Author Archives: ernie

Retirement Investing Myths

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Retirement Investing MythsThere are studies and reports that the average person begins saving for retirement at the age of 32! In addition over 25% of consumers have not started saving for retirement at all which is a huge concern to them and to people who provide social services and to governments who are interested in their citizens enjoying their retirement years. If you think the government will look after you, think again, it is unlikely that there will be sufficient income for you to maintain the quality of life that you desire. Retirement Investing Myths are discussed in the following.

There are lots of misconceptions and myths about retirement and saving for retirement. However more and more people seem to be getting the message that they need to begin saving for their retirement and follow a regular savings program to ensure that they have the quality of life they are looking for when they retire.

Retirement Investing Myths and Reality

Market volatility will keep a lot of people on the sidelines. They want to buy low. But are afraid that the instant they get in the market it is going to drop. This does happen from time to time. However if savers adopt a long term strategy, and use dollar cost averaging, their investments will grow over time. These investments will provide them with the money they will need in retirement.

Some people feel they need a large amount to invest for retirement and specifically for mutual funds and stocks. The reality is that with a regular savings plan, your money slowly builds and compounds over time. Many investors are pleasantly surprised at how much their investments have grown over time with a regular savings plan.

I can catch up on my savings when I am older. This myth is followed by many people. The reality is that they have missed out on all of these years of compounding interest. This is income which by the time you retire is providing more funds than what you can save. Start early prior to age 25 and watch your money grow.

Investing is complicated. Stick with straight forward savings plans. Use a financial adviser to guide you through a balanced well managed savings plan. Maintain a balanced portfolio. Make sure it is diversified to protect your investments over the long term.

Rich people are the only ones that benefit from tax deferred accounts. Rich or middle class or below middle class, everyone receives a tax refund when they invest in a registered retirement fund. They also benefit from the tax protection from all income within the savings plan when it is a registered retirement plan. Regular savings and compounding can build a really nice retirement plan, especially if you begin early.

Retirement planning: take stock of how you’re doing

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Retirement planning: take stock of how you're doingPrior to retiring you may have focused on your financial plan. You wanted to make sure that you have sufficient money set aside to lead a comfortable retirement. Your focused on the quality of life that you would like to enjoy. However there is much more to retirement planning than just making sure you have enough money to last through your retirement.

Although it is an extremely important part of your retirement there are a couple of other elements that are important that will lead to a satisfied high quality of life during retirement.

Retirement planning – Quality of Life Experience

These include assessing those factors that are important to you for a quality of life experience.

For example what will you do in your spare time? Most people will have from 8 to 10 hours of new time that is now available to them. This includes eight hours of work an hour lunch and an hour for commuting. Now you all you have to do is go down to the breakfast table have breakfast in the morning and then decide what it is you’re going to do for the rest of the day. Some people spend their time organizing their life and trying to schedule everything they can into their 8 to 10 hours of time. Others develop or reestablish hobbies, volunteer, travel, get a job, work on projects etc. What will you do with your time in the short term as well as the long term?

How Much Time Do You Have Available

Is important to get a perspective on what your time is available to you and how valuable it is to you. For example, many people will spend time fixing and repairing those things around the home that they may have neglected. You may set up small projects etc. or plan on volunteering. Going for coffee with ex-work employees and meeting up with various people who you enjoy spending time with.

It is also important to take stock of what your planned retirement life will be like both before you retire and then six months after you retire. Are you still enjoying and appreciating the life that you now have? Is it the quality of life that you would like to have during your retirement?

Retirement planning – Take Stock and Re-evaluate

If you cannot answer yes to some of these questions then it is time to take stock and reevaluate your retirement quality-of-life plan. Make changes that will improve your quality of life and achieve some of the objectives that you’re looking for. Don’t put these things off, you never know how much time you actually have. One last point, whatever your plans will be, they also must be balanced with the level of income that you also have available to live the life you are looking to have.

Making adjustments throughout your retirement is an important step toward ensuring that you enjoy your retirement in all of the years that you have.

Small Business Domain

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Small Business DomainSetting up a small business domain and company website does not have to be complicated or expensive.

Business owners have a relatively small budget for online services like websites.  There are really three elements that need to be focused on when you are developing your website and which many small business owners do not want to be involved with simply because they do not have the time.  The first is to obtain a domain name. This is the address or URL that you type into your browser to find the website.  The second service that is required is a place to host your website.  Your domain name will be pointed at this address.  The address represents a server operating somewhere on the Internet which will provide and upload your content to customers that are browsing your small business website.

Small Business Domain – Content Management System

A content management system is a next component that is required in order for you to introduce content onto your website and deliver the content to your customers.  Many content management systems are available however we use a content management system called WordPress for our customers and also for ourselves.  This Web engine or content management system is a great tool for people who are not interested in developing their own HTML code and do not want to spend a lot of time trying to configure their own web pages.

WordPress is much like Microsoft Word in some perspectives with spelling checks and grammar identification and correction.  Many different widgets can be added to provide additional functionality specific to the needs of your website and your company.  Spelling checks, formatting, statistics, and many others can be added.

Small Business Domain – Let Us Build Your Web Site For You

Our company uses WordPress and in fact, this blog is being driven by a WordPress installation.  Your domain name and small business website can also be installed inexpensively with a content management system such as WordPress. Within a few hours, you can be up and running with basic information.  We can also develop and enter content for you. Which includes text as well as images and videos are also possible.

Once the website is up and running, your team can make their own updates. Or arrange for a member of our team to do the updates for you. Many web site owners like this approach as another means of managing their costs. This approach provides then with the flexibility they need to manage their content and their costs.

Give us a call or check out some of our pricing and options and let us build your website for you.

For more posts about setting up small business web sites, click here.

Self Employed Retirement Plans

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Self Employed Retirement PlansGovernment pensions help many people. But they are frankly not enough to live on and enjoy the quality of life that many of us look for in our retirement years. Individual consumers, especially those who are self-employed must save additional money. They will need this to live on during retirement. This is where self-employed retirement plans are so important. If you are self-employed you must have a personal self-employed retirement plan. Otherwise, retirement is not going to be very pleasant.

Private pension plans can take various forms. However, in Canada, they are known as Registered Retirement Savings Plans or RRSP’s and 401K’s in the US. Basically consumers make deposits with pretax dollars to these accounts. There is a corresponding reduction in the amount of tax they pay. It is these private self-employed retirement plans that will make the difference. Between a poor retirement and one that is enjoyable. You will have the quality of life you want after you finish working for a living.

Self Employed Retirement Plans – Retirement Savings

Many people ask how much they should have in savings to last out of their retirement. There are all types of answers. But if you make a couple of assumptions, you can quickly get to an answer that will work for many people. The first assumption regards how much income you can expect from your investments. This is the dividend yield or interest income from bonds and mutual funds. A reasonable yield for dividends is 4%, so let’s go with that number.

Next is how much income do you need in retirement. There are again all kinds of assumptions about needing less money when you are retired than when you are working. But the simplest and probably safest approach is that you should assume that you will live on the same amount you were making when you retired. Use these assumptions. Let’s say you made $50,000 a year when you retired. Then you should hope to make the same from your government pensions and savings income.

For simplicity, let’s assume your government pension will be $10,000. As a result, you will need $40,000 from your savings. At 4% you will need to have saved $1 million dollars by the time you retire. If you can do this, you will have no worries and you will die with a million dollars in your estate.

How Long Will You Live

Saving a million dollars before you retire is pretty tough. Although if you start when you first leave school and save 10% every year, it can be done. But most of us do not do that. The other thing we want to point out is that many people really do not want to leave a million to their families. They want to enjoy their lives as much as possible. This brings us to the question of how long will you live in retirement?

If you retire at age 60, many people will live into their 70’s and 80’s. Which can be 15 to 25 years after you retire. Taking a combination of income and principal every year from your plan will provide you with more money. You will require less money to be saved as well. The important thing is to estimate how long you will live. If your family history suggests that your relatives live to around 80, then you probably will as well, plus a couple of years.

This is where an adviser can really assist you in determining how long your money will last using some of the assumptions we have just discussed. The amount you need is less than a million using the assumptions above, however, it really depends on how much you decide to take out of your plans and how fast.

Check out some of our other posts about retirement covering various subjects such as management risk, diversity, growth of your portfolio, etc.

 

Time management for a satisfied retirement

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satisfied retirementMany people approach retirement in a variety of ways. For example, some people will not schedule anything at all during the retirement spare time. The other extreme of course is the type A personality who has to have every 15-minute interval scheduled. These are to-do list items, things to do around the house, and even naps in the afternoon. In addition, they include meetings with colleagues and friends. This person may as well be still at work since they really are not enjoying their retirement but it provides them with a satisfied retirement.

Time management for a satisfied retirement – Strike a Balance

Studies have shown that the best way is to strike a mid-range of planning for your retirement. The most satisfied people during their retirement appear to be those people who have lots to do. Activities are scheduled for them. But they are not unsatisfied or upset when something has to be moved from one day to the next. There is no rigid schedule in their plan for the day.

When people are first retired, there is a tendency to schedule their days in the same manner that they would if they were at work. This leads to frustration and rigidity in their schedule. Some are generally being unsatisfied when they can’t complete all of the things that they have scheduled for themselves to do during the day. If they cannot fill their day they are frustrated and bored. It takes a few months to make an adjustment to being retired.

Those people who have a list of things and are prepared to work on their items as time permits. They also frequently insert new spontaneous things into their schedule and appear to be the most satisfied in their retirement.

Adjusting to Retirement

It will take many consumers several months or perhaps even a year or two before people are satisfied with retirement. They have figured out what is best for them. They develop new hobbies, go to various locations to volunteer, or take on projects that they have put off all of their lives. There’s always something for retired persons to do.

It is important to figure this out and then proceeds in a manner that provides the most satisfying results for you. You may in fact want to try various approaches and then shift as you get results and decide that you like what you’re doing or are unsatisfied with what you’re currently doing. Trial and experiment will lead to a satisfying retirement.

The biggest challenge in retirement for many is figuring out what to do with all of the additional free time that they now have since they are not commuting and going to work every day. That can be as much as 50 hours a week to fill in with new things and challenges.

Small Business Blog Sites

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Small Business Blog SitesSmall business blog sites are one of the least expensive ways to introduce a company website and still maintain it with up-to-date information about your company, your product, and your services.  Once they are set up, most people can update the company blog site. They need to know how to use a computer and log onto a website.  Of course, you want the website to look professional. There should be no spelling and grammar mistakes and a few pictures as well to enhance the site.  A good content management system such as WordPress is a great way to manage your small business blog site.

Small Business Blog Sites – Adding Content and Media

Adding content and media is quite straightforward and most people who know how to use a computer, word processing, and images or even video can handle and use WordPress.  We offer a hosting service plus a fully installed and configured content management system utilizing WordPress at inexpensive prices for your company.  We can also set up your domain if required however many businesses already will have their own domain and simply point it at the hosting site where the Web WordPress blog is installed.

Customize Small Business Web Sites

They also will customize a theme for you to use. There are also thousands that are available for WordPress.  There are many widgets that can be installed. They can provide a variety of functionality that may be of interest to various small-business owners.  These include everything from calendar information, contact pages, counters, statistical analysis, etc. There are probably thousands of widgets that can be chosen for your small business blog. But choose wisely. Look for comments and ratings to ensure that they are well-supported widgets. They must keep up with all of the latest releases for your content management system.

Small Business Blog Sites – Some Examples

This particular website for our small business is a good example of what you can do.  The local ski club is another example of a smile business or charity in this case that is using our hosting services and our WordPress content management system. They really have a rather simple and straight forward site that meets their needs and their budget.

If you are interested in setting up a small business blog site contact us today. We will be happy to provide you with a competitive solution. Which can be set up within a matter of days if not hours.  There are a variety of options for you. These include having our team do everything for you. Or having your team provide and update the content on the company blog site.

Send us an e-mail or give us a call and we will be happy to provide a solution for you.

Plan for Retirement Success

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Plan for Retirement SuccessEven the most basic plan will help you understand what your situation would be during your retirement.  Plan for retirement success to avoid surprises. The most basic plan looks at your income during retirement. Also your anticipated expenses during retirement.  The expenses are those you assume should be the average daily or monthly expenses that you would expect to have during your retirement years. You should also add in expenses for extraordinary things. Such as weddings, health issues, downsizing, and any special events that could take place during your retirement years. Assume taking 4% of your savings each year as income to assess whether you have sufficient savings. This is a simple method. There are more complex approaches, however, you can get started using the 4% rule.

Start Early With Your Retirement Plan

If you develop your retirement plan early enough it allows you to take the appropriate steps to ensure that you have sufficient savings.  If you wait until your late 40s or early 50s, to develop a retirement plan you may get some nasty surprise. Which suggests that you must work much longer than you anticipated.  If your objective is to retire at 55, a retirement plan that starts when you’re 25 can easily attain this objective.  If you have no plan and you’re already at 45 the chances of retiring at age 55 are remote. It is difficult to know unless you fall into an inheritance or have a large lump sum of money available.

Those people with a plan will tend to save more money towards retirement than anyone who does not have  a plan.  Having a plan means that you’ve thought about retirement. You have thought about what you need to do to accomplish the quality of life you’re working for while you are retired.

Plan for Retirement Success – Build Your Own Plan

You do not even have to have a financial adviser to develop your own retirement plans.  Keep it simple, make assumptions about your income. Make assumptions about your savings, Make assumptions about the amount of interest and capital appreciation that you will achieve in your savings plan.  With these basic assumptions, the majority of people will have more than sufficient income and savings while they are retired.

Keep it simple.  Consider all of your expenses to maintain your home, your utilities, holding, food and entertainment. If your home needs some updating such as new windows, new roof, a new furnace or of some other maintenance activity you will need to factor that into your savings plan and your retirement plan.  The next most important thing is then to set a budget for your daily expenses. Also most important your savings plan.

Starting early will ensure that you will have more than sufficient income. You will be able to live the quality of life that you and your spouse had planned for. For more information about retirement planning, click here.

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Web Development Services

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Web Development ServicesMost business owners really do not have an idea what we mean by Web development services.  Many of the small companies that are offering website development, content creation, and search engine optimization services probably don’t know that much about web development services either.  We certainly don’t pertain to be experts, however, we do know that what business, particularly small business needs is a website that works, and delivers the information they need to get out customers and provide another interface for their customers.  In this post, we will try to help you understand some of the basics of website development

What are the Basics of a Web Site?

The first step is the domain name, secondly, you must have a place to host your content, and finally, a program to manage your content is required.  The domain name is the URL  listed in your browser and can be a registered name of your company provided the URL is not already taken.  The domain name will point to the location where you are hosting your content.

This is the name of a hosting site such as Go Daddy and others who provide servers to host websites.  Now that you have a domain name, hosting site, business leaders need a program to help them manage the content so that they can focus on content instead of the HTML programming that makes the website operate.  The technical content management program we use is WordPress, which is the content management program that we are using in this particular site.  It comes with many themes, plug-ins, and capabilities that you can use to enhance the interaction with your customers.

Web Development Services – Content Management System

The content management system helps you manage the pages that describe your company and the services or products that you offer and regular posts about various topics that may be of interest to your customers.’  Included in the sales plan, products that have been added to the inventory, and so on.  Business owners can also decide if they want to allow comments from customers and for people browsing their site.  They can add pictures and video services whenever they wish.  Many people will improve their site by adding short videos that are also on YouTube.  The content management system will help you manage all of this content. It will help to ensure that it is organized. Also presented in an appropriate manner for anyone visiting your website.

Will the Search Engines Find Your Site?

Many people will launch a new website. They sit back and wonder where are all of the people browsing the content. Why are they not visiting my site?  You cannot get much traffic and cannot understand why the website that you spent a lot of money is not generating visitors to the site. Where is the increase in sales generated as a result of having a website?  The bottom line is that search engines have to find your site. They have to index your site for search terms that people typically use when looking for the kinds of products that you offer.  For example, if you run a pool company then you probably want to have lots of posts about pools you sell, installation, maintenance, and repairs to pools.  If you do not have this kind of information on your website chances are it will never be found.

What do They Mean Search Engine Optimization?

They are all types of theories about what it means to be search engine optimized.  Google, Bing, and Yahoo use many measures to make a decision. Which content to be offered to someone who’s doing a search using the search engine.  These factors determine whether your site is on the first page or the 1000th page of a search.  You can try to game the search process. However, experience has shown the best approach is to have a well-organized site. Use lots of original effective content that describes your company, the services, and products you offer. Include anything else that the customer may need specific to your business.  This is by far the best way to get a decent ranking with Google.

Web Development Services – How Can I Get Started?

Give us a call or send us an e-mail with what your needs are. We can get you going quite quickly with a  basic website. We provide you with information about how to become a search engine optimized so that the search engines will find your content.