Halloween, that time of the year when the veil between the living and the supernatural grows thin, is a holiday celebrated with a blend of eerie excitement and spine-chilling festivities. One essential element that adds an extra layer of enchantment to the Halloween experience is music. Whether it’s the eerie melodies that send shivers down your spine or the pulsating beats that get your heart racing, the right Halloween playlist can make or break the spooky atmosphere.

In 2023, music enthusiasts have been treated to an array of hauntingly delightful playlists, and three standout selections have captured the essence of Halloween like never before.

“The Best of Roxy Music”: For those who prefer a touch of sophistication with their scares, this playlist is the ideal choice. Roxy Music’s eclectic blend of art rock and glam creates an otherworldly soundscape, perfect for a Halloween soirée that oozes style and intrigue. Get Roxy Music

“Houseworx Best Seller 2023”: Electronic dance music has found its way into Halloween celebrations, and this playlist is a testimony to that evolution. With its thumping basslines and haunting synths, it sets the mood for a dance-filled, energy-infused Halloween night.

GET Houseworx best seller

“Best Halloween Songs 2023”: This playlist curates the ultimate collection of spine-tingling classics and contemporary hits, from “Thriller” by Michael Jackson to “Bury A Friend” by Billie Eilish. It’s a must-have for those who want to embrace the timeless spirit of Halloween.

GET BEST HALLOWEEN SONGS HERE

As the night of October 31st approaches, these playlists offer a chance to immerse yourself in a world of spooky melodies and dance-worthy beats. So, pick your poison and let the music be the soundtrack to your Halloween adventure, making it a night to remember — or perhaps, forget, as the case may be.

BY Emmanuel Kilwana Ssemikwano

Financial inclusion is an essential aspect of socio-economic development, and student loans play a pivotal role in facilitating this by granting access to education for a broader segment of society. The positive impact of student loans on both graduates and the community is substantial and multifaceted.

APPLY FOR FINANCING

First and foremost, student loans break down financial barriers to education, enabling countless individuals to pursue higher studies and acquire vital skills. This access to education equips graduates with the knowledge and expertise needed to compete in the job market, ultimately leading to better employment opportunities and potentially higher salaries. As a result, graduates become financially empowered and more capable of contributing meaningfully to society.

Moreover, student loans can act as a catalyst for local and national economic growth. Graduates who obtain higher-paying jobs due to their education can contribute more in taxes, stimulating government revenue. These graduates are also more likely to engage in consumer spending, boosting local businesses and driving economic progress. Ultimately, a well-educated and financially empowered workforce can fuel innovation and drive a nation’s competitiveness on a global scale. APPLY FOR FINANCING

Student loans also encourage a culture of investment in human capital, reinforcing the notion that education is a valuable asset worth pursuing. This mindset permeates communities, inspiring younger generations to strive for academic success and pursue higher education. In the long run, this could result in a more skilled and knowledgeable workforce, promoting overall societal advancement.

However, it’s vital to manage student loans effectively to ensure they yield maximum positive outcomes. Implementing fair and manageable repayment plans, providing financial literacy education, and regularly assessing the loan system’s efficiency are crucial steps to mitigate potential challenges associated with student debt.

In conclusion, student loans are a powerful tool for fostering financial inclusion by granting access to education. The resultant increase in knowledge, employability, and economic productivity contributes significantly to individual and community well-being, underlining the importance of continued support and improvement in student loan program;Kilwana Emmanuel is a founder and CEO Crets Group Limited and Financial Analyst APPLY FOR FINANCING

By Emmanuel Kilwana

One of the most important steps you and your financial advisor can take is to minimize the impact of taxes can have on future savings and retirement. Taxes can impact your investment if not carefully planned, for example choosing to pay for your taxes now for your future investment can have a bigger advantage now than later, reason being that many governments are borrowing now to cater for their public expenditures. In order to pay off their debts, they have to raise their taxable base which means more taxes in future than now. According to Crets Financial Services, clients should consult with their financial advisor for valuable assistance in determining the best approach to minimizing their taxes.

While tax-advantage accounts are good for meeting longtime goals, such as retirement, most investors also have money in taxable accounts .But even taxable accounts can be managed with an eye on tax efficiency. WHAT MAKES TAXES MORE EFFICIENT? Factors as investment approach or methodology can weigh heavily fund tax efficient .However certain investment are more tax efficient by their nature than others .With stock funds. For example, the amount a fund distributes affects its tax efficiency, but the type of distribution also plays a big role. Accountants who do tax returns for middle-income people want to help their clients pay as little tax now as possible. Yet often that’s not the best choice. Good planning is about understanding the tax burden you’re leaving behind and trying to find a good equilibrium between taxes now and taxes later

The author is licensed financial advisor for prudential assurance Uganda and CEO Crets Group Limited, he holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Makerere University with over five years’ experience in financial services .

What you should know about tax efficient while planning your retirement savings or investment? was originally published in TAX PLANNING FOR RETIREMENT on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By Emmanuel Kilwana

Over the years billion of unclaimed bank balances have transferred to the central banks due to absentee owners.What are unclaimed bank deposits? Bank accounts or deposits which are inactive or inoperative for 10 years or more are treated as unclaimed monies. In a process what is called ‘’escheating’’ an account , banks are required to turn over funds from the inactive account to state treasury .Once the account is sent to the state, the funds are held as unclaimed property .

According Crets Financial Services, Parents must provide crucial financial information like bank accounts , debts , insurance policies , and stocks held to their spouses or children when still in their healthy sound mind . People traveling for a long period time or risky places, army personal prone to deployment must always avail essential information to their loved ones.

Unfortunately, most of us carry this information around in our heads — if we’ve thought of it at all — and never discuss it with our family members in a comprehensive way. Our loved ones must do their best to sort it all out later. By organizing early, rather than later, parents can prevent the loss of valuable information due to dementia or forgetfulness. The financial consequences of failing to keep your documents in order can be significant. For instance, without a list of known records or, those contracts could continue dinging bank later be transferred to central banks.

The author is a financial advisor for Prudential Assurance Uganda and CEO Crets Group Limited a graduate of economics from Makerere University with over five years’ experience in financial services .

DID YOU KNOW THAT YOUR FAMILY BANK SAVINGS MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRANSFERRED TO THE CENTRAL BANK AND… was originally published in DIDYOU KNOWTHAT YOUR FAMILY BANK SAVINGS MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRANSFERRED TO THE CENTRAL BANK AND YOURS MAY SOON JOIN? on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

By Emmanuel Kilwana

Like preparing the food is a bit hard, eating it becomes the easiest part of it. that is true with insurance policies paying premiums may pose some hardship for some people but the claim process is the easiest .Over the years of my practice , I have encountered a lot objection from potential clients regarding the claim process , this has been caused by mainly two issues ;

· Lack of knowledge on what documents you should have, most client don’t read their policy documents on requirements they should present during the claim process . According Crets Financial services , a claim process should take a maximum of five working days upon submission of the required documents by policy holder or the next of kin in scenario of a death claim where the beneficiaries are minor. Crets financial services goes on to say that your next of kin should be younger and healthier than the policy holder to ensure that incase of death of life assured, the next of kin is available to present the necessary documents.

· Some doubts about the claims process is brought up by negative people and environments. They are some people who believe in negativity in any process. You should avoid consulting such people or beings in their environments.

The claim process is normally triggered by mainly three events: Maturity, disability and death, each having its own requirements as follows;

Death Claim

· Certified copy of death certificate normally provided by the national identification authority.

· Original policy document

· Id of the claimant

· Completed intimation form

Disability Claim

· Full medical examination report

· Original policy document

· Id of life Assured and authorized claimant

· Police report in case of disability is a result of accident

· Completed intimation form

Maturity claim

· Original policy documents

· ID of life assured

· Completed discharge voucher

The author is a licensed financial advisor for Prudential Assurance Company and CEO Crets Group Limited , a graduate of economics from Makerere University with over five years’ experience in financial services .

SHOULD YOU HAVE A BABY AFTER RETIREMENT ?

By Emmanuel Kilwana 25 January 2020

During my career as financial advisor, I have had this question from my clients whether it’s okay to have a baby after retirement. The answer has been no in most cases. The lump sum from social security fund tends to excite a lot of retirees. It creates demand for luxuries and investment anxieties. In most cases retirees require the services of experienced advisors to help them on the retirement investment. Unfortunately some retirees depend on the advice of friends and family member’s .this has made them prone to get rich schemes where they have lost a lot of money, this has led to poor quality life after their retirement.

According to Crets Financial services, a retirement investment advisory firm, Retirement planning has to be careful done which involves investment in mainly in three areas of Life insurance policies, stocks, and real estates and must be done by experienced advisors.

A recent study from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that having children can put parents’ retirement at risk. Having a child is associated with 3% to 4% less wealth, the study said.A woman’s income drops more than a man’s when she becomes a parent,Parents who want to help pay for school may have to cut back on vacations and other discretionary spending,

How can parents make sure they can afford to retire?

Parents need to see what their own expenses will be and assess their finances if they’re concerned about the cost of having children.

The author is licensed financial advisor for prudential assurance Uganda and CEO crets group limited, he holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Makerere University

SHOULD YOU HAVE A BABY AFTER RETIREMENT ? was originally published in SHOULD YOU HAVE A BABY AFTER RETIREMENT ? on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The importance of retirement age (amongst other parametric reforms) will continue to increase as schemes in SSA gradually mature and as life expectancy at retirement increases. Retirement age also influences labor market decisions. Since many retirees in national schemes have relatively short work histories when they retire, many of those who retire at age 55 could be retired for nearly as many years as they would have contributed to a pension.

Uganda operates a provident fund system; covering permanent employees aged 16–54 in firms with more than 5 workers. Voluntary participation is also possible, with a separately run (generous) scheme for government employees (the Public Sector Pension Fund — PSPF). The scheme is funded with 5%contributions from employees and 10% from employers (no maximum or minimum earning levels apply for contribution purposes). Benefits are paid from age 55 in the form of a lump sum equal to total contributions plus accrued interest (which is determined based on the rate of return of the National Social Security Fund investments). In recent years the government of Uganda has expressed strong interest in reforming the provident and public sector pension funds.

According to a report prepared by Mark Dorfman of the Pensions and Social Insurance Global Solutions Group in the World Bank’s Social Protection and Labour Global Practice. Initial input was received from Montserrat Pallares-Miralles .It suggests that the most important challenge for a majority of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa is to increase coverage of the labour force that contributes to some type of social Security scheme and the elderly that are protected by social assistance or pensions. As in much of the world, contributory pension systems in SSA have struggled to deliver meaningful old-age income protection to workers other than formal sector workers with steady wage incomes. Most retirees depend upon informal family support structures already strained by the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and various other shocks. The key reason for the poor coverage of contributory schemes is that most workers are in the informal sector or in agriculture with low and intermittent sources of income, and have more pressing needs to fill with any savings.

Furthermore, most countries in the region have neither the fiscal resources nor the delivery systems to deliver meaningful social assistance to the elderly, and face difficult choices about whether to earmark scarce resources to other, often poorer segments of the population, has children.

• Another challenge, although of less importance than coverage, is the fragmentation between civil service and national contributory schemes. Only about a quarter of countries have integrated their civil service and national contributory schemes, and substantial portability barriers exist for workers moving between the public and private sectors.

• A fourth challenge is adequacy. While full-term workers will receive adequate benefits by almost any metric, experience with national schemes in a limited number of countries in the region suggests that workers on average have shorter contributory work histories and therefore will have much lower benefits. In addition, a majority of countries have no Contributors to provident funds and funded defined-contribution pension schemes are exposed to performance risk and to longevity risk, depending how pay-out is structured.

Defined contribution pension schemes need to have asset returns at least as great as wage growth in order to provide a continuous accrual of rights towards wage replacement. When compared with real wage growth, historical rates of return have been negative at the Kenya and Uganda National Social Security (provident) funds.

. Contributors to provident funds are subject to longevity risks, as are contributors to other defined-contribution pension schemes. Many occupational pension schemes in the region provide benefits as a lump sum, in some cases at severance of employment. Additionally, many national defined-benefit schemes in SSA provide for partial commutation of benefits at retirement, which also exposes retirees to longevity risks.

Another indicator of adequacy is how much a pension benefit protects against poverty in old age.20 if we measure individual poverty using an absolute income benchmark of $1.25/day, we find that all of the schemes except Mozambique exceed the benchmark, and Swaziland’s benefit is just under that level. Another benchmark is relative poverty measures for which we have GDP per capita as a proxy, even though this indicator may be heavily distorted in countries .Where a significant proportion of GDP is generated by energy or commodity exports. Using this benchmark, we find that seven of nine countries with national non-contributory schemes have benefits of at least 12 per cent of GDP per capita, while Swaziland and Botswana have benefits below this level. Lesotho has the highest benefit level but only provides it to retirees at age 70. The largest program in the region is in South Africa, which provides a benefit of about 23 per cent of GDP per Capita starting at age 60.

The author is a Licenced financial advisor for Prudential Assurance Company and CEO of Crets Group Limited, he has over five years’ experience in financial services and graduate of economics from Makerere University

WHY SUBSAHARA AFRICA SHOULD BOOST PERSONAL PENSION SCHEMES TO AVOID FUTURE PENSION CRISIS was originally published in WHY SUBSAHARA AFRICA SHOULD BOOST PERSONAL PENSION SCHEMES TO AVOID FUTURE PENSION CRISIS. on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.