t make and it is tough to scam me. I have seen it all but this takes the cake. They told me I am now at a high risk for default so that is why they raised my interest rate? That doesn’t make any sense. They should lower my rate if they think I will default on my credit card. How will an increase in what you are charging me keep me from defaulting. Luckily, I have the ability to pay off this card today but I want everyone to realize that these companies have you by the short-n-curly’s. Watch your statements and lookout for this scam. FYI, In NY, the maximum interest rate is 30%. They are charging me more then the maximum allowed...

Three steps to freedom form debt: 1. Stop acquiring new debt. 2. Establish an emergency fund. 3. Implement a debt snowball. Here’s how to approach each step. Stop acquiring new debt (This step can be accomplished in a minute.) This may seem obvious, but the reason your debt is out of control is because you keep adding to it. Stop using credit. Don’t finance anything. Cut up your credit cards. That last one can be tough. Don’t make excuses. I don’t care that other personal finance sites say that you shouldn’t cut them up. Destroy them. Stop rationalizing that you need them. * You don’t need credit cards for a safety net. * You don’t need credit cards for convenience. * You don’t need credit cards for cash-back bonuses. You really don’t need credit cards at all. If you’re in debt, credit cards are a trap. They only put you deeper in debt. Later, when your debts are gone and your finances are under control, maybe then you can get a credit card. (I don’t carry a personal credit card. I don’t miss having one.) After you kill your cards, stop all recurring payments. If you have a gym membership, cancel it. If you automatically renew your Xbox Live account, cancel it. Cancel anything that automatically charges your credit card. Stop using credit. Once you’ve destroyed the cards, call the credit card companies that you just killed. Do not cancel your credit cards (except for those with a zero balance). Instead, ask for a better deal. Find an offer online and use it as a bargaining wedge. Your...

Now is the time of technology and fast advanced softwares, so why would the forex market stay behind? This is why now even the forex markets is also using advanced technology. With the invention of forex auto trading software now you can trade in this market without any kind of hassles and problems. These kinds of software are designed in such a way that it guides you in a most effective manner, so that you can earn the most. With this auto software, now the trading process in forex market has become a real quick process. So now lets find out some advantages of using this software. Here we will talk about the best softwares related to forex. To begin with, this auto software works completely automatically. That is, here you can trade automatically and in a faster rate. Secondly it checks various different markets for the various pairs of currency at the same time. Other advantages include the fact that with the guidance of this software you can overcome all kinds of trading barriers, which stops you to trade in a better manner. So with this you can trade in a much faster and convenient way. Also it will give you the best trade options, through out the whole day and night. So this software never stops working as it works 24/7. If you are new in this particular market then surely this software will be a great help to you. It gives you all the information of the various market highs and lows. So if the market trend is good, you can invest accordingly. All of this information will be passed on to you via email or even by sms. Now let’s get few big names in the field...

What is a collection company? There are two possibilities. A number of creditors will do their best to intimidate a debtor by using a separate company name, address, and phone number for their internal collection departments, so that they can give the impression of an “outside” agency. This strategy is should only be used when the debt is recent (under six months past due.) However, most collections activity is performed by a third-party collection company, which are separate from the original creditors, and “work” debts on behalf of various lenders. They may also buy bad debts which have been designated as charge-offs by the original creditor. This series of articles will focus on third party collection companies. How does a collection company get paid? Third-party collection companies often work on commission, where they receive a percentage of the amount that they collect. Individual collectors are often paid a low base wage plus commissions based on their personal performance. Some agencies also purchase large groups of charged-off bad debts for a small percentage of the face value (amount owed.) After a debt is sold, the debtor now owes the full amount to the purchaser. Since the chances of recovery decrease substantially with time, an agency might only pay 1% – 5% of face value. The agencies’ profits come from the difference between the purchase price and the amounts that are eventually collected. How do they work? Letters and telephone calls are the primary tools of a collection company. What is the deal with collections...

Home buying can be one form of self actualization and long term investment too, and hence you should start the plan as soon as possible. Soon means as soon as you can afford and realize the importance of saving. And the young age is the perfect time to start day-dreaming about buying home. But you can obviously do more than that. In fact, what you do now can affect your home buying cost a lot in the future. It is important to know this earlier so that you can prepare for the best. There are loads of houses for sale out there. Since you will soon own one of them, watch out these: 1. Build good credit score. Most young people get a credit card. It is one good chance to build god credit score. Use it responsibly for appropriate purchase. If you do not have a card, apply for a loan now and make sure you afford the monthly payment. Automobile loan is usually a good place to start. If you are renting home, apartment, or condo, pay the bills and rent on schedule every month. The accumulation of this will form you good credit score, which means you have lower risk of default. Few years later when it is time to look for homes for sale, it will help you gain lower interest rate on the mortgage. 2. Find good resources. Reading investment or home buying books or consulting with people you know doing it pretty well can help you prepare the plan a lot. Many financial or investment books cover home buying issues comprehensively. Take time digesting what is there, keep your own notes if necessary, and prepare your own financial plan. If you have relatives or friend working in the related...

Very little of the 75 billion dollars the banks received from the stimulus package has been used to help borrowers who are in trouble with their mortgages. The government has decided to try to pressure the banks to approve more loan modifications to provide foreclosure relief to borrowers. It’s about time they did something, but is it possibly too little, too late? Only about 1,700 homeowners have succeeded in getting permanent loan modifications through the program since it began in February. According to the banks, people are not turning in their forms so they cannot process the applications. If I was losing my home, I’m sure I would find time to fill out some paperwork to try to save it. That must be one huge stack of forms. More than sixty percent of the people who are believed to qualify for modified loans have not completed all of the necessary paperwork. However, this is only part of the problem. Very few of the people who have turned in their paperwork in full have gotten approved either. If over 225,000 people didn’t complete their forms, there were a bit fewer than 150,000 who did. About 50,000 of the people who completed their applications have not heard anything yet. Of the 100,000 who have, roughly 1. 7% actually got permanent modifications to their loans. That’s a pretty pathetic figure. The government is now trying to get banks to get more loan modifications processed. SWAT teams are being sent to the banks from the Treasury Department to oversee how the banks are handling the loan modification applications. The department plans to...

It is essential that collections agents respect your privacy. According to the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act, bill collectors are unable to exchange information about persons that owe a debt. They can’t distribute a list of debtors to its creditor subscribers. They cannot advertise a debt for sale, or create a list of debtors to its creditor subscribers. They can not advertise a debt for with the intention of selling it, or compile a list of debtors for sale to others. They are unable leave messages with third parties requesting that the debtor to call them. The outside of envelopes sent by collections agents cannot indicate the purpose of the letter in any way. Postcards are always prohibited. A collector is permitted to send mail in care of another person only if you reside at that address or if you receive your mail at that address. If you share your address with others the mail should be labeled “private” or personal. Essentially, the letter can’t give any evidence pointing to the fact that it is a collections letter. A debt collector that knows your name and phone number and thus can contact you yourself is not allowed to contact your family or neighbors. If they can’t find you and they do call your family members or neighbors, the collector has to identify themselves by name but not tell the third party that they are a debt collector. They can not let others know you owe a debt or talk to them about account details. They can’t contact the person more than once, can’t leave information about a debt on a third party’s...