How to Improve Your Financial and Retirement Situation

How to Improve Your Financial and Retirement Situation 

Financial and Retirement Planning Information - 
for Beginners

The method of improving your financial and retirement situation depends somewhat on your age and your current status, but whatever your age, financial and retirement planning is a must.  You can't just hope that things will improve on their own.

If you are young and have time to build up a nest egg, you can afford to be a little less aggressive when it comes to stashing the cash, as you have a longer time to invest. On the other hand, if you are older, you need to be less aggressive in terms of investments, as you want something safer so your money won't be at risk when you are close to retirement.

Regardless of age, anyone who is earning a dime should have an IRA account. You should have this even if you have other types of retirement, but you should have it especially if you do not have any other kind of retirement.

Unless you are a multi-millionaire, you can not have too much in a retirement account. You don't know how long you are going to live, or how much things will cost in the future, or if you will not be healthy and need more than you anticipated for medical expenses and/or a nursing home.

The only exception I can think of to this rule is if you are in your 60's and don't have any retirement and very little money and a small income. Why would I say that is an exception? If you are on the borderline of having “some” money and have almost no money, it can keep you from being eligible for different kinds of assistance, but you can't afford to pay for everything you need. If you are in that situation, you will eventually spend all you have saved, and thus will become eligible. While you are waiting for that to happen you will be living frugally, having barely enough to pay all of your bills and buy food and medicine. Your life will be miserable, as you will live in fear of what the next day will bring. One day you will wake up and that fear will become a reality. Something will happen to push you over the edge, your refrigerator will go bad, or you will fall and break a bone, or the price of medicine will increase to the point that you can no longer afford it. Debt solutions should not consist of waiting until your are bankrupt so you can get out of debt. Debt management, especially younger in life, is better than trying to figure out how to get out of debt.

If you are in need of debt repair, then you probably also have need IRS debt relief. Believe it or not, the IRS has debt settlement programs and is sometimes more likely to negotiate than some creditors, so don't be afraid to try to work out some IRS debt relief.

When you reach the point of being totally broke - or close to it - you may become eligible for Medicaid, extra help on your Part D Medicare, and maybe some state assistance. Many hospitals have financial aid for low income, and will help pay or totally pay all of your hospital bills. Doctor bills usually are not included.

Medical bills ruin the credit of thousands of people every year. It used to be in the state where I live that as long a you made a monthly payment on your medical bill, even if it was only $1.00 a month, you could not be sued, and your debt could not be turned in to a collection agency. That all changed about 20 years ago, and now doctors and hospitals are very quick to bill you, and almost quicker to turn your debt over to a collection agency. They now dictate what you will pay, and there is little, if any, negotiation. They tell you they want $100.00 a month payment and you tell them you can only pay $75.00. They will tell you if you don't pay the $100.00, then they will just turn it over to be collected. They don't want to be bothered with the time and expense of collecting.

Once the collection agency gets their hands on your debt, you are at their mercy. Consumer credit counseling may help some, but your credit report has already been damaged. Credit repair is possible, but it a long and hard road, especially if you owe a large amount.

If you are younger, you need to be aware of what could happen to you when you get older, and watch out for yourself. Many people say they have to put their children through college, or help raise their grandchildren, but they are just hurting themselves. You are not obligated to put your children through college. Unless they are actually starving, you don't have to help your grandchildren. Do they really need a cell phone and an ipod at age 8? It is nice if you can afford to do that, but don't do it a your own expense.

If you are older and need cash, and you own your own home, consider a reverse mortgage. Once again, don't try to hang on to the house so you can pass it on to your children. Look out for yourself first! No one else is going to take care of your financial and retirement situation but you.

What Are You Doing About Your Finances and Retirement? How to Plan

What Are You Doing About Your Finances and Retirement?  How to Plan

Financial and Retirement Planning Information - 
for Beginners

Now is the time to make your retirement plans and to get ready as early in life as you can.

Don't wait until you are 50 or 55 years old to start thinking about retirement -- that is too late. You need to start thinking about retirement on the day you make your first dollar.

Too many people put off retirement planning until they are in the late 40's or 50's because they have children and bills and they think they can't afford to save when they are young. Even if you save only $5.00 a week at 3% interest, compounded monthly, you will have about $20,000.00 at age 60 if you start at age 20. There are plenty of retirement planning calculators online to help you achieve your goals.

Unfortunately many people today have saved all of their lives and suddenly find themselves broke. The stock market crash has ruined thousands or maybe even hundreds of thousands of people's lives.

Far too many people can't retire because they lost all of their money in the stock market or 401K's.

If a person is in their early 50's or younger, then they have time to wait for the market to recover -- which it has always done. Of course, there is no guarantee it will this time, but if it doesn't, it won't matter much as we will have a lot more to worry about than just retirement.

But we have to remember, as bad as the economy seems to us today, it is nothing compared to the great depression of the 1930's. We just feel like it is so bad, because unless you are over 70, we have been spoiled all of our lives, and have never really had a hardship.

You may have been living from paycheck to paycheck, and barely making ends meet, and now you find yourself out of a job. Or perhaps, you are still working, but don't know for how long.

You may have a lot of credit card debt, a mortgage, two car payments, and kids in school.

How are you going to make that house payment and car payment and still be able to eat?

You might be thinking you have a good FICO score, and a large line of credit, so you will just borrow money to tide you through the bad times. What if the bad times last longer than expected. What will you do then? How will you pay back your new debt as well as your previous debt?

If you find yourself barely able to make ends meet, you should consider consumer credit counseling. You also need to think about another way to make money. Is your spouse working? If not, they could get a job. You could also get a second job, maybe part-time.

You could try consolidating credit card debt and loans, and that would help some. You might want to consolidate credit cards into one new loan and all other loans into a separate debt consolidation. Or you might try just a student loan consolidation, if you have a lot. When you do it that way you won't be paying off your credit card and mortgage for the same length of time.

If you do decide to have only one loan consolidation, don't make a mistake a lot of people make: roll in very small amounts. For instance, you owe $100,000.00 on your house, you just purchased a $40,000.00 car, you owe $20,000.00 on a student loan and you have $500.00 left on a loan you took out to repair your old car before you traded it in.

The tempting thing to do is to roll $160,500.00 into a consolidated loan. Sounds good, right? Get rid of all of your bills and just have one payment! Stop and think a minute. You still owe $500.00 for repairs on a car you don't even own anymore, now you want to add that to a 30 year loan at 7% interest? Do you realize if you do that, you will be paying 7% interest on that $500.00 for 30 years! That $500.00 could end up costing you about $4000.00. Go ahead and consolidate the other loans, but pay off that $500.00 separately. There are a lot of ways to make money, especially a small amount. Stop and think.

Let's see, you could have a yard/garage sale. Or just sell a second or third vehicle you don't use a lot. Find all the junk in your house and put it on eBay. Do you know someone who delivers newspapers? Volunteer to do their deliveries while they go on vacation. You can pick up a few bucks, but you aren't committed to a job forever. Mow yards, shovel snow, walk some dogs. Get a part-time job as a delivery person. That has a very high rate of turnovers.

There are a lot of ways to earn money, but if all else fails, maybe you will have to cut back on your expenses.

Just know that you are not the only one with debt problems. Almost everyone today is in the same boat, but given time, we will pull through, and before you know it, your finances will be in good shape again and you will be all ready to enjoy your retirement.