5 Best Ways to Pay Off Your Credit Card Debts

Credit card – being one of the main contributors to increase household debt among Malaysians have become an obvious debt trap. Many are struggling to escape their credit card debt and have mostly failed to come out of it being debt-free soonest possible.

As we seek for the best advice to help us reducing our debts, we tend to get overwhelmed by the amount of information accessible to us. There are many tips and advice on ways to clear off debts from personal finance blogs you’re reading to those given by your friends or family members. This load of information might lead to confusion and you’ll end up not getting the much needed advise you’ve been searching for.

However, we believe that if you’re following the right advice and are willing to make major changes to your financial situation, being debt-free is a possibility worth striving for. Check out our five best ways to paying off your credit card debts and learn how you could apply them on to your monthly financial arrangements.

Cut down your multiple credit cards to one – If you have more than one credit card, it’s time to thrash away the rest and stick to only one. Knowing that you don’t have as many credit card as you initially do will decrease your dependence on the other cards hence stopping you from spending more than you should each month.

Pay more than the minimum – If you have the habit of paying only the minimum required each month, you’re not going to make any progress at clearing off your credit card debt anytime soon. With the usual minimum rate being around 2% to 3% of the outstanding balance, minimum payment commitment will only prolongs your struggle. Always remember, this is the thing the banks want you to do – taking longer time to repay the charges hence allowing them to make more money on higher interest. You’re basically at the losing end if you keep on paying the minimum. There’s definitely no better time than now to start strategising, even that requires some major sacrifices on your monthly financial plan to meet this needs.

Do a balance transfer – If you begin to rack up debt on a high-interest credit card, transferring the outstanding balance to another card with a lower interest rate through the process called balance transfer could be one of the wisest things to do. Balance transfers could help you pay less as many banks or credit card issuers offer a 0% period on balance transfer that could save you a lot of money on interest alone. It’s one way to clear existing debts and allow you to organise your finances by combining all of your outstanding balances into one.

Use the Snowball Method – The debt-snowball method popularised by financial advisor Dave Ramsey suggests paying off credit cards in order of lowest balance to highest balance, regardless of interest rate. This method allows you to pay off small credit cards quickly, giving you that much-needed motivational boost that will fuel the rest of your debt payoff plan.

Use your savings – Say your debt is already overwhelming and it seems impossible to fork out your monthly earning to clear the debt off, you might want to look at the option of using your savings for debt reduction. We are not suggesting for you to make use of your entire savings and leave it completely dry but instead we highly recommend having at least RM 1,000 of emergency fund out of the savings that you could utilise.

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8 Tips for People Who Will Retire in 2015

Retirement is a major life transition that requires changes to your income and lifestyle. Here are the final preparations you should be making if you plan to retire in 2015.

Decide when to sign up for Social Security. When you sign up for Social Security drastically affects how much you will receive each month. Most baby boomers are eligible to receive full benefits at age 66. If you sign up before age 66, your monthly payments are reduced, and if you delay claiming up until age 70, your payments increase. "You want to consider the penalty for taking it early and the benefit of delaying it beyond full retirement age," says Christopher Rhim, a certified financial planner for Green View Advisors in Norwich, Vermont. Members of married couples may also be able to claim spousal and survivor's payments and strategize ways to maximize their benefit as a couple. You can get a personalized estimate of your benefit by creating an online account at socialsecurity.gov/myaccount.

Take care to sign up for Medicare on time. It's important tosign up for Medicare as soon as you are eligible to do so. "You should start submitting the paperwork for Medicare up to three months before age 65," Rhim says. "It's not something you want to wait and delay on because there are some financial penalties if you sign up later." Also, take a look at Medicare's premiums, deductibles, copays and coinsurance so you can get an idea of how much you will need to pay out of pocket. If you retire before age 65, you will need to find another source of health insurance until you qualify for Medicare, perhaps through your state's health insurance exchange or your former employer.

Assess your workplace retirement benefits. Make an appointment with your human resources department to determine which workplace retirement benefits will carry over into retirement. Some fortunate employees get traditional pension payments and retiree health insurance after leaving their jobs. You should also check when you vest in your 401(k) plan and get to keep your employer's contributions.

Consider rolling over your 401(k). When you leave your job, you have the option to roll your 401(k) balance over to an individual retirement account. To decide if this is a good move, you need to compare the fees and investment options in the 401(k) plan with those in an IRA. "If they do roll it all over into an IRA, they get certain benefits from it," says Laura Mattia, a certified financial planner for Baron Financial Group in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. "A lot of times when you consolidate, you can take advantage of price breaks and lower fees." However, if you leave your job at age 55 or older (or age 50 for public safety employees) and plan to dip into your 401(k) balance immediately, you may want to leave the money you will need in the 401(k) plan. You can take penalty-free 401(k) withdrawals from the 401(k) associated with the job you left at age 55 or later, but if you move the money to an IRA, you will have to wait until age 59½ to avoid the 10 percent early withdrawal penalty.

Make a long-term investment plan. Investors obviously want to keep their nest egg safe, but you also need to make sure that it lasts the rest of your life and keeps up with rising costs. "You really don't want to get too conservative because your portfolio has to overcome inflation and management fees and trading costs," Rhim says. "If you are looking at 20 to 25 years of retirement, that is a long-term planning horizon and you need a competitive return. That really is a call for stocks. You simply can't get that type of return with bonds and cash." You also need to develop a plan for how you will spend down your assets in a way that minimizes taxes and penalties. "You should list all your financial assets, where they are and identify what the strategy is behind them," Mattia says. "You want to make sure you are reacting according to your strategy and not making decisions emotionally."

Remember required minimum distributions. Beginning after age 70½, you will typically be required to withdraw money from your traditional retirement accounts every year and pay income tax on each distribution. The penalty for failing to withdraw the correct amount is 50 percent of the amount that should have been withdrawn.

Develop a plan for emergencies. Covering your basic monthly costs in retirement isn't enough. You'll continue to need an emergency fund in retirement to cover unexpected bills. "I always tell people to keep between six months to a year's worth of expenses in a liquid interest-bearing account that you can get to whenever you want," Mattia says. "Having some cash out at all times also gives you flexibility, so if investments are not going in the right direction, you can leave them alone for a while to get back on the right track."

Decide how you will send your time. What you decide to do in retirement will have a big impact on your costs and quality of life. "Certainly you will spend less on gas and don't have to spend as much on work clothes, but some people are also going to spend more money now because they have the time and don't just want to sit around the house," says Craig Schmith, a certified financial planner in Durham, North Carolina. "If you've got pent-up demand to travel, especially internationally, and you haven't had time to do that, you need to think about budgeting that in." 

By Emily Brandon | U.S.News & World Report LP

8 NATURAL WAYS TO LOWER YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE

High blood pressure can be managed in a variety of ways that include medication and lifestyle changes.

Doctors can prescribe medications for worst-case scenarios but they usually recommend lifestyle changes as the first steps for fighting high blood pressure.

Lifestyle changes can make a significant impact on the individual’s health while also decreasing their dependencies on medications if they are using them. In addition, there are several natural methods that a patient can use to reduce their high blood pressure over time.

1) Get More Exercise: 

People who regularly participate in aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes a day can drop their systolic blood pressure by three to five points. Exercise also helps build endurance and contributes to an overall healthy lifestyle.

2) Increase Your Potassium:

Increasing the amount of potassium intake helps with high blood pressure. Eating excess amounts of salt can raise blood pressure substantially but increasing potassium intake reduces the salt’s influence on the body.

There are many foods that are high in potassium including baked potatoes with skin, bananas, orange juice and a variety of yogurts.

3) Limit Salt Consumption:

People who are diagnosed with high blood pressure need to avoid consuming excess salt. It is recommended that people with hypertension only consume about 600 milligrams of sodium/day.

They should also try to eat whole foods as much as possible since most processed foods contain excess sodium. Grocery shopping instead of eating out provides a great opportunity to check the nutrition labels on food.

4) Quit Smoking:

Smoking does not directly affect hypertension, but it does cause a temporary spike in people’s blood pressure. Factors such as excessive alcohol consumption and minimal exercise also contribute to high blood pressure.

Quitting smoking and limiting alcohol consumption help people better regulate their blood pressure.

5) Shed the Extra Weight:

Losing weight not only improves self-confidence in people, but it also helps them lower their blood pressure. Excess weight causes the heart to work so blood pressure rises. Over time consistently high blood pressure can damage the heart and create lifelong problems.

Having a healthy weight provides people with the ability to enjoy a healthier lifestyle while keeping their blood pressure under control.

6) Drink Less Alcohol:

If somebody is drinking more than two drinks a day, they significantly impact their blood pressure and body in a negative way. It is recommended that women have only one drink a day and men should only have two drinks a day.

Drinking more than this can be harmful and have long-term consequences.

7) Learn Stress Management Techniques:

There are many ways an individual can manage stress but some ways are more effective than others. Research in New Delhi has discovered that yoga and breathing exercises have a significant impact on reducing overall blood pressure.

Meditation helps to reduce stress and lowers blood pressure, helping improve overall health. However, the best recommendation for people struggling with stress related high blood pressure is to discover what stress-management techniques work for them.

Learning to manage stress can be done using healthy outlets like meditation, writing, therapy and group activities.

8) Cut Out Caffeinated Beverages:

Caffeine is similar to smoking in that it can cause short-term spikes in blood pressure. One way to find out if somebody is sensitive to caffeine is to check their blood pressure before they have a caffeinated beverage, and then again about an hour after.

If their blood pressure spikes significantly, they’re sensitive to caffeine and they should think twice about having it. Many drinks such as coffee and tea have decaf options so people with caffeine sensitivities can enjoy these popular beverages without risking their health.

Lowering blood pressure can be difficult but consulting a doctor and finding the cause is the first step to managing high blood pressure. Changing diets, exercise, and other lifestyle changes are just some of the ways blood pressure can be controlled.

To learn about more ways to lower your blood pressure naturally, be sure to check out the Blood Pressure Solution!

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