Written by:
Vivek Sharma
We all like to create and protect our financial future, whether you’re single because you’ve never married or suddenly single due to divorce or death of a spouse. Whatever may be the condition, money management and financial planning are critical. To cut the long story short, you have to depend yourself for all income, goal-setting, decision-making, and retirement planning. Don’t worry guy! Like always we’ll be bailing you out from this problem as well. For your convenience, here are the issues that most need your attention:
Debt: We don’t want to tense you from the very outset but can’t leave this point as well, so we are starting with debt first. In debt you should know exactly:
• Who you owe?
• How much you owe each creditor?
• The interest rate on each account.
All these questions are essential in developing a plan to pay down your debt using the Credit Crunch Method.
Budget: Before we discuss budget, have you heard the expression: “You can't get there from here,” right? Well, whoever penned the expression might very well have been talking about budgets. When it comes to meeting your financial goals, you ought to have a budget plan. After all without a budget “you can't get there from here.”
Health insurance: Next to follow is health insurance. Though it’s very common to feel invincible when you’re young but many young singles take a huge financial risk by going without health insurance. This is one of the biggest mistakes one ever makes. You CAN fall ill, regardless of your age or god forbids, you could be in a car accident, hurt yourself skiing, tear a muscle lifting weights, fall on the ice, get mono or pneumonia, or incur any number of illnesses or injuries that would land you in the hospital and rack up large medical bills that may take you decades to pay off. Think a bit guys!
Short-sighted: Young’uns are always short-sighted and if you can't draft a good plan with a low deductible, you are at a definite loss. You’ll end up paying the small expenses yourself, but the large ones that could ruin your financial future will be covered by insurance.
Disability insurance: We could have covered disability insurance in the previous point itself but there is a difference between the two. Disability insurance usually pay a percentage of your income (usually 60%) if you're unable to work due to illness or accident. This coverage is much more important to you than life insurance unless you have dependents.
Retirement Planning: If you’re young, please don't allow your age fool you into thinking it's too early to save for retirement. The sooner you start saving, the less you'll need to save overall and that too due to the power of compounding, deferred taxes, and your employer's 401(k) match, only if you’re lucky enough to have such a plan. Many young singles tend to walk away from the free gift your employer offers via the 401(k) match. Don’t do this and in case, you're not eligible for an employer's plan, set up an IRA. Some of the reputed online business news magazines feel, retirement plans are very vital in comparison to other points.
Medi-gap and Long-term Care Insurance: According to some of the popular online business magazines, singles over 65 should purchase a Medi-gap policy to cover medical expenses not covered by Medicare. If you are over 50 you may want to consider a long-term care insurance policy covering the expenses of a nursing home or home health care if needed.
Home: If you’re unexpectedly single due to sad divorce or death of a spouse, it may be crucial or sensible for you to move to a smaller home so that you have a smaller mortgage to pay. Paying small mortgage will make it easier to make ends meet and may be the only way you'll be able to save towards retirement.
Wills: Don’t be surprise, if one of the singles you know tag wills as unnecessary. This is a common misconception but it’s wrong. If you own anything such as car, jewelry, house or condo, computer, and savings account, you should have a will specifying who will get your belongings if you die. In case, you have children, a will is an absolute must, because it's the method for designating a guardian for them.
Living Will and Health Care Power of Attorney: If you aren’t in a position to make medical decisions for yourself, attorney will bail you out. He is the one you can trust to make those decisions for you or carry out the wishes you've indicated.
It is said that singles face more problems in comparison to committed as they don’t have any shoulder to rely upon, so if you are still single, wake up guys, this is the time to go for financial planning and manage money issues. If you still aren’t confident, online business magazines offering business tricks and tips are waiting for you.