Posts Tagged: ‘retirement’

Your Best IRA CDs May Be Only Part of Your Retirement Porfolio

December 14, 2011 Posted by admin

Is the best IRA CD around all you have in your nest egg? Did you know that almost any high quality / low risk fixed income asset works extremely well when matched with an efficient portfolio of risky assets? A number of people have made the terrible mistake of been caught short of funds due to putting too much of their retirement account in low or no risk assets.

Ditching Your Risky Asset Portfolio Too Soon Is Risky
People living on a fixed income stream are relying on their interest income to pay for medicine and other daily need items – food, electricity, etc. The mistake that people can make when making the transition from earning money and putting into 401K or individual retirement account and living off those stored funds is that they move all their funds into fixed income securities.

While this may seem to be a conservative strategy for producing income, it in fact creates a significant risk of out living the assets in the account due to not producing a sufficient return on investment for today’s extended life expectancy. Not planning to earn enough income in the future is equally risky as committing too many assets to high risk securities.

The Best IRA CD for Your Account May Be the One You Combine with a Risky Asset Portfolio
It may sound counterintuitive but the best IRA CD for a retirement account should be significantly less than 100% of your nest egg. Combining a portfolio of risky assets including stocks, mutual funds, and other higher yielding assets with a high return CD can significantly improve returns without substantially increasing risk.

The best IRA CD / stock portfolio ratio for a retirement account should be around 80/20 – where perhaps in the neighborhood of eighty percent of the cash in the account should be allocated to the CDs / low-risk / fixed income assets and the remainder placed in an efficient portfolio of stocks and mutual funds.

Examine the risk return chart of a high IRA CD as part of a combination efficient portfolio account.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/your-best-ira-cds-may-be-only-part-of-your-retirement-porfolio-1514931.html

Are You Financially Ready For Retirement?

November 24, 2011 Posted by admin

It might seem strange to think about your retirement if you are only in your 30s or 40s, but in actual fact this makes it even more important to consider. Pensions aren’t what they used to be, so the more arrangements you can make now, the better off you will be financially when the time eventually comes.
<BR><BR>
Regardless of whether you work for a publicly or privately run company, you should do all you can to find out where you stand with regard to your pension. In many cases someone who is paying into a pension will have their payments matched by their employer.
<BR><BR>
This sounds good in principle – but in reality you need to consider how the pension scheme will be faring once it comes time for you to draw from it.
<BR><BR>
This is a big problem at the moment, and one that has been getting bigger for some time. For example, changes in the types of pensions available have led to the virtual demise of the final salary scheme. This was long regarded as the best one to have, for obvious reasons.
<BR><BR>
If you read some of the latest information available for pensions you will see that pension pots are getting smaller and smaller, but why should you worry about this when you aren’t actually drawing your pension yet?
<BR><BR>
You need to look to the future for the answer. Let’s suppose your company has its own pension pot. Every year £5 million is paid into it by those contributing to the scheme, and £5 million is taken out by those who have retired and are drawing their pensions.
<BR><BR>
That’s all well and good – but what happens when more people retire and fewer people are taken on by the company or fail to pay into a pension at all? A longer life expectancy is making this a reality right across the country right now.
<BR><BR>
This situation leads to more money being taken out than there is being put in. This is why so many pension schemes in both sectors of business are in trouble. They are taking out more than they are putting in – and with each year that passes the situation gets worse.
<BR><BR>
It stands to reason therefore that a pension alone may not be the best solution to funding your retirement. Regardless of whether you have a private or a <a target=”_blank” href=”public/”>http://www.publicservice.co.uk”>public sector</a> pension, you should make sure you put money away yourself too in order to give yourself the retirement you want.
<BR><BR>
So don’t just rely on that pension. Start saving in other ways too from this moment on, and you will be financially better off for it when you are finally given your gold watch.
<BR><BR>

Matthew Pressman writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/are-you-financially-ready-for-retirement-1446640.html

Floating Retirement Homes

August 14, 2010 Posted by admin

Imagine a floating retirement home that includes accommodations for two with ocean view, all meals, co-ownership in a cruise ship, a membership to a Golf and Country Club, monthly Bahamas cruise and annual cruise to the Caribbean. Sound too good to be true?

Now offered by Waterfront Lifestyles International, this is the latest concept for Florida’s seniors. The retirement community is a luxury cruise ship, complete with dining room, cocktail lounges, night club, library/Internet cafe, spa, fitness room, cigar bar, shops, medical center, sun deck, hot tub, casino and shuffleboard. The ship is located in Cape Canaveral with proximity to Orlando and famous central Florida attractions including Disneyworld, Sea World, Universal Studios and the space launches.

Residents actually own a 1/100th share of the ship that includes stateroom for two, meals and use of ship facilities. Similar to a condo, they pay a maintenance fee proportionate to the size and cost of their stateroom (range from 125-330 square feet).

This fee goes toward the ship’s operating expenses. Since you are not purchasing real estate, the sale will not be subject to property taxes, or closing fees. The members actually form a Homeowners Association to make decisions about the ship’s maintenance and monitor fluctuation of monthly fees. The ship is currently referred to as “Alegria”, but the Homeowners Association will have the final say in its name. Profit from the shops, bars, casino and spa go back into the maintenance fund to subsidize the operating budget.

Ship Amenities include:

- Weekly housekeeping

- 12 guest cabins available for free stays for friends and family (includes meals)

- Cashless Casino for recreation when ship is docked, but boosts up to authentic gaming casino when at sea.

- Access to ship laundry

- Shuttle bus for shopping, events and site seeing

- Staterooms have flat screen TV’s, telephones, and high-speed internet access

- All rooms are outside units with large windows

- Monthly cruise to Bahamas and annual cruise to the Caribbean

- Membership to local Golf & Tennis Country Club

- Parking

- Storage facilities

Costs range from about $2500 to $5,500/month for two people including meals and weekly housekeeping. Actually pretty reasonable, when you consider the cost of a retirement home is usually much higher for one person. An average seniors home may be between $1,000 and $3,000/month for one person, or from $6,000 to $8,000 for upscale facilities.

Investors can even put off purchasing until they retire, and rent in the meantime. Residents are also permitted to rent out their staterooms, but only for a minimum one year lease.

After viewing their brochures, if you’re still interested, leave a refundable $10,000 deposit to hold the stateroom that most interests you, and you can board the ship and view the facilities first hand. If it’s not what you’re looking for, the deposit is totally refundable.

Alegria the first cruise vessel being offered by Waterfront Lifestyles, but they hope to add additional ships in Tampa, Jacksonville, Palm Beach and Sarasota.

Jerry Clifford has received the prestigious 100% Club award for his success as a Minneapolis real estate agent. He is certified as an ePRO and prides himself on attention to detail. If you need help in your search for Wayzata Minnesota real estate, visit JerryClifford.com.

Enjoy Your Retirement with the Help of Annuities

January 2, 2010 Posted by admin

If you’re worried about staying financially afloat as you near retirement, make it your goal to invest in an annuity to offset a fixed income-less future. Purchased through life insurance companies, annuities allow their holders to secure funds for later in life which, if a pension plan turns out to be a dud, can turn out to be your wisest investment.

Annuities come in all different shapes and sizes with each offering its consumers different advantages and disadvantages. The two basic types of annuities are:

  1. Immediate. You begin receiving an income from your immediate annuity the moment it is issued. You can also decide how long you wish to receive the benefits.
  2. Deferred. This type of annuity is geared toward retirement funds because it is a long term investment that allows you to pay into it over a course of however many years and then receive payment at a predetermined date.

Both types of annuities are available in fixed or variable form. The most conservative form, fixed comes with little possibility for loss. A variable form, on the other hand, is the riskier form of the two because of the increased chances of loss.

Live Comfortably with an Annuity

Investing in an annuity is no easy task and should be taken seriously. With some guidance and planning, however, you could benefit greatly from choosing the right annuity. Talk with your life insurance agent about which annuity type and form is right for you and start planning for the future.

InsuranceAgents.com provides annuity quotes from up to five life insurance agents in your local area.

Staff contribution: Rafael Onak

For more information, read Using Annuities to Offset a Fixed Income Future. Visit InsuranceAgents.com for expert articles and compare life insurance rates from up to five local insurance agents.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/enjoy-your-retirement-with-the-help-of-annuities-1653496.html