Protecting Your Finances in the Event of a Job Loss

Job loss creates a variety of emotions including stress and panic about your personal finances. Use the suggestions below to protect your finances in the event of a job loss.

Listen carefully to the terms of your severance and take advantage of assistance from human resources in establishing what your assets are as you leave the company. You’ll likely be notified of the terms of your severance in terms of pay for a specific amount of time and health insurance coverage benefits, if you have any for a similar period of time. If you’ve accumulated retirement money or you have purchased term insurance through your company, consider these assets as well when you’re going through your paperwork. Similarly, if you have purchased company stock consider how much stock you’ve accumulated.

Write down when you’ll have to begin replacing assets that will expire from the company including paycheck, health benefits, retirement contribution, life insurance coverage and stock if any. Once you have that list you should have a list of dates when you’re going to start experiencing the crunch from your unemployed status.

Register for unemployment benefits because they take some time to process. While rules differ according to states, most states allow you to register for such benefits online. It’s likely you won’t be collecting unemployment during the time you’re collecting severance although it sometimes depends how the severance is paid out, as a lump sum or as a paycheck over a period of time. If you have a question about filing you should speak with a representative before you file for unemployment benefits.

If you can, pre-pay mortgage or rent for three months in advance. Pre-paying on a mortgage offers the added benefit of a small amount of interest savings and for rent there will be an avoidance of any late fees imposed for late payments. You should make these pre-payments shortly after your termination before panic or mild depression set in about your situation which can negatively influence your financial decisions.

Stop all automatic bill paying that pulls money from your checking account to pay your bills if you have it to avoid check-bounce fees as a result of money flow into your checking account. You can still pay your bills online but you should avoid automatic withdrawals.

It is likely that you will be able to find less expensive health insurance on your own rather than continuing the cost of your current insurance under COBRA. During the first 30 days after your severance speak with several insurance agents to get concrete quotes about insurance coverage and costs and write these amounts down so that you’re prepared to decide whether you’re going to choose COBRA or other health insurance when your paperwork arrives.

How To Approach Your Personal Finances

Retirement contribution and life insurance expenses may have to be halted for a certain amount of time if you’re worried about your ability to pay your bills. Term life insurance from your company is usually prohibitively expensive to continue after you’ve separated from employment.

Losing a job is stressful enough without creating unnecessary worry by being disorganized about your approach to your personal finances. Use the tips above to begin organizing your assets if you lose your job.

How to Save for Your Child’s College Education

In order to ensure that your child has the opportunity for higher education you are going to want to plan to save for their future far in advance. The more time you give yourself to save, the more time you give yourself to round up enough money so your child can focus on going to school rather than having to manage their classes and finances at the same time. You want the best possible life for your child, so you are going to want to do everything that you can do to ensure that they are able to attend an institution of higher learning.

Open up a bank account for your child as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter if your child was just born, is a toddler, or if they aren’t even born yet. You are going to want to open up a bank account for them so you can start putting funds aside for their college education. When you do this you establish that you are serious about sending them to college and that you are going to start putting money aside for them and their future. If they decide not to attend college then you can use this money to help them pay for any trade they are going to learn or to assist them in building a foundation or career in another field.

Start putting money aside every week for your child’s college education. When you do this you will make it easy for yourself to get into a routine of putting money away for your child. If you do not dedicate a little time every week towards figuring out how to budget a little money for your child’s future then you may never save up enough money for them. A little bit of money here and there over the course of many years can add up, so even if you are just putting $20 into their account a week that can help out a lot. Over time money grows and you’ll be surprised at how much you were able to put aside for their education.

Consider investing your child’s money into a CD or money market. You can turn your child’s money around and have more for them to use towards college education. Do not spoil your child while they are in college, but make sure that you have a decent amount of funds to help them get through their undergraduate career. If you have more money left over then you can save that as a graduation present, or you can just use it for yourself. There is nothing wrong with rewarding yourself for helping your child have the ability to attend college education.

It’s great to be able to help your child attend college. You do not have to stress or worry about their finances after you have saved up enough money over the years to help them get on their feet. Apply everything that this article told you about and you can build a great foundation for your family and the future of your children.

Retirement Planning Information

Planning for your retirement is one of the most important parts of managing your personal finances. A good retirement planning costs you nothing, and it’s never too early (or too late) to lay the groundwork for one. Check out the suggestions below and see if you can take steps to improve your retirement planning.

For starters, your retirement planning will never get anywhere if you don’t set long-term goals for yourself. Do you want to simply provide for yourself, or do you want to live a luxurious lifestyle? Do you have a partner to take care of? Consider your answers to these questions carefully. Develop a general sense of the financial position you want to be in at retirement age.

Once you have a better idea of your retirement goals, you’ll find it easier to begin planning your strategy from the top down. Consider the total amount of money you are likely to require. (Don’t forget to take inflation into account!) Where is it going to come from? What percentage of the total will come from investment? How much should come from savings and interest?

You will more than likely want to get at least some of your retirement money from investments. It’s very important that you outline an investment strategy that works for you. Do not be too quick to “sign on” with someone else’s investment plan; make sure that you will get what you want out of the money you invest.

Your tolerance for risk is very important in setting your investment (and your overall retirement) plans. Very few investment strategies offer guaranteed returns. Depending on how much you intend to draw from investing, you can figure out exactly how much risk you will have to expose yourself to. If you find no way to get the money you need without taking on a level of risk you consider unacceptable, consider scaling your goals back.

One good way you can limit your investment risk is by building up a diverse portfolio. All of your eggs should never go into one basket, especially when it comes to something as important as your retirement. Even if individual investments present risk, taking on more than one will reduce the chances that all of them fail. The overall risks involved in a well-diversified investment portfolio are significantly lower than those that come from a few very large investments.

No matter what your retirement planning is, you should take advantage of the assistance your employer can provide for you. A lot of employers offer plans that will match the amount of money you put into your retirement. These plans can seriously amplify the effect of your savings efforts.

Finally, you should always have an emergency fund set aside for unplanned expenses. As you begin to accumulate money for your retirement, it will become a tempting source of relief when money is tight for you. By maintaining a separate emergency fund, you can reduce the temptation to dip into your retirement money.

The earlier that you begin planning for your retirement, the better your final position will be. Even if you start planning later in life, you’ll end up better off than you would without a plan. Using a little common sense and a little sensible advice, like that presented above, can help make your retirement years a lot more comfortable!

It can be very hard to keep a substantial amount of money in your bank account, but it is very important that everyone try their best to do so. Having a decent savings can help you keep your stress levels down and it will help you get out of any tough financial situations you encounter over the course of the year. You follow this methods, you keep money in your pocket.

5 Ways to Keep Money in Your Pocket –  Save Money

You should not try and be extravagant and live far beyond your means. The best thing to do is to spend money as little as possible. Separate all of the items you want to buy into two lists. There should be a list of things you absolutely need and another list of things that you want. Try to purchase all of the things on your needs list and minimal money on the items on your wants list. your needs list save money and keep money in your pocket.

Try your best to keep your credit card debt to a minimum. The sooner you pay your debts off the less time you have to worry about them piling up. Late fees and high interest can make a small amount of debt into a huge mountain. You should attempt to pay your balances off in full each month if that is possible.

While eating out at restaurants can be tasty and very convenient, the cost of eating out is huge compared to the amount you would have paid if you prepared the same meal for yourself. Restaurants have bills, overhead and a need for profits so they charge a lot more than they paid for the items they prepared your meal with. If you must eat out try ordering something that is not very expensive and do not do it so often.

There are many discount warehouse stores out there now and it would save you a lot of money if you decided to buy food from these type of places. Since you would be buying food in bulk the prices are much cheaper per unit. Things like rice, flour, sugar and condiments last quite a while so it would be wise to buy them in bulk. You can also buy household items like paper towels and cleaning supplies in bulk to save even more money.

Bringing your lunch with you to work each and every day may seem like a hassle, but it will help you save a lot of money. Most people take advantage of their company cafeteria or local restaurants to fulfill their food needs. While this may seem tasty and convenient, it will eventually add up and you will end up spending thousands a year more than you need to.

Now that you know several methods you can use to save money you should use them to help your bank account grow. As the year progresses you will come to realize that you have saved hundreds or even thousands of dollars using these simple methods. With a combination of using these tips and making other financially sound decisions you are well on your way toward achieving financial security. If you implement the ways in your life, you keep money in your pocket.