February 23, 2012

Invest in property – are you mad!?

The words investing and property have become rather sullied in recent years and I’m not for one moment going to suggest that you should take a contrarian approach and try and buck the trend in the UK at today’s prices.

The fact is that house prices in particular, still make little or no sense in relation to average earnings figures but are still being propped up by a combination of the property boom hangover and artificially low interest rates. Buy yourself a home if you need one – but not as an investment; not just yet anyway.

Instead, I’m going to suggest two entirely different ways you can invest in property, today in the UK and still make money.

First off, there are lots of Real Estate Investment trusts (REITs) listed on the London Stock Exchange which stand at very healthy discounts to their net asset values, have high yields and are in no danger of going under; their valuations have simply been trashed along with everything else – so do yourself a favour and buy wisely at a discount in the time-honoured tradition of well-known real estate shrewdies like David Lichtenstein.

Just be careful to pick investments with low loan to value (LTV) covenants which aren’t in any real danger of being breached – and which also have deep discounts to their net asset values, a good yield and a decent commercial property portfolio which isn’t dependent on declining industries like High St retail etc.

The alternative is to buy a home which is also going to be a business – or can be turned into one via your own had work – as a guest house, small hotel, B&B or home for holiday letting etc.

If you can live in a nice home whilst simultaneously making it pay its way – it’s an ideal way to invest in property.

Better yet; do both!

 

The Low Down On Life Insurance

Life Insurance is a kind of insurance that pays financial proceeds on the demise of the insured covered in the policy. Basically , a life assurance policy is a contract made between the named insured and the insurance firm whereby the insurance firm consents to pay a fixed upon amount of cash to the insured’s named beneficiary as long as the insured’s premiums are current.

Folk take out life assurance policies for numerous reasons. Such insurance provides security to family members on the loss of a family member.

For example, if the first wage earner dies in their prime, the death benefit received from a life insurance cover will help the surviving family members in conquering the responsibility of the sad loss. Life assurance can be bought by people, but is also offered as a perk by many companies.

Often, giant companies and central authority companies offer group life assurance at no charge to the worker. Should the worker would like to get additional life assurance from the employer’s insurer, they can generally do so at reduced rates. The price of life assurance varies dependent on factors such as the insured’s age, health, and occupation. For instance, the premium for a 25-year-old, male, non smoker in excellent health will be a lot less dear than a corresponding policy for a 65-year-old male smoker. In a similar fashion , a sky dive instructor would pay much higher premiums for life assurance than would a librarian. Life assurance is available in a selection of different forms to fit the tastes of the suggested insured.

Some of the common kinds of life assurance policies include : whole life, variable life, and term life. Term life assurance policies start with low premiums in the starting stages of the policy and these premiums increase gradually as the insured grows older. There isn’t any money increase in a term policy and, accordingly, the death benefit won’t increase. With entire life and variable life assurance, some of each premium pays for the insurance and the remainder stands in as a tax free investment. A whole life insurance policy sets a premium at the start of the policy and that premium doesn’t change over the length of the policy. This kind of insurance allows for a cash increase in the insured’s life. This money increase may be employed during the course of the policy or it’ll simply function to increase the death benefit at the end. In a variable life product, the premium remains the same over the period of the policy, and there should be a money increase as long as the various retirement funds selected by the insured perform well.