Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 11:55 am. 0 comments
Property finance can be rather complicated, especially if you don’t understand the basics of home loans. Before signing that contract, you should do adequate research in order to find the best possible mortgage finance available in South Africa.
Buy versus Rent
Although renting a property often seems simpler than buying, the fact remains that at the end of the day you don’t own the property. Renting has the benefit of mobility should your career or lifestyle demand it, but as a lessee, you have minimal rights and most of the time you are at the mercy of an unscrupulous landlord.
In South Africa the property market has seen a lot of changes over the past few years, and indeed the property finance market has undergone many ups and downs in this time too, but there has been consistent growth overall in property values.
Therefore investing in a property rather than just renting it will, in the long-run, make more financial sense.
How a home loan works
A very basic definition of a home loan is that it is a financial loan from an established institution in order for you to purchase a house.
When your home loan or bond has been approved, the balance owed for the purchased house is paid by the lending institution directly to the seller. This holds you liable to pay the home loan provider according to the contract’s installment agreement. The installments may fluctuate according to variable interest rates. What you need to acquire is a loan package that has the best interest plan for you.
The bank will hold onto the deed to your property until the bond has been paid in full. During this period you cannot alienate the house, which means that you cannot change any of the conditions stipulated in your contract including renting out the property or undertaking major alterations without consulting the bank first.
Equity affects your alienable rights over the property. In other words, until the whole the mortgage is paid in full, you cannot be granted full equity, but can only alienate a portion of the property estimated to the value of the equity you have accumulated.
In South Africa, the major banks offer a variety of home loan options. You need to ascertain which one of these will best suit your financial needs by educating yourself about the pros and cons of each of the options available.
The four major types of home loans are:
- Variable interest rate home loans;
- Fixed interest rate home loans;
- Capped interest rate home loans; and
- Reducing interest rate home loans.
Mortgage Evolution
There are also different ways of going about applying for a bond. You can either decide to do all the work yourself, or you could use a mortgage broker or take advantage of the next step in mortgage evolution - an online mortgage originator.
If you decide to apply for your home loan independently, you’ll have to approach each loan institution to which you’d like to apply for different quotations and information. This process can be quite tedious and you’d have to approach several banks so that you can suss out the most suitable option for you.
Another option is to utilise the expertise of a mortgage broker. They’ll apply on your behalf to the banks, and will then be able to give you a list of options and offers. You can then choose the option you feel would be best suited to your needs.
The last option, and definitely the easiest way to apply for property finance is through an online mortgage originator. Mortgage originators are giving the power back to the average investor and it is definitely affecting the way home loans are processed in South Africa.
An online mortgage originator allows you to sit in the comfort of your own home while getting the mortgage process started. The mortgage originator will submit your application to all the home loan institutions in South Africa on your behalf. Apart from applying for home loans on your behalf, a mortgage originator would also be doing the negotiations with the different loan institutions on your behalf, securing you a better interest rate.
All you have to do is fill in application form after which the mortgage originator will start the process and negotiate the best available rates, leaving you to select the most suitable home loan option for you.
Author Bio
PropertyGenie is affiliated with ooba, a provider of home loans and mortgage finance in South Africa, offering you property finance without any complications.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 10:52 am. 0 comments
Exchanging Currency from Pounds to Euros can appear simple and easy, but without proper precautions you could lose out on a poor exchange rate and lose as much as £10,000 per £100,000 exchanged.
With the best respect in the world our high street banks have been doing a great job over the past four decades as people have been buying property abroad. Since the 60’s they have dominated the currency exchange market. Basically… and to their credit they have a reputation far and beyond any other organizations.
However since the change of the century, building societies have led the way in competing with the banks. As far as economics, such competition makes the market place more competitive. From a Currency Exchange point of view they are also beginning to lose out on transfer of money; especially on purchases of property abroad.
I can give you a 1000 words, but none will promote the Currency Broker better than genuine examples:
Case Study
In August 2007 there was Jayne from Southampton, she was buying a property in Almeria, Spain. Her transfer was for a villa at £325,000; a superb 5 bedroom villa with sea views. Her bank had frightened her with the exchange rate, so she decided to look elsewhere; fortunately she came to a Currency Broker’s website. She was offered an exchange rate of US ¬1.39 / £1; they were able to offer ¬1.41 / £1. This meant had she continued with the bank she would have realised ¬451,750 - however fortunately the broker service could manage ¬458,250; saving Jayne ¬6,500 (£4,600)
Case Study
Margaret and her husband Roy were buying in the Majorca in December 2007; they were buying a 3 Bedroom apartment on a top class complex, swimming pool, bar, shops etc. The property in Majorca is expensive so a three bedroom apartment was priced at £265,000. Newly retired they wanted the best deal on their currency exchange. Their bank had quoted ¬1.31 / £1 but the broker was able to secure at deal at ¬1.33 / £1. This meant the currency broker was able to save Margaret and Roy ¬5,300 (£3,900).
I hope these two case studies have helped your understanding on how important it is to get several quotes when exchanging currencies.
Before you read this article would you pay 5,300 for a service when purchasing a property abroad? Probably not… But some are, and the banks are laughing.
Pounds to Euros
Mr. P. Booker
Senior Currency Expert and Columnist
Buying Property Abroad
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 7:21 pm. 0 comments
Would you like to have a side income that gives you a few thousand dollars each month? I certainly won’t mind. In fact I liked it so much that I made it into a full time career! That’s just me though (and several thousand people in the world) we like what we do so much because we don’t have to answer to a boss, or have time-tables or office politics or work stress. The way forward is to trade Forex, not any other market but the forex market.
The world’s largest market is the Forex market; at last count it trades a whooping 3 trillion dollars a day! Can you make just a couple of thousand with 3 trillion dollars floating around? Of course you can!
To achieve that you will need an education into the world of currency trading or more commonly known as Forex. There is a lot of information floating on the internet to help you along your way. Almost every broker also comes equipped with a short tutorial about the wonders of Forex.
Have I scared you enough yet? It sounds too good to be true isn’t it? The truth is it is too good to be true; Forex trading is not about making easy money. Having a side income of a couple of thousand of dollars is highly probable. But to get there you got to equip yourself with the necessary tools. As mentioned a lot of information can be got for free. What cannot be taught is experience, and that is one of the most important aspects of trading.
When you really get down to it, getting a side income is not difficult or complicated. Here are some tips to help you on your way:
1. Read up on the market you want to invest in, it is usually a good idea to read up before investing a single cent.
2. Get a good broker; with the advent of technology every thing becomes automated. This makes it so convenient for you to trade. In the past your broker had to be human that means you could trade only during working hours. With internet trading, you can trade anytime, anywhere, not anyhow though. A good broker will ensure that the orders you give gets filled immediately. Also a good broker will always honor your profits, so you never have to worry about your money.
3. Take action, remember fortune favors the bold! A lot of folks take the knowledge they receive and bury it deep. Why? It’s not like the knowledge is going to give you an income! You got to take action, use the knowledge you acquired and get cracking. Every moment you lose, means more of YOUR money is going into someone else’s pocket.
4. Be positive and believe. Not talking about religious ecstasies here, what is important is that you focus on the emotion of happiness. Yes you read correct, you concentrate on being happy and the positive feelings will set in. When you have that believe that you will succeed then you have just written your own paycheck!
The above tips are just a general guide for you if you want to invest in any market. Investing is the only way to grow your money. Working a day job will give to you a stable income. To shorten the time require for you to build a fortune and retire rich, you have to learn investment. So chest out stomach in, and get cracking!
Dr. Joshua Geralds is a successful Investment Specialist with over twenty years experience increasing the income of people world wide. Visit http://www.pipsalot.com to learn how to make steady profits through safe trading and down load your FREE e-book “Money Management” for a limited time only!
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 6:54 pm. 0 comments
There was a time when online forex trading was limited mostly to banks and big financial institutions and they were the ones benefiting from it. But times changed and the availability of internet and online forex trading made it accessible to thousands of individuals, brokers, brokerage firms, banks and governments. Now, the benefit is for anyone to reap who deals in it.
This mind boggling increase in online forex trading was brought by a lot of factors. One can trade round the clock irrespective of geographical location and that has been the single most important factor contributing to its exponential growth. Estimates claim that the daily transactions have scaled almost two-trillion dollars! In addition to this, there are a number of other factors.
A trader is gets to trade in different currencies in different markets all at once. It is all because of web based Forex trading. What has this done is that it has allowed the infusion of a lot of liquidity and flexibility in online forex trading. What is more, a trader can easily access quotes and make trades in real time with online Forex transactions.
The biggest benefit of online forex trading is that it has done away with bulls and bears. So, this is the only market without any bulls and bears. Value or ratio of value of the currency or the direction of its movement has relatively no overall impact on the world of online Forex trading. To make it more simple; any trader can buy and sell at the same time in different currencies without any problems.
Another defining feature of online forex trading is its transparency. Nothing is hidden. It is comparatively easier to spot trends and decide the best time to sell or purchase. This is possible because all the information is there in real time from all over the globe.
Everything is out there for anyone and everyone to look at. Online forex trading involves no hidden costs, no exchange fees, no commission and nothing like that. All of this has made online forex trading very easy.
Another remarkable feature of online forex trading is the speed with which everything happens. There is nothing like delays here. You need virtually seconds to execute any trade and to fill and confirm it. All the information is provided by brokers and trading companies in real time and that is really crucial for making important decisions.
I would like to end this discussion by giving a look at the flip side of online forex trading. It might seem the best way to put your money but not everyone who invested money in online forex trading made money. There are reasons behind it.
Online forex trading is in reality risky where split second decisions are needed which could make or mar your investment. It is therefore essential for anyone who is interested in this field to understand it well before making any decision.
Paul Bryant is a successful and experienced Forex trader and also the webmaster for http://www.investawise.com, bringing you all the latest Forex news, reviews and advice.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 5:32 am. 0 comments
What is the importance of a Forex education? While Forex may not mean much to the average consumer, in actuality everything we know in American commerce is affected by Forex, the foreign exchange market. Every time the American dollar reduces in value or inflates, it’s because of the world scene of financing. Only someone who follows the goings-on of the foreign exchange market could understand why all avenues relate to each other and are affected.
Some have carefully studied the foreign exchange market over the years and have planned their investments according to predicted changes. The shrewdest of investors have profited immensely, as they were able to learn the market, see disaster coming and knew exactly what to do in order to minimize their losses. Of course, learning all of these financial aspects would involve a solid Forex education.
If you are in business, whether doing business online or if your company is expanding to overseas locations, then the foreign exchange market will be of paramount concern to you. Forex doesn’t merely involve foreign currency but also trade, politics and worldwide economics. (Namely, how one entity affects another on a global scale.) Have you ever desired to learn more about Forex finance and trading but weren’t sure how to get started?
Even if you are not a trained economist, you can still learn how Forex operates through many affordable online resources. A Forex education is available online from such companies as the Forex Club Academy. The Forex Club Academy offers an easy-to-follow text course that explains the fundamentals of Forex trading through e-books, video aids and other visual methods of teaching. This makes the course easy to understand regardless of your educational background. For more information on what the academy can offer you visit the Colt FX website.
Colt FX is an exceptional resource for anyone interested in gaining a forex education. Newcomers can find valuable aids in forex education about this market. You can start yours today and begin making considerable earning by visiting http://www.coltfx.com/.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 11:54 am. 0 comments
If you are planning to retire from your stressful job sometime in the future, do proper planning first. Planning will prepare you for the life ahead. Note that the plannings you should do should encompass every aspect of your life, from finance, relationships, etc. Your financial plans can involve saving from your wages during your working years.
Volunteering at your local charity or helping in the community is one way to keep your life busy after retirement. Retirement could really be interesting if you think of things to do. It only becomes a headache when you chose to fold your hands, watch and do nothing.
To find the ideal investment for you in preparation for your retirement, you need to do your home work well. It is not easy to decide on the best way to invest, especially since you can’t depend on testimonies to help you. The fact is one investment that works for one person might not work for you, so you really have to search and do the right choice for you.
There are many myths making the round about retirement. One of them is that retirement is an event that occurs on the last day of your career. This is certainly not true. It is simply a new phase of your life that doesn’t call for excess stress.
Myrtle beach, Palm springs and Asheville are some popular retirement attraction areas. These resort areas feature sand, landscape and sea that can tantalize the senses of any person who has retired and needs a little bit of excitement.
Retirement can seem like a good idea when you feel you are running on fumes. After a while however, it can feel like hell on earth, especially when you aren’t particularly active in anyway. Most people suffer from one common ailment after they retire and that is boredom. Don’t let this happen to you. Find something you can do to keep you active, even when you retire.
When you retire, exercise is very important. If you were already used to exercise, keep it going. If not, make sure you get yourself hooked up to some exercise and fitness program. If you do, you’re sure to have a physically strong body that will keep you through a strong happy life.
If you are someone that loves reading, one way to enjoy your retirement is to organize a book club. You can get hooked with like-minded friends, and relatives, working professionals and students in order to have regular readings, discussions, debates and reviews on books, articles, novels and any other intellectual reading materials. This will help to sharpen and widen your mind. It will also keep you very active, even in retirement.
To learn revealing tips about resources about Retirement Calculator Omb see Jon Ferriss’s website ==> http://retirementplaningnews.com
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 11:26 pm. 0 comments
There has been a lot of debate over the years as to whether or not gold is worth investing your money in. Some make the claim that it makes an excellent hedge against inflation; others might say that you can use it as a quick fix for some extra cash. And then there are some that invest in it when the economy is bad because they feel if everything crashes, at least their gold will still carry some value.
So what is it? Is gold a good investment?
Well- let’s define “investment” first; really, it should be categorized into a couple of different perspectives. We either invest with a long term approach, or we invest with a short term, turn a quick profit approach. In this article, we’ll explore both the short term and long term approaches to using gold as an investment.
Before we consider the above, let’s look at how gold has been performing throughout the years and use that data to consider the question.
First, if we were to take all of the years that gold’s worth has been calculated up to the present, we would find that gold has improved in value at about 2% annually. In the last 50 years, things have been a little bit better, as gold has been increasing at about 4% annually. So would it be a good long term investment? Doubt it… most good index funds (something that might follow the S&P 500, for example) have been increasing on average at 12% annually in those same years. Do your research- you’ll find the same data.
Here’s another interesting thing: if you would have bought a bunch of gold back in 1983, you would have purchased it for roughly $510 per ounce. Thinking that it might be “a good hedge against inflation,” you hold that investment for the next 20 years or so. By the end of 2005, if you were to have attempted to sell that same gold, you would have made literally NOTHING! That’s right- in December of 2005, gold was being sold at $515 per ounce!
If you take inflation running at about 3% into account, you’d have found that gold would have lost you a substantial amount of money.
Is good a good investment? Considering the numbers, it wouldn’t be good long term.
How about gold as a short term investment? Currently, gold is being traded for roughly $875 per ounce! In the last several years, it’s been increasing at an astounding rate! So now would be a good time to buy, right? Absolutely not! It’s only been in the last few years that it’s really gained any ground; if you look into history, anytime gold begins to look up, it ends up taking a hard fall. If you would have bought gold in the last couple of years, now might be a good time to sell it!
But what about now? Should you buy it? Well… you decide. Typically, I like to buy low and sell high; don’t we all? So… with gold being as high as it is, the worst decision you could make would be to buy it. Don’t touch it!
So, in short, is gold a good investment? Absolutely NOT! Stay away from it.
Trever Shipp, the author, works as an online business consultant, student, husband, and business owner. Follow his personal finance blog and see how he and his family take finances by the horns and steer them to success.
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 8:58 pm. 0 comments
For the past five years my sole source of income has been profits made from trading on the forex market. Over that time period, many people, perhaps somewhat envious of my ability to earn money from home without having to report to a boss, have asked me what it takes to trade for a living. How can one arrive at a point where one feels confident enough to leave ones regular employment, strike off on ones own with no guarantee of a regular paycheck, and put what might conceivably be ones entire savings up to that point at risk in the markets?
While I unfortunately cant actually give you confidence in your ability to make it on your own, nor the stomach to risk your hard earned savings, I can tell you the practical steps that I took to get where I am today. These steps do not include the obvious ¨learn of the existence of the forex market¨, as presumably you already know something about forex trading, or you wouldnt be reading this article.
Furthermore, while these steps have been applicable to trading the forex market in my case, one could easily apply the same principles to becoming a professional trader in the equities markets, derivative markets, etc.
Step 1) Start saving your money.
To trade professionally you need a bankroll, and one that is large enough to withstand the ups and downs that are a natural part of trading. For me, this was easy. I had been putting money aside ever since I started working. Those like me that have been raised to understand and appreciate the value of saving, will accomplish this quite naturally. However, if you are a habitual spender and are accustomed to living paycheck to paycheck without putting anything extra aside, be prepared to expend some serious effort curbing your habits and learning to save instead of spend. How much money will you need? Unfortunately I cant answer that specifically because it will depend on the trading strategy that you use, the amount of leverage you plan on trading with, and the amount of money that you need to take out in profits. You should count on having a bare minimum though, of a full six months salary saved up before beginning full time trading. One years salary would be still better. Keep in mind that the larger your bankroll, the more money you can earn without risking an unnecessarily large percentage of your bankroll.
Step 2) Get an education.
You cant start trading before you know something about the market you are trading in. This education does not have to be formal (as in University classes), and you do not have to understand economic forces as well as Alan Greenspan prior to getting started. You should, however, have a basic understanding of why the market that you are trading in exists, how buying and selling on that market works, and the strategy that you are going to employ to take your profits out of the market. There are a lot of totally free resources on the internet that are worth your time to read (and there are a lot of opinions and ideas that are NOT worth your time, but reading some of those that are not worthwhile is part of the process of developing
discernment about what is and is not a good resource).
There are also some inexpensive trading courses on the internet that are useful. Part of the education process is coming up with a trading strategy that you are comfortable with, as well as a money management strategy to ensure the long term viability of the trading strategy. There are many good trading strategies out there, but regardless of which one you choose, you must understand that the traders that are successful cut their losses early and let their winning trades run. This can be somewhat more difficult than it sounds, but is really the key to making money trading.
Step 3) Sign up for a demo trading account and start practicing while you are not at your regular job (or, if you have free time and internet access at your job, WHILE you are at your regular job).
We list some good forex brokers at forex-rates, so if you are planning to trade currencies, be sure and sign up for a demo account with one of the listed brokers. In order to get a real feel for the trading strategy that you have chosen, you will have to do a lot of practice, so take your time with this step. Dont start trading with real money until you have an actual
history of successful demo trading
Step 4) If you are making money trading on paper and are comfortable with your trading strategy, go ahead and get started trading for real on a part time basis. Don’t include all of your savings as part of your trading bankroll yet. Start slowly and gain a comfort level. As your confidence builds, move money from your savings to increase the size of your bankroll.
Step 5) When you can estimate that your average gains from real trading (from step 4) are at a level where, if you were to trade full time using your current bankroll, you would be making profits that slightly exceed your current employment salary, you are ready to quit your job and trade full time. Remember, you want your trading profits to exceed your present salary. This will give you the opportunity to maintain your current financial level, but at the same time continue to increase your trading bankroll, which will enable you to earn more and more money as the size of your available funds grows larger.
It is important to have patience with yourself at each of the steps mentioned. Maintain emotional equanimity and understand that fear and greed are a traders most dangerous nemesis. If you can keep these emotions under control and maintain the discipline established while following these steps, you can look forward to making it as a professional trader.
Samuel Garcia is a full time forex trader based in San Jose, Costa Rica. He considers that being a successful trader is 90% due to proper money management and emotional discipline, rather than the trading strategy employed. Visit http://www.forex-rates.biz
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 8:16 am. 0 comments
Forex trading strategies are a very powerful way to increase your profits in Forex. Once you learn some of these strategies, you’ll instantly get an unfair advantage over the majority of other people who don’t know it.
Then by applying one or two of them simply, you’ll notice an obvious increase in your profits.
So How Can You Discover Fast, Effective Forex Strategies?
Here are the most common two ways to learn the insider secrets to Forex for maximum profits…
1. Learning by Time and Trial and Error
This is the path that most people make, and it makes them spend years of trying to make a profit in Forex, while they barely can succeed to do it.
Finally after years of trying and losing lots of money in the failing trades and deals, they discover some insider tips that really work and start applying them. But the loss is the time and valuable money that they have lost - while they could use faster methods to get results faster.
2. Learning from Skilled Forex Mentors and Experts
There are some elite experts in the Forex market that have being doing it for years and have discovered by time some of the most powerful and amazing Forex strategies.
So now they are happy to help other people make more profits in Forex too - instead of seeing them lose money. So you can use their valuable knowledge and wealth of information from their proven Forex courses easily and fast.
These courses give you a big advantage because you no longer have to choose the training programs or classes that cost from $2,000 to as high as $30,000. Yes, of course the information shared in these programs will bring you bigger profits in long term. But by these home study courses you will both save money and get the same valuable information.
Would you like to discover the insider secrets to Smarter Forex Trading? It’s easy and fast, and you can use them even if you are new to Forex investing.
You can check out this FREE guide on proven Forex Trading Strategies to find out easy, fast techniques to make profits from Forex like a Pro!
Posted 1 year, 3 months ago at 7:33 pm. 0 comments
If I Told you - give me $100.00 and I will give you financial freedom, for $100 you would think I was crazy yet, that’s what Forex robots buyers do. Yet, it’s obvious why these automated trading systems don’t work…
All you have to do with the ones that are sold with ridiculous hyped copy is to look at the disclaimer and you will see why it is likely to lose:
The Track Records are Made Up!
The track record is no more than a simulated back test, knowing all the closing data!
Could you make money, by buying and selling on a Forex Chart when you know where all the tops and bottoms are?
Yes, you could, I could and so could my 10 year old niece in fact, anyone could.
Its amazing traders think these simulations will repeat themselves with real profits but all they get is an equity wipe out. Many traders are tempted by the fact they get the fee for the forex robot rebated within 60 days - but they won’t get their trading account losses rebated.
You are also told you can trade it in a demo account - but a 2 month test proves nothing, anyone can be lucky - but chances are, it will lose anyway and in the meantime, the vendor will have gained some cash flow.
Why Doesn’t The Vendor Trade the System?
Of course he wouldn’t need it if the robot worked but normally their sensible enough not to trade it themselves, despite the fact the track records would make Warren Buffet proud!
A Free Robot that Makes Money!
If you want to win at forex trading and use an automated Forex trading system, then you need one with a real track record, over a few years. They cost more than $100.00 but you get what you pay for. There is also an excellent free one, we write on frequently - the 4 Week Rule which will beat any of the sold ones longer term.
Get Real Results
If you want to win, get real results and make sure you understand the logic the system is based on, so you can follow it with discipline through losing periods ( and yes you will have them) until you hit a run of profits.
You Can Win Just Remember This
Forex robots sold with simulated track records are simply are not a way to enjoy currency trading success. If you want to lose money quickly avoid them. If you want to win get the right Forex Education, a system with real results and you can enjoy currency trading success and leave the simulations to other losing traders.
FREE! Essential Trader PDF’s and Forex Education
For more essential forex trading advice and 2 essential FREE Forex Books and an exclusive RISK FREE Forex trading Course visit our website.