Wireless Gadgets Help Boomers To Continue Working

Wireless gadgets are just so common place today. The amount of time we spend with our mobile device in hand seems to be ever increasing. Running several blogs and a business keeps me pretty busy. If I didn't have my mobile devices like my phone and iPad I couldn't be as productive as I am.

The key to being successful in today's economy is by maximizing your results by being as productive as you can. I don't need to be stuck in an office; I need to be out producing results for my company. Mobile devices help me do this. I can send and receive emails on my device quickly. The quick response may mean the difference in making that sale for the company. Mobile devices using the wireless communication system called the Internet has made me more productive.

Recently, I made a 2 day business trip. I brought with me with my mobile smart phone and laptop computer. I was constantly in touch with my customers. They didn't know if I was in town or 5000 miles away. I was able to serve them just as well as I ever did. 

Image via CrunchBase

As the Baby Boomer population continues to age and enter retirement many are finding new opportunities and careers. They are in need of more income because of economic uncertainties. They are worried their retirement savings is not going to carry them through their retirement. Many use the Internet to conduct their business. There has never been a time in history where it has been so easy to start a business and this is thanks to the Internet. 

There Many ways to earn not only a part time income but also a full time job. Working online allows you to set your own hours and the commute has been eliminated. Here are a few ways to get started:

• Sell Stock Photography - At websites like Shutterstock.com.
• Tweet For Sponsors - Make with Twitter at SponsoredTweets.com.
• Blog for Ad Revenues - Start a blog and earn money from advertisers.
• Sell Affiliate Products - In your blog place ads for Amazon.com
• Write an e Book - Sell your e-book at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kobo they are just a few of the sites to use.
• Become a Virtual Assistant - Work from home and interact with clients.
• Use Your Skills - At 99Designs, Elance, Freelancer and iWriter you can be creative and make money.
• Selling on eBay - Sell new and used goods.
• Become A Mobile App Tester - Work for uTest and get paid to test apps.
• Designing T-Shirts - Design and sell T-shirts use threadless.com or designbyhumans.com

There hundreds of ways to make money online. Working online from home will be the way many Baby Boomers earn their money and make their lives a lot better.

Cash Back Credit Cards that Reward Home Improvement Purchases This Spring

This guest post was written by Jason Bushey. Jason is a full-time personal finance blogger, and he runs the day to day operations at Creditnet.com. 

It's already April, which means spring has arrived and homeowners are ready to crawl out of hibernation and get cracking on the spring cleaning we've all been putting off for months. DIY repairs may be the cheaper (and more fulfilling) route when it comes to home improvement this spring, but those expenses can certainly add up.

For their part, some credit card companies are willing to help out by offering bonus cash back on these home improvement purchases. Chase, Discover and American Express are all promoting 5 percent cash back or more on home improvement purchases made in quarter 2 of 2013, extending through June 30th.

If you're hoping to earn rewards on the home improvement purchases you plan on making anyway, here are four cards that can help take the sting out of spring cleaning:

1.) Discover it

Home Improvement Bonus: 5 percent cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases at home improvement stores

This popular cash back card from Discover is offering members 5 percent cash back on up to $1,500 in eligible home improvement purchases through June, 2013 when they enroll. All other purchases net 1 percent cash back per dollar spent. And since there's no annual fee, this is essentially one of the best free credit cards to carry so long as you pay your balance back in full each month.

What's the catch? The cap on bonus cash back earned is $1,500, so the most a member can earn on bonus cash back is $75 per quarter. That said, all other purchases earn the standard one percent, so no matter what you're buying with a Discover it Card you're still earning some cash back.

The Final Word: The quality of this card goes way beyond the 5 percent cash back bonus - there's also a 14 month 0 percent APR period applied to purchases and balance transfers, making this one of the best 0 percent interest credit cards on the market today - and in the short term you can earn some decent cash back for your home improvement purchases.

2.) Chase Freedom

Home Improvement Bonus: 5 percent cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases at Lowe's

The Chase Freedom card is offering cardholders 5 percent cash back on up to $1,500 in purchases at Lowe's. And if you want to reward yourself at the end of a day for a job well done, that same 5 percent offer extends to restaurant and movie theater purchases, too. That sounds like a pretty good Saturday!

What's the catch? If you don't live near a Lowe's you're sort of out of luck, and there's the aforementioned cap on 5 percent cash back at $1,500 in purchases. But like the Discover it Card, Chase Freedom members will earn 1 percent cash back on all purchases, so again you're still getting something for each swipe of your card.

The Final Word: This is another excellent cash back option, and as a bonus members who spend $500 within the first three months of their account opening will earn a $100 cash back bonus. Combined with your 5 percent cash back offer and you can save a bundle on home improvement purchases this spring.

3.) TrueEarnings Card from Costco and American Express

Home Improvement Bonus: 3 percent cash back on up to $4,000 in purchases made at Costco each year.

Costco has all the tools you'll need to get the ball rolling on those home improvement plans. Plus, they'll even reward you with 3 percent cash back at stand-alone US gas stations (again, up to $4,000), so not only will you receive cash back for the purchases you make at the store - you'll earn bonus cash back just for getting there, too.

What's the Catch? You'll need a Costco membership card to take advantage of cash back offered with this American Express card, and the $4,000 cap means a max of $120 bonus cash back each year. Like the cards before it, cardholders still earn 1% on all other purchases.

The Final Word: If you frequent Costco often (and we know there are plenty of you out there that do), this is an excellent card to carry year-round, long after you've put the finishing touches on that broken gutter or new doghouse.

Earn more than just self-satisfaction - and an improved living space - when you use the above credit cards to make your home improvement purchases this spring.

The Five Fold Benefits of Life Insurance for Seniors

Universal Life Insurance Company (Photo credit: Thomas Hawk)

The following are the few facts about life insurance for seniors.

1. These insurance policies are the most popular policies for the seniors
2. The rate of interests on policies is going down every day. Thus, this is the best time to purchase any kind of coverage.
3. Most companies offer customized life insurance policies for the seniors, since they are an important target of the companies.
4. A senior citizen obviously will not be eligible for a term life insurance and thus insurance for seniors are the only reliable option they are left with.

Benefits of Life Insurance for Seniors

1. Affordability

Life insurance for seniors come at a cheaper rate than any other coverage. The amount one is required to spend upon these investments are interestingly quite convenient.

2. Purchase Money

Most senior men and women have a strong self-esteem and do not wish to be a burden on anyone in their last days. This is mainly why, senior people wish to invest upon a life insurance policy. This kind of an investment is basically, a ‘money purchase,’ i.e. one can use this money to meet his own expenditures during and after his lifetime. When the policy matures, the amount one will be receiving shall take care of the entire medical expenditures and also expenses that arise post-death.

3. Property Planning

Senior citizens are benefitted from term life insurances, as they are available at cheap rates to them. a term life insurance can be purchased with the help of the income, like pensions. There are many reasons why a senior citizen would wish to purchase a life insurance. One of the more common reason is that he wishes to plan and hand over his property to the generation that follows him, without any hassle. By a term life insurance, one can ensure that no taxes levied on the property or estate after your death depletes its value.

5. Death Benefits

The death benefit period is decided at the very time one purchases the policy. However, the death benefit one would receive will be decided by the medical history and the age of the individual.

5. Caters to the Family

One would always want that his or her absence causes no problem for the rest of the family. Thus, the question of burdening the family with the post-death expenses haunts them. a life insurance policy for seniors would relieve the family of such burdens.

How to Become a Successful Freelancer

Freelancing is the idea of working somewhere far away from the office and safely in your own home. It’s very tempting for those who can’t work well in an office environment. Not having to go to work and pay for the commute, freelancers essentially work the way they want to work, not being bound by anything, and some have met success in this field. It’s not just for anybody, though it is something anyone should consider. For those that do consider the idea, here are some tips to help you become a successful freelancer: 

First of all, you have to make sure that you really want to freelance. If you’re already working in the office, ask yourself if you are willing to give up the weekly wages, the pension, the company of your office mates and the paid holidays. Ask yourself if you really are suited to freelancing. To help with this, start with part-time, so you can ease yourself into freelancing. 

Second is to ask yourself if you are marketable. Know if there are people who will desire your skills. As there is competition in freelancing, you have to be sure if you have the skills people will want, so you can land yourself a freelancing job. It is, however, easy to market yourself in the Internet; someone is bound to notice you when you market yourself.

 
Third is to join a union. It sounds pretty old-fashioned and out-of-place for a freelancer, but joining a union still gives you benefits. Freelancing is a mostly lonely job, so being in a union with other freelancers who probably have the same problems as you do, as well as being able to ask others for advice, will be a big help. 

Fourth is to be aware of the computer. A freelancer’s main tool is the computer; it’s where you do your work. It is also where you go to when you want to watch YouTube videos or read something funny in one of the usual sites you go to during your off-hours. Don’t let yourself get distracted when you’re supposed to be busy working. 

Fifth tip is to remind yourself that you are your own company. You are now every single department in one person, responsible for managing your money, marketing, publicity and all other things a normal company has different people doing. 

Sixth, do whatever it takes to get your name and business out there. Being a freelancer means having a tough competition with everyone else so you can land a job. This means competing with every company out there for work. 

Seventh, don’t get sick. As a freelancer, you are your own boss, which means a day of work missed means a day of where you don’t get paid. If this idea bothers you too much, don’t become a freelancer. 

Eighth tip, learn to deal with bad days. You are pretty much in charge now, so every bad day you have will only feel much worse as a freelancer. Learn to accept that fact and cope with it, as tomorrow is another day. 

The ninth tip is to plan ahead. Aside from balancing your work and your life and putting your work over life, you need to know where and when the work will come from. Plan ahead so that you will have something to fall back on after your current job is finished, then plan ahead for after that other job is already finished. 

The tenth and final tip is to have a life. Since you’re freelancing, you’re more or less always “on.” Every now and then, switch “off” and do something unrelated to work. It will take your mind off of it and you can start off fresh the next day. 

Author Bio: Austin Richard is an IT professional from Pass Certification. It provides you 100% 70-481 exams. Let’s take benefit of 70-448 Exams material efficiently and get guaranteed success. Check out free demo of all certifications Exam.

How to Supplement Your Retirement with Income from Other People's Properties

Property in Europe (Photo credit: Images_of_Money)

Do you have fears about not having enough money for a comfortable retirement? Perhaps you are looking to invest in property, either to supplement your existing pension, or to become financially independent from the portfolio itself. What you may not have realised, however, is that you don’t necessarily need to “own” a portfolio in order to create cashflow from one. Read on and discover how my daughter Emily and I went from 0 to £5000 per month from properties we don’t actually own... 

Would Ownership Work for Us? 

We had heard a great deal about building a small portfolio of properties that we could buy cheap or finance, refurbish and sell or rent to up-and-coming young professionals. It sounded a good plan on the face of it but the problem was that we were quickly running out of cash. Since the credit crunch, lenders usually require a hefty 25% deposit. Even if a property could be obtained below market value, it was costing us around £21,000 per property. After all that investment, we were only making around £200 per month cashflow. At this rate, we realised that it was going to take a long, long time to become financially free, so it was back to the drawing board. We knew that there had to be another way. 

Single-Lets vs. Multi-Lets 

As I mentioned, renting the property out as a single-let property, namely when the entire property is let out on an AST, just wasn’t producing the cashflow we required. It was then, that we discovered how multi-letting a property, namely renting the property on a room by room basis, created substantially higher cashflow each month. It did not take us long to realize that multi-letting was the way forward. However, we still had the problem of stumping up the hefty deposits required by lenders. That’s when the light bulb moment hit... 

You Don’t Need To Own! 

We knew that multi-letting was the best was for us to maximise cashflow, but we still faced the same problem, namely raising the huge initial deposit. It then suddenly dawned on us. Why do we actually need to buy these properties? We knew that there must be struggling landlords out there who are looking for a guaranteed rent and for someone to manage the property for them. We decided to contact letting agents and make arrangements to rent the properties through what a corporate let. We would rent on a room-to-room basis to multiple renters who would be young professionals between the ages of 23 and 35. The agent would have a guaranteed rent, and we would take care of having minimal renovations performed that were necessary to make the house attractive to tenants. Initially we were met with scepticism and were even thrown out a couple of offices! But we persevered and within 6 months we had 9 multi-let houses in 5 months generating £5000 pcm net! 

Finding the Right Properties 

In our target area, we look to acquire properties that had a number of larger bedrooms, such as Victorian houses. Double bedrooms rent out much more easily than singles, especially if they have an en-suite. We normally look to pay the landlord around £200 pcm for each double bedroom in the house. So a property with 4 double rooms, we will rent off the landlord for £800. We then advertise the rooms for around £400 per room. After all cost, we aim to make £500 per month cashflow off each property. 

This system has been working out well for us and we plan on expanding our portfolio of rent to rent properties in the next year or so. We have created systems so that we only spend a few hours each week managing each property. It really has worked well for us and can work for you too. As Nike would say “Just Do It!” Francis Dolley is an expert on this unique rent to rent system and runs courses in the UK teaching students how they can successfully build a portfolio of properties that they don’t own, yet generate substantial cashflow profits each and every month.

The Economic Benefits Of Continuing Your Education

In today's economy, it is extremely easy to become unemployed. There is nothing so sure about your career future when the economy keeps going through ups and downs. The only thing you can be sure is how you are going to protect yourself against this uncertainty and secure your position. One of the best way to do it is to continue your education. If you are currently a teacher, this means that you need to attend more higher learning courses to know how to become an even better teacher.

What Are the Benefits of Continuing Your Education

Firstly, you will be open to a lot of higher paying jobs. With a higher degree, such as masters or PhD, you will be eligible for a lot of high paying positions. You will have to invest some serious money for the degree, but your effort and money will be paid off when you land high paying jobs and become financially secure. Many people do not realize how much potential an advanced degree could give them. They think they have a solid job already and don't want to lose money pursuing a degree all over again. However, it is not true. You need to prepare yourself for the changing work environment.

Even if you don't want to change your current job, getting a higher degree could help you in many ways. Firstly, you will probably have a raise in salary when you have a higher education degree. Secondly, you will have more to offer your company when you enrich yourself with new knowledge from the degree program. You will be able to secure your position against newly graduates who may have received a better education than you used to have.

Some companies even pay for their employees to continue their education. You could ask your employer directly and see if your company has such a policy. If it does, why not join in?

If you fear that continuing your education will take away too much time of your own, you need to know that there are many types of programs available to help working people like you. You may attend a weekend class, or evening course, or even study online if you prefer. The choice is very much yours.

Author Bio: Kimberly Santoyo has been writing freelance for over 3 years. She is passionate about business and finance and would like to become an entrepreneur in the future. Learning Cultures Ltd provides practical and sustainable whole school solutions that deliver high quality teaching and learning and deliver high quality, cost effective and continuing professional development for teachers.