2young2retireUK

Consider Your Accumulated Experiences As a Retirement Asset by Don Seibert

In thinking about the possibility of retiring, we all must, at some time or another, add up our accumulated savings, 401K investments, company pensions, potential social security checks, etc to try to plan a retirement lifestyle that's suitable for us. We have all been through that process and, given the state of the economy right now, may have determined that retirement is more of a future dream than a pending reality.

In doing this 'asset review' no accountant or planner that I know of actually considers one of your most important assets! They cannot possible know how many skills or how much valuable experience, talent, and knowledge you have accumulated in your life until now. By the time they are "Over 50", most of us has had a wealth of experience, whether in a job, a profession, a hobby, a sport or just in the regular family life that we have enjoyed.

It may be time now to begin to cash in on your accumulated experience. Many people have been able to carve out very fun and rewarding second careers just by leveraging on the skills, talents and knowledge that they have between their ears! And with the global advances of the Internet, it doesn't really matter just how particular or specialized a niche that your expertise is in.

If you were to simply take a pencil and paper and a few minutes, I'll bet that you could list out 20-25 experiences that you have had that other people could learn or benefit from. Whether it's dealing with a difficult disease with a member of your family or a technique or procedure that you learned in your employment, knowledge of these things and how to make the best of them can be truly beneficial to other people. If fact, if you could find a way to capture and transfer this information to others, they will be happy to pay you for your time and trouble!

It won't cost you a thing to take this little inventory and to spend some time thinking of ways that you could write a book (e-book or hard bound), create a video or CD, or perhaps build a website on your special topic. Many thousands of people are doing just that today and are earning from $1,000 to $30,000 per month by simply leveraging their experience and knowledge.

You know, we can be mesmerized by all of the 24/7 bad news coverage and we can listen to the 'talking heads' prophets of gloom on the Television and in the press - or - we can take it upon ourselves to actually do something positive for ourself! This is not dependent on any government bailout program or handout or even on our ability to raise money to start a company. You already have the most important ingredient for your success - right between your ears! Now go put that to use!

Resources: Don Seibert is a retired business executive who, as an Expert Author, writes timely articles and books on many issues concerning accumulated knowledge. Having retired three times, he now writes a blog concerning this topic. Visit the site for a complete discussion of Retirement Income Options

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Don_Seibert

Five questions to ask your financial adviser

Martin Bamford is an Independent Financial Advisor here in the UK who is often quoted in the financial press.  In this article, he lists 5 important questions you can ask a new or existing financial adviser to help you gauge if their advice is any good or not.  (The questions should work equally well wherever you live in the world.)

You might read books, listen to the experts on the radio or chat to your buddy on the golf course. The personal finance editor of your weekend paper could have a valid opinion or your accountant might steer you in a certain direction.

Of course none of this is really investment advice. The sources described above would be better described as information or possibly guidance.

Investment advice can only come from a suitably qualified and authorised individual who fully understands your financial goals and objectives before making specific recommendations.

Assuming this is the sort of investment advice you are getting (or plan to get in the future) how can you know if it is any good?

What separates excellent investment advice from the mediocre, rubbish or downright dangerous?

Here are five important questions you can ask your investment adviser to find out if what they have on offer is any good. These questions are equally as valid if you are engaging with a new adviser or if you want to put your existing adviser through their paces.

So, grab a notepad and pen, pick up the phone (or arrange a meeting) and pose the following questions.

1 - What is your investment advice process?

The delivery of consistently good investment advice requires the application of a robust investment advice process. Without such a process, the advice you receive will be subject to the whims of your adviser on that particular day.

The existence of such a process reduces the risk that you will be exposed to the latest investment fad, simply because it is new, hip and trendy on the day you seek advice.

Receiving investment advice from an adviser working to a robust advice process does not mean the outcome from the process will be generic or any less valuable. In fact, the outcome from the process should differ for every investor. It is the process itself that should be rigid, to ensure that the way in which investment advice is delivered is entirely consistent.

2 - What is your investment philosophy?

Your investment adviser should have a written investment philosophy. This document sums up his or her beliefs about investing money. It should be a set of investment rules about which your adviser feels passionately.

There are plenty of differing views when it comes to investing money. Some advisers will claim certain approaches are superior to others. There are usually strong counter-arguments to every academically 'proven' approach towards investing money.

What really matters is that your investment adviser has decided in their own mind to which views they subscribe and they are prepared to share these with their clients.

3 - How will you assess my attitude towards investment risk, reward and volatility?

Getting this right is a very important part of delivering suitable investment advice. Tolerance to risk can be very subjective, so a thorough assessment is essential.

This means much more than your adviser asking you to point at your risk level on a scale of one to something. Risk assessment should involve a combination of structured questioning and more general discussions about what you are trying to achieve, your experiences and views of the world.

You might also have a different risk profile for different financial objectives. Your adviser should cater for this as well.

We still see too many investors who have been pigeon-holed into a narrow risk definition. Once established, ask your investment adviser to describe your risk profile back to you, to ensure understanding. Always get a detailed description of your risk profile in writing for future reference.

4 - What resources do you have to enable you to deliver suitable investment advice?

The consistent delivery of excellent investment advice requires substantial resources. It cannot happen as a result of one man sitting in his office reading a copy of the FT.

Ask your investment adviser to describe the investment research software to which they subscribe and how they use it. Your investment adviser should be paying for professional research tools and not simply looking at the same data you can get for free online.

Find out about the other people involved behind the scenes in the investment advice process. Ask questions about their experience, qualifications and role in the construction of advice.

5 - Once you deliver investment advice, how do you keep it under review to ensure it remains suitable?

The worst type of investment advice is delivered once and then abandoned. Excellent investments need regular reviews, conducted at least annually. These reviews are the opportunity to rebalance the asset allocation of your portfolio, manage risk levels, replace underperforming fund managers and make sure you remain on track.

If you implement investment advice with your adviser, there is a good chance you will be paying for ongoing reviews through the annual management charge you pay, as a part of this charge goes to the investment adviser each year. Ask what type of ongoing reviews you will receive, the format of these reviews and (importantly) when you should expect to receive them.

What next?

With these five questions you should be able to get under the skin of your IFA, stockbroker or discretionary fund manager. Their answers to these questions will quickly reveal their competence (or lack of it!), helping you to make the right decision about where you get your investment advice in the future.

Martin Bamford is Site Editor of BrilliantWithMoney and Managing Director at Informed Choice; the award-winning firm of Chartered Financial Planners. He is author of Brilliant Investing: What the Best Investors Know, Say and Do (£12.99, Prentice Hall).

Single or divorced?

I noticed that a divorce coaching colleague of mine had written about the fact that declaring yourself as divorced on application forms that could be used to initiate a credit check, could actually harm your chances of getting credit or achieving a contract with, for example, a mobile phone company.   

She went on to say that her 'evidence' was only gained from hearsay and personal research, but when clients had completed a form as a 'divorced' person, and had the application turned down, when the same clients completed the same form as a 'single' person (with all other details remaining the same), the application was successful.  How interesting is that? 

She went on to say that she was not suggesting that people lie about their status on their application forms - just that they think very carefully about their status when applying for credit/contracts, etc.

40+ Alternative Income Ideas and Resources

If you're wondering how to make ends meet in this current climate of financial doom and gloom, have a look at 40+ Alternative Income Ideas and Resources from the Moolanomy blog.  It'll take you a while to look through them all but it should give you something to think about...  (Note:  Moolanomy is a US-based site, if you live elsewhere in the world, you may not be able to take advantage of some the ideas just by clicking on the links provided, however, with a little detective work, you should be able to find an equivalent opportunity in your part of the world that will work for you.)

Money CAN buy you happiness (if you know the right way to spend it)

Although we've always been told that money can't buy you happiness, an increasing number of studies show that, if you know the right way to spend it, money may be able to buy you happiness after all... 

However, as you'll see in this article from Superliving.com, this doesn't involve using money to buy more 'stuff' but, instead, using it to 'facilitate those parts of life most likely to promote happiness' (such as paying someone else to do the jobs that cause conflict between you and your partner, or paying off or reducing debts to help you sleep easier at night).

Do you intend to spend your kids' inheritance on your retirement?

Are we Brits a nation of SKI-ers?  (SKI = Spending Kids' Inheritance)  It certainly looks that way...  According to a recent survey from Saga Equity Release Service, 9 out of 10 UK homeowners would prefer to use the equity in their homes to fund their retirement, than leave it to be inherited by their children.

And how will we be spending this money?  Well, a quarter of people, who have equity built up in their property would prefer to spend the money on enhancing the quality of their retirement and around one third of people aged between 50 and 54 said they would consider releasing equity in order to travel around the world.  However, the nation's collective offspring can breath a sigh of relief - we won't just be disappearing without any notice - 53 per cent of people in the 50 to 54 category said they would discuss withdrawing money from their property with their family and this figure rose to 71 per cent of those aged over 65.

How to beat the fraudsters

At least once a week I receive an email purporting to be from a bank or credit card company, claiming that they are updating their records and requesting that I click through to their website and provide them with items of personal information such as a PIN number, password or account number.  And, of course, I immediately press the 'delete' key because, as we all know, the email is likely to be a con.  It will send us to a clone of a genuine website where, if we provided the information they are asking for, we would be providing criminals with all the information they need to commit some form of identity fraud.

If you're worried about identity fraud (and you probably should be...), check out How to beat the fraudsters by MSN money (and click on the links at the bottom of the page for even more information, including an article about celebrity victims of identity fraud - Steven Spielberg, financial guru George Soros, Oprah Winfrey, Oracle computer boss Larry Ellison, Robert de Niro, Tiger Woods, Will Smith and Jennifer Lopez have, apparently, all been victims of identity crimes costing tens of millions of pounds.)

What to do if you can't pay

'Times is', indeed, 'hard'... and, even if we're not actually struggling to pay our bills, we can't help wondering what will happen to property prices and how our kids will cope when that fixed rate mortgage ends this year...

If you (or someone you care about) are stretched to the limit and reaching the point where you're starting to miss payments, cast your eyes over 'What to do if you can't pay'  on  uk.msn.com  - the article covers mortgages, rent, council tax, gas, water and electricity bills, credit cards and loan repayments.  The general message is:  communicate with the creditor, try to come to an arrangement and keep paying SOMETHING,  even if you can't afford to pay the whole bill.

91% of women over the age of 50 are afraid of the Internet

A new report from Post Office Broadband in the UK has revealed that:

- 91% of women over the age of 50 are afraid of the Internet
- a third of women in this age group find the Internet too technical and difficult to navigate
- 41 per cent of people over 50 are afraid of becoming victims of online fraud and
- 31 per cent of over 50's say they don't understand 'internet jargon'.

The report has, apparently, been released to coincide with 'Get Yourself Online' week (however, a Google search revealed no information about this project whatsoever).

The Post Office's broadband service which went live at the end of 2007, has a core target audience of the over 50s and late adopters of internet technology.  In an attempt to appeal to 'low-income users and those previously discouraged by the perceived complications of card payments', it enables subscribers to pay for the service in cash at any of the UK's 14,000 local Post Offices.

The UK state pension turns 80

According to MSN Money, the UK state pension turned 80 this month (although see Malcolm's comment below). In an effort to determine the quality of life available to a person living solely on a basic pension, MSN frugal blogger Piper Terret is going to spend a whole month attempting to do just that.  Read more about it in the following article:  Life On The State Pension By Katherine Fluke.