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Archive for March, 2010

Frugal Living For The Whole Family

Being single and living a frugal lifestyle isnt that difficult as you are the only one involved in all the decisionmaking. However this all changes once you have a partner or if children come along expanding your family and income requirements. To ensure a more harmonious life and to avoid future rows about money or even worse getting into financial difficulty it is important that every member of the family understands the need to live a frugal lifestyle..

Sorting out the family budget needs to be tackled first by the adults in the family as they will have to have a united front if the rest of the family are going to be persuaded to follow the new frugal living regime. The first things to discover and sort out are:

Whether either of the adults have any outstanding debts or savings. These should both be consolidated.

If either of them have credit cards and if so which ones it is important that the amount of credit cards are kept to a minimum and that the ones that are used are providing the lowest interest rates and best terms.

How much each of them spends a week and how they record their spending. A budget needs to be set for personal spending and a single way of recording the familys finances should be put into place.

Once the adults are sure of the finances it is important for the whole family to sit down together to discuss the families future goals and why living a frugal lifestyle will help them to achieve these goals. Some common goals are:

Saving for holidays
Retirement
Buying a new home
Childrens futures
Reducing any existing debt.

These goals should be clearly written out and placed in a prominent place in the home as a permanent reminder to everyone.

The last main hurdle in making sure the whole family keeps to a frugal living budget is to make sure they all understand the value of money and sticking to a budget. To do this I believe it is important to treat all children in an honest and adult fashion and instilling in them a sense of responsibility and commitment to the family as a whole.

Young children will need to be given a broad understanding of the concept of money; this can be done in a few simple steps:

Involve the children in buying decisions for large household items explaining why the items are so expensive and how valuable they are.

Get them to help with making the weekly shopping list and get them to compare one brand with another and the difference in cost

Explain how you make money and how many hours you have to work to earn certain amount.

Give your children a small amount of weekly pocket money in exchange for a small job around the house

Provide the children with a piggy bank and encourage them to save money for items they want to but.

Show them alternative places to shop like charity stores and Garage sales.

Teenagers will need a slightly different approach as their demands for money for things such as buying music; makeup and clothes can put quite a strain on the family budget if not checked early on. It is important to make them realise that they can have these things but in moderation.

Allocate an amount of money that you are prepared and able to spend on your teenagers each week for things like clothes make up and Cds etc and then give the teenager that amount of money in one go every week making sure they understand that it is up to them to budget this money themselves.

Once the whole family understands that by living a frugal lifestyle they will be helping to achieve family goals and they will all benefit at some point it will be much easier to keep a reign on the budget and to have a much happier family life.

About the writer:  Kate and her partner cowrite http://www.frugallivingtips.com a site all about living simply and frugally in the modern world. Their second site http://www.ourhappycat.com is a cat friendly site full of cat health and cat care advice.

How To Appeal A SSI Disability Case

Have you been denied SSI Disability benefits? Did you know that most people who apply for Social Security Disability benefits are initially turned down? However the Social Security Administration has an appeals process. With the help of a Social Security disability lawyer you can repeal the decision and have your case reviewed.

What is the First Step to Appeal SSI Disability?
Once you have received your decision from the SSA the next step is to file a Request for
Reconsideration. This appeal must be filed within 60 days of the date on the SSI Disability application denial.

If you were denied Social Security disability benefits during the application process you may very likely be denied benefits during the reconsideration process. If this happens don’t be discouraged! Reconsiderations are done by the same state agency that denied your first application so odds are they will deny it again. After reconsideration take your appeal to the next step.

Hearing before an Administrative Law Judge:
After denial of your claim at the Reconsideration level you may request a hearing with an Administrative Law Judge ALJ. At this step of the appeal process the ALJ is not bound by prior decisions. At this level you are more likely to win Social Security Disability benefits. Unfortunately the waittime for a hearing can range from 6 months to more than 2 years.

Tip: Before the hearing make sure you have documentation of your medical condition work history and doctors visits. You want to have as much evidence as possible to support your claim.

Contacting a SSI Disability Lawyer:
It is suggested that you have a SSI disability lawyer or a Social Security disability attorney represent you at your hearing. He or she will be familiar with Social Security disability procedures and administrative hearings. Having a Social Security disability lawyer can make the difference between winning your case and losing it. People that are represented by attorneys during the appeals process are approved at much higher rates than people who are not represented by the attorney.

Tip: Most SSI disability lawyers will not charge a fee for handling your Social Security Disability claim unless you win. Remember to double check to see if the attorney fees of the SSI Disability lawyer you are considering.

Appeals Council:
If you disagree with your hearing decision you may ask for review by Social Security’s Appeals Council. If the Appeals Council decides to review your case they will either decide your case themselves or return the case to an Administrative Law Judge for further review.

Federal Court:
If you disagree with the Appeals Council’s decision or if the Appeals Council decides not to review your case you may file a lawsuit in a federal district court.

Final Recommendations to Appeal Social Security Disability:
The appeal process for Social Security Disability benefits can be long and difficult. However having a disability lawyer by your side can be greatly beneficial. The laws and regulations to appeal Social Security disability benefits are complex and specific. A Social Security disability lawyer will be able to explain the appeal process and assist you in winning your case.

About the writer:  Matt Berry is a Social Security attorney that maintains a leading disability lawyer blog which offers insight into 2010 Social Security Disability application changes.

Avoiding High Prepayment Penalties

There is increasing competition being witnessed in the home loan space which has led to a lot of choice as well as offers for borrowers. The impact is also witnessed in terms of an interest rate war from several players with two of Indias biggest lenders SBI and ICICI Bank cutting their home loan rates recently. At the same time there is also a move towards discouraging borrowers to switch loans because it can mean a loss of customers. One route in which this is done is by increasing the amount of the prepayment penalty levied on the loan so that you end up paying a higher amount on such switches for example HDFC Bank increased the prepayment penalty from 2 to 3 and similarly ICICI bank has a high prepayment penalty of 2.25. Lets take an illustration to understand the concept of switching home loans.

Illustration:
In case of Vinay he has an existing home loan from a bank. His is a fixed rate loan where the rate of interest payable is 11.75 per cent. The current amount that is outstanding on his loan is Rs 10 lakh and the outstanding period now stands at 14 years. At this stage Vinay would be paying an EMI around Rs 12156 to complete his loan in the required time period. He also needs to pay a 2 per cent prepayment penalty for repaying his loan early.

At this point of time if there is a new offer in the market by another bank that is offering a rate of 8.75 per cent then the question is whether Vinay should go for a change in the loan provider. A quick working shows that a 2 per cent penalty would work out to Rs 20000 which is an expense for Vinay while the benefit will be in terms of a lower EMI for the same period. The EMI for the new loan will drop down to Rs 10343 which translates in to a monthly savings of Rs 1813 for him.

Analysis
In this case Vinay is benefited by making the switch even after the prepayment penalty because the benefit that will arise over the term of the loan is far higher than the cost that will have to be paid. There can also be a situation where the home loan provider could raise the prepayment penalty to 3 per cent. In that case a similar working would have to be done for the loan and see whether the switch is actually beneficial. However this higher rate of penalty is not likely to be applicable for existing home loan owners as in most cases this is applicable for new loan takers. In such a situation existing borrowers will have to base their workings on the rate that is actually prescribed for them.

No Penalty Loans
The best way to tackle the prepayment penalty would be to go for loans with no prepayment penalty. Not all types of loans have such a penalty. Usually fixed rate loans have this penalty while floating rate loans are spared from such a condition. Selecting a loan where this provision is not there at all would ensure that there is no question of any cost when you decide to prepay. This is because you can repay the loan as per your wish and convenience and there will not be any financial impact involved.

Lower Rate
There might be times when avoiding the penalty is not possible. The best way to tackle such situation is to first check out the actual prepayment penalty rate. The lower the rate the better it is for you but at the same time when it comes to the question of switching the loan the real benefit comes in the form of the new rate applicable. As seen in the above example since there is a large 3 per cent rate differential and the loan amount outstanding is high at Rs 10 lakh there is a benefit to switch. You need to consider the overall benefit over the life of the loan and not just the immediate impact. The benefit that comes in over a longer period loan will be higher than the immediate payment that you would make and hence could turn out to be better.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Rupeetalk is the one stop solution for all personal finance products. We provide detailed analysis on all personal finance products in India.For any information on personal finance product visit http://www.rupeetalk.com