Financial Health

What You Need To Know About Finances and Divorce

What You Need To Know About Finances and Divorce

 

What You Need To Know About Finances and Divorce

A divorce process is one of the most stressful, overwhelming experiences you will face in your lifetime. It’s hard enough dealing with the present without deciding your financial future by choosing one property settlement over another, but you must be practical.Divorce and Your Family

If you have very few possessions and no children as a result of the marriage the process may be very simple: “You get the kettle and I keep the crock pot”, but when children are involved and/or there are considerable assets accumulated throughout the life span of a marriage, many financial decisions must be made that not only take care of immediate family needs, but retirement needs as well.

You should develop detailed monthly household budgets to help avoid post-divorce financial struggles. Prepare yourself with the facts to insure that your finances and your divorce is compatible with a lifestyle that will support both partners.

Gather your financial information as if you were preparing to see a tax advisor or financial planner. Record what assets you have, debts you owe, how much income you have, and how much you spend on a monthly basis. This will help you project you finances into the future. Think about what you want to do when you are divorced. Do you want to stay in your home? Will you go back to school, train for a new job, or is it time to start your own business?

The answers to these questions will have a cost, if not immediately then sometime in the future. Spend time contemplating how you see yourself 10, 15 and 20 years from now. Discover what is truly important when you look at the long-term consequences of your finances and your divorce.

Make sure you can live on the support you will be receiving or what you have to live on after paying support. Do not just accept, “He keeps his pension and she keeps the house”, since that leaves her without a retirement income and him without a home.

Also, the impact of taxes can have far reaching implications on all your decisions. Divorce usually involves a tax-free exchange of assets, but taxes affect alimony, child support,capital gains and more. It is very important to consult with a tax advisor before accepting a settlement. The decisions you make now about your finances and divorce may affect you for the rest of your life. Divorce and Finances.

Be honest with your spouse. Do not hide money, over-estimate the value of your property or underestimate the worth of your pension. That will only delay the progress of the divorce and makes it more costly.

Expenses such as life insurance, health insurance and educating any children, as well as the cost of living increases should be projected into the future and taken into consideration when agreeing on a final financial settlement as well. Many people have false expectations that they will be able to secure a divorce that allows them to continue with their accustomed style of living. Statistics have shown that this is not always possible.

To avoid long-term financial pitfalls related to your finances and divorce agreements, both partners should have a pre-planned financial schedule that they can come to an agreement on. With that they can forecast the long-term financial effects of the divorce settlement.

It is far better to develop a long-term forecast for a financial situation than a short-term snapshot. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking, “I just want out”. Both spouses assumed responsibilities during a marriage and those responsibilities do not necessarily end when the marriage does. Being prepared can alleviate a great amount of financial stress for you and your family in the future.

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Different Types of Retirement Plans

Different Types of Retirement Plans

 

Different Types of Retirement Plans

We all know that there is a growing need in this country to take our retirements into our own hands if we want the funds necessary to have any quality of life upon retirement. The problem is that most of us have no idea where to begin when it comes to financial retirement planning or investing.

The sad news is that for most of our lives retirement was something that was taken care of if we put in an honest lifetime of work. However, the climate has changed and the retirement funds that many of us have labored to pay for the vast majority of our lives are slipping away.

The good news is that this need has not gone unnoticed by the powers that be and while they aren’t offering solutions for the funds we’ve already invested or in salvaging what is left of the failing system, they are empowering people to take some control for their personal retirements by offering investment options and strategies that provide tax benefits along the way in order to reward you for your efforts.

The four common types of retirement plans include 401(K) plans, Keough Plans, IRAs (individual retirement accounts), and qualifying pension or profit sharing plans offered by corporations.

In most retirement plans, the contributions to those plans are tax deductible and taxes aren’t paid on these plans until the funds are received and retirement payment begins. You should be careful of your investments and guard them well as there are often hefty penalties involved when you take funds out of your retirement funds before you actually retire.

These of course are not the only types of investments you can make for your golden years and it never hurts to have more eggs in many baskets. The more the merrier in most cases. My personal preference for investing is real estate.

This is an investment that you can actually see and reach out and touch. It is also an investment that often gets overlooked when planning for retirement, though when you consider it is an excellent choice. Property values are much lower today than they will be ten, twenty, or fifty years from now.

This means the sooner you buy the property the more it will be worth (in theory) when you retire. The thing to remember is that property investing, like other types of investing, requires some degree of risk. You need to learn as much as you can about the process and discuss your interest with a financial advisor before you make any major decisions concerning your retirement investments.

There are more traditional investment methods you may want to consider as well. Mutual funds and the stock market are great ways to invest your money, build a decent portfolio, and increase your net worth. This type of investing also carries some degree of risk and isn’t always considered financial retirement planning but more along the lines of simple financial planning.

The thing to remember is that it is always good to have a plan. For this reason, I strongly encourage you to engage the services of a good financial planner. He or she can help you navigate the tricky language that is involved in many transactions, set realistic and obtainable retirement goals according to your needs as well as your means, and offer excellent advice and guidance on other investment ventures you may wish to pursue. In other words, a good financial planner can help you plan for your retirement.

When it comes to the world of finance, many of us are far from experts. We seek legal advice from attorneys, tax advice from accountants, and medical advice from doctors yet very few of us go to financial planners when planning our financial retirement.

In many ways it makes little sense to approach our futures so carelessly and yet this is not something that our parents and grandparents would have done so there is no precedence for doing so.

The problem is that money is such a limited commodity in this world, we are living longer than ever before, and we are enjoying much more mobility in our golden years than in times long past. We now need expert advice and guidance in order to insure that we are in the best possible position when the time comes to face our own retirements.

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Is Internet Marketing The Cure For Global Economic Woes?

Is Internet Marketing The Cure For Global Economic Woes?

 

Is Internet Marketing The Cure For Global Economic Woes?

Internet marketing is continually becoming the saviour for those caught out in the current economic crisis. And no wonder – just look at what’s going on out there in the world right now…

Just from today’s headlines, we find that Hewlett-Packard is getting rid of 24,600 jobs, nearly 8{3813292df256cc7359db914c8bfffc508a0964aa786224d36d2cb21f4b33d600} of it’s workforce according to Jordan Robertson of the Associated Press. That’s on top of the 15,000 already forced out by the company’s restructuring in the last 2 or 3 years. FORTY THOUSAND JOBS GONE in one company alone, with half of those axed living in the U.S.A., the rest scattered around the world.

Remember how, not that long ago, we were all told that computing skills would make us indispensible? Ooops!

Also today, Yahoo! News reports that Lehman Brothers, the 4th biggest Wall Street firm, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection – this is a firm that’s been operating for 158 years, and a shut down would put another 24,000 people out of work.

In related news, Bank of America is buying troubled investment bank Merrill Lynch, the world’s largest brokerage. Both companies have already layed off thousands of employees, and no doubt more will follow where the two firms’ services overlap.

Pretty dire situation, but it could still get a lot worse. According to the Wall Street Journal, AIG – the American International Group – is seeking an additional $ 40 Billion USD in emergency funds, on top of the $ 20 Billion USD it already raised earlier this year. That’s BILLION, with a ‘B’…

But think of how many people, possibly even yourself, would be affected if AIG, the world’s largest insurance company, were to fail. While Lehmann is the biggest bankruptcy in US history in terms of assets, it would pale by comparison to the collapse of AIG.

These days, perhaps more than any time in history, people all over the world are experiencing the old Chinese curse: ‘May you live in interesting times.’

Interesting times indeed! But how can you protect yourself, your family and your loved ones when the big ‘Blue-Chip’ firms are faltering, stock markets are spiralling downward, inflation is running amok in the fuel, food and related indexes, mortgages are no longer a safe investment for the rich or available at all to the middle class?

For a rapidly-growing number of people world-wide, the answer is self-employment through Internet marketing. While no firm numbers exist, there are at least tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands that are now making money online, from a few extra bucks each month to keep up with inflation to those earning 6, 7 and 8 figure incomes online.

Far from the traditional economic model of the ‘normal’ entrepreneur, the Internet marketing business model is gloabally based, providing something of a hedge from any country-specific economic woes. The industry operates 24 hours a day 7 days a week, so there’s no concern over when you work or where you’re online.

Most importantly, there are two major differences from operating a microenterprise or monoenterprise in the offline world. First, the industry is based on shared knowledge – no other industry is as quick to make the ‘business success secrets’ available to all and asunder. Thousands of Internet marketers write online newsletters – e-zines – that detail the steps to success in the industry, explore trends as they happen, and recommend the sites, services and products one needs to succeed online in Internet marketing.

The biggest difference, however, is the level of startup capital required – in fact, one can easily start part-time without any expenditure beyond their computer and Internet connection, and use the income they earn to build their online business into a full-time activity – often generating far more profits than they’ve ever dreamed of before!

And since no large startup investment is required, the people who need the income most are able to get started without going into debt, and debt-free companies always survive the ups and downs of entrepreneurship with less difficulty and a greatly reduced incidence of bankruptcy.

Think about it… No major investment, no ‘boss’ to fire you, no threat to job security from mis-management or fraud by someone above you, a schedule to fit your own desired lifestyle, and an income limited only by your own goals, effort and abilities… No wonder it’s one of the fastest growing industries world-wide – it really CAN be YOUR solution to the world’s economic woes!

Doug Champigny is a well-respected Internet marketer, e-zine publisher, mentor and speaker. Read more from Doug and join his mailing list at his Internet Marketing Blog
Make Money Online Blogging From Home on the Internet

Make Money Online Blogging From Home on the Internet

 

Make Money Online Blogging From Home on the Internet

Are you that techie type person who has finally realized the power of the internet to make money online? You may be a person with a regular day job who wants to earn some extra income, and you may have heard that you can make money online while working from home. Blogging by far is the most popular way to earn an income online while doing it from anywhere in the world. If you have yet to research this type of way to make money on the internet, I suggest you get into it right away. A Beginner’s Guide.

Blogging is just one of the most popular ways to make money online. A blog is simply an online journal where you get to write and share on a variety of topics, depending on your interests. Also called a weblog, it is like an online diary or personal journal that also contains links to other websites; the posts are usually intended for public viewing. Popular websites that allow you to host your own weblog for free include: wordpress, blogspot, and LiveJournal.

Many people have succeeded to make money online using blogging through the ads being placed on their weblog. According to a study, there is a 2{3813292df256cc7359db914c8bfffc508a0964aa786224d36d2cb21f4b33d600} chance that a visitor to your blog would click on an ad. Money is earned when readers click on your ads. You just have to create a steady stream of posts to increase the traffic on your blog. It is suggested that you blog on particular topics that are the talk of the internet community lately since these posts would really generate readers. You can also blog on a certain type of special interest so that you gain subscriptions to your blog and not just random readers. Some of the popular sites where you can sign up to make some extra money online have been listed below. Special Interests called Niches.

Google Adsense is a free Google program where website owners as well as bloggers get to display Google ads that are relevant to their page and they get to earn every time someone clicks on it. You just have to sign up for an account and easily get approved if your website or blog has a steady stream of visitors. They send you payment through a check once a certain payout has been reached. Another program, Yahoo Marketing, is the equivalent of Google Adsense, just on Yahoo. Other ad programs that may not be very popular but are definitely effective money earners include Chitika, affiliate programs like Clickbank and Amazon, Shopzilla, WidgetBucks, and other miscellaneous advertising programs.

Blogging can generate you a steady stream of income, just by keeping it updated and well maintained and always posting unique relevant topics that other people would really be interested in reading and knowing more about. It’s really a cool and profitable way to make money online.

So what are you waiting for? You think blogging might just be the answer to your cash money woes, then get up and get to work and see what’s in store for you on the other side.

Jason Bacot – Now that you know you can make an income online from blogging, I would suggest that you get yourself a copy of one of the best Auto Content Cash software’s on the internet so you can start making money online while you Work From Home and spend more time with your family, or friends, or both.

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Start Squirreling Away Funds For Your Retirement

Start Squirreling Away Funds For Your Retirement

 

Start Squirreling Away Funds For Your Retirement

Investing for retirement is not something everyone does ahead of time. Many people do not get started because they feel that their retirement is several decades away and they can get to it in good time. Almost everyone under estimates the resources, mainly cash, that are required to retire with a certain quality of life. With better health management and medical technology, many people are beginning to live beyond the previous general estimates for human life spans. The result is that many people run the risk of running out of money before their time is up.

Since few people are motivated in investing for retirement early enough, it has become a serious issue for governments in many developed countries. In some of these countries their welfare systems are straining from the demands put on them by the growing numbers of elderly living beyond the estimates of previous human longevity models. In these countries governments have warned their citizens that their social security systems may not have enough funds to go around.

In order to face our retirements more confidently, it has become necessary for us to not rely on state-sponsored programs; but increasingly on self-managed initiatives.

Key Issues Regarding Investing For Retirement

Investing for retirement requires us to prepare a retirement plan early – the earlier the better. Unfortunately, when you are young it is very difficult to imagine life as a retiree. What can we do? Perhaps we should initially discuss it with our parents. Many of them would have experienced the positive and negative elements of investing for retirement. Next you may wish to a financial planner. Do not commit to any investments until you feel that you have done enough research, clarified your doubts, identified your key goals and estimated what portion of your salary you are prepared to save for the long-term.

During your discussions with your financial planner regarding investing for retirement, you are likely to be surprised how much you will need to set aside for the golden years when you would have stopped working. Many people tend to extrapolate their planned savings linearly and find that achieving their investment goals are near impossible. Your financial planner should be able to enlighten you regarding some essential concepts of investing like the time value of money, the effect of compounding interest, the benefits of a diversified portfolio with a spread among asset classes with varying risk and return profiles and pre-tax investment programs made possible by your employer or government.

When you have done sufficient research, understood key investment concepts and got sound advice from your financial planner, you will realize that if you start early enough and do the right things, you should be able to retire rather comfortably with sufficient funds to last your lifetime. Investing for retirement is not difficult if you start sufficiently early and act on sound financial planning advice.

The Advantages Of 401k Retirement Plans

A 401k retirement plan allows a worker to save for retirement while deferring income taxes on the saved money and earnings until withdrawal. Many people today are relying on 401k retirement plans to support their needs during their retirement. The funds from this retirement plan can be used to pay regular bills and in some cases if the funds are substantial, help us retire in style and luxury. In these uncertain times fraught with economic and political uncertainty and health scares, it pays to plan ahead for our future when we may not be economically very productive by saving with a 401k retirement plan. The 401k retirement plan is a flexible program that has substantial benefits for retirees.

Of all the advantages of a 401k retirement plan, they key advantage are the tax benefits. Companies you work for are responsible for creating and designing the plan. Some companies may restrict the amount set aside to match what the employer sets aside.

The tax benefit arises from the fact that you will only be taxed on the remaining amount of your salary after the savings into the 401k retirement plan. The return on investment from a 401k retirement plan may be higher than many other competing retirement investment plans. The flexibility advantage is that you may transfer the funds from the retirement fund initially setup with your former employer into the new employer’s 401k retirement plan. You may also choose to transfer the funds to a personal 401k retirement fund account.

Use Your 401k Funds To Build A Diversified Financial Portfolio

The 401k retirement fund plan is to a large extent a self-directed investment program. You can choose to assign the funds into a wide variety of financial assets like stocks, bonds, money market investments, mutual funds or some of them. You can choose to re-allocate the funds among these investment choices at any time. It is critical to get some information and advise regarding these financial instruments if you choose to invest and re-allocate the funds yourself.

Saving and investing with a 401k retirement plan is a great way to ensure that you have sufficient funds to live on long after your retirement from full-time employment. The funds can be withdrawn if they are needed in the event of an emergency. If necessary, you may also take out a loan against your 401k retirement funds. This should only be done after much careful thought and consideration. The funds in your 401k retirement plan are for your retirement. If you squander the money, you will just be postponing your agony into the future.

Cindy Heller is a professional writer. Visit Retirement Sentiments to learn more about saving for retirement and investing for retirement.

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Deep Blue Publications Group LLC: How retirement funds could turn on you

Deep Blue Publications Group LLC: How retirement funds could turn on you

 

Deep Blue Publications Group LLC: How retirement funds could turn on you

One of the biggest dilemmas people face today is what financial experts like to call the “variation of outcomes”. In a more practical sense, it would mean the difference between those students who were on the top 10 during your high school, for example: 5 made it into Ivy League schools, 3 got into other universities, one went to work and the other took a break. In short, even in a supposed set of people, you can never predict what will happen in the future.

And when it comes to retirement investments, people tend to have similar strategies on withdrawal that consequently points to various outcomes. Case in point: how investors could have survived the peak of the 90s bull market which was viewed as one of the worst times to start withdrawing.

For example, you had 1 million USD invested by the end of 1999 and then decided to withdraw a fix rate of 5{3813292df256cc7359db914c8bfffc508a0964aa786224d36d2cb21f4b33d600} (50,000 USD) every year. Five percent turns out to be a sustainable enough withdrawal rate, even with the inflation taken into account according to Deep Blue Publications Group LLC planners. (Note: There really is no recommended sustainable percentage of withdrawals as brokers themselves admit they get antsy when clients begin to take more than 6{3813292df256cc7359db914c8bfffc508a0964aa786224d36d2cb21f4b33d600} annually.)

Naturally, the outcome will be widely different depending on one’s timing and specific investment. Then what’s the lesson learned from that period of 2 consecutive bear markets?

– Do not withdraw from stock funds during a bear market for this will significantly increase your losses. Besides, once the fund rebounded, your withdrawals will decrease in value.

– Most popular funds of the month are not always recommended. They could have been overpriced and overstuffed which is perhaps why it had a supposed ‘good’ performance during previous quarters.

– Don’t bet all your shares during retirement especially if you retire at the start of a multi-year bear market.

It does make a great difference if your investments are not that closely related with stocks as a safeguard for any unexpected outcome. The usual choice in making a diverse portfolio today is bonds but this could also mean you’ll get hit once the interest rates increase. Consider foreign bonds instead, or get into real estate and gold, all of which are not that related with stocks.

In the end, the amount you withdraw at a given year is still based on a number of factors such as life expectancy, existing loans and lifestyle. Just make sure you avoid a wide “variation of outcomes” from your investments.

Deep Blue Publications Group LLC is an online publication of latest news, stock market investing principles and tips, personal planning guide that will give you statistical analysis of latest financial market.
More Money By Working Online

More Money By Working Online

 

More Money By Working Online

In the recent economic situation which is not looking too good, many people have turned to the internet to earn some extra cash.

Especially now that the unemployment rate is rising each and every day and many people are unable to find jobs in their current areas, the internet offers a very lucrative solution to people’s money woes.

Because the internet is boundless, you are no longer tied down to the physical geographical location that you are in. In fact, if you wanted, you could work for someone on the other side of the country.

If you want to make a living online, where can you start? I would like to recommend that you start at a place where your strengths lie.

If you are a good writer, you may want to consider starting a blog or another website with good informational content on a topic of which you are particularly knowledgeable.

If you are particularly good at the computer or are willing to learn a technical skill or two, you can begin setting up websites for people or other kinds of technical work that people will pay money for.

As you gain more experience and get work under your belt, you can begin to increase the amount of money you charge for a job and soon you can make a decent living off of the work that you do online.

If you do things correctly, you may even find that you will begin to make more money than you did at your old or current job.

One last bit of advice is that if you go the blogging route, I would highly recommend taking a look at Google’s Adsense program because it allows blog owners to easily put up ads on their sites and begin earning money by visitors clicking on the ads. It is top notch.

To read more earning money through Google, check out Google To Riches . Also, check out the money making Google To Riches testimonial that is now being shown about Google money online today.
What do you do online to earn extra money?

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Focusing on Your Retirement Funds

Focusing on Your Retirement Funds

 

Focusing on Your Retirement Funds

Most of us have numerous dilemmas in our heads. Children. College, expenses, cars, medical fees, tension from daily tasks and also about retiring. How if there is a simpler step to overcome just 1 of the daily pressures stated before? Get started in protecting your life.
Think of a retirement savings that you could create to determine when you plan to stop working and using your savings for the next stage in your days. The fund will be brilliantly designed to be a bit more aggressive early on and constantly turning into more conservative towards the retiring day.
The mutual fund market came with this type of fund, and it is turning a lot of heads. It’s being labeled as targeted retirement fund and it’s growing in gaining interest as a lot of people choose to ease their life as well as their money.
The idea is fairly straightforward. You pick a year you want in retiring and your part is somewhat done. The target retirement fund settles the other steps. Fund companies presently offer interesting funds to help with simplifying investors’ retirement programms.
More and more agencies are offering allocated retirement funds nowadays. Every target savings is different between companies, so it’s a good idea to sit down with a certified financial expert to discuss what the benefits and cons of every fund and to determine on the best overall plan in investing with targeted
Retirement funds. Every fund itself in the same time has a different strategy on controlling the investment.
Some savings want more personal information and others require less. Charges and basic minimum investment total are also varies for each retirement savings.
Many younger population are drawn to the retirement savings due to the ease that they provide where it let the investors to concentrate on other things such as their jobs and hobbies.
As the result, it always depends on individual favorite when it comes to spending money for your retirement. The targeted retirement savings offers a number of profits that may result in getting yourself ready for retirement fund much safer while allow you to spend more thoughts on other things for example personal hobbies.
Make sure that you have a talk with a skilled financial expert in getting more data on allocated retirement savings. An expert will help you in finding ways to deal with the retirement. They can also help you to get pleasure from your life after work and ensuring you are right on target.
Consider applying for focused retirement fund as soon as possible!
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Focusing-on-Your-Retirement-Funds&id=5468137

Hi, I am Ankita G working with insurance company as insurance adviser owing good knowledge of various policies such as Retirement pension plan, life insurance plan, investment plan,Retirement Fund child plan and so on. Protect your retirement.

How does your retirement plan working out?

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Wealth Masters International: Can They Be The Cure For Your Money Woes?

Wealth Masters International: Can They Be The Cure For Your Money Woes?

by Chris Devers

 

Wealth Masters International: Can They Be The Cure For Your Money Woes?

So many people out there today are working at jobs that do not pay them as much as they would like and are wishing that they knew the best way to earn a better, easier income. The proposal that Wealth Masters International has for you and anyone else with the same sentiments that you have is that they will help you not only earn more money, but learn to manage it better. The money book for the young, fabulous and broke!

They go so far as to claim that they will help you have more “health, wealth, and well-being” while positively affecting your long-term prosperity prospects – sounds good, right? Of course, you have to understand how it works before you know if you are interested.

The underlying approach of the “Wealth Masters” is that all anyone needs to succeed is a good, working business plan and they constantly coach and advise you until you have together formed one that you are happy with. You can choose one of two positions to join the company: either as a consultant or as a member.

If you joined as a member, your next step is to choose the products that you wish to sell and get busy getting out there and marketing yourself and your items. Naturally, you will achieve the best possible results if you are a good seller and are able to get rid of a lot of your products within a short period of time, making you and the people that hired you very pleased with the new arrangement.

The more experience and expertise you gather in the selling field, and the more successful that you are, the better able you will be to influence other people to join the company. Any seller that becomes a member because of you is immediately considered part of your team and you will gain a percent of every item that they are able to sell.

You can see how this company can quickly become very lucrative for you. Not only can you make money by selling the products themselves, but if you become good at convincing others to join, then you will be able to make a nice salary without lifting a finger. Simply gather a large number of people into your team and let them do all the hard work for you as you sit back and relax.

Naturally, before you take a breather, you might want to try and find as many people as you can to join the company and get selling. The incentive is great for you because it could mean profits coming in years down the line, long after you have left the company, simply because of your employees who you attracted years ago is still an active seller.

Although working for Wealth Masters International is not the same as signing a contract for a hefty yearly salary, it can definitely be a quality opportunity for someone that is very self-motivated and wants to work on their own schedule. Plus, it can be very lucrative if you happen to attract one person to join that is very good at their job, and you will not have to sell a single thing yourself to earn money in that way.

Get the complete MLM review that you have been looking for today! When you learn the benefits and advantages offered by Wealth Masters International, you will be able to begin building a successful business fast and easy!

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Retirement Funds Getting Ready For Retirement

Retirement Funds Getting Ready For Retirement

 

Retirement Funds Getting Ready For Retirement

You can take charge of the life that you will live even way beyond your productive years. It is, in fact, more important for you to make sure that you have an alternative income source when the time comes when you are no longer physically capable of earning an income. Setting up a retirement fund either by yourself or with the help of a retirement planning consultant would be the best thing that you can do today to prepare for your retirement. If you are employed in a company that has a good 401k program, this is one of the best tools that you can take advantage of especially if your employer has a matching contribution and if the 401k is well-founded on good investment principles. Other types of retirement funding tools would include your Individual Retirement Account (IRA) and individual investment instruments that you can put together in your own portfolio specifically to address your retirement income needs. A little planning goes a long way.

Retirement funds are best dealt with early on in your life. The earlier your start saving and investing for your retirement, the better it is for you. There is no way to guarantee how much you can get out of your 401k. There are, however, ways by which you could make projections or estimates as to the accumulation of your retirement funds. Some employees are allowed to make additional contributions to the amount of 401k contributions that they have elected to make on a regular basis, subject of course to certain eligibility requirements. The good thing about using 401k as your source of retirement income is that you cannot touch it for your short-term and medium-term cash needs. There are only a few scenarios that allow for the disbursement of a partial or a full withdrawal of the 401k fund before retirement. 401k disbursements are slapped with penalties for early withdrawals.

Those who would like to be more aggressive in building up their retirement funds could do so by managing their own portfolio or having a professional retirement planning consultant help them plan out and implement their own strategies to grow their investment portfolio specifically intended to fund retirement. It is not difficult to get more information about how to do this these days as there is a wealth of resources available all over the internet. You are likely to find a reliable retirement planning consulting services website that will be able to help you set up your retirement fund at the earliest possible time, and with the best possible combination of instruments to give you the highest possible yields without exposing you to risks beyond what you can tolerate.

While your basic 401k plans and IRAs would do well towards your financial preparation for retirement, you can do more on your own in order to give you the retirement life that you deserve. If you have more disposable income on your hands, you can look at the various investment instruments that are available in the market to day and see how they can help you maximize earnings on your money. Keep in mind that you have to balance the risks that you are taking with the potential yields that you will get. Diversifying your investment portfolio is a good way of covering yourself against possible losses. There are retirement planning consultants that you can ask about how to do this successfully. There is, however, no one that could guarantee earnings on a particular investment product. Be warned that those who promise you heaven and earth could also run away with your arm and your foot. Choose only to work with those who are straightforward, transparent, and reliable. You could look into self planning.

Have you started planning your retirement?

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Live Longer On Less When Retirement Funds Run Out

Live Longer On Less When Retirement Funds Run Out

 

Live Longer On Less When Retirement Funds Run Out

Even with my health problems, my wife and I believed we were prepared for retirement fifteen years ago. Our nest-egg was substantial and the economy was in good health. We optimistically believed our retirement funds would last until we passed, and we would leave a large inheritance to our kids.

I retired at the age of 61 in 1998. My cardiologist advised that with the continued stress of my job I could soon be dead or at least severely disabled, but if I would get my life-style under control, I could expect to live past my actuarial age of 85. I resolved to beat the medical issues and live well the next twenty-five years.

My wife and I had both stashed money into self-directed 401 K accounts. I had an IRA-SEP left over from a previous business venture, owned a block of stock in the company where I worked as VP of Engineering, and had a sizable chunk of options in that company that should be worth a cool six figure total. We were not worth a million, but we were not too far away.

We sold our condominium in Northern California and moved into an RV (recreational vehicle), a 35-foot fifth-wheel trailer pulled by a Dodge Ram pickup truck. My financial analysis showed we could live in that environment for about half the cash flow required to maintain a fixed home while we traveled. Besides, we planned to spend most of our time driving about to see the whole United States. Fuel was cheaper back then.

Most of my plans worked well, and we have enjoyed our roaming life-style. It has been good for my health, and I now fully expect to reach 85 or even beyond.

Our financial base proved to be less solid than I had assumed. My former company did not hold its great value. My stock options never came above water, and the stock I owned dropped in value faster than I could sell it off. We combined our tax-deferred accounts into new IRAs and managed them more carefully. However, a portion of our wealth was entangled in the Dot.Com bubble, and we lost on those investments. We also enjoyed a comfortable life-style that used more savings than prudent.

Fast-forwarding to today, my wife and I are both relatively healthy. We live on Social Security payments plus cash generated from liquidating our remaining retirement funds. Five years ago I moved most of our liquid assets into a gold ETF and gold stocks, so we have been lucky to see a nice appreciation in value and miss the low rate of return and capital deflation that followed the housing bust.

Like many in a situation similar to ours, I have come to realize that living to the age of 85 could be a curse. We face the prospect of exhausting our retirement funds in the near future, and when that happens a substantial portion of our retirement cash flow will simply disappear. Several of our contemporaries in the retirement community where we live have either gone through this transition or are about to do so. We like those others must develop a plan and learn the habits of living on less.

My first step in developing a plan has been to create a list of actions to take before or upon the reduction of retirement income. Most are obvious, especially when you stop and think about them, but it helps to have them written down. Maybe my list can be of help to you.

— Eliminate all debts and pay no interest to anyone. It is okay to use credit cards, but pay them off each month. If you forget to pay some credit card bill, let paying that interest and late charge be a lesson.

— Reduce or eliminate your more frivolous and expensive habits such as eating out at restaurants, gambling, and smoking tobacco. Give up drugs if you use them. Purchase basic foods for less money and develop a habit of preparing good meals at home. Do not purchase “toys” simply because you want them; buy only what you really need.

— Focus on controlling your diet. Reduce your food intake, both frequency and portion size. My wife and I do breakfast in the morning and “dinner” in the mid-afternoon. We limit extra snacks and drinks.

— If you eat out, split an entree with your spouse, skip desert, drink water. End unhealthy and expensive habits like smoking and high-class wine.

— Exercise will keep you healthy longer and improve your quality of life, and it provides an excuse if you want to eat more. Of course, exercise can add to the curse of living longer.

— Pick your retirement community with care; chose one where neighbors have much in common and help each other. We live in a 55+ years or older community for RVers with very moderate maintenance costs.

— Both might consider getting jobs, but do not expect high paying jobs. Retired executives and their secretaries are not in high demand once they are fifteen years out of date.

— Purchase everyday clothes from thrift stores or second hand shops. Some specialty second-hand stores even offer inexpensive glamorous clothes.

— Check out your health insurance plan. Maybe you can go with a cheaper supplemental health plan. If you live in the right area, consider going to Mexico for medications and dental work.

— Put a plan in place for possibility you may require assisted-care. This can cost hard-to-find money, but you could need this kind of care at the worst possible time, as your life is ending.

— Travel in an RV is still viable, but go for shorter trips and stay in each place longer. That becomes more important as the price of fuel rises.

— Keep a detailed accounting of what you are spending month by month. You may find some periodic expenses are being charged to your credit card without you even thinking about it. Determine if you can live if you only have Social Security. Plan ahead.

The next suggestions are controversial to some, but I find them to be practical.

— If you still have a life insurance policy, cash it out. Some people do like keeping a small policy to pay for the expenses of dying, but your spirit will not be there, so keep things simple.

— If you own a home, consider selling it now to get whatever money you can from its value. If you still have a mortgage on it, this can be especially important because you to eliminate those monthly payment and the debt. In fact, I suggest not owning any real property, so you pay no property tax or extra insurance. For an RVer this allows you to chose which state you want as your domicile.

— Do not plan to leave an inheritance for the kids; you may need the funds yourself. As my Dad said, “I expect to spend my last cent the day before I die.” He almost succeeded. But do have a will to cover momentos and whatever valuables that might be left when you are gone.

— Stop providing financial help to the children or grandchildren; they must learn to provide for themselves, and you may need the funds more than they do. It helps to sometimes warn them that you may have to ask them for help in the future.

Finally, do not fool yourself by thinking everything will be fine. Mrs. Murphy suggests something could go wrong. Plan ahead, and strive to make your life worth living, whatever resources you may have to live it.

Sam Penny lives full-time in a 5th-wheel RV, blogs, write novels and articles, and offers advice and support for those who pursue a similar low-energy life-style. Read about his latest novel at WasATimeWhen.com, and follow his advice articles at PrudentRVer.com.
Personal Finances - Your Key to a More Comfortable Future

Personal Finances – Your Key to a More Comfortable Future

by epanto

Personal Finances – Your Key to a More Comfortable Future

The business of effectively managing the detailed transactions that are occurring daily on a business or a personal level is complicated. It will involve the use of an automated program. That is why most folks are contented with troubleshooting rather than guiding their finances; to steer clear when they see rocks ahead, and not before that. At the very least, they are willing to find the best way to plan their finances through intuition. Start and learn early as a teenager.

Money matters cannot be made to rely on intuition

Intuition and feeling have very little to contribute when you need to compute things. In fact, they may get in the way. If you have always relied on hunches and feelings, you have probably experienced more downs than ups in your financial life, much like gamblers who lose a hundred times for every time they win. To change those dreary statistics, what you need is now available for you. And that is a computer program called ‘Personal Finances.’

What type of program is ‘Personal finances’?

This budgeting program provides you with both a broad and a detailed view of how your current manner of spending is affecting your financial status. Based on those facts, and with some pre-set goal in mind, the effectivity of your methods for managing your money are assessed. Recommendations are given and remedial measures may be devised using the same program.

Aiming for financial goals

Like you, ‘Personal Finances’ knows the value of goal-setting. Much of its activity is geared towards achieving something for yourself financially. Whether you are thinking of investing in a vacation rental, or putting up your own internet store, the program can indicate the right steps, in sequence, that you should take to gain your objective.

You will normally have to adjust things

Among the priorities you should have for restoring health to your finances is to discover leakages in your budget. These will be those necessities that you spend too much for, and the unnecessary expenditures that you make. After identifying the two culprits, you can easily find means to curtail them.

Oftentimes, we throw away money on unimportant and minute payments that seem harmless enough until we realize that, because we do them so often, they are depriving other and more important areas of resources. Having a computerized program to keep track of these small expenses may make it possible to control them

‘Personal Finances’ shows you for which items you should tighten your purse and for which priorities you should be spending for instead.

Monitoring your financial standing

Some people regard financial reporting as solely the prerogative of large companies. The program will show you how reporting can be effective for private individuals. Any developments regarding your established financial target are extracted by careful analyses of data. The results will be printable on hard copy and will portray whether you are making headway, remaining stagnant or actually regressing. What you should anticipate on the basis of your current status is also revealed.

You will have a complete record of transactions

Nothing that the reports have to show will be based on anything but facts that you yourself feed the program. You will need to regularly post your transactions into the database accompanying the program. These data should include your expenses as well as your earnings. Apparently the ‘Personal Finances’ is also suitable for business concerns.

We need to be decisive in unsure times

The situation in the world today will not allow you to gain financial health, much less security, unless you go about it in an organized fashion. ‘Personal Finances’ provides you will all the financial tools for overcoming your mediocre financial standing and winning the goals you have always known you wanted.

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With our global unstable economy it is important for us to be knowledgable about personal finances. A personal finance software program helped me to get organized and make my personal money management easy . R.B. Jacobs