Steps to check household debt

A very interesting article in the Star, September 8th, 2010

6 Easy Step To Create a Financial Plan

A personal financial plan provides strategies for dealing with periods of personal hardship and helps develop a prudent economic agenda for you and/or your family.

Step 1
Divide your financial life into six categories: assets, liabilities, property and casualty risk (house, car, personal injury and so on), personal risk (life, health, disability and so on), education (for children, if applicable) and retirement.

Step 2
Put a dollar figure to each categories.

Step  3
Add up all assets, then add up all liabilities.

Step  4
Subtract liabilities from assets to calculate your net worth.

Step 5
Evaluate your lifestyle if the net worth is negative, and investigate ways to pay off debt.

Step 6
Develop ways to build on your existing budget. If your net worth is positive, your priority will be to evaluate your lifestyle, transfer "insurable risk" to insurance companies, and invest more to create more wealth.

Or if you want it easier, we can help you to develop a comprehensive financial plan which include your Networth Statement, Cash Flow Statement, Retirement Plan, Education Plan, Insurance Needs Analysis, Investment Analysis and also we have a Risk Profile Test. Others will charge you more than RM2,000.00 for a similar plan. All this can be done online and total privacy and only cost RM399.00.

What's more if you are in Malaysia and invest in the stock market and Unit Trust, we will provide you with the Daily Bursa Malaysia and Unit trust price alert when your targeted price is reached. Call us today at 012-3083011 or email us at myfc123@gmail.com

Financial Planning: It's About More Than Money

Traditional financial planning is all about math and money. You look at how much you earn, figure out how much you will need in the future to maintain your desired lifestyle and try to come up with an investment plan that will help you reach the magic number that will allow you to retire. The process is generally about as exciting as balancing a checkbook and as emotionally draining as paying taxes. Unfortunately, many people choose not to deal with it all, preferring to put off worrying about the future until it arrives. Others go about the process with a sort of resignation born of the fact that, aside from death and taxes, your bills are just another part of life - they need to be dealt with because you don't have much choice. However, there's a quiet minority of investors that are taking a different approach. It goes by a variety of names, but "life planning" is one of the more frequently heard terms.

Life planning is different than traditional financial planning because the focus is more about who you are and who you want to be than it is about money. Unlike people engaged in the traditional planning process, people engaged in the life planning process don't look ahead in an effort to figure out how to maintain their current lifestyles in retirement. Instead, they look at how to change their current lifestyle to achieve the lifestyle of their dreams. Read on to discover how you can use this approach to financial planning.

The Ideal Lifestyle

Many people credit the baby boomers for this trend - former flower children who grew up and were absorbed by corporate America, but who never lost their ideals. Just as the boomers redefined their "golden years" as a time to be more active than their predecessors were, some want to go a step further and redefine themselves.

For these people, the concept of money is intertwined with the concepts of spirituality, creativity, family, service and other emotional aspects of personal satisfaction. Happiness is measured in more than just dollars and cents. It's not, "he who dies with most toys wins," it's, "he who gets the most out of life wins."

For many, it's more of a lifestyle change than anything resembling the retirement-planning process most of us are familiar with from 401(k) seminars at work or meetings with a financial advisor. The doctor who wants to be a painter, the law clerk who wants to be a poet and the city-dwelling office manager who longs for a cabin in the mountains are all increasingly turning to financial-service professionals for help in making those dreams come true. Of course, the money plays a big role too.

Money and Sacrifice

There's just no escaping the money (or the lack thereof). The mailman who wants to become Donald Trump is probably out of luck. However, the attorney who wants to trade in her suit to pick up a hammer and open a repair shop might be able to do it in cash. The others have to make choices, so they work with a financial advisor in order to determine how to develop the financial plan that will allow them to realize their personal goals.

Rather than trying to earn more money or build a bigger nest egg, a significant number of people need to make do with less in order to achieve their goals. Giving up the big house, trading in the BMW and skipping the month-long trips to Europe can help decrease expenses and enable people to trade in their day jobs for lower paying, but personally-fulfilling, professions and past-times. 
If living in a small apartment frees up enough cash to increase time spent on the golf course, some people are willing to make the trade. In order to exchange the stress of corporate management for the quiet bliss of a career grooming pets, some people are willing to take a significant cut in pay. When you don't like what you're doing and know how you'd rather spend your time, life planning can help you make the transition
 
It's Your Life

If your goal is simply to retire, still be able to pay the bills and maybe a take a few trips each year, that's one thing. If your goal is trade in your spot in cube city for spot behind the counter at your own bakery, that's another thing entirely. Instead of asking yourself, "How much do I need to save," ask yourself, "How am I willing to change my lifestyle in order to achieve my goal?"

From there, it's more about the mechanics of orchestrating a transition than it is about saving a certain amount of money or earning a certain rate of return on your investments. Just as each person has his or her own definition of happiness, the decision to pursue a lifestyle change is highly personal. It can involve enormous upheaval, but it can also result in enormous satisfaction. Prior to taking the leap, you should carefully examine your motivation and your financial resources. Then all you have to do is come up with the plan that will get you there.

Reduce Your Debt With These Tips

It's never pleasant to realize that you're in financial hot water, but pretending the situation doesn't exist is NEVER the way to deal with the problem. If you're having trouble meeting monthly payments, find yourself borrowing or using credit cards to meet daily expenses, or have one or more of your credit accounts turned over to a collection agency, it's time for you to get proactive and bring your debts back under control. Below you'll find five ways to reduce your debt. Some take time, all take some level of commitment and effort - but it's worth putting in the time to start cleaning up your debt situation.


1. Develop a budget - and stick to it.

The first step toward getting control of your finances is to realistically assess your situation. Sit down and draw up a budget that takes into account all your income and expenses. First, list all your income. Next, list each of your 'fixed expenses', the ones that don't vary from month to month. Those may include your rent or mortgage payment, your auto loan payment, and your utilities if you're on a budget plan to pay for them. Next, add in necessary expenses and payments on bills that vary from month to month. Finally, list all your daily and regular expenses for entertainment, transportation and the like. Your goal is to develop a budget that lets you meet all of your monthly fixed expenses, and figure out where you can cut expenses to start paying down your credit card and other debt.

2. Contact your creditors.

Communication is one of your best tools to help you through difficult financial times. Your creditors would really prefer NOT to take stronger measures to collect the money that you owe them. After all, it costs them more money to refer your debt out to a collection agency. As soon as you know that you're having trouble making ends meet, call your creditors and explain the situation. In most cases, they'll be happy to work out a modified payment plan that will make it easier for you to meet monthly expenses. It may mean extending the period of your loan, or renegotiating the terms of a loan agreement, but in the short run, it will take the heat off and in the long run, it will save your credit rating.

3. Pay down your highest interest loans.

Pick and choose among your credit card payments and loans. While it's generally not a good policy to pay only the minimum payment on credit cards and revolving loans and lines of credit, there is one exception. If you have one or two high interest outstanding loans, one of the better ways to get control of your debt is to eliminate them as quickly as possible. By meeting the minimum payments on other debts for a few months, you can concentrate on bringing the balance down on your most expensive loans.

4. Transfer your balances to lower interest loans and lines of credit.

If you have outstanding debt in high interest loans and credit cards, your finances can benefit from moving the balances to a lower interest credit card. Credit cards with 0% introductory rates for six to twelve months are widely available right now, as are low interest balance transfers. Take advantage of one to transfer a high interest loan and pay it down during the introductory period.

5. Get a debt consolidation loan.

A debt consolidation loan makes sense if you are paying on several different debts with varying interest rates. By taking out a home equity loan, second mortgage or other secured loan in the amount of your total debt, you can pay off all your other creditors, and have one monthly payment to deal with. By using a home equity loan to consolidate your debt, you take advantage of a longer payment term and lower interest rates to bring down your monthly payment and free up your resources for savings and other investments.

Professional Financial Planning

Here is the link of a developer that specializes in Financial Plan Development.

http://www.xpert-asia.com/index.php/xpert-financial-plan

The financial plan that is developed by them conforms to the complete Financial Planning Process. User of this system will be able to continuously monitor either their own financial position or that of their clients.

This comprehensive Financial Plan Development covers the following critical areas:-

1. Dynamic Networth Development and monitoring.
2. Dynamic Cash Flow Management.
3. Asset Allocation Management.
4. Retirement Planning.
5. Education Planning.
6. Insurance Need Management.
7. Financial Health Check and Ratio Analysis.
8. Investment Monitoring.
9. Personal Goals Management.
10. Recommendations and Expiry date alert.
11. Shares price and Unit Trust price update - Only for Malaysian Market.
12. Risk Profile Test.
13. Daily alerts of target prices for all investment and more.

The company plan to launch a portal for individuals to subscribe. Watch this if you are serious about financial planning.

Networth Analysis

Retirement Planning

Risk Profile Test

Your First Step in Financial Planning - DIY

Doing up a Financial Plan is easy if you know what you need to do.

We have developed an easy to use excel spreadsheet that lets you to input your asset and liabilities to calculate your Networth. Why the Networth is important to you. Once you fill up these asset and liabilities you will know whether you have sufficient money to pay all your debts. Having a positive Networth is the first step in the financial planning process.

Next you will find our Cash Flow/ Income Expenses Calculator. This enables you to put in all your income and expenses so that you will know exactly how you hard earned money is being made and spent on what item. At the end you will be able to see how much savings you are getting.

With the 2 calculators in place, you will always be on top of your financial matters. It is advisable to constantly update these data so that you would be aware of your financial situation.

We are selling this calculator for a Special Price USD2.00 (Normal Price USD 19.90) for FOLLOWERS of this blog. Yes, it is USD2.00. What's more we will also be giving you a FREE eBook - Financial Planning For All to you.

You can pay either by PAYPAL or if you are a Malaysian you can pay via Maybank2U. You may send us an email for further instruction at myfc123@gmail.com

Why do we need Financial Planning?

1. To fund our future needs through right mix of investments.
2. To protect our future from unforeseen contingencies.
3. To maintain the same standard of living even after retirement.
4. To enable risk management through diversification.
5. To choose assets commensurate with the investors’ life and wealth stages.
6. To beat the ravages of inflation.

Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance In Your Twenties and Thirties  Personal Financial Planning

What is Financial Planning?

Financial Planning is an exercise aimed at identifying all the financial needs of an individual and translating these needs into monetarily measurable goals at different times in the future. Financial Planning ensures that right amount of money is available in the right hands at the right time in the future to achieve an individual’s financial goals