Monthly Archives: May 2012

How Do I Know I have enough for Retirement

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enough for RetirementThis is the big question for many people who are thinking about retiring or are suddenly faced with forced retirement. How do I know I have enough for retirement? The sooner that you prepare for retirement the better off you will be, but how do you know when you have enough?

We all get accustomed to living on the salary or income that we make and this is probably a good starting point. This is the quality of life you are used to and the life style you have been accustomed to. So why not start there.  We compiled the following points from reviews we have done looking at various posts and ideas from many sources. If you cannot meet these requirements, then you will have to take steps to either adjust your income in some manner or you will need to downsize your expectations. We will discuss each one in a little more detail.

  • 15.7 times salary saved
  • Less 2 for social security
  • Less 2 for defined benefit plan
  • Or can you live on 5% of income from your savings
  • Some say2% or 4% of income from savings
  • Can you Still work
  • What will you do with your time

How do You Know You Have enough for Retirement

15.7 times salary saved

This is a standard that many financial planners are working with and it is a good measure to start with. The big assumption is that you want to maintain your current lifestyle. So if your current income is $50k per year, then you need $750 to $800 k in savings to ensure that you will have the income you need. Start at this level when calculating if you have enough for retirement.

Less 2 for social security

You can also make adjustments to this figure if you will receive social security. The common rule of thumb is to reduce the ratio from 15.7 to 13.7 if you will receive social security and decrease the overall savings  that you need to have.

Less 2 for defined benefit plan

The lucky few who will have a defined benefit retirement plan can reduce the ratio a further two points. This is a combination of benefits for medical as well as retirement income from a pension plan. Many people are losing their benefits due to layoffs and downsizing. If you are near retirement, you need to evaluate the probability you will actually see these benefits when you retire.

Or can you live on 5% of income from your savings to have enough for Retirement

Another way to look at the question of whether you have enough for retirement is to ask your self if you can live on 5% of the income from your savings. For example if you have $500,ooo saved, can you live on 5% or $25,ooo a year. If you can make more than this consider it a bonus!

Many people would have difficulty living on this amount, however if you can add  social security and a defined benefit plan to this, it may not be so bad.

Some say2% or 4% of income from savings

The question of whether you can live on 5% of income from your savings really depends on whether you can actually make 5% or not. Some say that the average income is actually much lower at somewhere between 2% to 4%.  What this really means is that you really need to have a lot more in savings if your savings is only generating 2% income every year.

Take a really hard look at what income you can generate from your savings. Be conservative in your assumptions. The stock market has been very volatile over the past few years so be careful with investments and the income assumptions you make. If reality is better than what you assumed, then it will be a bonus to you in your retirement years.

Can you Still work

Either way, whatever you assume, working full or part time during retirement years has a lot of benefits. Not only do you have the extra income which you may need after doing some of the calculations, you will have the opportunity to be challenged, to meet new people and contribute to your community.

These benefits will provide you with a more complete life and help you live longer as well.

What will you do with your time if your do not have enough for Retirement

As we mentioned in the last paragraphs, you will be busier and you will fill the time you have available if you work. The bottom line is to figure out what you will do with all of the free time you gain once you finish working full time and depending on your decision, the amount of money you will need as well.

Visiting family, looking after the grand children is far different than traveling the world on cruises. Many people who have traveled a lot have come to the realization that while traveling is nice, spending time with family and friends is much more rewarding.

For many the challenge is to find the right mix of family, travel and budget ! Do you have enough for retirement?

Some SEO Guidelines

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SEO GuidelinesThe only people who really know what the SEO guidelines are might be some of the Google employees and only the ones who are in charge of the overall strategy for their search engine. The rest of us can only guess and learn by experience. There are many lists out there about do’s and don’ts associated with optimizing your page for SEO or search engine optimization. some make sense and some don’t and many people are trying to take advantage of this situation to obtain more traffic.

SEO Guidelines – Quality Content

We happen to think that in addition to all of these so-called rules and guidelines which are ok and not wrong at all, you must have quality content. You must have not only quality content that is well-written and informative to the reader, but it must also be popular if you are really going to do well with advertising on your site. Writing poorly written stories about something that no one cares about is just not going to be of interest to very many people, even if you optimize the page perfectly, whatever that might mean.

Focus on High-Quality Content in Popular Areas of Search

So focus on good quality content,  interesting to the reader that appeals to a lot of people. Good quality content means that the post is well written, has no spelling mistakes, has good grammar, and has structure. A post should have an introduction, a discussion of the topic, and a closing summary of some kind or action statement that takes the reader to the next stage of your website.

Always optimize every page so that it also rises in rank for the search engines. We have compiled a shortlist and will add to it from time to time. These are rules/guidelines for making sure that your page is also optimized for SEO.

If you disagree or feel we missed something, feel free to leave us a comment and we will add to it to assist our readers.

Here we go:

  • Post Title
    • The title contains the keyword
    • The Title should begin with the keyword
    • The title should be at least 3 words long
    • The title should have at least 66 characters
  • URL
    • permalink contains your keyword
  • Metadata
    • Description meta-tag always contains the keyword
    • The Description meta tag should have at least 160 characters in it
    • The description meta tag should begin with the keyword
    • Your keyword meta tag must contain your keyword
  • Heading
    • The H1 tag should also contain your keyword
    • The H1 tag should begin with the keyword
    • The H2 tag should also contain your keyword
    • The H3 tag should also contain your keyword
  • Content(probably the most critical of all)
    • Must not be junk content
    • Must be informative and useful to the reader
    • Should contain at least 300 words, some say 500, and others at least 1000. We think you should vary the size of your posts, but never less than 300 words
    • Keyword density should be 2 to 5%, don’t spam your content
    • Keywords should be used in the first 50 to 100 words
    • Always use one image with your keyword in the ALT attribute
    • Bold your keyword at least once
    • Italicize your keyword at least once
    • Underline your keyword at least once
    • External link anchor text should also contain your keyword
    • Internal link anchor text should contain your keyword
    • Also, use your keyword in the last 50 words

While this is certainly not all-inclusive, it is a good start on how to optimize your posts for the best SEO ranking with the search engines and against your competition. Even if you do all of these things, it really comes back to content that people are interested in and causes them to want to spend some time on your site.

As we mentioned comments and thoughts are welcome.

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