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An early retirement package may work in your favor as it may give you time to reflect and plan out the next phase of your life. As the economy continues to tighten, many companies have determined to trim their payrolls by offering an early retirement package to their older employees.
While many people would love to retire early, the offers these companies are making may or may not be worth taking.
You better be really, really sure that the money being offered you will last throughout your later years. Since life expectancy keeps getting longer, you don’t want to run out of money on a package that is working off of outdated life estimates.
Be aware that you could get into trouble if the income looks good but the benefits you’re accustomed to do not. Your retirement fund may be spent down on benefits that you used to receive automatically from your company.
A big benefit to look at is your health benefits. The money they’re giving you to live on in retirement may not help much if your health insurance premiums suddenly increase on you. You should know that if you negotiate with your company, you may be able to land a better package for yourself. Since you’re doing the company a favor by leaving early, make sure you get all you can out of the deal.
Obviously, you’re going to be offered the smallest amount that your company thinks you’ll go for. You may be able to get them to sweeten the pot in order to get you to accept their offer.
Don’t go into negotiations, though, until you assess whether the company is strong enough to pay out your better deal. Will the company still be around in 10 years or so? By walking away early, you may well find that you’re now entering a new phase of life that will be great for you.
It’s always a good idea to utilize multiple streams of income as you move forward in life. Even if your new early retirement package doesn’t allow you the income stream to retire forever, this could be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.
At this point, you can be at home, think and begin to plan out what to do next. You can begin to educate yourself in various income stream areas. Take a look at the following areas:
Consider building small niche websites online.
Real Estate: A few good investments here can set you up for many years of residual income later on.
Learning all the MLM secrets and building a network marketing business can be a great way to not only increase your income but also meet other people.
Option Trading: A bit more difficult but there are some excellent courses that teach this area of the stock market.
Retirement can be a great thing, but only if you can afford to do it. Get your finances in order as soon as possible, and when your company comes with an early retirement offer, you’ll be on a much better position to bargain…and possibly move yourself into a more exciting lifestyle.
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Tags: retiring
Posted in Retirement · September 3rd, 2010 · Comments (0)
With so many choices available, it’s challenging to weed out the good offers from the bad. To find the best charge card account deal for you, you’ll need to understand some basic principles regarding how credit cards work.
Choosing a Credit Card: The Basics
The first thing you’ll want to do when choosing a credit card is to evaluate your options. Rather than signing up for the first charge card account that appears in your mailbox, save up the offers that appear for a month or two.
Evaluate the charge card offers you’ve received, realizing not all charge card offers are equal. You’ll want to take notes on how the offers differ, so you can be sure you are choosing the credit card that offers the best annual percentage rates and lowest fees. You also want to make sure that the offer is optimal for your situation. Use a highlighter to highlight any terms or conditions that concern you. Read the fine print. Call the credit card company and speak to someone in customer service if you don’t understand something in the contract.
If you are a new creditor (either a young person just starting out, or perhaps you have never held credit card accounts in your name before), you may have to start with either a secured credit card account or a credit card account with a high APR. The options available to you will depend on your credit history. If you establish a good credit history through wise use of your first card, you can choose an unsecured charge card account with a better annual percentage rate, higher credit limit and lower fees later.
When choosing a credit card, you’ll often come across the term “pre-approved.” People mistakenly assume that becautilize the offer says they are pre-approved, they will get the credit card offered. This only means the charge card’s initial information about you indicates you should be in their accepted credit rating bracket. The credit card company will still perform a thorough credit check before they approve your application, should you choose their charge card account.
What to Look For When Choosing a Credit Card
Look for the best APR available. Check to make sure the annual percentage rate on the credit card you are choosing does not change over time. If it does change, make sure you can absorb the increase in interest or will be able to pay off the balance each month so the APR hike will not adversely affect you.
Check the credit limit. Choose a card with a high credit limit and then utilize only half of that limit. This maximizes your credit health rating with the credit bureaus.
Choose a major charge card with a known name. Major credit card accounts such as Visa, MasterCard, Discovery and American Express all hold more weight with credit bureaus and other lenders than the lesser-known cards and department store cards. Responsible utilize of a major charge card account (never maxing out the credit limit out and making all payments on time) is a solid baseline for establishing a healthy credit rating.
Ignore the special offers and perks, and focus on the actual terms of service. While gaining airline miles or cash back are nice perks, you need to choose your charge card account based on the real benefits or costs-the annual percentage rate and fees charged, the credit limit granted and the reputation of the card.
If you want to take advantage of cash advances, choose a credit card that will send checks to your home or let you get cash advances at an ATM. Remember that the interest rate and fees will most likely be higher for cash advances than the terms on the normal credit card account usage, so you’ll need to factor these extra expenses into your charge card choice.
Compare credit limits, cash advance allowances and how the payments will be credited. Many creditors apply payments to the principal balance derived from purchases first, only applying payments to the cash advance balance after the principal has been paid off. This benefits the charge card account company, but not you, the consumer.
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Tags: best credit cards, charge card, charge cards, credit card
Posted in Finances · September 2nd, 2010 · Comments (0)