Pittsburgh Better Times

A Lifestyle Publication for the Pittsburgh Community

Get Knowledgeable About Different Debt Relief Services Before Choosing

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Debt relief can come in different forms but one of the most common and recommended one is to contact your creditors and work out a manageable repayment plan on your own. However, if you are struggling to pay your significant credit card debt or any other for that matter, you can also consider contacting a debt relief service if you cannot work out a way with your creditors on your own. 

  • These services may offer credit counseling or debt settlement services depending on the type of your loan, the amount you carry presently and your financial hardships. 
  • They will also provide you with handsome tips and advice on how you should deal with the mounting monthly bills.
  • They will also help you to create a proper plan to repay your creditors.
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15-Year vs. 30-Year Mortgages

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The growing variation in mortgages is making it possible for home buyers to customize loans to suit their needs. With greater opportunities, however, comes confusion.  A question that often arises is what type of mortgage is better – a 15-year or a 30-year?

With a 15-year mortgage loan, the interest rate is usually lower than a 30-year mortgage. The advantage of a 15-year loan is that it allows you to build equity (the portion of your home that you own without debt) faster, and it also lowers the amount of interest paid over the loan term. However, 15-year mortgage loans do have a higher monthly payment.   Most people opt for 30-year mortgages because they need to spread loan payments over the longer time period to afford them.

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Putting Money Back in Its Place

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By Jeff Gitterman 

As a financial advisor, money is certainly a subject that’s close to my heart.  When I give group seminars, I often like to begin by asking people to give me definitions of what money means to them.  And I always get a similar range of replies: freedom … security … opportunity … power.  I’ve asked this same question to hundreds of financial planners over the last several years, and I rarely ever hear the standard dictionary definition, which is simply that money is a means of exchange.

What’s important about these answers is that they illustrate something about our culture. The problem is not just that we think money can buy us things, but also that we tend to define money as an end in and of itself.  My personal definition of money is a means to satisfy a desire.  That may sound straightforward enough, but things get complicated when we tend to measure our satisfaction, happiness, or success by how much money we have.

Through the work I do, I see proof on a regular basis that having a million dollars in the bank has no relationship to happiness—but people continue to insist that it does, even when their own experience seems to show otherwise.  Many of my clients who have reached this milestone tell me that they still wake up in the morning and feel as if they’re broke.

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What to Do If You Think a Will Is Forged

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If you believe that your deceased loved one’s will was forged or if you think that their genuine bequeathal instructions aren’t being carried out, you must do something about it. Out of respect for their memory, you must be the one to ensure that their will is a true reflection of how they wished for their finances and assets to be split upon their passing.

Before you can fight this good fight and treat your loved one’s memory with the respect that it deserves, you’re going to need to prove that what you are saying is true. Here’s what you must do if you are ever convinced that a will has been forged:

Enlist the help of a handwriting expert

As you’re contesting the will based on forgery, the first step you need to take is to prove that the signature on the will is different to the signature that your deceased loved one used in life. A handwriting expert will be able to spot even the smallest of differences and inaccuracies in this instance, thus making them a vital form of assistance that you need to be getting on your side.

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Agriculture Investments – What You Need to Know

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Investing for a better financial future can seem daunting at times, especially in today’s economic climate. The end goal of investing is to make a profit, and therefore such financial decisions should not be made on a whim. Interested investors should do their market research and understand the sector before deciding to invest. 

Understanding not only how investing works, but in which sector your investment operates is extremely important. This way you understand the process, risks and stock behavior properly. Investing in agriculture is not just putting your money into a piece of land that yields produce, it is more complex than that.

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