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Your special someone is an amazing person who has improved your life in more ways than one -- including financially. Maybe you were decent at managing money before you met them, but they helped you become even better or perhaps your finances were a mess until they stepped in. No matter the situation, you received at least one valuable financial lesson from them that changed the way you view money. Now that you're a more responsible spender, less stingy or better at putting money aside for savings, you'd like to share your experience with others. This is great, because your partner's savvy financial advice also can have a positive impact on plenty of other people. Hearing how their advice helped you can inspire others to make changes they've been putting off or didn't even realize they were capable of achieving. Or, perhaps you're the one who imparted the financial wisdom that changed your partner's life. Regardless, sharing these tips with others --...

Islamic finance, if explored, presents significant financing opportunities for businesses, writes Obinna Chima Islamic finance development has become a centrepiece in many countries in the African region. A number of market development and regulatory efforts have taken place in the region in recent years. Specifically, Nigeria, Sudan, South Africa and Senegal, Kenya, Morocco and Niger among others have put in place necessary legal and regulatory frameworks to enable Islamic banking offerings in their respective jurisdictions. According to a report by the Malaysia World's Islamic Finance Marketplace titled: Islamic Finance in Africa: Impetus for Growth, a lot of conventional banks across the continent have started offering Shariah-compliant banking products through Islamic window set-up. In the sukuk segment, the report showed that countries such as Senegal, Nigeria, Mauritius, Gambia had issued sukuk. A recent milestone in this space was the maiden sukuk issuance by the...

Some people say you need to spend money to make money, and while spending money on big marketing campaigns can certainly help businesses, it isn't the only way. There are plenty of alternative ways to grow your business without breaking the bank. With some smart planning and creative strategizing, you can increase your sales and grow your customer base without spending much—if anything—at all. Below, 12 members of Forbes Business Council share some of the best free and low-budget strategies they know to increase business cash flow. Members of Forbes Business Council share strategies for increasing business cash flow. 1. Automate Payment Collections Automating your payment collections. If you typically use an invoicing system to bill clients and have to wait for payment, you may consider setting up automatic payments, such as recurring ACH or credit card transfers. Additionally, if you typically bill in arrears after work has been performed, changing to requiring either ...

+ If you're new to investing, it can be hard to know where to start. + Financial planners recommend starting with some research, then automating your investments to make things easy. + They recommend starting as soon as possible, and keeping things simple. + Read more stories from Personal Finance Insider. Over the last year and a half, the topic of investing has made headlines and capitalized conversations between friends, colleagues, and family members. During the pandemic, we watched an uptick in the economy, a rise in people caring about cryptocurrency, and more than 15% of people investing for the first time. However, one group of people, the Gen-Zers (those born between 1997 and 2012) didn't rush into investing. According to a GOBankingRates survey, 34% of Gen-Z participants have not invested their money at all and 62% of participants in the survey say their financial situation warrants advice from a professional.  So if you're new to investing, here...

People have lots of questions about saving for retirement. “Am I saving enough?” is a really common one. As my colleague Amy Arnott explored in “Do You Really Need to Save That Much for Retirement?” the hardest part for many people may simply be scraping together enough of their paycheck to make regular contributions. Many planners recommend investing 15% of your pretax salary, which is no easy feat. (But remember that any employer contributions also count toward that number, so if your employer matches up to a certain amount, contribute enough to get the full match!) Beyond your savings rate, though, you also have some control over how much you will need to save. That’s because, to some extent, your choices determine how expensive your lifestyle is. In effect, by being mindful of how much you spend and ratcheting up your savings/investing rate as needed, you will be able to save more--and you will ultimately need less--money for retirement. Fred and Sarah Here’s the tale of t...

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, consumer debt was at an all-time high according to the Federal Reserve. So if you have credit card debt, you’re not alone. What may surprise you is that you are uniquely situated to negotiate your credit card debt on your own. We tend to rely on professionals to address challenges—car mechanics, lawyers, trainers. But it doesn’t take a finance degree to successfully develop a payment plan with your credit card provider. Being proactive about your debt can help you avoid a charge off and protect your current credit score. More importantly, taking control of your debt could reduce the stress you feel without a plan. By contacting your creditors you could create a plan that puts you in the know. Why Should You Negotiate Your Credit Card Debt? If you carry a high credit card balance or have missed payments, you may have heard from a debt settlement company. Often these organizations promise to resolve your debt for pennies on the dollar. It ca...

Some 117 million Americans — age 50 and up — are arriving in the promised land of post-pandemic spending. It's scary. It's exciting. It's confusing. And, yes, it's different than the world they left. Are the actions that used to be OK pre-pandemic — in terms of spending and saving — still OK? What has changed in the world of personal finance over the past 14 months, since the pandemic got its terrible grip on the nation? If you're an older American, are there specific actions you should be taking right now even as the pandemic clouds start to fade? For some workers in their 50s and 60s who kept their jobs, saving money wasn't necessarily so difficult during the pandemic. For them, basic pleasures like traveling and eating out became no-no's — and many also received hearty financial bumps from stimulus payments — so saving was easier. For others, particularly those who lost their jobs or whose businesses or incomes took a hit, it remains a serious str...

Islamic finance is available to non-Muslim business owners providing their businesses promote social good What is Islamic finance? Islamic finance is a means of funding or banking money in a way that respects the principles of Sharia law, guided by Islamic economics. In Arabic, Sharia means the clear, well-trodden path to water. The fundamental principle of Islamic finance is to avoid any financial activities which could be deemed either harmful (Haram) or risky for the user. The main difference between Islamic finance and standard finance is that charging interest in forbidden. Conventional banks and lending facilities earn money by charging fees and monthly interest charges for borrowers. The principle features of Sharia-compliant finance are: + A ban on what the Koran refers to as “riba” and we would call paying interest + Sharing losses as well as profits What is Sharia-compliant finance? Sharia-compliant finance bans excessive risk or uncertainty, as well as restr...

What is financial freedom? Ask a room of people to define financial freedom, and you're likely to get a dozen different answers. For some, financial freedom means being able to pay the bills with money left over each month or having a fully funded emergency account. Others may want to retire early and travel extensively. Regardless of how you define financial freedom, everyone can benefit from taking a comprehensive approach to money management. "It's important to think about your finances holistically," says Elisabeth Kozack, co-head of consumer lending at Marcus by Goldman Sachs. The following 12 steps will help you achieve your vision for the future. Commit to living within your means. The path to financial freedom begins with a step many people overlook. It starts by developing a mindset in which you prioritize building a strong financial foundation of savings before you move on to spending and investing. "You'll never get ahead if you're...

End-of-year reviews are essential tools to help leaders gauge their business's effectiveness and efficiency over the previous year. However, not all businesses implement a review, and some that do only look at the cursory metrics that would give them just a basic understanding of the company's strengths and weaknesses.  A more comprehensive review is necessary if leaders want to learn where the business can improve and how to do so. If you haven't gotten started on your year-end review, it isn't too late to do so. Seven experts from  Young Entrepreneur Council shed some light on what businesses can do to get started on their year-end review and explain why these steps are crucial for the review's success.  Young Entrepreneur Council members share tips for conducting end-of-year reviews.  Photos courtesy of the individual members.  1. Conduct A SWOT Analysis  At the end of every year, I conduct a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity and threat) analysis ...

Most people want to save as much as possible for retirement, and oftentimes that means listening to the experts about how, exactly, to plan for your senior years.  Unfortunately, though, there's a lot of not-so-great advice floating around out there, and some of the most well-known retirement rules no longer apply to today's workers. As you're planning for retirement, you may be better off steering clear of these outdated guidelines.  1. The 4% rule  The 4% rule has been around since the mid-1990s, and it states that you can withdraw 4% of your total savings during the first year of retirement, then adjust your withdrawals each year after to account for inflation.  While the 4% rule is still a good benchmark to get an idea of roughly how much you can spend each year in retirement, it has its flaws. For one, bond yields have dropped dramatically over the last couple of decades, so your retirement investments may not grow as much as the 4% rule assumes. In other word...

More than half of people do not think income protection is important, a new survey suggests.  A further 12 per cent don’t understand the value of an income protection policy, according to research from Shepherds Friendly.  This is despite finding fewer than a third of people could rely on their savings if they lost all sources of income, suggesting the vast majority would benefit from a policy paying out a regular sum if they were no longer able to work due to illness or injury.  Some four in ten could afford their current lifestyle for up to three months, and 12 per cent would only be able to last a month. Families are even less likely to have a savings buffer, with just 19 per cent of households with children saying they could rely on the money they’ve saved. Some 18 per cent say their finances would last them no more than a month.  Visit Money Marketing‘s Protection Zone for more  Shepherds Friendly chief executive Ann-Marie O’Dea says: “The consequences of ...