Savings Archives - Page 3 of 6

The New MyRA Account

There is a new account that the government will be releasing soon to entice people to save more money. Its called MyRA and it obviously stands for My Retirement Account, I must say it is very catchy phrase. The government is backing it with full faith treasury bonds. Does this mean the government will take on more debt?

The New MyRA Account:

Employer must sign up for the program

You must have Direct Deposit

It will have a 191K household income limit

There is no match and you can put in up to $5500 a year.

It is not invested in the Stock Market aka No Risk

The funds will be invested in Govt. Bonds aka like TSP Plans

$25 minimum investment to start

You can contribute to a MyRA and 401K and other retirement accounts offered

If the account reaches 15K or 30 years, then it must be rolled into a Roth IRA

Expect to earn around 1-3%, with no loss to principal.

You can withdraw funds at any time with no taxes or penalties (Emergency Account)

Must wait till 59.5 to withdraw any earnings on money with no taxes or penalties at all.

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How much you saved for Retirement?

Hey my financial friends, if somebody walked up to you and asked you, How much you saved for retirement? Would you answer the question honestly or would you dodge the question? The way you answer might shed light on how confident you are with achieving that magical retirement number everybody talks about in the media. I can bet some greenbacks that the people who answer honestly and without hesitation have all their finances in order, plus they might even know the exact number they have saved to the penny. On the flip side the people who have no idea how much they have in retirement, might not be saving enough thus might feel scared that they will never be able to reach that perfect retirement relaxing on an island beach house.

This is obviously an assumption but you get the idea behind how certain subliminal feelings might come to the surface when asked a personal finance question that might be too personal for some people. I totally understand how this might shock some folks to become guarded, but for the most part talking about money should not be so secretive. The one awesome behavior I have witnessed when I speak with others about money is that talking about it, triggers something within them and then they take greater notice to step it up with finances. This hopefully will lead to them being more competitive with how they manage money for the future. In addition to this it can open up great ideas or discussions with how to make more money. If the person is open mined enough to begin the money dialogue.

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Making Side Money

Did you know that making side money can help you achieve money goals faster? I believe anybody can do it on a part time basis. Do you have some debt that you detest? Do you want to save up for a home down payment? Do you want to finally establish a business? The side money you can possibly make will help you attain the things you want if your cash flow is not sufficient enough. What are some of the things you can do to build up the savings? Well jobs are available if you are willing to serve others.

I know some of you are already fed up with working 40 hours a week and cannot even think it will be possible to fit in another 15-20 hours for a side money work. But I have done it in the past and I do not mind doing it again in the future. I try to find jobs that fit in with my personality and schedule. The pay does not have to be substantial, but it definitely is a factor that you must predetermine before you begin applying and accepting offers. I will offer you a few examples further in the post as to give you some ideas how to make side money. These side jobs should only be considered if you do not have over time opportunities in your day job or if you desire to do something different.

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Frugal Tips to Save you Money

Frugal Ways to Save Money — Frugality is Key to Help you Save

Hello Friends it is that time again where I provide you with some frugal tips to save you money now on this Friday edition. I know what you are thinking its payday, why do I have to be frugal? I want to burn a whole in my wallet to waste cash. Well I look at things a little differently as pay-day is the perfect time to be frugal and save more.

When you can double up on good opportunities, you will begin to see great results. Just last weekend I tracked my expenses and guess how much I spent, under $20 bucks for the whole weekend. Now I didn’t plan on this amount being so low, it just sort of happened. When was the last time you were surprised like that with tracking expenses and noticed a smaller amount in a specific time frame than expected?

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Top 7 Reasons Why you Should Turn Down

I hear this phrase lately on the daily, “Turn Down for What”. By people who claim they are having a blast living life in a constant state of euphoric bliss aka a 24 hour party. Before the phrase, “turn down for what”, popped up all over the media, the opposite phrase (Turn Up) that means the same thing, and it was also mentioned by everyone who likes to party hard. I will give you and explain the Top 7 Reasons Why you Should Turn Down.

One thing that makes me laugh is that the people who made the phrase, “turn down for what” famous are the stars in TV / Radio personalities / Club DJ’s. They are brainwashing you to get you to promote this phrase for their benefit. Their motives for yelling this phrase and the last 5 phrases including YOLO, is to get the regular Joe to spend more money. This supposedly leads to a happier life for average Joe. I get it you want to live life to the fullest without any regrets, but believe me you will pay in the end if you keep yelling, “Turn Down for what”, while opening your wallet to live above your means. Going clubbing every weekend might seem like a great time, but believe me that is not the right place to meet the future husband or bride to be. Night clubs have the reputation as the place where singles go to meet other singles, but the basic flaw is that the likelihood for anybody finding a soul mate in night clubs is very low.

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Time to Flex the Frugality Muscle

What is my purpose for this website? To get you to enhance your money saving strategies by giving you savings tips, behavioral advice, facts about investing, and how to take advantage of the time right now to begin to save. I recently read an article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine, which stated how the people in China on average are very frugal. Oh this topic has been brought up before and records show that over the past few decades Asian people tend to save more than people here in the U.S. What I wanted to show you today is about how this information about frugality delves deeper than what is on the surface about frugality. The title of the piece is called “The trouble with Chinese Frugality”, and I have a real concern as to why it is stated as a negative instead of a positive for Chinese people. Then it struck me as I began reading, that this article is based on spurring the economy by consumers spending more and that is why the title is referenced in that matter. They want China to be like the United States where 70% of the GDP is fueled by consumer spending. Consumer spending in China contributes only about 30-40% of GDP, so why is the reporter trying to convince us that our economy is better than there economy. I do not know which system is best, but signs are clear that expecting your citizens to spend in order to fuel revenue for the country might not be good.

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Starting an Investment Club

Hey readers would you be open to starting an investment club with 15 people or would you be scared and run for the hills? Investments clubs have been around for a long time and it is primarily done to pool together assets to build the assets faster and in an intelligent manner. How can you say smarter because nobody actually wins in the game of the stock market? Well for starters if you are in an investment club, the members tend to have talks at least once a month to discuss the pros and cons of possible future investments the club will make. I think when people sit down and discuss finances in a responsible manner and make educated decisions then it all contributes to making better financial decisions.

Now to tackle the faster part of the process, if you have 15 people contributing 50 dollars a month for a year the sum total after 1 year is $9,000 of investable dollars being put to work for the club. Do this for 10 years with compound interest and the club will have upwards of 120 thousand dollars of compounding power every day. Little pennies turn into big quarters which turn into huge dollars. How long will it take you to save up 120K by yourself?

The one negative I see with this opportunity is at what point can members start to see the rewards of their invested dollars? If every member starts to take distributions from the club then the fund will not grow unless there is a plan in place to continue to contribute either new money or a portion of the distributions. For example if every member is owed 100 dollars a month for interest payments, maybe 15% can be held before releasing the money in order to grow the fund. Because if you equally distribute all the profits of the fund the fund will stay stagnate and will not increase to keep up with inflation plus the purchasing power of money. Getting everyone to agree on investing opportunities might be a difficult task as well. But the point of the investment club is to invest mutually to pool resources together in order to reap plenty of rewards at some point. After 10 years each member has equally invested about 6 thousand dollars towards the club. So I imagine people would want a good return on their money.

I see many positives with doing an investment club, but one that really sticks out is the availability of online tools (A Couple mentioned below). In addition to that you can also find bookkeeping software for investment clubs. These two tools will provide a ton of great information in order for the club to succeed. On one hand the club will get investment advice and analysis very easily, and on the other the club will handle the books for accounting purposes very easy. If things are automated then it makes life that much simpler for the group.

Typical Investment Club Structure:

President – Signing Authority for all Transactions / Investment Advice / Leads the Meetings

Vice President – Secondary Authority-Fill in for President / Finds Meeting Location

Treasurer – Maintains the Books / Signing Authority

Secretary – Communicates all Information to all Members

Tax Advisor – Handles the Tax implications for the Club

Financial Advisor – Monitors the Investment Markets to Find Deals

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment_club

http://www.fool.com/InvestmentClub/InvestmentClub05.htm

Join an Investing Club Association:

http://www.betterinvesting.org/public/default.htm ($ 84 Dollars Annually Fee)

Investing Advice Website:

http://www.dividend.com/ (169 Dollars Annually Fee)

This is the information you will need to start an Investment club.

Comment if you are a part of a club like this or if you will ever consider starting an investment club?

Rich Uncle EL

How Much Savings is Enough

This question is thought of and asked thousands of times from individuals to financial media outlets. How much savings is enough for me to retire? Well I have a simple solution for all of you right here on this great website. The idea for this particular post came to me when I was having a random discussion with a co-worker about food. A light bulb came on in my head and I thought I can solve this simple question easily. The answer is very personal to you because each person’s financial portfolio is different. What makes sense to me might not correlate with your investing strategy, because of this investing tends to be viewed as complicated. But do not fret as there are no wrong answers here today.

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