Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Quit and Retire Three Years Earlier!

For most people, there is a direct correlativity between how disquieted they are about retirement income, and how much they can actually make about it. This is because the more than disquieted you are, the near you probably are to retirement, and the less clip you have got to make anything – like save up. Effective ‘saving up’ necessitates time. Time so your money can grow. Save an extra $200 a month, three old age before retirement (at age 62), and you’ll accumulate a expansive sum of $7,887 (averaging 6% growth). Not likely to have got a large impact on your retirement lifestyle.

But what if you invested for retirement when you were NOT worried about it? What if you, say, discontinue smoke a battalion a twenty-four hours at age 45 and took the money and invested that instead? (For the intents of this illustration, let’s presume a battalion costs $7.00 and you smoke a battalion a twenty-four hours so you invest, for easy figure’s sake, $200 per month. Again, average chemical compound rate of tax return is 6%.)

Instead of starting to salvage when you begin worrying about retirement (at age 62), and amassing that expansive sum of $7,887 by age 65, you begin economy when you’re NOT worried about retirement (at age 45 – by quitting smoke and saving that money) so you stop up with, delay for it, --- $91,129 !

What will $91,129 make for you at age 65? It would supply you with $456 in further monthly income for the remainder of your life (continuing to average 6% growth), and you won’t have got to touch your capital. Or, perhaps, you could take to retire earlier!

Don’t start to worry, at age 62, and salvage a negligible $7,887 by 65. Instead, start economy $200 more than a calendar month at age 45, when you’re not worried, and have got $69,892 by age 62! Then you could retire completely at age 62, by using both the rule and interest as income from 62 to 65. $69,892 would supply you with $2,100 in income for three years! Thus, discontinue smoke and discontinue working 3 old age earlier!

Of course, most of us ‘act’ when we have got the ‘urge’ to act. (Note how the words ‘urge’ and ‘urgent’ have got the same root.). You will be given to move on your retirement program when it is most urgent. But long term ends are, by their very nature, NEVER URGENT! Now, perhaps THAT is something to worry about.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Ways to Look Good without Selling Your Soul to the Credit Card Sharks

1. Buy clothes at thrift stores. BEFORE you buy them, however, hold the clothing to the light to make sure there are no tears, check the seams under the arms, make sure the buttons are all there, and don't buy anything that you can't try on.

2. Never buy anything that doesn't fit.

3. Find out what your colors are and only buy those colors. I attended a workshop to figure out that I am a Winter and then I only bought clothes that look good on Winters. If I buy clothes that are not those Winter colors, I won’t wear them because I know subconsciously that they do not flatter me. As an added bonus, when you wear the colors that are harmonized with your skin tone, you often have more energy, are calmer and look younger.

4. Go through your wardrobe to determine what clothes you need to buy, make a list, place the list in your purse or wallet, and ONLY buy the items that are on the list.

5. Know the values of clothing. Many "sales" are not bargains at all.

6. If you have children who are growing quickly, buy their clothing at a thrift store.

7. Only buy good quality clothing which will last a long time.

8. Buy a can of starch, and iron your business shirts as opposed to paying over a dollar to a dry cleaner that uses a harsh pressing machine.

9. Buy tie spray to protect your costly silk ties and scarves.

10. Buy clothes at the end of a season when they are on sale as opposed to the beginning of the season.

11. Buy clothes with neutral colors (gray, white, navy blue) that will go with anything that you have in your existing wardrobe, so that you won't have to buy new clothes to complement your new purchase.

12. Buy and wear only comfortable shoes and save money on doctors and chiropractors.

Monday, October 22, 2007

A Simplified Tax

Congress wrangles over the simplification of income tax when in fact, it is and has always been an issue for the volunteers who pay it. Who on earth has any right to the personal information provided on income tax returns? No one but the person who chooses to disclose – or not. Income taxes are appropriate to corporations which (supposedly) exist at the pleasure of states and somehow rule the world. It can never apply to any sovereign individual except they surrender their sovereignty and swear an oath that their personal information as revealed, is complete and correct. Every person who files a signed return at any level of government is witnessing and swearing against him/herself for the purposes of maritime law. You see, the United States is really floating upon two oceans so we come under maritime and contract law. You choose to divulge your most intimate and personal information because “everybody does it.” It is just no big deal. Or is it?

The divulgence of this highly personal information is done because it has always been so way back to 1913 and that’s good enough for you. If you take a look at the original income tax of 1913, you quickly see what an abomination it has become and how it has expanded to collect data – spy on citizens. So what? Perhaps half the U.S. workforce or more, has been duped into sacrificing personal sovereignty to an employing corporation that is a creation of the state we are supposed to be running.

But it doesn’t end there. Withholding taxes, whether weekly or quarterly are the Lord’s tithe – the firstfruits. You pay them to your god. If you work for any corporation at half or less of your market value, you have already agreed to send your firstfruits to your god. For this, you can expect to be punished by the god you worship or the one you are trying to hide from.

The national government has unlimited credit. Why should it tax anything or anybody? Because if the surplus currency and bank credit in circulation is not skimmed off in the course of the year, we get inflation, which robs everyone, especially lenders. This is why a private corporation of bank operators, tweak the short term interest rates a quarter point per quarter year. Got to start raking in the excess credit. What does the Constitution say about private interests doing the national banking. It says to promote the general welfare. It is good for the people to have foxes guarding the hen house. That’s what the Constitution people defend with their lives says. Steal from the poor and give to the rich. It is good for the people and they will go along with it all because we will keep them too busy to read or study such matters. They have become our god, demand our worship and get it from our paychecks and tax returns. We pay for what we want. The atheist worships this god, the Jew, the Catholic, the Evangelical, the Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim worship this god, in the West. Some Arabs seem to have a strenuous objection to worshipping this god and blow their selves up in protest. Our money has become our chief object of affection and we hire thieves to manage it for us. We kill and terrorize the people who don’t agree with us. Then we pat ourselves on the back saying, good job, what?

Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy wanted to have honest money and intended to create it. Someone changed their minds. For 140 years and longer we have been playing the game with Monopoly money – literally. Give us your freedom and we’ll give you a job. Who can resist an offer like that? Only someone who should not be investing in the status quo because everybody does it, so it’s A OK. It is a betrayal of whoever does not worship the money god, as Osama tells us. It is a betrayal of your brother or sister who objects to the way we are being used by the rich to get richer. It is an insult to all the people of the earth who have rejected the money god, when given a choice. But hey! Screw them all if they can’t take a joke. We are with them in spirit. And that is the lie that condemns one with their own words, spoken or thought. We have masters who reap where they do not sow. Hard masters - unjust and unmerciful.

The governments have turned their selves over to their corporate creations and no one is supposed to notice. Corporations choose candidates for the most popular parties and elect them. The people vote their approval of the corporate process. The corporate masters write the laws we are expected to obey. They choose the wording, send their agents to targeted politicians and simply say, we would like this law passed. The politicians say OK and one submits the bill. The others vote to approve it. Can democracy get any simpler than this?

The fix is in and has been from the good old days when daily life was a struggle for most folks. We have kept very busy through the centuries and - look at all the wonderful works that have come of it! Who has the nerve to say government of the people, by the rich, for the rich, is not the perfect path to world peace?

A Simplified Income Tax

Congress now wrangles over the simplification of income tax when in fact, it is and has always been an issue for the volunteers who pay it. Who on earth has any right to the personal information provided on income tax returns? No one but the person who chooses to disclose – or not. Income taxes are appropriate to corporations which (supposedly) exist at the pleasure of states and somehow rule the world. It can never apply to any sovereign individual except they surrender their sovereignty and swear an oath that their personal information as revealed, is complete and correct. Every person who files a signed return at any level of government is witnessing and swearing against him/herself for the purposes of maritime law. You see, the United States is really floating upon two oceans so we come under maritime and contract law. You choose to divulge your most intimate and personal information because “everybody does it.” It is just no big deal. Or is it?

The divulgence of this highly personal information is done because it has always been so way back to 1913 and that’s good enough for you. If you take a look at the original income tax of 1913, you quickly see what an abomination it has become and how it has expanded to collect data – spy on citizens. So what? Perhaps half the U.S. workforce or more, has been duped into sacrificing personal sovereignty to an employing corporation that is a creation of the state we are supposed to be running.

But it doesn’t end there. Withholding taxes, whether weekly or quarterly are the Lord’s tithe – the firstfruits. You pay them to your god. If you work for any corporation at half or less of your market value, you have already agreed to send your firstfruits to your god. For this, you can expect to be punished by the god you worship or the one you are trying to hide from.

The national government has unlimited credit. Why should it tax anything or anybody? Because if the surplus currency and bank credit in circulation is not skimmed off in the course of the year, we get inflation, which robs everyone, especially lenders. This is why a private corporation of bank operators, tweak the short term interest rates a quarter point per quarter year. Got to start raking in the excess credit. What does the Constitution say about private interests doing the national banking. It says to promote the general welfare. It is good for the people to have foxes guarding the hen house. That’s what the Constitution people defend with their lives says. Steal from the poor and give to the rich. It is good for the people and they will go along with it all because we will keep them too busy to read or study such matters. They have become our god, demand our worship and get it from our paychecks and tax returns. We pay for what we want. The atheist worships this god, the Jew, the Catholic, the Evangelical, the Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim worship this god, in the West. Some Arabs seem to have a strenuous objection to worshipping this god and blow their selves up in protest. Our money has become our chief object of affection and we hire thieves to manage it for us. We kill and terrorize the people who don’t agree with us. Then we pat ourselves on the back saying, good job, what?

Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy wanted to have honest money and intended to create it. Someone changed their minds. For 140 years and longer we have been playing the game with Monopoly money – literally. Give us your freedom and we’ll give you a job. Who can resist an offer like that? Only someone who should not be investing in the status quo because everybody does it, so it’s A OK. It is a betrayal of whoever does not worship the money god, as Osama tells us. It is a betrayal of your brother or sister who objects to the way we are being used by the rich to get richer. It is an insult to all the people of the earth who have rejected the money god, when given a choice. But hey! Screw them all if they can’t take a joke. We are with them in spirit. And that is the lie that condemns one with their own words, spoken or thought. We have masters who reap where they do not sow. Hard masters - unjust and unmerciful.

The governments have turned their selves over to their corporate creations and no one is supposed to notice. Corporations choose candidates for the most popular parties and elect them. The people vote their approval of the corporate process. The corporate masters write the laws we are expected to obey. They choose the wording, send their agents to targeted politicians and simply say, we would like this law passed. The politicians say OK and one submits the bill. The others vote to approve it. Can democracy get any simpler than this?

The fix is in and has been from the good old days when daily life was a struggle for most folks. We have kept very busy through the centuries and - look at all the wonderful works that have come of it! Who has the nerve to say government of the people, by the rich, for the rich, is not the perfect path to world peace?

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Developing a Personal Banking Strategy

If you've become accustomed to having your finances in disarray, it's likely time to take control of your financial life and get things in order. This may seem like a tall order of business, especially if you've had your financial records scattered for quite some time… but it can actually be a much simpler process than you might think.

The first step that you need to take in order to make some headway toward organization is to realize that there is definitely a better way to take care of your finances and banking than what you're currently doing.

From that point, it's simply a matter of creating and enforcing your own personalized banking strategy in order to get the most out of your money.

What Is a Personalized Banking Strategy?

If you're not exactly sure what a personalized banking strategy is, you're not alone. At its most basic, a personalized banking strategy is simply a method of looking at the way that you deal with your finances and building your financial planning around it.

Savings accounts, chequeing accounts, investments… they all fit into your banking strategy. It's time to take the time to look at them individually so as to determine how to best get them to work together for your benefit.

Savings

The purpose of savings is obviously to assist you in saving money, but many people use savings in much the same way that they do chequeing. Not only does this cause you to miss out on some of the benefits of the interest rates that savings accounts carry, but you can actually lose money in fees if you make too many withdrawals in a month.

If you don't have a savings account, you might want to consider getting one… but if you find that you're using the ATM a bit too much, it's time to hide your ATM card. The money in your savings account needs to stay there until it's really needed.

Chequeing

The key to successfully managing your chequeing account is to balance your chequebook monthly and build up a bit of a buffer to prevent overdrawn cheques. Round up to the next whole number the amount of each purchase when you record it in your chequebook.

While this may only be a little bit of change, with each purchase it will grow; at the end of each month you'll find that you've got more money in your account than your ledger was showing.

You can either leave it there to build the buffer more, or transfer the difference to your savings which you should do every few months, at the very least.

Long-Term Deposits

Long-term deposits can also figure prominently into your banking plans, especially if you have problems with maintaining a savings balance. Instead of placing all of your savings into your savings account, place some if it into certificates of deposit or other long-term deposits… the interest rate will be better than most accounts, and it will help keep you from spending the money that you're trying to save.

Investment

You shouldn't ignore the usefulness of investments when determining how best to divide up your money. As a general rule, it can be best to choose a relatively stable investment that will be used as a long-term investment… this way there's less danger of the value suddenly dropping and you won't be as tempted to simply sell the stock when you need quick cash. Investing a little each month (perhaps on an investment plan) can help you to keep your investments growing, as well.

You may freely reprint this article provided the following author's biography (including the live URL link) remains intact:

About The Author

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Family Money Management: The Importance of Agreement

Are you having problems with debt? Are you afraid to reply the phone because it may be an angry creditor calling? Bash you have got problems getting from one paycheck to the next? The simple reply is that you need to budget. But for that budget to work, both you and your partner need to be in entire agreement.

If one of you loves to shop and doesn't worry much about credit card debt while the other detests disbursement money like death, you have got a problem. You can make budgets till Capital Of Hawaii freezes over, but it won't work and chances, are, you and your important other volition end up fighting constantly.

Even before you begin to make a budget, the two of you must sit down down and discourse your life objectives. Get out a piece of paper. Brand a listing of long-term nonsubjectives the two of you can hold on. One mightiness be to get out of debt. Another mightiness be to do monthly parts to a college monetary fund for the kids. A 3rd could be to get a retirement fund. Or you might make up one's mind it's important that one of your get some specialised preparation that would lead to a higher salary.

Once you hold on your objectives, the two of you can begin work on a budget. Measure 1 will be to make up one's mind how much you will need to salvage (or spend) monthly to ran into your objectives. You should deduct this first from your monthly income so you can see how much you have got left over to work with.

Next, deduct your “secured” debt. Typically, this would be your mortgage payment, car payments, and any other loan payments where an plus such as as a boat or recreational vehicle secures the loan. Then, take a hard expression at your other disbursals and debt – for example, your rent, food, rank dues, clothes or credit card debt -- as these are the lone countries where you can trust to do cuts.

It is of import that you both hold as to where those cuts can be made. No matter how strongly you experience about drastically cutting a budget class such as as clothing, if your partner doesn't agree, you’re going to have got problems. A better solution is to happen a via media – a number that gets you closer to where you believe the disbursement should be but one that your partner holds is at least fair. Then, expression for another class where you can do cuts to get your concluding budget number down to where it needs to be.

You should then sit down down with your partner twice a calendar month to reexamine where you are vs. your budgetary goals. You will most likely happen that you're under in some classes and over in others. Don't worry about making accommodations at this time. Just do short letters as to where you've over and where you're under.

After the first two months, you should cognize where you've been disbursement more than you budgeted and where you've spent less. The two of you can then discourse what accommodations you need to make. There should not be a batch of arguing because you have got ends you've agreed on and a budget you created by working together.

The of import thing is to maintain the treatment from becoming accusatory. If one of you have been the “budget breaker,” it's better to inquire “it looks like we've got a problem here, what to you believe we can we make to repair it?” then to say, “you really screwed up this time.”

What can you make if you or your partner just can't command his or her disbursement and maintains busting the budget, calendar calendar month after month?

Unfortunately that's Associate in Nursing issue that probably needs the work of a good marriage counselor.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Rainy Day Fund Basics - Quelling the Normal Financial Storms of Life

One of the big reasons people don’t budget is because they get hammered by unexpected expenses. Perhaps you’ve experienced the same thing. Your budget has been going well for, oh, about 19 minutes, then “WHAM!” You need to pay the car insurance premium. Oh, and property taxes are due. Did I mention your daughter’s annual dance recital fee needs to be paid by Thursday? The oil needs to be changed. It’s also time for a transmission flush. Enter the rainy day fund.

Rainy Day Fund Overview
Welcome to life. It just came and hit you upside your head. And it will continue to do so as long as your ticker is ticking. Get used to it and do something about it!

The rainy day fund is a relatively simple concept. Let’s take the car insurance premium that you pay every six months. It costs $400. You don’t have to pay it every month, so most people would simply not worry about it. Whew! Wrong. It’s a predictable expense that will happen. You need to face reality. So $400 every six months is $66.67 per month.

Your rainy day fund will grow for six months by $66.67 per month, until you have $400. In that month, low and behold, your insurance premium is due! You cut the check for $400 and you haven’t felt a thing. Welcome to rainy days - where you have an umbrella.

The rainy day fund is one of the most critical aspects of your personal finance strategy. The personal budget that I built for my wife and myself (and now sell - obviously) has this rainy day fund capability built in. It’s quite nice - I almost get emotional seeing it in action…

The way we do it personally? If we know there’s an expense, even a small one, like a magazine subscription for $20 ever year, we keep tabs on it. How much goes into the magazine category of the budget each month? $1.67. We have a separate sheet where we track these reoccurring, predictable expenses and we budget accordingly. As a result, we can pay our insurance premium in one lump, instead of monthly. This saves us $15. I don’t mean to beat a dead horse, but let me show you what kind of return this rainy day fund can potentially give you:

$415 premium paid every six months, discounted to $400 because of rainy day fund…
gives me an annualized return of 7.5 percent.

And here people worry so much about what rate this is getting and what rate that is getting. I just got 7.5% on my money. That’s not bad - aside from the fact that the rainy day fund gives you a return on (of) your sanity.

Rainy day funds with variable expenses
Now, what about something like auto repairs? You aren’t exactly sure when those are going to come about. Should you set up a rainy day fund for those also? You might consider it. I know that we spend X dollars, on average, each month. How do I know this? Because we track our expenses which gives us a monthly average. So if I notice that our “Car repair” category is running a bit low - even though I don’t anticipate having any car trouble - it’s wise to throw some money into that category during the budgeting process. That way, if something does happen (and statistics are telling me it will), I won’t be left out in the rain.

Our personal budget system works in such a way that all of your spending categories can function as rainy day funds. You simply put in your monthly allocation and let the balances grow as needed. When you spend some money from that category, it obviously declines. My wife and I have had a lot of success with this one powerful aspect of our budget.

Take a moment to write down - simply brainstorming - all of your expenses. Work through it methodically. Write a little ‘RF’ next to the expenses where a rainy day fund would be helpful. You might find it helps with property taxes, Christmas, birthdays (gifts in general), car insurance, health insurance, vacation, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, etc. And that was just a little one-minute brainstorm. Keep a look out for any services you use that might give you a discount if you pre-pay your bill. Most companies appreciate the increased cash flow that gives them. So, you’ll “pay yourself” during five months, then during the sixth month, you’ll actually pay the provider. And there you have it, a great return on your money, and a return on (of) your sanity. The rainy day fund will keep you out of debt and on your way to financial peace and security.

Give it a shot!