The Clock is Ticking
Tick tock, tick tock. Like the overly dramatic time bombs we see in TV movies, time is running out. Our personal clock may be counting down to a terrible explosion; and blast of stress, confusion and financial uncertainty. On the other hand, the clock could be ticking off the time until a great retirement party followed by the carefree life of travel, rest, relaxation and the pursuit of hobbies or other life goals. Like it or not, you have a clock and it is relentless moving forward, whether you are ready or not. Hopefully you are watching the clock, regardless of how far you are from retirement.
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9 Retirement Planning Mistakes
Retirement years are one of the best years in one's life most especially if you've already worked for almost all your entire life. It's the time to savor the fruits of your labor. It's time to relax, to free yourself from worries and enjoy the remaining years of your life. Most people commit mistakes in planning for their retirement years. In the end, they have not successfully retired themselves from work and would either depend on the income of their children to support their needs. Here are some of the most common retirement planning mistakes people commit: Depend on the government.
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Maintaining Your Financial Lifestyle in Retirement
Everywhere you go for information about retirement, you will find a plethora of information about finances and what you should do with your money. And, quite frankly, this is the area most people are more concerned with than any other. The question foremost in their minds is "have I done enough planning to support myself and my family in our current lifestyle throughout our retirement years?" Over the last couple of decades, retirement funding has moved from fully funded pensions to self-managed savings through 401(k) plans, IRAs, Roth IRAs, and an assortment of other funding vehicles.
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Stop Asking a Financial Advisor What to Do With Your Money!
"Wealth, like a tree, grows from a tiny seed. The first copper you save is the seed from which your tree of wealth shall grow. The sooner you plant that seed the sooner shall the tree grow. And the more faithfully you nourish and water that tree with consistent savings, the sooner may you bask in contentment beneath the shade". A quote from the book The Richest Man In Babylon. Why are we giving our life savings to big financial companies to invest it for us? Isn't it your money and not theirs? When are we going to start educating ourselves to know how our money can work for us?
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Choosing a Retirement Plan For Your Business
Being self-employed is up to you to provide yourself with a retirement or pension plan. You have to choose the type of plan and establish the fun for yourself through your business. There are several different types of accounts that really are specifically designed for the self-employed businessperson. By understanding a little bit about each of these plans you will be able to choose the type of plan that is best for you. There are certain types of retirement accounts that will provide the self-employed businessperson with income and tax benefits. These plans include IRAs, SEP IRAs, Keogh plans, and also individual 401(k)s.
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Think Hard Before Making Significant Changes to Your Super
Worried about your super? Stop for a moment, take a deep breath, in, out... still worried? Fair enough too. This past 12 to 18 months have been some of the toughest ever experienced by even the most hardened and experienced investors. But what does it mean to your super and what can you do about it? The preferred course of action can vary substantially depending on your situation, but here are a few things that you might want to consider. 1. Don't panic! If you still have substantial exposure to growth assets (shares, property), a long term outlook and are still managing to sleep at night, then now is probably not the best time to shift out of those investments.
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The Testament
A will is a vital element of estate planning, but many people do not know why. A will is a document that speaks in your name after your death. It transmits your last wishes and allows you - you, and not the State - to identify the persons to whom you will leave the assets you have accumulated during your lifetime and, more importantly, the person(s) who will take care of your underage children if both parents die. A will facilitates the administration of your estate; you could save income taxes and avoid the serious consequences of dying without a will.
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Advice on the Spanish Social Security System For Foreigners
Whether to join the Spanish social security system is mostly a question for the self-employed because employees are automatically enrolled in the system. Employers generally handle the paper work and deduct contributions from monthly paychecks. But what of the self-employed? Should they join? Individual circumstances vary but if you can afford the contributions it makes a lot of sense to join the system, particularly when you have a family and aim to live in Spain long term. Joining the system means contributions of almost 250 a month and having to register for VAT and income tax.
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SMSF - Not Just For Christmas
You'd probably be a bit disappointed if that was what you got for Christmas anyway. The point is that a self managed super fund (SMSF) is a serious commitment and not one that should not be taken lightly. At a time when many investors are turning to self managed super funds out of dissatisfaction with their existing arrangements, I'd like to discuss some of the good and bad reasons for initiating an SMSF. Some of these factors may not seem important in the heat of the moment, but just like buying a puppy, an SMSF is not something you can easily give up if it becomes too much hard work.
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A Better Way to Beat Inflation
As you know, TIPS are inflation-indexed US government bonds. While inflation is the enemy of bonds, TIPS get around that problem because the government increases the principal of these securities by the amount of inflation. The current ETF offerings out there are more on the intermediate length of the yield curve. There have been no offerings on the long and short ends. Longer maturities have more volatile price movement with rising and falling interest rates. This means that as interest rates rise from their current 0% mark in the future, intermediate and longer term TIPS will fall in value more than short term ones.
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