7 Advantages to Continue Working When You Retire

According to an article, As First Baby Boomers Retire, Many Facing Personal Finance Disasters, more than 10,000 baby boomers a day have turned 65 since January 2011, a pattern that will continue for the next 19 years. However, 60% of baby boomers don’t have enough for retirement. What can you do to fortify your financial independence and make ends meet? The only viable solution is to continue working. There are several benefits when you delay your retirement:

1. Work longer, less time to retire: When you continue to work, you trade off your retirement years. It means you will need less money to spend when you finally retire.

2. A Source of income: There is a source of income when you work. It means you can continue to live the usual lifestyle without dipping into your retirement fund.

3. More savings: When you work, part of your income will go to save as budgeted. The longer you work, the more you will save and the more interest you will be able to earn and accumulate. This will be a new source of a fund when you do retire.

4. Less retirement fund is required: Since you have shortened your retirement years, you will need fewer funds for your retirement and you also have additional funds to cushion future inflation.

5. Meaningful life: Work gives you meaning in life when you enjoy what you do. You are confident of yourself and look at life with a brighter perspective.

6. Happiness: You feel good about yourself because you are leading useful life-giving useful services and at the same time you are self-supporting.

7. Better health: A change in lifestyle may be bad for your health. There will be emptiness if you do not fill your time with useful things to do. When you work, your mind is working and alert. More likely than not, your working life will be good for your health mentally and physically.

It is a blessing when you have reached your retirement age and you still can hold on to a job that you like and enjoy because the unemployment rate in America is still very high today at 9.2 in June 2011

7 Productive Things to Do Online

The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn`t think they could learn before, and so in a sense, it is all about potential. ~ Steve Ballmer

There are many things to do online which you can’t do offline.

1. Blogging: Start a blog and post your unique articles and be heard by more people than you can imagine. It is assumed that your site is search engine optimized. There is no other way to reach such a wide audience.

2. Looking for information and doing research: The fastest and the easiest way to learn new things is to search the Net. Just type in the keywords of the things that you are looking for and you will get pages and pages of related articles.

3. Banking: There is no need to go to the bank to transfer funds or sending money to loved ones far away. On the Net, you can check your account balances, print your statements and there are many more financial transactions that you can do.

4. Networking: Getting to know others and getting connected are the things that you can do easily on the Net. When you get connected with the right people, you are presented with ample opportunities.

5. Instant communication: By using Skype you can talk or make video calls to people far away instantly. Most of the time email is the most effective way to communicate, like sending instructions and homework to students.

6. Breaking news: The fastest way to know about the latest news, such as the earthquake in Japan recently, is to go online. Precious lives can be saved by an early warning system in case of a natural disaster.

7. Getting things done: Nowadays, the processing of an application is done online and the fees are to be paid online by credit card as well. There is no other way to do it. You can make travel arrangements and hotel bookings instantly and securely online. Doing business and marketing on the net is the norm.

What are the things that you do online?

Do You Know Your Bank Balance?

Have you ever issued bounced checks? Do you know your available bank balance before you issue a check? Do you maintain a daily record of your banking transactions? The only way to have a trouble-free relationship with your bank is to keep your bank accounts in order. The only way to do it is to keep your own record and reconcile with the monthly bank statements. Here are the things that you can do so that you are in control of your own bank accounts:

1.       Keep a simple record: You can keep track of your banking transactions on a piece of paper or you can use Excel to do a better job. From your opening bank balance just deduct checks issued and add money deposited so that you will know the balance in your bank account.   

Your own record

Date                  Transaction                         Amount               Balance

01/05/2011     Opening balance              1500.00                 1500.00

03/05/2011     Check issued No. 1001    900.00x                  600.00

10/05/2011    Check deposited                500.00 x               1100.00

20/05/2011     Check issued No. 1002    700.00 x                 400.00

31/05/2011     Check issued No. 1003    200.00                   200.00

31/05/2011     Check deposited              1000.00      1200.00                                

2.       When you receive the bank statement: You knock off those similar items in the bank statement and your own records such as checks issued and money deposited. There will be outstanding items appearing in the bank statement as well as your own record. Now you should take up those items in the bank statement that you have not taken up in your own records such as interest, standing orders and other bank charges. These charges are to be deducted from the balance of your own record.  The final figure is the closing balance of your bank account. However, it is not the amount available in your bank that you can use. You have to do reconciliation with the bank statement to determine the available fund.        

Bank statement (It is assumed that your opening balance and the bank’s opening balance are the same)

Date                  Transaction                         Amount               Balance

01/05/2011     Opening balance                    1500.00                +1500.00

05/05/2011     Check No. 1001                     900.00x                 +600.00

12/05/2011     Check Deposit                        500.00x                +1100.00

22/05/2011     Check No. 1002                     700.00x                  +400.00

31/05/2011     Bank charges                            50.00x                  +350.00            

Your own record updated

31/05/2011     Bank charges                           50.00x             1150.00

                            -

3.       The process of reconciliation: Remember there are some items in your own record which are not reflected in the bank statement, such as checks issued and money deposited not taken by your bank. You should now deducted those unpresented checks and add money deposited but not yet taken up by the bank from the bank balance to arrive at the reconciled balance. This figure should be the same as your own closing balance.

Bank Reconciliation Statement as at 31/05/2011

Balance as per bank statement                                                 350.00

Add:  Amount deposited but not taken up by bank                 1000.00

 Less: Amount withdrawn but not yet taken up by bank            200.00

Balance as per your own record                                            1150.00

You can do reconciliation at any time because you can go online to check your bank accounts.  But what is the available fund that you can utilize?   

             

4.       What is your available balance: The fund that you can safely mobilize is the amount stated in the bank statement less all unpresented checks issued by you. According to my simple example, you can now safely issue checks up to   950.00 without bouncing a single check. 

Reconciled Balance                                                       1150.00

Less: Amount withdrawn but not yet taken up                  200.00

Available fund                                                                 950.00

Do you think this article is helpful to manage your bank accounts?