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Information on mortgages, home equity loans, and consumer credit to help you use the power of financing to your advantage.
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How do you talk to your parents about their financial health? What’s happening in the world of IRAs? How can job-hopping young people preserve their retirement accounts? Start your research here.
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• Protect Your Pension - A Quick Reference Guide. If you kept your life savings in a cookie jar, you would need a very large watchdog to keep the money safe. Like millions of Americans, a large part of your savings may be in a pension fund sponsored by a private corporation or union. The task of protecting that money may require policing your plan as well as those who operate it and make investments on its behalf. You have to be your own watchdog.
• Women and Retirement Savings. Planning and saving for retirement may seem like a goal thatís far in the future. Yet saving, especially for retirement, should start early and continue throughout your lifetime. Here are four reasons why saving matters for women ó and especially for you!
• Top 10 Ways to Beat the Clock and Prepare for Retirement. Retirement is expensive. Experts estimate that you'll need about 70% of your pre-retirement income-lower earners, 90% or more - to maintain your standard of living when you stop working. Understand your financial future.
• Why Commercial Real Estate is the Hottest Retirement Asset.
For small business owners, commercial real estate investment is the hottest new retirement asset. If your mind has already jumped to “REITs” — or shares in Real Estate Investment Trusts — think again. I’m referring to the ownership of the commercial facilities small business owners currently lease, or new commercial facilities they can buy or develop.
• Retirement Tips for Individuals. "I think I can save $25 a paycheck." It's easy to procrastinate so set up a "painless" payroll deduction for saving. It doesn't matter if the money goes into a 401(k) plan, an IRA or into a plain, old-fashioned savings account, just start saving. You can start with a small amount and increase it whenever your circumstances allow - like when you get a raise, your car payments end or you get a bonus. Pay yourself now, you'll thank yourself later.
• Types of Retirement Plans. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) covers two types of pension plans: defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans.
• 10 Common Causes of Errors in Pension Calculation.
• Planning Your Estate. Planning your estate is to distribute your assets according to your wishes after your death. Successful estate planning transfers your assets to your beneficiaries quickly and usually with minimal tax consequences. The process of estate planning includes inventorying your assets and making a will and/or establishing a trust, often with an emphasis on minimizing taxes. This pamphlet provides only a general overview of estate planning. You should consult an attorney, or perhaps a CPA or tax advisor for additional guidance.
• Frequently Asked Questions about Cash Balance Pension Plans.
What is a cash balance plan?
There are two general types of pension plans-Defined Benefit Plans and Defined Contribution Plans. In general, defined benefit plans provide a specific benefit at retirement for each eligible employee, while defined contribution plans specify the amount of contributions to be made by the employer toward an employeeís retirement account. In a defined contribution plan, the actual amount of retirement benefits provided to an employee depends on the amount of the contributions as well as the gains or losses of the account.
• Are Mom and Dad OK? Ways to check up on parents' financial health. As you've watched your savings accounts shrink, have you given any thought to how the 2-1/2 year market slide and depressed interest rates have affected your parents' retirement nest egg? Are they in trouble or are they OK?
• Good news for retirement savers: IRAs just got better. One of the best tools for saving for retirement the Individual Retirement Account has just gotten better. The tax law enacted last year boosted the limit on IRA deposits to $3,000 this year, and more increases are scheduled in coming years. A special "catch-up" provision allows savers 50 and over to invest up to $3,500. The limit for all previously was $2,000.
• Stay the course with 401(k) retirement plans. Many Americans saw their retirement savings accounts shrink last year, and results so far this year also have been negative. That's led some to look at the weakening U.S. economy, which was further set back by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and think about moving out of stocks and stock mutual funds or cutting back their 401(k) and Individual Retirement Account contributions.
• Leaving a job? Be sure to preserve your retirement money. One of the biggest mistakes young workers can make is to cash out their retirement account when they leave a job.
• Study: 401(k) savers survived the bear market. Most Americans who invest in 401(k) retirement savings accounts weathered the 2000-2002 bear market downturn pretty well, according to a research report issued Monday.
• On The Money. Financial advisers have been urging their clients for years to Diversify! Diversify! Diversify! Many savers ignored that mantra during the market boom of the 1990s, when just about anything they invested in turned a profit. But with the stock market in the doldrums and threatening a third consecutive year of negative returns, it's more important than ever to heed such advice.
• Managing your money in turbulent times. The U.S. economy is in recession, and new layoff announcements seem to come daily. The stock market has fallen two years in a row, and interest rates are at historic lows. Meanwhile, people are still jittery from the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
• Another alternative to Social Security. Though it's the most discussed plan for reforming Social Security, letting workers invest some of their payments in the stock market isn't the only way to save the system.
• Help's coming for 401(k)s. Help is on the way for workers who find it difficult to manage their 401(k) retirement accounts. Many employees already have free access to Internet-based calculators, which allow them to set savings goals, evaluate their risk tolerance and choose investments. But some are befuddled when it comes to selecting specific funds or rebalancing their accounts.
• Tough choice between saving for retirement, kids' college educations. One of the toughest dilemmas parents face is how to save for their children's college educations and, at the same time, for their own retirement.
• Harsh lesson from Enron: Don't put too much company stock in your retirement account. In testimony before a Senate committee earlier this month, Enron retirees told devastating stories about the fate of their retirement accounts. Janice Farmer, 64, of Orlando, Fla., said she retired from the energy trading company a year ago with nearly $700,000 in Enron stock.
• Are you paying too much in 401(k) fees? These days, 401(k) plans form the backbone of retirement funds for many workers. Yet 401(k) fees and expenses are rising, and responsibility for paying them is increasingly being shifted from employers to their employees.
• Take an inventory of your retirement assets. A lot of people worry that they haven't saved enough for retirement, and in many cases, that's true. If you want an idea of where you really stand, you should take a financial inventory.
Retirement Calculators
• Retirement Planner Quickly determine if your retirement plan is on track - and learn how to keep it there.
• Social Security Benefits Use this calculator to estimate your Social Security benefits.
• Stock Calculator Use this calculator to estimate net gains/loss from the sale of stock.
• Estate Tax Planning Knowing your potential estate tax liability is a great place to start your estate tax plan. Use this calculator to estimate your estate tax liability.
• Cool Million Find out when your savings plan may make you a millionaire!
• Life Insurance Calculator.How much life insurance do you really need? Find out here!
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Lendingtips.com 464 Oak Avenue Naples, FL 34108
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