Pension age in UK could rise further

I just wonder why are senior citizens always sidelined? With an increasing life expectancy UK Pension Minister Angela Eagle stated that the state pension age is expected to rise to 68. As of now the state pension age is 60 for women and 65 for men.

There are certain sections of the society which believe that with rising life expectancy each year government can simply not afford to maintain state benefits at the current level. If this happens it would mean people would have to depend more on company and private pension arrangements in the future.

A sorry situation for senior citizens at the moment I believe.

Set aside money for college with Upromise plan

Are you a teenager who is all set to go to college or a worried father who is concerned about college fees of his child then this is the best time to save for your college education so that you don’t have to run hamper scamper? You must check out the Upromise plan

The Upromise plan enables families to save for their child’s education through 529 college savings plans offered by the company. Whenever an Upromise account is linked to the participating 529 plan it ensures that Upromise savings are transferred automatically into the plan on periodic basis. It’s a free service and members will be able to earn 1 to 25 % on qualified everyday spending.

It’s a good program for self employed people who don’t have an employer-sponsored college savings program. Certainly a cool plan if you would like your kid to zoom through college without any sort of trouble.

Some interesting money savings tips for recession

Recession is still looming large and despite assurances nothing seems to be clicking. Now in order to deal with the testing times here are some interesting money saving tips for all you people out there:

Switching from bottled water to tap water
Canceling gym memberships
Using food left overs for making food rather than throwing it away
Maintain an unshaven look to avoid buying razors
Training cats to use the toilet to save on kitty litter
Throwing frock swapping parties

This is just few of some amazing money saving tips and I hope many of you would have already started following a few of these.

Get bad weather insurance from Lufthansa

What if your holidays get marred by bad weather? Airline Lufthansa has realized this and it is offering sunshine insurance where it would return back the money to the traveler in case it rains. Just for an extra fee of 20 euros travelers would be able to book flights with added insurance to 36 destinations worldwide between Sept 1 and Oct 31.

Holiday travelers will be eligible for 20 euro rebate every year in case more than 5mm rain is recorded on wetteronline.de with a maximum compensation of 200 euros per passenger.

Hurry up people as the offer ends on Aug 18!!

Cover your mortgage with insurance and get peace of mind

Today it’s impossible to buy a house without taking expensive loans. In these times of uncertainty people must definitely consider an insurance policy which could cover their expensive home loans in event of job loss, death, critical illness or disability.

Insurance covering your mortgage is a pure risk product and since it’s not an investment alternative don’t expect any kind of returns on it. In case of death or disability of the breadwinner the outstanding amount is returned to the lender.

You should definitely consider this kind of insurance as the premiums are affordable and the premium amount is based on your age, amount of loan, loan tenure and interest rate. In some kind of policies the insurance cover also covers the house and its content.

Above all do read all the terms and conditions before signing on the dotted line.

It’s better to pay off your mortgage when you are still working

Gone are the days when most of us ended debt free or without any mortgage by the time we retired but times have changed for the worse and most of us who retire today end up with mortgage on our heads.

As per Boston College Center for Retirement Research report, it would be good if you pay your mortgage rather than drag it into retirement or if you cant then another option would be to set aside money in taxable or tax deferred account for the purpose.

In the current environment you must consider that a mortgage pays better return on the money as compared to other risk free assets. It’s better to write a check to the lender rather than stack up those investments which could lead a lot of grey hair for you.

Online mortgages and you

You might feel that online mortgages is pain but let me tell you online lenders can offer you better mortgage rates at lower fees when compared with a traditional bank. It means enormous savings and benefits for you provided one adopts tried and tested method for evaluation of the lenders.

Check out LendingTree which is a search engine that enables borrowers to compare financial products which includes mortgages from online lenders. One of the tools is Look Before You Lock which enables borrowers to compare customized loan offers to sort out the best of the lot.

One of the problems encountered with online lenders is that their appraisers are not local therefore they may not be able to understand the market and in case numbers don’t match the borrower would end up with a higher than expected mortgage payment.

At the end of the day go for a reputable lender in order to avoid troubles later on.