SearchExclusive.com

Investing Ideas For New Families

Investment is crucial for individuals as well as families. As you start a family, your responsibilities come to the forefront. To tackle these responsibilities, you must start investing at the earliest.

There will be plenty of milestones in your family life, such as buying the house of your dreams, hospital expenses, the birth of a child, and college expenses. If you have safe and sound investments in place, life will be easier financially.

Sometimes, young families get so absorbed in their careers and in enjoying life, they tend to ignore some investment aspects that will secure their future as the family expands.

Long-term goals
While planning for investment, focus on your long-term goals. Social security checks are inadequate to cover for day-to-day expenses. Long-term funds and bonds are good. The money is locked for a longer tenure, say a 10-year period, at a specified interest rate.

Pay off debts
If you are planning to retire comfortably, the best way to start investing is to start on a clean state. By paying off your debts, you will pave the way for more savings. Start by paying off debts like credit card, student loans, or car loans, which carry high-interest rates.

Save for retirement
Even though your retirement is decades away, there is nothing better than a good old 401 (k) plan and Roth IRA plan. Try to match your employer’s contribution to make it 100%. Couples have the advantages of employer-sponsored plans and claiming retirement savings tax breaks. Take advantage of such plans to maximize your contributions. Couples need to save at least 10%-15% of their pre-tax income.

Start with ETFs
Savings start with ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds) and mutual funds. They are a great way to start building a portfolio. Under ETFs such as the Vanguard 500 index fund, you are investing your dollars in a basket of 500 stocks. Try to set aside a portion of your paycheck to invest in mutual funds every month.

State 529 plan
Find whether your state is a part of the State 529 plan, a saving plan tailored to help you save for your children’s college tuition. The legal term used to describe this plan is qualified tuition plans. It is state-sponsored and authorized under section 529 of the IRA. Take advantage of these funds, which are exempt from federal taxes.

Savings
Make saving a habit. Allocate 20% of your savings to cover for any emergency or unplanned expenses. This will give you liquidity. Moreover, keep some savings at your disposal, for example, in your savings account. Choose a high-yield savings account that offers liquidity for a rainy day.

Insurance
Though young families do not realize this earlier, the security of insurance must not be underestimated. Insurance is a type of family umbrella that can provide cover to the entire family in a very inexpensive and secured manner. Personal insurance and health insurance are the best investments one can make for their family. The government-sponsored Obama Care Act is an affordable insurance program that offers tax benefits as well.

Family investment planning is all about setting priorities right when the time is on your side.

Related Reading

Tips for Buying the Best Dog Food

Most of the dogs do not have a food fuss and may eat almost anything that you feed them. Dogs are not choosy at all when it comes to food and nutrition. Hence, it is important to make sure that the food that you are purchasing for your dog is healthy. The landscape of dog food has been developing by leaps and bounds in recent times. There is a wide variety of options to choose from in the online and offline market. Given the wide range of options that are available today, buying the best dog food might seem to be a confusing task indeed. All the commercial pet food that is available in the market today is regulated by the FDA. Therefore, most of the products do contain nutritious, healthy, and safe ingredients. But it does help to know certain basic factors you should look for while buying food for your dog. Prioritize on the nutritional guarantee The best dog food, which meets the dog’s needs adequately has a statement written on the label of the product, from the Association of American Feed Control Officials. Buy from some of the best dog food brands, such as Fromm Family Foods, Earthborn Holistic, Nature’s Variety Instinct, and The Honest Kitchen.

Different Types of Kitchen Cabinets Available for Your Home

The most important aspect when designing your kitchen is deciding on the type of cabinets. In addition to functionality, kitchen cabinets score on aesthetics as well. Once the layout is planned, you can go ahead with choosing the cabinets. If you’re remodeling your home or just the kitchen, what you need to consider are the types of cabinets that furnish your kitchen. Here are a few types of kitchen cabinets that you can choose from. Base cabinets These kitchen cabinets are mounted on the floor and they are placed after checking out the floor plan. A major part of your job in the kitchen is on these base cabinets, which hold and support the countertops. These base cabinets are combined to carve out kitchen islands. A number of base cabinets are fused/set against one another and installed on site. The base cabinets, in addition to supporting the countertops, serve as drawers to hold your cutlery and appliances. Wall cabinets Mounted on the walls, these cabinets can store everything, right from your cookware to cookbooks. In terms of design, they offer utmost flexibility. Wall cabinet kitchen is available in varying heights, multiple widths, and custom depth options. This customization helps you to fit in your stuff of varying shapes and sizes into the wall cabinets.

How to Pick the Right Dog Food for a Sensitive Stomach

In today’s world, where you are presented with over a dozen choices for every item you would purchase for your own kitchen, it is not surprising that you have an equal number of options for your dog’s food. However, choosing the perfect brand and formula for your dog out of a range of options in the market is not an easy job. Your pet depends on you and trusts you to make the right choice for them. Therefore, it is imperative that you do your research about the products available in the market, understand what your dog needs, know what might be your pet’s problems, and then make a sound decision. What is a sensitive stomach? Dogs are known to have voracious and large appetites. Keeping that in mind, it is normal to assume that they have strong stomachs. They can eat close to anything be it sweets, bakes, chewy gum, hard leather or even woolen socks for that matter! It always so happens that the strongest of them are prone to allergies and can develop a disorder which is medically translated as a sensitive stomach. This might be due to a sudden change in the food habits or even due an infection picked up from somewhere.

All You Need to Know about Cat Food

For cat owners, cat food is a hot topic. You need to think about it in different aspects. The best thing is to know which ingredients are good for cat food and which are harmful. If you are aware of this, you can get an idea about the quality of the cat food just by going through the label. It is always sensible to stick to one brand of cat food. However, you may also want to try and prepare cat food yourself. There are also various options for wet cat food as well. Cat’s love for fish is universal, so you can do without going for expensive cat food. Nevertheless, whether you buy it or prepare cat food at home, you need to ensure that the food contains enough nutrition and calories. You would need to have some idea about the ingredients that must be present in cat food and make a worthy selection for your cat. Basic ingredients present in good cat foods Cats need a variety of nutrients to stay healthy and active; they need various vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins, and oils. The following is a brief explanation of the basic ingredients that should be present in cat foods.