3 Kids and Us

Before Kids, I Had Money!

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Financial planning for growing your family doesn’t have to be ramen noodles and antenna t.v.–there are plenty of ways to budget and save.

The timeless proverb “if you saved enough money to have kids, you’d never have kids” will always ring true for most Americans.

After all, kids “cost” roughly $250,000 to $745,000 to raise from birth to age 18–and that’s before college, whether you pay for it or help them make the payments. For most couples, this isn’t even a thought before lamaze class and putting together baby furniture. But when that baby comes, you’re going to realize just how much everything costs!

Your eighteen-year plan

Having children provides every lesson there is to be learned about preparation and moderation. Whether you’re budgeting how many diapers you have left before a box store run or cutting back on monthly expenses that are already cut back too much, your future is going to be there when you show up. Have a financial plan involving which parents are going to work or stay home, a monthly savings plan taken out of your paycheck, and selling off or eliminate long term financial commitments and get out of a timeshare contract or lease for the latest model car.

Consider moving–even if it means finding a new career

Yes, everything is cheaper somewhere–but at what cost? Consider several places you could move if you had to, and what kind of support you would have regarding day care, family visits, and personal happiness. Moving somewhere just because you can afford a house there won’t help your marriage or parenting if you’re miserable. But moving to a more affordable location near family could just be the best thing to save your wallet and junior’s college savings plan.

Renegotiate your debt as much as possible

Settling credit card debt and paying down college debt are two of the biggest factors in your credit score. Whether you’re buying that family van or moving into a bigger space for that second child, debt is going to follow you for the rest of your life if you don’t take charge now. You’re not going to win the lottery, and you may be making less in ten years, depending on the economy and the job market. So consolidate and pay off your debts now, whether you think your credit score will be affected or not. As soon as that baby comes, all of your time, energy, and money is going to providing for and protecting that child at all costs–and be sure that it costs!

Whatever your plan is, have a financial vision that is reasonable, fair, and one that always looks to the future. You’ll be thanking yourself in the future–and so will your kids.

Don’t Go to Court for That Speeding Ticket! Call Ticket Clinic Now

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Receiving a speeding ticket can ruin your day. It can even be a damper on the following few weeks. There’s nothing enjoyable about getting a speeding citation, but there’s good news. It’s possible to fight your ticket with the assistance of a speeding ticket lawyer. Here’s why getting help from our traffic clinic is the best decision you’ll make.

You Don’t Have to Pay the Consequences

If you pay the fine, you’re admitting your guilty. Once you pay your ticket, you may need to deal with:

  • Skyrocketing insurance premiums.
  • Points on your driving record.
  • The risk of a suspended license.
  • The cost of paying the ticket.

Nobody wants to deal with these penalties. The good news is you may not have to with the help of a speeding ticket attorney.

Speeding Ticket Fighters Are Here for You

We are in the business of getting drivers out of speeding tickets. Here’s how we can help:

  • Examine the details of your case: Did the officer lawfully pull you over? Did he or she make any errors when writing your citation? Did he or she adhere to all necessary protocols? If the officer made mistakes, we can help dismiss your ticket.
  • Gather evidence: We’ll help you determine whether any phone records or witness statements will help prove you are innocent.
  • Create a defense argument: We’ll help you figure out if you can argue you were speeding for an emergency or the method the officer used to detect your speed was unreliable.
  • Go to court for you: You don’t have to take care of all the legal responsibilities by yourself. When you hire a lawyer, we’ll handle it all for you.

Put simply, we’ll do everything we can to ensure you don’t have to pay fines or get points on your license.

Don’t assume you need to pay up right away. Get help from a traffic ticket fighter instead.

7 Reasons Why You Should Start a Dropshipping Business

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Dropshipping is becoming a popular business model that many people are using as a way to start a business of their own and/or earn money on the side. With approximately 96 percent of Americans shopping online, dropshipping has really taken off and there is plenty of opportunity in the space to step in and build a successful business of your own. In comparison to other business models, dropshipping is more affordable to get started, easier to operate, can be run from anywhere at any time, and more. You can even dropship with Shopify sites and through other retail sites like Amazon and eBay.

If you’re looking into starting a side hustle or a business of your own, then here are seven reasons why you should consider starting a dropshipping business:

  1.  Startup Costs are Low

The cost of starting up a business will vary depending on the type of business you want to start, but studies have found that you will generally need at least $30,000 in order to get your business going. Unless you’re starting a dropshipping business, that is. When you opt for a dropshipping model, you don’t have to rent a building, hire on a full staff, find warehouse space and purchase inventory, etc. You simply facilitate purchases between the manufacturer and customer, so all you really need is a supplier, a website and domain name, and some marketing.

  1.  You Can Offer a Wide Variety of Products

When you start a business, it’s generally a good idea to keep control of your product offering and only offer products that are related to your brand and niche. While it’s good advice to follow and you can definitely stick to it with a dropshipping model, you don’t always have to. Dropshipping allows you to offer a wide variety of products from household cleaners and hygiene products to tech gadgets and apparel.

  1.  It’s Scalable

Scalability is a big issue that many businesses face. As they grow, they may not have the systems or tools necessary to meet the new demands being place on their business, which can cause some serious growing pains and sometimes even major setbacks. With a dropshipping business, though, it’s easy to scale. Since you simply take and submit orders to the manufacturer, you won’t necessarily need to upgrade your systems, expand your inventory, etc.

You may need to upgrade the plan on your website to accept more orders, but you shouldn’t have to do a whole lot else in order to scale as your business grows.

  1.  You Can Reach More Customers

Last year, the estimated 1.66 billion online shoppers worldwide spent over $2 trillion. With so many shoppers online these days, it’s important to get your business online too. Since dropshipping is a business that is done through the Internet, it’s easier than ever to get in front of more shoppers than you would if you were simply operating a brick and mortar store. Additionally, when you dropship, you can market to customers all over the nation, or even all over the world, helping you expand your market and reach more customers on a regular basis.

  1.  You Can Dropship from Anywhere

A lot of people dream of starting their own business and breaking free of their regular jobs. One of the biggest reasons people want to start their own business is to take control of their schedule and work on their terms. You do get a certain amount of control and flexibility when you start a business of your own, but when you start a dropshipping business, you have more flexibility than you would if you started another type of business. Since you’re not tied down to an office or a warehouse, you can dropship from anywhere, allowing you to travel, (for business or for pleasure), and get work done on your own terms.

  1.  There’s Plenty of Opportunity and Need in the Space

As more and more people turn to the Internet to do their shopping, there are plenty of dropshipping opportunities that open up. Not only that, but people will often look for niche, or specific items, creating even more need and opportunity in the space that is just waiting to be taken advantage of. Starting a dropshipping business now will give you the chance to get into the market and establish yourself, build up authority, and grow your business over the coming years.

  1.  It’s Easy to Manage

Between the finances, the products, the marketing, the employees, the building, and everything else that goes into running a business, they can sometimes be difficult to manage, especially on your own. When you start a dropshipping business, though, you don’t have to deal with a lot of that stuff, making it easy to manage yourself and keep control of, even as it grows and gets bigger.

In Conclusion

Dropshipping is a great business model to consider if you’re looking into starting a business of your own. From enabling you to work from anywhere on your terms and letting you manage it on your own even as it grows to allowing you to offer a wider variety of products than you might otherwise have been able to, dropshipping is a good way to go for many entrepreneurs.

What other reasons are causing you to consider a dropshipping business?

The Different Loan Uses with Americor Funding

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Americor Funding is a popular loan provider in this country and for good reason. Mainly, they are committed to offering superior customer service and to coming up with solutions to help people get out of debt as quickly as possible. One way in which they achieve that is by offering personal loans. These loans can be used in a range of different situations. Whether that is an opportunity to consolidate existing debt, to handle on of life’s emergencies, or to renovate a home, Americor Funding has the solutions in place that people need, when they need them.

Americor Funding Debt Consolidation Loans

One popular solution is the debt consolidation loan. This ensures multiple unsecured debts, such as store and credit cards, are bundled into one. The monthly payment is much lower than the combined payments on all other cards and the repayment term is much lower as well. Uniquely, Americor Funding offers their clients fixed interest rates and a set repayment term. This ensures people know exactly when they will pay and what they will pay for. Indeed, Americor never charges any hidden fees, prepayment fees, application fees, or early repayment fees.

Americor Funding for Home Improvement

Americor’s home improvement loans really stand out from the crowd. They have been designed so that people don’t have to tap into their savings to make their house a home. In fact, they don’t even have to touch their home’s equity in order to complete a project. Instead, they can repair or renovate their home as they see fit, increasing it in value.

If you want to remodel your kitchen, landscape a garden, or turn your basement into an extra room, you will need quite a bit of money. An Americor loan can provide you with that money just as you need it. Without needing to release equity or to refinance, you can buy new furniture, upgrade your kitchen and its appliances, set up a new home security system in your home, and so on.

Of importance is the fact that these loans are not home equity loans. With the latter, you use your home’s value as collateral for loan. Hence, if the value of your property goes down, you may not be able to get a loan at all, even if you otherwise qualify. Americor Funding looks at the credit worthiness of the individual, not of the property. This is also why, if you are accepted, the funds will go into your bank account, meaning you can use them as you see fit.

Americor Funding for Unexpected Expenses

Lastly, Americor is happy to help when people face an unexpected emergency. These emergencies are always hard to prepare for and most people simply don’t have the savings available to manage them. Americor provides emergency loans, however, that are perfect for these situations, whether it is a wedding of a long lost close friend or the death of a parent, a broken roof or a broken car. Help is out there.

Daniel Purjes on Understanding Fair Asset Division in New York

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One of the big problems with the forces is that there is often a lack of agreement on who gets to have which assets. Assets can be anything from a long-standing investment to pillowcases inherited from a favourite aunt. One of the reasons why divorce is often take so long to complete is because it is nearly impossible to develop an agreeable final list. Pick up any edition of the New York Times and you are guaranteed to find at least one main story about a bit of divorce and its terrible consequences. According to Daniel Purjes, this is in part due to the fact that New York is an equitable distribution state.

Daniel Purjes on Equitable Distributions in New York

Equitable distribution means that assets are not divided 50/50 by looking solely at their fair market value. Rather, a lot of other factors are taken into consideration on the court is bound by a number of established guidelines on determining this. Some of the factors that will be considered when dividing the available  marital assets include:

  1. The difference in property and income between the date the marriage started and the date of divorce filings.
  2. The age of both spouses and the length of the marriage itself.
  3. The needs of the child or children in a marriage and those of the parents with custody. For instance, they may have a need to keep the house in order to look after the children properly.
  4. Whether either party has or will lose an inheritance or pension as a result of the equitable distribution.
  5. How much was contributed by each of the parties in order to acquire the contested property.
  6. The potential for earnings each of the parties has.
  7. Any tax consequence associated with dividing the property.

There are strong arguments for and against the concept of equitable distributions. One of the main advantages is that it Focuses on situation rather than on monetary value. It also means people can lay claim to those items that have sentimental value irrespective of what they are worth in money. However, because some of the criteria that define value are quite esoteric in nature, the downside of this type of division is that it can become a long and drawn out process to identify who gets to keep what.

It also clearly highlights the importance of having a good lawyer on board who has an in-depth understanding of equitable distribution and who is also experienced in mitigating and mediating between the two parties. While a divorce can absolutely be amicable, there will always be a degree of bad blood, stress, and heartache, and it is all too easy to be driven by those emotions. A good lawyer will be able to recognise that and act in the long-term interests of their clients rather than two short term knee jerk reactions. Daniel Purjes believes that it is possible for both parties to come out of a divorce reasonably undamaged if they work with and listen to a very good lawyer.

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We left our home in Sydney, Australia many moons ago in May 2012 and, other than a brief stint back in Perth for Christmas and a wedding in early 2014, we have been travelling the world nomadically ever since, running a business from our laptops and we’re here to show you how to do it!