Puritan Financial Group: Catching Up on Your Retirement Funds

After calculating how much money you have for retirement, you might have thought about riskier investment strategies to help you come up with adequate retirement funds. Although you might not have enough to retire on, the added risk can endanger your nest egg. To stabilize your retirement funds, you can use safer investment strategies, save more money from your salary, and postpone your retirement.

Getting ample funds to live on for your retirement also requires the proper management of your IRA and 401K plans. You’ll need to add more to your contributions too, by around $5,000 for 401K and approximately $1,000 for IRA. These extra contributions could net you $1.3 million when you reach 68 and retire.

These amounts may be staggering, although you’ll probably have stable finances after you’ve hit forty – your home mortgage payments may be nearing completion, and the kids out of the family home. There are additional benefits to delaying retirement. Three extra years at work, for example, could increase your Social Security benefits by $1000 every two months.

Once you retire, you can also catch up on your retirement funds with your home equity or move to a smaller home that’s less costly to maintain. The expenses you’ll need to cover in your new home may be smaller because of the lower living costs in that area, enabling you to save more. Using your home equity via reverse mortgage is also possible if you want to stay at your current home.

There are so many ways to safely and surely boost your retirement funds. Whatever you do, don’t be tempted to risk more than you can in terms of investments, even if retirement is only a few years away. Study these steps and consult with your investment advisor to know more about how you can catch up on your retirement finances.

This review was brought to you by Puritan Financial Group. Puritan Financial Group is owned by Puritan Financial Companies, based in Dallas TX. Puritan Financial Group is a leading provider of financial solutions for clients beginning in their peak earning years and continuing through retirement, helping them to accumulate, protect and transfer wealth.

Puritan Financial Group: Property Taxes and Your Retirement Plan

Seniors planning their retirement finances need to consider the effects that property taxes have on their money. Aside from high property taxes taking up a huge amount of your budget, you may find that these can positively affect the quality of living in your location. Are high property taxes necessarily evil, and if so, should you do what you can to lower what you pay?

Across many areas in the country, residential real estate rates are gradually equalizing along with the rest of the US, although some homes may still be valued lower than they were a couple of years back. If you’re fairly comfortable with your finances, challenging the amounts you’re paying for property tax can be counterproductive. While a reassessment of your home’s value doesn’t factor in your financial capability, it may be done if you feel that the assessor’s findings on the value of your home are inaccurate.

Back when the economy used to fare better (and homeowners were in better financial shape), remodeling homes was a widespread practice, and so were purchases of properties in “premium” locations – the long-term effects of these purchases and projects weren’t taken into account. In these times when resale was the main focus, renovation or remodeling costs were only thought of as contributing to the property’s potential for resale. In short, property taxes were somewhat of an afterthought; one of the inevitable costs of reselling residential real estate.

Nowadays, many homeowners are unable to make ends meet, with high property taxes being a significant drain on their finances. If you want to obtain lower property tax, you can have your home reassessed, with structural conditions such as the number of rooms, overall lot area, roof type, etc. possibly affecting the assessment and associated taxes.

This review was brought to you by Puritan Financial Group. Puritan Financial Group is owned by Puritan Financial Companies, based in Dallas TX. Puritan Financial Group is a leading provider of financial solutions for clients beginning in their peak earning years and continuing through retirement, helping them to accumulate, protect and transfer wealth.

Puritan Financial Group: Online Safety Tips for Seniors

The Internet Crime Complaint Center states that more than a third of all Internet crime complaints filed last year were from people aged fifty and up. This just goes to show that seniors and the middle-aged are fast becoming targets by investment fraudsters and other con men who are only too willing to part you from your hard-earned retirement money. You can take some easy steps to protect yourself from getting involved in scams and fraud, with some tips specifically governing the use of the Web.

Carefully choose who you talk to online, and be discreet about the information that you want to make public. You’re at relatively low risk when you only interact with people you personally know, such as friends and family, although you should still keep personal details and these types of sensitive information to yourself. Also, use chat names, nicknames, and e-mail addresses that don’t give away a lot of personal info.

E-mail isn’t secure, most of the time. Opening attachments or clicking on links in correspondence sent to you by people you don’t know can cause spam, viruses, or worms to enter your computer system. Although some of this malicious software may only inconvenience you (you’ll have to update your antivirus software or boot up your anti-spyware program to fix any problems), a number of these are used to steal personal information from your computer for financial fraud and other purposes - an activity also known as phishing. In the same vein, if you have to use credit card or bank information to transact online, make sure that you’re giving the data to a reputable and secure website.

Lastly, know where and how you should report incidences of Internet abuse. Being a responsible and defensive Internet user can help stop harassment, fraud, and other illegal activities. Protect yourself from identity theft and other forms of Internet abuse by following these guidelines, and using common sense.

This review was brought to you by Puritan Financial Group. Puritan Financial Group is owned by Puritan Financial Companies, based in Dallas TX. Puritan Financial Group is a leading provider of financial solutions for clients beginning in their peak earning years and continuing through retirement, helping them to accumulate, protect and transfer wealth.

Puritan Financial Group: Will 80% of Your Current Spending be Enough for Retirement?

A good number of financial experts recommend approximating your retirement budget at eighty percent of what you currently spend while you still work. Although this figure has been accepted as conventional wisdom by many, in-depth research on the economy and its effects on the lifestyle of many retirees prove the percentage wrong.

Although eighty percent may seem reasonable, as you no longer have to figure in costs for going to and from the office, work clothes, eating out, and retirement account contributions, there are also a lot of expenses that are going to increase. There’s even a likelihood of depleting your nest egg within the first ten years of your retirement – you might spend more in this decade because of expenses associated with much travelling, new hobbies, a more active lifestyle, and other things.

On the bright side, some findings do indicate that retirement spending can decrease as you age, although the savings you get from lowered everyday spending can be overshadowed by the rising costs of medical attention, expensive prescription drugs, and gradually increasing inflation rates.

Pegging your retirement budget at eighty percent of what you’re spending while working may not be a good buffer against nest egg depletion for some. For other retirees, eighty percent might actually be too much to aim for. Since you know your situation, spending habits, and financial capabilities best, plan your retirement budget well by working closely with a financial planner or retirement advisor so you can take other influences, such as longevity, investment value, and inflation into account. Because some spend less than they did during the years they worked, while others spend much more, blindly following the eighty-percent approximation for your retirement income may be imprudent, or even dangerous to your financial health.

This review was brought to you by Puritan Financial Group. Puritan Financial Group is owned by Puritan Financial Companies, based in Dallas TX. Puritan Financial Group is a leading provider of financial solutions for clients beginning in their peak earning years and continuing through retirement, helping them to accumulate, protect and transfer wealth.

Puritan Financial Group: How to Find and Reach a New Market for Your Online Business

If you’re a senior who works part-time or full-time in an online business, or if you’re a retiree who’s planning to do so, you can augment your retirement funds better by identifying and tapping a new yet unreached market for your online business – you’ll have less competition, and a higher possibility of actual sales in a venue that’s already filled to the brim with advertisers and businesses.

Finding a new market requires that you educate yourself on your target demographic, or the characteristics of the people who you want to sell your services or products to. You need to know more about who your potential clients are so you can promote your business in a way that’s relevant to them, and make what you want to say stand out. Once you’ve identified your market, you need to look for a way to get your message to your future clientele, such as an existing advertising network or social networking site.

Because the network is essentially the main way you convey your message to these potential clients, you’ll have to determine the viability of the network, such as how it represents and influences your audience, and the standards of relevance and quality present in the network.

Does your network represent itself in a professional and compelling manner? This can affect how your company or brand is perceived by your audience. You also need to know if your brand will be managed well – it might place your ad or profile in a bad light, or be associated with material that can damage your brand and reputation.

Is your potential client base well-represented by your network? If it is, then there’s a bigger chance that your audience becomes engaged. Some of them may turn into actual clients, which translates to actual sales. You can streamline your promotions even further and make your ads more effective with a network that allows you to customize the way you reach out to your audience, or even give you insights on how to do so.

Finding and reaching a new market can turn your upstart business into a large and successful one. Ensure that you get a fighting chance in an already saturated industry by identifying a fresh audience and reaching your potential clients by using networks (and content) that can deliver. Contact a networking specialist, as well as your financial advisor, to know how you can get on the path to the big time with your online business.

This review was brought to you by Puritan Financial Group. Puritan Financial Group is owned by Puritan Financial Companies, based in Dallas TX. Puritan Financial Group is a leading provider of financial solutions for clients beginning in their peak earning years and continuing through retirement, helping them to accumulate, protect and transfer wealth.

Puritan Financial Group: Why is It Difficult to Find Travel Insurance for Seniors?

Insurance carriers usually require higher premium payments to cover high-risk individuals, which can make it difficult for seniors to obtain travel insurance coverage. Retirees are commonly categorized by insurance companies as belonging to the top tiers in terms of risk levels, and often need to pay beyond what they can afford.

This is similar to younger drivers paying larger amounts for car insurance due to inexperience – seniors pay bigger premiums due to old age and the usual health decline that comes with it, aside from the possibility of pre-existing medical conditions. Now, if seniors want to travel, and avoid or lessen the impact of accidents and other events that can happen on vacation, what can they do to find affordable travel insurance?

You can start looking for viable travel insurance policies way before you leave for your vacation. Waiting a month or less prior to the trip before looking for insurance will probably net you a policy with high payment requirements, or worse, no travel insurance at all.

Use your current insurance carrier if they have affordable travel insurance for seniors. It’s going to be more convenient to buy insurance from a company that already has your medical history and other information in their records, compared to looking for a new provider. You can also ask your provider for references if they don’t sell travel insurance coverage that fits your needs.

Canvassing rates from a number of travel insurers can give you a number of potential policies, from which you can choose the best deals. The Internet is a good way to find insurance carriers that cater specifically to seniors. You may also find insurance carriers that don’t require the disclosure of pre-existing health conditions or medical examinations.

After you’ve found a travel insurance carrier, buy a policy that covers a number of trips. It’s already hard work to find a policy – you don’t want to go through the process every time you go on vacation. Multi-trip coverage gives you insurance coverage for a number of trips with just one policy purchase and application.

Seniors typically have a harder time finding travel insurance to cover them while they travel. Even if you find one, chances are you’ll pay relatively higher rates for your policy. If you want to find the best policy that fits your needs and budget, call up a travel insurance agent or a representative from your insurance provider.

This review was brought to you by Puritan Financial Group. Puritan Financial Group is owned by Puritan Financial Companies, based in Dallas TX. Puritan Financial Group is a leading provider of financial solutions for clients beginning in their peak earning years and continuing through retirement, helping them to accumulate, protect and transfer wealth.

Puritan Financial Group: Popular Jobs for Retirement

Whether you need the money or simply want to relieve your boredom, chances are, you’re thinking about working after you’ve officially retired. Increasing numbers of Americans are doing part-time work, and getting additional income after retirement. Here are some of the popular jobs retirees are taking on today:

Consultant

Working for decades in your previous job may have lent you expertise and experience that other companies or people can use. If your knowledge and skills are highly marketable and in demand, you can enter the consulting business. You can offer your services to other companies, or your previous employer. As a part-timer, you can even make more than what you used to full-time, because you can charge per hour and pick the projects and clients you want to handle.

Retail Store Worker

Seniors are also becoming more involved in retail positions in store chains. You can work as a stock room assistant, floor supervisor, cashier, or retail manager, depending on the relevance of your previous work experience or education. Flexible schedules are one of the draws for seniors, who also enjoy the social interaction and pay that comes with these jobs.

Store Greeter

Aside from becoming a cashier, assistant, or manager in a retail store, you can also choose to work as a store greeter, another increasingly popular job for retirees. Aside from being a relatively low-stress and (physically) low-impact means to get additional income compared to the positions mentioned previously, bored and amiable retirees are given the chance to socialize in this job.

In these tough times, retirees may have to work to augment their retirement income. Others may choose to enter the workforce once again because it gives them something to do. Whatever the reason, many Americans are taking on part-time jobs during retirement. A good number enjoy the job, the income, and the usual travel and relaxation associated with retirement the best of both worlds.

This review was brought to you by Puritan Financial Group. Puritan Financial Group is owned by Puritan Financial Companies, based in Dallas TX. Puritan Financial Group is a leading provider of financial solutions for clients beginning in their peak earning years and continuing through retirement, helping them to accumulate, protect and transfer wealth.