The Golden Age. Do you see yourself traveling the world or starting a new business? How about puttering around in your garden or going back to school? Whatever your dreams or ideas are, do you have the financial cushion to do it?

If you’ve been putting 10% of your paycheck into a 401(k) for the past 20 years, great! But if you are in your forties and are just starting to save, you will need to put at least 20% away.

Used be that financial planners thought that people would need 70% of their income to live on when they retired. Today, the estimate is more like 85%, and, if you want to travel the world, I would plan on 100% because traveling is expensive.

Also, with insurance premiums rising and health care costs out of control, you need to assume that you will be paying all or some of your medical bills out of your retirement account. I’m not a financial planner. I am, however, a realist. I would rather prepare on the high side than not have enough money to support myself. There are many online calculators to help you get personalized figures. www.moneycentral.msn.com/retire/planner.aspx is one that is highly recommended

Since women outlive men by five years or more on average, we need to plan for our financial security assuming that we will be on our own—or maybe you already are. By deciding how much you need to live on in retirement, you can set your goal to invest for continued growth, appreciation, income, or cash flow. No matter what anyone tells you, what you do with your life and your investments is yours to decide.

If you are interested in investing in real estate, businesses, loans, or other assets that aren’t traditional stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, visit www.theentrustgroup.com. No matter what you invest in, the important thing is to start saving now! No one will take better care of you than you!

compliments of:
Kristin Scott, Marketing Executive
EntrustCAMA Self Directed IRA, LLC

The Women’s Retirement Security Act - a newly reintroduced bill in the U.S. Senate by Sens. Gordon H. Smith (R-Oregon) and Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota) - would provide new tax incentives for annuities; impose new employer mandates regarding the sponsorship of qualified
retirement plans; and change certain rules governing plan distributions. S. 1288 would require employers that sponsor 401(k) plans to allow participation by part-time employees who remain with the company past certain vesting thresholds - and those who don’t would be required to facilitate direct deposit of some portion of an employee’s salary into an individual retirement account.

MORE at
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compliments of:
Kristin Scott, Marketing Executive
EntrustCAMA Self Directed IRA, LLC

“It’s Not Your Mother’s Retirement: The MetLife Study of Women and Generational Differences” reports that young women have their own ideas about how they will spend their later years. Daughters (22%) are almost twice as likely as their mothers (12%) to have $25,000 or
more in consumer debt (apart from home mortgages), and while three quarters of mothers retired before the traditional retirement age of 65, only 37% of their daughters predict they will retire before then. Two thirds of mothers (65%) believe the quality of their retirement
has been excellent or very good, while only 46% of daughters say that about their mothers. Still, more than half of daughters (56%) believe their own retirement will be better than their mothers’ and four in 10 mothers (41%) agree.

MORE at
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A recent survey by ShareBuilder revealed that men and women have different investment concerns and habits. The biggest concerns among women who want to invest but don’t are:

• Risk
25% of women, compared to 20% of men, are afraid they’ll lose their savings in the stock market.

• Lack of knowledge
23% of women don’t understand the investment.

• Lack of time
14% of women don’t have enough time to learn the ropes before they invest.

It’s not always easy to find time, but we must start taking control of our financial future by educating ourselves. There are many books, tapes, and seminars available to get the education you need, some tailored just for people with limited free time. Get started now, even if all you can devote is a few minutes a day to learn whatever information you need to make informed financial decisions. That’s a few minutes more knowledge that you had yesterday.

Another good reason to have a self-directed IRA!

Lisa

From Mature Market

65 percent of Boomers not sure whether IRA or other retirement savings will be enough, according to 2007 American Retirement Study by Scottrade

Forty-two percent of American Baby Boomers*, those between the ages of 45 and 64, say they will not have enough money to do the things they want to do when they retire and nearly one-third (31 percent) say they will have to cut back on their current lifestyle in retirement, according to the 2007 American Retirement Study by Scottrade, the leading branch-supported online investment firm.

With over 78.2 million Baby Boomers, this aging population may soon find itself in dire straits. According to Scottrade’s 2007 American Retirement Study:

· 65 percent believe they have not saved enough for retirement
· 29 percent have saved less than $25,000 for retirement
· 23 percent of Boomers say they will never be able to retire and not need to earn an income
· 41 percent will have to keep working during retirement

“There’s a disparity here in that while most Boomers feel very unprepared financially for retirement, this demographic remains keenly aware of the problem but is not addressing it properly,” said Chris X. Moloney, Scottrade’s chief marketing officer. “This may be a case of doing too little, too late. Three in ten have saved under $25,000, which is concerning.”

According to the study, the biggest financial concern among Boomers (62 percent) was having enough money for retirement. Boomers also expressed other general financial concerns, including:

* Having enough money to cover healthcare related costs (50 percent)
* Paying for unexpected, major expenses (50 percent)
* Protecting family in case of premature death/disability (43 percent)
* Getting a good return on investment (44 percent)
* Protecting wealth (38 percent)
* Having too much debt (36 percent)
* Caring for elderly parents/relatives (35 percent)

With 51 percent of Boomers relying on 401(k) plans to provide the necessary resources in retirement, 37 percent also have IRAs, SEPs or similar retirement plans, according to Scottrade.

“It is never too late to increase the rate at which you are saving for retirement,” Moloney said. “401(k)s and IRAs are an easy way to plan for retirement, even if you are doing so later in life.”

The 2007 American Retirement Study by Scottrade polled 1,000 Americans 18 years of age or older using Synovate’s national online research tool, eNation®, in early February 2007 to gauge Americans’ attitudes and behavioral information about retirement and retirement planning. The sample was balanced to be representative of the general population based upon region, gender, age and household income data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The margin of error was +/- 3 percent.

*While there are many different age groupings often classified as “Baby Boomers,” this study represents the core segment of ages 45 to 64 as “Baby Boomers.”

By K.S. Date 27-04-2007

As a mother, my first responsibility was to provide for my children. When I starting buying investment property, my goal was to save enough money to pay for their upbringing and college. This was in 1978.

Fast forward to today. My children are grown, and college and other expenses are more or less behind me. Now I can save for my retirement. Thankfully, I was able to achieve my goal, but now I wonder if this was the right way to go about it. If I were in the same situation today, I would do it differently and make sure that my retirement account had enough money before I started to save for college. And imagine if I had started saving then, how much more money I would have accrued by now.

As mothers, we feel the need to take care of everyone, sometimes at the risk of not taking care of ourselves. I think this can be a mistake and end up of burdening our children. One thing I know for sure is that my children should not be put in a financial bind to take care of me. And by planning my savings accordingly, they should never have to be.

We are good at remembering things we need for our kids. But what about us, our future? Let me encourage you to start saving for your retirement today, because let’s face it–none of us want to be a burden on anyone else, especially our family!

Open a self-directed retirement account today. If you can afford to, contribute the maximum each year and invest the dollars in what you know best. That is the beauty of a truly self-directed retirement account. Visit The Entrust Group and learn how your money can grow!

After years of piling up home equity loans on their personal residences, investors are becoming more cautious about using their homes as a saving account. During the housing boom, it was easy for people to tap into their equity as property values rose, interest rates fell, and lenders made borrowing easier. Of course, most people who took out a home equity loan used the money for vacations, new cars, and other expenses.

Savvy real estate investors used the funds to purchase more property, which can still be a good strategy if you are buying property at wholesale prices and capitalizing on cash flow. If you can make money on the borrowed money, a home equity loan may still be the ticket. Rates on home equity lines of credit are currently averaging at 8.7%. Although this rate seems high, you usually can write off the interest on your taxes.

So when is it worth taking a home equity loan? Here are some pointers:

• If you are paying off higher interest rate loans such as credit card debt, a home equity loan will save you money in the long run.

• If you have a low-interest, fixed-rate loan and need emergency cash, a home equity loan could be a solution.

• If you have a lot of equity and an excellent credit score, the banks are offering possibly worthwhile incentives, such as discounts to retail business and service providers, to get customers like you in the door.

If you’re looking to do better than a home equity loan, consider refinancing your existing mortgage and taking the cash out to pay off debt and buy investment property. There are many ways to find financing for investment property–a home equity loan is just one of them.

Enjoy…..Lisa

Top 4 reasons Men don’t ask for directions.

33% enjoy the challenge of finding the way on their own.
23% feel embarrassed about being lost
21% don’t want to lose time.
17% don’t have the patience to stop and ask.