Smart Financial Tips for Retirees

saving and spending (Photo credit: 401(K) 2013)

Just because you’ve reached an important milestone doesn’t mean savings and investing are behind you. You might be just as busy as you were when you were working full-time, and nowadays the transition into retirement isn’t as black and white as it used to be. If you’re worried about how to stretch your pension, social security, retirement accounts or savings, read on for financial tips just for retirees. 

If you haven’t quite reached the marker for withdrawing social security or a certain account, hold on. The penalties are almost never worth the instant “reward.” Whether you were a frugal spender your entire life or not, now is the time to really put wise spending into action. From travel to groceries, there are a number of ways to save money and put off those payouts until you can maximize them. 

Saving on Health and Well-Being

As a retiree, you likely qualify for a number of low-cost or even free classes and services. Start by Googling free health classes in your area. A costly gym membership for you and your spouse is an easy item to be nixed if you find things like free yoga or Pilates that can replace it. Get creative and you might find a new passion, such as aqua classes in adjustable pools at your local community center.

When it comes to grocery shopping, consider the actual cost of convenience. You probably already know which nearby stores have the lowest prices, especially when combined with coupons and shopping seasonally, but it might not be quite as convenient as the store that’s a little closer. Or maybe you’re just a creature of habit or prefer the atmosphere of a costlier store; consider if the cost is really worth it. 

Travel Tips

It’s no secret that traveling standby can save you hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars. The downside is that you have to have flexibility, which is something many people in the workforce don’t have. However, flexibility is now yours and you can save a bundle on travel. Combine standby with traveling during the off season to maximize your cost-saving trip.

Price comparison is important no matter what you’re shopping for, including travel. If you really want to save, choose destinations based on proximity to you. If you live in New York, a trip to Puerto Rico will be much more affordable, not to mention an easier and with a shorter flight time, than a trip to Hawaii. Tropical locations also have off-seasons where hotels and activities are often half off, so plan accordingly. 

Are Your Accounts Working for You?

If you’re paying for a checking account, stop. There are plenty of checking accounts available with no catches for completely free accounts, including options at local credit unions. If you feel locked into a savings account that requires a high minimum for a low APR, it’s time to move on. What happens if you need that money? You’ll be penalized with monthly fees when the balance drops below a set amount.

Right now, there are very few options from CDs to savings accounts that offer anything beyond a paltry return rate. Don’t opt to lock your money away if there’s not a decent return on your investment. Instead, look for avenues to save your money with no strings attached. As a retiree, accessibility and no penalties should be at the forefront of any new accounts.

Being Able To Rent An Apartment In Spite Of Bad Credit – How It’s Done

Landlord? (Photo credit: the justified sinner)

You may know for a fact that renting with bad credit is a tough call. Landlords may not be willing to accept a prospective tenant who has bad credit because it shows that the tenant has had a history of not paying bills. This is only one of the ways how bad credit affects renting. 

However, you may still be able to rent a home, even with bad credit, your prospective landlord may accept you. 

Here are other tips on how to rent with bad credit: 

1. Talk with your landlord personally and show your credit report. Point out to him the entries where you are repaying your old debts. This will show him that you are earnestly working on neutralizing your debts, and will show him that you will be able to pay him when the rent comes due. 

2. If you have utility bills or rent that are past due, pay them off and have your former landlord sign a certificate that states that you've repaid these bills. Through this, you will be able to demonstrate that you are willing and able to pay the bills. 

3. Show your landlord proof of having a job. If you have a company ID, a payslip or a certificate of employment of sorts, you may show these as proof that you have a job and can pay the bills. 

4. Pay a larger security deposit. In order to help your landlord understand that you are serious about being able to pay your rent, paying a bigger security deposit may help communicate that. Not only that, your landlord will have something to use if you are late in some of your payments. 

5. Work on an auto-debit arrangement. If your landlord can accept a bank transfer or a credit card payment, you can devise a system wherein your rent would be automatically paid to your landlord's bank account at a certain date. You may also want to consider using checks and putting that on an automatic transfer system as well.

 
6. Ask someone to co-sign the lease contract with you. It may be a risk on your friend's part, but this will, at least, assure your landlord that someone else will be able to foot the bill if it comes down to that. 

7. Be willing to accept higher rental rates. Because you have bad credit, your landlord may try to capitalize on that and charge you more for bad credit renting. Grin and bear this tiny inconvenience, since you need a roof over your head. 

Bad credit really poisons a person's life. More than being unable to rent a home in a smooth transaction, bad credit may also keep you from being accepted for a job, or even a promotion. This is why you need to think long-term. 

How to change your financial circumstances for the long haul: 

1. Repay your debts. There's no other way to do it: you really have to repay your debts.

2. Sit with a financial advisor and consult him on how to manage your finances better. Try working with the financial counselors from Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace program.

3. Get a secured card and rebuild your credit. You can rebuild your credit thanks to the use of a secured card. A secured card is backed by actual money, but successfully paid transactions will still appear on your credit report. These successfully paid items will boost your credit score positively, and may bring you back from bad credit to good credit. 

There are simply so many benefits to bringing your credit back from its "bad" state and back into a "good credit standing." These tips will help you regain good credit, beyond teaching you how to rent with bad credit. Even if you will be able to get away with renting with bad credit, you will still need to have good credit for greater things, in the long run: when you apply for a car loan, when you apply for a home mortgage loan, all of these things require you to be in good credit standing. 

So look beyond needing to secure bad credit renting. Look beyond the concern of how bad credit affects renting. Instead, think about all the benefits that good credit can afford you and be inspired to recover your good credit standing. 

Amy Johnson is an active blogger who is fond of sharing interesting finance related articles to encourage people to manage and protect their finances. She also covers topics on credit monitoring & credit protection that can help people manage and improve their finances.

Exploring the Imperative Aspects of Finance

Finance - Financial injection - Finance (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

Organizing the expenditure is one of the most difficult jobs. We forget to control our expensed in every month. Moreover this can be considered as one of our natural instincts. When we go to the market, we forget the budget and start buying things beyond the financial capability of ours. So, we get into financial crisis as the month comes to an end. At this very moment we have to apply for a quick approval loan. So, we should make a plan or make budget before we go for shopping. Otherwise we won’t be able to overcome this for the entire life. Moreover we need to follow the plan. If we just make a plan for the sake of plan then we won’t be able to solve this problem. So, we need to be very careful about that particular thing. 

The children have a natural tendency to buy the things they see in front of them. But as a guardian of the child or the children it is your responsibility to make them understand they shouldn’t do this. If you can make them understand the situation then the problem can be solved in an easier process. So you also need to be careful regarding this also.

Suppose, you are going to start a business and you haven’t planned anything regarding the finance or the capital investment that is one of the important part of the business, then you will surely have to face problems. So, to avoid such problems you need to make effective plans and should try to maintain this for a long time. You need to be strategic. There are mainly two types of businesses available in the market. One type of business requires fewer amounts or less amount of capital amount investment. You should go fort this business. There is no doubt that at the very beginning you won’t be able to arrange huge amount of money at the very beginning. You can change or shift to some other business later when you have already established this particular business.

If you have friends or relatives who have got success in business then you should ask them at the very inception of the business. Here in this article we are going to make you familiar with some essential factors that you should keep bin your mind. You just need to go through this article very carefully. 

Things to Be Kept in Mind:

· You need to maintain the pro-forma from the very beginning of the business. If you do this then you will be able to see what amount of money should be invested for the next project. You shouldn’t forget this point as this will help you a lot to get good financial condition.

· You should appoint an accountant at the beginning. Ask him to maintain the account of everything very carefully. Ask him to maintain separate sheet for everything. The salary sheet should be maintained in a proper way. You can also maintain this in your personal life.

Description: Get to know the important factors to get a good financial condition of your business at market competitive rates from the reliable website.

Alisa Martin is a popular author writing articles on ad testing and related topics. In this article she has given information regarding the customer satisfaction survey.

What Should Be Covered by Health Insurance Policy

Many people are confused and puzzled when looking for health insurance policy and repeatedly asking themselves what should be and should not be covered by the policy they are going to buy in order to save and not to misuse the money they worked hard for in an insurance plan. As a result of this, many people always fall in the marketing strategies of professional brokers and unconsciously sign up on a contract that is not very helpful to their needs. 

Health insurance is a type of insurance which minimizes our medical expenses whenever we visit a doctor for regular check up or even when we are hospitalized due to sickness or other unforeseen serious health condition. The efficiency of having this insurance policy is really helpful to a lot of health insurance policy holders and as result of this, it has become one of the important investments that we should acquire in order to protect ourselves, bank accounts and our loved ones. 

Some important coverage of health insurance policy you should see in a deal or contract is listed below and if you don’t see all of these in your contract, better question your insurance agent why this one is not included in your policy. 

Hospital confinement 

Emergency can occur anytime and may unexpectedly happen if you are not conscious about your health condition. If your health condition is not going well, the chances of being hospitalized is higher and if you are not prepared of this possibility, you may suffer from medical expenses due to your poor health condition. 

Reasons for hospital confinement: 

• Patient needs doctor’s observation during recovery procedure 
• Patient needs to utilize medical equipment for recovery 
• Patient needs to undergo medical exams for health condition monitoring 

Medical Operation 

Everyone is aware that having a medical operation is really expensive and we should always have enough savings in order to have operation or otherwise, our health or physical condition will not be treated properly and we may have to continue suffering from this unfortunate condition. 

Types of medical operation: 

• Surgical Procedure 
• Replacement of broken bones 
• internal Organ Replacement 

Therapy and physical rehabilitation 

Another important coverage of health insurance is medication. It will be pain in the neck if we don’t have spare budget to provide the prescription drugs by our doctors to treat the pain and illness that we are experiencing especially if the required medicine to intake is high-priced and in a critical situation like this, we cannot afford to miss any required medicine in order to keep our body taken care of.

 
Having a health insurance policy is really necessary for us and we should not pay attention on our monthly premium and overall cost of our health insurance policy since we can have discounts especially if you have good medical records and in good health condition. We should always keep in mind that the main purpose of health insurance is to save us from unexpected medical expenses that may occur due to accidents, physical injuries and many more. 

Bio: 
Alberta Smith, an avid writer interested in insurance industry, regularly contributes to a number of online resources to help those who are looking for information about insurance services.

When is the Right Time to Buy a House?

Knowing when the right time can be to buy a house can depend on a number of different factors; you need to be aware of changes in the UK property market, as well as of the availability of different mortgages. At the same time, it’s crucial to consider your short and long term personal finances, and whether you’ll be able to buy a house and then be able to build up its value over time. There are also some timing issues that need to be worked out when deciding on a house purchase. 


While the UK property market is still not out of recession, the continued resilience of the London market and the capital’s house prices is having a gradual impact on nationwide prices, with London having experienced a 0.7 per cent increase in property prices in February. Other rises in house prices have been down to some fluctuating sales costs, which are going through a period of gradual improvement and stalling - the average price for a house in the UK is around £213,710 which represents a small growth on previous years. 


You should also be aware of the different schemes set up by the Government to help first time and existing house buyers to lower the costs of mortgages and get them onto the property market. The most recent of these schemes is Help to Buy, which will offer house buyers a 20 per cent deposit loan on top of their own 5 per cent contribution - these loans will be interest free for the first five years, and set at a rate of 1.75 per cent thereafter. The Government are similarly offering home buyers a guarantor scheme for mortgages, with banks being encouraged to offer higher value loans. 


When looking for a mortgage, the right time to get one can depend, then, on how cautious or optimistic banks and other lenders are at any given time; the Help to Buy scheme, which follows previous efforts to raise confidence in the property market, should help reduce risk for lenders. However, the mortgage market is still fairly stagnant, with only marginal increases in borrowing, and more repayments made than new loans taken out in February 2013. 


For most people, then, there is no ideal time to buy a house, but rather a climate of caution that needs to be carefully explored; you’ll need to make sure that your personal finances are strong enough to cover at least a 5 per cent deposit, and that you can cover stamp duty, conveyancing and other fees, which can quickly add up. Look ahead to consider whether your wages and savings can cover monthly mortgage payments and any renovation costs. 


You can make things a bit easier on yourself, though, by looking to buy a new property in Winter-time, where prices tend to be a bit lower as demand falls. Speak to estate agents about offers, and look into options where sellers may be unable to wait until the Spring for a potentially higher price. Similarly, watch out for new mortgage deals and interest rate changes for the start of the new financial year from the 6th of April, if you want to see if banks are willing to lend more at reasonable prices. 

Author bio: Liam writes about finance, from estate agents in Ipswich to mortgage rates. He attends regular finance seminars to ensure he stays on top of the industry.

Personal Finance After Hitting 50: Is It Too Late for Life Insurance?

For many of us, life insurance is something we only consider after a life-altering event such as marriage or the birth of a child. But for those who haven’t gotten around to investigating its possibilities as we reach retirement age, are affordable options still available?

If you’re in good health, the answer is yes. And you’re not alone: since so many people are getting married and having children later in life, the big questions are now announcing themselves later and later.

Understanding Your Beneficiaries

The first step in determining what kind of life insurance plan you need to get is figuring out who is financially dependent on you and to what extent they’ll need resources in the event you pass. Determine the amount of money that would be commensurate with what you are currently providing for them and calculate how long they’ll need funding.

Potential financial dependents may include your children, spouse, parents or a sibling you provide for financially. When you have your policy in place, you can choose to name multiple beneficiaries and give a specific number for each to inherit.

If nobody is financially dependent on you, you may still consider life insurance if you want to provide for someone after your death. For example, parents with grown children may pay a small monthly premium to know that their children will get a set amount of funds every month or to make sure their funeral costs will be addressed.

Can I Get A Plan?

For most applicants, the criteria for getting a life insurance plan include undergoing a physical examination and answering a questionnaire about your health and habits. When the company determines the current state of your well being, they will offer you their terms and prices.

There are many varieties of plan, most of which can be sorted into two main types: term life insurance and whole life insurance. In term life, you simply pay an annual premium for your coverage for a set duration, such as 20 years. Once the 20 years pass by, the coverage is no longer in effect.


Whole life or cash value policies operate in a variety of ways. Typically, your premium pays the cost of insurance and contributes to a reserved investment account. The policy lasts for your whole life (hence, “whole life”). Premiums are much higher than what one pays for a term policy, but the benefits are greater, too. For some, there may be a tax advantage, even though contributions are made with post-tax dollars.

Choosing A Term

For many 50-somethings, a 15- to 20-year life insurance plan may be the most affordable and effective way to shield your income and loved ones from financial turmoil after your passing. Keep an eye out for two key factors: the ability to convert to a permanent plan that will continue into your later years, and the plan’s policy on guaranteeing your insurability.
Regardless of the type you choose, the maximum value of life insurance is in the peace of mind that it provides. No matter what your circumstances, knowing that your loved ones will be provided for will allow you to fully dedicate yourself to the things you love. You can tend to your organic garden or woodworking project secure in your choices. 

Adrienne Erin is a writer with interests in education, personal finance, and health. To read more of her work, follow her on Twitter under the handle @adrienneerin.