Covering properties with strong wills during COVID-19 era? Buying more house than you can afford. It’s easy to fall in love with homes that might stretch your budget, but overextending yourself is never a good idea. And with home prices still rising, this is easier said than done. How this affects you: Buying a home that exceeds your budget can put you at higher risk of losing your home if you fall on tough financial times. You’ll also have less wiggle room in your monthly budget for other bills and expenses. What to do instead: Focus on what monthly payment you can afford rather than fixating on the maximum loan amount you qualify for. Just because you can qualify for a $300,000 loan, that doesn’t mean you can afford the monthly payments that come with it. Factor in your other obligations that don’t show on a credit report when determining how much house you can afford.

You want to be able to distinguish your house from other homes for sale on the market and one way to do so is to throw in a few freebies. This can be done by leaving behind some of your personal property that is valued above and beyond what the average home buyer in your home’s price range would typically not be able to afford. These items can range from a big screen smart TV to high-quality stainless steel kitchen appliances. If you live near a lake or a golf course, you may want to throw in a fishing motorboat or a golf cart.

Affidavits have been permitted to be sworn remotely, even if full regulations to permit the process have not been introduced, and the courts have been operating on limited scales to deal with a variety of urgent litigation matters electronically and by way of video conferencing, with more routine matters like probate applications (Certificates of Appointment of Estate Trustees), being handled in one way or another. Consultation meetings with clients themselves have been arranged by way of various video conferencing facilities and on occasion in socially distanced settings, again with masks and sanitizer until in-office meetings can again be scheduled. Read more details on wills during Coronavirus.

Electronic signatures and counterpart documents are not permitted and all sessions should be recorded if possible. A special ‘attestation clause’ explaining that the Will has been witnessed virtually is advised and further guidance is expected to follow from professional bodies. This more convoluted and long-winded process carries more risk of the Will being ineffective, e.g. if the will-maker dies before the process has been fully completed. However a Will is signed, the basic formalities must still be observed, ie the will-maker must understand what they are doing and not be unduly influenced by anyone; witnesses should also have the requisite capacity and must not be beneficiaries or spouses/civil partners of a beneficiary. Professional advice should ideally be sought in all cases.

Break Down Your Income & Expenses: Credit for this one goes to user GeekLimit on Reddit – one of my favorite personal finance tips! This is an odd little trick that can change the perspective you have about your money, and help you budget better. It’s all about breaking your income and expenses down into daily values, like this: You make $2,500/month = ~$83/day. You pay $800/month for rent = ~$27/day. You pay $200/month for car insurance = ~$7/day. Everything else (food, phone, gas, etc.) comes to $750/month = ~$25/day. That means you’re left with $24/day in spending money. Want to save $1,000 for a nice vacation? You’ll have to save about 42 days worth of your spending money. That means 42 days of not spending a dime. Want to buy a new $10,000 car? That’s about 416 days worth of your spending money. This will help you see how far purchases are going to set you back and affect your spending ability.

We have seen a wide range of approaches to providing borrowers with flexibility following the occurrence of an event of default or a potential event of default, including the execution of simple consent/amendment letters effecting the amendment and restatement of loan agreements, along with reconfirmation and/or re-grant of existing security. Our borrower clients have been reluctant during these difficult times to spend significant amounts of time and money on documenting the amended terms of loan agreements, with the belt and braces approach of re-granting security. This has in certain cases caused real tension with their lenders, whose desire is to protect their position during times of uncertainty. We will closely watch this space as the crisis continues to unfold with falling valuations, changes to consumer behaviors, potential downsizing of physical store footprints, potential reduction in demand for office space and most of all more strains on lenders’ internal resources. Discover more info at https://techbullion.com/wills-and-covid-19-safeguarding-your-assets-during-a-global-pandemic/.