Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:
Six Money Moves You Should Make in 2013
By BRETT ARENDS/Wall Street Journal
Are you ready for 2013?
Most financial-planning advice, like most New Year's resolutions, is too complex or too banal.
Half of it is designed for Type-A drill sergeants who already alphabetize their refrigerators. The other half you've heard before.
Let's assume you are already paying off your credit cards, contributing to your 401(k) at work and flossing after every meal.
Here are six unusual, and doable, smart money moves for the new year.
1 Work out your biggest savings goal.
Many people working today are likely to live for three decades after they become eligible for Social Security, but few of them have a clue what that means financially.
Just 42% of working-age Americans have even tried to calculate what they will need in retirement, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
The grim reality: 60% of them have less than $25,000 saved up, excluding the value of their home, and 30% have less than $1,000. Good luck with that.
How much will you need? To replace your current income for 30 years, you would need—assuming an investment return of three percentage points above inflation—about 20 times one year's income. Social Security aims to replace about 40% of your annual income: By that yardstick you would need to save about 12 times your annual income before you retire.
For a more precise number, use the Social Security Administration's retirement estimator. Subtract your expected annual benefit from your current yearly pay, and multiply by 20.
To read the entire article from BRETT ARENDS/Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324461604578189273704184736.html?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn_PersonalFinance
Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:
I'd rather be a failure in something that I love than a success in something that I hate. -George Burns
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