In today’s time most people are in some sort of debt. Many people start to search for debt relief because the bills start to surpass the money they make at there job. Here is the list for the 7 best financial advice for 2008.

1. Never co-sign a loan for anyone. Why, it always ends up in court. It does not matter if it is your mother,father,brother,sister,aunt,friend etc. I have seen a lot of sisters and brothers taking each other to court lately for money problems. Don’t do it.

2. Try to buy items that have quality. Why, because it will last a lot longer than something that is cheap. You do not want to spend the little money you have buying the same item over and over again. Buying high quality items the first time around will help you save in the end. You will not have to buy that item for a very long time.

3. This is the number one reason why so many people need and look for financial advice. You must learn the difference between needs and wants. When you shop for food or clothing before you pull out your wallet, ask yourself do I really need this? If you answer,” I don’t need this but I want this,” there is your problem. When you are in debt and you need to make an important chose. You only should buy things you need, such as toilet paper, milk, bread etc. Do not waste money on things I call luxury items, such as a new dress, a new pair shoes or a new bowling ball. You’re wasting a lot of money.

4. Another really great financial advice that you can follow is to leave your credit cards at home. Only bring your bank card this way you can only spend what you have on your card. If you don’t have the money in your checking account you can’t buy it. This will stop you from spending too much.

5. Debt relief does not start with borrowing money. If you need more money it might be a good idea to get a second job if you need it. Many people I know work at two jobs. You can just work the two jobs until you pay down your bills to where you don’t owe anyone any money.

6. The best debt relief advice I can give you is not to gamble if you can help it. If you have to gamble only spend what you can afford to lose. This includes the Lottery also. I know people who spend almost there entire paycheck on lottery tickets.

7. If you have not thought about this last financial advice, you need to. Most people who become wealthy did it by owning there own business. It can be a work at home business also. If you make way more money than your 9 to 5 job then you are on your way. This has happened to many people.

Normally, my articles are not personal or self serving. I explain concepts and options that people should be aware of but, if you’re not involved in the financial services industry you may not be aware of the things that I write about. But this is information that you should know, even if you don’t utilize Halas Consulting as your primary advisor. You might take one of my concepts and seek out a local advisor, he might gain you as a client without having to do any type of prospecting because you came in well informed and his job was half done. If this is the case, be sure to tell him that I said “You’re welcome.”

Right now the country, no, actually the world, is in the midst of a global financial crisis. While not naming any individual names the generic culprit in all of this is greed. From the very beginning, where people desired owing a home , that they never could afford, and knew it, to the people and firms that granted them loans that they didn’t deserve and were based on a fallacy, that fallacy being that home values would continue to rise and rise with no end in sight. Also, from the firms that packaged these crappy loans into securities (CMOs and CDOs), to the huge financial institutions who bought these things with dollar signs in their eyes of the high yields they will be earning on the high interest loans, and then subsequently keeping quiet when they figured out that what they spent their money on was, in some cases, worth no more than the paper it was printed on.

If you’re wondering what this all has to do with financial advice and guidance, let me explain. Some of these big institutions that caused this mess and also the “other mess” about 8 years ago are the same ones in the business of financial advice. You know the firms I speak of, right? The ones where the brokerage and investment banking arms of the same company were duping the public and while at the same time trying to get more business for their investment bank, and who can forget the late ’90s where many of these same firms were promoting tech stocks that didn’t have one drop of black ink to their names but were at the top of the “buy” list because they happened to have a “dot com” after their name, or they were involved in some wild, and exotic new biotechnology that no one really understood, but hey, anything that sounds this sexy has gotta be worth $60 for every dollar they lose.

The big financial firms that do this, can do this all that they want because sometimes they do hit it big, it’s just that those that go out and work everyday for a living don’t have the time to monitor when the market is a good buy and when it’s not. But the people to go to for financial advice are NOT the employees of these big firms as someone has to keep the gravy train rolling and their job is to find those “someones”, don’t let it be you!

The best place to go to for advice is one of the many, and growing, independent financial advisors. Their firms are known as Registered Investment Advisors, and the people that work for them are Investment Advisor Representatives. The license they hold is a Series 65 or Series 66. Preferably, they are compensated by either an hourly rate, or a percentage of assets under management which is typically around the 1% mark. This is different from a sales representative, known as a Registered Representative, who holds a Series 6 or Series 7 license, and works primarily on commission as opposed to a fee or hourly rate.

The big difference between Investment Advisor Representative and the Registered Representative is the professional standard that they are held to. A Registered Representative is held to a “suitability standard” meaning that he merely has to be able to prove that the product that he sells you is acceptable based on your needs, risk tolerance and time horizon. It may not be the best product for your needs. Heck, he might not even sell the best product, therefore he won’t make any money if he tells you about it. The Investment Advisor Representative, however, is held to a higher standard. All Registered Investment Advisor firms and those that work for them have a fiduciary duty to always act in the best interests of their client.

Let me give you an example of how this works. Let’s say we have a 38 year old married professional who wants to invest $50,000 that will be needed in about eight years from now. The money is currently in a non-qualified savings account (that means it’s taxable), and the investor is interested in keeping his expenses low as he has heard that high expenses and fees eat into investment returns.

If he goes to a Registered Representative, he will more than likely be recommended a portfolio of mutual funds held either by the fund families themselves or in a brokerage “wrap account” which has additional fees. The mutual funds will more than likely be funds with a front or back end sales charge as that’s how the Registered Representative is paid. The tax issue may or may not be addressed depending on the knowledge of the Registered Representative. The Representative could address the expense issue by choosing one of the many fund families that have lower investment expenses, but again, this depends on whether or not the representative is sensitive toward fees. Also, in many of the bigger firms “shelf space”rules come in to play. The “shelf space” rules are basically that the various investment companies pay a fee to the large brokerage firms to keep their mutual funds on the the brokerage firms shelves in lieu of other funds that may or may not be better performing or less expensive. The firms Registered Representatives are strongly encouraged to use these funds on the firm’s “approved” list.

If the aforementioned professional goes to the Investment Advisor Represenative, his experience is much different. Since Investment Advisor Representative is bound to always act in the client’s best interests, the first thing he is going to do is get an idea of the time horizon, and risk tolerance, he also needs to be mindful of the tax issue as if there is a problem in the future and it can be proven that the advisor overlooked the tax issue in making his recommendations, it could be a problem for him. As far as compensation is concerned, it can be done in several ways. First, the client can pay the advisor an hourly rate and simply take the recommendations and go out on his own to implement them, maybe be on an online brokerage or even go to the Registered Representative mentioned in the above paragraph. The client can also decide to have the advisor put the money with a brokerage that he is affiliated with an either manage the money for a flat fee, usually around 1-2% or, the client can manage the money himself but pay a slightly lower fee and have the advisor monitor the accounts on a less frequent basis than a managed account and make recommendations, usually quarterly or annually. The advisor, since his choices to invest the money are not tied to his compensation nor is he limited in any way as to what investments he uses, can recommend the same investments such as the Registered Representative, as well as investments such as the newer, low cost exchange traded funds (ETFs), which are also, coincidentally, very tax efficient also. The only way the Registered Representative can use ETFs and still make money on them is if he uses one of the products that put the ETFs in a package, which of course adds another layer of fees and expenses.

In conclusion, both Registered Representatives and Investment Advisor Representatives, as well as just about everyone else got burned in this latest financial meltdown. Unfortunately, foreseeing how this was going to all play out was difficult to predict. But sunny skies will come again and the markets will be a great place to be once again, as they have been in the long haul over time. The purpose of this article was to guide you in who to go to for financial advice and guidance if you are not adept in these matters. If you are interested in only buying a product you can either go to a Registered Representative or buy it yourself online. But, if you need some guidance you more than likely want it to be with someone who is required by law to act in your best interests at all times. That person is the Investment Advisor Representative working for and Investment Advisor Representative Firm.

When planning something as significant as your inheritance, you will need to put more than mere guesswork into your plans. You might have become aware of a variety of information thanks to friends, family members, and various adverts. While these are all great, they can often make you feel more confused than anything else. This is where a reputable financial advisor comes in handy.

The first matter that everyone needs to understand is how independent financial advice differs from the rest of the advisers out there. Take a moment to consider how the free advice offered by various banks is naturally aimed at gaining your business. In other words, they will promote their own products rather than provide you with information on a broad spectrum of options from various providers. Their bias is a direct result of their connection to a particular financial institution.

Independent advisers, on the other hand, can offer unbiased information. They can gather information from various financial institutes rather than offering those from just one bank. They are familiar with different products and services of various banks and financial institutes, which means that they can detail all the options, and you can make the final choice. Their goal is to help you make the best financial choices for your future so that you can enjoy your retirement and have a fair amount to leave your beneficiaries.

It is also important to understand that a large number of independent financial advisers are willing to offer potential clients a free consult. This means that anyone can seek impartial advice even if they are on a tight budget. Since you’re not paying for a consultation, there is no need to feel obligated into signing with that adviser. You can most certainly shop around before making any final decisions.

Even if you do end up paying a bit more for independent advice, in the long run, the benefits will make this choice more than worthwhile. Should your estate reach the Inheritance Tax threshold, your adviser will be able to offer advice on how you can make the most of it all. Alternatively, even if you don’t come close to that threshold, an independent financial adviser can really help you keep our tax liabilities to a minimum. There are a number of tax breaks and benefits that you can make the most of if you know where to look. A professional and experienced independent financial adviser is the best person to advise on these breaks since your financial success is their success too.

Many women are in a position where they are responsible for everything and it is because of this that they are going to want to look for quality financial advice for women. With this responsibility, for anyone really, is a lot of pressure. This pressure can be eased if you simply know what it is that you need to do in order to improve your current situation and to protect your future.

So many people will say that women have a lot of trouble saving because they simply like to shop. While that may be true in some cases, the majority of the time the problem is because they are responsible for purchasing and paying for everything. And when the income is a reflection of only one person working, it can be very difficult to save a thing, especially if there are children in the house.

The great thing is though that there is a lot of money advice out there. You will find that there are some people and some places that are able to give financial advice for women, that is geared towards their personal struggles. You can’t get advice like this just anywhere. Since you are dealing with your financial future, you will want to make sure that you are carefully selecting who you take advice from or at least what action you take on the money advice you receive.

One of the most important things to learn is that of budgeting. Budgets will go a long way if you know how to properly use them. With the right budget, on just about any size of income, you can do a lot of good. You might actually be able to finally start saving money for the first time in a long time. And the more you save, the easier things will be for you later down the road.

After you have the budget down, make sure that you are looking over it closely. Is there anything left behind that you could remove or alter in order to create a better financial situation for yourself? Also, even though it might seem counter productive, you are going to want to see what you can do about allowing yourself a little “fun money”. Maybe this would be to go to the movies or out to dinner once a month.

You do not want to completely restrict yourself of any extras because you will eventually break the budget when you’ve “had enough” and then you will be worse off. You will want to make sure that you are allowing yourself a little fun and that you keep it within reason. Just about any legit financial advice for women would tell you that.

So, in order to start living a better life, paying all of your bills and saving for your future, you are going to want to see who out there can give you the best possible money advice. Look for the people or companies that have been successful at giving financial advice for women in the past.

If you are just starting your twenties, then consider it to be the perfect time to start investing your money, and let it work for you. If you start this early, it will be easy for you to accomplish the financial goals you have set in your life. You can ask for financial advice from those who are older than you, or even the experts. This is the perfect time to develop good spending and budgeting habits. Doing so will help you prevent unneeded debt, and you can save money for the things that are necessary to you. Given that you invest on a regular basis, it is possible to start saving for retirement and amass retirement properties with just minimum effort.

It is important that you identify your short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals as early as your twenties. Short-term goals usually comprise of your wedding, furniture, a car, and the like. These usually last for five years or less. Medium-term goals are made up of owning your own house, and your children’s education. Long-term goals are your travels and retirement. You can make use of an online calculator in order to find out the amount you need to save monthly so that you can achieve your goal within your set time frame. It will also help to budget for your goals as long as you do not sacrifice one for the other.

It will help you to benefit in the stock market for your medium and long-term goals. Just keep in mind that this is a volatile market and is not for the faint of heart. It is an unfavourable investment for your short-term goals. You can also find out from your employer if they have a tax-deferred retirement plan. If they have it, you can take advantage of it. Whatever contributions you will make will be made with pre-tax money, and the taxes on earnings will be delayed until you withdraw them upon retirement.

You can even ask a financial planner for the best options suited to you. They will research and consult with you before making a decision. Going online and researching on the wealth of information is not a bad idea as well. After you have talked to the experts and have done enough research, you can take advantage of it all as early as your twenties and have an easy time in accomplishing all your goals.