Why SelectAware.com is a Website You Shouldn't Pass Up as a Parent

Guest post by Lynn D

With the way the economy is, you need to pinch every penny that you can in order to survive. Most people can afford the bare necessities, but not always. Imagine how much easier it would be to live your life with a little extra cash in your pocket, simply because you didn't have to spend so much on the same products that you always get.

In other words, imagine if you had a one-stop place for coupons, savings and discounts on the products you already purchase. Imagine if there were a place where you could get together with everyone trying to make their pennies go a little bit further.

Imagine if you had a place online where you could share discounts and deals you've found with other people while simultaneously reaping the benefits of what other people have shared.

It would not only make your life easier, but it would make it possible to hello your family afford the things that they regularly sacrifice because money is simply too tight for luxuries.

Here's the good news: There's an online community where people share deals, discounts, coupons, promo codes and tips for saving money in everyday life. It's a place called SelectAware.com, and there's quite a number of people already using it.

There's a large number of things that you need to survive each day. Things like baby diapers, clothing, doggy kibble and anything else that you need to simply live. With SelectAware.com, it's pretty simple to find all of these things. It's even easier to find time-sensitive discounts and clearances that you otherwise would miss.

That's only the tip of the iceberg as to what makes it good.

You know all those things that you have to give up so that you can afford the bare necessities? You can have some of them, because you're able to save money and then save more on the few luxuries you can manage to treat yourself to. You'll find coupons for things like perfume, automotive services and even travel discounts there..

You'd be amazed at how much you can save with one little promotional code in your shopping cart at the online checkout of a store like Sears. You can purchase those new bed sheets that you've simply given up on for years because you needed to purchase uniforms for your children.

Simply put, SelectAware.com is a great place to save money. The community is friendly, the discounts are useful to almost everything that you could want, and you'll find deals that you would often times miss there. If you're someone who needs to save a little bit of money, then you should give the website a try.

401k's Still the Best Way to Save For Retirement

The 401k has been a golden standard for methods that employees have at their advantage for putting away retirement funds. The 401k involves setting aside part of your paycheck into a different special IRS designated 401(k) account and having your employer match your contribution. 

The advantage of the 401k, besides your employer matching to some percentage your deposit, is that it is tax deferred. At the time of deferral, the set aside money is not subject to income tax and is not included in taxable income on the employee's tax return. This means that if you set aside $10,000 from your $100,000 salary, you can report $90,000 as your income for that year. The $10,000 will be taxed only if and when you withdraw it from your account.

But of course, to find the best 401k plan includes a multitude of aspects to consider when choosing the best one. These include:

Type of Plan: A number of 401(k) plans are available to employers who wish to aid in their employees’ retirement plans: traditional, safe harbor, and SIMPLE, each with respective rules and regulations. In order to achieve tax-favored status, the plan must abide by the certain stipulations. This requires that employers familiarize themselves with the rules, to guarantee accordance

• Traditional 401(k) plans: A traditional 401(k) plan enables eligible employees to opt for pre-tax deferrals by payroll deduction. Within this plan, employers also have the option to make contributions on the employee's behalf, either through matching contributions of elective deferrals or simply providing the deferral themselves. To ensure proper employer compliance and verify that employer contributions were not discriminatory, the employer must perform annual tests known as the ADP and ACP, or the Actual Deferral Percentage and Actual Contribution Percentage.
• Safe harbor 401(k) plans: A safe harbor plan is similar to the traditional plan but adds on the stipulation that employer contributions must be fully vested when made. Unlike the traditional 401(k) plan, the safe harbor plan is not subject to the ADP and ACP.
• SIMPLE 401(k) plans: The SIMPLE plan was created to suit the needs of small businesses by providing the framework for an effective, cost-efficient option for retirement benefits. Like the safe harbor plan the SIMPLE plan does not require the ADP and ACP test, and the employer must make fully vested contributions. The plan is only available for employers with 100 or fewer employees who received a minimum of $5,000 in compensation within the past calendar year.

Insurance: Whether the plan has an account, contract, or policy with an insurance company to provide protection such as guaranteed investment contracts.

Type of Plan: Single-employer plans, multiple-employer plans, and direct filing entities all have different implications, benefits, and perks.

Fees: Different fees can seriously stunt growth, even if they exist at small percentages. For example, consider an employee who has a 401(k) account balance of $25,000 and 35 years until retirement. If returns continue over the next 35 years and 7% fees reduce average returns by 0.5%, the account balance will reach $227,000 by time of retirement, even without further account contributions. If the fees and expenses are just 1% higher, at 1.5%, the account balance will only reach $163,000 given the same circumstances. This 1% fee difference reduced the effective balance by 28%.

For a more in depth guide, visit FindTheBest’s guide to understanding 401k plans. FindTheBest also has comparisons for mortgage rates by state and registered investment advisors (RIAs).

Household Gadgets – How you can improve your family’s life

It is undoubted that the household gadgets can bring a lot of benefits to our daily life, make life become easier and more convenient. To step by step update people’s life, more and more interesting and functional household gadget has been released to the market. 

Along with the appearance of more and more gadgets, the price has also become cheaper and cheaper so that customer will have more chance to approach the products. Take a look around your house and find out what you need, then go to store or online store to buy the household gadget that you need. Here is some household gadget that you can use to improve your living area. 

Tools for the kitchen:

Those kind of gadget is often being tools that help people prepare the meal in a quicker way. Some can be named are the potato peeler or the fruit blender. The other ones can be used to do after-meal work such as the disk washing machine. With the help of the kitchen gadget, your task will be completed faster and more practiced.

Bathroom tools:

The function for those kind of gadgets is varied. They can be a tool that helps to keep the floor dry, help to modify the temperature in the bathroom. The diversity of the bathroom tools now can help you to solve all the issues you can have from cleaning the floor to adding places for dressing in the bathroom. 

Garden gadgets:

Garden tools are a necessity for house with large outside areas. They will make the tough gardening task become more convenient and even more fun. Using the gardening tool will help you to clip the plants or cutting the glass in a professional way. Moreover, the tool of this market is varied and also practical and easy to use. Therefore, even an unskillful person in gardening can still do the tasks easily and effectively. The benefits that those gadgets bring are a beautiful and nature-friendly garden. 

Storing tools:

Storage is really a problem especially with the house that do not have much living area. However, with families whose living space is large, they should use the storing gadget to make their house more tidy and organized. They can build a bookcase, case for showing of the toys, images or souvenir. Some pantry can also be used in the kitchen or the bathroom to tidy the area. In addition, similar to the other kitchen tool, there is a bundle of different storage tool so that you do not need to worry about where to buy them.

In conclusion, Kitchen gadgets are totally functional and useful for your house. If you would like to improve your living space, you can do some research to find the most suitable kitchen gadgets for your house easily on the online retailer’s website. The price for those kind of products often is affordable so that you do not need to concern about this factor much. You just need to focus on how to improve your life as the main objective.

Author Bio:
Austin Richard Is an I.T professional from test4prep. He is 9L0-010 certified. He is now getting prepared for 9L0-064 exam. He likes to write about Business, and Technology.

Embracing the Golden Age with Grace

With each birthday that passes, you begin to notice how age has gradually snuck up on you, painting more lines of wisdom when you were not looking and adding little body aches that remind you of the spry youth you once were. The long distances you have walked before have now grown shorter because you tire more easily these days. But you shouldn’t worry too much about entering the golden age. Instead, you should be grateful that you have been able to live this long and can still continue to live and make a difference. If you’re still not convinced, maybe these perks will remind you that being a senior citizen isn’t so bad. 

Senior Discounts

When you’re a senior, you can get great discounts at malls. Some stores actually hold a discount day just for senior citizens. In some countries, people are issued a senior citizen card, which guarantees them a 20% off on goods and services purchased. It can be used in buying groceries or even food transactions at restaurants. Different countries offer various benefits so take advantage of the ones that are offered in your hometown. 

Pension

Sometimes you forget why you worked so long or so hard for. While it’s true that trying to provide for your family has always been your initial driving force, in the end when the children have all grown up and left the house, you’ll realize that part of that hard work was so you can have enough to support you when you finally decide to retire. Pension is great because it will allow you to fulfill your longtime dreams of travel. Have you ever noticed how most people in retirement are always traveling? It’s because they saved enough money through their pension, thus allowing them to travel as much as their heart desires. 

Cool Gadgets at Your Disposal

When you’re older, you can splurge on cool gadgets to make your life easier, like a no handles vacuum cleaner that won’t require you to bend down when cleaning. A nifty little machine like this is easy to operate and what’s more, it won’t strain your back like the regular vacuum does. I would also suggest getting an ipad so you can keep in touch with your children and grandchildren through skype or facetime. You can also use the ipad to store ebooks if you’re fond of reading. Though you are able to afford so many cool gadgets, don’t go overboard and buy everything you want. Keep on discerning between your wants and needs. Choose to invest in gadgets that are useful and make your life a whole lot easier. 

Time to Make a Difference

When you’re done raising your children, you’ll realize that you have a lot of free time on your hands even after going on travels. One of the things that you can do is to find ways on how you can make a difference in other people’s lives. Volunteer at charity events or organize productive activities for the youth. If you reach out to those who need help, you can enrich their lives and they too can enrich yours in return. 

About the Author
Based in San Diego California, Tiffany Matthews is a professional writer with over 5 years of writing experience. She also blogs about travel, fashion, and anything under the sun at wordbaristas.com, a group blog that she shares with her good friends. In her free time, she likes to travel, read books, and watch movies. You can find her on Twitter as @TiffyCat87.

5 Easy Steps for Saving This Year

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

If you’ve made the decision to finally cut back on your expenses and save some money for a change, you’ve come to the right place. This article is going to outline five easy ways in which you can save money for the rest of the year, to ensure that your Christmas won’t be as sparse as last year’s.

Sell all the stuff you don’t need

By selling off all the unnecessary junk that’s piling up everywhere in your home - in your attic, under your bed and in the storage cupboards - you can give your year of saving a sharp kick start. Go through all the CDs, video games, old gadgets and clothes you don’t want, and try and pawn them off for some cash on a website such as www.musicmagpie.com.

Kill your debt

After the boost from selling some of your stuff, it’ll be slightly easier to go about slaying the debt that’s been mounting over you. If you’re in a lot of debt, you should make it your first priority to eradicate it completely.

By eradicating your debt, it’ll be easier to start saving money for yourself. The faster you do it, the faster you can kill the interest rate, too.

Set yourself goals

Setting yourself manageable goals is a good way of sticking to your new money-saving regime. It depends on what you’re saving for, though. Building a holiday fund for a trip at the end of the year is different from saving up to buy your first home, for instance.

If you set yourself a number of goals to meet, you’ll be more motivated to actually meet them.

Set yourself amounts to save

Once you’ve got your goals in mind, the next thing you need to do is figure out how much exactly you’re going to be setting aside from your income each month towards your goals.

So, if it’s a new video game console you’re saving up for, calculate how much you can afford to set aside each month without impacting on your required expenses. This kind of organisation will add to your new regime of saving and will make you more committed to save.

Get a personal financing app

If practicing this level of saving is hard for you to commit to, you might want to invest in one of the many personal financing apps that are available to smartphone or tablet users. These nifty programs analyse your earnings and expenses, and can even link up to your bank account to show you up-to-date information on how much money you’re spending and saving.

6 Tips to Help You Get a Home Loan

If you are planning to get a home loan, then you must be losing your sleep thinking about whether or not you are going to get an approval. It is difficult to get a home loan from a good lending institution or bank. But, if you go about the process carefully and plan ahead of time, you can manage to get a home loan. Given below are six tips that can help you get a home loan without much hassle  

1. State The Purpose Of The Loan - When you apply for a loan, the lenders need enough documents and proofs to be sure of your purpose. You may have to furnish the building plan and other relevant documents that show the lenders that the value of the property that you have quoted is correct. There are some lending institutions that might even send officers to inspect the property. 

2. Determine Your Income And Expenses - There is a limit to how much you can get as loan amount. This can easily be calculated depending on your gross income and expenditure per month. Prepare the credit report. Try to pay off most of your debts before you apply for the loan. If you have a lot of debt, the lenders would not be keen on lending you money for fear of default. 

3. Check The Eligibility Criteria - All lending institutions have different eligibility criteria. The criteria for the hdfc home loans are different from those of the state banks. Check the eligibility criteria of the institution you want to borrow from and try to fulfil those. Most expect you have a job with a minimum income, are in good health, and have a good credit record. 

4. Furnish All Relevant Documents - When you apply for a home loan, most lenders want ID and address proof. You also have to provide your bank account statement and a statement for all your assets and liabilities. You also have to furnish a salary statement from your employer as a proof that you are in a position to repay the loan amount. These papers should be in proper order and you should furnish them without any delay. 

5. Have A Reliable Guarantor - Some lenders want an additional guarantee in the form of a strong guarantor. In the case of the loan defaulting, the guarantor will step in and ensure that the loan is paid fully. Therefore, if you have a guarantor who is economically strong, the lender is going to warm up to you and this ensures an approval. 

6. Check Online For The Best Loan Option - It is impractical to apply for a loan amount that you are not going to get approval for. Thus, you can always go to different sites online where you can plug in your income, expenditure and other criteria to calculate the loan amount you are eligible for. 

These six tips can help you get an easy approval. Make sure to be clear in all your financial details and have all your papers in order.