FINANCE SMARTS

If you are of a certain age, you well know that you need to take your

retirement seriously and grab it by both your hands, if you want to have the funds necessary to continue in a lifestyle you consider a quality life. We are no longer in our parents or grandparents retirement economy. The day is gone when you were employed by one company for 20, 25, or 30 years and got your gold watch. With the exception of municipal workers or the auto workers, it is rare that anyone lasts that long in one place. The average these days is 7 different companies over a life-time career.

So, not to have our hard earned dollars slip by the way-side, take control now.

The different types of <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link']);” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.retirementusa.com/”>retirement </a>plans are:

Keough plans

401 (K) plans

IRAs known as individual retirement plans

Company sponsored qualified pensions or profit sharing plans

Most plans are tax deductible and taxes not paid until you receive your retirement funds. Recently, there has been what is called a Roth IRA

which is not tax deductible. However, you will get your money tax free with this IRA when you withdraw and don’t have to withdraw your RMD (required minimum distribution) at 70 ½ years of age with the Roth.

Consider (if you can) not putting all your eggs in one basket. I know the<a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link']);” target=”_blank” href=”http://www.retirementusa.com/”> real estate</a>market is not where it was and will take countless years to ever get back to the extreme values. We really are where they should be. Anyway, a real estate investment either on your own or with a REIT

(real estate investment trust) is another way to help secure your future. Imagine owning a few rental homes. That’s if you can take the

‘toilets & tenants’ pressure. Are there risks to this type of investment?

Yes, you bet. I’ve had to evict tenants. Remember, most multi millionaires were made during the depression by acquiring real estate.

Always secure an expert in any endeavor you peruse. However, you

stay in charge.

- About the Author: Ric Dalberri is a graduate of Columbia State University & has been involved in his own business (sold) employing over 100 people. As well as being a top producer as a Financial Specialist for over a decade with one of the largest financial institutions in the U.S., Ric has many years experience in sales and  management. Ric was also a mentor in the financial arena as well as a volunteer teacher for Junior Achievement.   Article Source

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As of today, there are approximately 2 Billion internet users around the world.  Most of today’s activities involves being online.  From learning, communication, entertainment and many more, we cannot deny that the internet affects many lives than ever before.  If this is so, does it make sense if we see the internet as a potential place or medium to start a business?

In 2008, it was stated that there are 875 million people who already shopped online.  Just by knowing this statistics, it is clear that there are many potential consumers and shoppers online. In fact, being an online merchant is only one of the ways which you can earn money online.  In reality, there are many ways on how to earn money online.

If this is the first time you heard that you can earn money online, here are some of the things which you can do to approach this very promising opportunity and add cash flow into your portfolio.

Learn – There are much information scattered in the internet on how to earn money online.  You just need to be open minded with the information that is available.  Most of the time, the problem is our traditional mind with regards on how to earn money. Some people cannot understand that the world is changing very fast and if you are slow in adapting to change, you can be missing many opportunities in your face. Commit – There are various ways on how to earn money online. Because there are many ways, people are always stuck as learners and beginners. I believe that our time is not enough to become experts in each and every ways of online money making. However, I am not saying that you need to put all your eggs in one basket. What I suggest is that try to learn few ways and become the best in one or two ways. Eventually, you will see that earning money online will become easy for you. Action – Believe me. A great business idea can only become profitable if someone starts investing on it. In the same way, knowing that it is possible to earn money online won’t benefit you if you don’t start to do something about it. In my experience of making money online, there are some ways to earn money online without costing you anything but there are also some ways when you need to spend few bucks like purchasing domain and making websites. This makes sense because you can actually create your own business or company in the internet and we know that one of the foundations of a profitable business is the amount of investment. However, the good thing in internet business is that you can start will a little amount of cash and a little amount of time. The important thing is that you need do something about the information you are learning along the process.

Now, if you have an extra time that you only use for something that doesn’t profit you, why not start learning, committing and taking some action and earn money online.

If you don’t know where to start, you can start here in Making Money Online Roadmap.

- About the Author: an internet enthusiast, a youth minister, a musician Article Source

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A mutual fund is a collection of stocks and bonds that are combined into a pool, which are purchased and sold.  By pooling these investments you are risk managing the losses that some stocks or bonds may have with gains made by others. This is basically protecting you from having all your eggs in one basket, which is a high risk strategy.

Mutual fund managers have the responsibility to manage a mutual fund.  When you invest into these funds you are buying a part of the stocks and or bonds that an investment has been made in.  Due to the size of these funds, your investment will only form a small percentage of the overall size of the investment.  The decision on what stocks or bonds that the mutual fund buys and sells is determined by the manager. These managers charge a commission and sales fees which you will have to pay for.  The structure of these mutual funds often falls within four categories. When you pay a fee at the beginning, this is called a front up. A back end is when you pay when the shares or bonds are sold. When there is a payment of a fee on a regular cycle, like the annual fee, it is usually based on a fixed percentage of the fund’s net assets.  The final type of fee is the best one of all, it is the payment of no fee at all and is commonly called the no load. Obviously this is a good one to shop around for and to select if the fund also has a good track record of providing good returns. There is a choice of the types of funds to invest in.

There are the standard stock funds that are issued by companies. The bonds funds are just that, the purchasing of issued bonds. Sector funds are target at specific parts of the economy, such as financial, industrials, mining and the like. International and global funds are as the name indicates, investments made outside of the United States.  Balanced funds enable the selection of stocks and bonds, which is a more risk adverse approach. Index funds are aligned to stocks of a particular type of stock indexes.

You probably heard of these reported quite regularly as the Dow Jones Industrial average, or another common one is the Standards and Poor’s 500. These are a collection of stocks that make up these stock indexes. Your investment in index funds is only with the stocks that are included in these fund indexes.

Tom has been writing for many years now. Not only does this author specialize in financial matters, you can also check out his latest web site at http://braunpowermax.com/ which reviews and lists the best Braun PowerMax MX2050 blenders for your kitchen.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/wealth-building-articles/mutual-funds-explained-1627253.html

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