.Here's Where to Keep Your Cash

Interest Rates Are Rising: Here's Where to Keep Your Cash

By Philip Brewer

These past 10 years, interest rates have been so low it just about didn't matter what you did with your cash. There was a certain convenience to that — you didn't have to move money back and forth between checking and higher-rate accounts, because they paid almost the same.

As a bonus, you didn't have to track money market returns to be sure the rate your account paid was still competitive, because they all paid just a fraction over 0 percent.

That has changed. The Fed has already started raising interest rates, and will probably raise rates another three-quarters of a percentage point this year. 

Already, rates are high enough that it makes a difference where you hold your cash, and that difference is starting to get significant. (See also: How to Benefit From Rising Interest Rates)

Let's take a look at where you should be holding your money, as well as a few reasons why you need cash on hand.

What Cash To Hold

There are four main reasons to hold cash: liquidity balances, planned expenses, temporary holdings, and an emergency fund. The size of your temporary holdings may vary quite a bit from time to time, but the others have pretty specific parameters that it's worth being clear about.

Liquidity Balances

Your income arrives in chunks that don't precisely match the due dates of your bills. Liquidity balances are the cash you keep on hand to smooth that out, so that you can pay each bill when it's due. Sizing the cash demands of your liquidity balances is easy: It's the total of all the bills that might come due between income payments. Once you know this amount, you can set it aside for when you need it.

Planned Expenses

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.wisebread.com/interest-rates-are-rising-heres-where-to-keep-your-cash?ref=seealso

.Don't Make These 6 Dumb Mistakes With Your Windfall

Stop! Don't Make These 6 Dumb Mistakes With Your Financial Windfall

By Kentin Waits  February 3, 2015

Maybe your lottery numbers finally came in. Maybe a favorite aunt remembered you in her will. Heck, maybe one day while you were shootin' at some food, up through the ground came bubblin' crude — oil that is! Texas tea! (See also: 50 Smart Things to Do With Your Tax Refund)

Whatever the source, you're the lucky beneficiary of a financial windfall. Revel in it and protect your new-found wealth by avoiding these six dumb moves.

1. Act Impulsively

Receiving money unexpectedly is exciting, and it can send even normally down-to-earth folks straight into the stratosphere. In those dizzying weeks and months following a financial windfall, we're really not ourselves, so making big decisions during that time is usually a terrible idea.

Instead of spending or investing immediately, take a time out. Collect yourself. Adjust to your new wealth for six months or a year and just let the cash sit in a money market account or CD. Remember, high emotion and sound decision-making usually don't mix.

2. Buy a New Car

Even if you're paying cash, there are many reasons to avoid buying a new car. Not only is it the most cliché thing you can do with a windfall, but it's also one of the quickest ways to lose roughly 25% on every dollar you spend.

The minute you sign the paperwork and drive off the lot, that new car becomes used. Depreciation takes a quick and silent bite out of your new ride. Let someone else absorb that financial hit; buy a pre-owned late-model car that's still under warranty.

3. Loan Money to Friends and Family

Making loans to friends and family is a sure way to take the wind out of your financial windfall. Loans have a curious way of never getting repaid, and once your bank balance dwindles, hard feelings can set in and slowly erode relationships.

If a loan is unavoidable, find out how to increase your chances of repayment without sacrificing the relationship. Better yet, if someone dear to you truly needs a hand up, simply make a one time cash gift with no repayment expectations.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.wisebread.com/stop-dont-make-these-6-dumb-mistakes-with-your-financial-windfall?ref=seealso

.What to Do With a Windfall

What to Do With a Windfall

By Emily Guy Birken  January 13.2020

Theoretically, a sudden windfall should reduce your financial worries. Who doesn't appreciate getting suddenly richer?

However, making good decisions with a large infusion of cash can feel overwhelming, especially if your windfall comes about because of something negative. For instance, when I received a life insurance payout after my father passed away in 2013, the money was both emotionally charged and stress-inducing, and I was terrified of making a misstep.

If you've received a windfall, taking your time and making intentional decisions about the money will serve you better in the long run. Here's how you can do that.

Take A Break Before Making Any Decisions

No matter how you received your newfound wealth, you're likely to have a number of strong emotions associated with the event. And we all know that emotions and rational decisions can struggle to coexist. That's why it's a good idea to take a little time before you make any decisions whatsoever with your new money.

If the money came to you because of a negative situation, such as a death in the family, the end of a lawsuit, or the sale of a beloved business, your emotions will inevitably color your view of the money. 

I personally found that I wanted Dad's insurance money to no longer be in my hands, because having it was a reminder of my loss.

Even if you have positive associations with the money (after a lucky weekend in Vegas or a surprise profit-sharing bonus from work), those fuzzy feelings may prompt you to make risky decisions to keep the good vibes coming. Letting some time pass between receiving your windfall and deciding what to do with it can help you view the money more dispassionately so you can make the best possible decisions with it.

So how long should you pause before deciding what to do? Depending on the size of the windfall, you might want to wait as long as six months (or longer) before making any decisions. This will give you time to process your emotions so that you're psychologically ready to make these big choices.

Put It Someplace Safe

What you do with your money while you wait to make the big decisions depends partially on where your windfall came from. Life insurance benefits and other inheritance money can sometimes stay safely in the same account you'll be paid from.

In these cases, it's common that your money will even earn some interest while it stays put. Simply keeping the money in place can be a good way to give yourself the emotional breathing room you need without worrying about making a preliminary decision.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.wisebread.com/what-to-do-with-a-windfall

.One Decision Separates the Wealthy From the Non-Wealthy

One Decision Separates the Wealthy From the Non-Wealthy

“Courage can be developed. But it cannot be nurtured in an environment that eliminates all risks, all difficulty, all dangers. It takes considerable courage to work in an environment in which one is compensated according to one’s performance. Most affluent people have courage. What evidence supports this statement? Most affluent people in America are either business owners or employees who are paid on an incentive basis.”   — Dr. Thomas Stanley

The problem with most people’s lives is that they are being shielded from the consequences of their behavior. There’s little to no accountability.

The fastest way to make success inevitable in your life is to only do work that is incentive-based. Only do that which you are rewarded and punished for the quality of your work. Everything you do needs to matter to the outcomes, consequences, and results you get in life.

So what is the decision?

The decision is to take complete ownership of every decision in your life. And how you do that is by only doing things in which you are compensated based on performance.

This goes completely against the norms in society. It goes against public education — which shields people from progressing at their own rates. It goes against most job structures, wherein a person is paid an hourly rate or salary.

If you want to make dramatic strides forward, you must only work in environments where the consequences of your actions are immediate and REAL. You need to be demanded by your situation to come up with a result.

This article will show you how:

Are You A Part Of The “Results Economy”?

Founder of the exclusive entrepreneurial coaching platform, Strategic Coach, Dan Sullivan distinguishes between those who are in the “Time-and-Effort Economy” with those who are in the “Results Economy.”

If you’re in the time and effort economy, you are focused on being busy. You actually believe the amount of time and energy you put into something merits praise. Those who are focused on being “busy” are protected in some way from the consequences of their actions. 

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

 https://benjaminhardy.com/one-decision-separates-the-wealthy-from-the-non-wealthy/

.Want To Become A Multi-Millionaire?.

Want To Become A Multi-Millionaire? Do These 15 Things Immediately.

By Benjamin Hardy

“The greatest reward in becoming a millionaire is not the amount of money that you earn. It is the kind of person that you have to become to become a millionaire.”  — Jim Rohn

Most people wish their circumstances would magically change for them. They don’t have the desire to become better themselves so they can proactively improve their own circumstances.

Unlike most people, who simply wait and wish for luck, you can seek to become the kind of person equipped with the skills and abilities to do brilliant things.

You can become the kind of person who does highly influential work. Your work can solve pressing problems, improve people’s lives, and get noticed by important people who share your work not for your sake, but for theirs! Sharing your work makes them look good because of how great it is.

The quality of who you are as a person, and the work you do, is completely within your control. But you can’t wish for it to happen. You must become the kind of person who naturally attracts the success you seek.

Here’s how:

1. Invest At Least 10% Of Your Income In Yourself

If you don’t pay for something, you rarely pay attention.

Most people want stuff that’s free. But if you get something for free, you rarely prize that thing. You rarely take it seriously.

How much do you invest in yourself?

How committed are you to yourself?

If you aren’t investing in yourself, then you don’t have any skin in the game of your own life.

If you aren’t invested in your business, you probably won’t do high-quality work.

If you’re not invested in your relationships, you’re probably more focused on what you can get than what you can give.

When it comes to self-improvement, investing 10% of your income on yourself will yield a 100X or more return on that investment. For every dollar you spend on your education, skills, and relationships, you’ll get at least 100 dollars back in returns.

If you want to do something extremely well, you need to surround yourself with the right mentors. Anything that you’ll ever do well will be the result of high quality mentoring. If you suck at something, it’s because you haven’t received quality mentoring in that thing.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://benjaminhardy.com/want-to-become-a-multi-millionaire-do-these-15-things-immediately/

.Family Planning

Family Planning 

By Muhammad Ali

 Family Planning is one of those things that can either make you or break you.

Follow along with me and I will explain more about what I mean.

The following is a true story, only the names have been changed to protect the innocence...hehehee

 Hello Muhammad,

My husband and I have been holding Dinar for 3 years.  We have discussed many times and formed a list of recipients that we will gift once the blessed day arrives.  Believe it or not, our list totalled 29 people.

We didn't think for a second how this would affect our own personal balance, well that was until we got your CEP.  Once we started entering our Family gifting amounts we realized that if we had pursued with our original plan to help all of our friends and families it would have left us in the gray."

Alright, there were no names to change, but I've always wanted to use that statement in an article.  Luckily my Currency Exchange Planner was able to come to their aid and help them in their planning.

Regardless of what country you reside, we all have someone we want to help after RV, whether it be a charity, our community, friends, families, neighbours, there is someone that is on our mind to help.

The question sometimes comes to our mind, is helping them by gifting them a certain amount of money the right thing to do.  Are we teaching them to fish or are we giving them a fish, and does that allow them to feed themselves for the day or for a lifetime?  This is a very interesting question.

For the couple above that emailed me, I wonder what would have happened if they did not use my planner and once RV helped all those 29 people.  Those people would have been happy with the extra money, whilst our couple would have been severely handicapped on their bank account. 

I always like to play 'what if' scenarios and what if the odds of half of those people blew their gifted money they received within a few months.  We already know that with Sudden Wealth Syndrome 80% of people lose their wealth in a short time frame. 

So, I would say the chances are pretty good that at least half will lose the money, and once that happens, again the odds tell me that they will go back to the couple to ask for more money.  So what do you think will happen when the couple says to them, we are sorry but our money is finished too? 

Do you think the people who received the gifted money would go back home content, or can you see heated arguments taking place?

I am not saying that it's not good to give, giving has many merits both in this life and the hereafter, and there is a great joy in giving to others, but what I am telling you is too think carefully on how much you give and to whom you give and how you give it.   So this is the purpose of this article. 

I would like to share some ideas that can safe guard your currency investments while at the same time safe guarding your own privacy and security.

There are times in our lives, though, when we do not want recognition for giving. And while public recognition should never be the driving force behind any of our giving, there are times when we do not want any recognition at all.  Possibly it is for safety’s sake, but usually it is because we simply want to bless someone with nothing in return.  A very good way to achieve this is to give anonymously.

Anonymous giving is a high level of charity, because it gives the gift without causing any friction on the other person or organization to feel as if they have to return the favour to you.  You simply bless a person, organization, or cause and then watch them use that money or gift from afar.

One way to give anonymously is to create an alter-ego and even an email address it you plan to give online.  As strange as that sounds, it works.  I've already created mine, his name is Seymour Good. 

Those who are subscribers to my website will recognize that name from my weekly newsletters.  Seymour Good was a name that first appeared in the 1983 TV comedy movie 'Found Movie' starting Dick Van Dyke and Sid Caesar.  That was nearly 40 years ago and it has been in my head ever since. 

 If you haven't got it yet, let me help you, 'Seymour Good' is 'See More Good'.  Nice!  And you are most certainly welcome to use the same name, we certainly need more Seymour Good Foundations out there.  So now you have your alter-ego, now you just have to figure out how to use it to give anonymously.

Bob Lotich has some pretty good suggestions on how you can give anonymously.  So I will let him share his ideas. How To Give Money Anonymously (4 ways) One of my favorite things is to give money anonymously. In this video, I'm sharing with you: How To Give Anonymously.

Now the other thing to take note with gifting to friends and families is the Gift Tax.  For American citizens and for 2020, it's still set to $15,000 USD.  This is something that people may have not factored in their gifting plans.  For example, let's say you gave $100,000 to your Uncle Henry. 

Of course he'd be very happy and settle his debts, but come around Tax time he finds out that from the $100k, he is liable for taxes on $85,000.  Wow, that's a bummer something that neither he nor you factored.  So then it turns out your gift to Uncle Henry cost him 30,000 or so in taxes, but now he's already spent the money on clearing his debts and doesn't have the money to cover the taxes. 

So what's he going to do?  Yes, most likely come back to see you for help.  So that $100,000 gift may in fact turn out to be $130,000.  So you can imagine if you're gifting a dozen or more of your family members with amounts in excess of $15,000, the tax implications.   This could be another factor in the Sudden Wealth Syndrome that people have over looked.

It's fine to make your lists and gift amounts, but once RV and you’ve form your Team, which will include a CPA, run thru your gifting list with him/her and get professional advice before you begin the actual gifting. 

The last thing you want to do is indirectly create family disputes and arguments based on your initial intention to be generous, all because of Income Tax.  Your CPA might give you suggestions and ways to work around the tax rules.  Remember, the tax laws and rules will be different in every country so you'll need to do your own research and investigations to keep yourself and your family members receiving the gift in the clear.

Always remember, there is more than one way to gift.

Another way to gift someone is to pay directly for medical, dental and tuition expenses. You can pay for tuition, dental and medical expenses of anyone you want. Note that you must make the payments directly to the providers of those services – you can’t just reimburse the person whom you want to benefit.

This chance to pay for medical and dental expenses, often overlooked, can be enormously useful. For example, if someone you know is temporarily out of work and loses health insurance coverage, you could pay the premium for that person, or that person’s family.

You can offer rent-free living. You can let someone live in your house or buy a house and let them occupy it rent-free.

So these are several options to gift people but I will leave you with one more.  And probably the most viable form of gifting for us Dinarians and that is using eWallets and Crypto transfers. 

This form of moving money is not tracked by governments, tax agencies, and it doesn't matter the amount or the age of the recipient.  Of course, it won’t be easy to do it anonymously but the money can be kept out of the system as well as if you want to move money across borders.  Keep posted to my future articles as I will be writing a full article on eWallets and Crypto transfers.

 For now, I hope my article has made you think about your gifting of money.  Give, and it shall be given unto you and Charity does not decrease wealth.  God has chosen us to hold currency for His reasons and I am sure one of those reasons would be to help others. 

So please do not let taxes or tax exclusions and technicalities interfere with your generosity, but at same token cross your t's and dot your i's. and before you give to others, don’t forget charity begins at home.

And please take a look at my Currency Exchange Planner.  It will help you with your Family and Charity planning.  Enter all of your gift amounts and immediately see how it will affect your bank balance.

 ​Thank you and I wish you all the success in your currency exchange.

Muhammad Ali www.CurrencyExchangePlanner.com

The No. 1 Planning Tool for the Dinar community.

Available in Desktop PC/MAC and Mobile App (Android & IOS) versions

.Five Freedoms

Five Freedoms

Jonathan Clements  |  January 25, 2020

FOR THREE YEARS, I lived on Roosevelt Island, in the middle of New York City’s East River. It’s a wonderful place—a quiet, friendly, low-crime oasis in the middle of one of the world’s largest, most frenetic cities.

During my time there, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park opened on the island’s southern tip. The park is named after a 1941 FDR speech, where he articulated “four essential human freedoms”: freedom of speech, of worship, from fear and from want.

FDR’s speech was inspiring. Managing money is altogether more prosaic. Still, I’d argue that our pursuit of money is also about a hunger for freedom—with five dimensions:

1. Freedom from fear.

We all want a sense of financial security—and yet all too many folks lead fragile financial lives. If our income barely covers our expenses, we may be okay if it’s a typical month. But so few months turn out to be typical.

We face frequent financial shocks, some large, some small. The car breaks down. The roof needs to be replaced. We lose our job. If we have scant savings and little financial breathing room in our monthly budget, such shocks can leave us scrambling to cover the bills and send our anxiety soaring.

As I mentioned last week, a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau study found that the sum we keep in liquid savings—meaning cash, checking accounts and savings accounts—has a huge impact on financial well-being. The price to escape much of our financial fear? All it may take is a few thousand dollars tucked away in the bank.

2. Freedom from financial dependence.

We’re all dependent on other folks. Even billionaires need others to produce the goods and services they consume, to buy the investments they sell and to purchase the products their businesses make.

But there are degrees of financial dependence—and the more dependent we are, the shakier our financial life can seem. I don’t like being financially dependent on others, and I can’t imagine many do.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://humbledollar.com/2020/01/five-freedoms/

.Investing Quotes That Will Make You Think Differently About Money

Investing Quotes That Will Make You Think About Money Differently

As you begin investing your money, sometimes you need some strong investing quotes to help continue to shape your mindset.

Sure, these quotes may mean nothing if you do not take action and practice what resonates with you.

But sometimes these quotes about investing money can spark the drive you need to make better financial decisions.

And besides that, these quotes can serve as healthy reminders as you become a top-notch investor yourself. Additionally, as a bonus, I added some investing stats at the end.           

The Best Investing Quotes

While there are tons of investing quotes out there, I decided to slim it down to the best ones and a selection of my favorites.

Some of these quotes will be from years ago and others might be more recent and from well-known people.

 1. “A lot of people with high IQs are terrible investors because they’ve got terrible temperaments. You need to keep raw, irrational emotion under control.” — Charlie Munger

2. “Behind every stock is a company. Find out what it’s doing.” — Peter Lynch

3. “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it.” — Albert Einstein

4. “I will tell you how to become rich. Close the doors, be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.” — Warren Buffett

5. “All intelligent investing is value investing. Acquiring more that you are paying for. You must value the business in order to value the stock.” — Charlie Munger

6. “How many millionaires do you know who have become wealthy by investing in savings accounts? I rest my case.” — Robert G. Allen

7. “The individual investor should act consistently as an investor and not as a speculator.” — Ben Graham

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

 ttps://investedwallet.com/best-investing-quotes/

.12 Financial Sins

12 Financial Sins

John Lim    January 23, 2020

THE FINANCIAL markets are often quick to punish investment sins. By contrast, if we err with our borrowing, spending and other personal-finance issues, problems might not show up until years later—but the damage can be just as great. Here, to complement last week’s list of 12 deadly investment sins, are 12 deadly personal-finance sins:

1. Pride: Keeping up with the Jones by buying luxury cars and fancy clothes.

Antidote: Realize the folly of buying depreciating assets you don’t need, with money you don’t have, to impress people you don’t like.

2. Greed: Operating with a “never enough” money mentality. A reporter asked billionaire John D. Rockefeller, “How much money is enough?” His response: “Just a little bit more.”

Antidote: Generosity. Giving away money will loosen its emotional grip on you—and make you happier as well.

3. Lust: Getting divorced.

Antidote: Invest more time and energy in your marriage.

4. Envy: Comparing your financial state to that of others. Since there will always be someone with apparently greater wealth, such comparisons often lead to envy and discontent.

Antidote: Instead of comparing yourself to others, work to develop gratitude for what you have.

5. Gluttony: Falling into debt. If money saved is financial progress, money borrowed is often a step backward. As I’ve mentioned before, going into debt to pay for today’s consumption is the path to financial slavery.

Antidote: With the exception of taking out a mortgage or student loans, if you don’t have the cash to pay for something in full, save up until you do.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://humbledollar.com/2020/01/12-more-deadly-sins/

.Magnitude Matters

Magnitude Matters

Rand Spero    January 16, 2020

WHY DON’T WE spend our time and energy on financial issues that have the greatest impact? We’ll drive to a more distant gas station to save 10 cents a gallon, but fail to do all the maintenance needed to extend the life of our car. What lies behind this sort of behavior?

The savings from getting the best price per gallon is concrete and immediate, while maintaining our car is long term and abstract. It’s simply easier to focus on the 10 cents.

I have a relative who stayed at a $500-a-night luxury hotel in downtown Boston. He emailed me to bring him water when I visited, because the hotel charges $5 per bottle.

Yes, the hotel is pushing the envelope with its water bottle charge, but my relative claiming he won’t pay “on principle” seems like a stretch.

Such “injustices” occur when we have concrete price expectations, while we happily tolerate other, much higher costs.

Deciding on a college is a huge investment of time and money. Yet as my family dashed from one campus visit to the next, I wondered if we were being good consumers. Were we prioritizing colleges based on which tour guide captured the interest of our daughter?

Perhaps we needed to slow down and do more extensive research. When my daughter decided to apply early decision to a nearby university, we suggested she visit the school a second time. She spent a full day talking to students and sitting in on classes, and came back enthused. It proved to be a good fit.

The importance of considering the financial magnitude of a decision became apparent when I went house shopping with a friend. He was moving into town for work and wanted to get settled quickly. As we raced between showings, one desirable property stood out.

There was a crowd at the open house and the broker indicated it would move fast. All bids would be accepted by Sunday evening and the winner would be announced the next day. My friend got caught up in the frenzy and wanted to know what bid might be needed “to win it.”

It struck me as amusing that we had spent just 45 minutes looking at the desired house for sale. I asked my friend how much time he would spend looking at a high-priced sweater.

He proudly indicated that he was a bargain shopper. My friend added that, if he were going to pay a lot for an item of clothing, it had better be worth it. Yet soon he could be obligated to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for a house, initiating this decision after spending less than an hour.

Want to make better purchasing decisions? Try asking these five questions:

What dollar amount are you actually spending or saving?

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://humbledollar.com/2020/01/magnitude-matters/

.Why I Buy Everything on Credit Cards

Why I Buy Everything on Credit Cards

The Almighty Credit Card

Credit cards are a supremely convenient and secure way to carry money and make purchases and payments.  With credit cards, you never have to worry about losing money – even by theft.   In addition, credit cards offer many attractive benefits. 

In addition to the reward programs such as cash back and frequent flier miles, most credit card purchases also come with extended warranties, insurance, and transaction history.  Plus, the ability to cancel a transaction gives you power over the vendor in a customer satisfaction dispute.  For all of these reasons and more, I make nearly all of my purchases and payments on my credit card.

Benefits That Typically Come Free with Credit Card Use

Loss Prevention

When I was ten, I rode my bike with some friends to the new toy store that had opened in a nearby strip mall where we spent the afternoon examining the offering.  I finally decided to buy one of those cool disc guns that shoots plastic discs the size of a penny.  Those guns were so cool.  They must have shot a lot of eyes out, because you can’t buy them anymore.

As I stepped to the counter, I was horrified to find that my money was no longer in my pocket.  I searched my other pockets and even my socks, but the money was gone.  I could not believe that I had lost an entire $3. 

I’ll spare you any further anguish on my behalf, and just say that even though this whole situation made a lasting impression on me, I did find the money.  There it was, lying nicely folded in the parking lot.  I still can’t believe it went unnoticed for so long.

All this is to say that losing money is a real drag.  Actually, I’m sure I have been a net finder of lost money.  There was that $50 lying on Main Street in Park City, Utah and another $50 on the floor at Subway in some small town in Washington.  Let me know if either of those was yours.

The point is, I have very few opportunities to lose cash, because I don’t carry much of it.  If you lose a credit card, you won’t lose any money, as long as you report it lost.  Even if you didn’t realize you had lost your credit card, you would of course, realize it had fallen into the wrong hands as soon as you started seeing transactions pop up on your Personal Capital app.

Security

Even if I am robbed, the most I could really lose (other than my life) is the $20 I typically carry.  When a credit card is stolen, the thieves will immediately run to the nearest big box store to purchase gift cards before the card is reported stolen and declined.  Even these charges (especially these charges) are refunded as fraudulent charges.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://perpetualmoneymachine.org/credit-cards/