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Women And Money… Still A Long Way To Go!

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Women and MoneyEven though we’re living in the 21th century, women still lag behind men when it comes to finances and money. One of the main reasons is women still earn less income than men.

According to PEW Research Center women work approximately 60 extra days to earn what men earn.

According to the White House, full-time working women earn 77% of what their male counterparts earn. This means that women have to work approximately 60 extra days, or about three months, to earn what men did by the end of the previous year.

However, our own estimate, which is based on hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers, finds women earn 84 percent of what men earn. Based on our estimate, it would take approximately 40 days, or until the end of February, for women to earn what men had by the end of last year.

You can read the full article by going to: PEW Research “On Equal PayDay, key facts about the gender pay gap”.
The other big reason for the differences between men and women when it comes to money… and I hate to say this [Read more…]

5 Things To Avoid When Planning Your Retirement

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Retirement Planning MistakesIf you’re like other Baby boomers, you’ve been saving for retirement for a while now. You probably started early on thinking about your retirement and chances are you’re still at it.

If you want to succeed in successfully funding your retirement, it’s important to avoid some common retirement planning mistakes. By participating in the plans that are available to you, diversifying, and leaving the money alone, you can largely guarantee a financially successful retirement.

To reach your goals and make your retirement dreams come true, it’s best to avoid these common retirement planning pitfalls.

Non-Participation

1. Failing to participate in any retirement plans available to you.  Today, there aren’t many companies offering pensions anymore. However, most companies offer plans such as a 401k or similar to their employees.

Typically it’s easy for you to enroll and most of these programs are incredibly worthwhile. Interest-deferred accounts are tough to beat. Enroll today, if you haven’t already. It really adds up over time. [Read more…]

Retirement In America – “Broken Eggs”

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Retirement in America - Broken EggsYahoo finance today discussed the film “Broken Eggs”.The 80 minute film covers the looming retirement crisis in America, primarily affecting Baby Boomers -US!

Daily, roughly 10,000 baby boomers are stepping into retirement, reaching their retirement years. Many are not adequately prepared and are primarily relying on income from their social security.

According to experts, retirement should be funded via 3 primary vehicles:

  1. Social security
  2. Pensions
  3. Personal savings

Experts in the film compared this 3 pronged approach to a 3 legged stool. Sturdy and solid until you take one of the legs away and the stool will shake, tumble and eventually collapse.

Social Security
Most experts predict that social security will not last and is headed toward bankruptcy. The prediction is that this will happen sooner than later and some say that the system already is bankrupt!). [Read more…]

Are You Prepared For Retirement?

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Ready For Retirement?Just like anything else in life successful retirement comes down to preparation.

Even though many baby boomers will be retiring a few years later than previous generations, many are not adequately prepared. Unfortunately this is particularly true for women of our generation for a number of reasons.

Women traditionally raise children, take care of the home and often are the ones to care for aging parents. As a result many women have missed years in the work force and have less in retirement savings than men.

But interestingly enough, women also have different objectives for the years they will spend living in retirement and therefore, catching up is not only necessary but also doable.

In Women & Retirement Sharon Epperson reports for NBR on the obstacles many women face, and how it …

Read more …

So when you’re pondering how to live your later years, regardless if you’re retired or not, focus on a number of key areas. At minimum this should include your:

  1. Health
  2. Finances
  3. Community

I consider these 3 areas pillars of successful aging and retirement.

  • While health is important throughout your life it becomes even more important as you get older.
  • To some degree. or to a large degree, finances  will determine what you’ll be able to do and how you’ll be able to take care of yourself and those you love.
  • You and I are social creatures and community is always import. However, as we get older it takes on even greater significance.

The big take away from all of this? It’s never too late to get started.

Spend the time assessing where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow.  Create a plan of what you want to do and what resources you will need.

Tomorrow will be here before you know it, so get busy today!

Listen to what the editor-in-Chief for AARP has to say about the topic.

Gaby Goddard, Editor-in-Chief of AARP Viva on Women & Retirement

Filed Under: Wiser Money Tagged With: ,

What makes an Investment?

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Golden Egg InvestmentIt might seem a silly question, but let’s take a look anyway.

At the most basic level, an investment is anything you can put your money into and (hopefully) get a return or a profit back. Based on that definition, many things may qualify: a business, stocks, precious metals, raw land, real estate, bonds, futures, notes, etc. … and the list goes on.

There are many classes of investments and many categories of investments within these investment classes.

Let’s take real estate for example. There is residential real estate, commercial real estate, medical use, raw land, multifamily units, etc. Those are some of the different types of real estate investments you could put your hard earned dollars into!

One thing might cross your mind just about now:  the huge number of dollars it must take to get into some of those investments, right?

No question, it does take some money to get started, but it really depends on the type of investment as to how much you need to get going. Obviously, some investments are much more cash intense than others.

For example, it may take a lot more money to invest in an apartment building as compared to buying a single family home, a duplex or even investing in a few shares of stock.

So is investing in stock then be a bit more straightforward and takes less cash?

Well it’s a bit tricky to make this broad statement across the board. Depending on the type of stock and the value of each share, the amount of money it takes to get started would vary greatly.

There are literally 1000s of stocks to choose from. While there are many different types of stocks, they can be grouped into a few broad categories. These include income, growth, blue chips, small cap, mid cap, large cap and cyclical stocks (the most basic and general categories).

  • Income stocks are simply stocks that produce and distribute income to the investor. This income is typically distributed in the form of dividends and is taxable.
  • Growth stocks are those that have enjoyed a greater rate of growth compared to other companies in the category. Most of those companies produce broadly accepted and consumed products (Coca Cola is a classic growth stock). Companies in this category may or may not pay dividends.
  • Blue chip stocks represent the big players in the markets. These are well known companies with enormous market value. The Dow Jones Industrial, a major market index, tracks 30 of those large, blue chip stocks.
  • The term Cap refers primarily to the size of the underlying company or to a company’s market capitalization. In other words, the size of a company can be measured by taking the total number of stocks issued by that company and multiplying it by the share price. The resulting number will tell you if the company is a small cap (market capitalization less than $500 million), a mid cap ($500 to $1billion) or a large cap stock ($1billion +) company.
  •  Putting your dollars in small cap stock might be riskier than investing it in large cap stocks. And yes, there was a reason for talking about it all!
  • The last group, cyclical stocks, includes issues that can be expected to go up and down in value, in line with business cycles. These companies typically do great when the economy is growing and perform at a lesser rate, when the economy is contracting.

This was a very brief introduction to two commonly available investments; more to follow later!

The amount of money you need to get started with any kind of investment largely depends on the type of investment  considered, your tolerance for risk, your objectives and your overall financial situation.   I strongly believe that the more you learn and the more you know, the greater will be the investment choices open to you.

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