Why You Shouldn't Always Hire A Financial Adviser

Let's face it. Bill Gates has a financial adviser. Steve Jobs had a financial adviser. Jack Ma of Alibaba.com probably has a financial adviser or a set of them. One can think that maybe "hey, having a financial adviser can help me manage my finances better."

Wrong. As with all types of employment, being the boss means you know the job of your underlings. To make an informed decision, seeing how cogs move and affect other cogs is crucial to switch their functions for optimum performance.

So it's advisable not to always hire a financial adviser because...

Not What You Both Had In Mind

You know the end goals of your money. It would be to grow enough to outlive you or at least go with you as you continue to age until death. A financial adviser may not quickly understand this. It might even be the case that he or she might mess up your financial needs.

It's Quite Easy To Self-Manage

It is understandable that at an elderly age, your final career is in investing and being an investor. You won't always do what you love as an engineer, administrative assistant or even a computer programmer. You'll be investing and creating income opportunities for yourself.

Beginning with your career today is better. It is you who would be caring much for your portfolio than other financial advisers. And they probably have other clients like you to worry about.

Can Be Quite Expensive

Being a specialised service that involves much money, confidentiality and expensive decisions, financial advisers are costly employees. They're as much as an investment. 

Despite their position as top-ranking folk, they can employ legal ways that could have you lose money, or even put it at their own advantage.

You might say your financial adviser is trustworthy, but that's what the other individuals scammed by their financial advisers also said.

Even Higher Bank Officials Skip Cybersecurity

According to research by Palo Alto Networks, finance workers are likely to skip cybersecurity protection measures for faster transactions or approvals, which increases the likelihood of hackers penetrating their systems.

About one out of five finance workers admitted they ignored cybersecurity policies. According to many employees, they do not fully understand what is an online security risk.

Palo Alto Network's research spanned the entire Europe. France has the lowest number of finance workers disregarding online cybersecurity measures.

But this isn't the worst part of this news just yet.

Even higher bank officials have lax attitudes towards cybersecurity measures, which they personally ignore. About one in four executives in Europe admitted they exposed their companies to potential threats when they accessed delicate files.

Using unscrupulous methods to save time and circumvent security, they may have exposed their companies once to potential threats

Hacking has become a growing concern in the United Kingdom with Chancellor George Osborne announcing he would double the UK's spending on cybersecurity and will spend more than £1.9 billion extra to prevent further hacking incidents in the future.

The overall financial attacks of cybercrime in the world today has reached more 

than £200 billion in 2014 alone.

Decisions, Decisions and Personal Finance

You ask what it takes to become an investor? Jolly good you asked that! It's a question nobody could answer directly. But, it's a question any investor would like answered properly as well.

I'm an investor. I go with the London Stock Exchange. Political decisions do not scare me. We measure everything in a quantifiable manner.

But like any sane person, we play by guts and we understand we cannot quantify everything.

Quantify Risks and Gains

Today's political climate in the UK has the conservatives helming a firm hand over the UK's political ground rule. Sure, Labour and LibDem can often make noise. But the people know it's the tories who are under control and have given much of their benefits nowadays.

But they are not perfect. Us investors recognise that. But so far right now, investing in UK companies and bonds even are great deals.

Play It Safe

Despite great benefits from the tories especially from the humungous real estate sale through the Help To Buy by Chancellor Osborne and the historically low interest rates helped investors to secure more assets. While we know it was meant for Britons to purchase more residences and push up real estate prices, the trouble was it was meant for everyone.

I'm not a kingly investor so I can still apply for the benefit. But it only helped me become richer. At best, that decision was the lowest risk there is. I played it safe and I believe you would agree to that as well.

Did You Know Scam Victims Are Sending More Than £240m To Jamaica?

Here's the problem: many of us in the United Kingdom want cash and we want it fast. That's what made the PPI claims industry boom and why claims managers are earning so much. But like some rogue claims companies, we can end up getting scammed.

Lottery scams is another way we get swindled for money. They collect numbers illegally through back-end arrangements with some top telecom companies worldwide.

The thing is, UK's populace, especially the elderly, aren't sending just £1000s. They're sending millions, and we send about £270m yearly to scammers from Africa, Jamaica and other areas of Asia.

We all know that gangs are behind this. But their anonymity is their weapon. So here are…

Ways To Avoid This Situation

Check Credentials

A polite voice talks to you from a call centre. Immediately, their professional tone and mention of specific documentation can make you fall for their death trap. Better make sure you check the credentials behind this service.

Most of these companies will have a website describing their services' detail. Check with authorities regarding the existence of these companies first before proceeding.

Be Sceptical About Anonymous Money-Sending

Anonymous money sending services needed to pay? They're asking you to buy some cash vouchers from financial institutions? Gift cheques for an international grocery line being asked from you? All of these are very sketchy! Drop the phone and forget about it.

Grammar

Perhaps grammar, literally the uneven tone of writing and the use of unconventional phrases in email scams should help you avoid phishing.

Read the sentence carefully. If you spot one single error, forget about the deal.

Three Ways You Could Manage To Live Free While Financially Stable

Nobody would ever turn down an offer to live the best life possible while earning in the same way. With faster communications technology, remote workstations are possible. That is, if you have a great agreement with your employer. But if you're feeling stuck with your job, why not just go and do what you really want?

1. What You Want And What You Need To Do

It's easy to have something you want. But it's not easy to set a deadline when to get it. You've got lots of excuses, such as you needing that job to finance your home, mortgage or others. The fact is, you will need to pay for these commitments. However, it does not mean it doesn't end. Financing can be a pain. But it doesn't mean it doesn't have an end. Why not just let someone rent out your place first for you to pay for the property while you go travelling? Or why not just quit your job when you don’t really like it and find a part-time or Internet-based work?

2. Debt

There's no one who could escape debt so quickly. Everyone will need financing at some point in life. There's no escaping it. But when's your rent troublesome? When you're the one paying for it. There are ride-sharing services that would allow other drivers to rent your wheels and both of you could split the profits together. You could just rent out some of your clothes or sell them at a lower price. The applications are endless!

3. Budget

You make things work. You do know that to increase your budget, you have to sacrifice some creature comforts. Skip a bit of that steak you have every Friday and save yourself some £2 per week. Add more and you get more. That's the key!

So Why Haven't You Had A Raise In Months? Here's Five Reasons Why!

1. Fragile Growth

It's been a while since your superior sent your promotion recommendation letter to the upper management. You haven't heard from them for six months. They realise your potential and dedication to your work. The problem is, the dedication of the economy to valuing your work isn't.

In 2015's first quarter, almost every country, including Europe and Britain, have seen great expansion. However, there's trouble with the footing after the jump, which makes things worse for your new job footing.

2. Labour Market

Unemployment is up on almost every Western country today. However, the weakness of the job market's strength to maintain longer a huge number of jobs makes it highly likely for you not to get a raise. Perhaps because many people with better qualifications could earn them a job up top.

3. Employment Shift

Technology always replaces manpower with more firepower and less expenses. Workers need to have a number of skills and must often adapt and reinvent themselves to maintain their jobs or skyrocket to another position. Another problem is that the Baby Boomers are yet to retire because of significant economic troubles and downturns keeping them on the radar.

4. Companies Wanting Cheap Labour

Ever heard of the photographer dilemma plaguing almost every millennial in the world today? It's just that companies don't want to pay for anything and instead upholds "exposure", "job experience" and "pay to intern". This might be propelling the jobs market, but also propelling the vacancies. Who wants a non-paying job anyway?

Asian Shares Still Tumbling. China's Economy Lacks Support

As Asia's shares tumble, China's investors further their disappointment with the Chinese Government's asset management.  Asian shares are on its one and a half year low on Wednesday. Despite the bad news, the Japense Yen had rallied.

The Chinese Government's perceived incompetence and the Greek debt crisis are scaring plenty of investors in Asia. About 30% of Chinese shares had fallen since mid-June. China continues to suffer from a slow economy despite Beijing's attempt to support its market.

Japan's Nikkei Stock had fallen by 2% to a seven-week low due to China's aggressiveness in the territory and the stronger Japanese currency.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Senior Market Economist Ayako Sera said Greece has become a background in investor fears as more of them worry about China's economy and slumping stocks. She said Shanghai's early losses were "cliff-dives" that affected investor sentiment directly.

However, investors still continue to fear about Greece's mountain of debt. It was given an ultimatum by the European Union to create a bailout deal by Sunday or it will meet regarding containing the possible fallout of a Greek exit.

The situation in both Asia and Europe had dropped 0.4% from the US dollar.