Financial Planning

Allow me, if you will, to offer the following definition of retirement. Retirement is the state of having separated from one’s paycheck-to-paycheck job. The “paycheck-to-paycheck” description is important. The majority of people who retire to incomes lower than their pre-retirement levels are paycheck-to-paycheck employees. Chances are, since you’re reading this article, you’re one of the paycheck-to-paycheck people.

Let’s say this is you: You’ve got a decent job, maybe a good one. Most of your paycheck is being eaten up by life’s necessities, but you manage to put away as much as you can into your 401(k) retirement plan. Retirement is looming in the not-too-distant future, and the prospect for accumulating enough savings or investments that will equal your present income by retirement age seems very bleak indeed. Still, you get serious about saving for retirement. You might even engage the services of a Certified Financial Planner. Part of your plan is based on maximizing Social Security benefits. Now what?

Financial planners rarely, if ever, plan for you, the client- retiree to retire financially independent (with the exception of the few high income clients). What most financial planners don’t tell you is they target a 20-35% decrease of income to you in retirement. The decrease may be as high as 50%! That’s not a knock on financial planning or financial planners. Most of them are doing the best they can with what they have to work with. There generally is simply too much month at the end of each paycheck for most people.
Herein is the age-old problem: Most people in the United States of America, I repeat, do not earn enough money to live comfortably during their pre-retirement years and retire comfortably as well. That means any financial planning you do is being done to target a decrease in your living standards by 20 to 50 % in retirement!

Remember, you do not have to live on less in retirement. No matter where you are right now financially, you can build and enjoy a retirement lifestyle you desire. Peace.

With day by day improving technology, IT companies look to leverage the best benefits. The best example is upcoming tech support companies which are no less than a boon for technology enthusiasts. They offer cost effective services without compromising quality parameters.  

Among tech support players, computer support companies have evolved in the best and the most successful manner. These companies have IT specialists who offer experienced services to a multitude of businesses (small or large) and home computer users. You can ask these specialists any question or problem related to computers and the Internet. Moreover, their knowledge is not limited to this much. They can also adapt hardware and software to the profile and preferences of their clients.

Customers who have tried availing computer support services by such technicians witness to get the best deal money versus service. Since, the customers don’t need to haul their PCs to any computer repair shop, they save on time too. Some tech support companies also run their combo packs which include one service free with the other. This results in dual benefits. PC maintenance, up gradation, Internet optimization and antivirus installation etc, they can all fit within any plan. The difference between more expensive and cheaper packages is time.

The companies which don’t require regular tech support can opt for seasonal or yearly computer support plans. On the other hand, those who want continuous support, for ex: large companies can have the possibility of using the services of one of the IT specialists.  

Generally, companies look out for personalized computer support services to cater their specific tech requirements. And, this is only possible with computer support companies which have IT specialists as the technicians. An efficient technician will be able to identify your needs to handle your computer tech support necessities in a better way. Therefore, if you are in need of a cheap and efficient computer support agreement, just do a simple search on the Internet. Try searching with keywords like computer support, technical support, PC repair services, and online tech support. It will help you to get refined search for best results.

Getting started on creating your family budget can be as easy as 1,2,3. In just five steps you can be on the path to sorting your finances. Budgeting is an important first step in planning your family finances and evermore important in this day and age with rising costs. A budget is an empowering tool letting you control your money instead of your money controlling you.

Step one: Find out your monthly income.

This is your take-home pay and regular funds from other sources such as rental, interest etc. Income from all member of the household should be included.

Step two: Establish what your expenses are.

Writing your expenditures down will provide you with the unique opportunity to find out if your money goes for things that you do not really need. This list should include necessities such as food; regular bills such as rent; insurances, school costs, vehicle expenses and incidentals. Also include entertainment and any saving.

Step three: Work out how much you spend on each expense.

Some expenses will come in regularly each month but others are perhaps annual or quarterly. The trick here is to include each expense in your monthly budget. An annual bill for example will be divided by 12 to give you the monthly figure. This way there’s no nasty surprises when the bill comes through. Also allow a sum for unexpected expenses.

Step four: Compare your monthly expenses with your monthly income.

This could result in a surplus (positive) or a deficit (negative). A surplus is great as you can save more — or spend it. A negative means you are spending more than you have coming in and will need to cut costs.

Step five: Balance your budget.

If you have found that your family budget shows that you are spending more than you are earning you will need to cut back on spending. Work out how much you need to cut down on and find where you can make these changes. Do not make cuts in your budget that you are unable to live with or that are unrealistic. When you make these decisions keep your real expenses and living realities in the forefront of your mind. Re-balance your budget after you have made the cuts.

The good news is that whether you are “in the red”, just scraping by, managing to save a little, or a lot, this five step family budgeting process will highlight areas where your immediate attention is needed. And if you are trying to get out of debt cutting expenses is crucial and not only if you are over budget.

Re-visit your family budget often — it should be an active process and is an invaluable tool to help you keep your fingers on the pulse of your financial situation. If you can stick with your family budget it can help you to meet your goals, get out of and stay out of debt, to always pay your bills on time, keep track of your spending and make the most out of your dollar.

Debt management credit counseling is a useful tool to help you to get back on your feet if you find yourself choked with a lot of credit card and other types of unsecured debt. These services are most useful to people who have the means to pay off most of their debts but for one reason or another have found themselves behind in payments or just making the minimum payment and getting nowhere near being able to pay off their credit cards. This service is not for people who are unemployed or who have so little income that they can barely cover the necessities let alone make payments to creditors.

If you are among the first group, then debt management credit counseling can help you by first going over your finances to see where you stand and to help you plan a budget that you can live with. Second, the counseling agency will contact all of your creditors and negotiate with them to lower your interest rates and perhaps waive any late payment or over-the-limit penalties. By doing this, the counseling agency can make it possible for you to pay off all of your debts in a certain period of time, usually between four to six years. You will then pay a single monthly payment to the counseling agency an the counseling agency will pass each creditor it’s share of that payment. During the repayment term, you will be asked to live on the slim budget that you have discussed with your counselor and not take on any additional debt.

Because you are basically entrusting the debt counseling company with money assigned to pay your creditors, you should carefully choose one to work with. Before entering into any agreements with any debt management credit counseling agencies, be sure to check them out. You can research the company through the Better Business Bureau and through online resources like Ripoffreport.com.

You might be wondering if using a debt management counseling service will affect your credit. The answer is that yes, it will, and the hit is on par to what you would expect with a bankruptcy. The reason for this simply that it indicates that you’ve had trouble managing your debt, for whatever reason. It might not seem fair, but that’s how the financial industry views things.

In any event, the hit that you take on your credit from getting help from a debt management company is well worth it when you consider that in four to six years, you will be debt free in and in good position to start over.

Creating a budget can be a very difficult task. Although we as consumers know that we need to pay our bills, buy our necessities, and put some money away for savings, we don’t really know how to start.

I know from personal experience how hard creating a budget can be. In the beginning stages of my road to financial freedom, I would write all my expenses down on paper and notice that I would have very little or sometimes nothing left over to save. I tell my clients that seeing everything on paper is only the first of many reality checks while starting the journey of getting their finances in order.

I think most Advisors in the financial world will agree that using budgeting categories will help you organized things tremendously. Everyone will not have the same categories thus making every budget unique.

A category simply is nothing more than a grouping mechanism. Instead of listing each credit card bill separately on my budget, I will give all of my credit cards a category, for example I will list it once as “debt”. Some other popular budgeting categories are housing, savings, utilities, charity, food, transportation, childcare, miscellaneous and income to name a few.

There are many budgeting software programs out there. I suggest however, that in the beginning stages of creating a budget you continue to track things manually. This way you’re constantly viewing how your money is being spent and staying connected to the whole budgeting process.

Another very important task of a successful budget is keeping up with your expenses and all of your receipts. Now, I know this is difficult especially when buying what we think are small insignificant items but believe me it is very important, especially for married couples. If one spouse is spending $4.00 a day per month on a Cappuccino, that one purchase is costing your household $120.00 a month. To help solve this difficult task, keep a “receipt” box in a common area and commit to tossing all of them daily. When you sit down to work on your budget pull out all of your receipts and categorize them. I suggest you do this weekly in the beginning. The box can fill up pretty quickly, especially when two people are contributing.

Last but not least give each category total a “category to income” percentage. For example look at your life though the eyes of a Lender. You should spend no more than 31% of your net income on rent or housing and that includes your mortgage payment, property taxes, insurance and in some cases homeowner association fees. If you’re spending more than 31% keep your true values. Once you tally-up all your actual category totals and convert them into percentages your “reality” picture is now painted. Hopefully you will not exceed 100%. However, if you’re over 100% seek professional help immediately because you are in big trouble and heading for a crash!

If the above process has you feeling overwhelmed don’t beat yourself up. Just make an appointment with a Counselor or Coach in your area they’ll be happy to assist you.