Let’s Talk About Retirement

John B Mayall asked:


Military personnel have to face up the brunt of financial difficulties not only through their career but even after they are retired from active service. While many do who join up the armed forces with the sole intention of dedicating their lives to the country, they still have to face the harsh reality of the trouble of managing their lives and their family with their meager salaries. For this reason, loans for military retirees and active duty personnel become very essential.

The best route to take for loans for military retirees is the Department of Veteran Affairs that provides VA Home Loan Programs. This has many benefits attached to it. There are no down payments required to take this loan and it provides a funding to the tune of $417,000 to purchase a home for themselves. Even the rate of interest is quite low and is a fixed rate and not an adjustable rate of interest. This is very good when the present trend of the market and issues such as the fall of the sub prime mortgage is concerned. The veterans are also provided with the option of refinancing an existing mortgage thereby reducing the amount that needs to be paid every month. This also works in the interest of the veterans considering the sub prime mortgages. Apart from mortgage, the VA loans are beneficial to the veterans for many other purposes such as educating their children or for debt consolidation.

There are many things to bear in mind while opting for a loan for military retirees. A person planning to go this route should be aware of the proper amount that they can procure through such a loan so that it becomes easier to check on what home they can afford to buy. If this is not cross-checked, they may fall short on their requirements or may end up with a high recurring monthly payment that they could possibly not afford. So, it is best to know beforehand what they can afford and what kind of liability they need to be ready for.

They should also have knowledge about their credit ratings. Credit ratings play an important role in the allotment of loans. People with bad credit history could end up with their loans not getting approved or with a lesser loan amount. Every retiree applying for the loan should ensure that their credit reports are precise with no faults as this is very important in determining the loan that gets approved in their name.

There are three different loans being provided by the VA as loans for military retirees. These differ in the kind of interest rates that are being offered. There is the option of going in for a fixed or an adjustable rate of interest. Many now feel that considering the current trend of sub prime mortgage, it is best to opt for a fixed rate of interest rather than an adjustable rate of interest. But, even if one opts for an adjustable rate of interest for a VA loan, the adjusted rates cannot vary from the previous rate of interest by more than one percent every year to a total not above five percent for the entire tenure of the loan. So, going in for a loan for military retirees through the VA is a good option that should be weighed in with other options available before deciding on which loan to actually go in for.



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Dean Caporella asked:


The western world is going to experience a major impact from 2010 and onwards and it’s an impact that’s been predicted for sometime. Strange thing is, there doesn’t seem to be much going on to avoid it.

We’re talking about the mass exodus expected from the workforce by our baby boomer generation who number about 80 million just in the United States. They also make up about one third of the work population which is a little frightening when one considers the consequences.

The Aging Work Force

It’s not just an aging population, it’s also an aging work force and the question needs to be asked…”Can industry afford to lose such a highly skilled generation in mass proportions?

The short answer is no, yet retirement planning is one of the main issues when people get close to the golden age of hanging up the work boots. What would happen if one third of the work force phased out over several years? Is there the same skill set to replace them?

Industry To Suffer From Mass Exodus

Industries such as teaching and nursing are expected to suffer through loss of expertise. It’s the expertise factor which is going to hurt many industries.

There is good news on the horizon though. Good news if you plan to keep working after hitting retirement age. Planning for retirement should sensibly start at a very young age, preferably in a person’s twenties yet sadly, many haven’t started building a nest egg until they hit their forties.

The topic of phased retirement has started to become more and more widely discussed and while we may not see it come to fore until baby boomers decide to call it quits, phased retirement is already being tried in some industries.

What Is Phased Retirement?

In a nutshell, it’s simply an option for people who want to keep working but don’t want the long hours associated with it. In other words, it’s a reduced and more flexible work schedule.

It really is a win-win situation; the retiree gets to keep earning income while the employer retains a lot of the expertise they worked so hard to establish over a number of years.

Studies during 2007 have indicated people who suddenly retire without any significant purpose in their lives, find it tough going and having purpose is what makes this option very attractive. There are still some issues which need to be ironed out but when one talks of “buzz words,” it’s quite likely that phased retirement will dominate discussions very soon.



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John Reed asked:


Many retirees and baby boomers face rising costs that cut into their life’s plans. So, often times many have returned to work. Unfortunately, as stated before, the job market isn’t all that great right now, making job searches a much more competitive event.

Finding means to offset unavoidable rises in expenses becomes key to living comfortably.

Finding that the types of available jobs often require heavy lifting or large amounts of walking, retirees often turn to the Internet as a means of earning extra money to offset living costs.

Turning to websites like http://www.TypoBounty.com, retirees are earning extra money online to pay those costs that seem to appear out of nowhere in one’s golden years. Typobounty.com allows retirees to earn money by locating and reporting errors they observe on websites.

Retirees are paid over 2 dollars per valid error report. Errors such as misspelled words, incorrect punctuation, poor grammar, lack of clarity and many more types of errors are all up for grabs.

The Internet is full of errors, and with their life experiences, retirees are well suited for spotting those types of errors. Using nothing more than their observation skills and a free TypoBounty.com hunter account, retirees are able to make ends meet by using what they know.

Whether one calls it being forced into retirement, laid off, being offered a package, or just plain fired, the effects are still the same for many. The funds coming in are affected and the cost of essential items becomes more of an issue. The Internet is becoming an excellent tool for seniors to show they still can contribute in a technology hyped world. In fact they compete against others on the site.

“To have an affect on something as technological as the Internet is a wonderful thing”,. says Jennifer Watson. “Retirement does not mean we are done or that we don’t have anything left to contribute. It means that we have more time to contribute.”

An error free internet is the goal.

How Much Money Is Up For Grabs? Using a popular search engine, we found that if you misspell the word “receive” as “recieve” in a popular search engine and search it. You find that the misspelled word “recieve” is found on 14,800,000 web pages. If you make it past tense by adding “ed”, you see an additional 15,300,000 web pages are found. If you add the suffix “ing” to get “recieving” you find an additional 2,990,000 web pages with that flaw. If you add the suffix “er” you are given an additional 224,000 web pages with errors. If each of the site owners were told by you of TypoBounty.com and offered a $2.00 bounty on the errors on their website, that would total $66,628,000 that is up for grabs, for paying your bills. Just report them through TypoBounty.com. That’s just one root word. Try to imagine the number of other errors that exist online in spelling, punctuation, grammar etc.

Retirees using TypoBounty.com and search engines can do pretty well for themselves.

Other online opportunities for retirees exist but few present such a clear path for using their acquired assets more efficiently.



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Eric Bayne asked:


If you are one of the many retired people managing their own self directed accounts, you need to find yourself a good retirement calculator. But even if you’re young and just starting to work, you need to begin planning for your future retirement. How much money will you have to retire on if you continue to save and invest at your current rate? This is what a good retirement planning calculator will help you to figure out.

Very few things are certain in life. Not your current salary. Not your current rate of return on your investments. Not your good health. All of these things are variables that can change in an instant. Nevertheless, the purpose of creating a retirement plan for yourself is to help to give yourself the best odds of being able to live the good life when you retire. A retirement calculator will help you to do this, but you need a few prerequisites to get started.

How old are you now and when do you plan on retiring? The bigger the distance between these two figures, the greater the choices you have in your options and the greater the odds are that you will be successful. On the other hand, if you are age 60 and plan to retire at age 65, a retirement calculator will not help you much. It will be able to tell you what your income will be when you retire, but aside from that, it won’t be of much use. On the other hand, if you are 30 years old and plannig to retire at age 65, a retirement calculator can help you a lot. It can tell you what interest rates you need inn order to meet your desired income targets. It can tell you if you can accomplish your goals with conservative investments or whether you need to take a chance on riskier investments that will normally compound at higher interest rates. An excellent retirement calculator will also let you try out different retirement dates to see how they will impact your future income. You may find that you can retire much sooner than you thought you would.

What is the minimum amount of money you need at retirement? This is a different question than how much money you would like to have. The minimum amount calculation takes into account the cost of basic human needs and services such as - food, shelter, health care, and so on. A good retirement calculator will look at what you’re spending now on these items and extrapolate their costs into the future, taking into account inflation and other cost of living variables such as age. The calculator may alert you that what you thought was necessary to maintain your current standard of living will be, in fact, woefully inadequate 35 years from now. Having this knowledge in hand will let you adjust your savings plan in time to make a difference.

Once you’re retire, how much money can you safely withdraw without significantly impacting your principal? The principal is your retirement lifeblood. If it disappears, so does your monthly income. The best calculators will let you “play” with the principal amounts and desired monthly income amounts until you are satisfied that the periodic amounts you withdraw, will last you for your lifetime.

Everyone, who is not yet retired, should plug these retirement variables into a calculator at least once a year to ensure that their retirement plan is still on track. You do not want to discover any negative financial surprises when you are finally ready to retire. In fact, even if you are retired, it’s always a good idea to periodically take stock of and reassess your financial condition.



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Josh Neumann asked:


Many people forget during their retirement planning to plan for each and every expense that will arise during their retirement. This is exactly the reason the vast majority of Americans get to their retirement years and find they don’t have enough money to retire on.

According to the Social security administration, 95% of people will not be able to retire comfortably. Unfortunately, this stat could have been alleviated by most people from some simple and thorough planning for the costs they will be faced with after retirement.

Of course, food cost is one of the biggies that most people overlook when planning this important stage. Most people get so caught up in planning for their housing, cars, and other larger expenses, they forget about this everyday, seemingly trivial expenses. Obviously, as I’m sure you are aware of now, food costs can really add up if you’re not careful.

In planning for these food costs for retirement, first of all, sit down and figure out exactly what you spend on food every week now. Now figure out how much that figure is per month, and then per year. You should already be doing this process now in keeping track of your expenses, and most people do a very poor job of tracking their expenses before retirement as well. However, that’s another story for another day.

Once you’ve gotten this figured out, now simply multiply that number by about 25 or 30 (usually safe) and you’ve got about how much money you will need for your food expenses when you retire. Of course, this number isn’t perfect, depending on how long you live once you retire. Obviously, you don’t know this, so you have to at least do what you can.

Once you know this, that’s great, but you also have to take into consideration your other expenses as well. In your retirement planning process, every expense must be accounted for; without this clarity, you can never achieve your retirement goals, whatever they may be. Unfortunately, it’s this same lack of clarity that stops most people from having enough money when they retire.

In this process, there is a lot of great retirement planning software that will make this stage much easier. Also, you might try doing a quick internet search for retirement planning calculator, and you will get up literally millions of results. There are many financial companies that will offer you these calculators for free so that you use them and hopefully get hooked on ultimately hiring that company and their services. Whether you do this or not, you can certainly still benefit from the free software available.

Now, once you know this info, you need to figure out how you plan on getting that money to live on. For most people, this will be achieved thought the stock market, whether it be mutual funds, savings bonds, foreign currency exchange, futures, or regular stock investing.

Of course, you can also invest in real estate and other assets as well. If you aren’t financially educated and don’t know how to tell a good investment from a bad one, you’ll either want to read books and educate yourself, or hire a financial advisor to tell you the best investments to put your money into. Obviously, becoming financially educated yourself is certainly preferably, because you will have the opportunity to spot investment opportunities on your own.

Remember, nobody else will ever care as much about your financial situation as you, so being able to do this is invaluable. However, the most important part at this state is to either use your own or somebody else’s expertise to help you find the top investment vehicle to help you achieve your goals.

Once you’ve done these planning food cost for retirement and other expenses steps, and decided on the right investment vehicle to get you there, you are well on your way to achieving your goals. Now it’s simply time to take action.



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Sam Williams asked:


The final quarter of the 20th century (especially the second part of this period) has seen the US economy being hit by one of worst phases of recession since the period of Great Depression (in the 1930s). Stock markets have crashed during this period, with an implosion of housing values and rates of returns from bonds being drastically lowered. All these have adversely affected the retirement plans of individuals (those who are planning for retirement and those who have already retired). Hiring a competent financial planner who is also an expert retirement advisor is, hence, of utmost importance to keep the retirement plans stable. A financial advisor can help his/her clients assess the effect of the economic downturn on retirement plans, and take steps accordingly.

A retirement planner generally recommends conservative measures to help clients survive the hostile impact of recession on retirement plans. Generally, individuals have pre-determined retirement plans that they plan to follow. However, once a depression sets in the economy, they need to re-evaluate their retirement plans, and modify them according to the market conditions. Finding a financial planner comes in handy during this period, for expert assessment and advice on retirement planning. With numerous financial planners offering their services, individuals need to wonder about how to find a financial planner either.

Recessionary market conditions have several adverse effects on retirement planning. Some of such effects, as would be pointed out by any expert retirement advisor, are:

a) Returns on stocks and bonds: The rates of return as well as the yields from them go down by significant amounts during a recession. During these periods, investment in high-risk financial instruments, hence, should be avoided. In order to keep plans for retirement stable, the contributions to retirement funds should be increased during a phase of depression,

b) Timing one’s retirement: Faced with recessionary conditions, individuals may tend to push back their dates of retirement. This may not be a sensible decision, particularly if the recession lasts for a lengthy time-period. Instead, transferring funds and assets to fixed, secure investments, selling off housing property makes more financial sense. Retirement dates should not be pushed back either,

c) Reduction in spending levels: Faced with acute recessionary forces, the US Federal Reserve has been forced to significantly cut down on the key interest rates. This has resulted in an upward spiral in prices of almost all products, denting any pre-determined retirement budgets one might have had. In such a situation, the only prudent option seems to be a significant reduction in consumption and spending levels. This would help to keep the retirement budgets more or less intact. Inflationary conditions, which are on the rise during these periods, can also be tackled in an effective manner in this way.

Retirement plans are, broadly speaking, significantly affected by a recession in the market. However, it is possible to minimize, if not totally eliminate, the impacts of depression on one’s retirement plan. For this, one needs to hire a top retirement planner, and follow the above-mentioned tips. A retirement advisor can surely help his/her client maintain a well-designed a prudent retirement budget.



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William Smith asked:


It’s no secret that the average American is not saving enough for his or her retirement. The sad truth is that most Americans have no savings at all - the average family is $10,000 in net debt! For years, men and women could depend on company pensions for their retirement.

If that failed, there was always Social Security to bail them out. But with pensions going the way of the dinosaur and Social Security also on the path to extinction, retirement saving is more important than ever.

In fact, if you don’t begin saving for your retirement now, you may not have any retirement to look forward to at all - you could be working until the day you die, and that’s no way to spend your golden years. So now that you know you need to save and invest, what is your ultimate objective? How much will you need for retirement?

Retirement Tip - Open an Individual Retirement Account (IRA)

Individual Retirement Accounts allow you to save money for retirement, tax-deferred. There are two types of Individual Retirement Accounts - the traditional IRA and the Roth IRA - but the most important thing to understand is that an IRA is a type of account, not an investment product itself.

Often you’ll hear people talk about IRAs as if they are savings bonds, CDs, or mutual funds, but these are merely things that would go in an Individual Retirement Account - an IRA is a tax sheltered account specifically for retirement savings, more like your checking account than an investment product.

The best thing about IRAs is that they allow you to save for retirement without having to worry about Uncle Sam’s share. A traditional IRA lets you make tax deductible contributions of up to $4,000 per year to your account - this means if you fully fund your IRA, you will have a $4,000 write-off on your taxes!

The money you put into the account can be used to buy stocks, bonds, or almost any other type of investment. As your IRA grows in value, you never have to pay any taxes on capital gains - even if you sell stocks within the account for a profit!

However, when you begin withdrawing money from the IRA (you’re eligible to start at age 59 1/2), you are taxed on the full amount of your withdrawals at your regular income tax rate.

For most people, a Roth IRA is even better. It allows you to make after-tax contributions - meaning you won’t get that $4,000 tax write-off - and otherwise, works much like a traditional IRA. So how can a Roth be better? Because since you’re using after-tax money, Uncle Sam will never, ever be able to tax your account’s earnings.

This means that if you build up $20 million in your Roth IRA, you won’t owe the government one dime when you start withdrawing your loot!

So How Much Will You Need for a Comfortable Retirement?

Retirement experts say people turning 65 in 2006 will need approximately $1 million for retirement. This may seem like a lot, but with life expectancies rising every year, it’s understandable.

A liquid net worth of $1 million would allow you to buy government bonds that paid $50,000 a year in interest, and you’d get your principal back at the end of the bond’s term.

For your retirement, you will need to determine the inflation adjusted equivalent of $1 million. Figure inflation at 3 percent a year, and see how much you’ll need. Then determine how much you’ll need to save each year at 8-10 percent return on investment, in order to achieve that much.

Thanks to the power of compound interest, the sooner you start saving the better. So get started today if you want to have a leisurely retirement. You’ll thank yourself in your old age!



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anonymous asked:


Just because you have now retired or retiring in 10 or 20 years, you should not stop investing. It’s now time to build on your nest egg and revise your retirement plan. You can still be conservative and make money at the same time.

Many people start there stock investing careers when they retire as a hobby or a money making venture. The Stock Market is a great Retirement Income opportunity that needs to be learned properly.

Stock investing at retirement can be learned without too many pressures, therefore with the right education you could be making $500 per month pocket money or money that contributes towards a more elaborate lifestyle. Or if you just want to utilize the services of someone who helps you pick your stocks and then learn off them you can do this also. These stock picking services have helped many people make extraordinary incomes.

Another way you can learn about the Stock Market is by going to classes and learning the market by studying in a group, this way you can also meet new friends and develop some relationships with like minded people.

Staying active and stimulating the mind is important and will keep you feeling and acting younger. You can retain that sharpness you had when you were working, by starting with a retirement plan that can change your whole retirement outlook.

Most successful investors consider earning money to be important even after retirement. The money you earn money from investments can be passive and contribute towards paying the bills and other expenses eating into the lump sum amount saved over your life time.

Following are some tips to developing a Retirement Income Opportunity;

1. If you have not retired yet, do not wait until retirement before you start saving. Start at an early age and use a savings plan to save every pay day. Some banks and fund management companies have good rates which, in the long term, will possibly even double the money you have invested in a number of years. A retirement plan should start now, no matter what your age.

2. Stocks are a great option and have grown more than any other asset class over the last 50 years. Most large capitalized (high assets in company) companies have grown due to business growth in recent times.

3. Purchasing real estate is also a good option but has its disadvantages. Once you invest, if you need the money you can’t get the money unless you sell and this could take months. Although, the advantage is that the price of properties go up over long term and they are less volatile than stocks.

4. You can also start a business as a hobby. The working experience you have gained over your life time can branch into other ideas. Some people invest for a hobby into the stock market or property. The stock market allows you to start with a minimal amount and you can grow this amount to a substantial amount with the right guidance. See the bottom of this article for more information.

5. You can also get an investment retirement account or managed fund account. You can find out more about these from a financial planner.

There are many ways where a little money in the beginning can explode into lots of money and become a very successful retirement income opportunity.

Days of relying on the government to provide us security when we retire are over. The retirement income provided by the government are not worth the wait and that is why you need to develop your own retirement income opportunity. By taking action and using some simple yet effective investment techniques you can profit like the other 5% who retire comfortably.



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Tomas Loden asked:


When it comes to planning your retirement and securing your future, the wisest choice is to consult a professional retirement planning services company. Many men and women who decide to plan their golden years without professional consulting advice end up regretting not having been thoroughly educated on the many aspects that retirement living entails.

Do not be one of these people. Your golden years and financial security is too important to simply “wing it” when it comes to a long-term plan.

What exactly is a retirement planning service?

By choosing the right company for your needs, you will find that a proper team of consultants should provide you at least 20 years combined experience with investment management and financial planning experience.

The organization should make you feel comfortable while offering a long-term approach to your financial needs, as well as other aspects of retirement such as strategizing your career, unplanned life events, and of course helping you live the life that you would like to live for the entirety of your senior years.

What can a qualified retirement planning service do for you?

Let’s face it, there is a bewildering and monumental array of choices to make in terms of planning out the next 30 years of your life. This can be especially stressful when we live in times where the economy is often uncertain. What you need is a crystal clear path to you and your family’s financial security during this most precious time of your life.

The right retirement consulting firm will take stock of your investments, future plans, retirement portfolio, your children’s needs, unexpected health care possibilities, projected cost of living, etc.

They will combine all of this data and analyze a complete and written financial guide for your retirement years that will make practical sense, as well as lead you to living the life you deserve, without worrying about money.

What are the most important items that I should look for when considering a retirement planning service?

Most companies that offer retirement guidance are very good at what they do, however there is a small list of specific planning services that should be offered. Below are a few of those items:

1. At the top of the list is financial planning. The company you choose should have a solid background with clients when it comes to providing maximum investment returns, expert advice on your taxes, college expenses (your children), insurance, and estate planning.

2. Next you want to be sure that the retirement planning service you hire is going to help you with mid career planning. Remember, you may have 10 to 20 years left in the workplace and making the right investment and financial decisions is of utmost importance. In fact, poor career planning into your retirement years could result in disastrous consequences.

Such important examples of mid career planning would be to determine disability needs, choosing a proper debt reduction strategy (if needed), making smart investments, and if you have children, selecting a money-saving college plan.

3. The third most important retirement planning service that should be offered by the company of your choice would be dealing with investment advice, proper allocation of your assets, and most importantly, evaluating and getting the most out of your employee benefits from the company you work for.



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Eric Bayne asked:


Do you know how much money you will need at retirement? Do you know if you will even have that much money? The best method to know for certain is for you to start putting together your retirement worksheet today. Before you begin your worksheet, however, you will need to answer the following 3 vital questions:

How much do you want to make a year, in today’s dollars, when you retire? Or, to put it another way, if you were to retire right now, what yearly salary would you require in order to keep you living in the fashion to which you have become accustomed. The majority of worksheets and calculators will have built into them projected appraisals for inflation and will be able to use this figure to calculate roughly the amount of annual income you will need at retirement.

How many years are there before you retire? This is critical because it is the number of years you have remaining in which to add funds to your financial portfolio. The spreadsheet will take the value of your current portfolio and add to it any expected contributions up to the retirement date. The calculation will show how much you can expect to have at retirement. If this amount is less than what you require, you will either have to add more money to your portfolio, change your investment strategy, or lower you expected standards of living at retirement.

What is the sum of all your sources of expected retirement income? This includes your expected Social Security income as well as any of the following investment plans - 401k, 403b, 457, Keoghs, SEP, IRA, and pension plans. It’s important to get as concrete figures as you can and put them on paper. This helps to avoid the rose colored glasses scenario where you think you have more money than you actually do. A major cause of people getting to retirement and being shocked that they don’t have enough money to live at their current lifestyle level is their failure at an earlier age to take a hard look at their financial situation when they had plenty of time to do something about it.

How many years will your retirement funds be expected to last? This is a sensitive question as it gets into life expectancy and mortality issues. Once you begin to collect Social Security, your income from it will be relatively constant. But Social Security will most likely cover less than half of your desired income. And in many cases, it will cover much less. This means that your remaining investments have to supply the rest of your income. In the best of circumstances, you will be able to live off of a combination of the interest and dividends from your investments and not have to touch the principal. If, however, you are forced to start drawing against the principal, your annual income from it will continually decrease until gone. Knowing how many years your retirement funds will be necessary will help you make the decision as to whether you should start to draw the principal down or accept a lowered standard of living.

How is your health? For many retired people, their medical bills are their biggest out of pocket expense when they retire. Even with Medicare, you may have deductibles to pay for. We can’t look into the future and say for certain what our health will be at retirement. But if you already are taking medical treatments for a disease such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, and so on - you can be almost certain that those bills will increase significantly as you reach retirement age. Many people when making their retirement plan, forget planning for future medical bills. But now, before your retirement, is the best time to do this.



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