The following is a guest post on a timely personal finance topic from Maria, a tech writer from the UK with a fondness for finance.  We encourage you to follow her on Twitter at @financeport for more debt reduction and personal finance tips and information.  Without further adieu:

Advice on Securing your Financial Future

Want to secure your financial future? Want to make your future goals brighter? want to save money?

The first step you need to take is to create a financial plan.  Having a financial plan will help you to save money and make decisions consciously and accurately.  It includes a list of your goals as well as a time frame, cost, anticipated rate of return, and the investment/savings method you will use to achieve the goal.

The formula that all the people should follow is “Bright Financial Future=Solid plan + Steady income.”

Create a Financial Plan:

In order to secure your future the first step is to have a financial plan where you put more interest in saving money.  In order to make decisions financially you should have some type of plan, no matter how basic.

Set Goals:

You will have a better chance of having money if you plan for the things you want to do in future. Long-term goals may require five to ten years to accomplish. For example your goal may be to start a family, save money for a child’s wedding, college tuition, or purchasing a home. Short term goals are the things you would like to do next week, today, or in a couple of years.  They may include getting marriage, changing jobs, taking a vacation, buying a car and so on.

Consider Investing:

In order to deliver regular interest payments you can count on, a savings account is a good start, but it will not generate enough interest to keep up with inflation. Investments in bonds and stocks have generally out performed inflation, but CDs and savings accounts have not. Investments in stocks and bonds contain more potential to earn profits than savings accounts do, they also have option to fall in value or generate a lower gain than you expected.

Other than government bonds, investments are never guaranteed in the sense if you loose money on investment you probably have no recourse. This is the biggest difference between insured bank accounts and investments.

Seek Advice:

Some people locate investments by searching the internet and reading magazines as a form of due diligence, others rely on the Advice of experts. A financial expert can help you select the investments that best fit your plan. Before selecting an investment expert, it is wise to conduct interviews with different licensed experts. This will help you to have knowledge on several types of services that are accessible to investors.

Start Saving Seriously:

Start by saving enough money to cover your urgent living expenses for many months. You should have easy access to your money in a savings account.  A savings account is generally insured for losses up to $250000 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

In any situation, if you are short of money and need an emergency loan, you can get a loan in order to secure those funds by purchasing Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).  PPI is an insurance policy which is purchased with loans and credit cards in order to secure those loans for the lender.

About the Author:

This article has been posted by Maria, a professional blogger who is writing articles on PPI claims and shows keen interest in finance. You can reach her on Twitter: @financeport