Personal Finance News Thursday 6/7

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

10 Overlooked Retirement Tips
An essential checklist for retirement savers
By Robert Powell | MarketWatch – Tue, Jun 5, 2012 3:23 PM EDT

The best way to save for retirement is to follow the usual advice: save more, work longer, delay Social Security and so on. But experts also say there are many little-known retirement tips worth following, too. Here’s a look at 10 such tips that advisers say you shouldn’t overlook.

1. Forget ‘The Number’

You are more than welcome to go about your life worrying whether you’ve saved enough—say $1 million or $2 million—to retire. But that’s not the number you should focus on, said Wade Pfau, an economics professor at the National Graduate Institute for Public Policies in Japan and a frequent blogger on retirement issues. “There is no such thing as a specific wealth number that will suddenly allow you to retire,” Pfau said. “The income stream your wealth can support matters much more than how much wealth you have. The income stream supportable by a given amount of wealth varies with interest rates and other factors.”

2. Don’t rely too much on the 4% rule

Speaking of income, David Blanchett, a research consultant at Morningstar Investment Management, said taking out 4% from your retirement accounts might be a good starting place for an initial withdrawal rate. “But revisit this withdrawal amount regularly, ideally on an annual basis, to make sure whatever the target income goal is still achievable,” he said.

3. Think tax-efficient income

Think also about the tax efficiency of your retirement income, Blanchett said. Dividends, for instance, can be far more tax-efficient than bonds from an after-tax income perspective if they are qualified—that is, taxed at a maximum rate 15% vs. 35% for ordinary income. That’s yet another reason to hold them in an after-tax account.

But don’t think only about generating tax-efficient income in retirement. Consider your withdrawal strategy from a “happiness” perspective. “Ignoring required minimum distributions rules, common tax wisdom suggests drawing from taxable accounts first, then a Traditional IRA, and finally from a Roth IRA,” Blanchett said. “I think this makes sense and can definitely increase the available income, but it’s also important to have some ‘tax diversification’ with respect to withdrawal moneys.”

4. Social Security is a household decision

For married couples, research the various ways spouses can take Social Security, said Pfau. “The week spent studying this matter could result in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of extra lifetime Social Security benefits,” he said, noting that it’s not usually a good idea for both spouses to begin Social Security as early as possible.

To read the entire article from MarketWatch/Yahoo Finance:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/10-overlooked-retirement-tips-040110903.html

Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:
Failure doesn't mean you are a failure... it just means you haven't succeeded yet. -Robert Schuller

Personal Finance News Wednesday 6/6

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

Mike Holmes' home inspection checklist

From Fox and Friends

Everything you need to know before you buy or sell a home from home inspection specialist Mike Holmes.

To view the video from Fox and Friends:
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-friends/index.html#/v/1673502703001/mike-holmes-home-inspection-checklist/?playlist_id=86912

Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:
I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else. -Winston Churchill

Personal Finance News Tuesday 6/5

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

FreedomPop, Cricket offer new ways for iPhone users to save money
From Clark Howard.com

Love the iPhone but hate the high monthly service price? There are a couple new options coming that could save you money.

Months ago, I told you about new startup from one of the Skype founders called FreedomPop. Among the things FreedomPop is doing is selling a $99 sleeve for the iPhone that's due out later this summer. But this is no mere protective case for that kind of money.

This sleeve will significantly increase your battery life by up to six hours. And it comes with a freemium offer of half a gigabyte of data for free. (You pay $10 for each additional GB.) That means you can reduce your data plan with your cell phone provider and save yourself a meaningful amount of money with your iPhone -- unless you're on Sprint which has no data cap for now.

Meanwhile, struggling wireless company Cricket has a signed deal to buy $900 million worth of iPhones from Apple. The goal is to launch no contract unlimited talk and text service with a generous amount of data for $55 a month in select zip codes around the country. No word yet on which zip codes those will be. (If you exceed your monthly data limit, you'll be throttled.)

Because Cricket is no contract, you'll pay the real unsubsidized prices for the phone, so that means either $399 or $499 depending on which model you get. But the monthly service is almost less than half what you might pay for AT&T and Verizon, both of which average out to be about in the upper $80s or more a month.

Based on what you pay for the Cricket phone, you should be able to figure out when you'll break even by paying $55 a month to them instead of $80 a month to the big guys.

Please listen to the Clark Howard show live from 1-3 EST daily:
http://www.clarkhoward.com/

Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. - Oscar Wilde

Personal Finance News Monday 6/4

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

Vacation Budgeting: Don't Forget About These 5 Necessities
From Dave Ramsey.com

Look at your left arm.

Do you like it? Do you really like your left arm? Isn't it just awesome?

Now imagine your left arm with a red, nasty sunburn—the really painful kind of sunburn. You know, the type that leaves you bathing in aloe for a week and cursing anyone who breathes in your general direction.

Isn't that an awful thing to do to your awesome left arm? It absolutely is.

But those are the types of things that happen when you don't budget for your summer vacation. You get stuck on a beautiful beach without sunscreen because you spent all your pre-vacation money on flip-flops and sunglasses.

Your eyes love the protection, and your feet are free to breathe—all while your poor, once-colorless, naturally pale left arm must endure the sun's fiery flames.

Vacation doesn't have to be that way. You can keep your left arm happy and healthy by simply planning ahead.

Here are a few things to keep in mind while budgeting for your summer vacation:

Pet Care

Is your chihuahua, Tinkerbell, going on the trip with you? If not, who's keeping her? Will she be staying at a doggie hotel or at a friend's house? Do you dare leave Tinkerbell to fend for herself in the backyard? Does she have a week's worth of food? All of that costs money. Don't forget about Tinkerbell.

Snacks

Few things in life are more disgusting than a dry mouth on the beach. Okay, maybe it's more than just a few things. But you've got to admit, in the middle of all that grainy sand, dry heat and wind, a cooler filled with crackers, sandwiches and refreshing water is a welcome treat. If you can buy all that stuff in bulk before you leave, then do it—especially if you have kids. As you probably know, kids tend to eat a lot of food.

To read the entire article from Dave Ramsey.com:
http://www.daveramsey.com/newsletters/online/edition/personal-finance-newsletter-june-2012?ectid=1206cnl_5#feature

Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:
To get the full value of joy, you must have someone to divide it with. - Mark Twain

Personal Finance News Sunday 6/3

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

College: Worth the debt?
A look at staggering student loan
From the Huckabee Show Fox News

2 more examples of students who incurred staggering amounts of college debt.

Please watch the video from the Huckabee Show Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/huckabee/index.html#/v/1670073620001/college-worth-the-debt/?playlist_id=86920

Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:
I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. - Thomas Edison

Personal Finance News Saturday 6/2

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

Fighting Back Against Lowball Home Appraisals

From The Wall Street Journal By RUTH SIMON

Record-low interest rates are a boon for home buyers and for homeowners seeking to refinance. But low appraisals are making it difficult or even impossible for some borrowers to take advantage.

Samara Glassman and her husband David knew their ranch house in Phoenix had fallen in value. But they were surprised by a September 2011 appraisal valuing the four-bedroom home at $385,000, down from the $604,000 they paid in 2008. The appraisal put the couple underwater on their $402,000 mortgage—and threatened to sink their plans to refinance.

When they examined the appraisal, they saw it was based on older homes a few blocks away that weren't directly comparable, says Ms. Glassman, a real-estate agent. They got a second appraisal in January that placed a $500,000 value on the property. That number was high enough for them to refinance into a new mortgage that will save them an estimated $250,000 over the life of the loan.

To read the entire article from The Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304821304577436731561271916.html?mod=ITP_businessandfinance_4

Inspirational Quotes@Inspire_Us from Twitter:

Don't take tomorrow to bed with you. -Norman Peale

Personal Finance News Friday 6/1

Phil's Personal Finance Tip of the Day:

I was listening to Adam Goldfein, a Radio and Television Talk Show Host, attorney, business owner, author, and corporate trainer, filling in for Clark Howard the other day. He came up with an excellent thought.  He said how we handle money shows what our moral standards are. It makes sense since people with great credit scores have made a contract with their lender to pay back their obligations and have kept them.

Keeping with that thought, Harvey Mackay's column this week:

Why do so many executives and employees apparently go along with blatantly unethical and illegal conduct in their organizations?

There’s No Substitute For Integrity

May 31, 2012 By Harvey Mackay

A father who had been laid off from his job had been watching expenses closely for months. But he’d made a promise to his two sons – twins – that he’d take them to a nearby amusement park to celebrate their 10th birthday.

When the day came, the father withdrew some money from his savings, and he took his two sons on the bus to the amusement park. When they reached the front gate, he saw a sign:

“General admission: (ages 10 and up) $10. Children under 10: $5.”

If he’d come a day earlier, the father realized, he could have saved $10 – $5 for each of his twin sons.

But with a sigh he led the boys up to the ticket window and said, “Three general admission tickets, please.”

The woman in the booth looked them over and smiled. “How old are you boys?”

“I’m 10 years old today,” said one son.

“So am I,” said the other. “We’re twins!”

The woman leaned forward. “You know,” she whispered, “you could have asked for two ‘Under 10’ tickets, and I never would have known.”

“Yeah,” said the father, “but they would have.”

Why do so many executives and employees apparently go along with blatantly unethical and illegal conduct in their organizations? The answer may be that people don’t always know what to do when confronted with requests (or demands) that aren’t on the straight and narrow. But that’s not a good enough answer. Organizations need to be completely clear and specific about what is acceptable and what is expected.

To read the entire article from Harvey Mackay.com:
http://harveymackay.com/column/theres-no-substitute-for-integrity/

Quote of the Day from Dave Ramsey.com:
Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire. — Dale Carnegie

Please listen to the Dave Ramsey show live on WOR 710 from 2-4 PM EST. You can also listen to the 3rd hour 4-5 PM EST. at Dave Ramsey.com.