Author Archives: ernie

Get First Decade of Retirement Right

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Get First Decade of Retirement RightGet first decade of retirement right.  Most people tend to spend more money than what they plan. As you get older, particularly after age 74 there is a tendency to spend less money, even when healthcare costs are taken into account. As you get older there’s less opportunity to spend your money and most people will save it with the intention of giving it to their children.

Consumers must also decide when they’re going to take their old age pension. If you wait until you’re 65 you will collect the maximum, or at age 67 with the new laws that are in place you will then collect your maximum. If you take your pension earlier there will be a penalty as much as 30%. Deciding how you’re going to handle your investments and make up for that loss of 30% is a particularly difficult issue for many people.

What should you do

The longer that you can delay taking your pension the more money you will have. If you can also work longer, or reduce your expenses to ensure that you have sufficient money to live on while you’re retired this is also a positive thing to do. Delaying taking your pension will decrease that 30% penalty and if you can wait until your age 65 or 67 you will have no penalty at all and will increase your overall pension income by 30%.

All of these issues are important to take into account while you’re planning your retirement income. Not all of the income that you will have from pensions, government and employee pensions, and also your investment income without having to touch the principal.

If the combined income is sufficient without having to touch the principal and you’re in a good position. If however you must start withdrawing principle you must take into account and plan for the future well into your 70s and 80s to ensure that you will have sufficient income.

Get First Decade of Retirement Right – Investments

What if the stock market tanks

You must also take into account the stock market will be volatile and will be significantly up one year and could be significantly down the next year by as much as 20 or 30%. If you are withdrawing principle when the stock market is down by as much as 20 or 30%, this can really eat into your overall savings and decrease the chance of your savings last your lifetime.

Do a risk analysis on your portfolio and assume a 20% decline in the stock market to assess whether your plan will last your lifetime. If your principal will not last your lifetime, you should probably consider taking less money out of your plan each year and making up the difference with either spending less, getting a job or selling some other asset.

The first years of retirement can be very difficult and critical in terms of ensuring that your investment plan will last your lifetime. get it right and you’ll be very comfortable, get it wrong and you will not have as comfortable a retirement as you had hoped.

Rules for early retirement
1: Early retirees: Don’t fear losing your health insurance
2: Getting ready to retire? Save more, spend less
3: Use your home to boost retirement savings
4: Budget and plan your financials
5: Retiring? Time to look for a part-time gig

Get first decade of retirement right and more information about retirement planning click here.

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Web Blog Sites

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Web Blog SitesBloggers for many years got a bad rap due to the poor material that was included in blogs and the inability to follow much of the information. There was much innocuous ranting and rambling of ideas and thoughts. Frankly no one really gave them much attention other than like minded people. Today search engines have de-indexed these sites due to poor content. You do not want your site to fall into this category. Make sure you have a content management system for your web blog sites. Provide quality original content that is interesting to your readers. Employ many other ranking factors that will help you to rank well.

Web Blog Sites – Content Management Systems

Blogs are moving into the mainstream now that really high-quality content management systems such as WordPress are available. They help communications and marketing managers manage the content, add features, and content-rich material. You do not have to understand much about what is going on in the background. Although it helps you really do not need to understand HTML any longer to use a WordPress content management system. Now you can focus on what really counts and that is the actual content that will entice your prospective customers to contact you and/or to place their orders.

Excellent presentation, easy to use widgets and themes that add a great deal of functionality and professionalism to the content management system that allows small business owners to craft their own web site and personalize it as well. Add logos, banners, images, and videos to your site to truly enhance the web site and interest the customer.

Once Your Site is Set Up with Hosting and WordPress

Company owners and semi IT professionals maintain content once it is set up on a hosting site. In fact, we can install WordPress for you and install the theme you prefer. We can also install various widgets and even some of the initial pages. Then you are ready to go with your own content being added as time permits and services or products are updated.

Some owners will create pages and posts that represent their latest suite of services and products. They will also use the services of a marketing writer to help them add content. this content represents their company in the best possible way while being SEO optimized as well.

SEO optimization is what brings potential clients to your site when they are searching for services or products.

Let us help you with your hosting and initial web blog design. We have a variety of options that are flexible. They are aimed at making sure that the web blog site you set up will be beneficial to your company. It also enhances sales and service at your company. Call or email us today for more information.

Posting in-depth quality articles to rank with Google

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Posting in-depth quality articlesMost SEO experts recognize that there can be as many as 200 different factors that Google takes into account when ranking a particular website and the content that they have on that website. These are not published by Google but are merely an estimate by those in the know associated with SEO activities. However there is one area that is an absolute must in order to have long term success with SEO. Posting in-depth quality articles is one of the best approaches to keep in mind.

Posting in-depth quality articles

However they all have come to the same conclusion and that it is quality content and in-depth articles that  are the premier content that Google and other search engines are looking for. All of the search engines want to be able to return quality results to their customers when they are searching for information about a variety of subjects.

If you are not providing quality content, that is well-written and providing information to your customers that would be interesting and useful to your customers then chances are Google and the other search engines will not rank you very well.

There is a difference of opinion on how long an article must be. Everyone agrees that the content must be high quality level, provide detail and deliver value to readers. If you can deliver that content in at 500 word article, this was considered approximately the right length of an article to post. Recently some SEO experts are suggesting that you should also have a number of 2000 word articles posted on your website providing great level of detail and content to your readers.

This SEO expert believes that you should be posting an article once a week of at least 500 words. Provide content covering a topic that would be interesting to your customers. It will rank well with the search engines. Once a month there should be a 2000 word article that should be included. It covers all the topics that you may have covered that past month. Some posts are only a few words in length because they also answer a specific question. They provide the reader with exactly what they are looking for. This is ok as well.

Content Strategy

Small business owner should also have a content strategy that allows them to post articles on a weekly basis. They can cover a number of topics as well as search engine terms that people typically search for.

Every article should also have a call to action. Or a reference to your main site if customers need more information and would like to contact you. In our case readers can click on services provided by our company for small business websites. They can receive more information by either contacting us by email or contacting us by phone.

What is the true cost of retirement?

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cost of retirementIf you are about to retire you might be wondering what is the true cost of retirement? Most financial advisers use a couple of assumptions in assessing how much money you need to save for retirement. The first is that they assume the standard duration of retirement will be 30 years. This is regardless of your health and retirement date. The second assumption that many advisers will use is that you will need 70% to 80% of your income after retirement. This is supposed to cover your expenses and retirement plans.

As always, with many planning activities, the devil is in the details. Every person and every couple has different requirements and needs. They have different situations that they are dealing with. A retirement plan should be customized for the couple or individual. It should ensure that they have sufficient money available for them in retirement to maintain their quality of life.

What is the true cost of retirement?

These two assumptions are a good starting point only.

For example, if you are 65 and just retiring, the 30-year life expectancy may be fine for one couple. Especially if their ancestors lived well into their 90s. On the other, if hand your family history suggests living to 70 or 80 years of age, a 15-year plan might be more practical.

True Cost of Retirement

With regards to only requiring 70 to 80% of your pre-retirement income. There are many variables that should be taken into account. We will cover a few.

For example, consider if you’re still supporting children who are in college. They may have tuition payments and other related expenses. You may need more than 80% for the first couple of years.

Are you retiring debt-free? Is your mortgage paid off? Are you still paying a car loan? These are major monthly expenses that have to be factored into your pre-retirement expense. As well as your post-retirement expense. These factors will help decide if you will have sufficient money to cover all of your cash expenses during retirement.

Consumers also need to consider what retirement expenses will increase during the retirement years. For example, inflation has been pretty constant and in a range of 3% for the past 20 years. It will eat into your retirement income, particularly if you are on a fixed income. The longer you are retired the more inflation can be a factor. It is very important to factor in inflation.

Don’t forget Healthcare costs

Healthcare costs must also be considered based on your family’s history of healthcare needs and situations.

Your consumption will also change over the years. As you get older most people will spend less on clothing, food, and other daily expenses.

All of this needs to be factored into your retirement plan to ensure that consumers have sufficient money during retirement. Start with the 70 to 80% rule. Then adjust based on your own personal situation. You may also require the help of a financial advisor to create a retirement income model. It should be based on your savings and pensions as mentioned earlier

Is your employer pension safe?

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employer pensionMost people would think that this question of whether your employer pension is safe or not would be unthinkable! People have worked all of their lives. They depend on the employer pension during retirement. They are more at risk these days than they ever were before. Unions had negotiated pensions for their union members. Now retired people are finding that the same companies are not able to fund their pensions.

In unprecedented moves, both public and private employers are raising the alarm bells. Employee pensions are at risk. Pensioners who have been retired for some time may experience a 50% drop in their monthly pension checks. This has many people worried. Many feel that they may have to go back to work or move in with the kids.

Several governments around the world have cut or reduced pensions to pensioners. In the United States, several cities and states are reducing or eliminating pension checks. The majority of people are still okay in terms of receiving the monthly pension check. However, as cities go bankrupt, State governments experience increasing financial difficulty. The only way they can turn is to reduce pension payments to their pensioners. This puts many people at extreme risk in their old age and during their retirement years.

Employer Pension – Diversity

One of the key building blocks for pension plans and investors saving money for retirement is diversity. Financial advisors will tell you to never place all of your investment in one company, one stock, or one investment vehicle. Diversity is the only protection you have against a particular company stock becoming worthless.

The same thing applies to pension plans. Company pension plans should be diverse. They should be managed properly, but the sad reality is that this is not always the case. As a result, more and more people are finding that they should also be planning their investment strategy. The pension plan is only one part of their income during retirement years.

It is too late for those people who are retired and in their late retirement years. Consumers who are still working have an opportunity to set aside money for retirement. Regardless of whether they expect to receive an unemployment pension or not, they should start doing so now.

Building up savings that can be used during your retirement years provides you with protection. This a big bonus, particularly if your employment pension comes through. Think of it as an insurance plan. It will enable you to have the quality of life that you would like to have during your retirement years. There will be much less stress on you as well. You don’t need to worry or be concerned about losing your government pension, your employment pension, or your union pension!

Web Site Designer

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Web Site DesignerWebsite design is a combination of technical capability, content creation, and artistic ability. We will examine each of these areas and give you our opinion on what each entails and how much time or money you should consider spending on each when you are a small business operator and just getting started. Most small business owners just want to have a website that advertises their business, provides contact information, and tells customers what services and products they offer. There can be much more to a website as we will discuss, and website designers need to know the details of SEO.

Technical Capability

Technically, your website needs to work and deliver content to the reader and perform whatever functions you build into it, i.e., contact forms, email, ordering, and cash management, to name a few. There needs to be a domain name that resembles as much as possible the name of your company or the business that you are in. It should also have a country reference. If you are in the US, you probably want a .com URL; if you are in Canada, you probably want a .ca URL. Next, you need to arrange for hosting. This is where your content will be saved and referenced when someone goes to your link.

The next major element is some sort of content management system. This system should make it easy for the nonprogrammer to upload content and to arrange their pages and posts so that readers can view them. It should also have several widgets and templates available so that you can customize your website along with several pictures or videos about your products, your services, and your company. We use WordPress for our content management system, which allows us to set up your website and then turn it over to the customer if desired to add their content. We can add the content for you as well if needed.

Website Designer – Content Creation

Your website needs content for several reasons. First and foremost, a business needs to tell readers what services or products they are offering. It is your statement about what you can provide to the readers and an encouragement for them to drop by your store or call you to discuss the services that you might provide to them. Secondly, this is where you also talk about who you are, some information about your company and how to contact you. For most companies and small businesses, this is all you need unless you want to pursue two other elements.

One of these is to monetize your site, and by this, we mean to allow your customers to place purchase capability on your website so that customers can place an order and pay for it on your website. This functionality takes you to another level of the website. Something like adding PayPal is relatively easy to do, while adding other payment methods, inventory control, etc., will take more time and effort.

The second major item of content to consider is increasing the probability that the search engines will index you properly for all of the typical search terms that customers might use when searching for your products and services. For example, if you are selling widget X, and your company website does not mention widget X anywhere on the site or with a combination of words that might be used, consumers searching for this term will never come to your site because you are not search engine optimized.

We can help you with Search Engine Optimization or SEO!

Website Designer – Artistic Ability

Finally, the last item is artistic ability. There are a lot of differing opinions about this area. Some people feel that websites need to be elegant with lots of pictures, etc., while others feel that you just need the facts. The bottom line is that it should be pleasing to the eye, and a little color does help. Business owners can spend thousands of dollars on a website, making it fancy and colorful; however, do you get your ROI for doing this? We do not think so, and that is why we do not promote spending a great deal of money on this sort of thing.

If you need a small business website set up for you, call us today or send us an email, and we will get you going with your small business website within a day or two at very reasonable prices.

For more ideas about what to consider in web design, click here.

Content Creation Techniques

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Content Creation TechniquesOne of the questions that many people ask is how do we know what content to add to a blog or to a website? In addition, they want to know what happens when you have writer’s block and cannot find anything specific to write about. This situation happens to many people from time to time, including our writers. There are content creation techniques to help you always have something to write about and keep the creative juices flowing, so to speak. When you can write, write many posts and schedule them to launch in the future. This is one way to help you overcome those periods when you experience writer’s block.

We came across an article that talked about 20 different techniques that can be utilized in terms of creating content when someone has what’s called writer’s block. We decided to use these 20 items and put our spin on these items based on the experience that we have had in terms of creating content for our websites as well as for customers’ websites. The objective is to create useful and meaningful content for the reader based on the context of the customers’ website. As you’re reading these 20 items, try to think of them from the perspective of the content that you would need to have created for your website and for your customers. Remember to place the important stuff up front in the article.

Content Creation Techniques

Here’s our list:

1. Update outdated content – regularly review your older pages and update them with more current information.

2. Write about items in the news that pertains to your industry – always read the current news, especially anything in your own industry

3. Develop a list of tips about your products – readers will find this information particularly useful

4. Interview a friendly client or customer

5. Write a case study about your product or service

6. Join group industry groups

7. Monitor Industry publications – look for ideas and perspectives that were not covered in the publication that can be discussed on your own site

8. Look for News and Magazine Article Titles – for the same reason as above.

9. What is hot on Twitter and FaceBook – you may also want to have your own social media program as well

10. Customer Testimonials

11. Ask colleagues for ideas

12. Compare products and services

13. Publish expert material about solutions your products provide

14. Write a how-to article for the do-it-yourself handyman

15. Share some history about your company, people, products, etc

16. Solutions: Before and After that cover typical situations that your customers run into

17. Make a checklist for your customers

18. Add a definitions page

19. Add a resources page where customers can find more information about your products, services, and your company

20. Publish statistics about your products, improvements, etc

We provide inexpensive hosting and content management systems to help your company with your website and blog. If you need information or would like some help, please call or send us an e-mail with your contact information. Our phone and email are at the top of the page. Many of our customers ask for help in setting up a website and then proceed to develop their content.

Don’t worry about outliving your money!

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outliving your moneyDepending on who you talk to, someone who retires at age 65 will have another 20 years or so to live. This is a according to the statistics that are published by many government agencies as well as insurance companies. When you hear someone say. Don’t worry about outliving your money, it is difficult to really believe them. It can be a stressful time for many retirees. So it is important to really examine the numbers and determine if your savings will outlast you.

Insurance companies tend to exaggerate on longevity. They will suggest that you may live between 20 and 25 years longer than the average person. They also put fear into consumers wondering whether their money will last during their retirement years. This to encourage you to invest with them and use their investment products.

Outliving Your Savings

Many people worry about whether they will outlive their savings and end up being destitute. They worry about having to sell her house. Or live with family or worse living conditions that are not acceptable to them.

The reality is that most people will not outlive their savings. The statistics of living 20 years beyond your retirement age of 65 are actually quite generous. Most people will not live that long. Planning to live 20 years beyond your retirement age is quite substantial.

The reality for most people is that they should look at how long their parents lived after age 65. Then add five more years because we are more healthy and look after ourselves better than her parents did. This will be an indicator of the real age that you can expect to live.

Based on these calculations you can then figure out how long your money needs to last after your retirement. This is one of the ways that you can calculate your longevity.

Don’t worry about outliving your money

There are actually many other factors that will determine whether you have sufficient retirement money in your savings to last your lifetime.

For example, the stock market may go up or down, your pension from your company may last or not and you may have health issues that dig into your retirement savings. These factors and others are things that you should be thinking about and considering in terms of how much money you spend during your retirement years.

At the same time while you’re healthy you will want to enjoy your retirement years and spend some of your money on travel or some of the other things that are attractive to you.

Living on the income that is generated from your investments is one way to protect your retirement savings. At the same time if you have a significant amount of capital in your retirement plan making sure that you’re diversified and well invested in blue-chip stocks and bonds will also ensure that you do not suffer from crashes in the market.

The average withdrawal rate of 4% appears to be the industry norm of how much money should be withdrawn from your retirement savings plan. If you can generate income from the interest income from bonds, and from stocks, to dividends this will help to achieve a significant amount of that 4% and protect your capital through your retirement years.

We are writing many articles about these subjects and look forward to comments from people who are going through and planning their retirement and thinking about the same issues. Your comments and suggestions are welcome.

For more about retirement planning, click here.

Small Business Site

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Small Business SiteMany business owners plan to set up a small business website. They want to provide information to their customers. In addition, it is one of the best ways to advertise and be competitive. There is actually a great deal to consider before designing a site.

They should first think about what their objectives are for their website.  It is important to understand why your website is being started. Some want to provide better information to their customers. In addition to advertising products and services. Will it allow customers to make purchases online?  There is a significant difference between an information site and a monetized site. One site is not interactive. While the other can take orders from customers and process them. As a result, this is a much higher level of functionality to consider. You also need trained support personnel to handle all of the back office processes.

Information Small Business Site

An information small-business site will provide basic information about the business. It will cover who the principals are, contact information, etc. Include a list of your products and services.  If customers wish to purchase any of these services and products they must contact you.  Remember to make contacting you easy for them and be responsive. They can do this by sending an e-mail. Or they can talk to you over the phone or visit your business.  This is really just a traditional advertising site that happens to be online.

Order Processing Site

A small business site that accepts orders is a much more complex site. This may include processing credit card payments or PayPal payments. It must have better information, cash processing information, and order placement. A status update is also typically provided. The privacy of customers’ personal information must also be addressed.

Set up an information site quite quickly. Update the content and add new content as time permits.  The small-business site can process and manage cash transactions which will take time to develop. They are generally more expensive. Also, they require more maintenance on an ongoing basis.  We’re not trying to dissuade you from setting up one of these sites. Always take into account your expectations, objectives, etc.

With the advent of PayPal and cash transaction terminals, basic cash management can be added to the site.  Note that the back-end process of fulfilling the order is a separate process. This includes excepting the order, preparing the product, packing, and shipping. Finally, you must be able to send invoices for the product.

Our Website Services

We specialize in providing small business websites that are informational in nature. They include contact capabilities provided on the website. You can provide a phone number, a contact form or allow customers to send e-mails to you.  Use a content management system. This provides the option to the business owner to prepare and update their own content.  It is quite straightforward and easy to use. Owners just need to figure out what content they want to provide.

Search engine optimization is provided. Search engines will index your site. Your site will rank higher. This is aimed at customers who are searching for particular products and services that your company provides.

For more information about our services, please contact us by phone or e-mail or using our contact form. We will be happy to respond to your request.  We provide domain management, hosting services, and content management services.