Mums Finance

An interesting article has appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal regarding the option of Power of Attorney. Women in particular need to be well informed about this option because they usually outlive their partners and need to ensure that their needs, both financial and otherwise,  are looked after in unforeseen events.

Appointing a Power of Attorney you are effectively transferring your freedom of choice and decision to another party should you ever become unable to make such choice and decisions for yourself. Very often it is a woman who takes P of A over a spouse or parent, but we can find ourselves in such a situation as well.

You need to ensure that whoever you appoint will serve your needs as best as you would youself. This is best done in consultation with your lawyer and make darn sure that whatever you decide on is exactly what you want and will be followed to the letter later on.

In many cases it is one of the most important decisions you will ever make.

Popularity: 25% [?]

It is fantastic that so many women today are buying and owning their own homes – independantly and without needing that old prerequisite of a ‘co-signer’. The co-signer/guarantor always had to be a man in the form of your father or husband. But thank god times have changed.

When you have decided to apply for a mortgage and buy your property you will know that the most important thing to do is to shop around and compare. Hopefully you will already have a good relationship with your bank, you will be aware of what deals they are offering with regards to mortgages and you will have established a regular savings pattern. Dont underestimate the services of a mortgage broker though; a good professional firm will be able to do that exhausting research for you and present to you a range of options tailored to suit you and your budget. You remain in control of the process and informed. What you need to avoid, though, are those brokers who have been offering easy-to-get mortgages for amounts that are really way too large for you to afford paying in the long term. Such brokers are currently being investigated by the Financial Services Authority in the UK, and about time too.

The FSA have started a massive crackdown on unscrupulous brokers offering mortgage deals that are ‘too good to be true’ to members of the public anxious to get a foot on the property ladder. Their practices include waiving aside proof of income and failing to carry out the required credit checks. While you can understand how tempting it is to those who desperately wish to buy their own home to accept these loans, it is the fact that these same people tend to be low income earners, welfare recipients and first home buyers. These are the people who have been extended mortgages of astronomical amounts that they could never possibly afford to repay. Of course, personal responsibility comes into it but the FSA wants to target those brokers who are taking advantage of these people.

Don’t knowingly be one of them; it is far better to go through all those hassles of producing all that usual paperwork and looking beyond doing it the ‘easy’ way. Getting a mortgage and buying your home is not mean’t to be hassle free and smoothsailing, but using the services of your bank or a reputable mortgage broker who offer you a range of options will make it all worthwhile when you eventually open the door to your new home further down the line.

Popularity: 24% [?]

OK, so you’ve decided what you’re going to write about, picked a domain for your blog, selected a place for it to live and loaded up the software. What’s next?

Well, you could run with the default theme (ie appearance) but they’re usually pretty boring and it’s best to choose something that’s jazzier and fits in with your theme. If you’ve loads of money you can get someone to write a custom theme for you but realistically most of us use one of the many free themes around and perhaps modify it a little by adding a personal photo or whatever later.

If you’re using the Wordpress software then the easiest way to find free themes initially is to go to the Wordpress theme viewer. This gives you a whole range of search options including themes with from 1 to 4 columns, various colours, fixed/fluid width, whether it needs plugins, if it’s widget ready and if it’s got an options page plus a few others. Wow! Complicated, or what? Don’t worry though: most of them don’t matter much and I’ll explain the main ones here:

1. Number of columns. Four columns really require widescreens and one is too limiting, so it’s best to go with either two or three column layouts. Initially you’ll find that two is enough but as your blog grows you’ll need three at some point.
2. The colours? Take your pick.
3. Fixed/fluid width. If you use fixed width then on people using wide screens, your blog will only take up the middle of the screen. Fluid width themes fill the screen no matter how wide it is.
4. When you’re starting out, forget those themes requiring plugins as it’s a complication you don’t need.
5. Widget ready themes are handy to have though you’ll not use them initially.
6. Sometimes an options page is handy. I wouldn’t go out of my way to find a theme that has one though.

So, choose a theme that has 2 or 3 columns, in your favourite colour, with fluid width and ignore all the other search options.

This will bring up dozens or perhaps hundreds of themes. When you find one that you like, click “Test run” to get an idea of how it will look. Once you’ve found one or two that you’re happy with click “Download” to get it onto your computer.

The downloaded file is a zip file which means that it’s compressed. To get this onto your hosting site, you need to open the file that’s downloaded (Windows automatically converts the file to an uncompressed version for you) and copy the directory within that from your computer to the wp-content/themes directory on your hosting service for your blog (usually ftp://ftp.yourblog.com/wp-content/themes).

That’s the complicated bit done. All that you need to do now is to login to your blog, go to presentation and select the new theme. Once that’s done, check out how your blog looks with the theme you’ve chosen in case it’s not quite so good looking in reality as you thought.

If you don’t like that theme, just download another one and change it!

Popularity: 41% [?]