ROL Financial Blog

High yield investment programs, also known as HYIP and Ponzi scams/schemes, are ultimately scams that promise to provide a ridiculous amount of money (return on investment, usually about 45% per month) by using money invested from new recruits to pay off old investors. High yield investment program scams are on the rise and because of such, people need to be well aware of how to avoid these HYIP scams.

While some of these programs may actually be legit, majority of them are not. They offer anywhere from 1% to 10% return on investment daily. You can invest as much as you like and after a predetermined amount of days, you will receive a high return on investment. The most important thing is not to only invest what you can afford to lose. In addition, many individuals prefer to spread their actual investment over a few different legitimate HYIP.

We’ve talked a little bit about high yield investment programs, but let’s talk now about how to avoid HYIP scams. There are numerous ones out there. As one leaves cyberspace, more are created on a daily basis.

When you come across a HYIP website, check into it a little bit. It is very important to conduct thorough research on any site before giving them any of your money. Go to whois.com and look up the owner’s information. If none can be found, it is probably best to stay away from this particular site, as it’s more than likely a HYIP scam. Do your research for the site and ensure that the information they give you is accurate and matches up with the information that you find from your research.

More often than not, you won’t be able to find any type of management or owner information related to HYIP scam sites. In addition, you won’t be able to find any hard information informing you of how the money is invested. Majority of the time, the website will state something about Forex Trading, or another high-end reputable company, is backing them – while this may be true, it may also not be true. This is something that should be checked into a little closer.

More than likely, these websites look very professional and offer what seems to be a profitable business opportunity. Many of these sites will use spam indexing as well as a web host who provides anonymous hosting to lure in new prospective clients based off information on the web that makes the company have a reputable reputation.

If you are looking for a reputable HYIP, more than likely you will need to find a website that will offer no more than 5% return on investment per day. This is a legitimate amount. In addition, as also mentioned above, spread your investment throughout a couple different programs. This way you still have money invested if a site that you thought was legitimate was actually a scam.

Two of the most important things to remember when thinking about investing money into something: 1) Do not invest more money than you can honestly afford to lose. 2) If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is and you should get as far away from the situation as possible.

A third tip as previously stated above so this is just a quick reminder – be sure to complete thorough research before ever investing money into any online investment program, or HYIP.

It’s tax season and everyone is worried about getting audited by the IRS but the good news is that audits happens pretty rarely; however, it does happen to every once in a while to some people. Statistically, approximately 2% of people get audited and although this is true, it’s important to know what can increase as well as decrease your chances of being audited by the dreadful IRS.

Let’s take a look at a few things that you can do to avoid being audited by the IRS.

First and foremost, make certain that all of your information on the paper forms or the online forms is completely accurate. The slightest misspelling of your name could cause an audit, although it isn’t likely without other probing factors. You should make certain that you input the information on the IRS form from your W-2 or 1099’s is absolutely correct from the name of the company and their tax-id to the amount made and taxes taken out. If you mess up on your return, the IRS will notice this and be tempted to take a closer look at the rest of your tax return to see if any more mistakes were made. This could cause you to pay more money in, or possibly get more back, depending on the situation.

Another thing is to ensure that you claim the correct number of exemptions and dependents. Be sure you claim individuals that are qualified dependents. You can check the requirements on the IRS website or with your local tax accountant or firm. You can really only claim people that lived with you majority of the year and that you helped support. By adding dependents this year that don’t belong, removing them next year, then adding them again, could cause an audit by the IRS.

You also need to make sure that you file as the right status – single, married, etc. Many may think they shouldn’t claim they are married if they got married within the last week of the year; however, you claim your status as of how you were on December 31. Therefore, if you were married on December 30, you need to file married filing separately or married filing jointly, depending on how you and your spouse plan on filing – separate or together.

You should also be sure to report all of your earned income whether it is on a 1099 or W-2. You must remember that the IRS receives all the same forms that you do so if you don’t report a W-2 on your tax return and you made more than $600 from that employer, you have strengthened your chance of being audited. The IRS received that W-2 as well and knows that you didn’t report it on your tax return.

Don’t go completely overboard with itemized deductions – this is whether you run a home office, small business, or not. You can claim several deductions for having a home office as well as deductions for a small business. Some of these itemized deductions include gas, meals, supplies, etc. The most important thing regarding this area is to make certain that you have solid proof to back up these expenses that you incurred throughout the year for which you are claiming as deductions.

Lastly, double-check your forms before you submit them to the IRS. You may very well be able to catch your mistakes before you submit them.

The question that seems to race through the minds of most investors is whether or not equity indexed annuities are a wise investment. The situation is so pressing that the National Association of Securities Dealers once questioned the manner in which equity indexed annuities were being marketed and sold and the lack of a body to regulate the manner in which the industry was being handled. However, this is not a question that can be answered lightly without taking the time to understand the basics of the equity Index.

First off, the contract states that you have to invest your money in an insurance company over a period of ten years, it grows without getting taxed. In return, the company is supposed to give you returns based on a certain stock market with an exclusion of the dividends. On top of this, they also promise to deliver minimal returns rates that amount to three percent, which isn’t exactly the best annuity rates but at least its above zero. and what is more, in the event that the market goes down, your investment is safeguarded as it is not affected in any manner and for this reason, majority of investors find it ideal. The only setback is the fact that in the event you withdraw from the investment before the ten years are up, then you lose everything.

Having understood the provisions contained in the Equity Indexed Annuities, let’s revisit the initial question, are they a wise investment? If it were not for the fact that they are a complex investment compared to traditional and fixed annuities, then the answer would be a simple yes and yet, it is not. This is mainly due to the fact that Equity Indexed Annuities contain many penalties, costs and multi-year surrender charges which are hidden and as such, make it impossible for the investor to make sound judgments. This is especially true due to the fact that they promise guaranteed security to the investors.

As stated earlier, the National Association of Securities Dealers have no hand in controlling the marketing of these annuities and as such, by law, there is no provision of prospectus that discloses the terms, conditions and risks involved in equity indexes and to top it all, they can be sold by an insurance agent who does not hold a securities license. For this reason, investors should not be quick to bank on the same without carrying out proper investigations to establish and totally understand the terms used in the provision of the annuity.

Some of the things that ought to be considered include the features that govern the annuity, any tax requirements that might creep up at some point and how they will affect you, return rates expected and how solid they are, liquidity specifications, the duration through which you have to wait before taking out your investment to avoid penalties and all the expenses associated with the annuity with no hidden costs whatsoever. Once you are able to do this, then you will be better placed to decide if it is a scam investment or not. In addition to this, you will be able to avoid falling into the traps of unscrupulous insurance agents.

Early retirement is something that all individuals think about. When you are considering early retirement, it is important that you plan carefully in all aspects including financially. For early retirement, money management is the essential key.

If you are planning for early retirement, here are a few things to keep in mind:

First of all, know what you are going to need when you reach retirement age. Know what it is going to take to live the lifestyle that you wish to live. For example, if you plan to travel the world then you’ll need to ensure you have enough money saved up to be able to live that lifestyle to its fullest potential.

One thing that you should check into is your benefits, such as Social Security. Your Social Security benefits won’t add up to what you were making on a monthly basis prior to retirement, but it is something that should be considered and added into your early retirement plan.

Apart from Social Security benefits, you should check with your current employer about their retirement benefits. Most companies have some sort of pension or retirement plan for their employees. Your employer probably has an IRA account that they can start for you as well as 401K plan.

Something many people do is pay off all their debt. Some couples/individuals start a few years before they plan to retire and start paying off their house, vehicles, credit cards, etc. while others start as soon as they hit 30. The time that you start is up to you, but it’s better to start as early as you can. Once you’ve revised all of your debt, try to stay away from when and if at all possible.

Most importantly, start as early as you can and be sure to set real goals. Be sure to stick to your goals as well. For example, a good goal would be to create a savings account. Deposit money when you can and leave it there. Don’t touch it unless it is an absolute emergency. This is a great way for individuals to save for early retirement especially if you have financial control over your money and strong discipline.

In order to prepare for early retirement, you need to sit down and do proper and thorough research. Apart from research, you need to think about the entire situation and make a plan. So, to put is simply, for an early retirement, you need to start now, stop procrastinating, set some real goals and boundaries, and be sure to completely stick to them.

Whether you are 25 or 50 right now start saving today because it’s never too late nor is it too early to start! The earlier you start saving, the better off you will be when you decide to retire and start your new lifestyle.

As with anything it is never too early nor too late to begin saving for your kids college fund. College is expensive and as the years go on the prices rise. Sure, your child may be able to get scholarships and/or financial aid, but they may not be able to. In addition, even if they could, that doesn’t mean that all costs are going to be covered. Additional funding from you, as a parent, may be needed in order for your child to make it in and through college. There is always the option of student loans, but many parents would rather steer clear of them.

To touch on the option of student loans above, this will be an expensive choice. If you could save enough or close to enough for your child’s education expenses then you won’t have to worry about high interest charges on large amounts of money that you took on student loans. Therefore, the cheaper way to go would be to start saving.

So, how much money should you expect to save? You should keep in mind that there is financial aid as well as scholarships and the availability of student loans. As of now, you can expect to spend about $25,000 per year for an in-state two-year program. However, for a four-year University or Ivy League school, you can expect to pay around $250,000 or more per year. Now, that number sounds like a lot but if you start saving when your child is born and expect them to start college as soon as they graduate high school, you are looking at needing to save about $14,000 per year for your child’s first year of college at an Ivy League institution, which averages out to be a little more than $1,000 per month.

There are various ways you can actually save money of your kid’s college fund from creating trust funds if you are very well off or savings account if you have less. A trust fund can be set up in a way that the funds cannot be withdrawn by your child unless he or she shows some type of proof that they are enrolled in a college or university.

There are also educational IRA’s, also known as ESA’s, which will allow you (currently) to deposit $2,000 into the account on a yearly basis until the day before your child turns 18. If you start when your child is a newborn depositing $2,000 per year into an ESA, you will find a minimum of $34,000 when your child graduates.

You can also opt to open a CD. Money will accrue each year because of high interest rates. CD’s can be opened for several months or for several years – your choice. CD’s allow you to make money with the saved money you have deposited for your child’s education.

Another option that many parents opt for is using some of the saved money to invest in stocks. Not all parents choose to do this, as there is a risk of losing the money you have worked so hard to save, but there is also the potential to turn it into something significantly more. If your choice is this, be sure to use small amounts – do NOT invest the entire savings.

Many people will involve their children when saving for college. If your child is interested in pursuing a college degree, let them know how important it is as a general rule and how important it is to you that they do so. In addition, you can ask them to help you achieve that goal. Let them know you already have money set aside to help with their college education but you would appreciate their help as well. This will not only help them learn money management, responsibility, and skills to survive in life, but it will allow them to know that they helped to achieve their education apart from the learning, studying, late nights and tests.

Do plenty of research when deciding to open some type of savings plan or account as the type that you open could affect the eligibility for financial aid for your child later down the road.

The most important thing to remember when saving for your kid’s college fund is that you can start anytime; however, the earlier you can start saving for your kid’s college fund, the better. Another very important thing to remember is that no matter how much you save, every little bit helps and can go a long way so just take a look at your monthly expenses and put back what you can each month.

Everyone has dreams but not everyone reaches those dreams due to financial problems. By successfully devising a plan and setting financial goals, your dreams can come true at some point in time. You can’t expect your dreams to come true if you don’t work toward them and setting financial goals will help you achieve them.

In order to set financial goals, you need to understand what it is that you need in order to create one. A financial goal should consist of the specific things you wish to accomplish, how much time as well as what resources you will need in order to accomplish your goals, and you will need to map out how your goal will work with your current lifestyle, living habits, and budget.

So, first, you need to make a list of the financial goals that you plan to achieve. Create a list for short-term goals, mid-term goals, as well as long-term goals. These goals could include saving for your kids to go to college, a down payment on a house, a new vehicle, getting rid of your debt, or even possibly going on a vacation.

Next, make a budget estimate of how much you believe it will cost in order to achieve each goal. Do this for all three sections of financial goals. This will help you later on.

When setting any type of goal, you obviously need a target date. You should write this down on your list next to each goal. You should use this as a deadline, such as for a school assignment or a huge work assignment that is going to get you a promotion. A deadline should always be kept so it is just as important for the deadline for your financial goals to be kept as it is for any other deadline.

Once you have this all created and written down in a list form, you will need to determine a budget for your goals. However, you need to understand where your money goes now. You should keep track of all of your spending so that you can target areas of concern where too much money is going out. This will help you in creating a better budget for yourself as well as your family and help you achieve your financial goals.

After you’ve done all the above steps, you should take a look at the budget estimate that you made earlier regarding each financial goal. If your target date is October 1 and today is May 1 that means you have 5 months until your target deadline date. You can divide the estimated budget for the financial goal per week or month, whichever would be easier for you to save. My opinion, you should divide by weeks.

Let’s look at an example. Say your estimated budget is $5,000. If there are approximately 4 weeks in a month that would mean that you have 20 weeks to reach your goal. $5,000 divided by 20 equals $250, which is what you would need to be able to save per week in order to reach your financial goal by the predetermined target date.

One of the most important pieces of information that I can give you regarding setting financial goals is to start now. Don’t wait – start today. If nothing else, start making your list of goals and then go from there when you can, but it isn’t something that you should put off for very long. In order to take control of your financial future, you need to set financial goals and achieve them now.

When thinking of how to budget personal finances, what you should bear in mind is the amount of money that you have as income, versus your personal expenses. You need to know that savings are a vital element of your personal finances. Saving is a vital aspect of any goal to amass wealth. and as such for you to be able to save, it is a basic fact that you need to spend less than you earn. This is a practice that requires sacrifice in order to be achieved.

When thinking of budgeting for personal finances, the first thing that you ought to do is ensure that you have set aside some cash for emergencies. This means that you should create an emergency fund, and just as the name suggests, this is the type of fund which you will be able to fall back on in the case that accidents or unexpected medical bills come knocking. You can achieve this by opening an account that automatically deducts a certain amount of money, either weekly or monthly and this should be an amount which you can afford. If you still think you need a credit card you can always try a prepaid credit card as an alternative, heck you could even try the Kardashians credit card if you want to spice things up.

Of further consideration is that fact that you will not be able to budget at all if your spending patterns happen to be irregular. You need to develop a regular fashion or spending trend so as to be in a position to anticipate what to put where and for what purpose. Also, you need to be able to separate needs from wants, such that you will have more in your account than what is going out. Draw up a table of all the expenses that you incur in a day and from there, start rooting out those expenses that you feel do not add any value to your life, or that you could do without.

Having decided that you want to follow a certain spending pattern, make it a habit of sticking to the plan as well as you can. If you have for instance decided to spend fifty dollars for lunch and parking, be responsible and stick to the budget you have set for yourself. You should know that financial leaks can add up to quite a lot of money when totaled up at the end of the month. Financial leaks are those expenses which seem inconsequential at first, and which are incurred without much thought.

Give prominence to those expenditures that are the most important and then leave out the unnecessary purchases. This means that if you have for instance been used to eating out in restaurants, then you need to buy groceries and develop a habit of cooking at home. This will end up saving you a lot of money come the end of the month considering that it is usually quite expensive buying ready made food. Transport happens to be an area that is known to demand a huge chunk of your daily expenditures and this means that you should make a habit of budgeting for the cheapest form of transportation if you want to amass any credible savings.