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[ad_1] People often think of personal finance in terms of budgeting and tracking expenses, but there’s so much more to it. To have a healthy financial life, you need to set financial goals and work towards them. With this being said, many people fail to do so effectively. In this article, we’ll discuss how to set financial goals that work for you. How to Set Financial Goals What Are Financial Goals and Why Should You Have Them? Financial goals are objectives that you set for yourself in order to improve your financial situation. They can be short-term or long-term, and they can cover a variety of different areas, from saving for retirement to paying off debt. Some more examples of financial goals include: Saving for a major purchase, like a house or a car Building up an emergency fund Increasing your income Investing for the future Reducing your expenses Having these goals gives you something to work towards and can help you make better financial decisions. Plus, achieving a financial goal can be a significantly gratifying experience. This is a great way to boost your confidence and feel good about yourself (while enjoying financial stability). How to Set Financial Goals That Work for You There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to setting financial goals. The most important thing is to make sure that your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Let’s break down each of these criteria: Specific: Your goal should be clear and well-defined. For example, rather than setting a goal to “save money,” you could set a goal to “save $500 by the end of the year.” This approach applies across any financial goal, whether it is saving for a car or home, reevaluating where your investments lie, or refinancing your home loan. It is crucial that you calculate the exact amount you would be able to save and plan how you’ll spend it in advance – use digital tools like Credit.com’s mortgage calculator, or this Homestar Finance refinance calculator. Measurable: You should be able to track your progress towards your goal. This will help you stay motivated and on track. How exactly you track your goal will depend on what it is. But some examples include setting up a budget, tracking your net worth, or using a savings tracker app. Achievable: Your goal should be realistic and achievable. There’s no point in setting a goal that you know you won’t be able to reach. Relevant: Your goal should be relevant to your overall financial situation and goals. For example, if you’re trying to get out of debt, setting a goal to save for a new car isn’t particularly relevant. Time-bound: Your goal should have a specific time frame attached to it. This will help you stay on track and make sure that you don’t procrastinate. How to Achieve Your Financial Goals Once you’ve set your goal, it’s important to come up with a plan for how you’re going to achieve it. This might involve setting up a budget, automating your savings, or looking for ways to earn extra income. Whatever your plan is, make sure that it’s realistic and that you’re actually going to stick to it. It can also be helpful to break your goal down into smaller, more manageable pieces. This will make it feel less daunting and will help you track your progress more easily. For example, if your goal is to save $500 by the end of the year, you could aim to save $42 per month. Another helpful tip is to make sure that your goal is visible. Write it down somewhere or keep it stored on your computer or phone so that you can see it and be reminded of it regularly. You could even create a vision board or a collage to help motivate you. It’s also important to take help from others. The financial world is complex, and there’s a lot to learn. If you’re not sure where to start, consider talking to a financial advisor. They can help you develop a plan and offer guidance and support along the way. Finally, it’s important to celebrate your successes along the way. When you reach a milestone, take some time to treat yourself. This will help you stay motivated and keep your eye on the prize. Three Major Financial Mistakes to Avoid While setting and achieving financial goals is important, there are also some financial mistakes that you should avoid. Here are three of the most common ones: Not having any goals: As we’ve already discussed, it’s important to have specific goals that you’re working towards. Without these, it’s easy to end up spending money impulsively. Goals are a significant part of any plan, financial or not.  Relying on a single source of income: If all of your income comes from one source, you’re putting yourself at risk. What would happen if you lost your job or your business failed? It’s important to have multiple streams of income so that you’re not left in a difficult financial situation. Not saving for retirement: Retirement might seem like a long way off, but it’s never too early to start saving. The sooner you start, the more time your money has to grow. Final Thoughts Setting financial goals is a great way to improve your financial situation and achieve greater financial stability. Be sure to make your goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). And don’t forget to create a plan for how you’re going to achieve your goals. Good luck! The post How to Set Financial Goals appeared first on Credit.com. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] According to IBM’s annual Cost of a Data Breach report, the average cost of a data breach to an organization in 2021 was 4.24 million dollars. That’s the highest average figure in its 17-year history. Most of these breaches were the result of compromised user credentials (where an attacker is able to gain unauthorized access to an account) and are often more costly where remote working is involved. cyber attack These breaches aren’t just costly for large enterprises, though. Many small organizations fail to recover from a serious data breach (where the average cost is just under $700,000), with 60% of them going out of business within 6 months of an attack.  But of course, we can also fall victim to cyber attacks as individuals, and the cost to us can be significant, too. If you’ve been unlucky enough to have been a victim of a data breach, or (worse), identity theft, you’ll know that you can lose eye-watering and potentially crippling sums: this hacking victim lost over $13k in 2020. But when we talk about the cost of a cyber attack to an individual, we’re not talking simply about financial losses.  How to Avoid a Cyber Attack Psychologically, the after-effects of a cyber attack can be damaging. The feeling that you’ve been manipulated by a stranger (and your personal data has been ‘invaded’) can be deeply unsettling. It can lead to a serious loss of confidence, and make you increasingly wary of trusting others. It can cause embarrassment, too, as a victim of a hack can be made to feel as if it’s their fault.  In the most extreme cases (where a cyber attack has led to a significant loss of funds or even the loss of a job) the effect can be even more harmful, leading to stress, anxiety and even depression. Whatever the financial cost of an attack, the emotional cost is often far more significant in the long run. Fortunately, there are a number of steps you can take to secure your data and ensure you’re aware of the threats you might face while online.  Check If Your data Is at Risk Without knowing it, your data might have already been involved in a breach. A breach usually occurs when a hacker gains access to the data­base of a service or company which contains users’ private information, including (but not limited to) usernames, passwords, email addresses and, in the worst cases, bank account details. If you’ve been involved in a data breach, some of your personal information might have been made public without you realizing, which could put you at risk of identity theft. But don’t panic. You can check if your email address or phone number has been exposed in a data breach by going to Have I Been Pwned. If any of your accounts may have been compromised, change those passwords immediately, and make sure you’re not reusing the same passwords across multiple accounts. Use Strong Passwords Speaking of passwords, nearly a quarter of Americans have admitted to using a password like “password” or “123456”. These should clearly be avoided, as they’re easily guessable and won’t take long for a hacker to crack. The longer and more complex a password is, the stronger it is. You can check the strength of your passwords at Security.org. Using a “passphrase” (a series of unrelated words with spaces in between) is often more effective than using a simple combination of letters and numbers, as these can be harder to crack. This can help to protect your accounts from threats like brute-force attacks, in which attackers will submit vast numbers of possible passwords in an effort to guess correctly. Protect Your Website(s) This action may not apply to you, of course — but if you happen to run a website (for a small business, perhaps, or even just a hobby such as blogging) then your personal information is inextricably linked to it, and it can be a huge point of vulnerability. If someone gains access to it through a CMS exploit or a comparable weakness, they can learn your passwords, uncover private information, or even hold the site hostage in an effort to extort you. Keeping extortion efforts at bay is largely a matter of investing in technical safeguards. Top managed hosting platforms are particularly good at keeping ahead of potential attackers, and some (e.g. Cloudways with its 2022-launched Cloudflare CDN integration) are investing in native features that make it all but impossible for run-of-the-mill hackers to gain access. Overall, though, the biggest thing you can do is refrain from storing any sensitive information on your website. Anything intended for public viewing inevitably makes a bad storage vault. Beware of Suspicious Emails  One of the most common ways individuals fall victim to cyber crime is through phishing attacks, a type of ‘social engineering’ where an attacker sends a fraudulent email to an intended victim enticing them to click a suspicious link or hand over personal information. Phishing emails often appear as though they’re from a legitimate organization (like your bank, for example) but there are some classic signs to look out for. Check the email domain (the bit after the @ symbol) to see if it looks legitimate. If it’s misspelled (or a public domain like gmail.com) it could be a scam. Next, check for poor spelling and grammar in the body of the email, as phishing attempts are often shoddily written. If you have the slightest suspicion that the email may not be legitimate, do not respond or click any links in the email. To ensure you’re aware of the telltale signs, IT Governance has produced a handy guide on the ways to detect a phishing email. Update Your Software Cyber threats are constantly evolving, with hackers developing newer, more sophisticated ways to gain access to our devices and our personal data. That’s why it’s so important that our operating systems and software programs are always updated to the latest available versions. These newer versions

[ad_1] In recent years, the largely exclusive world of investing has been blown wide open by the rise of fintech platforms. These support brand new ways for retail investors to participate in the buying and selling of stocks on global markets. Accelerated by the conditions presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, the retail investor boom has been supported by the emergence of passive trading.  fintechs retail investing The accessibility of Wall Street today may be hard to fathom. This is especially true when looking back a little more than a decade to the costs and hurdles that retail investors had to overcome to simply buy their favorite stocks. As recently as 2009, brokerages were charging anywhere from $9.99 to $19.95 per transaction for the buying and selling of stocks online.  ‘Zero-commission’ trading was one of the early revolutionary changes brought by emerging fintech firms as more investing platforms like Robinhood began to enter the market in the months prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.  Although controversial, zero-commission trading generally works on a payment-for-order-flow (PFOF) model. Brokerages receive payments from market makers in return for the flow of customer stock purchases and sales being run exclusively through their firm. This enables investment platforms to make their money without customers having to cough up directly. However, it also means that chosen market makers may not be required to charge the most competitive price for stocks.  As the Covid-19 pandemic heavily impacted the lives of individuals all around the world, the implementation of lockdown measures coupled with the arrival of government stimulus packages saw more retail investors taking to the stock market in a bid to buy into recovering stocks. The data above shows that investors had been quick to take on technology stocks, with a net investment flow of $40 billion arriving in the sector by early 2022.  Investors are now having to adapt to the age of the ‘new normal’ today. This means that there may be less time available to conduct the required research to discover new prospects, fintechs are actively working to take initiative in making key investing decisions for customers.  Thanks largely to the rise of fintech, it’s never been easier, or more cost-effective, to invest passively. In some cases, it’s not even necessary to make any investment decisions whatsoever. Let’s take a deeper look at how fintechs have turned retail investing passive.  The Rise of the Robo-Advisor The past decade has belonged to the robo-advisor. Built on a foundation of artificial intelligence, these automated investment services are generally low-cost, and it’s extremely easy for users to get started with very little money. Many platforms even offer spare change ‘roundup’ investment options.  Robo-advisors have enjoyed a rise in popularity that’s been strong even in the years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Between 2017 and 2019, the volume of money under management through robo-advisors tripled from around $240 billion to $980 billion, according to Statista data. Furthermore, the industry has been forecast to reach a value of $2 trillion by the end of 2022.  The beauty of this automated approach to investments is that it enables fintech platforms to do all of the work, in a very literal sense. Roundup platforms like Moneybox has become renowned for its approach to spare change investing, whereby users specify the amount of money they wish to invest each month, whether they would like to have their spare change from bank card purchases automatically rounded up and invested, and the level of risk they would like to take on through their ISAs, and the app will take care of the rest.  This enables users to build a sizable nest egg for their specific goals without having to do anything at all – besides occasionally logging into their account to refresh their bank card permissions.  Passive Portfolios via Copy Trading Although copy trading is nothing new, fintech platforms have helped to make them far more accessible and customizable to boot.  Whilst many stock trading platforms now offer some form of copy trading capabilities, the leading brokerage to offer the feature is eToro.  Through eToro, it’s possible for traders to view the platform’s leading traders over a given period of time, and choose their favorites to essentially trace, trade by trade.  All trades are proportional to the amount of money that a user is willing to invest, and in eToro’s case, it’s possible to copy up to 100 traders at a time – provided a minimum of $200 is invested per trader.  Furthermore, it’s also possible to copy stop losses when trading to ensure that there’s some form of protection against portfolios suffering a downturn.  There’s sufficient evidence that copy trading can work as an option for investors who may lack the time necessary to make informed market decisions. According to eToro’s statistics, the platform’s 50 most copied traders made an average yearly profit of 30.4% in 2021.  Although the Covid-19 pandemic has subsided to the extent where many of the retail investors of 2020 have found that their free time has become more limited, the rise of passive investing has ensured that nobody needs to slow their trading activity. With fintech platforms offering a varied range of passive investment options, it’s possible to maintain a strong portfolio long into the future.  The post How Fintechs Have Turned Retail Investing Passive appeared first on Credit.com. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] The numbers to know about the world’s biggest cryptocurrency. This article originally appeared on Finder.com and has been republished here with permission.  bitcoin statistics The first digital currency and the largest, Bitcoin makes up 39% of the total value of the biggest 250 cryptocurrency coins as of September 2022. Bitcoin’s founding is the stuff of legend: It was created in 2009 under the alias Satoshi Nakamoto – an unknown entity who believes future currencies shouldn’t be controlled by a central government or agency. The first Bitcoin hit the market in July 2010 at a cost of under $0.01. It took three years for the currency to reach more than $1,000. Since 2013, Bitcoin has smashed all records. It peaked at $69,045 back in November 2021. The current price of Bitcoin is around $22,259 — or 8.8% lower than what it was just one month ago. All prices are quoted in US dollars. !function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var a in e.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<t.length;r++){if(t[r].contentWindow===e.source)t[r].style.height=e.data["datawrapper-height"][a]+"px"}}}))}(); The price of Bitcoin has changed by -$1,963 over the past day, with yesterday’s price of about $31,818 and today’s price of $29,855. The number of Bitcoin currently in circulation is 19,055,843. While there can only be 21 million Bitcoin created, it’s estimated that this maximum won’t be reached within the next 100 years. !function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var a in e.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<t.length;r++){if(t[r].contentWindow===e.source)t[r].style.height=e.data["datawrapper-height"][a]+"px"}}}))}(); Bitcoin is by far the biggest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization — or total value in existence. Currently, $424 billion worth of Bitcoin is out in the wild. Bitcoin surpassed a market cap of $1 trillion for the first time in February 2021. Ethereum, the second most popular currency, has a market cap of $210 billion. !function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var a in e.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<t.length;r++){if(t[r].contentWindow===e.source)t[r].style.height=e.data["datawrapper-height"][a]+"px"}}}))}(); Some $36 billion worth of Bitcoin has been traded over the past 24 hours. The graph below depicts the volume of Bitcoin traded daily. This figure can be somewhat volatile, with $12 billion traded on one of its worst days and $72 billion traded on one of its best. !function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var a in e.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r=0;r<t.length;r++){if(t[r].contentWindow===e.source)t[r].style.height=e.data["datawrapper-height"][a]+"px"}}}))}(); The price of Bitcoin can also be volatile. Elon Musk announced in February 2021 that Tesla had purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin and would be accepting the currency as payment, paving the way for larger companies to adopt Bitcoin and sending the price soaring. Musk reversed that announcement in May and declared that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin due to its high carbon footprint, leading to an immediate crash of the Bitcoin price to roughly where it was before his first tweet. While you’ll find excellent guides covering how to invest in Bitcoin, as with any cryptocurrency, it’s wise to invest with caution. The post Bitcoin Statistics appeared first on Credit.com. [ad_2] Source link