Read what James Kvaal, Policy Director,Obama for America has to say about the Presidents reform of student loan payments!
President Obama just took two serious steps to make life a lot easier for folks with student loans — and there’s a good chance you or someone you know will benefit from these changes very soon.
Here’s how:
– Effective this January, if you’re someone who has different kinds of loans — guaranteed and direct — you’ll be able to roll them both into one direct loan and bring down your interest rate. You’ll only have to write one check a month, and you’ll see a discount. This switch adds no cost to taxpayers across the board.
– You might remember that, as part of last year’s student loan reform, borrowers’ loan payments could be no higher than 10 percent of their disposable income. This is a big deal — but it wasn’t going to help anyone enrolling before 2014. Today, the President announced that he’s speeding up this program so it will affect students next year — helping over 1 million students. This will have huge consequences for people struggling to make their student loan payments.
Sometimes, it can be hard to see how policy changes will actually affect your day-to-day life.
Not the case with this one. These changes will make a real difference in helping millions of Americans get by month to month.
We put together a video explaining how these changes will help Americans. Watch it to learn a little more about what today’s steps would do, and then make sure everyone you know who should hear about it does.
President Obama isn’t waiting on Congress to take action. He’s doing everything in his power, right now, to help bolster our economy and get folks back on their feet.
On Monday, he laid out new rules on federal mortgages to help make sure more families don’t lose their homes to foreclosure.
On Tuesday, the administration announced two new initiatives to help veterans find work.
Today, it means making changes that make student loans a lot easier to manage.
These are actions that can’t wait on the next vote or the next election. So long as people are struggling, this President and this administration will do everything in their power to help them when and where they can. It’s just that simple.
Now, let’s make sure that the millions of people who stand to benefit from today’s steps know about it.
Watch the video to learn more about today’s student loan changes — and then help get the word out:
1. Late payments
Did you just hear a bloodcurdling scream? It’s Jim’s statement arriving with late fees and penalty interest rates applied to his accounts for paying credit cards late. And a loud, horrified gasp follows when he checks his credit scores and sees them drop, as a result, while his future interest rates rise.
Here’s how Jim could avoid paying bills late: signing up for automated bill payments online, paying bills the day they arrive in the mail or electronically, or asking credit card companies to change the due dates, if there are times more convenient for bill-paying.
2. Going over your credit limit
Are you scared yet? You will be if you go over your credit limit on your card and your card issuer slams you with a fee and increases your interest rate to a higher penalty rate. The best prevention is to keep a spending record or check your balance online. And don’t ignore those letters from credit card companies—they might be telling you your limit was lowered.
3. Paying unnecessary fees
If you’re trick-or-treating, don’t expect any candy from credit card companies. Some not only handout late payment and over-the-limit fees, but also fees for cash advances, transferring balances, and returned payments. If you’re paying your bill by phone, check to make sure there’s no fee for that. Also, watch the transactions that trigger these fees. To learn about fees your credit card company charges, check your agreement, statement or the company’s web site.
4. Paying less than the minimum
Don’t get tricked into paying more in interest charges. If you can’t pay your balance in full each month, try to pay as much of the total as you can. The more you pay in interest, the higher the cost of your original purchase becomes. Plus, you’ll pay off your balance sooner.
5. Not reading the mail from your credit issuer
This is one haunt you definitely want to stay away from. Credit card companies may change the terms and conditions of your account, and send you advance notices about changes in fees, interest rates, billing, and other features. Be sure to read these “change in terms” notices to decide whether to adapt your card use. For example, if cash advance fees increase, you may choose to use a different card for cash advances. If you have a card with a variable rate or if an introductory rate is ending, credit card companies don’t have to send you a notice about raising your interest rate. Interest rates are listed on your monthly statement, so go over it carefully and note any changes.
September is Life Insurance Awareness Month.
LIFE, an industry group founded to promote life insurance awareness, has reserved September for the big push.
Watch this touching video featuring Lamar Odom, two time NBA Champion speaks about the importance of life insurance.
A Means to A Wealthy Outcome
10,000 FAMILIES DEBT FREE
AND
FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT
BOOT CAMP
COME JOIN US FOR
THE BIGGEST DEBT LOSER
SHOWDOWN
The vision of KDM Consulting is to help 10,000 families become debt free and financially independent in five years.
EVERTHING IS IN PLACE AND IT STARTS SEPTEMBER 1, 2011
The mission is to educate and train people to
BE DEBT FREE AND STAY DEBT FREE
Our objective is to provide people a financial needs analysis making their income loss requirements the foundation of our client’s financial independence. We feel that if their financial needs are not protected while we work together to build wealth, the process will cannot work. After we provide the foundation of protecting income loss we will focus on debt reduction and savings using several quality products and services.
We will use Equifax as the measuring tool for the debt to make sure campers are staying on the plan. Those that finish the camp in one year and have built a solid foundation in regards to their assets, have dramatically reduced their debt, and began a saving program will be entered into a drawing to win a grand prize. The last camp that was done the winners won a 4 day cruise.
Join in you have NOTHING to lose and your FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE to gain. No need to be embarrassed no need to hesitate.
Everything is confidential!
Click on the Link Above
Registration ends November 30, 2011
Camp Begins December 1, 2011
Debt-Stacking is a simple method of reducing debt in the shortest time possible with the money that is already going to payments. This method has saved the average consumer over 50,000 dollars in interest and cuts the time to payback debt in half.
Is debt stacking for everyone? Just about. As a matter of fact the more debts that you have the more you save. But, if you are behind on making payments this may not be right for you.
The principle is simple; when one debt is paid off you take the money that was going to that debt’s payment and apply it to the next debt.
Let’s say that you have a credit card that you just paid off and the monthly payment was 50.00. The next debt that you wish to payoff is a car payment, which has a monthly payment of 300.00. You would take the 50.00 that was going to the credit card and add it to the car payment, so this month you would send a payment of 350.00. Now when the car is paid off you may want to payoff the mortgage so you would take the 350.00 that was going to the car payment and add it to the mortgage payment. Let say that the mortgage payment is 750.00 add the 350.00 to it. So you send in a payment of 1100.00 to the mortgage company. Remember you are paying no more then you started with.
Credit card 50.00
Car 300.00
Mortgage 750.00
Total 1100.00
To see what the possible saving could be using this method with real debts consider the following two scenarios, first paying off debts the normal way, second stacking the debts.
We will use the same information for both scenarios
|
Debt Name |
Balance |
Payment | Interest Rate |
Remaining |
| Mortgage |
138,972.00 |
931.42 |
7.00% |
352 |
| Car |
10,832.46 |
350.00 |
8.50% |
36 |
| Visa |
7,500.00 |
150.00 |
16.00% |
|
| Car 2 |
14,597.97 |
363.27 |
7.25% |
47 |
| Totals: |
171,902.43 |
1,794.69 |
Years until all debts are paid off: 29 years 4 months
And it will cost $207,472.00 in Interest! This is if you don’t borrow another dime and just pay the minimum payments.
Now what if you were to use the debt stacking technique instead?
| NO PLAN | DEBT STACKING | TOTAL SAVING | |
| Total to Payoff Debts |
380,402.00 |
255,928.00 |
Save
|
| Interest Paid |
207,472.00 |
82,998.00 |
|
| Principle Paid |
171,902.00 |
171,902.00 |
|
| Required Time to Payoff Debt |
29 years |
11 years |
Save
|
| Potential Retirement Saving |
0.00 |
1,125,379.00* |
*Actual results may very from the results depicted above depending on your individual credit worthiness and financial planning strategy. Retirement saving calculated with 8% annual return on investing equivalent of current debt payments
This is not debt consolidation, debt settlement, loans or investing. Well in a sense you are investing in yourself and your future when you pay off your debts.
Also paying off debt creates a guarantee return on investment. Look at our example.
We saved 124,474.00 in interest. That is a 60% return on investment. NOT BAD! Is that a big enough incentive to start today?
What about the 1,125,379.00 for retirement? That would give you about 90,000.00 a year to live on for life without touching the principle.
Our Free Financial Analysis is all you need. Nothing else! Sure you can figure out on paper how to stack your debts, but our Free Financial Analysis does this for you.
It is your future. Wouldn’t you like to be debt free? Just imagine what your life would be like with no debts. Owning your home and car outright!
ONLY YOU CAN Make it happen!
What will your life be like 5 years from now or even 10 years? Will you still be making payments to creditors?
You will start saving money and time the very first month. This saving alone will more then pay for the investment in the Rapid Debt Reducer Software.
No magic here, just the plain truth. Create a plan to eliminate your debt. To start today by contacting us!
Parts of this article taken from :so long bills.com
Financial Clutter, What To Keep And What To Get Rid Of
Suzie Orman Says:
Keep till warranty expires or can no longer return or exchange
What to keep for 1 month
What to keep for 1 year
What to keep for 3 years
What to keep for 7 years
What to hold while active
Keep Forever
* These documents should be kept in a very safe place, like a safety deposit box.
A Tribute to Disability Insurance Awareness Month
By: Millicent Davis
Last month was disability insurance (DI) awareness month. In light of many businesses cutting back on providing health care benefits to its employees you have to be concerned where your benefits stand on the chopping block. Some businesses are offering benefits, but what has been cut out or not included in the plan? You need to know what benefits you have and what truly do they cover. Consider the following:
More that 10% of Americans between the ages of 18-64 currently have a disability according to the U.S. Census Data
In the United States a disabling injury occurs, on average, every second, according to the National Safety Council. An average of 498 Americans becomes disabled every 10 minutes.
The Council for Disability Awareness (CDA) has found that 100 million Americans are not covered by private disability insurance.
Just like with most insurance benefits DI awareness is not different. There is a huge disparity between what people know and how they act, relative to the realities of insurance and its economic impact on lives.
Misconception #1 “It can’t happen to me.”
The CDA survey points out that most people are in denial of a disability happening to them. 83% of people surveyed stated a disability could happen to anyone but deny specifically if it could happen to them.
Misconception #2 “My current benefits will cover me.”
The CDA reports that “Most people know they are covered in the event of a job related disability , but they may not know that nearly 90% of disabilities are not work related and therefore may not qualify for workers compensation benefits.”
You have to bridge the gap! How? Become knowledgeable about what you have. Ask questions and decide if what you have is enough for you and your family to survive on in case of income lost. The best action is BE IN THE KNOW! Don’t wait until it is too late and an event is upon you. When it comes to protecting you and your family you need to be Proactive rather than Reactive.
Cover it!
By Millicent Davis
I had received a referral from a client regarding a friend who had let their home owner’s insurance lapse. Unfortunately, because of the economic crisis they had to make a decision regarding whether to keep their home owners insurance when they lost their job.
If I had gotten to them sooner, of course I would have advised not to let it lapse, but since the policy has lapsed over 60 days we had to figure out a way to get them properly protected again.
WHAT CAN ONE DO!
If ones home has a mortgage on it, the mortgage company will take out a “forced policy” to cover themselves. This is a policy covering the lender, insuring that it would get its money if something was to happen to the home These policies are often more expensive and the mortgage lender will attach the additional amount to the mortgage.
Rather than letting their insurance lapse, one can call their agent, because most companies have different payment plans and cost-cutting techniques. At least there is coverage.
Installing smoke detectors and deadbolts, for example, may lower premiums. So can adjusting the deductible; it sets the threshold at which insurance kicks in.
One needs to ask oneself, ‘If I had a loss today, how much could I afford to put out before I called the insurance company?’ If one could afford $1,000 (instead of $500), then take a higher deductible, which lowers the premium.
The average fire loss is more than $10,000 according to the most recent statistics from the Insurance Information Institute, and fire is among the leading reasons for insurance claims
If your policy has lapsed, one can ask the home owners insurance company to reinstate them. Some time they will but it will be one at a higher risk rate, so it’s best to shop around for the best rate possible.
To find companies that deal with high risk clients one can call the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The NAIC is a voluntary organization of the chief insurance regulatory officials of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories.
Know Your Exclusions
Homeowners also need to realize insurance does not cover every possible loss. The list of exclusions can be extensive.
For example, policies usually don’t cover insect and rodent infestations, landslide damage, settling and cracking, damage to vehicles in garages or loss of value caused by neighborhood development. Earthquake and flood damage also aren’t covered unless the homeowner buys special insurance to cover those calamities.
Some insurers also exclude liability coverage for injuries caused by certain breeds of dogs.
The important part about homeowner’s insurance is that it will tell you what’s not covered on the exclusion page of your policy.
Homeowners have two choices: replacement cost or actual cash value of the damaged, destroyed, or stolen items. Such as if you have a fur coat and the actual cash value of the coat that cost $40,000 a decade ago may be only $10,000 now. If its owner opted for actual cash value coverage, that $10,000 is all that will be paid out.
Most time a home is one biggest asset. Protecting it is vital and important. It pays to know what your insurance policies are providing for you. It also pays to shop around and try to bundle. When one bundles home and auto together the rates get cheaper.
If you like to quote contact us. We provide quotes from various insurance companies. That’s the best way to shop.
Got Insurance Check It!
By Millicent Davis
Published April 1, 2011
A friend of mine recently told me a story of how she had a whole life policy and had to borrow against it for an emergency situation that had presented itself. Later on, learning more about insurance she decided to switch from Whole life to Term Insurance; and was told when she wanted to cancel her policy that she actually would owe more money than the policy was worth. She found out the money she was allowed to borrow was not her money, and she would have to pay the money back with interest. She also was told that her face amount was reduced as well. Another thing she found out too late was that when she thought the policy would pay for itself, and she would not have to make any payments, the cash value was actually making the payments thus reducing any cash value she thought she would have when the time came to surrender the policy. She was quite upset.
Most people do not know that many times Whole life insurance is just that, insurance that one pays for their whole life (Smart Money, September 10, 2009) and the cash value that one accrues is not theirs. Upon surrender the insurance company will either give the beneficiary the face value minus any loans taken against it, or the cash value if there is any left (Insure.com May, 7, 2008). The beneficiary WILL NOT get both.
Everyone needs life insurance. No one wants to think about tragedy or loss, but one should prepare for the unexpected. Whether you are a breadwinner or a caretaker, your death would impact your family in so many ways. One needs to protect their family with life insurance, and knowing what kind of insurance one has is important.
Most experts recommend term life insurance, which is the most common and affordable type of life insurance. How much insurance one needs depends on one’s financial situation, but a good rule of thumb is to replace five to seven times one’s annual salary (The Washington Post, March 10, 2009).
It is time to review your policy. Don’t be caught out there like my friend. The good news is that she has time to deal with the situation, and she did by getting term insurance and investing the difference. That way the beneficiary gets both the face value of the policy and the cash. IT JUST MAKES SENSE!
Choosing the right life insurance policy means fighting your way through all that sales talk and endless marketing to figure out what you’re really buying. If you compare term life insurance vs. whole life insurance, you’ll have a better idea of what you need.
Term life insurance defined
Term life insurance is just what it sounds like: a life insurance policy that ends after a specific term, or length of time. The term can be as short as 1 year or as long as 30 years or more, depending on the specifics of the policy that you buy. If you still want life insurance after the term is up, you’ll have to apply for a new life insurance policy.
Term life insurance gives you a lot of coverage for a relatively small monthly premium. Since there are fewer types of term policies available, it’s easier to comparison shop.
On the downside, you’ll have to reapply for life insurance when your term expires. This means you will have to fill out another application or undergo another physical exam. If your health status has changed, you may be denied coverage. In addition, you can expect your premiums to increase each time you renew your coverage, because costs rise as you age.
Whole life insurance defined
Whole life insurance is also known as permanent insurance because, as long as you pay your premiums, the policy is yours for life or until you decide to cash it in. Whole life insurance has two components: life insurance coverage combined with a savings fund that is designed to grow every time you make a premium payment.
Your policy is yours for life, which means that you will never have to reapply for coverage. Therefore, you will avoid being denied coverage due to poor health, old-age or other factors.
Your premiums are set when you purchase your policy, and they will not increase unless you increase the face value (death benefit amount) of your policy. Not all permanent life insurance policies allow you to do this, so if it’s an option you want, make sure to get a policy that has it.
A whole life policy has the potential to accumulate cash value because a portion of each monthly premium is saved and invested for you by your insurance company. Should you choose to cancel your policy, you will get the cash from your policy’s savings fund. You can also borrow against the money accumulated in your policy’s savings fund, though this should be limited to financial emergencies, not splurges.
.Whole life coverage is a very useful estate-planning tool because money paid out from the savings fund is usually tax-free. This money is available as soon as you pass away, so your beneficiaries will be able to use it while they wait for the rest of your estate to clear probate.
Drawbacks to whole life policies include the sheer number of them available, which makes comparison shopping difficult. It pays to compare the offerings carefully, because policies vary widely from company to company. In addition, fees and commissions can be very high, in some cases eating up the majority of your premium payments during the first few years that you’re covered.
The investments used to accumulate savings in these policies aren’t all guaranteed. This means that you may not get any cash accumulation, or you may lose the value of your savings contributions. Be sure you understand the types of investments that a whole life policy uses, including their investment risks. Don’t buy the policy if the investments make you uncomfortable.
What’s the best life insurance for you?
The type of life insurance coverage that will suit you best depends on your age, heath, financial situation, reason for getting the coverage and personal preferences, as well as the needs of your family. When you compare your individual needs against the benefits and limitations of the types of coverage available, it will become easier to decide which type of policy to purchase.
As a general rule, term life insurance is the most cost-effective option for young, healthy adults. Keep in mind that as you age, or if you develop a medical condition, your premiums will rise. To calculate how much coverage you should have, multiply your current salary by the number of years until you retire.
