Personal Finance Week 6 Assignment

 

This week, we will continue expanding our financial plan that we created in the previous weeks by answering the following questions.

1. Go to www.smartmoney.com and go to the section on investing. Within that section, go to the information on bonds. Describe your rationale for investing or not investing in bonds.

2. Go to www.investinginbonds.com. Click “Learn More” under “Buying and Selling Bonds,” and then click “Investor’s Checklist.” If you decide to invest in bonds, what strategy will you use?

3. Go to a web site such as www.smartmoney.com/invest/funds/, review the information on mutual funds that provides information about mutual funds. Choose two funds that meet your goal needs. What is your decision regarding mutual funds? Explain why they are or are not a good investment for you. If you decide to invest in mutual funds, what types of funds will you select? Why?

Have attached past 5 weeks 

Running head:

SC PLAN

1

SC PLAN 4

SC PLAN

Student’s Name

Institution Affiliation

SC PLAN

1. Describe the actions you will take to increase your net cash flows in the near future.

The first step is to reduce living expenditures. It is critical to lessen the amount spent on living expenses and other variables and save for future use. I will have to prevent luxuries such as vacation costs or keep them in check to avoid spending a hefty amount on them. I should check the option to cook for myself and avoid buying food. Also, I will choose a destination I can drive myself to save on rental car expenditures and airfare. I will have a detailed budget indicating the amount required for savings, debt repayment, and investment that will assist only to spend the money on essential expenditures. Further, the savings can help to start a business and become self-employed in the distant future.

I would have to look for a job that pays well or engage in a robust salary negotiation. The right time to negotiate for salary is during a performance review, compensation meeting, or job promotion (Bellon, Cookson, Gilje, & Heimer, 2020). I will ensure that I expand my education and technical skills to attract fair pay in the job market. Also, salary negotiation can result from an increase in experience and enhancement in skills after performing the job for a long time.

It is essential to understand debts and formulate a plan to finance the expenditures. I will check on the debts with the highest interest and start reducing them. The act of debt reduction will help increase net cash flow to be successful in my future goals. Also, I will reduce the amount of debt that I give to family and friends that ends up as bad debts.

2. Detail your plans to increase your net cash flows in the distant future.

In the distance future, I will start a side hustle or engage in business and leave employment. I have a passion for programming and website, development and it is an area I want to venture into the future. I can start an Amazon Affiliate website or a dropshipping company while still on my job and resign when it stabilizes. Investment in business can have handsome returns and help to attain successful life in the future.

It is essential to build rental income. The future ambition of increasing the net cash flow is to have a unit to rent to other people and get money monthly. Also, I will pursue different ways of generating cash through renting houses such as Airbnb and hiring fully furnished apartments to visitors. Further, I will work towards homeownership to avoid spending most of my disposable income on paying rent.

I will invest in financial assets such as mutual funds, bonds, ETF’s, certificates of deposits, and stocks that can contribute inflows by paying the holders of the financial assets interest and dividends. Additionally, I will have a combination of assets for additional income to support my future lifestyle. The advantage of this technique includes receiving a passive income even at old age or after retirement.

3. Report on how much you must save per year and the return you must earn to meet your goals.

10

100,000

10

10

1,450,000

Desired Investment Value in 10 Years	Cost per year	Years	$ 5 00,000
Personal Expenses (Annually)	10,000				10		100,000
Student Loan	75,000	7 50,000
Vacation	20,000	5
Desired investment + Other Expenses		1,450,000
Additional savings needed over the next ten years*	50,000	500,000
Earnings	145,000

References

Bellon, A., Cookson, J. A., Gilje, E. P., & Heimer, R. Z. (2020). Personal wealth and self-employment (No. w27452). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Charron 1

Charron 2

Samantha Charron

February 12, 2021

1. Describe the actions you will take to increase your net cash flows in the near future.

The first step is to reduce living expenditures. It is critical to lessen the amount spent on living expenses and other variables and save for future use. I will have to prevent luxuries such as vacation costs or keep them in check to avoid spending a hefty amount on them. I should check the option to cook for myself and avoid buying food. Also, I will choose a destination I can drive myself to save on rental car expenditures and airfare. I will have a detailed budget indicating the amount required for savings, debt repayment, and investment that will assist only to spend the money on essential expenditures. Further, the savings can help to start a business and become self-employed in the distant future.

I would have to look for a job that pays well or engage in a robust salary negotiation. The right time to negotiate for salary is during a performance review, compensation meeting, or job promotion (Bellon, Cookson, Gilje, & Heimer, 2020). I will ensure that I expand my education and technical skills to attract fair pay in the job market. Also, salary negotiation can result from an increase in experience and enhancement in skills after performing the job for a long time.

It is essential to understand debts and formulate a plan to finance the expenditures. I will check on the debts with the highest interest and start reducing them. The act of debt reduction will help increase net cash flow to be successful in my future goals. Also, I will reduce the amount of debt that I give to family and friends that ends up as bad debts.

2. Detail your plans to increase your net cash flows in the distant future.

It is essential to build rental income. My future ambition of increasing the net cash flow is to have a unit to rent to other people and get money monthly. Also, I will pursue different ways of generating cash through renting houses such as Airbnb and hiring fully furnished apartments to visitors. Further, I will work towards homeownership to avoid spending most of my disposable income on paying rent.

I will invest in financial assets such as mutual funds, bonds, ETF’s, certificates of deposits, and stocks that can contribute inflows by paying the holders of the financial assets interest and dividends. Additionally, I will have a combination of assets for additional income to support my future lifestyle. The advantage of this technique includes receiving a passive income even at old age or after retirement.

3. Report on how much you must save per year and the return you must earn to meet your goals.

10

100,000

10

10

1,450,000

Desired Investment Value in 10 Years	Cost per year	Years	$ 5 00,000
Personal Expenses (Annually)	10,000				10		100,000
Student Loan	75,000	7 50,000
Vacation	20,000	5
Desired investment + Other Expenses		1,450,000
Additional savings needed over the next ten years*	50,000	500,000
Earnings	145,000

References

Bellon, A., Cookson, J. A., Gilje, E. P., & Heimer, R. Z. (2020). Personal wealth and self-employment (No. w27452). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Charron 2

PERSONAL FINANCE

2

PERSONAL FINANCE

Samantha Charron

Northern Vermont University

February 18, 2021

There are short term investments that will ensure that I have enough to spend and also enough to save to ensure that the future is secure. The first thing to do not only to reduce the expenses but also to plan ahead before spending. Impulse buying will be avoided at all cost. To avoid unforeseen purchases in future, everything shall be planned in advance. For instance, food will be bought in bulk so that it can last at least a month. Cooking at home is a great idea since making food is cheaper than readymade food in the hotels or restaurants.

In order to make the unanticipated expenses, there will be a budget for miscellaneous. Additionally, emergency kit will be also be set aside as well. Miscellaneous will ensure additional cost incurred due to increases prices or inflation are avoided. For instance, in every budget year, it is anticipated the cost of living is likely to increase by a significant margin. The cost of fuel usually increases and with the prices of almost every other product. Emergency kit will cater for anything else that was not budgeted but can hardly be done away with.

Stock exchange is a good many markets to ensure the short-term goals are reached. In the stock exchange, there are companies one can buy shares and other assets such petroleum, gold and other items to trade in the near future when the prices are better. This will certainly ensure constant stream of income. Additionally, a better bank that offers high interest rates for either current, saving or fixed account could be handy as well.

References

References

Bellon, A., Cookson, J. A., Gilje, E. P., & Heimer, R. Z. (2020). Personal wealth and self-employment (No. w27452). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Madura, J. (2017). Personal finance (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Charron 2

PERSONAL FINANCE

2

PERSONAL FINANCE

Samantha Charron

Northern Vermont University

February 23, 2021

Improving the credit worthiness

The first step is to review all the credit reports. It is from here where I would discover what is working in my favor and what is working against me. Such report was obtained from the national credit bureaus. The history on on-time payments, credit balances, loan accounts among others all are factors that come to into play. The other way of increasing the credit worthiness is to make the most a thin credit file. Additionally, it is important to keep the old accounts open and also deal with delinquencies. If the old credit accounts that are not in use, I should not close them down. Even if the history of such accounts remains available, crossing them when they have credit lowers the available credit (Bellon, Cookson, J Gilje, & Heimer, , 2020).

Personal finance

There is a way to prevent the identity. The best thing to day is protect the identity theft is by protecting the personal data. When the personal data is protected, the chances of someone becoming victimized. There are fool proof methods that can be used to protect against the identity theft.

The first thing to do is to use passwords in all possible areas. For instance, in the computers, phones and iPad. It the USA alone, it is estimated that 50% of the of mobile users do not protect their digital devices using passwords. When someone does not have password in his digital devices, it is like not have a door in his or her house. The second way to prevent identity theft is mixing passwords in the digital devices. It is not wise to use one password for all the accounts and devices that you have. If a fraudster accesses one password, it is possible to access all the accounts that the password is used for. Names, and birthdays should be avoided at all costs. It is also wise to stay away from shady websites and links. Identity thieves uses webpages that appear similar to that of the credit company, bank, or other possible financial institution. And lastly, I should never share personal information with anyone. Some of the personal information include the credit can pin number, social security number. Using such personal information, they can cause damage to a persona in many ways. For starters, they can withdraw money from the bank and secondly, they can use credit card to buy items using someone’s` money. If I successfully follow the above steps, I could increase my credit worthiness (Madura, 2017).

It is not possible to have one credit card that has the ability to fulfil the needs of every family, purchase or the budget. There are factors that determines what is best for who. The factors include the credit history, travel goals, whether one is interested in multiple cards and how much one is willing to spend. All these are factors that were considered when selecting the best credit card. The credit card selected suites all the personal and business plan. The credit card is the city double cash card. While the company does not offer a welcome bonus, they charge no annual fee. Furthermore, how the card structure is set is such that you can set it can forget it. There is cashback rate on all the purchases made.

References

Bellon, A., Cookson, J. A., Gilje, E. P., & Heimer, R. Z. (2020). Personal wealth and self-employment (No. w27452). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Madura, J. (2017). Personal finance (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Charron 2

PERSONAL FINANCE

Samantha Charron

Northern Vermont University

March 6, 2021

Steps to ensure my needs for health insurance are met

Purchasing early of the insurance policy. By doing these it will help me in the future as age increases and there is a period, I will be old it will help in catering for the diseases that may invade in the old age. (Berchick, Hood & Barnett 2019) The other step is choosing a comprehensive health plan. Having a health insurance plan that is comprehensive will be beneficial to me as I will get coverage for a number of medical needs. The last step is to have super to up plans which will be specifically designed for them to provide coverage that is extra.

I will choose to be offered preferred provider organisation type of health insurance by my employer. The reason for picking this is that I will have the choice of choosing what doctors should treat me.

Being at the age of 21 I consider to have a long-term insurance this is because I will have to paying small premiums and when am old and the old disease invade me in any case I will covered by the insurance without issues. (Nguyen, Nguyen, Nguyen & Phan 2018) Other factors such as personal health history and family history does not influence the choice.

I do not need a life insurance policy because am young at the age of 21 and am single.

In the future I anticipate that my life insurance policy will cover all the expenses of my end of life, it should take care of my mortgage if there will be need, will handle the co-signed debts, take care of the expenses of my children and dependents, my medical expenses when am still living and lastly it should leave legacy when I die.

References

Berchick, E. R., Hood, E., & Barnett, J. C. (2019). Health insurance coverage in the United States: 2018 (p. 2). Washington, DC: US Department of Commerce.

Nguyen, H. T., Nguyen, H., Nguyen, N. D., & Phan, A. C. (2018). Determinants of customer satisfaction and loyalty in Vietnamese life-insurance setting. Sustainability, 10(4), 1151.