Looking After Your Child’s Financial Future

There is much to think about when your child is born, especially if you are becoming a parent for the first time. There are the concerns about becoming a parent and looking after your child to the best of your ability. There is also the financial side; having children can be expensive with you now having to provide for another person. As well as thinking about money in the present though, it is also wise to plan for the financial stability of your child’s future. There are three things that you can do to potentially help your child.

Set Up a Savings Account

It may not be possible for everyone to set up a children’s savings account, as with all the financial responsibilities of having a child it is not always possible to put more aside for their future. But for those who can, it is possible to give your child a real helping hand for the future. Setting up a savings account is the best way of doing this. It will mean that you can gradually build up savings that your child could then receive at the age of 18 or 21. This could eventually help them pay for their way through university or buy a home. There are many different types of savings account, with the best one for you depending on your personal circumstances.

Write a Will

Writing a will is, of course, something that could be done prior to having children. But if you haven’t, then writing one when your first child is born is important. Even if you already have a will you may want to amend it. It may not be a pleasant thought, but you should think about what might happen should you die. You will want the best possible future for your child, and would want to limit their suffering and secure their future. You may think that your spouse will be able to take care of your child, but there is the possibility of you both dying together, for example in a car accident. Writing a will when you have a young child is not just about money though, it is also about how they should be taken care of thereafter. You want to ensure that they are in the hands of someone you can trust. In theory your child will be entitled to your estate if you die regardless of whether or not you have a will but without one it is more complicated; it will take longer and cost more. And young children can’t exactly sort these issues out themselves.

Life Insurance

Taking out a life insurance policy has some of the same benefits as a will in that it can help your family in the event of your death. It could be even more important though, as it could mean they receive a larger payout. With life insurance you pay a monthly amount into your insurance plan and if something happens to you, your family would receive a payout that could help them in the future. This means that this money would go towards your child’s upbringing.

Andrew Marshall (c)

The Basics of the Internet

The internet plays an important role in modern society. Billions of people around the world use it for a wide variety of reasons, from shopping and reading news to keeping in touch with friends and watching television. There are still many, though, who are beginners when it comes to the internet. This article looks at the basics of the internet, and explains some of the main terms that those new to the internet may come across.

The internet is a set of web pages; basically pages that people can view through the internet. A website is a series of web pages that are connected, and a website visitor can click the links which takes them to other pages on the site. Often websites will also link to other websites that are related, or likely to be of interest to their visitors. Anyone can publish a webpage on the internet if they know how to and it can be read by anyone with internet access, wherever they are across the globe.

Web Browsers

A web browser is used to access the internet, with Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome examples of browsers. It is basically a program used to gain internet access. If you are on the internet, you will be using a web browser. The icon you click on to start the internet opens the web browser, and the window that appears is the browser.

Search Engines

The best known and most widely used search engine is Google, with Yahoo and Bing other popular ones. Internet users use a search engine when they want to search for something online. For example, if someone goes online to find a divorce solicitors firm in London, they may turn to a search engine and type in, ‘Divorce Solicitors London’. This will then return a list of results consisting of divorce solicitors that are based in London. Most, if not all internet users will use a search engine at some point. If someone is looking for a particular type of website but not a specific website then they are likely to use a search engine. They could be looking to shop online, looking for information, searching for car insurance, searching for news related to a particular subject, or looking for professional service. To search for all of these, and much more, people use search engines.

Email

Email (sometimes written e-mail) stands for electronic mail. People use email to communicate with each other. In some ways it is like sending an electronic letter to someone with the recipient receiving it almost instantaneously. The same email can be sent to several recipients all at once. To send an email you need an email account (there are free ones available). An email will be sent to the recipient’s own email account and when they access the account your email will be there. Email is the most widely used communications tool in business these days. They can be drafted quickly and sent and received in a matter of seconds.

Web Address or URL

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) means a website address. An example of a web address is ‘http://www.yourwebsite.com/’. But where does each part of the address come from? The ‘http’ identifies the address as a web address so a computer knows it is a web address. ‘www’ stand for world wide web, another term used to describe the internet. The ‘yourwebsite’ part of the above example is chosen by the website owner and for businesses or organisations is usually the name of the business or organisation. For example the BBC uses ‘bbc’ and Google uses ‘google’ for this part of their website. The final part of the URL (.com in the example) can distinguish the country the website is based in. For example .co.uk means it is from the UK, .de from Germany and .com.au from Australia. In theory ‘.com’ means it is from the United States but it can also be used for websites in other countries, and is especially used for those targeting an international audience. There are also other options for the final part of a web address, including .edu (for educational sites), .gov (government sites) and .org (organisations). It is not possible to have an identical URL to someone else, although if someone has ‘yourwebsite.com’, you could have ‘yourwebsite.co.uk’.

Web Hosting

For a website to be viewed by others it must be published online. It must be hosted on a web server, referred to as Web Hosting. Web hosting companies are usually used for this. In exchange for a fee they will host a website on their server, meaning the world is able to view it. There is a wide array of hosting options, from very cheap, or even free hosting, to very advanced hosting that is significantly more expensive. The hosting required depends on the type of website with some needing more advanced hosting than other. The type of web hosting required is dependent on the content of the website and the number of visitors it has.

Andrew Marshall (c)

Why Having a Will is Important

A will is important as it shows what you want to happen with your estate when you die. It is the only way of ensuring that your wishes are met.

What is an Estate?

An estate is basically anything that belongs to you. The below are examples of items that are part of an estate:

• Any homes or other real estate that you own
• High value items such as cars
• Your money
• Family heirlooms
• Other expensive or valuable items – e.g. jewellery and art

It really includes anything that you personally own.

You may want your entire estate to go to one person or your might want it to be split. You might want specific items to go to particular people, for example you might own a piece of furniture that you know someone is particularly fond of.

What Happens if You Die Without a Will?

Dying without a will can complicate things. It would mean that it wouldn’t be clear who should get what, so your wishes might not be completely followed. If you don’t have a will it won’t be possible for people to know what should happen with your estate, so family members could lose out. If you want specific items to go to particular people this won’t happen unless your family can agree between themselves. A will is effectively a contract to say who is entitled to different parts of your estate. Without the will there is no contract and things can become very complicated. Although your immediate family will get most of the estate, it won’t work out exactly how you had planned.

Lawyers Fees

When somebody dies there are legal processes that have to be gone through and this includes what happens with your estate. If there is a will this is relatively simple, without one it is not. If this is the case lawyers will have to be employed to sort out your estate. This will be costly, with the money to pay for this being taken from the estate meaning your family will get less that they would otherwise.

Do You Need to Have a Will Written Professionally?

You don’t have to have a will written professionally, you can write it yourself. If you do this you must make sure, though, that you and two witnesses have signed it. However, this is only advisable if the will is relatively straight forward. Wills that are not written professionally can lead to complications further down the line. If it is not done correctly it can be deemed invalid or could be disputed. An invalid will is no more useful than if it hadn’t been written in the first place. In many ways it might be easier to use professional will writing services as this means that you know it has been drafted properly and it is legally binding.

In summary, there are many reasons why having a will is important. They include the following:
• Your estate may not go to the people you want it to.
• Your estate will not be specifically split the way that you would like.
• The whole process will take longer.
• The process will cost more, resulting in your estate being reduced in value.

Andrew Marshall (c)

Considerations when Choosing VoIP for Business and Personal Use

There are a wide array of VoIP providers out there, with each offering their own benefits. There are cheap options that sacrifice quality for price, and more expensive, top quality VoIP packages. When choosing a service it is important to take into consideration what you will be using it for, and working out your own priorities. Here we take a look at the factors that should be taken into consideration and the difference between business VoIP and personal VoIP.

The Features Required

This is, of course, vitally important. You need to work out the features that you need from your VoIP service. Some services are very basic only offering calls, while other, more professional services, offer answer phones, call directs, and a variety of other features.

For business you are likely to require advanced features such as answer phones and internal systems for calling internally and passing calls onto others in the office. These are less likely to be considerations for personal VoIP (although you may want an answer phone). You might only need a very basic service, a cheap service to call family and friends.

Technical Support

The technical support required is dependent on both the type of VoIP you are choosing and your own technical expertise.

With the features you are likely to have with business VoIP, there are more likely to be technical issues. First of all, the set up may be complicated, especially if you want several lines and several phones so each employee can have their own. On-going support may also be necessary as technical issues are more likely to arise. It is also more important that any issues are resolved quickly as delay could spell disaster. If the phone system is down it could have an impact on the success of the company. Communication (both internally and with customers and suppliers) is very important in the running of a successful business, so if there are problems it is likely to have a negative effect.

With personal VoIP the technical side is unlikely to be as complicated. It may be possible to solve your own problems and any major problems are likely to be less common. Problems will probably be less catastrophic and your income won’t be affected as it might within a business. Technical problems would be more of an inconvenience than anything.

Budget

It is an unfortunate fact of life but your budget needs to be taken into consideration. You need to decide on the maximum you can afford to spend. It is not just about getting the most expensive service you can within your budget though, you should look for the best value for money without going over budget.

With business VoIP this budget will probably be higher meaning you will have more options. More phones and lines may be needed as well as a more advanced service. This costs more.

If it is personal VoIP you are looking for, your budget may be low. In fact, many chose to switch to VoIP solely because it is cheaper. This makes price more of a determining factor. To an extent you may be just looking for the cheapest option, with quality not so important.

Call Quality

The quality of the VoIP service may be one of the most important factors to you. It is more likely to be important to those looking for business VoIP than to those looking for personal VoIP.

In all likelihood call quality will be very important when looking into business VoIP. You can’t really get away with poor quality as it will seem unprofessional. This makes it one of the most important factors, if not the most important factor.

It may not be so important if you are looking into VoIP for home use. Of course you will want the best quality possible, but something like price may be more of a determining factor in your decision.

There are many different aspects of a VoIP service that should be taken into consideration when choosing a provider. These can vary depending on whether you are planning to use VoIP for business or at home. For business VoIP it might be about getting the best price for a good quality service, for personal VoIP it might be about getting the best possible quality for a low price.

Andrew Marshall (c)

What is an ISA?

An ISA stands for Individual Savings Account, and is a way of individuals being able to save without pay tax on interest that is gained. People can save up to £7,200 a year before they pay tax on interest. ISA’s were introduced by the government in 1999 to encourage saving and investment.

Types of ISA’s

There are two types of ISA; Cash ISA’s and Stocks and Shares ISA’s.

A Cash ISA is simply an account where savers can save their money without paying tax on any incurred interest. In many ways it is just like a normal savings account, with the account holder able to take money out whenever they choose. The benefit is that it allows easy access to the account and is often at a fixed rate, so customers know the interest they will receive before they open the account. It is only possible to save a maximum of £5,340 a year though; any more people want to save must be done so though a Stocks and Shares ISA.

Depending on the particular ISA, Stocks and Shares ISA’s can work in a variety of ways. The most common is it being invested through an Investment Trust, known as an ISA Trust. Here an investment company pools together ISA investments from a number of their customers and spreads around the investment for maximum potential returns. Stocks and Shares ISA’s are usually the better option for savers who don’t want to use their savings for several years. It isn’t possible to withdraw whenever the account holder pleases, with the terms depending on the provider. The main reason this suits long term investors is that stocks can rise significantly, although there is also the risk of it falling. In most cases, though, stocks will rise long term. As well as not having to pay tax on interest, capital gains tax does not have to be paid either.

Savings Payments

With a Cash ISA, account holders can make savings whenever suits them. They may want to pay a set amount monthly, they may make a yearly payment, or they might want to make payments occasionally depending on when they have some spare cash available. With Stocks and Shares ISA’s the terms can vary greatly. Some have specific payment schedules that must be adhered by while others offer more flexibility.

Increased Limits for those Born Before 6th April 1960

Those born before 6th April 1960 can save an extra £3,000 a year tax free in an ISA, so up to £10,200. A maximum of 50% of this can be saved in a Cash ISA, with the remaining half having to be paid into a Stocks and Shares ISA. If savers choose, though, they can put the whole amount into a Stocks and Shares ISA.

ISA’s are a great way of saving. They make it possible for individuals to save a certain amount without paying tax on the interest or any gains. If saved in regular savings accounts people would have to pay 20%, 40% or 50% tax on any gains depending on their income. ISA’s give added incentive for people to save.

Andrew Marshall (c)

Factors in Choosing Managed Hosting

When choosing a Managed Hosting provider there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration. These include price, security, support, bandwidth and disk space.

Price

We often here the phrase “you get what you pay for”. It is not usually quite as simple as paying more for a better service though. Just because you are paying more doesn’t mean the service you are getting suits you. It also depends on the quality that your require. Some require an expensive solution but other only need a more basic one.

Everyone has a budget and you have to consider yours. It is likely that there is a certain figure that your simple can’t afford, and no matter what the standard of hosting is, you cannot afford to go above this price. Although price shouldn’t be the only basis of a decision it needs to be considered.

Security

The importance of security varies from site to site. For some it is relatively unimportant. A purely information site, for example, may not contain anything that is particularly likely to cause any security issues. It shouldn’t be completely ignored though, as there is always the possibility of your competition wanted to hack into your website for malicious purposes.

For some websites security is one of the most important considerations. There are websites that contain databases with confidential information and websites that deal with payment details. For these sites security has to be considered very carefully.

Support

Although all Managed Hosting packages are managed, some are more managed than others. The definition of Managed Hosting can be a little blurred, and can mean 100% fully managed or only certain aspects being managed. It is important to know how much support you can expect from your hosting provider. You may only want certain things managed, or you might want everything managed. Make sure you are getting the service that you need.

Bandwidth

The amount of bandwidth designated for a particular website can vary greatly. It is important you know how much bandwidth will be available for your site and what this means for your website. You don’t want to be paying for more bandwidth than you need, but also don’t want to be caught short. The amount of bandwidth you have affects the amount of traffic and downloads (if relevant) your website can cope with. You should overestimate a little, as it is better to have a little more bandwidth than you need than not enough.

Disk Space

The disk space allocated to your site affects the content your website can deal with. As with bandwidth, you want to get the balance right between not having too much disk space but making sure you have enough.

Limits

Unlimited hosting is often advertised, with unlimited bandwidth and disk space. However, this is impossible as there are always limits. Unlimited hosting works by offering more bandwidth and disk space than websites are likely to exceed, but it is important to make sure you are certain you won’t exceed this.

Andrew Marshall (c)

Property Market Trends and its Impact

According to Halifax, house prices were up very slightly in March. Compared with February they rose by 0.1%. They are still down by 3.3% compared with March 2010 though.

The number of people buying homes has drastically slowed, and this is something that is worrying many in the property market. Some have suggested this could be because house prices are not coming down enough. People would rather stay put for now than reduce the asking price of their homes, meaning people aren’t being encouraged to buy the way they would if prices had fallen more significantly. With many worse off than they were a few years ago it means that despite lower prices, people are actually less likely to buy. With it being harder to get a mortgage than it was and with higher deposits required, it makes it even more difficult. All these factors mean that to some extent the property market is in flux.

The question is what would need to happen for the market to become more active? As already touched upon, prices falling further would liven up the market, although property owners may not come out of it well. This does seem unlikely though, or at least unlikely there will be any significant drop. If prices were low enough it would encourage people to take the opportunities while they can, and make it affordable to a wider group of people. If this doesn’t happen, it seems likely that we will have to wait until the overall economic situation improves across the country.

The government has come up with a new scheme whereby first time buyers can borrow up to 20% of their deposit for a home, therefore only having to pay 5% themselves. It is hoped that this could have a similar impact that the scrappage scheme had for cars had. This is good news for many first time buyers looking to get on the housing ladder and for property developers, but not so good news for the property market in general. The scheme only applies to new builds so for those looking to sell their existing home it will make no difference, or could even have a negative impact.

Although the above news affects much of the country, it doesn’t mean the property market is dead everywhere. There are always people with money and there are always sought after areas. In particular there are areas of London where the property market is still relatively active, with areas such as Kensington and Fulham, and suburbs such as Wimbledon and Richmond, not suffering the way other areas are.

Another influence that the current state of the property market is having is the lettings market. With prices of homes lower than at their high, there is the opportunity for some to buy-to-let. And with many unable to get onto the housing ladder it means that rented homes are in high demand. With prices bound to rise in the long-term, there are those who will be able to profit from such a market.

Andrew Marshall (c)

Winchester White are a Letting Agents Wimbledon.

New Paternity Laws – A Summary

New paternity laws came into action this April, enabling Father’s to take more time off work after to the birth of their children. Prior to this change the paternity leave that employers had to give their employees was only two weeks; a maximum of twenty-six weeks can now be taken.

Mother’s and Father’s will now be able to split the parental time they take off after their children are born. Women are entitled to a maximum of 52 weeks and men to a maximum of 28 weeks (two weeks plus the additional twenty-six weeks), but a Mother and Father will not both be able to take the maximum. It is up to each family; they may decide the time should mostly go to the Mother, they may decide the time should mostly go to the Father, or they may split it more evenly. It really is up to them.

Under the new rules, the paternity leave does not have to be in one go but must be taken in weekly blocks. Each period must be an exact number of weeks (anywhere between one and twenty-six) but cannot be three days, for example.

For Father’s to take paternity leave they must have been employed with their current employer for at least the last six months by the end of the fifteenth week before the expected week of the birth of their child. Apart from the Mother, he must be the main person responsible for the child’s upbringing. Any paternity leave needs to be taken within a year of the birth.

There are several positives for families due to this change, some of which are outlined below:

Father’s will be able to spend more time with their new born children.

In some families the Mother earns more than the Father. In these cases it may make more sense for the Mother to return to work and the Father to take longer parental leave. The alternative before may have been child care, which is expensive and may not be ideal so soon.

More shared parenting will be possible in the early weeks of a child’s life. This is both a positive for the parents and the child.

Families can be more flexible. Previously it was not possible to be flexible to the needs of each individual family. It is no longer always the case that men work the most or earn the most, so it is not always suitable for women to have longer off. Now parents can choose which parent has parental time off to suite their family circumstances.

Something that has been in the news around this subject is the reaction of businesses, with some pointing out the extra burden of employees who will not be at work for a period of time. This has especially been a concern for small as larger corporation may be better placed to cope with the changes. In reality, though, this shouldn’t be an issue. As families must split the parental leave it is not actually extra leave. Male employees may have more time off, but this might be helped by female employees having less time off. Although it will affect different businesses in different ways, in theory it should balance itself out.

Andrew Marshall (c)

The Impact of the Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami on the Economy

The recent Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan has obviously had a major impact on the Japanese people. Among the things that may be negatively affected is the Japanese Economy. There are many different ways that this could be impacted.

Repairs

The cost of repairs causes by the earthquake and tsunami will come into the billions. Whole town’s have been washed away and need to be completed rebuilt and this will take a lot of time and money. The cost is estimated to come to somewhere between $100 billion and $300 billion.

Closed Down Industries

Whole industries have had to be temporarily closed down and this will have a negative impact on the economy. If businesses aren’t operating they won’t be making money. This has affected businesses of all types; businesses as small as independent shops that have been damage, and business as large as multi-billion dollar operations.

The Nuclear Power Plant

The safety of the Fukushima nuclear power plant has been in the news more than any other story surrounding the earthquake and tsunami. Firstly, in terms of finance, it has been costly to try to limit the damage. Then there is the lost revenue from it not being operational, and there will be the cost of repair. There will also be the costs of dealing with related damage, such as contaminated water.

Transport

Important ports and airports have had to be closed due the earthquake and tsunami and some will need repair. This has had a wide impact on the short-term economy. It has meant the supply in and out of these destinations has slowed, or in some cases ceased altogether. Some will be closed for some time. This has the knock on affect of slowing down certain industries. This has been a particular problem because Japan’s economy is reliant on exports.

National Debt

All of the costs associated to the damage from the earthquake and tsunami will have an impact on Japan’s national debt. As any country in a similar situation would, Japan will have to borrow money to pay for the rebuilding required. And higher borrowing means higher interest payments.

This may all seem like bad news for the Japanese economy, but it may not be as bad as some fear. Japan’s economy has proven to be very resilient against such problems in the past, with the 1995 Kobe earthquake a good example. Although industrial production dropped in the month of the Kobe earthquake, it quickly increased again the following month.

The Stock Market

The reaction of the Japanese stock market was initially negative. One of the problems in these types of situations is panicked investors selling their stocks immediately, even though it can be rash and unnecessary. There have been examples of this in Japan since the disaster, which then have other knock on affects. This hasn’t been as drastic as it can be though, with some realising the history of Japan’s recovery from disasters in the past.

Japan is generally quick to recover from natural disaster in many ways. They are proactive in attempting to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, with no better example than the speed at which Tokyo’s seemingly demolished airport was up and running again.

Andrew Marshall (c)

Where did the word Bespoke come from and what does it mean?

We hear the word bespoke everywhere these days. Businesses of all types use it to advertise their products or services, from bespoke kitchens to bespoke websites. It is taken to mean custom built, and anything built to a customer’s specific requirements has been described as bespoke.

But where did the word ‘bespoke’ first come from?

Bespoke’s origin comes from the world of tailoring. It was first used to mean an item of clothing that had been “spoken for”, or to “be spoke(n)” for. It was used for items made to a customer’s requirements, but it was used specifically for tailoring and not in other industries. It was used to separate custom made clothing and mass produced clothing, or “off the rack” clothing, as it was also called.

Bespoke was only used to mean completely original items and would usually fit the following criteria:

• Size was specific to a customer’s measurements. This was rather than a choice of sizes as with mass produced clothing, where customers choose the best fit. I t wasn’t a best fit, but an exact fit.
• Clothing patterns would be designed from scratch. This wouldn’t mean a customer choosing from a variety of patterns, but rather discussing the specific pattern required with the tailor.
• Even the stitching may have been unique to the customer and certainly wouldn’t be factory made.
• And possible most importantly, everything would be handmade and hand stitched.

Where should Bespoke be used and where shouldn’t it?

There have been many debates in certain circles about when the word bespoke should be used. Some have argued that it should strictly remain a tailoring term, as “this is its true meaning”. But then others would argue that language develops over time, and the meaning of bespoke has widened. Therefore the lines have become blurred over what bespoke really means. A group of traditional tailors based in London’s Savile Row, the Savile Row Bespoke Association, has campaigned for the term to only be allowed to be used for what they see as the bespoke traditions of tailoring. Their wishes, though, have been denied.

If bespoke means custom, what exactly is custom?

Is custom built anything where a customer chooses certain aspects of a product? Or do they need choice over every single aspect and can essentially have anything they want? This has been another area of debate.

Some businesses have been accused of using the words “bespoke” and “custom built” as a marketing tool without actually producing a product worthy of these descriptions. For example, car manufacturers usually give their customers a series of choices (sometimes many choices) of how they would like their car built. But customers can’t literally have anything they want, unless they are willing to pay a lot of money. So does this make it bespoke?

The real meaning of bespoke is not easy to define. Some claim everything must be unique while others are not so specific about what they think bespoke should mean. It began in the world of tailoring but the term has now been used by businesses of all types.

Andrew Marshall (c)