Archive for May, 2010
Creating A Steady Retirement Income
Building up an effective retirement income is harder now than ever. With the reduction in the number of companies that offer a pension, the uncertainty of government retirement programs and investments that are far from being fail safe, it is up to anyone who wants to retire to come up with a useful way to create a retirement plan.
Finding a job with a local company and working away from home is no longer necessary when you want a supplementary income. It is actually possible to create a steady income from your own desk in your own home without having to rely on anyone else to hire you.
Sales Jobs for Retirement Income
With the economy unpredictable and frequent periods of job scarcity, starting a small business is often the best route to creating an income for retirement. It used to be said that if you could sell things, you always had a job somewhere. However, modern job unpredictability means that this can’t always be counted on.
Even with sales jobs scarce or unpredictable, starting a business that uses your sales skills makes a steady income in sales still possible. A small business that puts you in control of how much you make and when you work makes it possible to both enjoy your free time and to earn a useful income.
Retirement Jobs
Even with retirement savings, many people find that they are not living the retirement lifestyle that they want. If you can sell effectively, you can create a business that works for you during retirement. After all, there is no need to try to find a company that will hire retirees once you start your own online business.
A business of your own means you do not have to look for a sales job or go on interview after boring interview. Instead of spending your leisure time searching for a job, you can start your own business and start funding your retirement dreams.
Worldwide Business
With a sales business that uses Internet marketing, your business can easily become a worldwide business. With online marketing, there is no longer a separation between finding and selling to domestic customers and finding and selling to international customers. Using the Internet, someone across the ocean is just as likely to buy something as someone who lives in your own hometown.
A worldwide business doesn’t cost any more than a domestic business when you make your business available online. It can provide a suitable retirement income without having to spend all of your precious retirement time trying to scrounge up leads. Setting up a global online business makes the business available to customers 24 hours a day without needing to hire a full time staff. The business practically runs itself.
Enjoy Your Retirement
Retirement income doesn’t have to mean that your retirement is any less relaxing. With your own business, it can simply make retirement more comfortable. So stop thinking about punching a time clock and start thinking how an online business is right for you.
Top Family Budgeting Tips
Key Reasons for Managing Your Budget
- You Have Limited Income: Virtually everyone has limited or fixed income. Without budgeting you are being controlled by your environment. If you have a plan, you are more in control of your money. Without a budget, you may not really know you are spending more money than you are earning.
- So That You Know Your Limits: Knowing what your monthly expenses are projected to be and what they actually are will help you keep track of how much money you have left over for future goals and needs.
- You Have Unlimited Demands: There is an endless demand on your finances. Our commercial capitalistic society is constantly calling out for you to buy. If you have minor children, the demands are greatly increased by the things that they want, the activities they are in, and the schools they attend.
- You Want Freedom Not Bondage: Budgeting seems to be restrictive to some people. The reality is that we have to make choices between what we want at the moment and our regular bills and goals for the future. However, there is freedom in knowing what your limits are. Many people find this liberating, because it creates the opportunities to grow and mature.
- You Have Future Goals: If you are sacrificing today, it helps to know what you are saving for in the future. Obtain a financial plan so that you will know what your goals are and for what you are saving.
- You Want to be More Aware of Where Money is Going: If you do not have a budget, you may have no idea where your money is going. Knowing where you money is going will help you identify if you are spending too much money in specific areas.
- You Want Less Stress: Spending without a plan and a budget increases your stress because you do not have a well thought out plan for paying your bills and you may spend more money for fun than you can afford. Planning and budgeting will give you the peace of mind that you are on the right track.
Contract with Yourself (and between Spouse)
Budgeting is very hard for many people; therefore, it helps to have a contract with yourself. If you are married, this agreement should include your spouse. If you work together, you will usually accomplish more than you could on your own.
I hereby resolve to:
1. Start a budget, and pay attention to it weekly and monthly
2. Not spend more money than I make
3. Be in financial partnership with my spouse with no secrets between us
4. Not borrow to purchase items that depreciate in value
5. Not let my emotions make me purchase anything, including gifts
6. Not purchase something over budget unless it was unavoidable
7. Not purchase anything that I don’t really need, no matter how good the sale is
8. Not purchase something to keep up with the Joneses
9. Not apply for any new credit cards, unless lowering interest rates
10. Pay off all credit cards monthly (I will work toward paying them off)
11. Not spend money on fun things unless I have paid my monthly bills
12. My spouse and I will both be the “fun police”
13. Include children in the budgeting exercise to teach restraint
14. Not obtain high maintenance items like a pet or hobby if I can’t afford the expenses.
15. Not buy something that costs over $50 without consulting each other and the budget
Cash Flow Management Checklist
In addition to having good budgetary habits, it also helps to take advantage of money-saving measures. The following are many of the things you can do to help you save thousands of dollars per year.
- Employ tax advisors to you avoid overpaying taxes
- Use low cost investments that have low to no commissions, fees and expenses
- Shop your loans to find lowest interest rates
- Shop your insurance for the lowest prices possible.
- Buy smaller homes and cars since they require less money to maintain and insure
- Go on cheaper vacations
- Frugal travel to lower the already large consumption of your income for gasoline
- Eat out cheap, less often and at less expensive establishments and cafes
- Spend less on food by shopping at low price grocery stores and pack your lunch
- Lower home energy consumption by employing easy to find and low cost solutions
- Break smoking and excessive eating habits to save on tobacco and fast foods
- Monitor emotions to avoid depression or stress related purchases
- Obtain from the library resources about budgeting, financial planning and spending
- Go to the library for entertainment books and DVDs
- Reduce or eliminate cable TV
Budgeting Tips
Use technology or spreadsheets:
Obtain software (or use spreadsheets) that will help you pay bills and make and monitor a budget. Devote time to it by keeping track of all expenses and enter them into your software program or monthly spreadsheets each week.
Save all receipts, bills, household documents, and tax documents:
Organize these items by category into an accordion file or drawer: e.g., auto, bank, business, credit cards, dental, medical, grocery, income, insurance, mortgage, utilities, general receipts, school information, and taxes.
Balance your checkbook:
Many people don’t balance their checkbooks each month. Budgeting software makes reconciling simple, but you can read the back of your statement or make an appointment with your banker if you need to learn this skill manually.
Tax Time:
If you use budgeting software, you can run a tax summary report before you work on your taxes. If not, and if you itemize your taxes (Sched.A), you must total the appropriate columns in your spreadsheets, e.g., Medical expenses (Your accountant may provide you with an organizer to help you get ready for tax time.) Remember to place quarterly and yearly expenses on the appropriate month in your budget so that you do not overspend. For example, annual insurance payments, quarterly tax estimated payments, annual homeowners association dues, etc.
Summary
Good cash flow management is key to implementing any financial plan; commit to doing this well. No one likes self-discipline, but it is actually good for us. With proper management of your finances, you will become more confident and less stressed about your future. Remember, one bad financial decision can sometimes take years to undo. Be very careful with all decisions you make.
The 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.