Tag: financial

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Bankruptcy Debt Financial Legal

Can I File For Bankruptcy Online in 2021?

Can I File For Bankruptcy Online in 2021?

The internet is the height of convenience. Despite all the complaints we might have about technology, one thing we can admit is that being able to handle all of your expenses from the comfort of your desk is no small luxury. But can you make a big financial like bankruptcy online? Is it possible to file for bankruptcy over the internet?

In this article, we’ll discuss what your options are when considering whether or not you can file for bankruptcy online. By the time we’re done, you’ll hopefully have all the info you need to make the right call.

Can You File For Bankruptcy Online?

For the most part you can file for bankruptcy online. There are a few caveats, as there are with really any big decision, but you likely won’t have trouble finding ways to make such a difficult decision with at least a little bit of comfort and confidence.

With your computer, you can do a number of things related to bankruptcy. For one, you can, in fact, receive bankruptcy filing forms and any local documentation relating to your application for bankruptcy. This takes a lot of the stress of gathering documents and filing papers out of the task.

You will also be notified about the progress of your bankruptcy case over the internet. Your bankruptcy court will send you email updates stating the important facts of your bankruptcy case. This will help you track your financial situation and get a hold on where you are.

After your bankruptcy is filed, you may also be able to check on how your repayment plan through the internet. While this feels more like a chore than a privilege, it will help in the necessary budgeting process that will come during your recovery phase.

You Cannot Do the Actual Filing

Unfortunately, most of us will have to do the actual, physical filing part of filing for bankruptcy in an actual, physical setting.

There may, however, be places where the filing process can be done completely online. This will depend on the district your filing in and the rules and regulations it has decided upon in the past.

If you’re unsure of the rules in your district, it might be good to consult a financial professional. The may be able to help you jump through all the hoops when filing bankruptcy and advise you on recovery afterwards.

Trustees also might not be so hospitable to the idea of going paperless. While many districts have discussed moving in a more electronic direction, the trust that floats around the idea of the hard copy filing process is just too big to overcome for most trustees. This is why hard copies may still be required here.

Any fees related to court filing are also usually not offered on an online basis.

Thus, there’s a lot of the process you can do online, and a lot that you can’t. You will be able to do a lot of the filing documents electronically, but submitting them and onward will be a physical process.

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Career & Education Education Financial Loans

Understanding Student Loan Forgiveness

Understanding Student Loan Forgiveness

When tough times fall, some people are left with no way to stand up to the challenge of their financial obligations. Whatever the reason for these hardships, it’s good to know that there are some ways out of the mire. Student loan forgiveness may be one of these ways.

These days, the necessity of high education is as high as it has ever been. Unfortunately, the cost of higher education is just as high, which leaves some people having to take out expensive student loans- loans which they may eventually have trouble paying.

What is student loan forgiveness? Might you qualify? In this article, we’ll talk all about getting forgiven for your student loans- what it means, who qualifies, and what it will entail for your financial life.

What Is Student Loan Forgiveness?

When people can’t repay a loan, they have a number of options. So, in the case of student loans, you may be able to get your loans forgiven.

Student loan forgiveness essentially means that you are no longer required to pay some or even the entirety of your student loans.

This means that the debt you owe may not end up completely disappearing, and whatever you still owe on the end of everything else will persist. You will still end up having to pay the leftover debt, but the chunk forgiveness takes off may help enormously.

What Kinds of Forgiveness Are There?

Student loan forgiveness comes in many forms and is not homogenous across the board in any sense. This means that there are different types of loan forgiveness may occur under different circumstances. Here are a few of those circumstances:

Teacher Loan Forgiveness

To encourage people to teach primary school children, despite the low-paying salaries, oftentimes teacher loan forgiveness will be offered.

Under the terms of teacher loan forgiveness, those who teach five consecutive and complete academic years are eligible for student loan forgiveness of up to $17,500. This means that if your federal student loans tallied up to $30,000, you would have over half of your loans forgiven.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Working for a government or non-profit organization may also qualify you for loan forgiveness. After ten years of payments, or 120 qualifying payments, you may benefit from Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

Military Service

Military service may also qualify you for special benefits and repayment plans. These may include interest rate caps and other forms of special loan assistance.

AmeriCorps Benefits

Completing a term of service in AmeriCorps may also qualify you for Segal AmeriCorps Education Award. So, this may help you to repay some of your student loan debt.

Income-Driven Repayment Plans

Under these plans, those under a repayment plan that is based on their income may qualify for forgiveness on any remaining balance on their loans. After you make a certain number of repayments over a certain period of time, they may offer this.

Other Forms of Forgiveness

Other forms of student loan forgiveness may be found on the FSA’s Student Loan Forgiveness page.

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Career & Education Education Financial Loans

Student Loans: How Long Does It Take To Pay It Off?

How Long Does It Take to Pay Off Student Loans?

With the costs of school steadily rising and the necessity of a college education growing even more ruthlessly, many people are choosing to take on student loans. These loans- designed to help people who can’t pay out of pocket get access to education- are a godsend to some.

Still, having a loan hanging over your head is no one’s idea of a fun time. For one, loans tie you to an institution and limit your freedom. You might also feel more vulnerable to things like market instability if your loans are high and your funds low. So, how long will that loan be with you? How long does it take to pay off a student loan?

What Is The Size Of Your Loan?

To figure out how long it might take you to pay off your loan, you should first consider how big your loan is going to be and how much you’ll be able to pay monthly.

Loans are paid off in small installments, with interest and possible fees tacked on. This means that if you have a loan of $30,000, you’ll be paying in small increments of that loan for a period of time.

If you can pay more per month, you’ll end up with a shorter time to repayment. This will also help you in other sectors of your financial help. Student loans may come with different terms and different interest rates, meaning that your loan time might vary depending on who you get it from and what kind of contract you sign onto.

Overall, if you’re able to make larger monthly contributions, your loans will dissipate much faster. Choose to pay them piecemeal, and you could be stuck with them for a much longer period than if you chose to take off big bites.

What Is The Term?

A loan term designates how long you will be taking to pay off any given loan. If your loan has a term of, say, 15 years, that means that your bank has set up your payments so that you will have paid off your loan in that among of time- plus interest.

Many student loans come with a term of about ten years. This means that students who start college in 2022 will optimistically finish off their loans somewhere around 2032- or when they’re 28 years old.

But this estimate doesn’t always pan out. Loan recipients often take 20 years or more to finish paying off their loans, which, again, will depend on how much they’re willing to pay and how much they can spare for their bank or loan service at the end of the month.

So, if you’ve got a loan of $30,000 with a term of ten years, you’ll be paying big parts of that loan every month- plus interest. If you’ve got the same loan with a term of 20 years, you’ll be paying much smaller rates- half as much.

Thus, how long a loan will last is a combination of term length and how much a debtor can pay.

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Financial Savings

6 Questions To Ask Ensure a Successful Investment

6 questions to ask before making an investment

Going into an investment is no small decision. You want to have some idea of where the firm you invest in might go, what kinds of resources they have to go there, and what confidence they have in their ability to reach their goals. After all, it’s your money, and you don’t want to go throwing it in a hole.

For this very reason, it’s essential that you have a few questions at the ready before making an investment. Ask these questions, and the investment decisions you make may turn out sounder and more profitable.

1. Do I Know How to Pay My Taxes?

The good part about an investment isn’t necessarily watching your money grow. Taking it out and spending it will also be part of your reward for successful investing. But, you’re going to want to watch how much you spend and how much you save. The IRS will be wanting some of that money- and a good chunk of it.

Make sure you know the tax landscape around capital gains before you start throwing your hard-earned money around.

2. Does This Homogenize My Account?

Having a diverse portfolio is step one of investing. From day one, successful investors learn that having a diverse range of investments, spread across a number of industries, is one of the keys to having an account that trends upward. When a wave of bad days washes across one industry, you want to have a few more that are still gaining. So ask- does this help me diversify?

3. How Confident Am I in Growth?

A growing investment- those two words go together just as essentially as cold beer or hot apple pie. That’s why you need to be 100- no- 200% sure of eventual growth before investing in anything. If it won’t return, don’t waste your money.

4. What’s My Overhead?

When you’re dealing with investments, you’re going to want to have a little room for defeat. Of course, success is the great motivator when it comes to investments, and everyone wants to make money. But having a little bit of a buffer is great. Bend, don’t break, and your account will be able to weather any financial storm that might come its way.

So, the product looks great, and the company even better. They’ve got a strong plan, good resources, and seemingly, a lot of confidence and competence. But when the government comes knocking on the door, will they know what they’re doing?

Make sure any products you invest in are registered with the SEC and other state agencies before making your investment.

6. Will It Help Me Reach My Goals?

Ask yourself- what are my goals when I’m investing? Do I want to make money quick, or leave it for the long term? What kinds of returns do I want to see, and what do I want my portfolio to look like? These questions and more will help you decide whether or not an investment is right.

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Financial Health & Home Savings Wellness

5 Simple Lifestyle Swaps That Can Save You Money

5 Simple Lifestyle Swaps That Can Save You Money

Trying to save money can be difficult, especially at the beginning. Most people aren’t exactly sure how much money they spend every month and therefore end up overspending.

Maybe you are saving up for a purchase or may you’re just wanting to be better with your finances, either way, these five simple steps will go a long way.

Make a budget

Having a budget using a simple tool like a spreadsheet can show you how much money you can afford to spend in each area of your life. Save receipts or go back through your bank transactions and see how much you really spend every month.

Looking at the numbers may surprise you. Keeping track of expenses is the start of knowing how much money comes in and how much comes out.

Consider taking out the money you can afford to spend out in cash. Then, once this money is gone, you wait until the next month to withdraw money again.

Eat at home

This one is a basic step, but that’s because it really does save hundreds a month. You don’t have to be a chef or a whiz in the kitchen. Just make simple meals that you enjoy eating so you are less likely to order takeout.

Have one day a week that you eat out or order food so that you have that day to look forward to. You can also meal prep so that the food is ready for you whenever you need it.

If you hate cooking, sign up for a meal delivery service that is in your budget to help you out. Consider only drinking water as well to save money you spend on soda or alcohol.

Ditch cable or some streaming services to save money

Spending a few dollars a month on several streaming services may not seem like too much, but things quickly add up. Take a look at what you really watch and what you can go without.

Cancel all the services you do not use often, especially cable, as this can be the most expensive. Most streaming services probably offer most of the shows you watch anyway.

Do more things yourself

Is there a service that you pay for that you could really be doing yourself?

Go through the services you use and find out. Sometimes this can be paying for pest control, lawn care, or car washing services. If you have time to do these things yourself, cut the services.

Start being a coupon clipper to save money

Actually, you don’t have to clip. Most coupons can be found online. Check online at the places you normally shop or go to. Chances are there are coupons online somewhere for all the businesses you frequent.

Even just using a few coupons a month can save you tons of dollars throughout the course of the year.

Sometimes buying in bulk with coupons can save you more money later. Having more supplies in your home can keep you from constantly buying the same items every few days or weeks.

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Debt Financial

Debt-to-Income Ratio: Why Is It Important?

debt-to-income ratio

There are many unintuitive systems and statistics within banking. But above all of those, the most confusing is your “debt-to-income ratio”.

But what is debt-to-income ratio?

Debt-to-income ratio is the result of a math equation: First, take the amount of debt you have to pay every month. This includes house payments, car payments, student loans, medical bills, basic utilities, and rent. Add them all together and you have the “debt” part of the equation.

Then, add together all your monthly income sources. Banks will only care about your “official” sources of income—that is, those which are subject to taxes. That gives you the “income” part of the equation.

Now, divide the “debt” value by the “income”. If your income is greater than your debts, you will get a decimal point. For instance, if you have $3,000 in debt every month, but make $10,000 a month, this will divide into .30.

That .30 means that 30% of your income is tied up in debt. That percentage is your debt-to-income ratio.

But what happens if your debt is greater than your income? Well, to begin with, the number you will get from dividing “debt” by “income” will be above 1. This is a problem as far as banks are concerned.

Most banks will not give loans out to anyone whose debt-to-income ratio is higher than 43%. This includes mortgages, auto loans, and student loans.

Why did they pick that number? No one really knows, but it has been that way since the 80s. Whoever made the calculation that decided 43% was a red flag has long since faded into history.

While the reasoning behind the exact number is unknown, the reasoning behind having any kind of number at all is understandable. After all, banks have to have some method of determining your ability to pay off a loan.

Ratioing your debt with your income is one of banks’ primary methods of determining the viability of giving you loans. This means that it is an important factor in both a person and a business negotiating with their bank.

So, how do you manage such a thing? How do you keep your debt and income in a place where you can get the loans you need to make the moves in life you want to make?

It is easy to think of both your debts and your income as immovable things. This certainly feels true, but it is not always the case.

Remember that “debt” and “income”, in these cases, are both calculated before taxes and other things that might affect that total output of your income.

This means that if you wish to set aside more out of your income to pay your debts, it won’t affect this ratio. Paying your debts off doesn’t actually affect the ratio, but it can affect your bank’s willingness to look past the ratio.

Ultimately, it’s one factor among many in negotiating with your bank. It is not the final word.

Categories
Financial Tech & Media Technology

Best Stock Trading Apps for 2021

Best Stock Trading Apps

2021 has been an incredible year for retail investors. With the historic surge in Gamestop stock thanks to ongoing short selling and Reddit-fueled investment research, millions upon millions of everyday people are hopping on the rocketship.

There are a lot of stock trading apps out there, and they can all blur together if you don’t know the ups and downs of each one. We’re going to go over some of the more popular ones, and give you an idea of which might be right for you and your needs, depending on what those are. Let’s take a look.

Robinhood

This app was already doing well when it went viral during the first part of the year in connection with Gamestop. Robinhood boasts an app that allows anyone to invest. They allow investment in stocks, ETFs, as well as options trading, and they require no minimum to invest. Their app is extremely simple, and they offer very little in the way of research tools or in-depth functionality.

E-Trade

One of the zero-commission trade model pioneers, E-Trade is a very popular stock trading platform with zero fees on most trades, and no account minimums to begin. The app is super easy to use and offers a huge array of features. One of the many brokers that support fractional shares, they make it easy to invest a few dollars at a time, so that anyone can start building wealth.

Fidelity

Fidelity has been around for a long time. They offer a huge array of research and tools that are made available to their investors. Additionally, account approval can take a little while. However, the ability to trade regular stocks, as well as many penny stocks, makes this a very appealing platform to many new investors. One downside of the app is that it is basically a tiny version of the website. It does not offer much in the way of streamlining compared to the web version.

Schwab

Schwab is a great platform for new investors and offers zero fees on most trades. They have provided a consistent trade experience for a long time, and are highly trusted brokers. Schwab offers a highly enjoyable trade experience since their interfaces are always intuitive, regardless of the device, it’s viewed on. They do lack the ability to set various alerts on stock movements in their app, however.

TD Ameritrade

One of the most loved apps comes from TD Ameritrade, called Thinkorswim. It provides an amazing amount of functionality for doing market research. They have a legendary trading platform and offer a huge amount of financial education resources for thier customers. They offer zero-cost trades like many others, and also support fractional shares with no account minimum required to invest.

Webull

Another extremely simple to use mobile app like Robinhood, Webull offers a much more extensive feature set than Robinhood, but still struggles to compete with research giants like Schwab and Fidelity. They offer zero-cost trades for stocks, options, and even crypto.

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Credit Financial

Credit Repair: How to fix bad Credit in 6 Easy Steps

Credit Repair: How to fix bad Credit in 6 Easy Steps

There are dozens of services that claim they can fix your bad credit for you. This is technically true. But what they don’t tell you is that everything they do, you can do yourself.

So, how do you go about fixing your own bad credit? There are at least six things you can do that are easy as pie.

1.  Take out a Credit Card (That you Never Use)

This tip sounds strange, but the purpose behind this becomes clear if you focus on the fact that you should never use this card.

You see, your credit can be improved in a number of ways. One of these ways is by having your debts paid and your credit even. If you take out a card, reports view this as a risk. After all, if you overcharge your card, your credit will suffer.

But if you don’t use the card at all, you won’t incur any negative credit. The existence of the risk will improve your score, even as you refrain from actually taking part in the risk.

2.  Dispute Inaccuracies in Your Credit Reports

There will tend to be more inaccuracies in your reports than you might expect. Disputing them is stressful, but it is absolutely worth it.

The most common inaccuracies come from car payments. Sometimes banks just will not register that you have paid for your car, even after you have finished your payments.

They are legally obligated to do this, however, so you can be certain they’ll capitulate to you if you apply any amount of pressure on them to recognize your status.

3.  Request Higher Credit Limits

This method requires a credit card, but again, you can have a card without using it.

The logic here is that a higher limit implies a greater risk. It’s basically you “calling your shot” and saying how much money you plan to spend.

The more you borrow, the more impressive it is when it’s paid off. So if you raise your limit, then pay it off or don’t use it, it will raise your score.

4. Become a Friend’s Co-Signer

This method relies on you having a friend with good credit. It doesn’t have to be exceptional either—if they follow all the steps on this list, you can help each other out.

Co-sign a loan they’re getting or become an authorized user on their card. Then, you are both participating in the “risk” associated with that credit. Hence, you will both be credited for it being paid off.

5.  Mix up Your Credit

There are many different types of credit. Bills and cards are on thing, while loans and property are another. If you have only one of these four, consider investing in the other three. Diversity builds more credit than reliability.

6.  Pay Your Bills!

This is the most obvious way to improve your score, and the one you have the most control over. But if you don’t pay your bills, you can’t expect anyone to take your credit seriously.

Your credit is in your hands, and no one is more qualified to improve it than you. Hopefully, you will have some idea of how to improve things now.

Categories
Financial Real Estate Savings

Rule of Thumb: How Much Should Your Rent Be?

Grab Your PopRule of Thumb: How Much Should You Spend on Rent

Now that winter has broken in many parts of the country, and it won’t be a punishment to move, people are heading to virtual rental tours in droves so look for new digs. But before you start cruising Zillow, Redfin, or other similar sites to look at your options, take a few minutes to figure out what you should be paying for rent.

The Short Answer Is 30%

Most experts agree that you should spend approximately 30% of your gross income. That’s before taxes are taken out. This means if you make $1,900 per month before Uncle Sam takes any, you should be planning on about $570 for monthly rent. Keep in mind that this is a general guideline and not a rule.

The major factor in how effective this estimate is is the cost of living in your area. While a simple one-bedroom apartment in the Bay Area or North Jersey could cost $2,000 or more per month, renters in rural areas of the midwest could see the rental of a 2 bedroom single-family home for less than $400 per month.

The 50/30/20 Method Works Well For Many

Another great method is the 50/30/20 split. This looks at your total take-home pay and splits it into three categories. This is 50% for your needs, 30% for your wants, and 20% for saving, investing, additional debt payments.

Your needs are expenses like insurance, broadband access, utilities, consistent debt payments, groceries, and of course, rent. Your wants are shopping splurges, dispensary trips or happy hour, concerts, and cosplay. For the last 20%, remember that you should only be keeping an emergency fund in a savings account, while all of your long-term savings should be invested in some fashion, so avoid inflation decay and begin building retirement income. If you have any debt, payments above the minimum should be in this category as well.

This means if you bring home $1,500 per month after taxes, your 50/30/20 split would look similar to this:

  • $750 for your needs
  • $450 for your wants
  • $300 for your future

The second and third categories are necessities, though in different ways than the first. You need a proper work-life balance, so if you can only afford to constantly work just to be able to eat, sleep, and work, your life can get bleak, fast. Make sure you make it a consistent goal to invest in your leisure, and your future.

With this in mind, you can get a really good idea of your rent payment by taking your $750 for needs, from our example, by starting with your relatively constant monthly bills, and working backward. For example, if broadband is $50, your groceries are $150 (I know, just pretend for our example), insurance is $35, and your minimum payment on your only high-interest debt account is $15, that comes to $250 in needs otherwise, so there’s $500 available for rent.

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Savings

Investing Vs. Saving: Which Should You Do?

Investing Vs. Saving: Which Should You Do, When, And How?

When you look at your opportunities in investing your money compared to your opportunities from saving your money, you might wonder: Is this a difference in quality, or kind? Is your money going to be more valuable in the future, or less?

And how do you act on these evaluations?

The Qualities of Investing and Saving

You have probably heard that when a person wins the lottery, they are given two ways of claiming their prize money: Either by taking it all in one big, heavily taxed, cartoonishly-oversized check, or in smaller installments overtime that ultimately amount to more money.

It seems obvious that the smaller installments overtime would be the more economical option. It amounts to more money, doesn’t it? Only a short-sighted fool would take the smaller sum.

Thinking about this is very similar to thinking about investing versus saving. Even a static amount of money has forces acting upon it.

Imagine you have a healthy sum of money in your bank account. After a year, your bank provides you with a 1% allowance of the money you have. So, a bank account with $100,000 in it would yield $1000 in interest.

However, the economy grows by more than that percentage every year. In fact, inflation goes up by more than that every year. Inflation usually results in every dollar losing 3% of its value. So while you may be given 1% in interest, you lose 2% of the value of that inanimate $100,000.

But if you invest that money and grow it by 4%, then in that case you have affected a growth of 1%. Granted, this is not a large increase. But it at least offsets the natural entropy of money’s value in the face of inevitable inflation.

Investing comes with risks that saving does not, however. Investing can make you lose money if you make a bad investment.

When To Do Either

For this reason, if you are currently managing your debts and not seeking to buy a house, car, or start a business, then you should save rather than invest.

The reason is because of the aforementioned risk involved in investment. You don’t want your ability to pay a bill to be reliant on the whims of the market.

Once your income eclipses your debts, then you can risk investments.

How to Invest and How to Save

The methodology of investing and saving are far more similar than you might expect. Saving your money means giving it to a bank. A bank will turn that money into loans, and the interest rate of the bank will see your savings grow as the bank grows.

Investing money is similar, as you still essentially give it away, but this time to a hedge fund. They will invest your money into venture capital and start-up businesses.

These will allow your money to grow as those businesses grow.

When, where, and how to invest and save is a matter of your own personal trust in these institutions. Use your money responsibly, and stay safe.