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Wealth Creation for Baby Boomers - Take Advantage of Hidden Riches

Wealth Creation for Baby Boomers - Take Advantage of Hidden Riches

By Kenneth Little

Wealth creation belongs to you as a baby boomer. You served your time in the workplace or you’ve had enough business failures to write a bestseller on the subject

As a baby boomer who shuns the traditional gravitating to the grave model of existence you need to be clear on the nature of your “refirement”.

They key issue for every baby boomer who desires to refire is -

“How can I use my life and work experiences to create streams of income to keep me in the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed?”

You can use the ideas below . They’ll change your outlook on baby boomer wealth creation forever.

1. Where are The Hidden Riches?

The truth is your hidden riches can be found in skills you’ve used to earn a living for decades.

Consider the example of a farrier who works with horses’ hooves for most of his life. As a refired baby boomer he decides that it’s too hard to continue working with horses every day and seeks to find a way to profit from his knowledge.

Also think of the baby boomer gardener who longs to share his love of plants with others but he’s been laid off because he can’t move as fast as he once did.

What of the baby boomer who has given his life to a car manufacturing plant only to have his job sent offshore?

Let’s not forget the business owner who faces his baby boomer years with a business that has been forced to the wall by cheap imports.

Where are the hidden riches in the lives of the farrier, the gardener, the auto worker and the business owner?

And in your life?

They are in the knowledge held by each baby boomer .

You will have seen this confirmed in your own work life when you were last hit by a wave of restructuring and your boss asked you to prepare a user manual for your position.

It’s too late for you and me but whenever you have loved ones faced with this request please advise them to take as long as possible.

You see, experience has shown me, their last day in the workplace will be the day after they hand in their manual.

Why? Because they have just handed their boss the power - The Knowledge - to send their job offshore and have their work done, based on all they’ve done and recorded in the manual.

So how do you fight back as a baby boomer whose business was lost to overseas competitors or whose job was offshored?

Learn from the experience and develop your own K.I.D.S program.

2. What To Do With the Hidden Riches When You Find Them?

You will have much greater success with your K.I.D.S program when you take the time to consider the steps it requires of every baby boomer who wants to benefit from it.

K.I.D.S stands for Knowledge, Information, Dollars and System.

You take Knowledge you gained in one area over the years in the workplace, convert it into saleable “packets” of Information, which you market for Dollars and then you repeat the process as you find another area of knowledge and develop the process into a System

3. How to Make the Hidden Riches Work Best for You

The secret, to make the baby boomer hidden riches work best for you as you develop your K.I.D.S system, is to create an ebook or electronic book based on your area of knowledge.

Warning - do not stop reading now as you are challenged by the suggestion of writing a book. I want to encourage you by telling you the writer of this article, and of three books, began his writing when afflicted with many of the learning challenges know to man, and even one that didn’t have a name.

You get the picture. Working with words was not easy for me to begin with. It was hard but now it’s a labor of love.

My prayer is that you will join the ranks of baby boomers who are fighting back against those who have robbed them of their livelihoods or forced them to retire well before they were ready.

Use your hard-earned knowledge to be blessed by your hidden riches in secret places as you create multiple streams of income to secure your financial future

Enjoy your new found hidden riches.

Copyright © Kenneth Little All Rights Reserved Kenneth Little is a writer, teacher, public speaker and the publisher of a re-released classic - in a revealing ebook- that will show you how to get the best of health and wealth out of all your future years. Find more on this at: www.Young-at-Sixty.com

True success will be yours no matter what your age. Amazing “How I Became Young at Sixty” brings renewed strength to your body, hope to your mind and increased prosperity to your lifestyle. You Can Get your Free ebook “How I Became Young at Sixty” by going to : www.Young-at-Sixty.com/get-your-f-r-e-e-ebook.htm

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Reduce Debt By Saving Money on Electricity

Reduce Debt By Saving Money on Electricity

By Kathy Burns-Millyard

One of the best ways to reduce existing debts, is to pay extra on those debts each and every month. Most Americans with large amounts of debt however, believe they don’t have a dime to spare for paying extra. It may be easier than you think though. There are a myriad of ways to save money every day, but this article will concentrate on how to save money with one of your most expensive household utilities: Electricity.

Tips on Reducing Your Electric Bill:

1. Plant trees around your home. Trees are particularly useful, because they provide the most shade. You’ll want to place the trees to provide the best amount of shade for large windows, and large sections of your roof. Planting trees alone can reduce the temperature by as much as 20 degrees. Creating this reduction in temperature around your house allows your cooling system to not work as hard, and this saves money on the bill.

Trees which shed their leaves in winter are the best investment, because they allow the sun in during winter. This allows your heating system to not work as hard, because the sun provides additional warmth naturally. The trees will also help reduce wind hitting your house, again helping your heating system to do it’s job.

2. Clean your appliances. This may seem like a given for many, but I’m not talking about normal cleaning. Your refridgerator has coils on the back, and these get quite dusty and dirty. The more dirt that’s built up, the harder the fridge has to work - and the more energy it uses. So clean the coils thouroughly at least twice a year. This will help reduce your electric bill and also increase the life of your fridge too.

Next you need to clean your air conditioner. Or the filter in it rather. Most cooling units have filters in them that collect dust, dirt and grime throughout the year. These need to be cleaned no less than once each year, but twice is better. If you live in a very dusty area, you’ll need to clean the filters once a month during the hot season.

The third major appliance that needs to be cleaned is your furnace, or heating unit. These also tend to have filters, and those filters also need to be cleaned regularly. Cleaning this one at the start of the cold season is good, but cleaning it at least twice a year is better.

3. Unplug small appliances. Many people don’t realize that small appliances can use electricity even when they’re not in use. Modern coffee pots and microwaves are great examples: They have a digital clock display that’s on all the time. By unplugging some or all of your smaller appliances, you can reduce the amount of overall electricity being used in your home most hours of the day.

4. Adjust your thermostat. By placing your cooling unit at 72 or higher, and your heating unit at 68 or lower, you can cut the cost of your electricity by as much as 30% each year. Additionally: Adjust the thermostats when you’re not home - before you go to work for instance, or before leaving for vacation.

5. Spend more on light bulbs. Replacing your standard light bulbs with energy efficient ones can also drastically reduce your overall electricity costs. It seems more expensive to pay $5 for a bulb or two instead of $1, but you save much more money in the long run. Because not only do these special bulbs use less energy: They also last much longer too!

So, start saving money on your electric bill today, and start putting that money towards paying off those awful debts instead.

© 2006, Kathy Burns-Millyard. More About Reducing Debt: For a free guide to managing, reducing and eliminating your worst debts, please visit Find-Debt-Help.com

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Want to be Rich? Then Educate Yourself. Why? Here’s why.

Want to be Rich? Then Educate Yourself. Why? Here’s why

By Damian Miles

If you want to be a Doctor, learn medicine. If you want to be a footballer, kick a football around. If you want to be a bus driver, learn how to drive a bus!

If you want to be rich, what do you do?

A lot of people when asked the above, will work harder at their job, or take a second job, or start a business.

All the above a good, but are not right. They are definitely putting the cart before the horse.

If you want to be rich, what do you do?

The FIRST step to becoming rich is to DECIDE TO GET A FINANCIAL EDUCATION.

This leads to two supplementary questions.

(1) What is a financial education? (2) Isn’t that hard?

Answer One: I do not mean that you go out and get yourself a MBA, or any official financial qualification. What I mean is that you DECIDE HERE AND NOW that you will start to accumulate financial knowledge from any source and by any means, and that you will do this for the rest of your life.

Financial lessons are all around, all you have to do is decide to keep an eye out for them and learn them. If you have watched TV today, or read the paper, or even just, taken a walk, you will have seen many financial lessons.

Examples from my day so far.

TV: Holiday scams using bogus websites – research and write small article on this, email to friends and print out and hand to acquaintances, include a link back to my website. They get a helpful warning; I get increased visitors to my website.

Newspaper: Property prices are up in my area. How can I cash in on this? Find a rental property, and buy (clubbing together with acquaintances if necessary).

Walk: Local clothing store is having 50% sale. I go in and ask what profit margin clothing stores usually have. After a little effort they tell me. An interesting lesson.

Answer Two: No it is not hard at all. Why? Because you will take it one small step at a time over the rest of your life. One small step at a time, taken frequently leads up to an enormous distance. In the area of financial education this means an enormous education.

The more you have taught yourself about how money works the more money making opportunities you will see. Eventually, once you have taught yourself enough, you will see that your life is absolutely packed full of money making opportunities. And your financial education will also equip you to cash in on these opportunities. All you have to do is reach out and take that money!

When you know enough, making money becomes easy and second nature. Why remain poor when you can so easily become rich.

The pay off.

The biggest pay off to giving yourself a financial education, is that you will become both financially free, and time free.

Once you have accumulated enough money, you will know how to successfully invest that money. As soon as the income from your successful investments covers your living expenses, you will be financially free.

Financial freedom means that you no longer have to work; your successful investments are working for you. You will then possess the time and money to enjoy all the things that have ever wanted to do. No longer will you have to report to your office 40 hours a week (your money will be doing that on your behalf), but instead can report to the beach, the ski slopes, that art class you always wanted to take, or your back garden with a gin and tonic, or a shovel and pruning sheers.

With your informal financial education you will be able to nurture you wealth to keep you retired for the rest of your life.

So do you want to get yourself a financial education? I bet you do! Well DECIDE TO START RIGHT HERE AND RIGHT NOW.

Damian Miles is a writer of ezine articles and ebooks, on the five key elements of any successful life: health, wealth, happiness, love, and security. Through his website dlmiles.co.uk he runs his weekly ezine and sells his ebooks and eproducts. His ezine “Think Yourself Fitter in Thirty Days.” His ezine teaches how to develop the right attitude to health and fitness, an attitude that will almost guarantee you set and achieve your health and fitness goals. Damian is currently developing a workshop on Happiness, and training to run the 2007 London Marathon.

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Yes, You Can Get Ahead

Yes, You Can Get Ahead

By Justin Ertelt

“Whatever you can conceive and believe, you can achieve.” Wrote Napoleon Hill decades ago in Think and Grow Rich. It summates how people achieve their dreams and how it is possible for you to save your way to success.

Irregardless if you’re a Democrat and you think the Republicans are destroying this country, or you’re a Republican and you think the Democrats are destroying this country. Irregardless of the high oil and gas prices or the increasing amounts of natural disasters, or the political storm and wars in the Middle East. Irregardless of the higher gas prices you pay at the pump just to drive to work, or the mounting bills, or “everything seems to cost more”, or you didn’t get the raising you were expecting. Irregardless, you can still get ahead.

We all too often start a goal or dream, only to falter. We might blame exterior circumstances (poor economy), others (bosses, family), or circumstances that happened to us or our family (unexpected bills), but the end result is the same. It becomes hard to change, to move away from our comfort zone, to do things differently then what most everyone else is doing—to not have a brand new pickup or SUV in the driveway like most everyone else on the block has. The only way to get ahead, though, is to do things differently compared to what everyone else does.

Most people are not financially independent and successful. They may have good paying jobs, have a nice home, a vacation home, newer vehicles, an RV or boat, etc., but how much debt is behind all that stuff? What is their debt to net worth ratio? How much of their income are they spending? How much are they saving? What would happen if they lost their jobs? True financial success is hard to obtain. It is based on your ability to stand against financial storms (unexpected bills, loss of income), you don’t worry about your financial position, and you have a growing net worth with income from several sources. You may not be a multi-milioniare, but you are financially independent.

If you truly desire to acquire financial success, you simply need to start buying less. Stop trying to keep up with the Joneses. You may have to take drastic measures such as selling your house and buying a smaller house with smaller payments, trading in your new car and truck for a used $2,000 vehicle, and selling your new furniture and buying a $30 couch at a garage sale. But if you do those things, your financial picture will start to turn around.

Start by automatically paying yourself first 5 or 10% of every dollar of income. Do this first before you use the money for anything else, and stock it away in a savings or money market account. Do not dip into this account for any reason. If you do, or if you wait to save after the bills are paid and you spent the money, you won’t be able to get ahead. You need to save first, put it away and leave it. Repeat the next month and the next and begin to watch your savings grow and your financial position in life turn around. But if you do hit a financially bump, or falter in your savings goal, don’t give up. Just start it up again the next month. Even after the first year of saving, you reached your goal of 10% saved per month for only 6 months, you will still be leaps ahead of where you were when you started. And it will just become easier to save. You will start thinking more about saving, you will discover ideas on how you can save more money, and it will become habit forming. You will begin to think not like everyone else, you will be getting ahead, and you will be able to save your way to success.

Whatever you do, don’t give up. Remember: If you have conceived and believed you can be financially independent, you will achieve financial independence.

Justin P. Ertelt is the author of Saving Your Way to Success, and owner of www.savingyourwaytosuccess.com, helping others acheive financial success. Justin can be reached at justin@savingyourwaytosuccess.com. To learn more visit www.savingyourwaytosuccess.com

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Will Women Face Financial Hardship in Retirement?

Will Women Face Financial Hardship in Retirement?

By Debra Lohrere

The looming hardship that will be faced by many of the baby boomers once they retire could well affect women a lot harder than men. The likelihood of the government being able to afford any sort of reasonable amount of pension is very slim, simply because of the magnitude of the number of people who will be retirees, compared to the working population. The Australian government has realised this, and that is why they introduced the compulsory employer paid superannuation scheme and are even now beginning to give financial incentives to Self-funded retirees. They are also now encouraging people to work well beyond the 65 year barrier.

Most people have never sat down and even considered the ramifications of why the compulsory super was introduced and for many of us it is a matter of too little too late. Even for the young women in our society – who have a full working life ahead of them, they still cannot rest assured of a comfortable retirement.

Why is this? It is because that unfortunately even with contributions at the current level of less than 10%, someone on an average wage who works continually for 30 years, is still going to find themselves trying to survive on an income equivalent to less than $20,000,00 per annum in today’s dollars.

You will notice that I said continually working for 30 years. This is another reason why women are particularly disadvantaged, firstly because they often have to take up to ten years leave from the workforce to raise children, secondly because women in general earn less than their male counterparts and thirdly because an enormous proportion of the women in Australia, will never have received any previous superannuation contributions, prior to the compulsory superannuation being introduced, and will therefore not have had contributions made over their entire working life so far, giving them even less to fall back on by the time they retire.

Many women may previously not have thought of lack of superannuation contributions as being a problem, as their husbands may have been contributing to super since they first began work. Unfortunately though with the high number of divorces in this country, it is unwise to rely on the fact that your partner’s superannuation will be there for you in your retirement years and even if a large proportion is awarded in a settlement – that it will be sufficient to sustain a comfortable retirement for any length of time.

All of these factors are why women now more than ever, need to begin taking action to build up a source of ongoing income, that will grow to such an extent, as to be able to provide a secure and happy future for themselves and their children.

It needs to be a source of income that is unrelated to physical work…that is an income that is generated from income producing assets – and not from our personal efforts. One of the best sources of creating this ongoing income stream is to begin building an investment portfolio property, also aptly paraphrases as bricks and mortar.

We need to start collecting income producing assets now, so that they will have time to grow and develop so that we will be financially independent for our retirement years.

Property is one of the best types of income producing assets, mainly because through gearing, which is borrowing other peoples money to supplement our own, we are able to control assets of a far greater value, and benefit from the growth on the overall value, including the borrowed portion, in contrast to only benefiting from the growth on the small portion of our own money contributed.

For example, if you have $10,000.00 invested at 7% compounding, then in ten years it will grow to around $20,000.00. If on the other hand you have used that $10,000.00 as 5% deposit on a $200,000.00 property, which grows in value by 7% per year, then after ten years the property would have grown in value to nearly $400,000.00 giving you a profit of almost $190,000.00 instead of a profit of $10,000.00 had you just invested your own money. After 30 years your money alone would have grown to just over $76,000.00 and the geared property would have grown to more than $1.5 million.

This example of course has not taken into account the initial purchasing costs involved to secure the investment property, nor has it taken into account the rental income that you would also be receiving….I have simply used it to demonstrate that the more assets that you can get working for you, the better off you will be.

Debra Lohrere is the author of Creating Financial Security through Property Investment www.lulu.com/content/162236 and How to Research Investment Properties www.equilibriumbooks.com/investment.htm. Please visit her website at debra.lohrere.com/home.shtml

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Retirement Planning - It’s Never too Late

Retirement Planning - It’s Never too Late

By Michael Harrison

Retirement Planning - you’re never too old.

With retirement pensions reduced, ageism being outlawed, skills shortages, will there be a renaissance for the older worker? There are loads of opportunities for retirement jobs.

Crafts men, plumbers, carpenters, builders, interim managers, consultants, coaches, mentors, there is an ever growing list of opportunities. More and more people are starting to see that retirement is not a must. They are setting self employed employment plans and ‘going for it’. Great!

Age is a serious business. Growing old is better than the alternative but increases in life expectancy have to be paid for. It seems without longer working lives and later retirement that many could face a miserable future. Retirement jobs may be an opportunity for the older worker now but may also be an issue for the not so old, who will need to plan for eventual retirement.

In the UK only 28% of those aged 60 are in any kind of employment. 40% of people who retired early felt they were pushed and would rather work. There is good news, and opportunity.

It is forecast that in the next 20 years the number of workers aged 20 to 29 will reduce by 20% while the number of workers aged between 50 and 64 will increase by 25%. This change is being driven by reductions in the birth rate and greater longevity.

What does this mean for everyone regardless of age?

OPPORTUNITIES! Huge OPPORTUNITY!

All trades craft, plumbers, carpenters, builders, interim managers, consultants, coaches, mentors, secretaries, innovative online businesses, there is an ever growing list of opportunities. More and more people are starting to see that retirement is not a must. They are setting self employed employment plans and ‘going for it’. Great!

Recent research has revealed that the over 55’s are the most likely to come up with new ideas on a daily basis. I have long contended that we are the people who still have a contribution to make provide we adopt the right mind set. Yes I’m a silver head.

A friend of mine is currently winding down his business activities after a long and successful period as a manufacturer and retailer of men’s clothing. Because of my consulting background we talk a lot and it really grates when he repeatedly justifies an action saying “at my time of life I don’t want this or that”. He is justifying his withdrawal to himself on the grounds of age.

Ageism is nonsense (as I’ve told him). In another survey more than 50% of people felt that they had been discriminated against, and more. 39% believed that they had been blocked from promotion because of ageism. At age 28 “you are too young” was used against me - so it does happen.

‘Too old’, ‘too young’, what drivel. If you have a contribution to make equal to the demands of the job age should not be an issue. Get that firmly in your mind and set out to grab the opportunities. Employment or self employment it’s surely up to you.

Why not set a small business retirement plan?

As we have worked through the early retirement phase which is resulting in skill shortages and lack of management experience demand is growing for skilled competent people in all occupations and disciplines.

Don’t be like my friend, go out grab the opportunity which suits you, create a small business retirement plan, forget about retirement. Make things happen for you - you will be more fulfilled and better off if you do.

Resource Box: Article by Michael Harrison, Author, Publisher and Business Consultant. Learn from an expert: Go to: www.be-your-own-business-expert.com/Opportunities.html

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Retirement Then vs. Retirement Now

Retirement Then vs. Retirement Now

By Rick Ramos

Most of us dream of a retirement of travel, relaxation and nothing but free-time. But, if you’re in that majority are you in the minority of those actually saving for your golden years? Only about 30% of Americans are actively saving for life after 65 and only about 25% are confident of their ability to afford it. The scariest statistic of all? Almost half of the workforce have no retirement plan in place at all.

Some of the statements I have heard in my meetings with clients about their retirement: our budget is too tight, we are going to start next year, I am not worried about it right now. The list goes on and on but the thing I find when I probe a little deeper is fairly simple: People are afraid. They are afraid of what they are not doing, they are afraid of the costs but mostly they are afraid of the unknown. Americans simply don’t know how they are going to retire.

Take a look at what has changed in the workplace. Two generations ago the average retirement age was between 60 and 65. People worked, retired and then began the golden years and lived to 70 or 75. One could reasonably work for about 40 years and retire for 10 to 15. At retirement the company you worked for most of your life gave you a pension. The government took care of the rest with social security.

Now, fast forward to the present. Most people change careers an average of four times. The modern economy of buyouts and constant advances in technology make working for one company unrealistic. Pensions have been frozen, rolled into different plans or simply eliminated. People want to work until age 50 or 55 but now can feasibly live well into their eighties or even nineties. To top it all off there is the very real possibility that social security as we know it could be gone or radically changed by the time you reach retirement. You now have a generation that is faced with the possibility of being retired longer than they worked and with less security to get them through!!!

If that isn’t enough consider a few things. In my experience my clients’ above average home costs approximately $275,000. The cost for college is currently about $120,000 per child for a decent four-year school. The average retirement needed to fund a comfortable lifestyle? That number is between 1 and 2.5 million. Even if pensions and social security were anticipated to be intact they would only fund a portion of what the average (yes I said average) American wants to retire on.

There is no hope is there? Of course there is but you have to make retirement a priority and utilize the tools necessary to make sure you can retire. But, the way you can do that is very simple. Realize the power of saving early and then combine it with the power of compound interest. Yes, pensions are numbering fewer and fewer but they have been replaced by the 401(k), 403(b), 457, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, variable and indexed annuities and the list goes on and on. What do all these things mean? Well depending on who your employer is and how educated you are about these vehicles you probably have one or even several different accounts in your household.

The reason pensions and social security are in their current state comes down to the basic principle of money. They have simply become too expensive for one entity (a company or the government) to assume all the administrative costs as well as the risk. Plans like the 401(k) are designed to minimize risk to the company by putting the onus on you, the employee, to choose which investment to place your money. The problem is two-fold: people are not saving enough and most people have no idea where to invest. It is simply not enough to set aside 2% of your income (the national average) and yet most people are aware that they should be saving at least 10%. You also cannot continue to look over the shoulder of the person in the cubicle next to you as they build their portfolio. How many people ask their brother-in-law the plumber what mutual funds he has? Does the manager of customer service really have a handle on what bond fund is best in the company retirement plan? Do you really believe that the issue of Money Magazine that you buy once a year holds the answer to all your questions?

The average investor in this country gets less than a 3% return on their investments. Yet, the stock market has averaged over 10% for any ten-year block of time for the last 75 years. In order to understand how to best leverage assets today so you can live comfortably tomorrow takes a couple of steps. The first is to do an honest analysis of your cash-flow to figure out what you live on and what you can save. The second, is to then use those savings and get them working for you in the best way.

There are two ways to make money: you can work to make money or you can have your money make money. We all know how to work but we don’t know how to make our money work. Fortunately, there are a lot of educational tools and resources available. Most people don’t realize that if their company offers a 401(k) or similar account they can contact the custodian of that plan for investment advice. Many providers like Fidelity, Vanguard, and American Funds have a phone support and even web-based assistance. There is also an abundance of financial professionals that are affiliated with banks, insurance companies and investment firms. This is often a great option when someone wants an objective look at their overall picture. They have the tools and expertise to assist you with a cash-flow analysis and help with your retirement goals. Many will even give you an initial consultation at no charge. There are also hundreds of websites with information about the different vehicles and ways to save.

Ultimately, the decision to take a hard look at retirement must be one of commitment. Many want to do it but wait far too long. When faced with a procrastinating attitude I always respond by saying: You can borrow the mortgage on your house, you can borrow money and apply for scholarships for your child’s education but you cannot borrow your retirement. Take action to get your retirement picture clearer sooner rather than later. A thorough analysis at worst will give you a solid place to start.

Rick Ramos has sold securities as a registered representative and is a licensed insurance producer for the State of Illinois. His articles regarding estate planning, retirement and investing have been featured on numerous websites. If you have other questions or would like more information you can e-mail him at: rick@insuranceblueprint.com.

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Beware “Courtesy” Overdraft Protection

Beware “Courtesy” Overdraft Protection

By John Wagner

In the past few years, many banks and credit unions have implemented a program called “Courtesy Overdraft Protection”. While that name sounds nice, it is simply another name for “High Priced Overdraft Loan”. Banks and some Credit Unions like this product because it enables them to get a significant boost in fee income while providing a so-called “service” to their customers.

Courtesy Overdraft Protection works like this. Banks or Credit Unions place their customers on the Courtesy Overdraft program, sometimes without their knowledge. If the customer writes a check that they don’t have funds to cover, the bank or credit union will cover the check temporarily. The bank or credit union will still assess a fee for insufficient funds to the customer but the check has been paid. The next deposit made by the customer will help to cover the short term loan.

Many customers like the concept of Courtesy Overdraft Protection. From their perspective, they’ve written a check that they don’t have funds to cover. The bank or credit union pays the check and assesses a “small” convenience fee. The customer’s creditor is none the wiser. Their bill has been paid and they don’t assess a separate fee to the customer for writing a bad check. In addition, there is no black mark on the customer’s credit report.

The banks or credit unions like the Courtesy Overdraft programs as well. From the financial institution’s perspective, they are making a number of low-risk, short-term loans and getting fee income each time they do it. Customers enrolled in these programs may be more likely to overdraft their accounts more frequently increasing the institution’s fee income even further.

Everyone wins….right? Wrong! If you do the math these short-term loans come at a very high price. For example, say you write a $500 check you can’t cover. The bank or credit union covers the check for you and charges a $35 fee. A week later, you get your paycheck and the loan is paid off. For the privilege of a $500 loan for one week, you pay $35. This equates to an interest rate of over 400%! Who in their right mind would take out a loan with a 400% interest rate? No one, that’s who. But this is one way banks continue to have record profits each year.

There is a better way. Check with your financial institution to see if you can have overdraft protection from your savings account. In that way, if you write a check without sufficient funds in your checking account, the money will come from your savings account instead. You may even be able to set up overdraft protection from your credit card. Yes, this would technically be a loan but it’s at a far lower interest rate that with the Courtesy Overdraft programs.

If you find the information you’ve just read valuable, you may be inetrested in a new book called “Money Secrets Banks Don’t Want You to Know” http://www.moneycentralusa.com/ebook.com by John Wagner. John worked for a major bank and teaches you tips and tricks that can save you thousands each year through smarter banking. He owns and operates several online businesses including financial web site MoneyCentralUSA, http://www.moneycentralusa.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Wagner

               

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Streams Of Income: The Day Of Doing One Job Well Is Over

Streams Of Income: The Day Of Doing One Job Well Is Over

By Suzette Hinton

The day of being a one-trick pony is over. I think that has been the point of this season in my life. I was raised to get good grades, go to college and get a good-paying job. And for 40 something years, I’ve remained in that mindset–putting all my energies into one thing.

Newly separated, I started looking around for what I owned or what skills I had that could stabilize me financially. One, I knew I could use my musical talents. So I put the word out that I was looking to play keyboard for a church. Before long, I entered a subcontractor relationship with a local church ministry. Two, I knew that I was good at typing, desktop publishing, and bookkeeping. Before long, I was producing monthly newsletters. It caught on and others started utilizing my services. In one month, I brought in $3000.

Things were going well at first. What I didn’t understand, however, is wells dry up. Tending to focus on one thing at a time, I was caught off guard when as quickly as the money started to flow, it stopped.

Streams of income have to be primed like wells. You have to get one well working, move to another and another, all the while, keeping a watchful eye on all of them. It reminds me of the juggler who spins plates on a pole. He’s got to spin one and then another, but keep them all spinning. It takes lots of work!

As all my spinning plates crashed to the floor, I felt the answer was finding stable employment. Therefore, I accepted a full time opening with the outpatient substance abuse agency where I was then working part-time as a counselor assistant. Exemplary performance led to an offer to run on office on my own. I accepted the offer. Initially, I felt great. The headquarters office was so chaotic: phones ringing, doors opening and closing, people constantly in each others’ way. It was a relief to be away from all that. At least, at first.

Sometimes revelation can be terrifying. Your wise self knows that something is not for you or that something has served its purpose and it’s time to move on but the timing couldn’t be worse. Fearing uncertainty, I tried to talk myself into the benefits of remaining at my job. I told myself that I was making almost as much money as I was making working with my ex. I told myself that I had a child to feed. I told myself that I was now 46 years old and did not have the luxury of irresponsibility. Despite my valiant arguments, my heart refused to listen.

I had to leave, but I had nothing else.

What I learned during that time would change my life forever and it’s this: do not underestimate the human spirit. It is relentless. If trapped in a prison with no foreseeable escape, the human spirit takes anything–a popsicle stick, an old spoon–and begins digging its way out.

As faith would have it, I had already begun a home study life coaching course and was almost done. I took a chance and gave a one month notice to my employer. In the weeks counting down to my last day of employment, I secured a piano-playing job with a local church. Within the pages of my coaching materials were some ideas on how to market my coaching business. My interest was sparked most by E-publishing. I began to contribute content to the directory thereby coaching hundreds of readers. Before long, I located an online publisher who would pay for my articles. I got my first payment within 5 days of submitting.

Today, I have a job interview with a temporary agency. Sound familiar? Don’t be fooled. I’ve shed that stinkin thinkin, that one-trick pony mentality. I don’t plan to vacate my other streams for one job. This time, I have my music income primed and producing. I have an online paying source for my articles primed and producing. Once I get a job, I’ll have three active streams of income. I’ll be doing what I enjoy doing, yet having the money in order to do it.

Suzette R. Hinton, SAC-I, Certified Life and Mentor Coach, Counselor and Mother. Graduate of CANA, Inc. (www.CoachingInstituteofNorthAmerica.com) and Founder of Purposeful Connections (www.purposefulconnections.com). Suzette believes that purpose is not only a destination but it is the energy that pushes us toward its fulfillment.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Suzette_Hinton

               

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Kathy Griffin’s Take on Financial Planning

Kathy Griffin’s Take on Financial Planning

By Nicole Anderson

Kathy Griffin has some wise insight on finances and money management. If you listen to her advice you may find yourself in a much better financial situation and if you don’t listen to her advice she my make fun of you on her show someday!

During an episode of My Life on The-D List, Kathy Griffin’s reality show, she made wise cracks about actors and actress and their finances. Kathy’s comment was that she hates it when she hears actors and actresses say, “I don’t do the ‘business thing’. I am an actor.” Kathy’s sarcastic, yet true, remark about why this bothers her is that “business thing” is PART OF YOUR JOB. You need to learn the business end of things. You, as an actor or actress, are your own business and have to run your professional life and personal finances as a business.

Think that doesn’t matter to the average Joe? The reason this is such an important point is that it is pertinent to all working people. You spend such a great deal of time working to make money but most spend so little working on how to make that money work for you.

How do you learn to handle your finances?

While all of us might not have the A-List actor/actress income to manage everyone should manage their money. The first step is Money 101: Create a Budget!

Alarming Statistics

One-half of American households have accumulated less than $1,000 in “net financial assets”, the value of money in the bank, stocks, bonds and other securities after subtracting loans, credit card debts, and other secured debt

A majority of Americans in households with incomes of $35,000 or less believed that they are more likely to accumulate a $500,000 nest egg by winning a lottery or sweepstakes (40%) than by patiently saving and investing of relatively modest sums (30%).

- Project C.A.S.H.

START MANAGING YOUR MONEY BY CREATING A BUDGET

1 – KNOW YOUR TRUE INCOME

Start with the basics. Identify how much money you make.

Begin by figuring out your net paycheck and multiplying the number of checks you receive per year then divide by 12 (months in a year) or taking your annual net income and dividing it by 12 (months in a year).

For example:

If you are paid weekly $1200 then your monthly income is

$1200 x 52 (weeks in a year) = $62,400 / 12 months = $5200 per month

2 – MAKE A VERY, VERY DETAIL BUDGET

What are your actual expenses? Take a look at how you are currently spending your money. By looking at your current spending habits you can identify areas where you need to modify spending. Some “necessities” are often luxuries we like to think of as necessities (morning coffee, dining out, new shoes for every new outfit, etc).

It is smart to evaluate your current spending and set goals that take into account your financial goals. Once you’ve set your budget, STICK TO IT and track your spending to make sure it stays within the guidelines you’ve established.

It is important to detail every standard monthly expenditure you have. Be realistic on how much you actually spend. Look at how much you spent last month these items and you may be surprised.

Here is a sample list of expenses:

EXPENSE #1

Savings - 10% of income (remember PAY YOURSELF FIRST!)

Household Expenses

Mortgage or Rent
Home Owners Association
Food
Groceries
Dining Out
Coffee/Tea
Lunches (kids)

Electric
Gas
Cable
Trash
Water/Sewer
DSL or Highspeed Internet
Telephone
Home Office Supplies

Personal Expenses

Car Payment
Car Insurance
Gas
Health Insurance
Medications
Cell Phone
Club or Membership Fees/Dues
Clothes
Shoes & Accessories
Toiletries
Subscriptions
Entertainment (movies, theater, amusement parks, etc.)

Debit Payments

Credit Card Payments
Loan Payments
Student Loans
Second/Third Mortgage Payment
Boat, Motorhome, Time Share Payment(s)
Medical Bills

If you have children

Tuition/Day care
Clothes
Sports, classes or club fees
School expenses (formals, pictures, uniforms, etc.)
Babysitting

Miscellaneous Expenses

Special Savings (see #3 for more explanation) Include any items omitted from the above list that you spend money on

***NOTE: Now that you know how much you spend each month SPEND SMARTER. Make changes to your budget and change your spending habits to be able to save monthly.***

3 – THINGS YOU NEED TO PLAN FOR BUT USUALLY OVERLOOK

There are items in your budget that come up irregularly but will inevitably come up. Things like new tires, vacations, Christmas, etc. If you have not created a separate savings budget to plan for these items you will soon find yourself overbudget and in a jam.

Know the “Special Savings” figure you actually NEED to save each month.

This list will include the cost of the following:

Income Tax
Car maintenance such as new tires, oil changes, brakes, etc.
Vacation(s)
Christmas Expenses, gifts, etc.
Car Registration

If you own a home:

Homeowners insurance
Property Tax
Home repairs or maintenance costs (water heater, roof leak, etc)

4 – SAVE, SAVE & SAVE MORE

Whatever method of savings works best for you, DO IT. Even if it a jar on the dresser you fill with money, a savings account, whatever. Take 10% of your earnings and pay yourself first, meaning save. This money will not only build a cushion for emergencies but will help you sleep better knowing you have a little stashed away should something come up unexpectedly.

It will also create the habit of saving and budgeting will lead to smarter spending, which in the years to come will develop into a solid future.

Even if you finish you spending and savings budget and it is more than you make it is a starting point. 40% of Americans live on 110% of their annual income! Don’t be one of them. Cut back expenses or find more income. It is better to have to tackle your finances than to not even know you have a problem.

More sophisticated money management, such as investments, can be tackled later. Start with getting the basics in and working!

Nicole Anderson offers a free search for your portion of the $25+ BILLION in unclaimed money in the United States. Millions of Americans are unaware they are owed money. It could come from old savings bonds, uncashed checks, checking and savings accounts, the list goes on and on. Click on to http://www.cashunclaimed.com for your free search and see how much money is owed to you and your family

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicole_Anderson

               

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