Guest Contributor on Money Questions and Answers Blog

Peer to Peer Lending Programs Face-off: Which is Better for You?

The following is a guest post by Charley Mendoza, a freelance writer covering business and personal finance. She also moonlights as an investor, micro-entrepreneur, and adventure junkie. If you’d like to write a guest post about peer to peer lending or any other topics for Money Q&A, be sure to check out our guest posting guidelines. You want to diversify your investments, but you don’t have thousands of dollars to buy real estate or start a business. Perhaps you have an extra $300 or so a month, which you mostly invest in stocks and other paper assets. Now you want to diversify your portfolio. Peer to Peer (P2P) lending might be a good option for you. Peer to peer lending … Read more

Home Inspection Tips for Sellers – DIY Pre-Inspection Tips for Listing Your Home

by Guest Contributor

If you were selling your car you would give it a good clean inside and out as well as fixing a few minor faults in order to get the best possible price, so it makes a lot of sense to take the same approach when selling what is probably your biggest asset of all, your home.

If you are planning on selling your house it would be a good idea to walk around your property and make a list of the sort of jobs that you could tackle yourself, which is a better idea than waiting for someone else to find the sort of fixable faults that help drive the price down. 14-Day Free Trial on Home Real Estate Listing Service. Start Now at ForSaleByOwner.com!

Home Inspection Tips for Sellers

Here is a look at how to prepare your home ready for a home inspection, including some tips on how to be proactive when it comes to repairs, plus what to expect when an inspector calls, and why it often pays to come clean about any problems with the house.

Anticipating Problems

A typical scenario that can play out with a residential property deal is when a clause in the contract allows the buyer to back out of the deal or negotiate a lower price after they get the results of a home inspection carried out by a licensed professional.

If you don’t want the buyer to exercise that clause within about 7-10 days of the contract being ratified, you need to be a proactive seller and prepare your home before the home inspection is booked.

If you want the option of selling your home in its current condition and settled as is, there are options to get a cash offer when you visit WrenRealityInc.com and other sites like it, but if you want to try and maximize the amount you sell your home for, it often pays to anticipate any potential inspection problems and fix the issues beforehand.

Retirement Income Tips To Implement from Jeannette Bajalia

by Guest Contributor

The following is a guest post by Jeannette Bajalia who is the author of Planning A Purposeful Life: Secrets of Longevity, Retirement Done Right and Wi$e Up Women and president and principal advisor of Petros Estate & Retirement Planning. If you’d like to submit a guest post to Money Q&A, be sure to check out Money Q&A’s Guest Posting Guidelines.

The average person spends 30-40 years working, saving, investing and dreaming about the yellow brick road of retirement. I know this because I’m a baby boomer and have done the same.

After 38 years at my first career, I retired at 55. Recently I celebrated the 10^th anniversary of my second career, or the second chapter of my professional life as a retirement income planner.

I became a retirement income planner because, after retiring from my first career, I knew I was headed out of the savings mode – which we refer to as the accumulation phase of our lives – and into the distribution phase, meaning I now needed to use my savings as income.

Talk about a huge psychological shift!

I was an expert at savings, now I needed to learn the most efficient way to use my savings to produce predictable income streams that would last a lifetime.

On my quest to get help, I interviewed five financial advisors with one goal: To get a solid retirement plan that would ensure I didn’t run out of money before I ran out of life.

The Opportunity Cost of Debt You Are Holding Onto in Life

by Guest Contributor

Opportunity Cost - How Debt Is Ruining Your Life

The following is a guest post from the crew over at Kasasa, a financial technology and marketing services company for the banking industry. Kasasa provides local banks and credit unions with marketing, resources, and innovative products including free checking. If you haven’t checked out their services, I highly recommend you do so and find an institution near you that offers Kasasa’s free checking.

It’s hard to avoid debt.

Without it, the idea of buying a home or going to college would be unattainable for many. Even the people who we see as successful or enviable most likely have debts in some form.

So how can you utilize debt to grow your worth without digging a hole you can’t get out of? Simple: minimize the opportunity costs of the debts you hold.

What is opportunity cost?

In laymen’s terms: opportunity cost comes down to weighing your options and calculating the most efficient path to achieve your desired outcome.

It’s represented by this equation:

Opportunity Cost = Return of Most Lucrative Option – Return of Chosen Option

Why is opportunity cost important?

Since debt has become such a norm for many Americans, we’ve lost the urgency to get out of debt. The mindset can easily become: “Well, these minimum payments are so small, they don’t really impact my lifestyle. Why should I rush? Being in debt isn’t so bad, right?”

Wrong.

This mentality will cost you in the long run. Let’s look at a practical example that will reveal just how much you ultimately pay for your debt. And how much you could be saving if you calculated the opportunity costs of your debt now.

Example:

Let’s say you have $30,000 in student loans you need to pay off over the course of 40 years at a 5% interest rate. That’s a pretty long time to pay off your loans, and if you have a good job, the estimated $144.66 you need to pay each month might not hurt your lifestyle so much.

However, by the time you pay off that loan, you will have paid a total of $69,436. That’s almost $40,000 in interest over the life of the loan.

We don’t need to tell you what you could have done with that money.

Now, taking into account the opportunity cost, what if you paid $50 extra on the principal each month?

Top 5 Rules for Picking a Business Name

by Guest Contributor

Rules for Picking a Business Name Every business needs a name. But, what you may not realize is that choosing the name of your new company could be the most important decision you’ll make in the beginning.

When customers hear your business name, it can either have a powerful impact on the way they view the company or it could have a negative impact if you choose the wrong name.

Today, we’d like to help you make the best decision possible when picking your name.

So if you take the time to learn and use these five rules, you’ll have no problem picking a name that inspires confidence in your abilities to help customers far and wide.

1. Pick a Name that’s Easy to Remember and Pronounce

Some companies like to use made up names when creating the name of their company. Other companies like to choose nonsensical phrases.

Guess what?

This isn’t always the best idea. But, that’s not to say that it’s a completely terrible idea since companies like Google, Yahoo, and the like have had some success with this type of name.

In truth, these names really don’t mean anything to people. So they are easily forgettable and they really don’t tell people the identity of your brand.

Instead, you should choose a name that is simple to pronounce, straightforward to remember, and one that helps promote your brand.

2. Simplicity Is the Key to Choosing a Great Business Name

It’s a good idea to choose a shorter, simpler name when naming your business.

Why a Financial Blueprint Can Give You Financial Freedom

by Guest Contributor

Can You Afford The Cost Of Starting a Family?

The following is a guest post by Greg Powell, author of Better, Richer, Fuller: How Building Your Financial House Can Help Protect Your Loved Ones, Grow Your Assets, and Free You to Live the American Dream. If you’d like to submit a guest post, check out Money Q&A’s guest posting guidelines for more information.

Everyone needs a financial blueprint. Why use the term blueprint? Because people understand the value of a blueprint.

If you are building your dream house you wouldn’t give your money to an architect or builder who after an hour says to you, “I’ve gotten enough ideas, I’ll start on your house tomorrow.” No, you would review with an architect the vision you have of your home, how many rooms, bathrooms, fireplaces, and etcetera. Then the architect would develop a set of blueprints from which the builder and construction team would work.

Too often in the financial services industry, the “I’ve gotten enough ideas” approach is used by advisors when someone meets them for the first time and begins to share their vision for their life.

Financial planning doesn’t have to be complex or intimidating. However, it does need to be in depth and take into account the dreams and goals of your life and your family. There are questions in the financial blueprint process that everyone needs to ask or have discussions about.