Market Opportunity
The root of the Netherlands’ economy lies upon its free capitalistic market. The Netherlands’ economic freedom score is 77, making its economy the 12th freest in the 2009 Index of Economic Freedom. It has the 16th largest economy in the world and ranks 10th in GDP (nominal) per capita.
According to the CIA Factbook, the GDP is currently 670.2 billion USD and the Purchasing Power Parity is 2.8 billion USD while the Dutch are experiencing 1.8% real growth, 4.5% unemployment, and 1.6% inflation rates. Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek reports the average disposable income of Dutch households amounted to 28.5 thousand euro in 2004. The real disposable income of Dutch households rose by nearly 4 percent in 2007. Households spending exceeded household income by 2 billion euro. In 2006, Dutch households spent 6 billion more than they received in income.
With a population of 16.7 million, the country has been one of the leading European nations for attracting foreign direct investment and is one of the four largest investors in the United States. The increasing ties of the Netherlands with global trade are reflected in the increasing shares of exports and imports in GDP. Data from the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek shows that exports rose from to 77% of GDP in 2008 in addition to imports rising to 68%. Despite its small size, the Netherlands ranks seventh in the world in total value of its corporations. Furthermore, its online retail market is amongst Western Europe’s largest, with the Netherlands also ranked as one of Europe’s top five e-commerce nations states techpubinc.com.
The Netherlands began circulating the euro currency on January 1, 2002. The Euro remains strong against the US Dollar, with 1 Euro equaling 1.4114 USD. Because of the weakening of the US dollar for the last two years, the Euro has appreciated vis-
There are many sources where you can file a first time credit card application. These include banks, credit companies and other agencies. The Internet is the easiest way to locate your preferred credit card company.
When applying for a credit card, most companies need information such as name, age, address, social security number, any former address of yours, occupation, employer, and annual household income. These details are adequate for the credit company to verify your credit history, which is the major criterion for approval or rejection. Annual percentage rate (APR) often varies with your credit score. That is, a high score will get you a low APR.
Most first credit card application forms contain certain clauses written in fine print. Company salesmen are often outspoken about the advantages of their transactions. But these fine prints often carry conditions that are disadvantageous to you. One important thing to check is the APR. Most credit companies tempt you with a low initial APR score. Remember that it is the long term APR you should weigh most, not the short term.
A US citizen who is 18 years of age or older (the limit is lower in some states) has the legal right to demand a credit card with any US bank. Generally, credit card providers do not want a bank account to get a card. It is also possible to request many credit cards at a time. But multiple applications can affect the credit score negatively.
With great competition existing in the credit card market, most credit card providers look for an easy means to attract new businesses. They provide special gifts on many occasions such as Christmas and holiday shopping seasons.
Debt management solutions exist because people find themselves in debts that seem overwhelming and very difficult to tackle. The best and most cost effective debt management solutions can be developed without much expenditure. In order to make a strategy, debtors can either plan it with the help of a professional or by themselves. Depending on the size of debt, debtors need to create a plan by determining the exact amount of money that is spent on essentials and non-essentials. This helps to discriminate between necessary and unnecessary spending habits, which debtors can avoid.
A self-managed effective debt management solution starts with calculating the total amount of debt. This gives the debtors a precise idea of the amount they owe to the creditors. Now they can analyze the total household income and expenses incurred every month. Next, all the unnecessary expenses need to be eliminated and a limit ought to be put on the amount spent on luxuries.
Debtors can also take help from professional services that can present a debt management plan as part of their debt management solution. The main focus of most debt management solutions provided by these professionals is to reduce the interest rates on the debts. This is considered necessary as a major portion of the periodic payment is applied to the interest and not to the principal. Usually, consolidation is the option suggested by the debt management solution providers, as it converts the debts into a single affordable payment.
These debt management services usually negotiate with the creditors on behalf of their customers. They find out the amount that the customer can pay per month and then negotiate with the creditors for lower monthly payments. However, they do not negotiate the manner in which it will be reported to the credit bureaus, which could have an adverse effect on the credit rating. Therefore, besides negotiating for the payments, it is also important to negotiate for the type of report the creditors will send to the credit bureaus.
Debt management solutions depend on the seriousness and the size of debt accumulated by the debtors. By taking into consideration all the factors, a workable solution can be found.
What is a family budget?
A family budget is a set of instructions or laid-out-in-advance procedures which act as a guide to paying your bills, buying things members of the family need, putting aside some money as savings, and so on and so forth. Nobody in your household should spend any money, outside of an absolute emergency, whenever doing so would cause the household to go over the family budget.
The family budget tells you your financial spending and consumption limits for a given period of time, usually for one month that based upon the following:
Your household’s total income, your debt load (including taxes), your regularly occurring expenses such as your electricity or phone bill the lifestyle you want to maintain or realize
All family budgets are intended to help you realize your goals and take care of all immediate needs, such as food, for yourself and your family while at the same time getting your household to make more money than it spends.
What makes a family budget successful?
The cornerstone of a successful family budget, or any budget, is by making sure that more money is brought in than goes out. You cannot realize your financial goals and lifestyle dreams if you and your family members are spending money that you don’t have. If you are living in debt, you must assure that your household income is greater than your consumption expenses every week, month, or yearly quarter. The most important goal of creating the family budget is to get yourself out of debt, and to do so as fast as possible.
How does creating and then maintaining an effective family budget work?
It all begins with preparation and thinking ahead. The word economics literally means “household management” in its Greek root. Apart from making sure all the people in the house gets along decently, the financial part of household management is the most important part.
You should draw up a plan of expenditures and you must follow it. If you do it right, you should be able to maintain your current lifestyle, and have enough money for recreation and leisure (which are important to mental and emotional health). But, maintaining this budget could mean changing certain spending habits. If that’s the case, you and all your family members who are working will need to comply with the family budget.
At least for most of us, money is limited. This means you need to prioritize how you spend your money. When most of your immediate needs are taken care of, your family budget will guide you to pay down your most pressing or outstanding debts first. For the vast majority of people, this will be their mortgage or credit card debt.
Pay Yourself First
Creating a family budget, however, also works on the principle of “paying yourself first”. This means that you put aside as much money as your budget permits toward savings and investments. Your “investments” might be a money market account, CD at your bank, or it might be some stock investments made with the guidance of a financial professional. But at any rate, you must make sure that you take some of your income off the top before you get down to the business of paying the supermarket for your food and then paying the bank for your mortgage.
A Household Budgeting Tool that Works
United First Financial has a proprietary software program called the Money Merge Account This unique software is designed to help you calculate with pinpoint accuracy how to balance your household finances to achieve the maximum debt pay down per period while still meeting all of your household’s financial dreams and goals. The Money Merge Account is an incredible tool that anyone serious about household budgeting should look into.