Category: Budgeting

Moving Across The World Shouldn’t Cost You The Earth

moving costsAre you planning on moving abroad sometime soon? Whether you are moving for work and a new position or because you just want to try and start a new life in a new country, there are going to be some big financial burdens that could stand in your way. In fact, the cost of moving to the other side of the world can be so big that some families end up spending their entire life savings on the move. But does it really have to be so expensive?

Thankfully, you might not have to take out your entire savings to pay for your new life abroad. There are some ways you can make the transition a lot more affordable. Read on to find out more!

Ask For Moving Costs To Be Reimbursed

If you are moving because you have got a new job or your current firm wants you to relocate, there is a good chance that they will be able to help you with your moving costs. If the company haven’t mentioned anything to you as of yet, it’s worth asking them to find out if they can contribute to the costs. Sometimes, they might pay for your moving company or shipping costs. Even if they don’t cover all of the costs, they should still contribute a small amount as they are the ones making you move!

Hire Specialist Removal Firms

A lot of work and effort goes into packing up your whole life and shipping it to another country. Not every moving firm will be able to help you with this. But there are some international removalists that specialise in long-distance moves. It’s really worth hiring one of these firms as they will have a lot of experience in this kind of thing. They will advise you on the best form of shipping for your belongings, and will be on-hand to help with the practicalities of moving at each end of the journey.

Be Flexible With Your Moving Date

If you can be, it really is worth being as flexible as possible with your moving date. After all, the price of flights will go up and down depending on the time of year. If possible, you should try and wait to move until your destination’s low season. This will be when fewer tourists will be traveling there, so flights should be cheaper than in the high season.

Consider The Best Way To Transfer Money

It’s not just the practicalities of the move itself that could end up costing you big time. There are some hidden costs that you might forget about, such as transferring all of your money into a foreign bank account. Ideally, you need to wait until the exchange rates are in your favour so that you get as much for your money as possible. Even if this means waiting for a few weeks after you transfer your money, it will be worth it so that you don’t lose out on quite as much cash.

Follow these tips and your move abroad won’t be so pricey!

The Essential Guide To Building An Investment Portfolio

investment portfolioThe idea of having an investment portfolio may conjure up images of suited and booted individuals, well-coiffed, pinstriped and ready for a day on the trading floor. While you may wish to invest in stocks and shares, you don’t have to be a professional to do it. Many novice investors are now choosing to speculate on a range of financial ventures rather than allow their tasty little nest eggs to accrue only the minimal interest as they wallow in savings accounts. Take a look at these options that you could explore to build your very own investment portfolio.

Property

Nearly everyone has a friend nowadays who has purchased a second property to rent out. Becoming a landlord is getting easier with the emergence of companies like 719Rent.com who will allow you to relinquish the practical responsibilities of being a landlord and just recoup the financial rewards. For a small fee, they will screen your tenants, sort out any maintenance issues and always remain up to date with current relevant legislation.

All you need to worry about is sourcing the property in the first place. It’s a good idea to stick to well established rental areas with high-quality housing stock. If you can purchase the worst pad on the best street and carry out some minor renovations, you can also outperform the market. Long-term, property is a sound investment if you ensure that the rental payments you receive each month cover your mortgage costs.

Cryptocurrency

While you won’t want to place all of your monetary eggs into the bitcoin basket, you could still jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon by using an exchange like the ones mentioned at techradar.com. The rollercoaster ride is not for the faint-hearted as daily falls in value can be as much as 35%, but equally astronomic rises have also been well documented. With Bitcoin ending 2017 at a value of nearly $20,000, it’s obvious why novice investors want a piece of the action. If you do invest in Ripple, Ethereum or Bitcoin, you need to keep abreast of the fluctuations daily and buy and sell at the right time. This is made difficult by a volatile market and no accurate way of forecasting values in the future.

Wine

The idea of investing in wine may seem like a novelty and a tad odd, but people have been doing it for decades. If you can do your research and locate a decent vintage year such as a 1982 Beaujolais or a 1991 Riesling, you could be onto a sound long-term investment. Buy a case or two, store it at a central facility and sit on your investment of wine. As the vintage becomes more scarce, it will gain an antique like quality, and plenty of wine collectors will pay top dollar for your rare bottles.

Having a portfolio of investments means spreading your risk. While you might want to have a dabble down all of these investment avenues, ensure that you hold some money back in your savings account for a rainy day and always keep your eye out for new and exciting ventures.

Moving Office? Don’t Forget These Business Costs

business moving expensesRelocating your office can be a great time for your business, however, it can also cause a few disruptions. Relocating usually means that you’re growing, but you shouldn’t just move without considering everything you need to consider first. For example, have you considered all of the costs that are related with moving offices? You may think you have them all covered, but if you read through the list here, you might be shocked and surprised.

Your Business Budget

When it comes to your business budget and moving office, there may be some delays and oversights – there usually is. Your budget can shoot up unbeknownst to you, especially if you have things that require special handling, like chemicals. Sizeable costs can be misjudged or missed if you’ve never moved offices before, so make sure you look at your industry carefully and create a plan.

Designing Your New Office

Depending on where you move, your new office may need just a spruce up or a full blown makeover. You can always hand over the responsibility by outsourcing, but of course, that’s going to cost much more. It can be worth the cost if you’ll have clients at your offices and you want them to match your company branding.

Consider your office furniture, will you buy new or take your old furniture? You may want a completely fresh start.

Your IT Systems

Your IT systems give you many points to consider. Computer systems are critical for running most businesses these days, and yours won’t be any exception, no matter how little work you actually do online. You need to make sure that you get back up and running as quickly as possible once you’ve made your move. An IT relocation company like https://www.prosyn.co.uk/it-relocation-london.php can help to get your desktops recommissioned and connected to new infrastructure so you can begin business as normal as soon as you’re in your new place. If you don’t want any unplanned business downtime (which could end up costing you more than you bargained for) this is something you must consider.

Communications

It may be worthwhile spending a little to let customers know that you’re moving, too. Letting customers know your moving is only polite, and you can do this any number of ways. Flyers and social media posts can work, and you can put a note at the end of your emails too. You may want to update your website with a notice. Flyers and similar techniques will cost money, while many online strategies can be free. It all depends on where your business is mostly based, but a mixture of techniques is a good idea. You have to keep your customers in the loop. You must let insurance companies and other important companies know too, or you could end up spending more trying to sort a mess out once you’ve let your old premises.

Make sure you remember these business costs when moving office and you should stick to your budget.

Knowing Your Retirement Options: Ways to Get a Little Extra Cash

retirement cashGenerally speaking, the kind of people who focus on retirement tend to be those who are fast approaching retirement age. But this doesn’t have to be the case! In fact, more people really should start thinking about their retirement sooner rather than later. You’re not going to be able to work forever, and when the day comes that you deserve to kick back and relax, breaking ties with the nine to five working world, you’re going to want to be able to live as comfortable a lifestyle as possible. This can only be made possible by having sufficient finances. Now, a retirement plan will be able to put all of this in place for you. But it’s always good to have a few ideas stored away and a few tricks up your sleeve just in case you find yourself in need of a little extra cash when retirement does come around. Here are just a few to keep tucked away in your mind.

Reverse Mortgages

By the time you’re looking at retirement, you may think that mortgages are a thing of the past. Hopefully, you will have already paid yours off. However, it’s always good to be aware that if you are looking for extra cash to make your retirement more comfortable, you can always take some equity back out of your property without having to sell up. This is where a reverse mortgage can come into play. In order to know exactly how much you can gain from a reverse mortgage, you will have to have a fair amount of personal information. This may include your property’s value, it’s age, and any repairs that it may need to be carried out. Your own age at the time of taking out the reverse mortgage would also be taken into account. However, for a more general idea of the money you could hope for, you can always use reverse mortgage calculator aarp.

Savings Accounts

We’ve all been taught since we were little that we should save a little cash for a rainy day. Well, believe it or not, there are likely to be more and more rainy days the longer you’ve been out of work. Many people find themselves becoming increasingly bored and wanting to treat themselves to something a little special to put a smile back on their faces. Savings accounts can provide these little extra boosts for occasional pick me ups. So open an account as soon as possible. Deposit money in it regularly. This can be a relatively small amount. Something that you won’t notice missing. The cash that you’d usually fritter away on bits and bobs that you really don’t need. However, these small amounts really will mount up over time, and way down the line, when you finally dip into the cash, you’ll really thank yourself for it.

These are just a couple of ways that you can make yourself a little comfier and more content in retirement when the time does roll around. While retirement may not be top of your priorities right now, it could take up a large part of your life, so keep it in the back of your mind at all times.

Why You Should Not Invest in Mutual Funds Based on Absolute Returns

mutual fund investmentsWith every investment decision, investors only seek higher returns. Considered as a preferred choice for many, mutual funds offer high returns at a lower risk compared to direct equities. An investment in mutual fund allows investors to avail of the benefit of compounding interest and helps them generate optimum returns in the long term. Additionally, mutual fund investments may be made in the form of a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) and its returns carry tax benefits.

When it comes to determining the performance of a fund, investors are not aware of what to consider. Measuring the short-term performance of the fund may sometimes lead to wrong decisions. Many consider this short-term return as a benchmark and set wrong expectations. Therefore, it is important to assess the fund correctly in order to avoid wrong financial investment decisions.

Ways in which investment returns are calculated

If you want to check your mutual fund performance, you must first understand the different ways in which the returns are calculated.

• Point-to-point return or absolute return

This is the figure that, you arrive at by deducting the final Net Asset Value (NAV) from the initial investment amount. An absolute return does not take into consideration the period for which your money has been invested or the inflation during that period. For instance, if you invested INR 20,000 in 2015 and its current NAV is INR 30,000, then your absolute earning is INR 10,000.

• Annualized returns

Each fund shows returns that are compounded and not absolute. Mutual fund returns compound over a period and the Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) shows the year-on-year growth rate of the investment over a particular duration.

Why absolute returns do not reveal the right picture

Fund managers often ask investors to stay away from considering a point-to-point return. Let us delve deeper to find out why absolute returns should not be considered as a benchmark and may be misleading.

• Reflects an incorrect financial picture

For short-term mutual fund investments of a year or less, absolute returns may show the right results, but in case the investment is for a long-term, this does not hold true.Over a longer period, the fund may not be able to sustain the same or an increased return percentage. For example, if a fund outperforms in a three-year period, you may not be assured that it will perform the same way over a five-year duration. This also does not mean that you will not earn good returns over a longer period. The three-year return could be fueled by a positive market movement and a favorable macro environment. There could be a significantly higher return in a three-year period and an average or below-average return in the five-year duration.

• Performance depends on the type of fund

The performance of the mutual fund depends on the type of fund you are invested in. Equity funds are highly volatile and the returns on the same may vary from one period to another. It is also affected due to the market conditions. CAGR does not account intermittent volatility. The equity fund may have gone up by 40% in the first year and may dip by 25% in another, but the absolute return will not provide correct information about the fund. It might only show the upswing of 40% in a particular year and misguide investors.In fact, most top-performing mutual funds perform well in the first year and then slump in the next two years. Hence, the overall performance may be determined by considering a three-year or a five-year investment period.

In order to gain maximum return from mutual funds, fund managers insist investors remain invested in the long run in order to gain maximum mutual fund returns and to bring down the impact of the market changes to a minimum. Every investor should learn how to interpret the CAGR and understand the implications of three-year or five-year returns on the investment.

The biggest benefit of a mutual fund is the compounding of interest. CAGR is ideal for measuring performance over a longer period whereas absolute returns may only measure the performance for a year.

To invest in top-performing mutual funds, investors must use user-friendly tools like the Angel Wealth mobile application. It offers customized recommendations for your financial goals. It runs an ARQ investment engine, which has no human intervention and is powered by advanced algorithms. So download the Angel Wealth mobile app today and streamline your investments.