Will 2009 be a better Year?

We all know that 2008 will go down as a year to remember. We had Oil trading at $150 a barrel. Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns now have corporate tombstones that declare that they "passed away" during the 08 year. AIG and Citigroup had to be bailed out to avoid the same fate. The Big 3 automakers, Ford, GM, and Chrysler, have had to beg for government funds to remain solvent. The U.S. banking industry has, in effect, been nationalized and put under government control. After all is said and done, the government will have put...

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Medicare, Medicaid, and Long Term Care Insurance

What is Long-Term Care?

Long-term care is a variety of services that includes medical and non-medical care to people who have a chronic illness or disability. Long-term care helps meet health or personal needs. Most long-term care is to assist people with support services such as activities of daily living like dressing, bathing, and using the bathroom. Long-term care can be provided at home, in the community, in assisted living or in nursing homes. It is important to remember that you may need long-term care at any age. You may never need long-term care. This year,...

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Life Insurance for Business Planning

One of the first things any business owner needs to consider is how to protect against events that may threaten the future of the business, like the death or disability of a proprietor, partner or key employee.

Individual Life Insurance

Let’s start with the worst-case scenario, the death of one of the business owners. What will happen to your business if you die? Many small business owners take out loans to help grow their businesses, and often secure these loans with personal assets. If you have business loans and were to pass away before they were paid off,...

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Do you have old 401k plans?

Do you have old 401k plans that are "Left Behind" with old employers? Surprisingly enough, the overwhelming answer is usually yes! One would think that 401 plans would be immune to the procrastination that we all exhibit in our lives, however even sometimes substantial sums of money fall under the category "Out of Sight, Out of Mind". Speaking personally, I generally try not to leave bank accounts with thousands of dollars behind when I change my checking or savings. It would be very disconcerting to have these account or accounts scattered over my former financial life, sometimes...

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Don't Miss out on Free Money! Use Your Company's 401(k) Plan,

The term 401(k) gets thrown around so often but so many employees have no idea what the plan is or how it benefits them. A 401(k) is free money that your employer is trying to give you. All you have to do is accept. If you're not utilizing your company-sponsored 401(k), you are really missing the boat.

Let me explain how this benefit works.

In a very cursory view, a 401(k) allows you to set aside money from each paycheck for your retirement. The true benefit though is that your employer...

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Keys to Personal Financial Planning

Financial Planning Basics - Personal Finance 101

Financial planning covers a wide variety of money topics including budgeting, expenses, debt, saving, retirement and insurance among others. Understanding how each of these topics work together and affect each other is important for laying the groundwork for a solid financial foundation for you and your family.

1. Budgeting

At the very basic level of personal finance you are dealing with a budget; you make money and then you spend that money. Even if you haven’t created a detailed and written budget you continue to budget on a daily basis. When you...

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What is Term Life Insurance and How Does it Work?

Term Insurance 101

• Advantages • When the Term Ends • Return-of-Premium Option • Key Policy Provisions • Convertibility As the name implies, term insurance provides protection for a specific period of time and generally pays a benefit only if you die during the "term." Term periods typically range from one year to 30 years, with 20 years being the most common term.

Advantages of Term Life Insurance

One of the biggest advantages of term insurance is its lower initial cost in comparison to permanent insurance. Why is it cheaper when initially purchased? Because with term insurance, you're generally just paying for the death...

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Be Sure not to forget these IRA Rollver Rules and Tax Implications!

Understanding the short- and long-term tax implications of rollovers from employer-sponsored retirement plans is a critical component of retirement planning. That's because while employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs are designed to help you to build a retirement nest egg, not understanding rollover regulations can lead to unintended tax consequences that chip away at retirement savings. Information on this site can answer basic rollover questions such as • When are rollovers permitted from employer-sponsored plans • How to properly manage eligible rollover distributions • What are the rules covering rolling one IRA to another Also available is more detailed...

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Baby Boomers Turn to Safe Investing as They Near Retirement

One can definitely say with certainty that there are no safe investments during this economic meltdown. However, we did find some interesting information about Baby Boomers, and the investments that they tended to collectively hold. Let's take a quick look to see how the different classes of boomers stack up. Late Boomers, the leading edge of the 76 million Baby Boomers, who are about to reach 60 and be eligible for some retirement benefits, have invested their money in large-cap stocks. They have nearly 40 percent of their assets in these blue...

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The Latest Auto Bailout Plans

American Automakers are next in line to receive federal money in the form of a bridge loan. General Motors shares rose by 21%, while Ford Motor (F) shares climbed 24% on the news. Chrysler is private and majority-owned by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. Congress, having worked through the weekend, delivered a bill on Monday, Dec. 8, to the White House that is designed to bail out the ailing U.S. auto industry with $15 billion in loans. Despite lingering objections by the Bush Administration and Congressional Republicans, it looks as though the aid package will pass. President George...

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Companies cutting 401k Matches due to Recession

As the recession continues to plague our economy, the next shoe to drop may well be your employer match on your 401k plan. However, there are many things to think about when planning for your 401k strategy. About 84% of companies in the U.S. offered employees a 401(k) match as of last year. However, cash strapped companies, reducing or eliminating the retirement contribution may be one way to cut back on costs and save jobs during hard economic times. Frontier Airlines already announced that it was suspending its matching contributions to 401(k) plans earlier this year. Struggling...

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I have to Rollover my 401k to an IRA, What do I do?

A friend recently asked me, "I have decided to rollover my 401k into an IRA, What do I do? In speaking with him about the procedure, I decided that many people probably have the same thoughts about 401k Rollovers, and are intimidated by making a move to an IRA. Here are some general thoughts about what you need to do to rollover your 401k.
If you have decided to hire a financial adviser, they should guide you every step of the way in the rollover process and...

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eRollover.com I usually write my own stuff, but this is a great article that I found on the internet that provides some insight into Roth IRA strategies that should be available for the forseeable future.

How high earners can grab a Roth IRA

If you make too much money to open a Roth IRA, a new tax law has created...

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What is Needed to Combine Different Retirement Plans?

Chances are you’ll establish a variety of different retirement accounts over the course of your career. Rather than maintain these separate accounts, you can in many cases consolidate, or combine, your various retirement plan accounts into one account.

Why Consolidate Your Retirement Plans?

Consolidating plans can help you with: • Paperwork and convenience: Maintaining one account with one firm means you’ll get only one statement every month and one annual statement at the end of each year. Also, with just one account, you’ll deal with only one firm for customer service issues. • Investment management: It’s much easier to...

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10 Questions for your Financial or Retirement Planner

Investors spend decades saving for retirement in their 401k , IRA , or Investment accounts. As a result, it isn’t surprising that these funds are extremely high on any family’s or individual’s list of priorities. eRollover has come up with a list of things that you may want to think about asking your financial planner or insurance agent. These quick questions can increase the likelihood that you will have a positive experience with your investments and insurance moving forward.

1. What experience do you have?

Find out how long the planner has been in practice...

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It's Official, We are in a Recession

Well, you can stop wondering. It took seven economists 11 months to decide what should seem obvious given all the foreclosures, bank failures, stock market losses, and layoffs - the United States is officially mired in a recession. Still, Monday's declaration by the National Bureau of Economic Research that the economy has been in retreat since last December sent Wall Street into a bearish fit that knocked nearly 9 percent off the S&P 500 index on Monday. Experts also believe that this severe recession will last well into 2009. This is the second time the...

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