Comfortable Living Must Include Providing for Retirement

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There are many ingredients needed if you are to ensure a comfortable and satisfying life. Health is certainly one of them and finance is another. When it comes to the latter the importance of money management can never be overestimated. Anyone setting out on a career will hope to gradually earn more money as times go by and when they finally retire they should aim to have enough money to continue to finance that comfortable life even though there is no longer a monthly pay check coming in.

Along the way there may be a student loan to pay off, regular living expenses, perhaps the first automobile and then there is real estate. Mortgage finance taken over a long period helps to build up an asset because over anything but the short term there should be inflationary growth. The recent recession was one of those occasions when growth went into reverse and even those adept at money management found that they only had limited control over their affairs. While there may be competing demands for monthly income it makes sense to think about the future, even if retirement seems so far away. The earlier you start to save towards retirement the larger will be your fund when it finally arrives.

Social Security

The Social Security System is intended to provide support for all though there are questions about whether there will be sufficient reserves to maintain the present levels of benefit because that will involve increasing taxation. More people are living longer putting extra pressure on the System.

People can claim from the age of 62 and too many US Citizens find themselves in need of that money as soon as it is available. Those who can delay until 70 will be effectively investing for those eight years and they reap rewards as a result. It is a complex system but it is safe to say that those who can wait before taking benefits have managed their money well. It seems that as few as 2% actually wait until they are 70: 40% take the money as soon as it is available.

Their logic may be that take the money because who knows how long they may live? Certainly that is a valid point and taking the money and investing elsewhere has some merit. However needing to take a smaller sum at 62 and then running out of funds is a significant danger. You can expect to receive between 25 and 30% less taking benefits at 62 rather than at full retirement age, 66 or 67 with 8% growth per year from then to 70 when you will receive the maximum.

Regular Saving: Paying off Debt

Throughout your working life, if you are putting money aside for retirement you ought to be able to reach the age of 62 and make your decision on drawing benefit or not for logical reasons not necessity. Saving is sometimes difficult and those caught out by the recession may still have a legacy to debt to clear before being able to contemplate saving. They should clear that debt as a matter of priority, especially if it is incurring a high level of interest, something like balances on credit or store cards. Taking out no credit check loans to clear those balances will definitely help. The interest rate applied to personal loans is much lower than that applied to even the best credit card.

A loan can make a positive contribution within your budget; if you have not got a budget then you should even stop what you are doing now and start to prepare one to put your ‘financial life’ down in ‘black and white’.

If you are still in the early stages of your career you will certainly have time to repair your finances with many years when you can put money aside for retirement. Make it a habit so that it is automatic and you effectively write off that money each month as not available to spend on anything else. As years go by you are likely to have family expenses, your mortgage and even your children’s education after finishing basic schooling. No one is suggesting that meeting competing demands for your money is easy; it is a balancing act but it is certainly unwise to forget retirement. You want to be one of those 2% ideally, taking your benefits at 70!

Top Tips for Inventory Control Policies that Work

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Once you’ve invested in a point-of-sale system and worked on taking your inventory live, you’re going to need to put policies in place to keep your inventory from backsliding to zombie status. Setting up these policies is easy, and you should have no trouble in getting your staff to adhere to them. As with all changes, though, it’s better to lead by example.

Why You Need to Stay On Track

Preparing and executing the detailed work involved in starting a live inventory is a hassle. It takes time, staff hours, and sometimes even overtime not to mention the cash needed to pay everyone’s wages. Depending on how much you have to do, you might need to close for a day or three just to make sure that everything’s accurate, and then spend time reconciling that data with what you have on the books. Why on Earth would you want to do any of that all over again? Especially since the Houston Chronicle states that these kinds of information systems can help keep your business healthy by reducing or stopping shrinkage. Here are some tips to keep you on point with your new program:

  1. Designate who has access to what parts of the system. For instance, your sales people can ring up orders, check prices, and other basic functions, but a manager would have to verify returns, refunds, discounts, voids, and “no sale” statuses. Your stockroom clerks would have permissions to move inventory from the stockroom to the showroom, but your stockroom manager would be the only one able to enter items into inventory. You and your bookkeeper might want to be the only ones able to access sales reports, though.
  2. Always require that sales are entered through the point-of-sale, and not by any other means. No “catching it up later” after generating a manual, handwritten sale. Doing this will throw off your accounting and inventory, and cause wider discrepancies as the practice continues.
  3. Enter all merchandise into inventory with your barcode scanner, and if your items don’t come with a barcode, then make one. Using a barcode label printer, you can create your own UPC code. It might seem like nit-picking, but scanning codes eliminate the possibility of user error or miskeying an entry.
  4. Never move anything from stockroom to storefront, or remove merchandise from stock for any reason without first noting the action in the POS. Skipping this step means that your inventory for the storefront and stockroom will be off. You’ll be undercounted in the stockroom and over in the storefront.
  5. Audit, audit, audit. Showing your staff that you are keeping an eye on the store is the best way to make sure that they adhere to the new policies. Cycle counts are a good way to keep tabs on your inventory without having to run a full-scale inventory when you suspect things are being allowed to slide. Cycle counting is an inventory control method where you pick inventory from a certain location and count it, then compare your count to your live inventory. While this can’t show you the root causes of inventory errors, it can help you find them.
  6. Run your reports often. Look at what items are moving and what items are sitting. What hours of the sales week are you experiencing lulls in customer traffic and when are you busy? What staffers seem to be taking the initiative to get more sales? Which promotions are working for your customers? Is an item blazing out the door at your retail location, but not even getting a click in your Shopify store?
  7. Consider setting minimum stock alerts of fast moving items. That way you’ll know to reorder before you run out. Don’t forget to take transportation time into account when setting the reorder minimums, or you risk running out even though you’ve already reordered.
  8. Listen to your staff’s suggestions as they become familiar and comfortable with the new policies and procedures. They might have an idea to streamline the process without compromising the inventory data, and it could save you money, too.

Keep It 101

Remember, your goal with inventory control should be simple. According to Logistics Management, you need to refine your ordering procedures so that you avoid excess stock while at the same time minimizing the amount of your cash flow that you’re paying out in order to acquire the stock. Reuters news wire projects that despite the summer slowdown in the retail sector, that the economy is still moving steadily ahead. With more jobs putting more money back into the economy, the retail sector will still experience growth – though as a gradual upslope rather than a vertical takeoff. Pumping up your know-how with the best information system you can afford will help you get in on a piece of the action.

Short and Long-Term Financial Planning

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Planning for the future may be seem like a daunting task for many hard-working individuals. At some point, it becomes important to make long-term plans for personal finances. Insurance companies offer financial services that are just as diverse and viable as those offered by banks and other institutions, such as credit unions.

Retirement plans in the United States of America are available in unique packages that cater to workers in different public and private sectors. For instance, 401(k) plans are ideally designed for people who work for businesses. 403(b) retirement plans are made for school and hospital workers. Last but not least, 457 plans give government and non-profit employees some long-term financial security after retirement.

In addition to setting up common retirement plans, there are other financial tools available for such long-term planning. Buying treasury bonds is considered one of the safest investments that could be made in a volatile economy. For example, EE notes come with fixed interest rate growth that matures after 20 or 30 years. Young professionals could purchase several thousands of dollars in treasury bonds that are guaranteed to double in value upon maturation.

Life insurance policies could also be integrated into a retirement plan. For example, some plans can be set up to provide compensation for major unexpected costs such as hospitalization in nursing homes or rehabilitation centers.

Another great way to plan for the future is to transfer a retirement plan to the hands of a financial firm. Such an enterprise could use mutual funds to generate high yields on retirement plans. Customers could receive quarterly reports on the performance of investments that directly use money from retirement reserves. At any time, it is possible to withdraw a retirement plan from any mutual fund affiliation.

In addition to planning for the future, savvy consumers look for ways to save some money on recurring expenses. For example, automobile insurance premiums are part of fixed expenses for vehicle owners. Insurance agencies often have websites with “Get a Quote Here” links that provide instant estimates on rates for auto, life, home, RV, motorcycle and other insurance. By bundling up several insurance plans, consumers could get significant discounts. When life insurance is added to a portfolio that features an existing auto insurance policy, hundreds of dollars per year can be saved on the combined premiums.

Tips When Shopping for Tires at Costco and Sam’s Club

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I recently bought a new set of tires at Costco, and bought my last set at Sam’s about 3 years ago (for another car), so today’s post is simply a quick overview on how to get the most out of your tire purchase if you decide to buy at a “warehouse”-style store.

There are a number of reasons why you might want to buy at a warehouse. My own personal reasons included:

  • Cheaper price for tires, and installation.
  • Even cheaper price if you include the ongoing tire sale that is almost always going on.
  • The staff won’t bother you about dirty fluid or other things that need replacement–these are strictly tire stores.
  • I shopped and paid online and only dealt with the store for installation.
  • Deals on flat repairs, balancing and rotation for the life of the tires (free, in most cases, for all of these).

If you find that some or all of these reasons ring true for you, here are my tips on how to make the experience the best it can be:

  1. Find your tire size by researching your car model or simply checking your existing tires. Then, find out what brands and makes of tire are available at the various warehouses where you have a membership, for the exact size you need.
  2. At this point, I recommend reading the reviews, researching sites like Consumer Reports, and many of the other available websites, for feedback about the quality of each available tire. I’ve found that the value sweet spot is usually somewhere between the least expensive and the most expensive tire, and often toward the less expensive side.
  3. Once you’ve picked the tire you want, wait for a sale of that brand. Sales at each warehouse typically rotate throughout the year, with many of the popular brands going on sale for a month or more, often several times per year. You’ll save $70 or more this way, and easily cover the cost of the installation (typically around $15 per tire, plus minor disposal fees).
  4. Order the tires online for maximum convenience. In this way, you can also pre-pay for the tires and installation and avoid the hassle at the club.
  5. Appointments are not necessary when getting your tires installed. As a result, I recommend arriving as soon as the club opens on a weekday. I walked into my club at 10:05, and there were already 4 people in line.
  6. Expect at least one to two hours for installation. These shops are often busy and service multiple cars simultaneously. The later you arrive, and the busier the store is, adjust the waiting estimate accordingly.
  7. Finally, avoid getting your tires rotated at the club. While this is a free service, you’ll save a ton of time if you just have your local mechanic do this during an oil change (most don’t charge for the service anyway). If you ask your warehouse to do it for you, expect to wait accordingly.

Overall, I’m very happy with my warehouse tire experience and would definitely buy from them again. Happy shopping!

Today’s photo is brought to you by Julian Povey

Avoid These Mistakes With Inherited IRAs

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As with many retirement and savings options, there are clauses located in the small print which relate to many aspects of how the money is handled. This can include anything from how and when it’s appropriate to withdraw money, and what happens if someone inherits your IRA. Very often, inheritors of IRAs are unaware of the rules in place around IRAs, and what it means for them and the account once it has been inherited.

To start off at the beginning, an IRA is an Individual Retirement Account, which a person may elect to pay into to save for retirement, instead of a 401k option. A person can elect to save in a number of different ways, using different IRA options. For instance one of these options would be an IRA gold account, which is based on saving against the value of gold, which is known for increasing dramatically over time to give a much higher return on investment. For more information about this style of IRA account, visit www.goldiranavigator.com.

Whichever IRA option you or your loved one chooses to adopt, you should be aware (and also make them aware) of the clauses in the IRA contracts around inheritances, and the rules and regulations you’ll need to comply with.

The biggest and most obvious first mistake we make is regarding the beneficiary forms received when opening an IRA. The biggest mistake is not filling one of these in. The second biggest mistake is not keeping it up to date. Such is life that people get married and divorce, they may have had children or not, and will often meet another life partner in the future. However, the last thing on our minds when thinking about whether or not to get married for a second time, is to update our IRA accounts with this new life partner’s details. However, it’s hugely important to do this, to ensure the correct beneficiary receives your IRA. Not only that, but it’s important to ensure all details are correct, even when the beneficiary remains the same. For example you may move and have incorrect address and contact information on the form, causing problems further down the line.

Another mistake people make is failing to realize that if that minimum required distributions have already begun when the IRA owner dies, the 5-year rule does not apply at all. The 5-year rule states that there should be complete distribution by 31st December on the fifth year after death. However this doesn’t apply here, and unfortunately there is no loophole or cure if money is paid out incorrectly.

There’s another mistake which has only applied very recently, due to the changes in law made by the Supreme Court. On June 12th, the Supreme Court eliminated asset protection benefits of an Inherited IRA. The mistake people make today is failing to take that into account when considering who their IRA will go to. For example, naming a trust as beneficiary could be the ideal way to combat this, and should at least be considered as an option for creditor protection. On top of this, using a trust as beneficiary can help to ensure that IRA distributions are made as slowly as possible, therefore increasing potential return by maximizing the overall value of the account.

It’s important to seek professional financial help when considering this option as all trusts must be drawn up and written to comply with the state’s trust law. It must also include specific details like effective creditor protection aspects, as well as complex rules which apply only to trusts which hold inherited IRAs. It’s also worth taking into consideration that IRAs must be worth a certain amount in order to qualify for setting up a trust. As well as having to be worth a certain amount, there are other costs associated with creating a trust, and on-going administration costs to consider.

There may be more factors which develop as laws change, but the above are the main mistakes associated with inherited IRAs. We hope this article enlightens you enough so that you don’t fall victim to or lose out because of these issues which people often overlook or misinterpret.

My Favorite Podcasts

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I don’t have a whole lot of “free” time on my hands lately, but I do one thing every single day that is required and consistent—I commute. Every single day, I’m afforded the gift of 20 minutes each way in my car with no distractions, except those I choose to create for myself by listening to music or talk radio.

Over the last 6 months, I changed my approach to this time with one simple tool—podcasts, and I’m spreading the message to as many people as I can. The longer someone’s commute, in fact, the more they stand to gain from leveraging their time in the car.

Podcasts, for the uninitiated, are simply recorded audio broadcasts available online. They range from amateur to professional, informal to highly structured, a few short minutes to several hours long, daily to yearly. Each podcast is essentially a channel you subscribe to (just like a blog), and get updates whenever something new is posted. A single app on my Android (or your iTunes account for the Mac people), manages every podcast I want to listen to effortlessly.

Here are some of my favorites:

  1. Beyond the To Do List: Erik Fisher interviews a wide variety of guests on productivity and life skills. Check out this interview with Rachel Cruze on teaching kids about money.
  2. Simple Life Together: Beyond the awesome advice on how to simplify my life, I think I enjoy Dan and Vanessa’s playful dynamic far more than any other “duo” podcast.
  3. The Smart Passive Income Blog: Pat Flynn is well-known for his online business experiments, but his podcast goes far beyond that with practical advice for many business and personal issues.
  4. The Tim Ferris Show: From the author of the Four Hour Workweek and other books, this casual, R-rated, dense, and intensely practical podcast takes some warming up to, but is a recent favorite of mine.
  5. You Need a Budget: Jesse Mecham discusses the YNAB philosophy and how to apply the four rules in your daily life for financial success.
  6. Life in the Woods Podcast: Blake Stratton interviews some of the most interesting creative people in the world, with a focus on music. More than anything, I love his tone of voice and delivery of the message.

Enjoy!

Spending More to Save More

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I visited the vet’s office this week to pick up the flea & heart worm medication my dog takes on a monthly basis. As always, I was given the option of getting a 6 or 12-month supply.

This particular  brand, which comes in the form of a pill, is both effective and expensive. It’s the only thing that can keep fleas off my dog, and I’ve tested many, many products over the years. I’ve learned to suck it up and pay the cost.

At the vet’s office, I could get the 6-month supply for $110 and receive a $10 mail-in rebate, for a total of $100 over 6 months, or about $16.67 per month.

My other option was a 12-month supply for $220 (double the price), but I would get $12 off instantly, and the mail-in rebate jumped to $50. Suddenly, the cost is $13.17 per month–not a huge difference, but it starts to add up. If my dog lives 15 years, that’s a $630 savings! There’s also a convenience factor–since this particular pill is only available at the vet, I cut my need to drive to the vet’s office to just once a year. Conveniently, that’s the same as my dog’s annual check-up timeframe.

Here are a few points to remember when you face the same decision:

  • Companies are willing to cut you a break for buying in bulk, because they get more of your money up front. If it’s a product you need for the long run, seriously consider it.
  • Consider the ancillary costs of “spending less” — in this case, buying a 6-month supply would also cost me another hour of time and $10 in gas every year to drive to the vet twice as much.
  • Figure out if you have enough storage space, and home systems that are robust enough, to avoid wasting the extra supplies you just invested in. I’ve seen too many things go to waste or get lost over the years to buy certain items in bulk.

Focusing on the little things is normally a sure path to getting distracted from the big things that will make a difference (e.g. clipping coupons vs. negotiating your salary). But when faced with the choice anyway, make the choice that will help you and make the little things add up!

Photo by Alan Cleaver