What Women Need to Know About Retirement – Summary: WISER, in conjunction with the Heinz Family Foundation, released What Women Need to Know About Retirement, a free e-book available for PDF download. The book includes specifics about paying for healthcare, planning for a lifetime of income, social security and more. Located at: WISER. Click on headline for full article.

Compliments of George Melkonian, The Entrust Group
www.theentrustgroup.com

Despite the times, and despite the success of women professionals and women business owners, we still earn less than men. A recent research project conducted by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation found that one year out of college, women who work full time earn 80% of their male counterparts. Ten years after graduation, women fall even further behind, earning only 69% of what men are paid.

What I find especially interesting is that the pay gap exists even though women outperform men in college. Women tend to have higher grade point averages in every college major, including science and mathematics.

Doesn’t seem fair does it?

The more successful you become as a business owner or professional, the more important your reputation. Most of us don’t think about our reputation and the Internet. Did you know that 77% of recruiters use the Internet to get information on potential job candidates and 35% have eliminated people based on what they found through this research?

It gets a bit scary when you realize that anyone can google your name and find out all sorts of juicy tidbits. So how do you keep your online reputation clean? Here are a few suggestions:

- Keep tabs on yourself. Type your name into several search engines on a regular basis to see what appears. You may be surprised with what you find.

- If you find any unflattering content about yourself, send a message to the site’s webmaster asking that the entry be removed and explain why.

- Create flattering content. Start by joining professional online communities and upgrade your virtual presence by acting professionally both on and offline.

We don’t want to work and build a reputation to see it damaged. Take these steps to grow your business and you!

Have you ever needed cash immediately for an unexpected expense or an opportunity that’s too good to miss? Whether it’s rehabbing a property, putting a deposit on an option, or taking care of costly repairs, one way to get quick cash is through a home equity line of credit. Another is through a hard money lender. Hard money lenders are in the business of quickly funding deals that make sense to both them and you.

I recently learned about money4investors.com, a new website that lists over 7,000 hard money lenders. I personally have no experience with them and, as I always say, before committing to anything, always do your due diligence. If you do look into what they offer, let me know what happened.

I wish all a very happy Independence Day! Enjoy your family and friends; barbecues and baseball. Don’t forget to take a few moments for yourself! Enjoy…Lisa

I have recently been in contact with several European banks who work with American Investors who desire to invest abroad using their IRA. For those of you who are interested in this concept, you can invest in currencies, real estate investment trusts and other wealth management products.

I will continue to research each of these banks and develop a checklist for those of you who may have an interest in Internationalizing your IRA. If you are interested in learning more, please respond to this blog!

This blog Courtesy of Retirement Weekly.

MetLife Mature Market Institute has published yet another free booklet worth a gander. It’s called “What Today’s Woman Needs to Know: A Retirement journey” and can help women prepare for retirement and addresses specific challenges women face: job switching, taking time out for family and the important consideration of when to retire. It also helps with financial questions like how much money one will need to retire, what kinds of investments are available, protecting assets, health-care costs and ways to use home equity. The booklet also contains a retirement savings and planning checklist for each decade with guidelines for women from their 20s to their 70s.

According to MetLife, retirement for women will be redefined by the younger generations who expect to work longer than their mothers and to have a more active retirement with varied pursuits. Daughters, says MetLife, may be more vulnerable because they will enter retirement with considerably higher levels of debt than their mothers and are expected to make a greater financial adjustment than their mothers. Learn more at http://www.maturemarketinstitute.com.