A Retirement of Luxuries: How to Save for Your Retirement

It is advised by many financial experts that retirement should be of the utmost importance to everyone. Many people will start out saving small amounts at the appropriate time, and then increase the amount saved for their retirement over time. Retirement funds will increase as time passes, even though it will be subjected to inflation. However, it is better to have some money in a retirement or investment account than to have nothing at all. 

It is best to start by devising a plan for retirement and set realistic financial goals. Be sure to stick to the plan and specific financial goals. It is NEVER too early or late to begin saving for retirement. Of course, most people who don’t decide to save now may be able to work until they turn 70 years old. However, this is only true if those people remain healthy, can still run a business or are able to continue working. There are no guarantees for anyone. Many people are forced to maintain jobs after retirement because they didn’t save at a younger age. Some have to retire early due to illnesses, downsizing or disability.

401K

If someone is working for an employer who offers the opportunity to participate in a 401K plan, they should jump at the chance. With this plan, the employer will usually match the contributions. The employee’s money will accumulate over time because this program allows for tax deferment and compounded interest. Employees should find out how much to contribute in order to receive an equal match from the employer. 

Pension Plan

If there is a pension plan offered by an employer, the employee should inquire about the plan and find out if they will receive coverage from the plan. Get the scoop on the individual benefit statement and what it would be worth. The employee should find out what would happen to the pension benefit if there is a switch in jobs. 

Investments

Diversify investments by putting savings into different portfolios. When investments are diversified, the risks will be lowered and the return on your investments will be improved. The investor should frequently review their investment strategies with a financial advisor because many things can change as the investor gets older, and as their goals and circumstances shift. 

Power Saving

If the prospective retiree has extra money such as a federal tax refund, they should add some of it to their nest egg. If the person were to cut down on spending, they would be able to add money to their nest egg. If the person changes jobs and is receiving a higher annual income, they should consider adding any extra funds to their nest egg. So instead of incurring more debt, the person should try to maintain the same lifestyle so that they can save more money in their nest egg. For those who do fall into debt and are unable to find a solution for their financial predicament on their own, services such as National Debt Relief are available for debt assistance and management. 

Other investments

Hire a financial advisor to see how to capitalize on other investments such as mutual funds, stocks, and bonds. The U.S. Treasury offers the opportunity to invest in guaranteed bonds that carries lower risks. As long as investments are diversified and funds are wisely allocated, the risks will be limited.

Dave Landry Jr. is a personal finance advisor and debt relief counselor who has been blogging his expertise for several years to help those in dire financial needs. 

Six Things a Great Financial Planner Should Do For You

A good financial planner is an important part of your hopes for a financially stable future. How do you judge if the service you receive from your planner is of a high enough standard? One way would be to examine how he prepares to study your case before he makes any actual recommendations. Every competent financial planner needs to go through the following steps when offering financial advice.

You should first see your planner define what exactly you can expect out of the deal

Many people aren’t clear about the exact level of service to expect when they hire a financial planner. They may believe that they are entitled to complete handholding, for instance, when some planners only offer broad guidance. People are often not clear on how exactly they will be charged for services, either.

A good financial planner will always start off with sending you a clearly-worded letter of engagement, with the following pieces of information. 

• You get an exact list of the services provided and some clarification on what is not provided. You should also see a list of fees and charges. 
• If you are signing on to a financial planner as a couple, the letter will make it clear what is owed to both and what will happen if you get divorced. If the planner sees himself as serving one spouse and not the other, this letter should make it clear. 
• The letter will make it clear what level of cooperation is expected from you. You’ll see information about what data you need to provide on your current financial position and the documents you need to provide on an ongoing basis (such as your tax returns). 

Your planner needs to find out what your goals are

The specific financial moves that your financial planner thinks of depend on the specific goals you have – both short-term and long-term. If building a retirement nest egg is all you need to plan for, your advisor will come up with a plan for investments that have an element of risk attached, but that promise high returns. If you need to plan for your child’s time in college five years down the line, a less risky strategy may be called for. Your planner should also offer advice on his own for what kind of possibilities you should plan for that aren’t on your radar, already.

Assess your current financial position

A close look by your planner at your income, savings, debts, investments and spending habits is an important part of putting you on the road to your goals. Whatever weaknesses the planner notices in your current position – perhaps you don’t have an emergency fund or your investments are noticeably out of line with your goals – he will need to correct them before going ahead with making recommendations for the future.

Prepare a financial plan for your goals

When the groundwork is laid, it’s time for your financial planner to actually make recommendations. He should advice you on how much you should be saving, what steps you should take to protect your income and savings from unpredictable market occurrences and draw up a plan with specific investment ideas.

Put the plan into action

Once your planner has a fully formed plan in hand that you approve of, he will either begin making investments on your behalf himself or guide you on how to go about making them. While it’s easier to let a financial planner make all the investments needed on your behalf, it can be expensive to use a planner’s services this way.

Finally, your planner needs to monitor progress

Financial planning is not an exact science. The investment world is a constantly changing one. Once your planner’s recommendations are implemented, it’s important to constantly monitor them for results. Constant monitoring and readjusting is important also because your own goals can change over time. A change in your job, a new addition to the family and other changes can require constant replanning.

William Dawson has used the services of a financial planner for many years now. An avid blogger, he enjoys posting on a variety of websites.

Spend Time Instead of Money: Set Your Future in Stone with a Financial Plan

It's easy to meander through life without any real goals. Lots of people do that. The problem is that a lot of people are also in financial trouble. It's no coincidence that poor financial planning is associated with a lack of financial success. Without goals, and a plan, you're just daydreaming about the life you could have. Don't dream, achieve.

Set An Overall Purpose

The first thing you should do is lay down a purpose for having a financial plan. A financial purpose could be anything, but usually involves some type of productive activity. Maybe you enjoy working at your current job. Is there room for advancement? If you hate your job, why are you still there? Should you be making a plan to switch jobs or start your own business?

Write down what you really want to do in life. Write down that one thing you could do forever, even if you had to do it for free - that one thing that you love doing even on the weekends. Your job shouldn't feel like a job. It should be fun. Sure, you're going to get tired, and you'll need a vacation, but you shouldn't be longing for the weekend and retirement.

Of course, there are other things in life unrelated to work. These could be hobbies or favorite vacations you enjoy taking every year. Make sure you write these down too.

Set Long-Term Financial Goals

Open up your favorite spreadsheet program. Once you have a long-term purpose set in place, it's time to enter in all of the information that will get you moving toward that purpose. It might even be helpful to write down your purpose in the spreadsheet.

Long-term goals are things you expect to happen over a period of 5, 10, 20, even 30 years. These might be things like buying a home, starting a family, buying a business or starting your own, moving out of the country, or retiring.

Set Short-Term Financial Goals

Once you have long-term goals set, it's time to reverse-engineer short-term goals. Short-term goals typically are derived from long-term goals. For example, let's say one of your long-term goals is to own a home. How will you get there?

Well, you might need a lot of short-term goals like "find a new job," "start a savings," and "buy life insurance." If your long-term goals involve building the home of your dreams, your short-term goals would also include "research construction companies," "hire an architect," and "build good credit for a construction loan."

Buy Financial Products

Usually, people rush into buying financial products before they ever have anything resembling a plan - big mistake. Fortunately, companies, such as jg wentworth, can help simplify the process of buying financial products. They can also buy back retirement plan payments later on in life if your plans change and you end up needing a lump-sum of cash in your old age.

Life insurance, annuities, mutual funds, stocks, real estate - all of these things are merely an implementation of a plan. Once you know what you want to do, choosing the right financial products is easy.

Update Your Plan Often

Plans change. Life happens. If something goes awry, you need to be prepared. That's why a good plan is always open to change. Review and update your plan once a year. If you unexpectedly have a child before you're financially ready, some long-term plans might need to be shuffled around. At the end of the day, your plan isn't going to be set in stone. It's a useful guide, but it's not something that should feel like a duty.

Melissa Rudd is a long time accountant and avid blogger. You can find her helpful writings on many blogs, including finance, business, technology and more.

Cut Business Costs Using Remote Access Software

Remote Access Software doesn’t immediately spring to mind when you think of money-saving technologies. But with the workplace becoming increasingly mobile-oriented, any program that facilitates the process of remote working is going to benefit businesses in the long term. But how can a technology that involves accessing one desktop from another help cut costs? Read on to find out.

A more productive workforce

There’s one, crucial thing that all business want from their employees: to be more productive. Whether its new software, incentives like bonuses, or implementing telecommuting strategies, companies try all sorts of ways to get more out of their workers. Remote access software is just another string to that bow. If you can have it so your employees can work efficiently while travelling or working from home, then you are saving company time. And time is money. Remote access to office desktops can now be done from mobile devices so all the crucial files and programs an employee needs are always available. Some programs, such as those from Ericom software, now work entirely through a web browser and across multiple platforms, making compatibility problems a thing of the past. It’s a failsafe for all sorts of data-related mishaps. 

Software Costs

If you’re running a startup business, then costs are at the front of your mind, even more so. Say you have remote workers in different locations but you need them all to use a certain program, Microsoft Word or Photoshop for example, that would require costly licenses for multiple computers. You can use remote access software to give these workers access to this software, installed on a remote desktop, so they have no need to install and configure anything. If you have a large workforce, Remote Desktop services can save time/cost when updating an arsenal of computers, for example if you want to upgrade a specific program across the board. If these computers are all accessing this program from a remote server, then instead of going from computer to computer performing updates you only have to do it once. This takes a massive strain off the IT department. 

Expanding Businesses

What if you’re a growing business? What if you’re about to hire several new employees? You’ve got find the funds to buy three new PCs and install all the software on them. That’s going to be costly and time-consuming. The same goes for upgrading PCs every few years. If you opt for a cheap, thin-client computer (like a Chromebook) that you use to remotely access programs on a server you can save yourself a fortune. Thin-client devices have a greater lifespan and low service costs. JP Gownder of Forrester Research has said that they “offer the prospect of radically reducing the amount of time IT staff spend ‘keeping the lights on’ for devices…and offer high uptime, low service costs, and scalable deployment of new web-based applications and content.

No matter the size of your business, Remote Access software is definitely worth thinking about.

Eight Financial Tips for Working Seniors

More and more people are continuing to work beyond retirement age. For some, it is a choice that keeps them active and involved. For others, it is a financial necessity. Whether work is a choice or a necessity, here are eight financial concerns that those who continue to work should keep in mind: 

1. You are entitled to begin receiving Social Security benefits at age 62. However, if you receive benefits before age of 66 and your earned income exceeds the set limit, your Social Security benefits will be reduced. At age 66, you will receive your full benefits regardless of earned income.

2. If, between the ages of 66 and 70, your earned income is sufficient that you don't need your Social Security benefits, defer them. For every year that you defer your benefits up to age 70, your benefit amount increases by 8% with an adjustment for inflation.

3. Consider the effect of employment on your income tax rate. Calculate your taxable retirement income from Social Security, pensions and retirement accounts and compare it to the current IRS tax brackets. If your earned income puts you into a higher tax bracket, put the amount of income that increases your tax rate into tax-deferred retirement accounts.

4. Take full advantage of tax-deferred retirement accounts. Older workers are allowed to save an extra $1,000 beyond the maximum annual contributions. Many of these accounts have having check writing privileges. You have the choice of standard checks or designer personal checks. This extra saving option adds money to your future retirement income and reduces your current taxable income.

5. Regardless of whether or not you are eligible for Medicare, take advantage of employer health insurance. Basic Medicare does not cover all expenses, and at best, pays only 80% of expenses that it does cover. Additionally, paycheck deductions for health insurance may be made pre-tax, which reduces your taxable income.

6. As investors approach retirement, investment strategies commonly switch from a growth-oriented portfolio to an income-producing one. Those who continue to work, however, are not relying investments for income. Moreover, earned income reduces the potential effects or a decline in the stock market. Those who feel comfortable with the risk could add to their future retirement income by continuing a growth-oriented investment strategy with some investments.

7. Keeping accurate records of living and employment-related expenses has two benefits. Accurately tracking living expenses enables you to make a more accurate estimate of your living expenses after retirement and assures that your combined Social Security benefits, pension, and investment provides a sufficient level of retirement income. Tracking employment-related expenses may lead to job-related tax deductions.

8. Studying your current cash flow and projecting it out for one year, three years, and five years for scenarios such as working full-time, working part-time, or retiring, enables you to analyze the benefits or necessity of working versus retiring. This study switches the emphasis from retiring on an arbitrary date to retiring as preparations become adequate to sustain the life you want to live. That is what retirement should be.

Author's Bio
Phillip Gruppelaar worked as a Sales Tax Inspector and Administration Manager before entering the finance industry in 1988. While working in motor vehicle finance he earned the “AIM Insurance, NSW Business Manager of Year 2000” award. He then moved to home loans and general asset finance including sourcing machinery finance. In 2007, he became General Manager of an online asset financing company, building it to be one of Australia’s largest and most successful. In December 2011, he returned to his own management consultant business and focused on improving client relationships and staff training for another of Australia’s large online finance brokerage firms.

How to Turn a Nest Egg into a Windfall - The Groundwork

Is launching a small business or a start-up the recurring character in your dreams for a brighter future... except you don’t know the first thing about casting the part? Even in this economy, however you slice it, there’s money to be made by taking the entrepreneurial big leaps - the news bulletins are awash in success stories, rags-to-riches tips and even the odd oh-no-he-didn’t gasps. What’s to say yours won’t be the next business venture that carries the day on Wall Street? 

If you don’t have money to burn - and who does, these days? - but you’re considering putting your savings on the line for the chance of striking it big, take every precaution before plunging in head-first. Remember that some failure is predictable from the get-go and so, you should consider hedging your bets as best you can before putting your head on the block. 

1. Use online tools by way of planning ahead - the gung ho and the gunshy alike stand to profit from not going into a potentially costly affair on a wing and a prayer. Sorting out your finances beforehand, accounting for the initial expenses and tallying all the risks involved in founding a company are all necessary steps. A painless, free option is resorting to the Internet as your personal go-to financial adviser, which you can learn more about through just a couple of clicks. Playing it safe (being cost-conscious) and smart (getting customized financial advice) will save you money in the future.

2. Don’t discount the helping hands - even if this might not be the best time to play the market, there are still investors out there willing to gamble on start-ups. As for your presumably scanty knowledge about the investment game, you just need to keep in mind that thinking opportunistically about any venture, however dear to your heart, is all it takes, even if you’re not used to framing decisions in an economics-centric manner. If your business objectively needs more cash than you can provide, an angel investor or a venture capitalist can certainly be approached to shore it up. Even a friend or relative might be willing to pony up, just as long as you both agree to separate your professional relationship from the personal one.

3. Look out for new developments - take the trouble to scope out what other are doing and how the industry you’ve chosen to enter is faring. If you’re not yet sure about what area to go into, the Internet will provide you with more than one good idea and if you’re tech-savvy, all the better, as there are tens of avenues to choose from (of which mobile communication is the hottest right now). Regardless how advanced the industry of your choice already is - and you can look that kind of info up online, via business data aggregators, as well as putting in the legwork and the research work needed to get a read on all the players - think outside the box on ways to improve it.

It’s only at this point that you can start fine-tuning your concept, drawing up a business model and picking a catchy name for your new company. Once you get your ducks in a row, and the financing in the bag, there’s nothing preventing you from going after your dream full speed ahead.