Love The Thrill of Risk? Invest in an Annuity!. Devising Newer Ways of Repayment.
With the stock market in steep decline, people are looking for safe places to invest their savings.
Many banks and investment companies are pushing annuities. Annuities offer a higher interest rate than CD's, but are they safe?
You could view an annuity as a tax deferred CD. You don't pay taxes on the interest until you start drawing from the annuity. But there are some important differences between an annuity and a CD.
An annuity is a product offered by an insurance company. With giant corporations like Enron, Kmart, Worldcom, and United Airlines going bankrupt, can you guarantee that the insurance company won't fold, leaving you with nothing? Insurance companies are insured by re-insurers, like General Re. But it seems no matter how large a company is, you can't be sure it won't fold. The bankruptcy of a large insurance company might cause the re-insurer to collapse along with it.
Bank CD's are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for up to $100,000 per bank. The FDIC is a branch of the U.S. Government, who, as you know, are the people who print the money. If they go bankrupt, we'll have more to worry about than just losing our savings!
A new type of annuity called a charitable gift annuity has come on the market recently. These are issued by charity organizations. You give your money to the charity, you receive a tax benefit, and in exchange the charity promises you a fixed payment for life. Unfortunately, this scheme has become a mode of operation for con artists.
The charitable gift annuity has been added to top ten scam list of the North American Securities Administrators Association. They explain that charitable gift annuities are subject to virtually no federal regulation. Here in Arizona, 430 investors lost their savings in a ponzi scheme run by the Mid-America Foundation Inc.
Banks and investment companies hawking annuities promote the higher than CD interest rates, but they fail to reveal the hidden fees and high early withdrawal penalties. If you need to access your annuity before age 59�½, you could be subject to a 10 percent penalty.
With the recent bankruptcies, and discovery that many giant corporations have been cooking their books for years, I feel it's best to play it safe. If you love the thrill of risk, or if you have already purchased an annuity, I wish you luck. As Will Rogers said, "I am not as concerned about the return ON my money as I am about the return OF my money".
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How good would it have been had there been no obligation to repay the loan or mortgage? This is what most people think when required to make the monthly repayments. But try as much as they can, they are never able to change the situation.
The borrower has to cut his monthly expenses to provide for the repayment. The amount to be repaid includes the principal amount of the loan and the interest calculated based on the rate of interest prevailing in the market. This is the traditional method of repayment.
The loan amount is broken into a number of small parts for an easy repayment. The number of parts corresponds with the term of repayment. Thus, if the loan or mortgage is to be repaid in a period of five years, the number of equal parts of the loan will be 60. The repayments are to be made on a monthly or quarterly basis.
An improvement in the method above was made to reduce the burden of a borrower. The borrower is required to pay regular monthly installments as in the earlier method. After a certain number of installments the borrower can pay the remaining balance of the loan with a single balloon payment.
An alternative of the traditional method of repayment is an interest only repayment. In this type of repayment, the borrower is required to pay only the interest. At the end of the term of repayment or any particular time period desired by the borrower, the balance on the loan is repaid in full.
The monthly repayment in the interest only method is far lesser than in the former method. This is because the monthly repayment in case of the former includes both principal and interest. It is on this count that people prefer to repay through the interest only method. However, this method of repayment increases the cost of the loan.
A Repayment vehicle is created to repay the loan or mortgage at the end of the term of repayment. The borrower is required to pay a monthly figure into the repayment vehicle.
Pensions, endowment policies, and individual savings account are the most important repayment vehicles. Pensions are widely used for repayment of the loan or mortgage amount. An added advantage in case of the pension policy is that the employer pays half of the amount of pensions. Thus effectively speaking, the borrower spends only half the amount in the repayment. Being tax free, these repayment vehicles offer a cheap means of repayment.
Another method of repayment which is not very popular but can be used for short term loans is the payment of principal and interest in one installment. This is helpful for people who need funds during contingencies. They can pay off the loan when the situation improves. An advantage of this type of loan is that the interest cost is lesser.
If you find that the methods discussed above are rigid as to the amount of monthly installments and the mode of repayment, then the equal principal payments will be helpful. The interest in this method is calculated in declining balance method. Thus, it means that the repayments change every month according to the reduced balance.
Early or premature repayment of the loan or mortgage (if permitted by the lender) is another repayment method. Before signing any documents for loans and mortgages, one must see properly if the lender does not prohibit early repayment with a penalty clause. Refinancing a loan or remortgaging a mortgage can help customers get rebate for early repayment. These transfer the loan or mortgage to another lender. So the borrowers can benefit from a lower rate of interest and a rebate for early repayment.
Whatever be the method chosen, the ultimate end of it would be the repayment of the loan or mortgage in full. All forms of repayment have their respective pros and cons. A perfect match between the pros and cons of the repayment methods and the individual financial condition must be established in order to derive the best method of repayment. There is not always an easy return from a particular method of repayment. A wrong repayment method can be precarious to ones financial health.
Andrew baker has done his masters in finance from CPIT. He is engaged in providing free, professional, and independent advice to the residents of the UK.He works for the personal loan web site http://www.ukfinanceworld.co.uk for any type of uk secured and unsecured loan please visit http://www.ukfinanceworld.co.uk
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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