Finance Tips That You Must Know About For New Years

New Year

With New Year just around the corner, personal and family finances should top the list of things you’re thinking of for the coming year. Here are 7 crucial points to think on:

 

1. Family Budget

Planning a budget is one of the main ways to analyse your monthly cash flow and discretionary income, which is the “leftover” money you have after taxes. Assessing what you spend it on and managing expenses will help you save and increase your discretionary income.

Budget

2. Review the cost of debt

Consumer debt and tax are unavoidable, but you can save on home-equity credit line. Being tax deductible, they serve as a lower-cost source of money than other loans. A controlled strategy will help reduce the cost of debt.

 

3. Increase retirement plan contributions

Contacting your HR officer or approaching your 401(k) planner will help increase the percentage of your income that goes into your retirement plan. Every small contribution made today will have a greater impact in the future.

 

4. Merge retirement accounts

With people shifting jobs regularly, it’s not surprising for someone to have more than one 401(k) plan accounts. Even though the consolidating of these accounts takes time, your 401(k) plan provider can help you move it along. Reducing the number of accounts will help you coordinate your assets and manage them effectively.

 

5. Risk analysis and asset allocation

Evaluating your portfolio is a task you can achieve yourself or with the help of a financial advisor. This will help ensure that it is kept structured as per your objectives, and to find out where it can be improved.

Risk

6. Beneficiary reviews

It is necessary to ensure that your retirement plans, annuities, and insurance policies reflect your wishes and involve the right beneficiaries as they precede over any legal document you make. Reviewing these documents regularly is the best way to ensure that all your assets are in order and will go to the right beneficiaries, should the need arise.

 

7. Review insurance adequacy

In two-earner families, it is important to ensure both parents’ incomes for securing your children’s future. Term life insurance is inexpensive and offers up to 10-12 times annual income in coverage.

How To Improve Your Marriage

Marriage

You will notice that people who are happy in their marriages are happy in other relationships and aspects of their life. However, sometimes the intimacy may wane. Here are some tips that will help you improve your married life.

 

1. Early rising

Waking up a few minutes earlier than necessary will give you some quality time with your spouse be it to drink coffee, to talk, or simply to cuddle. This time will help set off your day on a positive note.

 

2. Kiss

When saying hello or goodbye, you make do with a quick peck. Surprise your spouse with a passionate kiss instead – a few extra seconds of intimacy can do wonders for your bond.

 

3. PDA

Think back to the initial phases of your relationship. Remember the public displays of affection? Next time you’re out with your spouse, bring back the passion. Even a little gesture will do – hold their hand, give them a quick hug or kiss. Bring the focus back to yourselves.

Kiss

 

4. Be your best

Over time, you give your all to work, chores and your children. At the end of the day, why not make a conscious effort to give your better half the best? After all, they do deserve it.

 

5. Shower together

The spontaneity and intimacy of enjoying a shower together – whether it leads to sex or not – is a great way to spice things and bring you two closer.

 

6. Read

Words have a way of bringing people together. Spend time with your spouse every day to relax and share a good book; it’s bound to help forge a deeper bond.

Talk together

7. Talk

Although it seems obvious, think back to the last time you had an intimate, meaningful conversation with your significant other. If nothing else, make a mindful effort to ask your spouse about their day and how they’re doing.

 

8. Encourage

Appreciation is something that makes anyone’s day. The next time your spouse has a bad day, or even randomly, let them know that they are appreciated for all that they are and for what they do for your family.

 

9. Have fun

Over the years, the fun factor tends to be overshadowed by responsibilities and routines. Bring the fun back to your marriage with game or movie nights, or going out for a date – enjoy who you have and what you share.

Proposal

10. Say “I Love You”

Not every day is going to be like the first day you fell in love. But you have made a commitment to your significant other. Cherish your spouse by telling them you love them daily – in person, on a post-it note on the bathroom mirror, or through Facebook.

Reasons Why You Must Install Home Security

Home security

Finding safety and security in your own home is of utmost importance, so much so that the cost of home security systems is overridden by the need for the same. Here are some reasons why it is essential to have a proper home security system in place.

 

1. Intruders

It is assumed that houses that aren’t protected by a security system are more than 2.7 times likely to be targeted by intruders, who can often turn aggressive in the face of a home invasion. The presence of a security system buys residents enough time to get to safety while authorities are being notified.

Thief

2. Fires

It only takes about 30 seconds for an unsolicited flame to become an inferno, and minutes for the home to be consumed by thick black smoke, making escape impossible. Installation of smoke and heat detectors can help buy you the necessary time to get to a safe place while automatically contacting authorities.

3. Carbon monoxide poisoning

Being colorless and odorless, CO which is found in combustion fumes (from stoves, wood fires, gas ranges, etc.) are undetectable by human senses, and excessive amounts of CO in the body can cause dizziness, nausea and even death. Installation of CO detectors can help notify authorities for evacuation, as well as paramedics to treat the poisoning.

 

4. Protect your valuables

The presence of a home security system not only helps deter burglars but in the face of a burglary, also helps identify them with the help of cameras. This helps protect and/or recover stolen items that mean a lot to us sentimentally or monetarily.

5. Monitoring

In an event where you may be away from your home, monitored home security systems will respond to emergency situations ranging from burglary to natural disasters by contacting concerned authorities automatically. Because of the same, the loss incurred will be significantly less than that without a security system. It also aids in remotely controlling the monitoring systems installed in your home.

Monitor

6. Save on Homeowners Insurance

This insurance covers losses or damages from a variety of events, but not against all possible circumstances. This insurance is expensive, but having a home security system gives the homeowners a 10-20% discount, thereby cutting costs.

7. Reduce energy consumption

The latest advent in security systems is the assistance in monitoring lighting, thermostat, etc. Not only does this help in giving an image of an occupied home to an intruder by remotely controlling the lights and heating, but also helps conserve energy.

Stock Exchange Tips For All Investors

Stock Market

A Stock Exchange is a marketplace for the purchase and sale of commercial goods like bonds, stocks, and securities. Modern exchanges have come to opt for electronic trading venues – dark pools, communication networks, etc. – in lieu of traditional floor, exchanges to save time and money. Buyers and sellers experience profit or loss in trading depending on whether the market is bull or bear, respectively.

Investment

 

Being the financial capital of the US, Wall Street is a deterministic force in the world economy. New York City houses two of the biggest stock exchanges in the world. The first, the New York Stock Exchange (founded 1792 and owned by Intercontinental Exchange) leads in trade value and has a capitalization of $19.223 trillion USD. The NYSE has borne witness to some prominent market events such as the 1929 Wall Street Crash, the 1997 mini-crash, and the 1987 Black Tuesday. The second major stock exchange, NASDAQ (founded 1971 and owned by NASDAQ Inc.) has a capitalization of $6.831 trillion USD and pioneered electronic systems in trading. Another stock market giant is TMX Group in Canada (founded 2008). With a capitalization of $ 1.939 trillion, it owns Montreal Exchange, NGX, TSX Alpha Exchange, among other notable exchanges.

In Asia, a prominent hub of trading is the Japan Exchange Group (founded 2013) with a capitalization of $4.485 trillion, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (founded 1904, the first stock exchange in China) with a market capitalization of $3.986 trillion, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with a capitalization of $3.325 trillion, and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in China with a capitalization of $2.285 trillion. Witnessing some major events in trading, these still remain some of the major stock exchanges in the world.

 

Europe is also home to some major exchanges such as the London Stock Exchange in the UK (founded 1801; $6.187 trillion capitalizations), Euronext in the UK, Belgium, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands (founded 2000, $3.321 trillion capitalizations), and the Deutsche Borse AG in Germany (founded 1992; $1.762 trillion capitalization).

These exchange centers of the world act as a measuring stick of development and help predict the direction of national economic growth. The major exchanges fund development projects for economies worldwide, especially in developing nations whose stock exchanges are still in their growing phase. The growth of financial markets offers higher standards of living, employment opportunities, and also help fund the growth of other nations worldwide thereby bringing down rates of poverty and illiteracy.