Most financial gurus would tell you that you should start investing in your 20s. While this is great advice, the reality is that a lot of people are unable to do so. This is usually because you are not making enough money and are still burdened with a number of financial obligations.

However, at some point in your life, the winds are going to change and you will find yourself with some extra money. The good news is that just because you are a bit late in the game doesn’t mean that you can’t experience the same benefits as younger investors. As long as you know how to go about investing, you are sure to live quite comfortably off of your profits.

Understand Your Financial Commitments

Before you start investing, you should understand what your fiscal commitments are. This should be on a short and long-term basis. Even if you are living as frugally as possible, there are still expenses that you need to pay for. On a month to month term, this could be your mortgage. In a few years or so, you may still be on the hook to pay for your children’s college tuition or even help out with their weddings.

So, you should take all these things into consideration before you begin investing. This will help you build a much better picture of just how much you can afford to utilize on your investment ventures.

Invest More Now

Even though it is technically never too late to start investing, you will still have to make up for lost time. If you hope to make the kind of profits that would make your retirement a great deal more comfortable, you may need to increase your investment capital.

This begs the questions, how do you invest in stocks? And how much should you invest? Depending on your age and current position in life, you should attempt to invest at least 12 percent of your income. If you have high financial goals, you may want to increase to around 15 percent.

Secondly, you should build your portfolio according to the level of risk you can incur as well as your expected rate of return. If you want to balance risk with reward, it is advisable that you consider a rate of return of about 6.5 percent each year.

Focus on Stocks

Most experts would agree that you should stick with stocks if you are an older investor. This is because it works well for anyone who is not planning on withdrawing profits from their current investments.

Also, since there are probably quite a few years left before you need to retire, you will be able to stay put on your position, regardless of the highs and lows your investment is likely to experience. It should also be comforting to know that many well-reputed retirement funds are currently tied up in stocks. The good news is that there are actually a number of choices you could choose from, including marijuana stocks. This way, you will be able to settle on a highly profitable avenue.

Your Guide for Investing Late in Life is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Having an investment plan is crucial as you proceed in life. Getting old is mandatory, and one day you will retire from that Malaysian job you have. An investment plan will determine whether you have money to sustain you after you retire or whether an empire will grow out of the investment plan. When you decide to make an investment plan, the question of ‘how do I go about it’ arises. Below is an overview of make the best investment plan in malaysia.

Here are some tips to follow to ensure your plan is successful.

Invest In Several Different Plans

When you start investing, become open-minded and look for other opportunities of investing. If you have a real estate business, why not invest in the property moving business. You are already in the industry, why not maximize returns? Investing in different plans also tends to protect you from complete losses. If one plan fails, you should have other plans to support you.

Drop Discretionary Spending

One thing big companies strive to do is to cut costs to maximize profits. How do they do this? Through cutting money-draining expenses, the company will cut cost and generate more profit. If you have an expense which is unnecessary, redirect the finances to investments, and this may turn out to be, a profitable move for you. Always keep in mind that expenses drain you.

The Earlier, the Better

Early investment is important. So for any young Malaysian out there, investment should become your goal. There is no young age for you to start investing. If you keep postponing investment, you will never save. It is the power of procrastination. The moment you start earning those ringgits, think about investing a certain percentage and not just consuming blindly.

Do Research and Understand the Sector You Want To Invest In

OK, even if we keep shouting invest, taking a blind step is a dangerous move for you. Before making an investment plan, research and understand what you are getting into. Get professional advice and look into the options offered. Doing this will help you come out as a winner, not a loser.

What areas can one person invest in?

In this age, there are several sectors which are bringing profit to people without much sweat. They include:

Real estate business

Something which is special about this business is the fact that every coin you invest, appreciates. Buying land and building residential and commercial buildings in Malaysia is becoming a profitable business. If you have money, don’t hesitate to invest in this sector although, starting up can be a challenge.

Stock market business

Come out of the cocoon and diversify yourself away from Malaysian borders. Stock business is a sector which is bringing profits and making people rich daily. It takes time to learn, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a profitable business for you.

Fixed deposit investment

Fixed deposit is not hard to understand, and it only requires you to provide money to finance it. The risks involved are minimal, and you can be sure of profits for the period invested. However, profit not high.

Conclusion

Investment is something you begin learning about once you hit your 30’s because of ignorance or lack of a learning opportunity. In this era of internet younger generations are informed. Once you hit the age of earning Ringgits, make a point of making an investment plan.

What Do You Need to Know Before You Make the Best Investment Plan in Malaysia? is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

A third of Americans 55 and older

Assess Your Current Situation

A typical rule of thumb in the retirement world is that you will need 10 times the amount of money as your last full year’s worth of income from work (at least). So, if you made $40,000 in your last year of working, you’ll need $400k to retire comfortably.

Now, this is just the rule of thumb. When you’re investing after 50, that may not be practical. But at the very least, you can assess your current situation and know if you are on the right track, or if you have more work ahead of you.

Know What You’ll Need

The second part of investing after 50 is to know how much you can live off of. If 10 times the amount of your last year’s salary seems out of reach, could you live off of half of that?

Could you move to a country with lower costs, keep a part time job, or even sell your home and live in a cozy apartment? Knowing what you’ll need to live off of after retirement will be crucial in your decision making.

Play Catch Up

Did you know that after the age of 50, you can save more money in a 401k and IRA just because of your age? In 2017, investing after 50 meant that you could invest up to $24,000 into a 401k and another $6,500 in an IRA (remember that the new year may bring tax law changes, check here for more information. That’s $30,500 in just one year! Even if you don’t save all of that, it’s important to take advantage of the extra savings options.

You can also play catch up by making sure you’re out of debt, lowering your expenses (thus being able to save more money), and saving bonuses and raises that you may earn. Investing after 50 may be playing the catch-up game, but it can still be done!

Start Passive Income

Passive income is great for everyone, especially those investing after 50. Great passive income options include having rental properties, selling digital products (books, courses, etc.), and buying businesses like laundromats and car washes.

By building up your passive income, you’ll be able to supplement your retirement and social security income. Plus, this may help you if you’re unable to save enough to reach your retirement goal.

Use The Right Tools for Investing After 50

With a multitude of apps and websites, investing has never been easier. You can monitor your investing progress on various websites, invest extra money using apps, and even check on your estimated benefits with a social security calculator.

Using these tools not only helps you start investing after 50, but they allow you to take control of your money and watch it grow. So keep your spirits high and watch your money grow.

Hire An Expert

Even if you think a financial advisor or expert is too expensive, it may be worth it to see one anyways. Not only do they know the ins and outs of investing after 50, but they can also help you grow your money if you’re starting with very little.

Just make sure that you aren’t paying someone more money than you should be, and make sure they have your best interest at heart. While not all advisors work just for the money, there are a few that do. Don’t get taken advantage of.

Focus On You

Are you still trying to put your kids through college, take care of your grandkids, and spending money on family members? Stop! Your life is yours, and you should be prepared to live it to the fullest after retirement.

No one wants to see their child struggle, but you may be doing yourself a disservice if you are focusing on making the best life for them and not yourself. Will your child let you move in with them and will they take care of you for the rest of your life? Probably not. So set yourself up for success now and focus on you.

Investing after 50 doesn’t have to be difficult, and it is possible to save up for retirement in a short amount of time. Don’t be afraid to play catch up, and remember that retirement is right around the corner.

How to Start Investing After 50 is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Becoming a day trader means learning how to profit off the volatility of the market. You want to be good at high frequency trading. It means reading advanced charts, learning technical indicators and being good at making multiple trades in an hour. That is how you profit. Knowing that, you need to make sure that you have the right tools for the job. That can mean the right kind of trading platform. Is the Etrade that kind of trading platform? Most would say no. Read on to find out why.

Etrade is an excellent tool for beginning investors, but it falls short of being a top quality platform for high frequency traders. Day traders need a different set of qualities than investors. Investors are looking to make many fewer transactions per month and looking to hold onto assets for a long time. The strategy is different for investors than it is for traders. Traders are looking for short-term profits while investors are looking to profit off long-term value in stable companies.

Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger represent the type of strategy that the ideal investor employs. When you are looking at the long term health of a company or stock, day to day volatility is not what you need to be paying attention to. The overall fundamentals of the company and the quality of the management are key to making money off long-term plays.

Day traders are geared towards making multiple transactions per day that helps multiply profits quickly and efficiently. Etrade is built for long term investors to do research and complete a few trades per month. Multiple trades per day can add up quickly for high frequency traders and eat into their profits.

The Etrade interface and execution of trades is better suited for long term investors. Traders may find themselves frustrated with the lack of hotkeys and a slower than usual execution of trades. Because Etrade also automatically upgrades frequent traders to the company’s Pro platform once they reach 30 trades per quarter, it signifies that the basic level of the platform is designed for more traditional retail investors.

If you do level up to Etrade Pro, you can get advanced features like extended trading hours and real-time tools that track trends in a manner that day traders might find useful. However, the extended hours come at a price. On top of the regular fees, which you will continue to pay, you will be hit with a certain percentage per share for extra-hours trading. The fees do not go down with more activity. It is just that the features become more advanced and the money you need to spend increases.

The user interface becomes more sophisticated and the ability to chart risks becomes unlocked. Reading and creating advanced charts is a must learn skill for frequent traders, but with Etrade that ability comes at a cost. To make your way as a novice day trader, it is probably best to look elsewhere for your trading platform needs.

The Best Use for Etrade for Traders is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Anytime you trade stocks with a firm or reach an agreement with an investment company there are binding agreements that you should fully understand. Your part of the deal will likely involve investing money while the possible returns will be the only part of the agreement that isn’t guaranteed.

Of course, the very nature of investing is volatile so you need to know when it’s a good time to invest your money and when to walk away from a deal.

You can have a legal professional explain what you are agreeing to when you sign an investment agreement and show you what legal issues you may be exposing yourself to. Completing an online paralegal program can also help you read investment contracts on the same level as a legal professional.

Learn Legal Terms

Even if you just want to sign up for an online investment account where you are able to deposit cash from your bank and control your investments, there’s a legal contract that you have to sign first. Trades might come with fees that you need to agree to. Your investment contract will also explain when you can make withdrawals, how you will be compensated, and when you can sell stocks.

Never skim over any type of investment contract you are required to sign before agreeing to invest money. It may take you over an hour to read the fine print, but at least you will know what can happen while investing.

Locate All Loopholes

If there is the possibility that you will be signing a non-standard investment contract, you should have your attorney give you personalized advice. If possible, have a professional with an online master in paralegal studies help to prepare a secondary contract that closes potential loopholes.

Signing an investment contract that only requires you to invest and offers you no recourse is quite dangerous. Even if an investment isn’t guaranteed to be profitable, any investment agreement you make should allow you to get some of your initial investment back.

Should You Make the Deal?

After reading an investment contract, you won’t need to mill over your options. Either the contract makes it easy for you to figure out if going forward is smart, or you need to immediately decline. If you understand legal terms and contract law, you can ask the investment firm you want to work with to make some changes to the contract.

You can arrange a meeting between your attorneys so that everyone has a high level of protection. If the contract is presented as a ‘take it or leave it’ deal, you’ll know that declining participation is smarter than going into an arrangement that makes you financially vulnerable.

When you know how to read an investment contract on a professional level, you will be able to go to the sections that explain the most crucial parts of the deal. In under a minute, you’ll be able to see if everything looks good or if a new contract should be created.

Remember that all contracts are binding, so don’t go into investing without taking legal advice.

How to Read Investment Contracts Like a Pro is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

The question for investors right now is where is the oil industry heading in the future and how can you profit from the rebound that is expected to come?

Here is a look at how to interpret the market data and understand underlying factors contributing to the volatility, why OPEC’s actions matter, plus an insight into why pessimism seems the order of the day for oil prices in the near future.

Making sense of it all

There are downturns in certain industries and there is the sort of deep downturn that the oil industry has had to endure over the last couple of years.

On reflection, you might not think that this period would have been a good time to invest in oil wells or chase oil prices higher, but things can often change in a heartbeat and if history is going to repeat itself yet again in this industry, a recovery is around the corner, if not a boom.

What OPEC decide to do to protect its member’s interests and stimulate growth as well as protecting market share, is always an important consideration, as their policies and pricing decisions can often set the tone.

OPEC did agree to cut oil production back in 2016, and despite some dissenting voices, no one has broken rank and the agreement seems to be holding. The merits of this policy appeared to be bearing fruit as prices managed to strengthen after that decision was implemented but as U.S inventories have been building steadily thanks to the shale boom, the prospect of stronger oil prices has faded lately.

Don’t hold your breath

Any investor or oil company executive for that matter, who is waiting for a return to the halcyon days of $100 per barrel, might be in for a very long wait, and some analysts even speculate whether they will actually return to the sort of levels seen prior to the collapse towards the end of 2014.

Oil prices were on the floor at one point and the price per barrel dipped to below $30 before picking up the pace and managing to climb all the way up to $50 by the end of 2016. Not exactly the heady heights of yesteryear for sure, but it did provide a hint of promise that prices would continue to climb from that point.

Predictions of $60 per barrel have started to look wildly optimistic in light of further recent price dips, so where is it heading next?

Rollercoaster ride continues

You can find a diverse range of oil market analysts who are predicting that oil prices could hit $70 by the end of 2017 and others who are far more pessimistic and think that $40 per barrel is nearer the number we could be looking at.

That is a wild swing between the two positions and both views can’t be right, so you will have to try and decipher and interpret market conditions in order to see which opinion you agree with.

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle of the two estimates, but one thing is for sure, the roller coaster ride is likely to continue and there are going to be some wild swings in prices to negotiate or profit from if you get your timing right.

For example, some investors are watching events in Venezuela with interest, as political and economic turmoil will have an impact on markets as it is a major oil producing country.

You also have to consider the impact of oversupply as a result of the U.S shale boom, and once again, what action OPEC takes will make a difference. Its members are responsible for about 40% of global oil supplies so this is a group whose force can be felt when they want it to be.

Finding the price floor

If you are riding the waves of the oil price, a key piece of data you need to know is where the price floor is likely to be. If OPEC fails to extend their existing output cuts that could turn out to be below $40 per barrel.

OPEC announced six months of production cuts that took effect from January 2017 and that initially managed to set a floor for prices. However, the combination of increasing shale oil production and record-setting inventory levels are putting downward pressure on prices.

If OPEC doesn’t extend the current production cut deal there would appear to be every chance that markets would interpret that end to cuts as a negative factor and we could find a new lower level for prices that is below $40 per barrel.

Thomas Kent, a long-time finance and investing enthusiast, likes to help others by writing about his know-how and experiences. You can find many of his articles on personal finance and stock market websites.

For Energy Investors: Valuable Advice on Riding the Rebounding Oil Industry is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Megatrends are big-impact trends capable of affecting the industry and investors on global level. Megatrends are capable of changing the course of your future as well and hence XTrade always advises to keep a close eye on the development of trends while making decisions as past signals prepare you for the future and saves you from potential losses. So, first of all, let’s take a look at how megatrends affect the entire industry.

Impact Of Megatrends On the Industry

The current era of trading is pretty competitive and the competition is growing at an exponential pace every minute, every hour and every day. That’s why it is also important for companies to know everything that matters- What their clients need? What they think about the company? Are they happy with the company’s products, services offered and customer service? What’s their taste and preferences? These are vital pieces of information which help companies create products that attract customers.

Companies have to adapt themselves to customers’ changing needs and their work models have to complement it too. This is a prerequisite to thrive and survive in the increasingly dynamic and ever competitive market. For instance — what XTrade offers is online CFD trading while other companies are known for offering online FX trading.

Companies need data in order to know what the client wants, so that new products, features or services can be launched which are capable of moulding client’s habits or needs and makes your product ‘wanted’ more.

What Changes XTrade Has Observed In Recent Times?

The upsurge of mobile usage is no secret to anyone. It has increased exponentially and it will continue to do so in near future as well. With the advent of smartphones, tech related companies also plunged into making the most of the hand-held platform. For instance – gaming industry which was able to attract millions of customers. It can be easily concluded that other industries can make the most of it as well.

XTrade is implementing this knowledge in the investment industry is a very good example of it. Their web trader has facilitated quite a few useful elements in its features which are highly intuitive and user friendly.

According to XTrade, the biggest megatrend is social networking. In olden times, one would grab a job in a company and wouldn’t leave it until he or she retires. Now, in this age of smartphones, social media and volatility of jobs has made it all different.

Nowadays people work in a company and interact with many others through social networking and other platforms available just a click away. Investment industry has expanded in a big way over the years. They want to make most of the developing economies, new investors coming in and yielding benefits.

This calls for collecting loads of data that can be analyzed to check out people’s habits, needs and other patterns, so that new products and services can be created which benefit the end user and also makes profit in turn.

Importance of Keeping an Eye on Future With XTrade is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

We all have some major events in life that led to us getting where we are — professionally and personally. All kinds of events led me to become a journalist. But three events stand out to me that brought me to where I am today as a freelance writer specializing in personal finances, and fueled an interest in investing.

I could write a book on my financial path in life, but I can narrow my path to becoming an investor to three events. Without such a keen interest in investing, I think, I wouldn’t have become a personal finance writer.

Here are the three main life events that led me to want to learn more about investing and to eventually write about it and related topics:

A stock picking exercise

I was in a rowdy history class during my senior year of high school. The teacher sent three or so “well behaved” students to the school library every week to chart stock performances from our local newspaper.

I did this with an eye on if news events about a company affected its stock price. If a company had bad press one day, did its stock price fall that week? Often it did, and it gave me a lifelong interest in how stocks perform after good or bad news is reported about them.

With some luck and knowledge about a company’s product that I used as a teenager, along with some good news in the paper about an upcoming product line, I invested in a company called Coleco and doubled my money.

That hour at the library every week to chart stocks helped spur my interest in how news affects stock prices. It’s probably the best lesson I learned — and remember — from that history class.

Joining an investment club

Early in my second job as a copy editor at a newspaper, I met some co-workers who had formed an investment club and needed another member. I jumped at the chance to join and learned many lessons about investing, starting with the importance of researching a company thoroughly before investing in it.

It was a fun group and we made some smart investments, buying stock in companies that we all researched and pooled our money to invest in.

Becoming unemployed

I wouldn’t say that losing my job during the Great Recession eight years ago was one of the best things that ever happened to me, but having my job eliminated because of cutbacks in the newspaper industry taught me the importance of specialization as a worker.

I’ve learned many skills as a journalist. One is to focus on what you enjoy doing and to turn that into a skill.

As soon as I lost my job, I started looking for full-time work while my wife went back to work full-time. I couldn’t find a full-time job, so out of necessity I became a part-time freelance writer while caring for our daughter, who was about to turn 4 at the time.

It led me to start a blog called Tales of an Unemployed Dad, which led to an editor at AOL seeing my work and hiring me as a writer for a finance blog owned by AOL.

From there I’ve written for many websites while specializing in a niche I enjoy covering: personal finance.

I’ve learned investment lessons along the way, and I think I’ve become a better investor by trying to become an expert in every personal finance topic I cover.

And when I’m not expert enough, I’m always thrilled to interview interesting experts who can explain investing principles to me so I can make them understandable to readers. It’s the best part of my job and gives me something to look forward  to each day when I get back to a job I love.

3 Life Events That Started Me on Road to Investing is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Too many visits to my doctor recently have convinced me it’s time to do something about a problem I’ve ignored for years: obesity.

I’m obese — according to BMI and the medical charts at my doctor’s office, and it’s a problem I haven’t wanted to come to terms with until now. Losing weight should help solve a lot of my medical problems, and as a personal finance writer, I’m wondering if losing weight will also help me save money.

My goal is to lose 50 pounds within the next 365 days — or about a pound a week. If I get there, I’ll still be overweight, but at least I won’t be as fat and will have a better starting point to hopefully someday get to a normal weight.

Unfortunately, I’m not alone. Nearly half of U.S. adults are expected to be obese by 2040, according to a report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Saving money with weight loss isn’t my ultimate goal, of course, but it gives me a bit more incentive and another angle to write about that readers may learn from.

While I’ve just started this year-long quest, there are some things about trying to lose weight and saving money that I’ve quickly come across, and others that I’ve researched. Here are some ways I hope to save money by losing weight:

Fewer doctor’s visits

I’ve been going to a chiropractor for years for lower back pain. He used to charge $25 per visit years ago, but that’s now up to $40. Every time I make that payment I leave his office thinking of many other ways to spend or save that $40.

I recently started lap swimming, and that $40 would almost buy a monthly pass at my local pool.

Having extra money also opens up all kinds of investment options, including building up an emergency fund and funding retirement.

Along with the chiropractor bills, there are visits to my medical doctor and my healthcare plan co-pays that add up. Throw in a prescription drug that I hope to be off after losing some weight, and I’ve got maybe $100 a month on average to either save or spend elsewhere.

A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that people who are obese incur $1,429 more in medical costs annually than people of normal weight.

Being overweight or obese increases the risks of other medical conditions, including:

• Coronary heart disease
• Type 2 diabetes
• Cancers
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Stroke
• Sleep apnea
• Osteoarthritis

Dining out less

It can be difficult to show restraint when dining out. Waiters are pushing alcohol, appetizers, desserts and other things to eat and drink throughout a meal, providing temptation to eat more. Even if you only order a main course and drink water, it can be difficult to cut calories, though you’ll save money.

I haven’t been to the Cheesecake Factory in years, partly because its portions are so huge and calorie counts so large that it seems like the last restaurant to go to if you’re trying to eat less.

Taking home half of a restaurant meal is one way to save calories — and money if you eat them in place of a meal at home. But how often does a take-home box of restaurant food taste even half as great as it did when it was fresh?

My solution is to simply eat out less and to make more meals at home. This often requires planning, or at least making do with whatever you have in the kitchen, but I think it will lead to less calories and less money being spent dining out.

I admit this is easier said than done. Going out to eat can be a worthwhile treat after a week of meal planning and cooking at home. Someone else can do the prep work, cooking and cleaning, and a restaurant can often offer better meals than I’m capable of making — or at least dishes I haven’t considered trying to cook.

But dining out less is a goal worth trying — for my health and for my wallet.

Insurance

Life insurance companies are looking for the least amount of risk when insuring someone, and obesity is a health issue that they prefer customers not have.

Only smoking is worse than obesity for the health effects and higher life insurance costs. Stop smoking, as I’ve written elsewhere, will add more years to your life — 1.5 years for men and 1 year for women — but obesity will take away most of that gain.

Obese people who stop smoking may live longer, but the quality of life in those extra years will likely drop because they’ll have related disabilities.

High body mass index, or BMI, can by itself be enough for even an overweight person to be denied life insurance if their height and weight aren’t in good proportion. Even a few extra pounds could be expensive.

Here’s an from example from Christopher Huntley, co-founder of JRC Insurance Group: a 50-year-old man who doesn’t smoke and loses just five pounds from his current 230 pounds at 6-feet-2-inches tall could save 37 percent on a $500,000, 20-year term life insurance policy.

His annual premium would drop from $1,560 to $985 by losing five pounds before a medical exam for a life insurance application.

 Earning $100,000 less

I work at home as a freelance writer, and I rarely meet clients in person. Most of my work is done online or over the phone. But I wonder, from time to time, if my obesity is enough to put a potential employer or client off.

Bias against fat people is pervasive, and overweight people earn less, are considered for a promotion less, and are less likely to be hired in the first place than non-overweight people, according to Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

Over a 40-year career, a worker who is overweight is likely to earn $100,000 less than a thinner co-worker, the department found, with women penalized more than men.

The risk of future health care costs could be one reason why employers don’t want to hire obese workers. I go on job interviews from time to time, and this is one issue I don’t want a potential employer to even think about when they look at me.

It’s time to get moving.

This article by Aaron Crowe first appeared on CashSmarter.com and was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.

Source

Can I Save Money Losing Weight? is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.

Advice on how to invest can be found from a variety of sources, including online investment websites and financial advisors such as JP Morgan wealth management. Below are a few nuggets of advice on how to make the most of your foray into the housing market.

What kind of property do you want?

Do you want to buy a starter home? Are you looking for a condo? How about an investment property? Determining your goals is an essential first step.

If you are seeking your first home, the next step is to determine whether you are looking for a single-family home or an apartment. After this, you need to ask yourself how much of a risk you are willing to take. Do you want to pay lower prices for a fixer upper? Or do you want a property in a hot real estate market such as San Francisco or New York?

Is your credit good?

Whether applying for a personal loan or otherwise, your credit score is always one of the first things lenders will look at. Generally, in order to get a loan for investment property, you’ll need a strong credit score of over 740 and maintain low levels of debt in comparison to your income.

However, even if your credit score doesn’t measure up, you still may be able to obtain a low-interest loan by paying extra fees such as a bigger down payment. If you’re looking to buy a home as your personal residence, the standards will be lower, and there are federal programs which can help you out if your credit score isn’t up to par.

How much down payment can you afford?

If you’re buying your own home, a down payment of 20 percent is advisable to receive a standard loan. If you want a lower interest rate, it’s best to pay even more up front, even up to 25 percent.

However, if you’re looking to buy your own home and can’t afford 20 percent down, there are government programs which help out borrowers who can only afford minimal down payments. Your best bet though is to start saving as much as you can for your down payment when you first decide you want to become a homeowner.

Look out for the little things

When you’re looking to buy real estate, don’t discount how much it will cost. In addition to the down payment and monthly mortgage, you’ll have to pony up closing costs, property taxes, insurance fees, and costs for repairs. This is in addition to costs for water, lawyer fees, utilities, and various other expenses.

It’s wise to determine to factor these expenses into your total costs before you even start looking for specific properties.

Investing for the long haul

Real estate investments are a solid way to start building wealth. Financial advisors and wealth management companies such as JP Morgan wealth management can help you get there.

Planning and research go a long way to ensuring that you purchase the right property at the best rates and that you ultimately turn a profit from your real estate.

A Beginner’s Guide to Investing in Real Estate is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.