Archive for August, 2010

Choosing your whole life insurance cover

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

You are considering buying a whole life insurance policy. The agent prepares and prints out an illustration. It is 10 pages long with rows of columns and terminology you have no idea about. What should you focus on? Let’s take a look.

A whole life insurance policy is a staple of the industry. It is a policy that carries not only a death benefit, but allows you to build up savings within it that are invested to grow tax free in different ways. The policy is more expensive than a term life policy, but comes with the tax free growth advantage that is not available with the term version.

The first thing to look at with these policies is the premiums. A policy is only helpful to you as long as it is in force. If the premiums push the bounds of what you can realistically afford, you are probably going to end up dropping the policy. That more or less defeats the purpose of buying it in the first place!

The second thing to consider is the cash value column. This is projection of how money will grow in the policy as you pay premiums per the dictated schedule. Importantly, this is just a projection and you should treat it as such. I personally tend to view it as a marketing tool in that the numbers tend to entice one to buy the policy with great expectations.

To know what the insurance company really thinks about the growth potential, you’ll need to focus on the guaranteed cash value. This is exactly what it says. The life insurance company will guarantee this growth, which you should then treat as the bottom line value of the policy. Hopefully you will do better, but at least you know this is where the bottom line can be found.

The final column to focus on is the surrender fees. This is an arbitrary fee that the insurance company charges for termination of the policy or, more importantly, the withdrawal of money from the cash value. You want to make sure this fee isn’t going to eat too much of your cash value.

Whole life insurance policy illustrations can be intimidating. Don’t let them be. Focus on these four issues and you should do fine.

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Travel Insurance

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Investing in travel insurance before making out on a trip, is always a wise move to make. After all, your trip might not always work out as you plan and you might require back up for unforeseen eventualities. Travel insurance can help, by providing you with cover for any dilemma that you face in a foreign land. It’s also, specifically vital for your adventure trips and journeys. Read on for more.
A bit of bit of research will present you with a number of selections in travel insurance. Usually, the plans on offer may be split into three various categories including annual policy, multi trip policy and per trip plan. Each of these plans varies from each other by virtue of the duration for which you are covered. For example, per trip insurance offers you coverage for a single journey. This is the perfect insurance policy for individuals who travel infrequently.
On the contrary, multi trip insurance will provide coverage for multiple trips within a single year. So, it’s your ideal preference in case you enjoy travelling or going on cruises every now and then. Nevertheless, this specific insurance plan does not cover a trip that extends beyond a period of thirty days. So, in case you are planning to go on a long holiday at a single time, this is not the plan for you. You can instead go with the Annual Travel Insurance policy to cover you on such trips through the length of an entire year. The duration of your vacation isn’t actually a consideration when it comes to this certain travel insurance alternative.
Travel insurance policies differ not just in terms of the number of trips covered but also in terms of the things covered. While a particular policy may just cover cancellations, there are others that cover accidents during the trip, illness and the alike circumstances.
Majority of insurance plans are well known to provide cover for loss of baggage. You can’t rule out the probability of baggage theft or loss when on a trip. This is when travel insurance plans could come to your aid as they could pay for your loss. So, you need not lose heart, even in case your baggage containing effective skin care product like Zenmed Derma Cleanse System gets stolen or lost, as your money will be refunded by the travel insurer. In case your baggage gets delayed, there are a few polices that can pay you for getting all crucial things as well.
Most medical situations are also covered by travel insurance plans. If in case, you suffer from an accident or fall sick during a trip, a travel insurance provider will offer you coverage for your medical bills and related charges. Nevertheless, existent medical conditions such as high blood pressure or other such issues won’t be covered by such policies.
So, the next time, you’re headed for a trip, investing in a travel insurance plan would be a wise thing to do.

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Help with life insurance

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

People searching for life insurance may be very weary that they are going to become the victim of an insurance scam. Of course, this is always a possibility, but with the right amount of research and information you will be able to make sure that you can get a life insurance plan without wasting your money or falling victim to a horrible scam. The first problem that you are going to face is finding the best provider because there are literally thousands of them in the United Kingdom at the moment.

One of the first things that you are going to need to do is get some advice on life insurance and if you could benefit from it. Thee first thing that you should be doing is taking a look at some websites that are dedicated to providing people with information on life insurance. By taking a look at these websites you are able to get a lot of very useful information about what you should and shouldn’t be looking for and also what you should avoid. This will be very beneficial to you when it comes to finding a good provider for a life insurance plan.

The next thing that you should do is a Google search for websites that offer free advice for those searching for a life insurance policy. Again, there are many of these websites around at the moment, so you could get a lot of useful information from these websites. There are usually sections where potential customers can ask questions about life insurance policies, so this is a good place to look. As well as this you can look at customer testimonials on different websites as you will be able to get an idea of whether or not you should be contacting that company.

A final thing that you can do is take a look at the Frequently Asked Questions sections of as many different life insurance company websites as you can. This is a good idea for several reasons. Firstly, a FAQ section is very likely to answer any questions that you could possibly have about life insurance. This is because the questions are user submitted by customers, so they will usually have a lot of very useful information about the company and life insurance in general in these sections. If you can look through lots of FAQ sections then you are more likely to get some very useful information from them.

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How to reduce your debt

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Thousands of Britons are trying to reduce their credit-card debt..Faced with increasing financial responsibilities, many are looking for ways to eliminate the bills they receive each month and free up some of their income.

Fortunately, most debt is manageable – if it is addressed early enough. Here’s what you need to do if you are overburdened with debt…

Acknowledge the problem.

Most people deny that they have debt problems..They refuse to admit that the problems exist or believe that they will go away by themselves. The fact is that if you owe money on your credit cards and cannot pay the entire amount when the bill arrives, you have debt…

If your debt grows too large, you run the risk of being unable to meet your monthly payments and seriously damaging your credit rating.

The biggest drawback to debt is that it uses up income that could have been invested or spent elsewhere.. You are also paying more for something over time than if you had paid for it full right away..Even if your debt situation is only temporary, immediate action must be taken to minimize interest payments..

Put everything in writing

To determine how much debt you are carrying monthly.. Calculate how much you owe. Then determine your monthly income and expenses. If your debt is higher than your monthly income you should take steps to reduce it.

Strategy: Make two lists – one for expenses that are essential and the other for those that are optional. Some expenses that seem essential may have to be reclassified as optional. Hold a family meeting to plan cutbacks. While debt may be a difficult subject to discuss with your spouse and children, it is essential that all family members make sacrifices..

Don’t slash expenses too dramatically:

Just as total deprivation diets do not help you lose weight permanently, budgets that completely eliminate anything that hints of fun do not permanently eliminate debt..Cutting back is better than cutting out..

Work hard to stay on course:

Paying debt is an incremental process. Try not to take on new debt or go on a spending binge as a reward for being frugal. If you are having trouble making payments don’t ignore the bills. That only gets you into deeper trouble.

Instead, contact all of your creditors to work out a less onerous repayment plans or to assure them that you will keep making regular payments..This is what your creditors really want to hear from you, since regular lower payments are better than no payments at all.

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Yahoo finance gets a new look in Hong Kong

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

Yahoo are excited to launch a brand new look for their Yahoo!Finance site in Hong Kong. The revamped site provides the audience with financial news of the day, hottest topics in the finance sector as well as insightful columns by experts. Cartoon inserts are another new feature to spice up the financial data.

To mark the launch, an online survey was also conducted to find out what people in Hong Kong think about the economic trends in the second half of 2010.

The survey was conducted on the Yahoo! Finance site. 2200 people took part in the survey by answering simple questions via a poll. 39% of the respondents are female and 61% are male.

60% of the 2,200 people surveyed shared that they will hold off on buying or selling properties in the second half of 2010. 70% of the respondents will buy property if it costs less than HK$3 million or US$385,000.

Other key survey highlights include:

  • On foreign currencies, over 65% of Hong Kong users think the Renminbi (RMB) will continue to perform well; while 85% think the Euro will continue to be weak and fluctuate
  • Hong Kong users are cautious and prudent in making investment decisions. Female investors in particular listen to investment experts before making decisions. Male investors, on the other hand tend to trust their own research and instincts.
  • On the China property market, Hong Kong users think there will be price adjustments of about 1% to 10%.

The survey reveals that, overall, Hong Kong users are positive about the economic performance of Hong Kong in the next six months.

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Life Insurance v’s Disability Insurance

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

It is quite true that life is full of uncertainties’ but mankind has developed its own way to address the issue. “Insurance” is the buzz word here. It promises you to protect you and/or your dependents against the eventualities of life. Risks are associated with every step we take in life and hence insurance companies continue to make insurance policies to cover every possible risk. In fact a common man today has to buy load full of insurance policies to cover the risk of his life, his car, his house, his employment, his medical cost and so on.
Nevertheless all these Insurance policies are very important not only for our peace of mind but to also overcome any practical difficulty we might come up against. In this article we will discuss about ‘Disability Insurance’ which still is in its infancy days and may not be much popular but still absolutely necessary.Life insurance v's disability insurance

People often confuse ‘Disability Insurance’ with ‘Life Insurance’ and fail to understand its importance. In case of ‘Life Insurance’ the insurance company pays a set amount of money in case of early death of the insured to his family. Be it a horrific car accident or a plane crash or even if one was choked to death laughing, insurance company would pay dependents of the person insured a set sum. It will help the family maintain same standard of living even when the main earning member of the family is not around.

Now think of a situation where you are involved in that horrific car accident or a plane crash and by God’s grace manage a miraculous escape but unfortunately get disable for rest of your life. Now not only it will be difficult for you to support your family while you are in this trauma, but even after you have recovered mentally out of this situation, your permanent disability would restrict your capability to earn money. Further, your immediate family members will also need to spend more time with you to take care of you, which in return will also affect their earning ability. In this situation you cannot lay a claim on your ‘Life Insurance’ company because you are still very much alive and your Life Insurance policy will prove to be of no use.

Ideally there should be a single policy which covers both of the above situations but world still remains an imperfect place and the only option available to you would be to take both these insurance policies separately. There is also a possibility that your employer has covered you for a Disability Insurance and you do not know about it. So please check with them before taking as Disability Insurance policy.
We all must understand that ‘Disability Insurance’ and ‘Life Insurance’ are not substitute of each other. In fact these both complement each other and have completely distinct features to cover two different eventualities of life.

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