Personal Finance - North Light Financial Services

Protecting Yourself While Shopping Online

Protecting Yourself While Shopping Online What steps should you take? Whether you shop online routinely or infrequently, the risk of identity theft rises as you offer more and more information about yourself online. Dont use a debit card, and use only one credit card. If your debit card gets hacked, the thieves may be able to access your bank account. But if you use just one credit card for online shopping, youll just have one card to cancel if your [...]

By info@northlightfinancialservices.com|2017-03-28T08:17:29-04:00May 31st, 2013|Financial Fitness, Personal Finance|Comments Off

Setting Up Your Estate to Minimize Probate

Setting Up Your Estate to Minimize Probate What can you do to lessen its impact for your heirs? Probate subtly reduces the value of many estates. It can take more than a year in some cases, and attorney’s fees, appraiser’s fees and court costs may eat up as much as 5% of a decedent’s accumulated assets. Think tens of thousands of dollars, perhaps more.1 What do those fees pay for? In many cases, routine clerical work. Few estates require more [...]

By info@northlightfinancialservices.com|2017-03-28T08:17:30-04:00April 25th, 2013|Estate Planning, Personal Finance|Comments Off

Social Media Life After Death

Social Media Life After Death What happens to our online presence after we pass away? Are profiles immortal? Are memories lost? How do the major social media sites handle a death among their users? Facebook adopted a policy of “memorializing” the pages of deceased users. If you pass away, your page won’t disappear – unless you or your loved ones decide that it should. Once memorialized, no one can log into it any further. The page is taken out of [...]

By info@northlightfinancialservices.com|2017-03-28T08:17:30-04:00February 28th, 2013|Estate Planning, Personal Finance|Comments Off

An Estate Planning Checklist

An Estate Planning Checklist What to check (and double-check) before you leave this world. Create a will if you don’t have one. A valid will may save your heirs from some expensive headaches linked to probate and ambiguity. A solid will drafted with the guidance of an estate planning attorney may cost you more than the will-in-a-box, but may prove to be some of the best money you ever spend. Complement your will with related documents. Depending on your estate [...]

By info@northlightfinancialservices.com|2017-03-28T08:17:31-04:00February 14th, 2013|Estate Planning, Personal Finance|Comments Off

Building An Emergency Fund

BUILDING AN EMERGENCY FUND Creating a financial cushion for stressful times. How would you respond to sudden financial demands? We all define “emergencies” differently, but we are not immune to them. How can we plan to stay afloat financially when they occur? Most households are not financially prepared for an emergency – not even close. A recent study from the National Foundation for Credit Counseling found that 64% of Americans had less than $1,000 in funds earmarked for a [...]

By info@northlightfinancialservices.com|2017-03-28T08:17:31-04:00January 25th, 2013|Financial Fitness, Personal Finance, Saving & Budgeting|Comments Off