No Interest For Life Of Card On Balance Transfers

10 things you need to know about money

Money: It’s part of our lives from the first day mommy tucks lunch money into our backpacks until we finally shuffle off this mortal coil. How much of the stuff we manage to earn, how much of it we save, what we do with it – these things will help to determine how successful we will be in today’s financially oriented society. Credit life insurance is expensive – more expensive than most other types of insurance. Although such a policy does offer some protection to the borrower, the prime beneficiary is the lender. If you die before you pay off the loan, the proceeds of the policy will go directly to the lender. Nothing goes to your estate even though you paid the premiums. Be aware of the unique risks of debit cards and how they differ from credit cards. When you use a debit card for your business or personal transactions, you must already have the money in your bank account. Debit cards give you no grace period for paying your bill; the bank deducts the money from your account immediately each time you use it. Are these services a magic cure for credit card debt? “No,” says Chris Viale, CEO of Cambridge Credit Corp., a nonprofit credit-counseling agency based in Agawam, Mass. “Once you allow yourself to fall into unmanageable debt, there’s no easy way out. Debt consolidation may sound like an easy cure, but even successful professionals have found that this choice often leads to an even more burdensome debt load.” “Consolidating debts may be only digging yourself into a deeper hole,” says Brent A. Neisner, a certified financial planner in Greenwood Village, Colo. “Before you take that serious step, you should ask yourself how you got into debt trouble. Overspending almost always involves emotional and psychological issues that aren’t going to go away by treating the symptoms.” However, the rules of the game are different for businesses. The nature of business accounting is such that leasing can be the most sensible approach to many types of capital investment. It can make sense to lease if you will be able to use the cash in your business or in your investments to earn a better return than the cost of leasing. Service contracts are the most profitable items sold by many equipment vendors. Sellers of contracts (sometimes called maintenance agreements) have a big advantage over buyers. By using repair history records, they simply add a substantial markup to the average cost for maintaining a given product, thus guaranteeing them a tidy profit. How much money we earn is the yardstick by which many of us measure financial success. For those in the know, however, earnings are only half of the money equation. Equally important is the manner in which we manage those earnings. Making the right money decisions is an essential ingredient in the recipe for long-term financial security.