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Christmas Present Tips for Guys

Christmas Shopping Tips for Guys

giftgreen1Most of us guys are useless at Christmas shopping. Here's a few tips I've picked up over the years.

Ladies, you might want to share this with the men in your family to avoid getting an undesirable and badly wrapped present this Christmas.

  1. Buying your Christmas presents at a petrol station or dairy on Christmas morning really isn't the done thing - apparently not everyone wants a funnel, box of biscuits or a car care kit. Don't do it.
  2. Get started early, no not on Christmas Eve, yesterday was already too late.
  3. First thing in the morning is the best time to Christmas shop, and I mean first thing, teenagers are still in bed.
  4. It's not the thought that counts, it's how MUCH thought that counts.
  5. Cash is a GREAT present for teenagers - and me.
  6. If you must give gift vouchers make sure they are from a shop the recipient actually shops in and try and avoid those with an expiry date.
  7. Wrapping and cards are important, you and I know it's just paper but for some reason they are important.
  8. Before you start browsing in a shop check that it does gift wrapping and accept the service - wait if necessary. If the shop doesn't do gift wrapping move on to the next. Unless you are an expert present wrapper - Yeah Right!
  9. Even if every present you buy is gift wrapped, buy plenty of wrapping paper and sellotape. You are going to need it because dairy's and petrol stations don't gift wrap and being a bloke you'll probably ignore number 1.

Guys ignore the above at your peril and have a wonderful Christmas.

Posted in Protect Your Family.

What does the family need?

How Much Insurance Do My Family Need?

threekidsPretty much everyone with a family says at some point “I must have some life insurance”. The problem is usually then trying to figure out how much is the right amount.

The following are generally the questions that need to be considered, and which help to figure out how much is enough.

  1. How many people depend on your earning capacity? If the answer is "none," you probably don't need life insurance at all.

  2. How much money would your dependents need for living expenses? One way to determine this amount is to look at the earned income that you bring to your dependents on a regular basis. Work out how long they need to be supported for, and then from that amount, subtract the worth of property they would inherit from you and any amounts that will be available from public sources or other known sources (perhaps reasonably affluent grandparents would provide for your children in case of disaster for example). Also, there is an amount of ongoing household expenses that would stay the same whether you are here or not, and some that would stop if you weren’t here. As a rule of thumb, for a 2 parent family, losing one adult would reduce household expenses by about 15-20%.

  3. Is there significant debt that needs to be eliminated? If you want to make sure the family home is freehold for example, then allow for the amount of the outstanding mortgage to be paid off in full. (Remember to adjust the living expenses required by the family to take into account “no more mortgage payments”).

  4. What is your best guess for final expenses? Obviously there is the cost of funeral, which can vary enormously depending on cultural or spiritual factors. It may also be prudent to allow for some medical costs and perhaps a period of totally replacing a partners income while they are adjusting, and perhaps not working.

These questions are the essential ones that help work out basically what you do (or don’t) need in the way of life insurance. As with all aspects of financial planning though, professional advice can certainly help in fine-tuning the actual numbers required or working out some other ways to fund some of these expenses. Give Andrew or Jonathan a call on 07 578 3863 for a chat about your requirements.

Insurance

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