Summer reflections by Claudia Green (claudia@eaglesettlements.com)

The summer months can often be the most expensive throughout the

year. Kids are out of school and wanting to be entertained, if you can

afford it there may be a vacation to take and in the hotter parts of

this country, the air conditioning bills rise steeply.

Summer is often a time for reflection too, both personally and

financially. We are half way through 2014 and have we gone

anywhere near achieving our goals that we set at the beginning of

the year? Have we lost weight, given up smoking, started putting

some money aside for savings and so on and so forth.

By the same token, how are we doing financially? As well as we

expected this year? Is our job, if we are lucky to have one, safe? Can

all the bills be met on time? For those receiving regular structured

settlement annuity payments as a result of a personal injury

settlement, perhaps now would be apt for reflection as to whether,

on top of all the aforementioned issues, the time is right to invest in

the future.

Has the time come to do something more substantial with those

regular structured settlement annuity payments? Perhaps an

operation that should have been carried out should be done so now,

maybe the time has come to replace that old car with something that

will not cost so much to service, or maybe even, the time has come to

spend some money on ourselves and take that vacation we have

always dreamt about, but never quite got round to booking. It could

even be the time to realize that college fees for our kids are fast

approaching and we do not want our future generation saddled with

debt so if we can, we will try and help them.

The advantage of having regular annuity payments coming in is that

they can be sold for an immediate lump sum of cash so that some of

the above can realistically be considered. After all, what are we

waiting for, who knows what tomorrow may bring.

The expression sometimes used by folks with savings is that they are

saving their money "for a rainy day". That is a time when they may

really need to use it, perhaps because of some personal tragedy. That

is sensible, but what if that rainy day does not come in your lifetime

and as you get older you reflect on what could have been.

As has been said by some wise financial planner, "never look back

and say I wish I could have done something as you get older if you

could have done it at the time". Yes, planning for tomorrow is vital

but so is doing the things that you want to do today while you know

you still can. So, reflect on that payment stream and yes plan ahead,

but maybe now is also the time to consider getting that lump sum of

cash for structured settlement payments and being able to spend it

on something meaningful. You know where to come if you decide

that is what you want to do.