Posts Tagged personal finance

Treasury Inflation Protected Securities Mutual-fund

Treasury Inflation Protected Securities(TIPS) are a type of bonds and notes issued by the U.S Treasury. TIPS are unique due to their interest and principle payments are arranged to the rate of inflation as measured by Consumer Price Index. So TIPS offer explicit inflation protection not provided by the other nominal bonds.

There are some characteristics of TIPS:

  • Maturities available with 5,10, 20 years.
  • Bond’s principals increases or decreases with the rate of the consumer price Index-based.
  • Payments of interest are a fixed percentage applied to an decreasing or increasing principal.
  • Original principal or the adjusted principal whichever is greater, is paid to the investor upon maturity

Examples of Treasury Inflation Protected Security:
TIPS are very different from conventional bond. Coupon payments are made a conventional fixed rate coupon bond on the par amount. They return a par amount at maturity date of the bond. Not so with TIPS.

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Saving Vs Checking Account

Saving and checking accounts have different characteristics that make them suitable for different uses. All saving and checking accounts have specific terms that are explained and established by the banks that offer them.

Checking account features:
Generally checking account don’t pay interest. In case bank offers interest on a special type of checking account then rate of interest much smaller than saving account. In checking account you can create unlimited withdrawls, you can use of debit card and you can get the ability to pay with personal checks.

Saving account features:
You can earn interest on the funds in this account, this is the primary feature of the saving account, For that bank uses the funds in saving account to give loans customers and conduct other businesses. It requires a minimum balance in these account to ensure that bank has sufficient funds at its disposal and it allows number of with-drawls per statement cycle.

Warnings:
If the account falls below the minimum balance then some saving accounts charge a fee.
Checking account usually don’t charge this penalty you write checks for extra money than account’s balance.

Saving account takes more time to transfer the money than checking account. You can transfer the money from checking account by the next business day but it will take up to 5 days from saving account.

Here there are several types of saving and checking accounts. There are 2 common type of checking account are express checking and joint checking.

There are 2 common types of saving account are high-yield saving account and passbook accounts.

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How to Clear Credit Card Debts

Many Americans today are struggling with persistent heavy burden of credit card debt. According to the Federal Reserve, the outstanding consumer debt was $2.55 trillion, in March 2009 in America. Revolving debt, which mainly consists credit card debt stood at $945.9 billion. This can be the result of bad spending habits or poor money management of many people. If you are one among them, by the time you understand your mistakes, you will be deeply get indebted to credit card companies.

Debt accumulates and increases through interests and penalties when a consumer does not pay or even if he pays minimum amount. To clear this never ending debt, you need to act smartly by understanding the issues involved and by taking the help of a specialist counselor.

Understand minimum payment issues
Every time you receive your monthly credit card bill, your creditor mentions the total outstanding amount as well as the ‘minimum amount’ you can pay. Most of the people pay minimum amount to stop collection agents harassing them for payments. But this is where people do big mistake. The minimum payment includes interest rates, other fees and only a very small fraction of the balance amount. This means you are paying only interest and other fees.

So, if you pay only the minimum amount, you will be paying much more than you owe to the credit card company. Apart from paying more, it will take a very long period of time to make the complete payment, which becomes unbearable.

Late fee and over due interests
You will probably get sucked more in this credit card issue if you pay your bill in time or have missed a payment. Generally most people suffer paying minimum payment because it includes all the fees that they have incurred such as fine for late payments, missed payments, or exceeding the limit of the credit. They will add up every month until you pay them completely. As this happens month after month, you will find yourself in defaulters list and remember the collection agencies will start harassing you.

When brought down to this situation, most of the individuals often look to bankruptcy as the only option left. They think that it is the easy way to get out of debt. They will be unaware of the terrible consequences of filing bankruptcy.

Take specialist counselor’s advice
If you are in this hopeless situation, making minimum payments and unable to get out of the debts, approach a credit counselor. A credit counselor helps you get out of this awful situation.

He will provide options like lowering the interest rate and a loan to consolidate the loan. Lowering the interest rate would increase the productivity of your monthly payments and a debt consolidate loan can clear the debt over a defined period of time and at a rate you can afford.

Always remember, the credit card company benefits when you simply pay your minimum payments month after month. It’s never late to come out of this situation but it is better to come out as early as possible.

Suggested Reading:
What Is A Personal Loan?
Types of Insurance for Small Businesses
Types of Mutual Funds
Soaring Crude Inventories in US Send Oil Prices Down
Some US Banks May Loose Their Market Share in Next Year
Who Is Not Enjoying Their Christmas?

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