Buy a Fuel Efficient Car or Keep the Used Car?

Automobile (Photo credit: A*A*R*O*N)

The cost of gas these days is driving consumers to avoid purchasing larger cars and choose more fuel-efficient cars, but is this the right move? Many people think only about the rising cost of gas at the pump, and forget about the long-term effects. Trade-in value, driving habits, how much is owed on a car loan; these should all be considered before deciding to purchase a new car.

First, do not to sell a car less than 3 years old. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA) this is the time when a vehicle depreciates the most, losing 40 - 50% of its original value. A car can be used for a few more years, and still retain nearly as much value. Fuel inefficient cars in particular are quickly depreciating in value (8% in the last 6 months on average). Still, trading in the gas-guzzler may not save money. The gas may still be expensive, but it’s better in the long-run to get the most value out of the vehicle while being able to drive it for twice as long. It’s also important to know that the savings may not be immediate. For most, trading in an older car for a compact will cost more right now, but balance out years later.

Here is an example: A consumer trades in a four-year old GMC Yukon, worth $15,726 for a new $21,677 Toyota Prius. The difference is $5,951. If the consumer drives 1,200 miles per month and gas costs $3.80 per gallon (national average), the monthly fuel savings will be $186.97. At this rate, it will take 32 months to pay back the additional cost of the Prius over the trade-in value of the Yukon, and start saving money from the lower fuel price.

Buying a small, fuel-efficient car is an excellent way to combat rising gas prices, but the sticker price is what dents your wallet. The average price of a compact car has increased by $2,532 since 2010. That’s nearly double the average price increase of all other cars. Right now is the worst time to sell an SUV or gas guzzling car, and also the worst time to purchase a compact car. Every situation is different and it may take some time to see the savings, but consumers must weigh all of the factors and compare all of the costs before making a change.

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What Type of Investment Should You Consider When in Retirement?

retirement (Photo credit: 401(K) 2012)You would have assiduously saved sufficient corpus to meet your retirement needs. When in retirement, you should plan properly to convert your savings into income to meet your regular needs.

First prepare a quick budget to ascertain the essentials or must haves that you really need, besides the ‘nice to have’ that you really need. It is recommended that you keep 12-month expenses towards essentials and must haves in easy-to-access accounts such as checking account, money market account, or short term certificate of deposits. This approach will help you meet your regular expenses all through the year.

You may next follow investment in suitable mix of various asset classes keeping in mind your risk profile. This asset allocation policy would ensure that you don’t invest too much of money in risky equity assets. If you have already created sufficient corpus to meet your entire retirement life, you can protect the corpus by allocating larger percentage towards safer asset classes such as bonds.

Ideally you can allocate 60 percent of your overall corpus in bonds and related fixed income instruments with the rest split among equities and other asset classes.

You should also have proper drawdown strategy to meet your retirement needs. For instance, you may first start to withdraw funds for your regular needs from the interest accrued in your bonds and other fixed income instruments such as Certificate of Deposits or money market funds. These would provide predictable income. You can add fluctuating income sources such as dividend yielding stocks by making investments in individual blue-chip stocks and / or income oriented stock mutual funds.

It may be highlighted that your investments in stocks or stock mutual funds should be part of your overall asset allocation towards equities.

If you have large corpus, you can meet almost all your retirement needs from the interest and dividend earned from fixed income instruments and stocks, as indicated above. However if you haven’t built such huge corpus, you can withdraw the additional amount required, if any, from maturing Certificate of Deposits or short term bonds. To meet this requirement, as a better strategy, you may invest about two to four years of your annual expenses in short term Certificate of Deposits and bonds.

Since the above strategies might affect your overall asset allocation across various asset classes, you may review your asset allocation at least once a year and rebalance your portfolio to stay in tune with your asset allocation.

Although not a qualified finance advisor, Allan has been writing about personal finance for over 4 years using knowledge he acquired reading and talking with professionals. Allan particularly enjoys blogging about savings and has written numerous article on the topics. Aside from blogging, Allan is a regular consumer advocate and has reviewed many products from major banks including Ubank, Chase Bank and Ally Bank.

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How to Plan a Business Conference

Sandbox event planning sketch (Photo credit: edmittance)

Business conferences are meant to inform and invigorate a companies team. The conference brings together people, giving them a place to network with other like minded people and build strong business relationships. Choosing a proper conference venue in hand with proper planning and preparation will guarantee your event is a success.

Planning

Preparation is the key to a successful conference. It's important to begin your planning well ahead of time. Starting your planning a year before the event occurs is not unreasonable. On the planning committee should be staff familiar with the purpose of the event. The committee should have an event specialist who can coordinate conference logistics.

Budget

A budget is necessary to stay in line with your desired goals. You do not want to spend to much money on one facet of the event and fall short in funding on other critical components. Specific budget items are venue (hotel, auditorium, etc.), catering, equipment (A/V, computing, podiums, etc.), speakers (fee/honorarium, per diem, travel, lodging, entertainment), marketing, conference materials, and staff.

Conference Venues

Finding good conference venues that provide the necessary staff familiar with events is critical. Hotels and convention center staff are trained and have the experience to provide competent hosting. When comparing venues you can negotiate complete event packages including facilities, catering , equipment rental, and hotel rooms. Easy to manage travel to locations that may be located in downtown or airport locales may afford easy travel to and from the event.

Speakers

Contract with speakers well in advance of the event dates. Obtain samples or summaries of the speakers remarks before hand. Any equipment needs should be arrange well before hand. Arrange travel and accommodation needs with the speaker early.

Conference Registration

Getting people informed about the conference needs to be set up. Create a website with a way to register and inform participants. The website should have a way to register online and through the mail. It should have the capability to allow participants to pay for the event online. Conference details concerning event location and a run down of the conferences events should be included.

There is much to do when organizing a business conference. Planning is key to creating such a large event. Be sure to allow plenty of lead time to organize. For more information on suitable venues visit venuefinder.com.

How to Deal With Debt When Retired

Retirement (Photo credit: 401(K) 2012)

It is ideal to pay off all debts before retiring. But at times, it is inevitable. You may have entered your retirement age but you still keep several outstanding debts that you have to deal with after you retired from employment. Getting retired does not mean you are spared from debt problems. You still have to deal with those.

Some experts advise individuals nearing retirements to postpone their retirements until they pay off all their debts. This is to make sure they will still have regular income and a source for paying dues. If postponing retirement is not an option, a retiree can still earn income by taking a part-time job, which may not be directly related to his former job.

Plan your retirement well. Aside from bolstering your retirement savings, try to eliminate all your debts. If you can’t help it, here are some logical strategies to deal with debts after retirement.

Use debt consolidation.

Debts should be paid even after you get into your retirement years. You may have stopped working and generating regular income but you are expected to continue paying your financial obligations. Retirement will not be a passport to neglect and not seriously take your debt problems.

If you still have debts to pay during or after getting retired, try debt consolidation. There are debt consolidation loans with better terms and lower interest rates. Secured loans will give you better rates and terms. As an alternative, you may use low-interest or 0% interest incentives of your credit cards’ balance transfer features. Again, after using the service, try to repay the amount as quickly as you can. Some balance transfer offers only apply lower rates or 0% rates within a limited or specified period so be aware.

Pay debts with higher interest rates first.

You may opt to pay off balances or pay slightly above minimum required payments on some of your debts for the meantime. Try to pay off debts with higher interest rates first. That is because you can save more money by doing so. The high interest rate payment can be added to the payment you make to get rid of other debts.

Keep on paying diligently. Make it a goal to lower your total debt as quickly as you can. Paying little interest will help you save on costs. As you go on to repay your obligations, you may also try to tighten your financial belt by living practically and frugally. You may expect to emerge out from the debt problem in a few years.

Once you get rid of all those debts, take a breather. Try to resist the urge to obtain loans and other forms of debts again. Live within your means so as not to make your coffers run empty. Your retirement years can be enjoyed more if you will not think more about those financial obligations you owe to anyone. During retirement, it is better not to live a stressful life anymore. Enjoy your years and get past debt problems.

Andrew enjoys blogging about personal finance and especially topics such as debt consolidation and management. Over the last 4 years, Andrew has written numerous articles and has been an active contributor in personal finance forums.

The Best Accounting Firms to Work For in 2012

Accounting firms play a vital role in providing the services which businesses require. There are many accounting firms spread all over the world. Besides putting a systematic record of financial transactions, these accounting firms take care of all the risks involved in setting up and running a limited company. As staff of an accounting firms are trained for all types of financial situations they can easily bring success to your business. It is always a better idea to hire an accounting firm to deal with your business requirements. You can get your limited company set up help with ClearSky which is an IFA accredited accounting firm. Below are some of the best accountancy firms to work for in 2012.

Ernst & Young

Ernst and Young accounting firm offer a wide range of services regarding business intelligence. They have been offering their services for about a century. The services offered by this firm include advisory business services, tax, transaction advisory services, law and assurance. This firm has offices in various cities all over the world.

Deloitte

Deloitte has dozens of member firms which have been offering their services to about 150 countries. These member firms provide services like audit, tax, financial advisory, consulting and risk management services. Each member firm operates based on the rules and regulations of the country in which it operates.

Grant Thornton

Grant Thornton is a leading business consultancy firm which stimulates potential growth of the organisations. It has set up its branches in more than 100 countries. The member firm of Grant Thornton helps you to compete with your business competitors and grow. These firms take care of the whole process involved in setting up and running a business.

Moss Adams

Moss Adams is the 11th largest accounting firm in the country. The services provided by this firm include tax, accounting and consulting services to all the businesses and industries. Along with business intelligence, this firm also offers services like investment banking and asset management. This firm is also a founding member of Praxity, a global alliance of accounting firms.

KPMG

KPMG is a New York based accounting firm which offers tax, auditing and financial advisory services to the businesses. KMPG has branches all over the world which has over 140,000 employees. The firm focuses on what the private company owners and entrepreneurs face every day and provides responsive and effective advice which stimulates the business potential growth.

Simon is a Tech writer from London with an interest in topics relating to Insurance, Finance, and green living. You can follow him @financeport on Twitter

Top 10 Cases of Corporate Identity Theft

(Photo credit: thewamphyri)Corporate identity theft cases have been in the news for quite some time now. Ever since the high pace advancement of technology has taken its toll, identity thefts have started to become more of a norm with every passing year. People looking for debt relief advice have moved on to stealing identities to get over with their credit card debt relief as soon as they can without the guilt of taking someone’s hard earnings that they’ve probably wasted years in gathering.

There are many cases available in recent history that depicts corporate identity thefts. Some of which are given below:

Identical Names

Executive Outcome Inc. and Executive Outcomes Inc. both possessed the same names. Although countries apart, the identical names led to a loss of twenty three million dollars to the South African Executive Outcomes Inc. which was collected by Executive Outcome Inc. situated in Michigan. The South African company was supposed to collect the mount from the government of Sierra Leone for military equipment and training etc.

The Michigan-based company took its chance and hired a debt collection agency with fabricating documents and registered a new business in England in the name of the same South African company that was originally designated to collect the debt. When a British debt collector came into the scene and submitted paperwork to the Sierra Leone government, he was amazed to find out that the payments had already been issued with present paperwork, leaving the company and collector distressed.

Experienced Hackers

There was a corporate identity theft case reported in 2009 that grabbed much of the media attention over the U.S. Department of Justice’s moves. The case involved a man from Miami named Albert Gonzalez along with his two conspirators were charged with stealing over one hundred and thirty numerous debit and credit card numbers due to corporate info breach from five companies i.e.

• Heartland Payment Systems
• Hannaford Brothers computer systems
• JC Penny
• Target
• Seven Citibank ATMs

Lifelock

Todd Davis, a confident CEO of his company called Lifelock was so confident about the identity theft protection provided by his company that he openly shared his real social security number with the world via advertising. This included billboards, Internet marketing and even side paintings on buses and trucks.

Leaving aside identity protection, his own personal account was scraped up of five hundred dollars for a cash advance loan with eighty seven following the lead using pseudonyms like Joe Blow and J.T Hutt etc.

Stealing from the Stars

A busboy named Abraham Abdallah was quite in the social scene for a while when he got hold of financial statements belonging to Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg’s credit card. He was caught on the scene with making a ten million dollar transfer hiding behind a software giant.

Frank Abagnale

Posing as a doctor, an airline pilot and history professor etc., Abagnale fooled the authorities for many years racking up to four million dollars of wrong checks. After being caught and convicted, he now owns a business that helps fight against mischief like his.

ID Fraud from China

In the mid 2004s, A Japanese electronics giant, the NEC, received reports of its pirated products being sold in major parts of China. The piracy started from keyboards and CD/DVDs and elevated up to home entertainment centers and MP3 players with over fifty factories operating within the whole country dedicated to producing NEC logoed goods on their own.

At Employee’s Hands

A company selling one of its departments handed over the list of its employees and their personal information to the purchaser. After a few months, about sixty of those employees were overcharged with one thing or another. It turned out that the purchasing company’s employees had conducted id thefts on the new ones.

Out of the Country

A person was out of the country for almost four years and upon his return to the U.S., he found out that a business has been created with his savings and he’s also been granted loans, and the power of attorney has also been transferred to a new person. It was the same person who rented his house prior to leaving the States.

Stealing Musician

The director of a business involving music production has committed fraudulent transactions conjuring more than 5 million dollars. This has affected high scale financial institutions like the Sun Trust Bank and the American Express.

Singer at Large

An ex-singer looking for credit card debt relief and serving prison time stole the identities and numbers of 200 companies and 150 individuals, making transactions worth more than 1 million dollars.

Becoming a criminal and stealing other people’s hard-earned money wouldn't come in question if only a person tries to seek some debt relief advice.

The above article is written and edited by Angelina J who is an expert adviser for debt related issues.