Update August 25 - 2010 All About "Life Insurance and Financial Planning" By Insurance Experts

Financial planning is the long-term process of wisely managing your finances so you can achieve your goals and dreams, while at the same time negotiating the financial barriers that inevitably arise in every stage of life by Creating a Sound Financial Plan
Step 1 Establish Goals
Step 2 Gather Data
Step 3 Analyze & Evaluate Your Financial Status
Step 4 Develop a Plan
Step 5 Implement the Plan
Step 6 Monitor the Plan & Make Necessary Adjustments

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Financial Planning - Get the Big View of Your Finances
By Robin Applegarth


Many people are adept at handling their daily finances. Paid the bills? Check. Shopped for the best deal on that new TV? Check.
But what happens with the bigger picture? If you've ever had a nagging feeling your money could be working harder and smarter, consider doing some financial planning.
The process is like taking a hike up a nearby mountain to get the big view. It will take some time and a little effort. But, with the landscape laid out in front of you, it can be easier to find the best road to any destination. Plus, you may see intriguing new areas to explore.
How does it work? Financial planning starts with taking a holistic look at short and longer-term goals. Next, it's followed by making a financial plan to reach those goals. Make your dollars match your values, and meet your overall needs. You may be surprised to find larger strategies you've overlooked.
There are times when it's best to seek professional advice, but there is much you can do yourself. First, we'll explore steps you can take. Then we'll find out when it's smart to hire a pro.
"Do-it-yourself" financial planning
Here are some planning actions you can take.
Think about short and long-term goals. What are your dreams? Do you want to buy a home, get a college degree, or travel the world? Maybe you long to retire early. Start a notebook or online diary to record your goals.
Take inventory of where you are now. How much savings do you have? How much are you earning and spending? What are your personal assets and debts? Record your expenses for at least 3 months to really get an idea of where your money is going. You can use resources like Mint.com, Kiplinger's budget form, or programs like Quicken.
Go over your basic needs, including risk management. Make sure you have the right kinds of insurance for health, home and possessions. If you have dependents, or own things, make sure you have a will or trust so you get to say what happens after you're gone.
Pick a goal and create an action plan. Let's say you want to buy a home, but don't have the savings. It's suggested that monthly payments and other housing expenses don't exceed 30% of your average income. Work with this figure to see what you can afford, and what you'll need to save for a down payment. Go to Bankrate.com for calculators that will tell you how long it'll take.
Review and revisit your goals and progress every month.
When to hire a professional planner--If you were organizing a large wedding or event, hiring a caterer would be smart. And most of us would head to a medical professional for health problems we did not understand. Likewise, consider hiring a competent financial planner if you find yourself in any of the following situations.
If the sums are large, consider additional help. Did you get a life insurance payment, or inherit Aunt Susan's estate? If you're fortunate enough to have received a windfall or inheritance, you're a good candidate for help.
If your finances are complex or disturbing you, get assistance. Are you headed for bankruptcy or juggling too much debt? Not sure whether you'll meet retirement goals?
If you've had a recent divorce or loss of spouse,consider help. This is a time when people feel fragile, and may not be at their best to make informed decisions. Ask a trusted professional what your options are, and then take some time to reflect before acting.
If you're unable to move forward or make decisions about your money,seek help. This might be just the step you need to get your finances in order.
So, how does one find a trusted professional? It's best to choose someone who bases their advice on a per-hour or per-job fee, rather than commissions alone. This will help insure there's no conflict of interest. A top-trained planner often has earned the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation. You can search for these and other fee-based professionals at the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors http://www.napfa.org/
Financial planning-by you or someone else--can lead to added awareness about how your money serves your life.
Robin Applegarth holds a certificate in Personal Financial Planning from the University of California, Riverside. She is the founder of a website, http://TheSilverPurse.com/ to help women build financial security. Read more about finding your unique goals http://TheSilverPurse.com/Set-Goals

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Update August 09 - 2010 All About "Life Insurance and Financial Planning" By Insurance Experts

Financial planning is the long-term process of wisely managing your finances so you can achieve your goals and dreams, while at the same time negotiating the financial barriers that inevitably arise in every stage of life by Creating a Sound Financial Plan
Step 1 Establish Goals
Step 2 Gather Data
Step 3 Analyze & Evaluate Your Financial Status
Step 4 Develop a Plan
Step 5 Implement the Plan
Step 6 Monitor the Plan & Make Necessary Adjustments

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How to Hire Your Financial Planner
By Sharma Vishal

How should I select a "true professional financial planner" who will help me get my financial plan, and provide me unbiased advice?

The answer to this question is simple.

Check the capability of the individual or the organization that you wish to hire as your financial planner. Ask some few simple questions such as:

A) What is the business model of the company? How does it earn its revenues?
B) What is the process that they would follow in building the financial plan? Have a look at a sample plan.
C) What is the team size? Their experience and qualifications?
D) Are their recommendations based on solid research or driven by commissions?
E) How long has the individual or the organization been in business? How many clients have they made financial plans for?
F) Can they give references of existing clients with whom you can speak?

Do a detailed discussion with your prospective financial planner. Once you are satisfied on all these parameters, then go ahead and sign him up as your financial planner.

What all should a financial plan do for you?
A comprehensive financial plan should help you set the following things right:
i) Protection requirements and how to meet them
ii) Emergency fund planning
iii) Your goals (Retirement, asset purchase, children's needs, etc) and the money that you would require to achieve them.
iv) Detailed cash flows to help you understand the movement in your plan
v) View on your current investments
vi) How should your investments be spread into various assets in line with your risk taking capacity
vii) Investment Recommendations

What should be the cost of your plan?
We saw in the previous article the various ways that you would have to pay for a financial plan (including in some cases where there is no charge). Investors often tend to associate the cost that they are willing to pay for a plan with the amount that they are going to invest. That is not correct. The price that you pay for getting your plan built is not just about the investment that you are going to make. You should look at the overall benefit that the exercise is going to bring to you in terms of how efficiently you would manage your personal finances with respect to all the points that have been mentioned above.

Word of caution:
Do not decide your financial planner purely on the basis of who is going to charge you the least fees. Please understand there are no free lunches. And to build a financial plan which is comprehensive and takes into account all your requirements, a premium charge will have to be paid.

Also, while a CFP is a desirable qualification, the absence of it may not be the most appropriate reason to not select your planner. The approach and the expertise matter a lot. Take into account the other questions as mentioned above.

Conclusion

It is important to do financial planning but it is equally important to hire the right financial planner. The value that the planner can add to managing your personal finances is going to far outpace the fee that you pay. So go ahead and create your financial plan today!

I am working with PersonalFN. PersonalFN provides Financial Planning, Investment Planning and Mutual Fund Research and Recommendation services to investors, who are looking to invest in India. PersonalFN also provides Financial Planning Calculators and Online Portfolio Tracker Software to track your investments.

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Update July 22 - 2010 All About "Life Insurance and Financial Planning" By Insurance Experts

Financial planning is the long-term process of wisely managing your finances so you can achieve your goals and dreams, while at the same time negotiating the financial barriers that inevitably arise in every stage of life by Creating a Sound Financial Plan
Step 1 Establish Goals
Step 2 Gather Data
Step 3 Analyze & Evaluate Your Financial Status
Step 4 Develop a Plan
Step 5 Implement the Plan
Step 6 Monitor the Plan & Make Necessary Adjustments

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Effective Financial Planning - Some Practical Suggestions
By Sarath P Jerome


I'd like to provide a set of tips that will assist you in planning and managing your finances.
These are there in number. It may seem a bit strange that three simple steps will help you manage your finances - but wait until you read and implement them! The key lies in implementation. No matter how many encyclopedias you may read, ultimately you need to put the principles in practice in order to see the benefits.
Let me list the three tips:
1. Increase your savings and then invest these savings. It may sound like a simple thing to do. However, the key is to get hold of a very effective and simple financial management tool that will help you balance your incomings and outgoings so that you can see actual savings in your balance sheets. Once you accumulate savings using these financial management tools, then you can start investing these savings in various forms such as bonds, real estate, etc.
2. Stick to your budget Unless you know what your incomings and outgoings are, you will never know whether you are saving or going into an overdraft. So, begin by making a list of outgoings and incomings. Reduce expenses or outgoings where necessary. Once your budget is set, stick to it religiously. Now, start looking forward to some savings.
3. Manage your credit appropriately Credit cards are a major source of credit to most individuals. An effective use of credit card -0 making purchase so as to save on other costs, effectively helps you save more money than if you were to simply pay cash for that purchase. If possible, do not use credit cards at all.
Are you in need of a personal budget planner? Visit our website.

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Update July 05 - 2010 All About "Life Insurance and Financial Planning" By Insurance Experts

Financial planning is the long-term process of wisely managing your finances so you can achieve your goals and dreams, while at the same time negotiating the financial barriers that inevitably arise in every stage of life by Creating a Sound Financial Plan
Step 1 Establish Goals
Step 2 Gather Data
Step 3 Analyze & Evaluate Your Financial Status
Step 4 Develop a Plan
Step 5 Implement the Plan
Step 6 Monitor the Plan & Make Necessary Adjustments

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Financial Planning Steps

By Sarath P Jerome

Here are the steps that you will have to follow if you wish to be successful with your finance plans.

1. Get an idea about your financial situation. Understand where you are exactly in your finance. Find out if you are having more savings or debts. Get the accurate details regarding your finance
2. Make the list of all your steady incomes. Steady income means that you have to get the details of all the incomes that you will get every month. The steady income refers to the minimum possible income that you will surely get every month.
3. Make a note of all your monthly expenses. There are different kinds of expenses. You have to group them in groups of fixed expenses, unwanted expenses and other random expenses.
4. Get the list of all your debts. Include your credit card debts, loans payments and any other debt.
5. Now as you have got the perfect list of everything you do with your money every month. It is left for you to device a personal finance plan for yourself. You can take into account all our details that you have gathered.
6. Make a plan to spend each dollar of your income. You can cut down all the unwanted incomes, and reduce all the amounts that you are spending on entertainment unnecessarily.
7. Now when you have a plan and you know what to do, do it. I mean stick to your plan and make it a success. Make all your budgeting plans happen. If you are able to do this, slowly you will find your finance growing stronger and stronger.

For more information on personal budgeting software click on the link.

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Update June 14 - 2010 All About "Life Insurance and Financial Planning" By Insurance Experts

Financial planning is the long-term process of wisely managing your finances so you can achieve your goals and dreams, while at the same time negotiating the financial barriers that inevitably arise in every stage of life by Creating a Sound Financial Plan
Step 1 Establish Goals
Step 2 Gather Data
Step 3 Analyze & Evaluate Your Financial Status
Step 4 Develop a Plan
Step 5 Implement the Plan
Step 6 Monitor the Plan & Make Necessary Adjustments

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Divorce Financial Planning Strategies

By Thomas Corley

In my role in divorce planning I have heard more than once, clients articulate that they would prefer death over another divorce. The stress takes years off one's life. The scars take a lifetime to heal. Typically it takes the average divorced couple seven years to recover financially from a divorce. Divorce is never a good thing, no matter what the psychologists say. Everyone in the family unit suffers. The most distressing part of divorce planning from an advisor point of view is the inability of the client to think clearly. Their brains do not function at an optimal level. The stress clouds their thinking. They just want the divorce process to end so they can get on with their lives. Oftentimes this means settling for less in order to expedite the process. For those seriously considering divorce or in the very beginning phases of a divorce the time to lay out the financial planning strategies is now, not later. You need to determine your course of action at the very beginning, because during the divorce process you will be unable to think as clearly as you do at the beginning.

Financial Planning Strategies:

1. Start a bank account, brokerage account and open a credit card account in your own name. This should be done while still married. The fact is, while you are married, your joint assets offer greater leverage than those assets remaining after the divorce. Your credit score will be higher, your financial balance sheet more robust and your shared liabilities watered down when there are two individuals rather than just one. This is particularly true for spouses who never established such accounts in their own name during the marriage. Don't wait until the divorce process begins to get these accounts opened.

2. Change beneficiaries on life insurance, retirement plans, in your IRAs and trusts.

3. Draft a new will changing beneficiaries.

4. Change title to assets that are owned jointly. This may include your car, an existing joint bank account or a jointly owned brokerage account.

5. Close joint bank and credit card accounts. An angry spouse can cause havoc by withdrawing money or running up the balance on a jointly owned credit card.

6. Sell your home. The clock starts ticking on the residential gain exclusion once the divorce is finalized. Better to sell the home right away and maximize the gain exclusion, which is $500,000 for married individuals.

Tom is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Financial Planner, CLTC (Certified Long-Term Care) and President of Cerefice & Company, the largest CPA firm in Rahway, New Jersey. Tom works with clients helping them manage their money, retirement planning, college savings, life insurance needs, IRAs and qualified plan rollovers with an eye towards maximizing tax benefits and minimizing taxes. Tom is founder of the Rich Habits Institute and author of "Rich Habits".

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Update May 25 - 2010 All About "Life Insurance and Financial Planning" By Insurance Experts

Financial planning is the long-term process of wisely managing your finances so you can achieve your goals and dreams, while at the same time negotiating the financial barriers that inevitably arise in every stage of life by Creating a Sound Financial Plan
Step 1 Establish Goals
Step 2 Gather Data
Step 3 Analyze & Evaluate Your Financial Status
Step 4 Develop a Plan
Step 5 Implement the Plan
Step 6 Monitor the Plan & Make Necessary Adjustments

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Compare Equity Indexed Life Insurance

By Steve Mackey

A relatively new type of life insurance policy is offering a new option for people to gain from the rising value of the stock market. Called equity indexed universal life insurance, it meets many people's financial needs by proving protection against the uncertain future as well as growing in value, thus letting the holder experience the benefits of a growing economy. Whether this is a good idea for you and your family will take some research, but you should at least learn the facts about this new type of insurance plan.

Purpose
Life insurance is really two different types of protection against uncertainties in the future: its main purpose is to replace lost income from a wage earner. By giving the beneficiaries money when the policy holder dies, the policy protects them against the financial burden caused by bills, mortgage payments, or other debt payment. But another purpose of life coverage can be to provide protection of estate assets from inheritance taxes. This is a major consideration for families that are well off.

The cash value of an equity index life insurance policy is based on an index such as a stock market index. This is built into the policy so be sure to read it carefully. The policy allows the holder to benefit from an increase in this index over time. Since stock markets tend to rise in the long run, this can provide powerful appreciation for policy holders.

Appreciation vs. Depreciation
To cover the risks that the stock market might go down, most policies have clauses that say the value of the policy cannot decrease. This cost is offset because the policy doesn't share all the appreciation of the stock market; you will only get a percent of the rise. This can still be a good deal for people with equity indexed universal life insurance policies.

Since there are many extra expenses not found in traditional life insurance policies, premiums may be a bit higher. Things like management fees for funds, stockbroker fees, and other professional fees are needed to manage the policy. Equity indexed policies are riskier than a traditional policy and might offer less profit potential than other types of investments. On the other hand, they can be good choices for those who expect the stock market to rise in value over the long term.

Equity indexed life insurance and equity indexed annuities are another option for long term financial planning and insurance protection for those looking to protect their loved ones in the years ahead. Find out if these plans are right for you, do some research and get a great policy.

Get A Quote Now

If you're looking for life insurance, click here to get quotes online right now. Just enter your zip code and press enter. You can compare quotes from different companies in your area to find the cheapest, best coverage to protect your family and loved ones. Don't wait - visit http://getlifeinsurancequotes.info today!

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Update May 04 - 2010 All About "Life Insurance and Financial Planning" By Insurance Experts

Financial planning is the long-term process of wisely managing your finances so you can achieve your goals and dreams, while at the same time negotiating the financial barriers that inevitably arise in every stage of life by Creating a Sound Financial Plan
Step 1 Establish Goals
Step 2 Gather Data
Step 3 Analyze & Evaluate Your Financial Status
Step 4 Develop a Plan
Step 5 Implement the Plan
Step 6 Monitor the Plan & Make Necessary Adjustments

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Financial Planning - Two Critical Keys to Your Financial Survival

By Glenn Ferguson

In today's uncertain financial markets the one thing that is certain is - if you are going to survive you must take control of your money, no matter your age or income level. And the message is also clear that you are going to have to take full responsibility for your financial well being.

So here are the two critical keys that you can count on to ensure your financial survival.

You got to know where you are going!

I am sure you have heard it over and repeatedly- "he who fails to plan, plans to fail" and believe those words are as true today as they were on the day they were first spoken and yet persons are failing everyday financially because they do not have a plan.

If you are going to survive you have to start with a thoughtful, well-designed financial plan. And you may need professional help in getting it done.

Remember that your financial well being is no different from your medical well being and just as you use a professional to help with your medical need you will need financial help!

Your plan should include the following:

1. Specific Financial Goals with appropriate time lines
2. Your Monthly Spending Plan. This will help you to control your spending and ensure that you are spending your money appropriately.
3. Savings. Never forget that a part of every dollar you earn is yours to keep so start keeping it.
4. Investments Goals & Strategy. You must grow your money and this will only happen if you have well a thought out investment strategy with the appropriate portfolio design.
5. Home ownership. You really ca not enjoy life without your own home
6. Retirement planning. You have got to provide now for when you are older and can not work.
7. Personal Development. You need to constantly increase your ability to earn more money.
8. Protection. You and your family will need adequate and appropriate insurance protection.
9. Estate Planning. Get yourself a Will, its the only way you will be able to make your wishes known.

Get yourself some breathing space!

You want to eliminate any consumer and credit debts as quickly as possible. And once you have done so build up your savings to at least six to eight months of living expenses.

Believe me, you will be happy you did because of the peace of mind it provides in a financial emergency or job loss.

You should keep this money in an easily accessible account preferable attached to an automatic teller card (ATM).

No matter what your current economy may seem like now or the noise in the market place do not become overwhelmed just start using these two critical financial keys and you will survive!

I invite you to take your first step to improving your financial survival by getting FREE " Your Financial Secrets for Everyday Living! "

Copyright © 2010 - Glenn S. Ferguson

Glenn Ferguson is a Speaker, Coach and Syndicated Writer, helping you to painlessly take control of your money to create wealth for you and your family. Email to: glenn@financialcoachingwithglenn.com. Web site: http://www.financialcoachingwithglenn.com.

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