To start off, renting to own is an agreement whereby an investor rents
out a house to a tenant and gives them the option to purchase the
property after a certain period of time at a predetermined price. In general terms, a rent to own contract consists of two agreements that
run at the same time. The first is a lease that you sign on the
property. The second is the purchase agreement, which sets out the
purchase price that you agree to pay for the house in the future.
Benefits of Rent to Own
You could get into the home of your dreams TODAY!
Get into a Home and Cap the Future Purchase Price!
Get into a Home even if your Credit is Bruised!
Get into a Home today with a lower Down Payment!
Get your Family settled into their neighborhood and Schools!
You get your Credit Profile improved to meet Bank Lending Guidelines!
Stop Paying Rent!
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WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO BUY YOUR HOME.. TODAY!
Steady Income
A desire to Stop Paying Rent!
A desire to Repair any Credit Issues
3% or $10,000 Down Payment Required
Here is a summary of events which occur during the Rent To Own Program:
You work with your own realtor or one of our associate Realtors to
find the house you want to own in the future…we do not have an inventory
of houses to choose from.
Once your Funding Partner is located, we will draft the Contracts
which contain the financing details of your Lease Purchase Program.
Our Underwriting department analysis your application to ensure you
can afford the Monthly Lease to Own Payment and that we can formulate a
plan to get you into Home Ownership in the future. Basically we make
sure we can resolve the issues that make Banks say no today. Once we are
confident you can exit our program we will send you a Rent To Own Program offer for your consideration.
You “must” take these Rent to own program contracts to your lawyer
to obtain Independent Legal Advice (ILA)…it is mandatory with our
program. Once your lawyer has given the “green light” you will need to sign and return the contracts.
If you agree to the terms of the Rent To Own Program, we then ask
you to send us back a signed copy of your acceptance along with
supporting documents for our review.
The Real Estate contracts are then signed between the Seller of the
Property and your Funding Partner…remember…your Funding Partner will
actually buy the house on your behalf and you sign contracts to become
the future Home Owner using our Rent To Own Program
Once your lawyer has given the “green light” you will need to sign and return the contracts.
Once we are satisfied your rent to own program will achieve the end
goal…a successful exit…we will find a suitable Funding Partner.
We close…you move in and we start working on the “Exit Strategy” put in place before you were approved your Rent To Own Program
Contact Us Tel: 416 822 5886 Email: edwin.m@moneyvalue.ca Visit: https://moneyvalue.ca
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Foundation estimates nearly two-thirds of Americans can't pass a basic financial literacy test.
Schools aren't instilling financial literacy along with ABCs and the three R's, but parents can educate kids about money.
Encourage hard work, saving and planning; teach kids about investing, budgets and giving; warn them about debt — and don't fix all their mistakes.My father emigrated from Taiwan in the 1960s with only $17 to his name
and the clothes on his back. Though he was poor in a material and
financial sense, he never considered himself poor. His mantra was that
financial wealth alone does not represent one's "true wealth." My dad taught me not to define myself by how much I had, but by what I
did with what I had. I learned early on not to let money be the sole
determining factor for the decisions I made in life, but I also learned
that, although money couldn't buy happiness, it could provide peace of
mind, freedom and flexibility. I am thankful for the values my father
instilled in me about "true wealth," but I am also grateful that he
taught me about finances. My dad understood the importance of financial literacy and has left me a legacy that I am now passing on to my own three children.
Financial literacy is
having the knowledge necessary to manage personal finances efficiently.
Financially literate people know how to achieve long-term goals and make
healthy financial decisions.
On the other hand, those who are not financially literate have
difficulty applying financial decision-making skills to real-life
situations. Not only do they tend to make unhealthy money decisions that
create financial problems, they have trouble reaching financial
milestones. In America today, financial illiteracy has become an
epidemic. A study done by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
Foundation estimated that nearly two-thirds of Americans can't pass a
basic financial literacy test. That's a problem.
Whereas basic literacy is a priority for public educators, financial literacy is not.
Educators and pundits are still debating the part public schools and
universities should play in promoting financial literacy — and clearly,
it should be more than it is. Parents, however, do not have to wait to
begin fostering financial independence in their children at home.
Here are some things you can be doing right now to raise financially literate children.
1. Teach your children to work hard.
Children need to understand the correlation between work and earnings
from a young age. If your kids are actually doing the work they're
getting paid for, don't be apprehensive about paying them to work.
Rewards motivate children, and money is an attractive reward. Allowing
them to take on chores that they can get paid for not only teaches them
the value of hard work but helps them learn how to manage their money.
If they don't do their work, don't pay them.
You can also cultivate
their entrepreneurial spirit by encouraging them to offer babysitting,
pet care and yard work or housecleaning services to friends, neighbors
or relatives. Kids who work for pay can learn the cost in labor of an
impulse buy without monumental consequences. They can also learn the
satisfaction of working hard to build savings and achieve goals.
Children who understand the value of hard work learn to be responsible for what they produce. 2. Give your children vision.Financial planning
is about defining your personal goals and creating a realistic plan to
accomplish them. Discuss your family's financial objectives with your
children and let them see what you do to achieve them. Encourage them to
explore their own ambitions and aspirations for the future and set
personal financial goals.
Their plans and
objectives can and probably will change, but learning to implement both
long- and short-term goals allows them to taste success and enjoy the
fruit of good planning. 3. Help them learn to save. Helping your children
learn the value of regular and disciplined savings is a gift. As soon as
they are old enough to start filling up a piggy bank, they can begin
saving. When the piggy bank is full, set up a savings account and let
them manage their records so they can see how much they are saving over
time. This will be a valuable lesson during their teen years, when
they're tempted to spend savings meant for a car or college on food,
clothing and friends.
Children learn by doing. Help them create a workable budget that prioritizes savings but develops self-control.
Then teach them to save regularly and systematically by establishing a
timeline to reach specific goals. As they begin to experience the
benefits of savings firsthand, they will start saving on their own. 4. Talk to them about investing. Teaching your child the fundamentals of investing early
is a worthy investment in their financial literacy. It does not need to
be complicated. Even very young children can plant a seed and watch it
grow over time. Board games that teach about money provide excellent opportunities to show children how investing works. Kids can also see how compound interest works with a compound-interest calculator, which allows them to calculate how much even a small investment now can yield in profits over time.
You can introduce your
kids to basic but important concepts such as inflation, interest rates
and investing in companies they respect by merely talking with them
about what's happening in the economy. 5. Teach them to give. Children need to learn to
share, because they need to learn their stuff isn't what's most
important. Learning to give from what they earn not only teaches the
value of generosity but helps them see that making money is not the most
important thing in life.
Organizations such as World Vision offer a gift-giving catalog
that allows children to choose practical gifts such as chickens, goats
and clean water for children and families in other parts of the world.
Giving a portion of their allowance to the children's hospital
collection in the checkout line or donating to the Salvation Army at
Christmas provide opportunities for kids to discover what they value
most and support it in tangible ways.
6. Show them how to budget.
Teach your children that no matter how hard they work, it's unlikely
they will be able to save, invest or give without budgeting. Even young
children can learn to budget by distributing their allowance in jars
designated for long-term savings, short-term savings, giving and
spending. Older children can transition into a more detailed envelope
system and a written budget and eventually manage their budget through an app. Budgeting helps kids learn how to save for what they want and need
without going into debt. The principles of budgeting can be taught from a
young age and sustained as a child grows into adolescence and
adulthood. 7. Warn them about debt. We live in a
consumer-driven culture. Even with a sound budget, debt can be hard to
avoid. Children need to understand the costs and implications associated
with debt so they can develop the self-control necessary to avoid bad debt
and use good debt wisely. Satisfying your child's impulse by buying
them what they want and justifying it by making them pay it back later
is not teaching them to handle debt; it's encouraging impulse buying.
Bad debt is anything that
depreciates. Open credit card balances and car payments are bad debt.
Traditionally, good debt is something that brings returns. Borrowing to
finance a home or college degree has long been considered good debt, but
times have changed. Americans currently owe more than $1.48 trillion in student-loan debt
spread out over 44 million borrowers. We are just now beginning to
recover from the sub-prime mortgage crisis that caused the 2008
financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession. Make sure your children
understand that even good debt costs. Help them learn to count the cost
and understand the obligations associated with debt. 8. Don'tsolve their problems for them.
Parents like to fix things for their kids. We don't like to see our
children suffer. Unfortunately, alleviating the pain associated with bad
financial decisions fosters financial ignorance, even if it's as simple
as fronting the money to your 10-year-old to buy the latest video game
after he nickeled-and-dimed away his allowance. Financially literate
children understand that poor spending habits have consequences.
Of course, to raise financially literate children, you need to endeavor to be financially literate yourself. Your willingness to raise your own financial IQ will not only set an example for your kids but will most likely improve your own financial situation.
Marguerita Cheng CNBC contributor and CEO and cofounder of Blue Ocean Global Wealth
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Financial Planning helps in improving risk
management, improve portfolio ROI, uses metrics to manage money, among
other benefits.
To do or not to do- this is the dilemma we all face in many a situation.
While there is a yes and no as an answer to every dilemma, when it
comes to financial planning, we would tend to lean towards the 'yes'
more than the 'no'. In fact, in today's world, we would consider
financial planning to rank pretty high in Maslow’s Hierarchy, and is as
critical as the safety and social needs. Other than the fact that
financial planning helps in bringing about discipline and achieving
financial security, there are a few other reasons as well as to why you
should do financial planning. Here are such top reasons:
1.Improves risk management: Taking adequate life cover
and health cover is critical. When you do financial planning, you can
determine the amount of cover you need with greater certainty. Thus you
do not overpay for unnecessary insurance and also do not end up with a
lower than necessary cover.
2.Improvement in portfolio return on investment (ROI):
Financial planning takes into account various aspects like risk
management, investment planning, goal planning, liquidity management and
liability management. You are able to design an integrated investment
plan that takes into account goals, available liquidity and risk
appetite, thus helps in improving your portfolio ROI.
3.Use the metrics approach to manage your money:
When you undertake financial planning, you can measure specific
milestones on what you have achieved. There is a science involved in
managing money and financial planning helps you do this with higher
efficiency. 4.Identify good and not so good areas: Financial
planning helps you bring order to your finances by identifying what is
right and not right for you. For example, you may be low on insurance
cover or holding investments which are performing poorly. Financial
planning helps you identify this and take corrective measures.
5.Reduce your cost of personal finance:
When you undertake financial planning, you can cut down on many
personal finance costs. A good example is by doing away with expensive
ULIP policies or any investment which carries high charges.
6.Discipline in managing money:
Financial planning brings in discipline. Also, there are subtle
behavioural changes when you undergo financial planning. For example,
when you run a systematic investment plan (SIP), your expenses are
automatically curtailed and this goes towards investments. Similarly,
when you do financial planning, you become aware if your lifestyle
expenses are above or below what you can afford. If it is the former,
you can take necessary steps to cut back on unnecessary expenses.
7. Measure and improve asset allocation: Asset
allocation is a critical element of managing your money. There has to be
a fine balance struck between managing risk and returns, and the right
assets need to be chosen for the same. Financial planning helps in
selecting the right asset allocation mix depending on your risk and
return preferences.
8. Future visibility:
Planning is for the future. While we have often heard quotes saying that
you should live the present and not dwell on the past or worry about
the future, when it comes to money, considering the future becomes very
important. Financial planning helps you get visibility for next 15-20
years. You are able to get comfort on retirement and planning your money
during emergency situations. This helps in achieving peace of mind and
also helps you plan in case there is a gap.
9. Estate distribution:
Will writing and estate planning is an integral part of financial
planning. When you do financial planning you can plan your estate
distribution after your time, such that disputes are avoided.
10. Professional approach: There is a professional
approach in putting together a plan and tracking it. You can implement
best practices with the help of your financial advisor. All this brings
about greater order to your money management practices.
Financial planning is not difficult. It is easy and it pays off handsome returns over the long term.
Get a comprehensive financial plan today. It is absolutely free.
For many people, their first experience with life insurance is when a
friend or acquaintance gets an insurance license. In my case, a college
friend, recently hired by a major insurance company, contacted me
(along with all of his other friends) to buy a $10,000 policy
underwritten by his company.
Unfortunately, however, this is how
most people acquire life insurance – they don’t buy it, it is sold to
them. But is life insurance something that you truly need, or is it
merely an inconvenience shoved under your nose by a salesperson? While
it may seem like the latter is true, there are actually many reasons why
you should purchase life insurance.
Reasons to Buy Life Insurance
As
I grew older, got married, started a family, and began a business, I
realized that life insurance was indispensable and fundamental to a
sound financial plan. Over the years, life insurance has given me peace
of mind knowing that money would be available to protect my family and
estate in a number of ways, including: 1. To Pay Final Expenses
The cost of a funeral and burial can easily run into the tens of
thousands of dollars, and I don’t want my wife, parents, or children to
suffer financially in addition to emotionally at my death. 2. To Cover Children’s Expenses
Like most fathers, I want to be sure my kids are well taken care of and
can afford a quality college education. For this reason, additional
coverage is absolutely essential while my kids are still at home. 3. To Replace the Spouse’s IncomeIf
my wife had passed away while the kids were young, I would’ve needed to
replace her income, which was essential to our lifestyle. I also
would’ve needed to hire help for domestic tasks we’d shared like
cleaning the house, laundry, cooking, helping with schoolwork, and
carting kids to doctor’s visits. 4. To Pay Off Debts
In addition to providing income to cover everyday living expenses, my
family would need insurance to cover debts like the mortgage so they
wouldn’t have to sell the house to stay solvent. 5. To Buy a Business Partner’s Shares
Since I’m involved in a business partnership, I
need insurance on my partner’s life. The reason is so if he dies, I
will have enough cash to buy his interest from his heirs and pay his
share of the company’s obligations without having to sell the company
itself. He has the same needs (due to the risk that I might die), and he
simultaneously purchased insurance on my life. 6. To Pay Off Estate Taxes
Estate taxes can be steep, so having insurance in place to pay them is
essential to avoid jeopardizing assets or funds built for retirement.
Use of insurance for this purpose is most common in large estates, and
uses permanent (rather than term) insurance to ensure that coverage
remains until the end of life.
Final Word
Some people mistakenly believe that life insurance
is a scam. This is due to the fact that the money for premiums is lost
if death doesn’t occur during the coverage period (in the case of term
insurance), or because many people live to a ripe old age and continue
to pay their permanent insurance premiums. Such naysayers compare life
insurance protection to gambling, and forgo the protection entirely.
Of course, there is no bet – you will die,
but no one knows when. It could be today, tomorrow, or 50 years into
the future, but it will happen eventually. Life insurance protects your
heirs from the unknowable and helps them through an otherwise difficult
time of loss.
Do you have life insurance? Why or why not?
Contact a Licensed Advisor today to discuss your Life Insurance Needs.
Most
investors try to stay on top of their accounts and follow the rules of
prudent money management. But as the mind slows with age, decision
making may be impaired, and experts warn that dementia and even
Alzheimer’s disease can leave you incapable of managing your affairs.
“As
we age, our personalities change and it’s undeniable that our cognitive
abilities do, too,” says Marshall McAlister, a private wealth
counsellor and principal at Pavilion Investment House in Edmonton.
Putting
controls in place for the decline to come is becoming top of mind for
many people, he says. They fear they might fall prey to fraud, for
example, or begin to make mistakes with electronic banking. The wealthy
are particularly at risk, as they have more to lose.
“We require older people to pass a driver’s test in Canada, but that’s not required for managing your finances,” he says.
A
2016 study by Texas Tech University and the University of Michigan
showed that financial literacy drops significantly as people age,
matching the erosion of memory and problem-solving abilities later in
life. Respondents to basic financial questions saw their test scores
fall 1 percentage point each year above age 60.
At
the same time, however, older people didn’t report a loss of confidence
in their capacity to make financial decisions, the researchers found,
because the decline happened gradually and they were not aware that
their abilities were degrading.
“It’s
not going to be optimal if you can’t remember if you rebalanced [your
investments] and you can’t keep up with your records,” says Sandi
Martin, a fee-for-service financial planner at Spring Financial Planning
in Gravenhurst, Ont. It makes sense for older people to designate
others who can pick up the baton long before that day arrives, she says.
“We all have to prepare for the
time when the optimal strategy is to let someone take over,” she says.
Choosing someone to take over for you can be difficult, she notes, as
that person may ultimately face your feelings of paranoia, stress and
worry that can come with Alzheimer’s.
Everyone,
especially high-net-worth individuals, must plan for incapacity, says
Philip Renaud, a trust and estates lawyer and partner at Duncan Craig
LLP. His clients are urged to make out wills, create enduring powers of
attorney and personal directives for health care. These latter documents
can vary by jurisdiction and be tailored to suit the individual or
couple, for example covering specialized assets such as a family
business or vacation property.
Here are steps to consider for financial planning in cognitive decline.
Form a relationship with a trusted person or people who will carry out your wishes.
Find
someone in your family, or an accountant or professional adviser or
lawyer who knows you and what your intentions are, who will manage your
personal affairs and be your backstop, says Mr. McAlister. Many people
choose their spouse for the role, he says, but a spouse can often have
the same cognition decline or not be up to the job.
Mr.
Renaud notes that in picking the right executor, trustee or attorney
(the title given to someone who has power of attorney), beware of
tension among family members. A legal representative may need
specialized knowledge to deal with assets such as the family business or
vacation property.
Some people hire
a professional to be their executor or attorney, someone who has the
right skills, is accountable and is a good record-keeper. This person
could also be paired with a family member or personal friend, say, to
get “the best of both worlds,” he says.
Draw up an investment policy statement and set markers for determining your competence.
This will ensure that your affairs can be picked up seamlessly and managed according to a program when the time comes.
Mr.
McAlister says there are people with assets of $5-million or more who
have no kind of financial plan in place and who also have outdated
wills, powers of attorney and personal directives. “We have to know how
all that money is going to be managed before we have to guess what your
intentions are,” he says.
Setting
rules up front is essential, Ms. Martin suggests. “The more that’s
agreed upon ahead of time, when everybody’s thinking rationally and at
their full capability, the easier it is later on.”
It’s
essential to have a “test for capacity” in your power of attorney, Mr.
Renaud notes. For example, the determination can be made by a doctor, a
spouse or your children, although he warns that family members can have
difficulty or conflicts in making such a determination.
Draw up a power of attorney that covers incapacity and ensure its rules and conditions work with your situation.
Most
provinces allow for an immediate power of attorney, which applies
instantly, as its name implies, and a “springing” power of attorney that
can be invoked “if your memory starts to go,” Mr. Renaud says. “You’re
still the boss and you call the shots as long as you’re still capable,
but this enables your attorney to step in and help you manage, and, if
necessary, take over.”
The wording
of the power of attorney must cover special situations, he says, such as
use of the family cottage or whether you want to keep donating to a
charity. An attorney is typically bound by a “prudent investor rule”
that might not suit a high-net-worth investor who prefers a riskier
asset mix, say, or who owns a business, Mr. Renaud notes. “You can
change the rules.”
Consider forming a trust that will allow you, or you and your spouse, to have your affairs managed competently by a trustee.
If
you’re older than 65, turning all of your assets over to an alter ego
trust will allow you to remain the beneficiary of all capital and income
if you become incapacitated. A spousal trust works much the same way,
says Mr. Renaud, noting that most people opt for trusts to avoid probate
in the settlement of estates. He recommends that individuals consult
with their lawyers about the advantages and disadvantages of powers of
attorney and trusts in their situations.
“Think
about potential problems and put in rules and systems,” he says. “This
will take pressure off your executor or trustee – and ensure that your
wishes and family order are maintained.”
Hold
family meetings to disclose and discuss how your investments, banking
and other affairs are being managed – and should be in the future.
“I’m
a big believer that if moms and dads tell their kids what’s going on,
that can allow a greater experience for everybody involved,” says Mr.
McAlister.
Family members who are
going to be responsible for managing your affairs through a power of
attorney should be told your financial and investment wishes well ahead
of time, Ms. Martin says, before cognitive decline brings on feelings of
mistrust.
“You need to have a
good, long, honest discussion so they’re not just entering into it
blindly,” she says. “You have to say, ‘Here are my wishes now, you just
do the best job, and don’t worry whether me in 20 years thinks you’re
doing a good job.’”
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Older people need to prepare for the time when the optimal strategy is to let someone take over.