As you know (if you are a current reader) I talk about my classes from time to time.  I mainly talk about the one I am really interested in: my finance class.  For some of you, this will not be too interesting at all, for the rest of you, you may learn some wisdom from the nuggets of knowledge I share.

Today I am going to talk about my finance class (big surprise there :)  ).  Today we had a guest speaker in our class - he was a financial advisor.  Actually, he would rather call himself a wealth creation artist: he takes his client’s money and creates more for them.

The topic of his presentation was not about where to invest your money.  It was not about which stock is the best.  Rather his lecture was about ways to keep more money in your pocket.  I realize this is sort of a well used topic, but he did present some innovative (and less popular) ways to get a little more bang for your buck.

He started out asking us where we kept our money - most of us said that we kept it in our bank accounts.  He urged us to compare bank accounts: what we had to what was on the market.  He challenged us to find something better than what we had - and there is a lot out there.  According to the numbers he presented to us, about 75% of people are either paying too much money or not getting enough interest on their savings.

Now that he had our attention, he moved into another hot topic: credit cards.  Being students we are slammed with a large number of offers: whether it is a pamphlet sitting on the table in a student lounge, posters on the wall, right down to emails to our school email address.  Stressing that we should be in control of our choice, his suggestion was to get the best credit card for us, not for our bank.  He highlighted some of the more popular options such as 0% interest, cash back, and reward based credit cards.

His last topic was a touchy one.  He asked the class how many of us had cars - I would say most people put their hands up.  Next he asked what we paid for car insurance.  Then he put up a power point slide that made us all gasp:  most of us were paying more than the industry average.  Sure some of the price difference was because we were students, but he told us where to look for cheap car insurance.  If we were to change insurance, most of us would walk away with at least a few hundred dollars a year - not chump change to a student.

All I can say is that I walked away enlightened today - in fact I am going to spend some time online tonight to see how much I can save for myself.

Just like I clean up my house in the spring, I like to clean up my finances in the fall.  The reason I pick the fall is because the kids are back in school and the pace of my life slows down from the summer.  Also, it gets a little chilly outside, so I seem to spend more and more time indoors, and I can get bored.

So, my financial housekeeping involves a few tasks I will share with you here.  First off I checkup on my investment portfolio.  If I find some poor performing products (such as mutual funds, stocks, bonds, etc.) I find other more suitable investments.  This way I can keep tabs on how my investments are doing.  One note I should make here is that I do my major adjustments at this time of year, though I do keep an eye on my portfolio each month.

The second thing I do is take a look at my savings accounts.  I usually go online to compare the savings accounts to the best savings accounts that are currently available.  If I find that I can get a better interest rate somewhere else I usually take it.  Some people may call this step a waste of time, but I see it as necessary - the reason being that I need to minimize the devaluation of my money due to inflation.

I also tally up my sources of credit.  This includes my mortgage, credit cards, lines of credit and any outstanding loans I have at that time.  I make sure that I have appropriate products for my situation and that the interest rates I am paying are reasonable.  I compare credit cards: mine to the best of the rest - and if mine doesn’t stack up, I change it as well.

Lastly I take a quick look at my car insurance.  You see so many car insurance comparison commercials on the television, that you can’t help but wonder if you can save a buck or two.  Usually, I can save at least a few dollars each year.

I can usually expect my financial housekeeping to take up my free time for the better part of the week.  But for the money that I save, it is definitely worth it.

Ever since I can remember, I have struggled in school.  When I was in the younger elementary grades, my parents wanted my teachers to hold me back.  They thought it might give me an advantage.  Finally, halfway through the seventh grade, my parents pulled me out of public school and decided to home-school me.  It was then that my mother discovered that I couldn’t read.

I was taken to a learning disabilities center and was administered an IQ test as well as a dyslexia test.  I was rated extremely high for dyslexia symptoms and surprisingly my IQ was quite high as well. 

My whole life, I had thought I was stupid, when really all I had was a learning disability.

While home-schooling, I attended a class that predominantly catered to dyslexics, and for the first time in my life, I started to excel academically.  I often wonder how my life would have been different if my dyslexia had been diagnosed when I was a young child.  But, instead of reflecting on the what-ifs, I am just thankful that I was diagnosed and was able to finish school with decent grades.

If you ever consider or have gotten a loan, they can be broadly classified into two types: secured and unsecured loans.  These loans have some important differences that we will discuss below.

An unsecured loan is probably the most common loan.  Did you get a car loan?  How about one for your computer?  If you have, these are unsecured loans.  The way you get approved for this type of loan is by having a good credit rating.  Financing wise the term is short with five years being the average.

A secured homeowner loan is a little different.  If you have ever renovated a portion of your house or added on to it, you probably had one of these loans.  The difference here is that you take advantage of the equity you have in your home and effectively get a second mortgage on it.  This way, the monthly payments are smaller and you can finance the loan up to twenty five or thirty years.

Just be sure to talk to a financial professional for advice that applies to your situation:  I am just mentioning this here for educational purposes and to increase your knowledge.

Today at school they were offering a seminar on mortgages.  This seminar was free and put on by a local bank.  I thought it would be something to checkout as I am going to be a financial advisor one day - so it might give me a head start.

I showed up in the lecture theatre and was surprised at the number of people there.  I would say at least a couple hundred comprising of various ages: from young adults to people over fifty.  I sat down and waited for the lecture to start.

The presenter introduced himself as the branch manager of a local bank.  He introduced the concept of a mortgage, the way a person is approved or denied and the repayment options.

Then he moved onto a topic that most of us were unfamiliar with: how to go about a bad credit remortgage.  He explained about how a situation like this would come about as well as what extra criteria their clients would have to pass through to qualify for the remortgage.

After the lecture I talked to the presenter a little more about my interest in becoming a financial planner.  He gave me his card and I am going to talk to him tomorrow about a possible part time job to get me some experience.

If you are looking for a new market to buy investment properties but you don’t know where to start, I have a country for you: South Africa.  Not only is it a wonderful place (in terms of the environment and scenery) but it has great investment potential.

You can find quality investment properties using the services provided by Pam Golding International, South Africa’s largest independent real estate group.  Whether you are looking for a home on the coast or commercial property they have over 2000 staff eager to help you out.

Once you do find those quality investment properties, you will probably need some financing.  One of the leaders in this area that is not only accommodating, but passionate about what they do is Seeff Homeloans.   They are eager to help you out and offer financing for many different sizes of properties.

So there you have it.  To complementary tools to help you succeed in your property investment in South Africa.

When I was a child (before the popularity of the Internet), I can remember going to the bank with my mother a couple times each month.  Both of my parents worked at home, so we were able to go on the outing to the bank with them.  From these trips we learned that financial matters were between people.

It was also a time and a relationship where trust was developed.  What I noticed is that my parents dealt with the same person each time we went to the bank.  They trusted this lady’s advice when it came to their financial decisions.  It was from this model that I learned what bank I should be banking with…

Or so I thought.  Once I turned 19 and my bank started charging me fees for my bank account, I decided to start to look around at my options.  For me it didn’t seem fair that they would charge me to use my money to make them money.  Looking back, I realize that I was paying for the service, and hence the cost.

It was around this time that I was introduced to the big world of consumer credit.  I was at the right age to have a credit card so again, following my parent’s footsteps, I went to their banker to talk about what they offered.  They had many different cards, but most of them had fees.  That was really not what I was looking for but the banker had already decided that is what I was going to get.

I went home unimpressed and a little disappointed.  I decided to go online and compare credit cards to see what I could find.  I lucked out and found a few sites that had the credit cards that were available from the banks in my town.  What I found was amazing:  it ended up that the cards that my bank offered were inferior to the bank across the street.

I ended up going to get a cashback credit card across the street at my banks competitor.  If I hadn’t used the internet, I would never have known that there were other options.  I am thankful that I did.

Well, it is a sad day.  You see, I have been driving my first car for the last eight years and I think it finally packed it in.  After a few moments of silence (for respect for the car) I needed to really think about what I could do - taking the bus is not really an option for me.

I decided to go online to checkout car loans.  Never having had a loan before, I guess there was a little bit for me to learn.  I was hoping it was just as easy as getting a cheap loan, filling out a form, and Poof! that would be it.  Well, that just wasn’t the case.

You see, I first had to figure out what type of loan I needed.  Poking around for a bit, I found out that I needed to get an unsecured loan.  Reading on I found out the amount that I was qualified for. 

I started out filling out the forms, and there are a few things I need to fax in.  I think I am going to go talk to my banker as well to see what they offer before I make my decision.  Well, I should go and find a car before I can buy it…

I was spending some of my time today looking at some personal finance news websites.  I have a great interest in this topic as we all have money.  What I like is to find ways to make my money work harder for me as well as find ways to save a buck or two here and there.

I usually read a few finance websites every day.  I try to find new ones each day so that I can get a new perspective on things - it helps me to keep an open mind.  While reading some articles on one of these websites today I noticed two trends I hadn’t noticed before:  all of these sites talked about mortgages and car insurance.

I can understand them talking about mortgages.  We have all been trained since we were young: go to school, get a career and buy a house.  To buy the house we need a mortgage.  Pretty much all of these sites make an effort to show you what to look for in terms of a mortgage and they all tend to focus on the repayment options.  Obviously, it is in your best interest to get the mortgage paid off as quickly as possible and they show you how.

The other common element that I noticed was discussion about car insurance.  I can tell by all the commercials that you see on TV, this is definitely an area where most people can save some money.  Where I live, we don’t have an option (there is only one car insurance company and that is who you have to go with), but I did check out some of the sites and it sure seems like there is some steep competition. 

I find it rewarding that I noticed this today.  You always feel good when you discover something or learn something new.  I am going to make an effort to try a little harder to see if I can notice any other trends tomorrow.

The city in which we live is going through a bit of an economic boom.  Because of this, the prices of housing has sky rocketed.  My husband and I decided that now would be the time to do some of the things on the house that need to be done and take that European vacation we’ve been wanting to take for twenty years. 

We had our house appraised to find out how much equity we have in our home.  Now our decision is down to what we do as far as home refinancing.

We could take out a mortgage loan or we can take out a home equity loan.  We re going to get together with our accountant to help us make this decision.  Once that decision is made and the papers are signed, the next decisions will be paint colors and whether to London or Paris first…