Debt Consolidation and Reduction Loans

By Marion Jones

So, now you can see the writing on the wall, you are in up to your neck and your creditors are starting to call you in your home in the evenings as well. You are aware that you have to do something, but you're not sure exactly what. It's so embarrassing having to talk to that kid from your creditor's debt collection department, especially over the phone; but you don't want to take time off work to go down to their offices either! And you can't wish the problem away. You've heard of debt consolidation and reduction and you think you need to look into it.

However, before you think about debt consolidation and reduction loans, take a look at your debts to work out your total exposure. Debt is a source of credit lines given to you by creditors who thought that you would repay the amount borrowed or owed. When creditors become aware that you are behind on your repayments, they will usually delay a few weeks before reporting you to the collection agencies.

During this time, you might want to contact your creditors and ask for an extension, balance reduction, or even a complete termination of the debt. Creditors expect their money and therefore, they may extend your credit, since they want to avoid the problems that arise when reporting customers for non-payment.

Creditors do not really want to make enemies of their customers, since they expect their customers to show good faith and pay the debts and eventually continue doing business with them. If you fail to contact your creditors, however they will hand your files over to the collection agencies in the end if they have to. These agencies often use much more severe tactics to retrieve the money owed.

These agencies will go to almost any degree to stress you to the point where you find a method to pay up, or else stress you to the point that you need to seek professional help. Debt consolidation and reduction is one of the processes of eliminating debts; a loan may or may not be needed.

When you do speak with your creditors, ask them for leniency, so that you can attempt some form of debt consolidation and reduction by reducing your expenses. If the creditors agree to debt consolidation and reduction by lowering your payments, terminating it, or else providing you with an extension and you refuse to take advantage of their offer, ie, if you fail to make repayments after the offer is made, then they will not be as friendly the next time you speak with them.

Make sure that you repay the debts as you agreed with your creditors to minimize any complications. Communication is of the utmost importance, because once you have ceased talking to your creditors, they have every right to go all out to retrieve their money. This will help you in your debt consolidation and reduction. - 23217

About the Author:

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High-end Investments

By Samatha East

In some ways, higher-end investments arent much different than traditional investments: You invest your money in stocks or bonds or mutual funds or ETFs and make all the same decisions that an average investor does. The difference is the amount of capital in play (typically a lot) or the risk exposure (typically high).

In other ways, high-end investments are almost a completely different beast. Its not so much of the buy and hold investing as it is trading or speculating assuming a business risk with the chance of profiting from the market fluctuations.

Successful speculating requires analyzing situations, predicting outcomes, and putting your money on one side of a trade based on those predictions. Speculating also involves an appreciation of the fact that you can be wrong 70 percent of the time and still be successful if you apply the correct techniques for analyzing trades, managing your money, and protecting your account. Basically, high-end investing means you have to chuck all your preconceptions about buy-and-hold investing and asset allocation, and essentially all the strategies that stock brokerages put out for public consumption. The following sections outline the high-end investment vehicles you can find out about in this book.

Futures and options

Futures and options, by their very nature, are complex financial instruments. Its not like investing in a mutual fund, where you mail your check and wait for quarterly statements and dividends. If you invest in futures and options contracts, you need to monitor your positions on a daily basis, often even on an hourly basis. You have to keep track of the expiration date, the premium paid, the strike price, margin requirements, and a number of other shifting variables.

That said, understanding futures and options can be very beneficial because they are powerful tools. They provide you with leverage and risk management opportunities that your average financial instruments dont offer. If you can harness the power of these instruments, you can dramatically increase your leverage and performance in the markets. Book III explains investing in futures and options.

Commodities

Commodities are the raw materials humans use to create a livable world: the agricultural products, mineral ore, and energy that are the essential building blocks of the global economy. The commodities markets are broad and deep, presenting both challenges and opportunities. For example, how do you decide whether to trade crude oil or gold, sugar or palladium, natural gas or frozen concentrated orange juice, soybeans or aluminum? What about corn, feeder cattle, and silver should you trade these commodities as well? And if you do, what is the best way to invest in them? Should you go through the futures markets, through the equity markets, or buy the physical stuff (such as silver coins or gold bullion)? And do all commodities move in tandem, or do they perform independently of each other?

A lot of folks equate (incorrectly) commodities exclusively with the futures markets. There is no doubt that the two are inextricably linked: The futures markets offer a way for commercial users to hedge against commodity price risks and a means for investors and traders to profit from this price risk. But equity markets are also deeply involved in commodities, as are a number of investment vehicles, such as master limited partnerships (MLPs), exchange traded funds (ETFs), and commodity mutual funds.

Foreign currency trading

When you get involved in foreign currency trading (sometimes called forex trading), youre essentially speculating on the value of one currency versus another. You buy a currency just as youd buy an individual stock, or any other financial security, in the hope that it will make a profitable return. But the value of your security is particularly volatile because of the many factors that can affect a currencys value and the amazingly quick timeframe in which these values can change. Nevertheless, if youre an active trader looking for alternatives to trading stocks or futures, the forex market is hard to beat. Online trading innovations over the past decade have made it accessible, both technologically and financially.

Trading foreign currencies is a challenging and potentially profitable opportunity for educated and experienced investors. Before deciding to participate in the forex market, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite. Most important, dont invest money you cant afford to lose. The leveraged nature of forex trading means that any market movement will have an equally proportional effect on your deposited funds; this may work against you as well as for you.

Hedge funds

In a nutshell, hedge funds are lightly regulated private partnerships that pursue high returns through multiple strategies. A hedge fund manager may invest in almost any opportunity in the market where he or she foresees favorable risk to reward. Through hedge funds, you can get some high returns for your portfolio if you dont mind the risk and have a lot of money to invest.

Because of the risk and the investment criteria, hedge funds arent open to most investors. In fact, to participate, you have to meet strict limits put in place by the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding your worth (a net worth of at least $1 million and/or an annual income exceeding $200,000 in each of the two most recent years).

A hedge fund differs from the so-called real money " traditional investment accounts like mutual funds, pensions, and endowments " because it has more freedom (read: little to no regulatory oversight) to pursue aggressive investment strategies, which can lead to huge gains or huge losses. - 23217

About the Author:

How to Invest Today is a free site dedicated to helping investors from beginner to advance invest in today's market. Free Financial Today is a free site dedicated to helping with personal finances and retirement.

Advice on Budgeting Money

By Joe James

With the economy in freefall, everyone is concerned about spending too much money. We all need to save money but a lot of times people dont know where to start. We have a lot of expenses. With spiraling costs it is difficult to live on a shoe string budget. Many people are losing their jobs and yours might be next and so it is wise to curb our expenses. How do we do that? Here are some tips that can help you save some money;

Pay only cash when you visit a super market or mall. That will help you in only buying stuff which you need. If you are using credit card, only use it to the extent that you can pay it off in a months time. Keep your card expense to the minimum. If you have more than one card, try and close the others. Keep only one card and deal only with a single lender. It's easier to track your cash and you become aware of your spending easier.

One of the best ways to save money is to track your expenses. You don't know what expenses you cut and where you can save money unless you know what you are spending money on. Write down a list of everything you spend money on. Circle the essentials that you have to pay (bills) and then cut the other expenses. You'll be amazed at all the stuff you waste money on.

Before going grocery shopping, check online at your neighborhood stores as to what the rates are. Utility items like meats, poultry, veggies, fruits have an expiry date within a week. Go on the last day to buy. You are sure to get these items at half the price. Also look out for sale and discounts. Nowadays online stores offer many discounts.

Reduce your outings and eating at restaurants. This is another major expense that we can do without. Going to a cinema hall is very expensive. Instead wait for the DVD to come out. You can watch the same movie at less the cost. Making your food is much more rewarding than eating out all the time and learning to cook is a skill that will last you a lifetime.

There are many ways people can cut their budget and save more money. Mostly it is by eating out less and reducing your discretionary income. This is the hardest part people to do- we are built to be consumers. However, if you plan on cutting your budget you really need to make hard choices. Everyone has fat in their budget they cut. - 23217

About the Author:

Joe James gives financial advice for a living. He resides in the southwest of the United States and is a retirement specialist. You can find out more information at his website,http://www.financialinformationandadvice.com.

What Are Your Rights During Home Foreclosure

By Doc Schmyz

Home foreclosure is one of the greatest fears of families due to debt. Even though this is true we often take our bills for granted in favor of our credit cards. Before we know it bills have easily stacked up and we end up not knowing who to pay first to stop the calls, and the current economy is not making this situation any easier.

Even though your house is being foreclosed there are still legal procedures to follow. Your lender can't just kick you out of the house. There are laws that protect homeowners from these situations. Here are some of the important facts you need to know when facing a foreclosure.

Can I just get kicked out of the house if I fail to pay my mortgage?

Simply put: No. The mortgage lender/bank can only kick you out of the house with a court order. Before they can do that they also have to follow a set of legal procedures.

How long does the foreclosure take before they take my house?

Well depending on how hard the lender pushes the case, it can take as long as six months.

After the foreclosure, do I have to leave the house?

No you don't have to. After the foreclosure auction ends the ownership will be transferred from you to the highest bidder. You will become a tenant of the house. The new owner must also follow legal procedures before he or she can evict you out of the house.

In some cases you can become just a "renter" to the new owner. (this is dependent on the new owner of course)

What happens when I get evicted?

The new owner of the house may send you a notice to leave the premises. The notice usually gives you 72 hours. If you fail to follow the notice the new owner must present his case to the court before a judge to get an order for you to be evicted. The judge will be the one to decide if you should be evicted or grant you more time. If you fail to follow the court order the new owner may procure an execution of the eviction order.

The sheriff will give you a notice of the execution and give you 48 hours to pack and leave. If you fail to follow the notice this is the time when the sheriff can physically move you out of the premises. - 23217

About the Author:

Doc Schmyz has worked with investors all over the US. His free website shares Real estate investing information for all over the US. Find Real estate investing information by state

Flexible Forex Training

By Ahmad Hassam

Only a few years ago, most of the people had never heard of trading the foreign exchange markets. Even now, many may not have heard of it. But so much information is available on the internet that you just have to type in the word forex training in a search engine and a mass of information is available for free.

Most people, new to trading begin learning on their own through a trial and error process of wins and losses. However, this is probably not the best or the right approach to getting good forex training. These seven forex training secrets, you should always keep in your mind when looking for good forex training:

1) Try to develop a simple and practical approach to trading. Try to keep it simple. Follow the rules of a simple trading approach.

2) No system and no methodology are responsible for your interpretation of the markets while trading. Learn to accept responsibility for the personal decisions and actions you take while trading.

3) Make sure, you trade a demo account successfully before moving into the world of live trading. Once you are ready to trade, only then consider first trading a mini account with a very small amount of margin to ease you into the world of live trading. Once you have achieved success on a mini trading account, you should consider moving to the standard account where risk and profits are higher.

4) Do your due diligence in choosing a right forex broker. Establish a live account with a forex broker known for integrity. You should avoid brokers that like to play games such as holding trades in slow and fast moving markets to gain advantage at your expense. Choice of the right forex broker will determine whether you succeed in trading or not. Always plan a trade with more than a scalpers mentality of making 1-5 pips per trade. This way a broker has ample time to cover a submitted trade or pass it onto a clearing house.

5) Invest in personal education when trading forex even when you have experience of trading other markets. The forex is a totally different industry with much more volatility than other markets. When selecting a mentor to assist you in developing the skills necessary to survive trading the forex and make profit, make sure the mentoring person is walking the talk.

6) Only disciplined traders succeed in the long run. Learn self discipline as a forex trader. The greatest distance to overcome in each trade is between the ears. Attitude is everything in the markets.

7) Dont give up! All too often, traders go live way too soon and lose their money because they have skipped the necessary steps. It is necessary to just hang in there even if it takes times to trade the demo account and a mini account. Persevere in the markets. - 23217

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading and swing trading stocks and currencies. Discover A Revolutionary New Forex Robot. Develop your own Forex Trading System.