HOW TO BE A GOOD FATHER - 9 QUALITIES

When teaching a class of family relations, Gary and Joy Lundberg, licensed marriage and family therapists, were asked about the role of the father. The question was posed to the class: “What do you see the role of the father is?” As the class members responded, they wrote the responses on the chalkboard.

The List

Here is what a father is (no order of importance):

1.    Provider: He is a steady provider and works to see that his family has the necessities of life.

2.    Protector: He does everything in his power to keep the family safe from that which would injure or harm the family members physically, emotionally or spiritually.

3.    Teacher: He shares his knowledge and principles to help family members grow and develop.

4.    Friend: He shows kindness, compassion, and interest in the family members.

5.    Exemplar: He shows by the way he lives an example of what the family stands for.

6.    Patriarch: He is honored because of his moral character and actions.

7.    Disciplinarian: He helps the children learn proper boundaries and consequences.

8.    Spiritual leader: He does his part to help establish faith in God and belief in principles of accountability to him.

9.    Treats his wife like a queen: He shows love and respect and lives totally faithful to his wife. He shares the workload as a partner with his wife.

Are there any qualities missing in the above list?

How to Set up an Automatic Savings Plan?

We all know we should save money. We really do. But let’s be honest: spending feels so much better than saving. You could be wearing, driving, or living in your hard-earned money instead of letting it collect dust inside a cold, damp vault in the back of a bank.

If that’s your outlook, it’s time to change our mindset and look to why everyone should be focusing on building up savings. After all, our entire financial futures are at stake. An automatic savings plan is the way to do it.

Why an Automatic Savings Plan is Essential
1. Saving for Emergencies
2. Saving for retirement
3. Saving for a vacation
4. Saving for financial goals

How to Set up an Automatic Savings Plan
1. Automatic Savings through your Bank:
2. Automatic Savings from Direct Deposit

A savings account can act like a sort of fire extinguisher when an unexpected catastrophe puts fire to your wallet. It’s a good idea to have three to six months of living expenses socked away in case of a job loss. That might take some time to build, so in the meantime, put aside $1,000 to help pay for sudden expenses. Then, build your ideal emergency fund 

You’d like to stop working at some point, right? Of course, you do. Well, without money in retirement, how do you expect to pay your bills after you’re no longer working? Saving money for retirement helps ensure you’ll have money to cover necessary expenses (and some luxuries) during your golden years.

A lot of people don’t think twice about putting a vacation on a credit card. When you do it that way, you end up paying more for your vacation that it actually cost. That’s because the credit card balance accrues interest until you pay it off completely. But, when you save up for a vacation, everything’s paid for in advance. You can also relax without worrying about the credit card debt you face when your vacation’s over.

The most coveted things in life are also the most expensive. A house, a car, and an education are all things you have to work toward. Putting money away makes each of those easier for you to reach.

Why You Should Save Automatically

No matter how much you realize that saving is important, it’s still not as easy as it seems. There’s just something about parting with money without an immediate benefit that makes saving boring. Before you give up on saving all together, consider making your savings automatic.

When you save automatically, the money automatically deposited into your savings account on some periodic basis. For example, you might have $100 automatically deposited into your savings account each month. After a year, you’d have at least $1,200 saved up, more if your account has a good interest rate.

As a result, your financial future is no longer based on your will-power – it’s just going to happen.

How to Plan Your Savings

Trying to understand personal finance without a heavy dose of financial planning will get you no where fast. You have to know what your goals are before you can determine if you’re doing the right thing. You always need to plan your finances.

Saving money is no different. Before you set up your automatic savings, you have to figure out three things.

How much will you save? Coming up with the answer to this question can be easy or hard. If you have a written budget that you use to manage your money, it will be easier to refer to your budget to see how much you have left over for saving. On the other hand, if you don’t have a budget, you’ll have to do some calculating to see what’s left over after you pay bills.

How often will you save? Base the frequency of your automatic savings on your pay periods. If you get paid once a month, then save once a month. If you get paid every other week, then save every other week.

What are you saving for? You should have a savings goal. Without one, it will be easy to stop saving and start spending the money on something else.

Once you’ve made those critical decisions, you’re ready to move on and make your savings automatic.

There are two basic ways to save automatically, and either one works perfectly fine depending on your situation.

Save automatically, just divide your bank accounts into two: the account where you spend money, and the account where you save money. Every month, have X% automatically taken from your checking account and placed in your savings account.

You just made your savings automatic.

If you’re comfortable with computers at all, then a high-yield online savings account is probably your best shot. One of the benefits of having an online account is that it keeps your money far enough away that you can avoid spending impulses, but close enough to reach in an emergency.

Make sure set your automatic transfer to occur close to the payday, but not before. That way you can be sure the money is available and you won’t have to deal with a potentially expensive overdraft.

If you choose not to open an online account, check with your bank to see if you can connect a savings account to your existing checking account and set up a recurring transfer from one to the other.

Finally, if your employer uses direct deposit, you might ask your human resources or payroll department if you can set up a direct deposit for two accounts. You would have your savings deposited into your savings account and the remainder into your checking account.

The best thing about automatic savings it that once you set it up, you don’t have to worry about saving again. You can monitor progress toward your financial goes without feeling the sting of losing money. In some ways, it’s like getting paid twice.

¿Do you want to be a financial dad?

“Finance for dad” was written to help all financial parents to manage its economy. In it, the reader will find guidelines to handle all areas that deal with personal and family financial life: the preparation of the budget of income and expenses, cash management and bank accounts, debts, mortgage lending, insurance Investments both short- medium- and long-term retirement plan, taxes and succession.

 It is a book about Personal Financial Planning, a very popular discipline in the United States and other developed countries but virtually unknown among us. It is written in simple, and accessible way for all parents in charge of the family finances.

The aim of the author, to write, is to contribute to sow the culture of financial discipline essential to consolidate the family wealth base.

What is the target audience? Any person who aspire to a quality of life quality, both for himself and for his family. Particularly the young people who are finishing their careers or starting their professional life, so young that are already halfway between the beginning and the withdrawal of his career, people who are already close removal and, of course, to those already removed.

If you want to become a financial dad find this manual now on www.amazon.com

How should I invest my savings?

The question that titles this article is the most frequently received by investment advisers:

How should I invest my savings?

And, unfortunately, the only honest advice we can give is frustrating for those who expected a more specific answer:

That Depends!

What depends? - We are asked, quite logically.

-From the particular situation of each. Her profile as an investor. There is no standard investment for everyone. Each person should assemble its portfolio in accordance with its own characteristics. It is therefore imperative to learn and assimilate a fundamental rule, and keep it in mind whenever you think of doing any type of financial transaction:

"Risk and return are directly proportional: investments that promise higher profits are always higher risk".

Therefore, the first factor to take into account the risk. If this is manageable, then performance is analyzed; if the risk seems too high, then not even worth looking at the potential return.

But the risk is not the same for everyone; it is individual and is based on two key factors that determine its profile as an investor.

What are these factors?

1) Your investment horizon: That is their age. While a 20 year old can take high risks in finding placements with yields ditto, because you have enough time to recover if things go wrong, a young man of sixty or seventy no longer has that advantage. What is recommended, therefore, for anyone to start a fund early in life, is to adapt to the horizon and go making a transition from an increasingly moderate ("high-risk / high-yield") aggressive portfolio to other (risk and average performance) to reach the last stage of his life with a conservative portfolio ("low-risk / low-yield") which guarantees the preservation of capital. This concept has been very well expressed in the recent reform of the pension and unemployment funds for the management of portfolios of members.

Does this mean that a 20 or 30 years should always choose portfolios "High- risk / high-performance" as one of 60 or 70 should do the opposite?

Not necessarily! Age does not replace financial education. Without proper financial knowledge investments "high-risk / high-yield" are not recommended for anyone ... at any age! By contrast, a young man in his seventies sixties or financially well educated can afford to access and benefit from them.

2) The level of risk tolerance: The second factor to be taken into account when looking for a placement for savings. This is measured by the degree of stress that is capable of supporting a person when investments do not go in the expected direction. We've probably all read about the wave of suicides that arises when large financial crises occur ... To that extent can stress, anguish, agony that generates a financial setback, when you are not prepared to support them! However, in most cases, financial setbacks are only temporary crisis, in which, while not suffering financially educated, those who do are making a killing, taking advantage of falling markets to maximize profits ... So important is the financial education! This is what provides us with enough knowledge to differentiate the real crises of temporal and emotional stability to act calmly and make the most of them.

Anyone who does not have adequate financial education should venture into equity investments (stocks, mutual funds, collective funds, options, etc.), because it maximizes the lack of risk and usually end up losing money.

I intend, through this blog motivate my readers learn to invest and obtain high yields. The articles in the coming weeks will serve as appetizer to encourage them to venture into this field. But it will not be enough to read the articles ... must elaborate on the topics covered in each.

Know more about finance for Dad

"Finance for Dad" is nice and easy to read. Is unique in that financial planning has been divided according to the different stages of a person's life, which would be:

First Stage: From childhood to youth. Of 0-18 years.

Essential Assets: The Elementary and Secondary Education.

Investment Savings Account

Second Stage: from youth to adulthood. From 19 to 30 years. Essential assets: Professional Education and Car.

Investment Retirement Fund, Reserve Fund (6 months of the budget). Insurance: Health Insurance, Disability and Vehicle.

Third stage: adulthood to middle age. From 31 to 45 years. Essential Assets: All kinds of properties and real and personal property necessary. Investment solidly Structured Investment Portfolio Retirement Fund, Succession Planning and Tax. Insurance: Insurance, life, disability, property.

Fourth Stage: midlife the Pre-retirement. Of the 46 to 55 years. Essential Assets: House, Vehicles, Higher Education, and no debt. Investment Portfolio and Portfolio investments more advanced. Insurance: All insurance policies are maintained with force.

Fifth Stage: From Pre-retirement to retirement. From age 56 to retirement. Essential assets: quality of life is maintained. Search for purpose and intangibles. Investment continue to grow, start planning management accumulated. Retirement fund to be used soon. Insurance: All insurance policies are maintained with force. Although the children are no longer dependent, and the policies are updated.

Sixth Stage: retirement until God provides. Enrichment stage projects the spirit and enjoyment. And use the bottom of the Retirement, performance management investment and portfolio investment policy that spends more on defense and less risky

Plan throughout life to live well

The financial management has much to do with the life project of each staff: personal and professional opportunities, as well as family and old age.

Therefore, at the same time the future is planned, it should be looking at resources to achieve what we want, which is nothing, at every stage of life, to live peaceful and happy.

So, a plan and an investment budget requires time, also taking advantage of the productive capacity. Note that revenues tend to grow with age until 55, when it reaches the stop and then decline slowly.

In his book “Finance for Dad ... and mom”, R. Bridges lists schedules that must be taken into account: 

- Basic financial planning: part of her plans and daily activities that a person performs to manage your money: cash management, current account, credit card, personal balance, budget, state revenues and expenditures , etc. It is put in black and white their accounts.

- Planning of core assets: are the plans and strategies that a person should take to purchase essential goods, which are essential to ensure the quality of life: home, car, furniture, household appliances, and others to feel home and comfortable life.

- Insurance Planning: expectations are that a person must take to anticipate and protect your family and your assets against potential risks. Consider life insurance, carriage, health, their housing.

- Investment planning: investing the savings efficiently, to achieve the greatest possible lease under a level of risk that can be assumed.

- Retirement Planning: This is a plan for long-term investment, with the goal of accumulating needed to obtain an income to replace earnings when the period of active work is completed capital.

- Succession planning: it goes beyond the simple distribution of the inheritance. Here the administration of our goods and our dependent care, in case of serious illness, senility or mental disabilities are included and of course, the final provisions when death comes.

- Tax planning: search strategies in order to minimize the payment thereof, while respecting the rules of the game

Eight ways credit cards may cost you more than they should

You pay for convenience. That’s the simple reality of economics. Having a cab — or even an Ubermobile — pick you up is more expensive than catching a bus. Eating out costs more than making a meal yourself.

So, when you consider the tremendous convenience credit cards offer, it should be no surprise that consumers end up paying a hefty price to add convenience to their lives. In many cases, though, the price is higher than it should be.

You can’t fix everything about the high price of credit cards; but the more you know about the various ways they can cost you too much, the more you can eliminate at least some of that unnecessary expense. Here are eight examples:

1. Credit card rates never really came down

Managing credit card costs is especially important today because those costs are disproportionately high. Consider two types of interest rates — the ones banks pay you, and the ones you pay credit card companies. While the rates banks pay deposit customers have dropped sharply in recent years, credit card companies have managed to keep the rates they earn consistently high.

Most interest rates plunged as a result of the Great Recession. At the end of 2007, just as the recession was about to start, 6-month CD rates averaged 4.85 percent. They average just 0.12 percent today, a decline of 4.73 percent. In contrast, credit card rates averaged 14.38 percent at the end of 2007, and today average 13.49 percent, a decline of less than 1 percent.

Those changes have tipped the balance against consumers. That makes this a crucial time for consumers to look for every chance to get on even footing.

2. Advertised rates may be very misleading

One way you can fight back against the high cost of credit cards is to shop around for the best interest rates. Unfortunately, when looking at credit card rates, what you see isn’t always what you get.

Most credit cards don’t advertise a single interest rate, but instead offer a range of rates. That range can be wide enough to drive a bank truck through: Gaps of 10 percent between the high and low rate in a credit card offer are not unheard of. While the low end of the range might make a given credit card look good compared to other credit card offers, the rate you get depends on your credit standing.

So, before you sign up for a credit card, find out what rate someone with your credit score will be paying — especially if a huge range exists between the high and low rates offered. Overlooking this step could end up costing you dearly if you are placed on the wrong end of that range.

3. You will pay for your credit mistakes

As alluded to above, credit card rates are based in part on your credit rating, and this can change after you sign up for a card. So, if your credit deteriorates, expect to pay more on future charges.

In addition, credit card companies change their risk assessment models depending on prevailing economic conditions. This means that if you already have a few bad marks against your credit record, even if you don’t have any subsequent problems after signing up for a credit card, the credit card company might decide to start charging you more if it deems that credit conditions have generally gotten riskier.

Of course, the ideal solution is to keep your credit squeaky clean; but at the very least keep an eye on the rate you are being charged, because it can rise even if the advertised range of rates for a card does not change.

4. Rewards may not be so rewarding.

Rewards of cash back or merchandise credits have a psychological appeal, but rewards cards generally carry higher interest rates than non-rewards cards.

If you are paying interest on a credit card balance, you need to compare how much extra you are paying for the rewards program compared with what you get out of that program. There is no point in paying 3 percent more interest just to get 1 percent cash back.

5. Complacency hurts

Credit card companies are very aggressive about going after new customers. Once you have their card, though, they figure you will keep using it for a long time out of force of habit. But that could actually prove to be an expensive habit.

Credit card companies can change their rate strategies at any time. A card that was competitive when you signed up might have drifted toward the higher end of the rate market. So don’t get complacent. Compare rates regularly, and make each card re-earn its place in your wallet at least once a year.

6. Prioritizing your plastic is critical

There are valid reasons to carry multiple credit cards, but always be aware of which cards have the best rates. Prioritize your credit card usage so that you make new charges on the ones with the lowest rates, and make the biggest balance payments on the ones with the highest rates.

7. The devil may be in the details

Sometimes you have to hunt a little to know what is really going on with your credit card. Credit card companies are obligated to send you a notice when they raise your rates, but the relevant information can be hidden in a dense forest of bank jargon.

Often, the best way to keep abreast of what is going on with your account is to go over each statement carefully. This will tell you what the current rate is, and show you whether you are being charged any fees in addition to interest. Carefully scrutinizing your statements will also help you spot unauthorized charges — especially since sophisticated scam artists don’t go for big obvious bogus charges, but try to bleed your account repeatedly over time with more subtle ones.

8. Zero percent balance transfers may not really be free

Credit card companies might offer you a zero percent for a period of time to get you to transfer an existing balance to their cards. Just be sure you check for any balance transfer fees that might apply — these can be more costly than the interest you would have paid.

Sometimes paying for convenience is worth it; but oftentimes, the desire for convenience is strong enough to allow companies to take advantage of consumers. Credit cards can be a very convenient financial tool, but with a little diligence they can work to your advantage rather than that of the credit card companies

Finance advice for a new son!

Do not care if his only interest right now is keeping you awake 24/7. But one day — a long time from now — he'll need to learn something about finance. When he does, here's this advice, so take notes financial dad: 

1. You might think you want an expensive car, a fancy watch, and a huge house. But I'm telling you, you don't. What you want is respect and admiration from other people, and you think having expensive stuff will bring it. It almost never does — especially from the people you want to respect and admire you.

When you see someone driving a nice car, you probably don't think, "Wow, that person is cool." Instead, you think, "Wow, if I had that car people would think I'm cool." Do you see the irony? No one cares about the guy in the car. Have fun; buy some nice stuff. But realize that what people are really after is respect, and humility will ultimately gain you more of it than vanity.

2. It's normal to assume that all financial success and failure is earned. It mostly is, but only up to a point — and a lower point than many think.

People's lives are a reflection of the experiences they've had and the people they've met, a lot of which are driven by luck, accident, and chance. Some people are born into families that encourage education; others are against it. Some are born into flourishing economies encouraging of entrepreneurship; others are born into war and destitution. I want you to be successful, and I want you to earn it. But realize that not all success is due to hard work, and not all poverty is due to laziness. Keep this in mind when judging people, including yourself.

3. This may sound harsh, but I hope you're poor at some point. Not struggling, and not unhappy, of course. But there's no way to learn the value of money without feeling the power of its scarcity. It teaches you the difference between necessary and desirable. It'll force you to budget. It'll make you learn to enjoy what you have, fix what's broken, and shop for a bargain. These are essential survival skills. Learn to be poor with dignity and you'll handle the inevitable ups and downs of financial life with ease.

4. If you're like most people, you'll spend most of your adult life thinking, "Once I've saved/earned $X, everything will be great." Then you'll hit $X, move the goalpost down the field, and resume chasing your tail. It's a miserable cycle to be in. Save your money and strive to get ahead. But realize your ability to adjust to new circumstances is more powerful than you think, and your goals should be about more than money.

5. Don't stay in a job you hate because you unwittingly made a career choice when you were 18 years old. Your dad shakes his head at college freshmen choosing a major to guide their lifelong careers. Almost no one knows what they want to do at that age. Many don't know what they want to do until they're twice that age.

6. Change your mind when you need to. I've noticed a tendency for people to think they've mastered investing when they're young. They start investing at age 18, and think they have it all figured out by age 19. They never do. Confidence rises faster than ability, especially in young men. Learn the skill of changing your mind, discarding old beliefs and replacing them with new truths. It's hard, but necessary. Don't feel bad about it. The ability to change your mind when you're wrong is a sign of intelligence.

7.The best thing money buys is control over your time. It gives you options and frees you from relying on someone else's priorities. One day you'll realize this freedom is one of the things that makes you truly happy.

8. The road to financial regret is paved with debt. Also, commissioned salesmen. But mostly debt. It's amazing what percentage of financial problems are caused by borrowing. Debt is a claim on your future, which you'll always miss, in order to gain something today, which you'll quickly get used to. You'll likely use some debt, like a mortgage. That's OK. But be careful. Most debt is the equivalent of a drug: A quick (and expensive) hit of pleasure that wears off, only to drag you down for years to come, limiting your options while weighed down by the baggage of your past.

9. Your savings rate has a little to do with how much you earn, and a lot to do with how much you spend. I know a dentist who lives paycheck to paycheck, always on the sliver's edge of financial ruin. I know another who never earned more than $50,000 and saved a fortune. The difference is entirely due to their spending.

How much you make doesn't determine how much you have. And how much you have doesn't determine how much you need.

Don't become a money hoarder or a miser. But realize that learning to live with less is the easiest and most efficient way to gain control of your financial future.