Archive for the ‘making omlettes’ Category
February 25th, 2010 | 
Author: These are not good economic times for a lot of people. And if you are near retirement or are already there, your ‘nest egg’ probably has diminished. Consequently your current (or projected) income level has dropped and the length of time it will last is reduced.
If your fund sources are in securities, no doubt the values have decreased. And when market conditions start to turn around (historically they have), how long will it take to get back to where you were before securities or other investment values headed south?
If you’re young enough and have the time for your investments to recover, hopefully you’ll be able to regain your losses and head back up a path of respectable returns on your investments. If you don’t have the time, you may be searching for ways to make up losses including cutting expenses.
There are a number of financial products at your disposal to consider. Stocks, mutual funds (both of which over a period of time generally do perform well), bonds, precious metals and even real estate (although now is not the best of times), and numerous other options. Certificate of Deposits (CD’s) and money market vehicles may not provide much of a gain, but they are very popular and have their place in overall planning.
Another option to review is an annuity. These plans include variable or indexed annuities which have become popular as accumulation vehicles with options to withdraw money for retirement purposes. Both of these types of plans have the potential for gains or losses but also have features that can protect downside risk. Results are tied into various security options or indexes. Fixed annuities provide a return based on the investment results of the general account of the insurance company issuing the policy.
One annuity product that may be considered to some as being ‘ho-hum’ or ‘boring’ is the Single Premium Immediate Annuity (SPIA). The boring part is that there is generally no potential for increases in value, no access to cash values, and no increases in the levels of income it provides.*
However, what is not boring is that the income received from a SPIA has guaranteed life time income options (or for a specified period of time) for individuals or for two people under a joint income annuity. And if an individual (or even two people under a join annuity) have serious health issues, many insurance companies will actually increase the normal level of income compared to what a healthy person would have received.
So who might consider this type of an annuity? Anyone who wants or needs a guaranteed income in addition to their monthly check from Social Security or other income sources they may receive. The SPIA may be the ‘bond’ vehicle in a total portfolio of mixed investments. Depending on age and personal financial goals, some advisors may suggest 10% to 20% of investments used for retirement income might come from a SPIA. Each situation will be different and requires a review of personal goals, obligations, and other financial considerations. Longevity should also be considered.
Another feature of SPIA income is that due to a special formula called an ‘exclusion ratio’, federal income tax due on the income received can be less (over a number of years) than other types of investment income. This special tax treatment applied to money received from non-qualified money sources, not qualified funds (i.e. pension type plans).
We’re all getting older and generally living longer. One concern may be that of outliving your money. Another is the cost of long term care which many of us will require sometime in our lives. For a 65 year old retiring today, its estimated there will be an additional cost of $250,000 for health services needed over and above any benefit plans we may have in place, either personally owned or provided by the government.
Current Nursing Home care in North Carolina is $5,569 per month for a private room (and doesn’t included drugs and other incidentals). An Assisted Living facility (private room) is $2,395 per month. Most people, if in fairly good physical and mental health, would prefer to stay at home. If assistance is required, an un-certified aide’s fee is $18.00 per hour for their service. (Source: Genworth Financial 2008 Financial Cost of Care Survey)
These costs are increasing higher than the national inflation rate. If a family member or friend is going to assist at home, the cost of lost wages and their own well being can be greatly affected. Purchasing Long Term Care insurance while healthy is a good option to help pay for a major part of long term care expenses. These costs can run into many thousands of dollars (and that could be from your retirement/investment money).
A Single Premium Immediate Annuity (SPIA) can also be an option to pay for Long Term Care insurance premiums. A one time single premium is paid which equals the income level required to pay for the Long Term Care insurance premiums. ** For example, if two spouses each own a Long Term Care insurance policy (and are joint annuitants under one SPIA), and one of the spouses die before the need for long term care occurs, the addition income from the annuity (required to pay for the deceased Long Term Care insurance policy) is now available for other uses to the surviving spouse.
What ever type of saving vehicles you might be using for accumulation or income purposes, diversification of investment choices will generally be important, particular in today’s volatile markets. A Single Premium Immediate Annuity is an option to consider when guaranteed income is needed. And actuarially, people live longer who receive guaranteed income from annuities. What Will Rogers said in the 1930’s still applies considering today’s investment atmosphere. “I’m not so much interested in the return ON my money as I am in the return OF my money.” A SPIA may be the right option.
*Some companies offer SPIA’s with access to values and increased income levels.
** Long Term Care insurance premiums may be subject to future increase.
Article Source: Has Your Nest Egg Cracked?
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If you are one of the millions of people who has seen a sharp decline in the value of your retirement account, then you may be faced with the prospect of a retirement lost.
What do you do now? Do you keep working beyond your planned retirement date, in order to rebuild your nest egg? Or do you cash out whatever value you have remaining and try to stretch your retirement dollars for as long as you can?
What you can do is build up a new source of passive income that will make up for the shortfall in the funds you need for your retirement. Lost value doesn’t mean lost opportunity.
What you can do now is start earning passive income via the Internet. You don’t need to be a computer geek or a tech-savvy person. You don’t need to have web-design skills, an MBA, or even a business background. You don’t even need any money to get started.
All you need is a computer with Internet access. That’s it. Even a bum off the street can do it. All you need to do is spend an hour or two online every day, and you can be making hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars every single month.
Billions of dollars are exchanging hands on the Internet by millions of people each and every single day. As an affiliate marketer, you can join the ranks of people who make their living by earning commissions for referring people to buy products on the Internet.
Regardless of how much your funds for retirement lost as a result of the economic crisis of 2008, you can rebuild that lost value in just a few short months or years, using passive money that you earn via the Internet.
It’s time to recession-proof your income! Whether you’ve been recently laid off or you are looking to generate an alternate source of income in the midst of this economic downturn, Internet marketing continues to be a thriving, lucrative source of income for hundreds of thousands of individuals and families world-wide.
Article Source: Retirement Lost – How to Rebuild Your Retirement Nest Egg
Mine certainly did. My retirement nest egg was right where I’d been taught it should be: in a diversified portfolio, invested for the long-term. When the Dow was at 13,000 plus, I was working full-time and putting in the maximum amount allowed through payroll deduction. Well, just like Humpty Dumpty, it had a great fall, right along with the stock market. And I’m telling you, “all the king’s horses and all the king’s men” couldn’t put my nest egg back together again.
There is very little within the mainstream media or traditional financial advisors’ counsel that offers any truly helpful guidance, free from conflicts of interest. When the market is strong, they look good; when it comes tumbling down, they advise us to take a long view, think long term, remember that the market goes in cycles, and hope for the best. For most of my career and adult life, I accepted that counsel. What else could I do? Well, there are other, viable options and exciting opportunities about which I was, until recently, completely unaware.
As author Robert Kiyosaki writes, “There are three levels of financial advice: advice for the poor, advice for the middle class and advice for the rich.” I grew up with the advice for the middle class. By following that advice, I was not well-served. Today I am learning what the rich have always known about currency vs. money, monetary policies, debt, and investing to win. I have shifted my focus from buying “depreciating toys” to focusing on real assets, profitable investments and cash flow. This is a profound paradigm shift for me. It is a crucial distinction and one I truly believe we all need to learn in order to survive what lies ahead. Merely being out of debt and having money in savings will not be enough to weather what is coming.
Now that I am aware of the alternatives, I have become empowered, energized, and most significantly of all – hopeful again. I no longer trust the hype and spin of “all the king’s men.” Having done so in the past has simply cost me too much. At one point, not long ago, I also believed I was simply too old to “make it all back again.” I certainly don’t believe that anymore – because I am making it back, along with gaining a growing understanding of how things really work (something I never had before becoming part of Wealth Masters International).
What all the conventional wisdom and “all the king’s men” couldn’t put back together again, I am learning to put back together myself – with the education, insights, tools and training of a most unique partnership. Through CarbonCopy Pro’s powerful, all-inclusive system (called a Business in a Box), I am learning how to market anything to anyone, anywhere in the world – though the Internet. I have become a mid-life Internet marketer – and I am loving it. What products or services do I market?
This proven Business system is combined with the top-tier product line of Wealth Masters International (WMI). Through WMI I am receiving a world-class education in debt elimination, wealth accumulation and asset protection. What I am learning (and implementing) – regarding investment opportunities alone – is more than worth the cost of the products. My portfolio looks completely different than it did when I was in my former 403(b) plan. The gains I am experiencing do not resemble what is happening in the market. The only way to state this is to say I am involved in an incredible opportunity that is providing me with thoroughly credible results.
It is an honor and a blessing to be a part of this home-based business and this amazing community; and to be affiliated with leaders who have such wisdom and experience, acumen, integrity and a deep commitment to helping others.
For those who have no desire to be an Internet marketer when you grow up, happily you still have the unparalleled opportunity to acquire the WMI products. You can still have all of the benefits of the life-transforming education, debt elimination program, wealth building strategies, and investment opportunities, without being engaged in the business side. This is the best retirement planning strategy I know of, if one doesn’t want to have to work the rest of one’s life – assuming there will be jobs. I don’t know a single soul who couldn’t benefit from these products, given our stormy economic times. Sadly though, I do know individuals who have no interest in learning about history and how to better prepare themselves against the torrents raging in our future; and intellectually I must accept this.
Our economy is at a breaking point, and the conventional attempts to mitigate the situation are actually causing more problems. The value of the dollar continues to slide because our main monetary policy is to keep printing more currency – a diminishing paper currency worth less and less because it is no longer backed by the gold standard. Our national debt is simply and seriously out of control. There are multiple factors that make inflation or hyperinflation inevitable. We are facing another crushing wave of foreclosures in the housing market, and the commercial real estate market as well. Many believe that the real unemployment numbers are actually much higher than what is being reported, and jobs are not being replaced or created.
Having never been one to “buy into” doom and gloom scenarios, it has taken quite a bit to shake me from my quiescence. Had I lived in the Biblical times of Noah, I am certain that I would have been one of his neighbors who thought he was crazy. Forget some benign thought that he was “over-reacting.” I would have used the phrase, “He has surely gone off the deep end.” But in comparison, there were very few signs to indicate the coming of the flood of which Noah was certain. Noah was a righteous man, and he did as he was commanded to do by God. There was wickedness, corruption and violence upon the earth. And God, angry and aggrieved, had determined to blot it out.
Today, we have history, patterns and precedent, along with blatant corporate greed and failed policies. We are repeating the same mistakes that lead to the Great Depression. I urge you to read and learn for yourself. Don’t take my word for this. Read Guide to Investing in Gold & Silver – Protect Your Financial Future, a compelling book by Michael Maloney (Robert Kiyosaki’s personal precious metals advisor) for a compelling history of currency vs. money (and much more). His book really scared me, but it also startled me into action.
Taking action has restored my hope, enabled me to embrace what is possible, and to do retirement planning that is realistic, given the realities of today. Once again my future is bright, and I no longer fear the thought of retiring some day. I am especially grateful that I am positioning myself to be able to help my family and friends. I am no longer stuck in a dizzying maze of “what ifs” and am not caught up in “paralysis by analysis.” I am learning, and acting on the knowledge I am acquiring, and it is empowering.
Economically, these are indeed perilous times; and every indication is that they will get worse before they get better. Thankfully, with crisis comes opportunity. It is my profound hope that you will position yourself to be on the upside of opportunity. There are viable options and exciting opportunities available to you. But in order to seize these very real opportunities knowledge must be gained, decisions must be made, and action must be taken.
It is my fervent hope that yours will truly be a pivotal, positively enlivening, and prosperous New Year!
As a successful, mid-life Internet marketer and mentor, Linda is committed to helping others avoid going from Baby Boomer to Bust. Despite today’s rocky economy, there are viable options and exciting opportunities. You may personally ask her about them by visiting her websites and using the contact information.
Linda Compton has a BA in Philosophy; a Masters degree in Gerontology; and a Master of Divinity degree. She was ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1987. She has 30 years combined professional experience in multi-national corporate management, non-profit leadership, the interfaith movement and philanthropy. Currently her passion is Internet marketing and mentoring. http://www.WealthwithHeart.net and http://www.WealthyandWiseToday.net
Article Source: Does Your Nest Egg Look Like Humpty Dumpty?