www.GreatestGuideForYou.com 7 Easy Self Improvement Tips Self improvement tips are a great way to kickstart your personal growth and to push yourself to new levels of achievement and fulfillment. Here are seven easy self improvement tips as a way of giving back and helping people like you to achieve greater success in their life. Daily Journaling If you study the great achievers of history, you’ll find that almost all of them were avid writers. Keeping a daily journal helps you to clarify your thoughts and develop a sense of self-awareness which will give you the ability to reinvent yourself on a moment’s notice and help you to develop unshakable self-confidence. Meditation Meditation is the most effective means of reducing stress and clearing out your mind from “junk thoughts” which lead to worry and anxiety. Daily meditation also helps to slow your heart rate and regulate your digestion among dozens of other health benefits. Expecting to Win People who achieve great things in life aren’t normally anymore intelligent or capable than the average person. But they do one thing different which many intelligent people have a hard time doing: they expect to win, even before they know how they’re going to do it. Writing Goals and Plans of Actions The habit of writing down clear and specific goals and plans of action for achieving those goals is a must if you want to accomplish anything. This is because writing down your goals clarifies them and begins building an expectation in …
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By Dawn Reiss, Life Quotes, Inc.

Filing for bankruptcy is usually person’s worst nightmare, but when it comes to protecting your assets (including the value of your life insurance policy), information is key.

A life insurance policy is considered valuable property, which means creditors may attempt to “acquire an interest in the policy’s values,” but all states and the federal government have “enacted legislation providing protections for life insurance against the claims of creditors,” says Glenn E. Stevick, Jr., a professor with The American College.

 Here’s some basics you should know when it comes to bankruptcy and how it affects your life insurance policy.

First, more people file for bankruptcy than you might imagine. With the latest economic downturn and mounting bills, the current bankruptcy-filing rate is at a 5-year high, according to recent data released by Automated Access to Court Electronic Records (AACER). What’s more, the American Journal of Medicine reported that more than 1.5 million people filed bankruptcy last year, 60 percent of those filings were the direct result of medical bills.

The American Journal of Medicine, for example, found that 1 in 25 people in the Bay Area have filed for bankruptcy last year, says bankruptcy attorney, Jeena Cho of San Francisco-based JC Law Group.

“It’s like the dirty little secret,” Cho says. “Two things that we don’t talk about are death and money. When people start talking about their financial issues, they find there are plenty of people in the same boat.”

There are two types of bankruptcy for individuals: Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.

Chapter 13 is where you can hold on to your assets and aren’t at risk for losing property, but you must repay some of the debt over a three to five year period. If your cash value for life insurance is worth more than the exemption in your state, then consider filing Chapter 13 to protect your assets, Cho recommends.

If you pass a means test and can file a Chapter 7, you must liquidate your possessions and assets, which typically takes four months. It also means your life insurance policy could be affected.

Cho says one of the worst things someone can do is liquidate their assets and start borrowing money from their life insurance and retirement funds, which are almost always protected in bankruptcy.

“People start taking whatever little money they have to see if they could get out of debt by re-paying it,” Cho says. “I see people drain their ,000 retirement fund for 0,000 in credit card debt. They start selling their cars and homes without an exit strategy. The game plan is to keep as much as possible.”

Also, make sure you disclose everything including the current, accurate cash value of your whole life insurance policy. Some people don’t “because they are afraid to and end up losing it because they failed to disclose it’s true value,” says David Leibowitz, a bankruptcy lawyer for Lakelaw in Chicago, Ill.

Under state and federal bankruptcy law, an individual filing for bankruptcy may elect exemptions under federal or state law, but not both. Explains Stevick, 34 states like Illinois, New York, California and Florida have “opted out” of the federal law and have inducted their own state protections.

Sixteen “choice states” – including Texas – allow debtors to choose between federal and state exemptions. Under federal exemptions, one can protect up to ,775 of a life insurance policy’s cash value (doubled for married couples). Also, in some states the unused portion of the homestead exemption (real and personal property) may be used for other property, including the cash value from a life insurance policy. Some states require the policy to be in force for one to two years for protection under a state exemption, to prevent using life insurance as a shelter in bankruptcy planning.

In order to be eligible to file bankruptcy under state protections, you must be considered a resident and live in a state for 24 months.

In Illinois, whole life insurance is exempted from creditors to the extent that it is necessary to support a dependent (a spouse and dependent children), but the legal interpretation is up to your bankruptcy judge.

When you file your bankruptcy petition you’ll typically include a schedule or list of your exempt property, which can include your life insurance policy.

Ron Caruthers, a financial planner, who helps individuals pay for college with over funded life insurance policies, says Florida, is the most debtor-friendly state to file bankruptcy since it has a strong homestead exemption. Another debtor-friendly state is Texas, which allows large exemptions for cattle and homesteads.

“It’s why O.J. Simpson took all his assets and moved to Florida and put them into life insurance and a home, since they couldn’t touch either when he filed for bankruptcy,” Caruthers says.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is Arizona. Caruthers says Arizona is the most creditor-friendly state.

Keep in mind that all 50 states are different when it comes to bankruptcy protections, so it’s best to contact a financial planner or bankruptcy lawyer in that state to learn more.

Here are some suggestions for what to look out for before you file for bankruptcy.

Death benefits: How much of the proceeds in the death benefit are protected against creditors (some state have a dollar amount like ,000 or ,000 other states allow the entire amount.)

It is important to review how much of your life insurance policy is protected. For example, in California an unmatured policy is exempt up to ,475 for homeowners filing jointly or separately under code 704 (c ), non-home owners file under 703.140 (b) which allows for up to ,800. Say your life insurance policy exceeds ,475 than you can use the wild card exemption of ,250, which can be applied in part or in whole to the policy as well.

Look up the exemption statistics where you do business because every state is different. Pay close attention to differences in state and federal laws and what parties are protected – the policy owner, beneficiaries, etc.

This article was originally published at Life Quotes, Inc.

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I have always thought there’s only one formula in making money.  That is work hard and at the end of each month, you get your paycheck.  Growing up in a family of farmers, I have seen what working hard really means.  I’ve experienced waking up early in the morning, go to the farm, plant or harvest rice until the sun sets in.  When you go home after a long day of working, the aching muscles says it all.  It is HARD work.  I’ve learned from my parents that if you want to have some money, you have to work  for it.  Often times, I’d go along with my mom to harvest tobacco leaves from a nearby town, and afterwards, she’d pay me for how much I was able to harvest.  That’s always been my training in terms of making money.  That was my first money habit – work to earn.

When I was in College, I wanted very much to help my parents pay for my education.  I was fortunate to have been granted a full scholarship, so that took care of the tuition.  Even then, making money from a far away province, and spending it in the most expensive city in the country is no easy task.  It is an uphill battle similar to walking up to a going down escalator.  So in my own little way, I also tried to make money by applying as student assistant to one of the universities’ projects.  It doesn’t pay much since it is a government project but enough to pay some of my daily expenses and grow my confidence.

After graduating, I immediately started work as a mainframe programmer for a multinational IT company.  The offer I got then was around 16,000 pesos which was BIG money then for someone who’s fresh out of college and don’t have much working experience.  I worked very hard and was fortunate enough to be promoted almost every year.

As my paycheck increased, my appetite for consumption also increased.  I bought a refrigerator, a washing machine, gas stove, shoes, etc, ALL at the same time, EVEN when I didn’t have the money to pay for it.  I just used my new credit card!  That’s when my debt started to pile up.  The “easy” monthly payments never lived up to its promise.  No monthly payment was easy, especially when you only have your paycheck to rely on.  As my debt seemingly increased every month, I also had to worry about paying my monthly house rental, buying groceries, eating out with friends, and more.  There were times I was so out of money I even had to do “cash advance” on my credit card.  As some of you might know, you get to pay a hefty “fee” for doing a cash advance.  This is on top of the amount of money you actually “advanced”.  My already big debt, ballooned even more!  I was so ashamed of having to do cash advance, I promised right there and then, I had to pay for my debt no matter what.  It was like a having compound interest working against me.  I had to learn how money works.  I had to figure it out no matter what.  I had no choice.

While pondering my huge debt, I tried to look for ways to earn more money.  I tried doing some programming projects for friends.  I even entered the world of network marketing, tried selling wellness products and failed miserably.  I remember that my only “downlines” (a term indicating those you’ve recruited into the business) was my mother, my aunt, and a few of my friends.  It was a learning experience.  The thing that struck me most, was that my “need” for money, was being transferred to my “clients”, without me being conscious of it.  It was hard “selling” something you don’t 100% believe in and it’s even harder when your motivation is “making” more money without necessarily helping other people.  I think this mindset barrier is one of the reasons why I was not able to make it work.  Everyday, I had to battle with myself.  Am I here to really help other people?  Or is it just because of the money?

One time, while me and my friends were hanging out at a bookstore, I saw the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.  I heard my friend say it’s a great book, so I bought it, took it home and devoured the stories and financial lessons in the book.   The book opened my eyes to the world of money I never knew existed before.  That’s when I realized that the rich have different sets of money habits from the poor and the middle class.  For the first time, it finally made sense why I can’t seem to be making a dent on my credit card debt; why I can’t seem to sell anything at all.  Because I had the wrong money habits.  I had to learn rich money habits to achieve financial freedom.

After that, it got me excited to learn more about money. First, I signed-up for our company’s savings plan.  I started really small. At first, only about 2% of my paycheck is automatically deducted and kept under my savings account.  I don’t even get to hold the money.  After a month, I increased it to 5%, then to 10%. After a year of saving, I was able to set aside 20% of my paycheck without necessarily scrimping myself too much.  That was rich money habit #1 – pay yourself first.

With the savings, I had, I was able to pay my debt slowly buy surely.  More than that, it gave me confidence to know that I can do it, with the proper discipline and rich money habit.  When the opportunity came for me to be assigned to the US for a 6-month stint in my company, I was able to save even more and pay-off the rest of my credit card debt. That was rich money habit #2 – get out of bad debt as soon as possible!

I also started to take serious notice of the numerous calls I got from insurance agents offering life insurance.  Before, I would always make up numerous excuses just to avoid talking to them.  But now, I wanted to know more how I can use the different insurance products to protect myself and my family.  I also started reading more on business, money, investing and personal finance.  After a few years, I managed to save up for an emergency fund.  That’s rich money habit #3 – Get some protection!

I’m still a long way to go from financial freedom.  That is my goal.  I am in the process of learning how to build passive and semi-passive income, and I am loving every minute of it.  In this website, I will share whatever I learned so that you too can build your own rich money habits and ensure your financial success and freedom!