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Digital Assets and Estate Planning

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The last 20 years have seen monumental global change due to the normalization of everything from cable internet through to smartphones. Technology is an extraordinarily prevalent part of our daily lives with everything from banking through to socializing happening online.

This has had logical impacts on nearly every part of traditional industries and behaviors yet in many cases there are serious gaps in how we’ve adapted the accepted norms of our societies to technological advancements.

One important aspect of this is our assets and how we manage them on a legal level. With the advent of digital file-keeping, currencies, and media, the landscape of legal entitlement and processes has changed vastly.

For estate planning specifically, there are many people who haven’t even begun to consider how their digital assets affect the contents of their Will, let alone amended their Will to reflect these assets. This is of considerable concern legally speaking as well as for the wellbeing of your loved ones — in terms of your legacy, accessing documents, and access to any nominated inheritances.

Helen Tavroges and Rosie Taylor write for Lexology, “Digital assets often only exist online, so unless you give the necessary information to your executors or administrators (on your death) or your attorneys or deputy (in the event of you losing mental capacity) they are unlikely to know what digital assets you have and how you want them dealt with in the event that you can no longer access them.”

The following infographic ‘Digital Assets and Estate Planning’ delves into this topic further.

Provided thanks to I Will Solicitors, this graphic is an explainer with essential information that provides a thorough outline of the nature of this asset class, steps for managing the different types of digital assets, and ideas for approaching this with your legal representative. In addition to the different types of asset, it also unpacks the laws around intellectual property for digital media content and managing legacy settings on social media accounts.

5 Tips for Saving Money During the Covid-19 Pandemics

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Person Holding Debit Card
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

Around 2.18 million Americans have been infected with the COVID-19 virus. The whole country is under lockdown, and the economy is facing some difficult times.

As the economy plummets, millions more will face new wage cuts or lose their jobs. In essence, COVID-19 has created a crisis that the world hasn’t seen for the past 100 years, so thinking with a cool head is of the utmost importance.

In this article, we’re going to share five useful tips for keeping in touch with your finances and staying on top of the current situation.

1. Reprogram Your Credit Card

According to credit card statistics, an average American has 2.35 credit cards. Likewise, most of these cardholders have some additional benefits on offer from banks and lenders alike to help cope with the current crisis.

If such an option is available to you, seriously consider looking into it more thoroughly, and determine whether a loan rescheduling is in your best interest. Also, it’s best to talk to a debt adviser first and come up with a joint solution before signing the dotted line.

2. Cancel All Unnecessary Subscriptions

The gym, various magazines, and internet pages, all these subscriptions are great and offer a lot of fun, but there’s simply no time for games at the present moment. Canceling all non-essential plans and re-evaluating your home budget should be your top priority.

Utilities, food, and a roof over your head are things you cannot afford to cut. Yet, new clothes, summer resorts, and video games — are. Instead, everything you save extra place in an emergency fund, just in case for those rainy days that are sure to follow.

3. Check Your Auto Insurance Plan

Most auto insurance companies base your monthly premium on various factors, one of which is the car’s mileage throughout the year; the more miles you drive, the higher the premium.

Since you’re probably driving a lot less than usual, it would be wise to ask your insurance company to recalculate your premium and save some extra cash in the process.

4. Cancel Your Children’s Mobile Plans

At the moment, most kids around the world aren’t going to school while the lockdown is in place. Instead, they are just sitting at home under your constant supervision. So, if you’re one of those parents that bought your child a mobile phone to keep them busy, now’s the best time to cancel those plans. They probably spend too much time using them anyway — 15.1% of children spend over four hours using their favorite gadget.

The kids aren’t going anywhere, so why waste money on new devices they can’t even use for one of the basic purposes? If anything, you should use this lockdown to spend some more time with your kids. Lead by example and teach your children how to be frugal; reinforce their positive money habits early to set them up for success later on in life.

5. Do Your Homework

Internet shopping has truly become the store of tomorrow. And not just for buying clothes and expensive, hand-crafted jewelry, but for paying bills and ordering bare necessities too.

Since you can get almost anything online, it’s time you learned the virtue of comparing prices; your home budget will thank you for it. Namely, on the internet, two adjacent tabs are more than enough to realize which brand offers the better deal.

Also, if you are already working remotely and saving time on the commute, this could open some freelancing windows so you could join the 57 million freelance workforce.

Conclusion

Ironically, most of these tips are useful even without a global pandemic in place. In a (strange) way, the current COVID-19-induced lockdown has helped us realize just how much we spend on non-essentials. So, stop wasting money and start saving money instead, today.

5 Strategies You Can Implement to Get Out of Debt

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Photo by Artem Beliaikin from Pexels

Everyone has debt.

The right kind of debt is an indicator of your financial literacy and investment acumen. A car loan that enables you to get to work hassle-free and a mortgage to purchase your first home are both examples of good debt. The bad kind, however, keeps you from moving forward. What’s worse about bad debt is that it can lead to you sinking deeper and not being able to get out.

To successfully manage debt and eventually get out of it, you need to come up with a good plan and stick with it. Check out the following strategies you can implement so that someday, debt will become a thing of the past.

1. Calculate how much you owe.

There’s nothing like the cold, hard truth to know exactly where you stand, debt-wise. Make a list of your IOUs, including the creditor’s name, date of the loan, balance, interest rate, minimum monthly payment and the last payment made.

Gather all of your current bill statements (loans, credit cards, student loans). Include medical bills, family loans and monthly expenses. Check your credit reports to ensure everything is correct/accurate. Find out if your credit score makes you eligible for debt consolidation or lower interest rates.

Know your monthly take-home pay and set a goal. This means making a calculated decision to pay off all your debts within three years or more.

2. Find out if you can reduce your interest rates.

Monthly loan and credit card payments that are just enough to cover the interest rates can be frustrating as doing so hardly makes a dent on the principal. To address this problem, you may want to look at lowering your interest rates in the following ways:

  • Find out if you qualify for a credit card with a lower interest rate.
  • Try to negotiate a lower rate in a current card you’re paying off.
  • Apply for a balance transfer credit card with a zero intro rate or lower interest rate.
  • Look for a loan with a lower interest rate.
  • Consolidate all of your student loans.

Of course, in order to do these things, you need to do a bit of research, make calculations and use your negotiating skills to get the help you need.

3. Pay more than the “minimum amount due.”

By this time, you may already know that paying for exactly what’s due for the month (minimum) won’t make a dent on your total credit card debt or loan. So aim to pay more than what’s stated. If it says $150, aim for $250-300. But make sure there’s no prepayment penalty if you’re paying off a mortgage, and that any extra payments you make are going towards the principal, not the interest.

4. Earn more money while spending less.

It’s easy enough to understand how one can earn more money. It doesn’t have to be a raise or finding a better-paying job. You can tap into getting a side gig or a weekend job to augment your income. This can be anything from walking dogs, babysitting or performing odd jobs on certain days of the week.

You should also consider downsizing your budget or spending less. This can be something as simple as giving up cigarettes, your morning cafe latte, or eating out less.

5. Set a budget and debt payoff plan you can stick to.

Now that you have a complete, detailed picture of your financial status, know how much money you need to cover your needs and monthly debt repayments. Having a set budget and debt management will help you stay on track, no matter your goal and timeframe.

Be patient and stick to your plans

Getting rid of debt is no mean feat. But with patience, diligence and determination, you can definitely succeed. Once you’re done, you can move on to fulfilling your other plans.

These can include enrolling in a business course and becoming an entrepreneur, learning a new language or traveling overseas. Whatever your future plans, you’ll be sure to accomplish them by taking control of your finances now.

— — —

OliK

Oli Kang
Oli is a working mum who has a passion for teaching and all things educational. With a background in marketing, Oli manages the digital channels and content at Courses.com.au.

https://www.courses.com.au
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Set smart financial life goals – Things to consider before choosing one

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It’s quite natural to become confused when you start thinking about setting up your financial goals. It is not only setting up the goals, but you must also balance them according to your lifestyle and budget plan.

For some people, their prime life goals are living a luxurious life with a big house and an expensive car. Some people may believe in savings, so they target retirement savings as their life goal. 

For others, investing in various sectors to increase net worth might be a prime life goal. Owning a business or having enough financial security might be a preferable life goal for a few others.

It is up to you, how do you visualize your priorities and life goals. You must consider what you want in the future and set your big life goals to align with your values. Make sure you keep enough space for small life goals as you set up your future goals.

Why is it important to set up financial goals?

Setting up goals can give you something to focus on, and help you to stay motivated on the path of financial success. Saving money and planning for a secure financial future is difficult. You need to sacrifice a lot to gain success.

You need to control your spending habits and avoid most things that you want you to want to buy. Apart from that, you may have to work harder to earn extra income. You need a strong and clear reason for those sacrifices, that’s why you must set up big and small financial goals to achieve big things in your future.

These are some of the great benefits of setting up life goals:

  • Having life goals can improve your performance. If you set up specific, logical, and measurable goals for your future, you are more likely to achieve them.
  • Setting up goals may also set up the standard for satisfaction. Once you’ve set a goal, you’ll become happy at that point when you achieve that goal practically. Your happiness will be defined by your accomplishment of the goal.
  • Setting up specific goals may keep you focused. When you set up a goal, you may render your full attention to fulfill that goal. It will also help you to shift your focus away from other non-productive things.
  • When you have a goal set, you’ll be excited about it and it will energize you to achieve it. You want to be proactive so that you can work hard and move forward to fulfill your goal.
  • Once you set up a goal, you need to track your progress continuously until you reach success. Tracking your progress is required to measure your work and to determine how much you still need to achieve them.
  • Setting up life goals is quite motivational. You’ll work harder to achieve the specific goals that you’ve set. Without a strong target, it is quite difficult to accomplish financial success in life.
  • Goal-setting may reduce the probability of failure. When you have a strong specific goal, you’ll try harder to fulfill it at any cost. This enthusiasm will help you to persist until you achieve what you planned.

What are the most common financial goals?

If you are still confused about financial goals, here are some common examples of financial goals for you:

  • Pay off your overall debts– Getting rid of your unsecured consumer debts should be your prime life goal. These may include credit card debt, medical debt, personal loans, payday loans, medical bills, etc. You should follow the steps to be debt-free in one year, two years, five years, or 10 years, depending on how much you owe.
  • Saving for a mortgage down payment – If you want to buy a new home, then save as much as possible to pay for mortgage down payment. It’s the most significant purchase and investment of your life. You may have to provide 20% of the total price down initially to avoid PMI (private mortgage insurance).
  • Saving an emergency fund – Three months of liquidity is a minimum standard of an emergency fund. If you can make it up to six months (or more), that’s much better.
  • Saving for college for your kids – According to the U.S. Department of Education, college graduates with a bachelor’s degree practically get 66% more from their jobs than students with only a high-school diploma. So, if you don’t want your kids to be tangled with student loans, set a goal to save for their college education.
  • Improve your credit score – To get good offers while buying a home or getting any kind of loan, you’ll require a good credit score. So, it is one of the most important life goals that you need to take care of. A good credit score is a key to financial success.
  • Save for vacation – You might set a goal to save up a good amount to cover your big vacation. This way it won’t hurt your emergency fund or your monthly budget at all. But you might have to reduce your expenses a bit to achieve that goal.
  • Saving for retirement – This is the final and the ultimate financial goal of everyone’s’ life. Set up a goal and save a pre-calculated amount each month into your retirement fund. You may also max out your 401(k) or IRA each year, or to save 15% of your monthly income.

How to set financial life goals?

Here are the steps to setting financial goals:

  1. Prioritize your thoughts. Consider everything while deciding on life goals.
  2. Do proper planning to sort out what’s within your reach. Your financial goals should be specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic and should have a timeline.
  3. Decide if your goal is short-term, mid-term, or long-term, and create a timeline for that goal. This may change at any time based on your situation.
  4. You need to track your money so you can be assured that you are putting enough toward each financial goal.
  5. Think of all the ways you can reach that goal. Include saving, cutting expenses, earning extra money, or finding additional resources.
  6. Maintain separate savings accounts for each different financial goal you set. When you are saving for retirement, you may opt for a 401(k) or IRA to get the tax breaks. But for other savings goals, you may open high-yield savings account with a reasonable interest rate.
  7. Monitor your progress. You should check regularly if possible, or at least once a month. This way you can make sure that you are fulfilling the objectives and are on track for achieving your financial life goals.

10 Things You Can Do to Make Your Children Financially Independent

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Raising a human baby is probably one of the most difficult things you can do in your life. From ensuring your child’s physical and mental well being to securing their financial future, parenting will always keep you on your toes. What’s more, if you’re a new parent, you likely have little-to-no idea about how to do any of that competently.

Specifically, talking about your kid’s self-sufficiency, you want them to be financially independent as soon as possible. This is not just for their own good, but for you as well. You obviously don’t want them to be mooching off of you (or their friends) in their mid-twenties.

While there are countless factors that come into play, there’s a lot you can do (even before they enter the teenage years) to boost your odds of being successful in raising self-sufficient children. Check out the infographic below by Peachy which neatly lays out ten actionable steps you can execute straight away.

If you find the graphic helpful, feel free to spread the word with your friends on social media. Also, if you have any tips for fellow newbie parents who might be in the same boat as you, do share them by dropping a comment below.


Infographic By Peachy Steps to Make Your Kids Financially Independent: An Infographic

Bio: Lucy Manole is a creative content writer and strategist at Right Mix Marketing, SEO-focused link building agency. She specializes in writing about digital marketing, technology, entrepreneurship, and education. When she is not writing or editing, she spends time reading books, cooking and traveling. You can connect with her on Twitter at @RightMixMktg

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