Single mistake in your retirement funds can lockout your loved ones inheriting your retirement income. Even well-constructed plan prepared by veteran wealth advisors and attorneys could overlook this simple step. It is the correctly filled and properly filed beneficiary form. Properly completed document should contain name of each heir and the share of funds each designee should receive. Avoid referring to another document such as your will, testament and other final documents. This violates the instructions which calls for names and allocation percentages and therefore, violates the requirement to complete the form properly causing the form to be invalidated. Then the result may be not something you intended. In the absence of a property completed designation form, your IRA, bank accounts, stocks, annuities, bonds and other retirement funds may be distributed to your surviving spouse and children. It had happened to too many people where heirs learned a costly lesson.

Beneficiary forms may help your heirs to bypass probate and access funds immediately after your death. It is also important to update the form when changes occur. When you complete a form, keep a hard copy of it in your valuable documents so that your heirs can find it easily.

Most of us have heard the term “FDIC Insured,” but few actually realize what that means. The organization got its start in 1933, four years after the crash of the stock market in 1929. The history of the FDIC paints a picture of a country that hoped to shield its citizens from the potential troubles a bank giant could cause.

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Politicians always want us to believe they live in a house they built themselves. This gratuitous self-reliance is often shunned by the greater public as disingenuous, but there is no doubt that relying on oneself is crucial to the survival of the modern economy.

Wealth is not a fixed quantity. What you consider wealthy may be different from your parent’s ideas on the matter, for instance. Therefore, distributing “wealth” to others is essentially creating a vacuum with no pre-defined limits. At what point does one stop giving? If the wealthy give so much away that they become equal to others, should others not also give? This begins to sound more like a system of moving money, rather than exchanging goods or performing meaningful services.

The key difference is the element of self-reliance. Marxism argues that the individual should reap the rewards of his efforts, and is instead cheated by private enterprise and land owners. Yet, even Marx understood that wealth was created and not found. On some level, consumerism is essential to prosperity and modern living. This means production, enterprise, entrepreneurship and ultimately jobs.

Consumerism implies the exchange of goods. If not money, then something of value that someone worked to earn. It can be difficult to distinguish usury from self-reliance. Money lenders enable others to prosper, yet are consistently vilified for the perception that they create something from nothing. In truth, it is self-reliance that drives the practice of money lending and vise versa.

Remember: Just because you have defaulted once or twice doesn’t mean you need to suffer from inconsolable collectors all your life. You may have defaulted on your credit card dues several years ago, but your credit report clearly states the debt was written off by the company who issued your card. You’re received nasty calls and letters from the collection agency to which your account has been forwarded, but that was it. They stopped bugging you, and you think you’re finally free from them. You may have to think twice.

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Many of us hesitate to use credit cards when we can pay for the service using cash or a debit card. However, there are certain services that you may want to use a credit card instead of paying with a debit card.

• If you are able to pay for your monthly purchases, you may consider using a credit card for those purchases and paying the card balance each month. You are not only avoid accruing and paying interest but also get other benefits such as airline miles, gifts and other benefits for using your credit card.
• Many credit cards offer rental car insurance as a benefit if you use your credit card to rent a vehicle.
• When you pay for your online purchases with a credit card you get a benefit that a debit card can’t provide. If you are not happy with the product, you can return the product and ask your credit card company for a chargeback.
• Consider using your credit card to pay for a hotel stay instead of paying with a debit card. Not only the hotel still will require a credit card, they will take money from your account right away if you use your debit card. You get a grace period to pay for your hotel stay with a credit card.