www.earnpilipino.com

People often ask me to point them to a decent online retirement planning calculator. I never do.

You see, I don’t trust such calculators.

It’s not that their math is wrong. (At least, not usually.) The problem is that their calculations are often based on shoddy assumptions and unknowable variables.

You Know What They Say about Assuming…

For example, what rate of return does the calculator assume for your portfolio? Is it reasonable? Or, perhaps, was the calculator programmed to assume that future returns will equal past returns (thereby ignoring the possibility that the U.S. economy won’t have the same explosive growth over the next century that it did over the last)? Read more... (559 words, 11 images, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

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Top IRA Investment Options When your retirement comes around, do you try to imagine how you will pay for gas, housing, food, and many more? In reality, many soon-to-be retirees have not yet thought that retirement would mean receiving paychecks no more. While there are some companies that grant retirement pension to their former......
Financial Calculators for Retirement Planning I enjoy experimenting with different financial calculators to help me predict how our retirement planning is progressing. There are hundreds of such calculators available online. Most of the major companies that sell investments and annuity products offer such calculators. I have written about many other retirement planning tools previously. This......

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Roth IRA Withdrawal Rules

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July 16th, 2010 By: Richard

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The Roth IRA is a wonderful investment option that many people take advantage of every year mainly because of it’s tax free growth and because it allows you to diversify your tax situation at retirement if you also invest in some pre-tax investment types like a 401k or IRA.

While the ideal situation is to max out your contributions to your Roth IRA every year, and then not take any money out until retirement, sometimes you might find yourself in a situation where you need money now – before the usual distribution age of 59 1/2. Luckily the Roth IRA is one of the more flexible retirement account types and withdrawing your contributions (or the money you put in) can be done tax and penalty free at any time. Read more... (936 words, 11 images, estimated 3:45 mins reading time)

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SEP IRA: Self-Employed Retirement Plans Are you self-employed and looking to retire someday? I am. Since this website brings in a little income, it qualifies as a small business. Additionally, I contract for some other companies, which also counts as small business income. The life of a contractor is often one without a 401k. Despite......
Making Your Maximum Annual IRA Contribution at Tax Time RateLadder made a guest post on LazyMan's blog on a strategy he is using to fund his Simplified Employee Pension Plan (SEP-IRA). A SEP-IRA is a retirement plan for individuals that are self-employed, and thus do not have an employer sponsored plan (such as a 401k or 403b). Basically, he......

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Important Inheritance Tips For Your 401(k)

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July 12th, 2010 By: Richard

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Most people are busy learning about a 401(k), taking steps to set it up and choose the right investments. But how often do you think about what will happen to your retirement savings if something were to happen to you? To be honest, such thinking has been off my radar screen, but after getting a nice reminder in the Dallas Morning Newspaper earlier this month, I know I need to check to make sure things are in proper order. As an aside, so much of good personal financial management is staying organized, simplifying and making sure you’re on top of matters. Read more... (672 words, 11 images, estimated 2:41 mins reading time)

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Three Reasons You Should Not Make Your Own Money Making Website Today is the big day! You have decided to use the Internet to make money and even know exactly what product you want to promote. The first hurdle you face is deciding whether you should Make Your Own Money Making Website or hire someone to do it. Here are three......
Interview with Rick Rodgers & Giveaway! After reading Rick Rodgers' book, “The New Three-Legged Stool™ A Tax Efficient Approach To Retirement,” I was left with a great understanding of retirement accounts, but I also had a few questions for Rick about his thoughts on retirement in the future as well as a thirst for interesting stories.......

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3 Reasons Not To Save Into A Roth IRA For Retirement

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July 2nd, 2010 By: Richard

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Everyone should be saving into a Roth IRA for retirement!

Have you heard those words before?

I’ve seen them strewn about the web here ‘n there on various blogs or in comments on other personal finance sites.

Is that true? – Should everyone be saving into a Roth IRA?

Not exactly.

Although Roth IRA’s have become a very popular retirement account over the last 10 years, and have contributed greatly to the whole “Tax Diversification” conversation, there are still some scenarios where they don’t make sense. Read more... (880 words, 11 images, estimated 3:31 mins reading time)

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Claiming Hope Scholarship Credit For Your Taxes /caption] With many students going to and returning to classes, I wanted to remind you that you want to claim your Hope Scholarship Credit come tax season. What is the Hope Scholarship Credit? The Hope Credit is an educational tax credit that can reduce your income tax. The IRS has specific......
The Pros and Cons of Pre-Paying a Mortgage You should know right up front that while my wife and I have a mortgage, one of our top financial goals is to have it paid off by the time our kids enter college (some seven or eight years away). To get there, we'll have to invest a significant portion......

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What You Need To Know About Mutual Fund Sales Fees And Expenses

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June 29th, 2010 By: Richard

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If you’ve read about mutual fund investing, or perhaps discussed it with someone knowledgeable on the subject, the topic of fees and expenses most likely came up in the conversation. For someone who isn’t a financial advisor or broker, mutual fund fees and expenses can be quite a confusing subject. How do you know when you’re paying them and how can you (or should you) avoid them?

Obviously, the more you can minimize fees and expenses when investing in mutual funds, the more you can maximize your returns. That seems like a good thing, right? So, let’s explore what these fees and expense are and how they can sneak up on you if you don’t have some knowledge of the subject. Read more... (1089 words, 11 images, estimated 4:21 mins reading time)

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Vanguard CEO Discusses Poor Performance of Index Funds During Last Decade Vanguard's CEO, Bill McNabb, gave a CNBC interview yesterday discussing the poor performance of his Vanguard index funds during the last decade after the recent stock market crash. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you would know I've been rather outspoken on index funds calling them......
Money Market Funds Explained Money market funds are mutual funds that feature safety, high liquidity and current income or interest in the form of dividends. They are the safest of mutual funds, but have not been insured in the past by the government. Millions of folks have parked trillions of dollars in these funds......

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How Do I Choose A Mutual Fund?

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June 8th, 2010 By: Richard

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How do you choose a mutual fund? But first, is it time for you to start investing? You may be asking the question – should invest while you’re still in debt? Or, perhaps – what is enough emergency savings before investing? These can be challenging questions to answer, but in general, you should invest as early as possible in life to maximize growth, especially if you can get a 401(k) match by your employer. Read more... (1412 words, 11 images, estimated 5:39 mins reading time)

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How To Invest In A Low-Return Environment Nobody can predict the future, of course, but it seems likely the days of consistent double-digit returns 80's and 90's style are long gone (at least until the next bubble), which leads to a perplexing problem: how to invest in a low-return environment? Your financial needs surely haven't decreased along......
Good Investment Management For Average People You can pay a penny on the dollar for good investment management or pay lots more for asset management like some rich folks do. Does the latter guarantee good investment returns? No way. Whether they call themselves investment management companies or asset management firms, you lay your money down and......

Posted in Investing, Miscellaneous, Mutual Funds, Retirement, Retirementt | No Comments »

Are You Making These 5 Retirement Planning Mistakes?

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June 2nd, 2010 By: Richard

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Retirement is certainly a hot topic. Most people are concerned about how much they need for retirement, when they can retire, which discount broker to use or whether they should open up a Roth IRA or contribute to Traditional IRAs.

What’s amazing, however, is that although there are many folks preparing for retirement, there are still a large number making some pretty big retirement mistakes.

Let’s take a look to see if you are making any of these: Read more... (841 words, 11 images, estimated 3:22 mins reading time)

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The Future of Wealth: The New Retirement Ah, retirement.Â The (long-term) goal of just about everyone currently working, the time when we can call it a lifetime and relax, enjoying the fruits of our labors.Â Reaching sixty-five, getting a gold watch, going to Florida and spending the rest of your days in the sun, enjoying life as......
Preparing for the Unexpected Financially While many people do not like to talk about the idea of unemployment, being unemployed is a very real concept that can also become very damaging very quickly for anyone who is not adequately prepared. Due to poor planning and the natural process of denial, many people who were unemployed......

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Finding Your Retirement Sweet Spot!

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May 17th, 2010 By: Richard

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Do you remember playing baseball while you were growing up? One of the best feelings in the world was finding your groove with your swing and hitting the ball with the bat’s sweet spot.

The ball seemed to jump off the bat with little effort!

If you’re a golfer you know that feeling too. Getting the right rhythm, speed and timing that all comes together at once and you feel it – the ball launches off the club and you feel invincible!

Ok, maybe not invincible – but you feel pretty good about yourself! Read more... (889 words, 11 images, estimated 3:33 mins reading time)

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What Does Tax Money Pay For? This guest post comes from Michael, a contributing editor of the Dough Roller, a personal finance and investing blog, and Credit Card Offers IQ, a credit card review site. I’m willing to bet that if you turned on CNBC, CNN or MSNBC right now, within 10 minutes you would......
Infinity Downline - Main Business Or Feeder Program? Infinity downline scam In this article, I want to present two ways the Infinity Downline home based business can be utilized to build an on-going, monthly residual income. Before I go into this information, I'll first briefly explain what Infinity Downline is. Infinity Downline, or ID, is an affiliate program......

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Early Retirement: Important Rules To Remember

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April 26th, 2010 By: Richard

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Many people I talk to would love to take early retirement.

What they typically mean is that they would love to retire early from their current occupation, live off retirement savings and find a hobby or passion to pursue and maybe make some income from in their later years!

Early retirement is definitely possible, and I am a big proponent of going after your passions – after all, true happiness is not about the size of your bank accounts, it’s about the quality of relationships and pursuing your purpose. Read more... (843 words, 11 images, estimated 3:22 mins reading time)

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