Here’s a good article for everyone on how you can cut some of your spending in retirement and stretch your dollars.

Fifteen Ways to Slash Spending in Retirement

Retirees must adjust to new economic realities. Here, based on suggestions from financial advisers, are strategies to cut costs

By Ben Steverman

Workers approaching retirement are often told by experts that they will need only about 80% of their income after they stop working to maintain the same lifestyle.

After all, expenses fall when retirees don’t need to dry-clean their work wardrobe and commute every day. And they have more time to shop for deals and handle house and yard work themselves. Presumably, the children are out of the nest or have their own financial flight plan.

The problem is that many retirees soon discover the 80% rule of thumb doesn’t work. “I’m finding that to be unrealistic with today’s retirees,” says James R. Miller, president of Woodward Financial Advisors in Chapel Hill, N.C. “It is more like 100%.”

Go here to read the rest of the article on slashing your spending on retirement

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Let’s talk about a few problem areas and then we’ll look at how you can get a snapshot of how much you really owe so you can make some better, informed decisions in regards to your finances. No More Mortgage offers a free snapshot you can use to make those better decisions.

A common area many people have trouble with is overspending. It can be triggered by advertising where you see something you want, influences from your friends, impulse buying, or stress induced “comfort buying”, among other things. In these cases, you are generally not thinking about where you are financially or when you’ll be able to pay it off. Consider that you may feel pressured to spend more, buy this or that, look a certain way. dress a certain way, or have certain things to fit in or feel like you are living the life you are supposed to. There are many triggers for spending, but they almost all lead back to “emotional” spending.

The next time you are buying something that you don’t absolutely need, ask yourself why you’re buying it, and what led you to want to buy it. Do this every time you are buying something and look at what patterns show up and where the motivation to spend at that moment is coming from.

Often, buying something you just happen to want doesn’t feel like it’s going to be a problem. You think “I’ll buy it now and pay for it later”. The problem with that is you will often pay it off much later, having spent many times the original price in interest over time in the form of credit card payments. When that happens, you’re future is paying for it. The money you spend on your debt in one month could be worth thousands to you later in retirement after it has had time to build up.

We’re living in a fast paced, complex world where it’s hard to keep track of your money unless you spend some focused time on it. You have money spent on credit cards, atm cards, department store cards, automatic debits, utility or other bills on automatic payment, written checks, cash withdrawals, dinner receipts, and other expenditures to keep track of. It’s not easy.

You’ve got credit cards in the land of easy credit and get offers for more every month. They entice you to use them with promises of extra miles, points, and rewards.

What your creditors don’t point out is that you will often pay back 2 to 3 times what you borrowed (especially on your mortgage) and compounded interest is their friend and your enemy in this case. Also, your creditors give you a payment schedule designed to make them more money and stretch out your debt.

You didn’t learn about this in school or at home, so you need to get on top of your debt and reclaim your future now before it’s too late. One thing you need to understand is that when it comes to your retirement and building up enough to take care of you, there is such a thing as starting too late.

You may not have a plan yet because you don’t know where to start. The place to start is figure out how much you are really going to pay out and how long it is going to take to pay off your debt. You can’t just look at your statements and add up the balances. You have to take into account the interest and amount of payments it will take.

To make this easier for you, No More Mortgage offers a free analysis that will show you these numbers. There is no cost to you and no obligation. Do this for yourself. It’s vital that you know where you really stand.

Give us a call at 800.285.9102 and let us help you get started.

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Well, yes it is and no it isn’t.  Yes, at one moment in time a statement can show what you owe if you were to pay it off completely. And no it isn’t when you factor in interest payments over time.

That interest over time is what steals your future like the thief that it is. Your debt can rob you of hundreds of thousands of dollars you should have at retirement. Debt sneaks up on you and stretches the pain out slowly so you don’t notice how much it is costing you. Did you know that half way into a 30 year mortgage you can still owe 75% of the principle? We’ve seen credit cards that would stretch out to 40+ years or even more at the minimum payment.

Think about this for a minute. You pay your creditors back based on a schedule that they create, and they earn their living off of the interest that they charge you, along with extra fees and charges So do you think they create their payment schedules with your best interest in mind? Is your money going towards building your future, or theirs?

What they know is that most people think about the balance on their statements and figure that’s about what they’ll pay back. What they don’t want you to know is that by utilizing a program like ours at No More Mortgage, you could pay them back significantly less and save yourself a great deal of money. Our program creates a new payment schedule that meets your obligations with your creditors and pays them back up to 75% faster allowing you to keep far more of your money and get out of debt that much faster.

The creditors also know that most people won’t follow through with this on their own as they either don’t have the financial discipline or the time to work their plan, month in and month out, for the time it will take to get out of debt. That’s why our program does the work for you. We work to ensure that you are successful at eliminating your debt safely and wisely. Our program can often improve your credit faster than would normally happen too.

So, do you really know how much you owe on your debt, and how long it will take to pay it off based on how you’re paying your debts today? We can easily show you that and also compare that to how much you could save and when you could become debt free if you take advantage of our program. We offer a free debt analysis with no obligation that will show you all of this.

To make good decisions, you need good information. Knowing how much you really owe and how long it will take to pay it off has an impact that you will not soon forget. And it can influence your financial decisions for the better. Call No More Mortgage and ask for a free debt analysis. It doesn’t take long once you give us the info we need to run your analysis. And we don’t need any information that would put your identity at risk. You can ask for our free audio cd using the form on the left side of the page too. It has some great information on it that could save you a lot of money.

Give us a call and let us help you get on track to a debt free future with less stress and more financial security.We’re at (888) 239-3765

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We’re continuing the series of articles about five points you should know about Social Security and Retirement if you’re 50 or over.

QUESTION 4: Will I lose benefits if I work? It’s true that if you collect early and work at the same time, your payments may be reduced (once you reach full retirement age, feel free to toil away; your golf game might suffer, but there’s no effect on your Social Security). Your checks will be reduced by $1 for every $2 you earn over an annual limit, currently $14,160 (the hit is considerably less during the calendar year you hit full retirement age). But despite what you often read or hear, you don’t actually “lose” that money. At full retirement age Social Security will begin compensating you with a larger check for the benefits that were withheld. And you’ll receive that higher payment for the rest of your life. If you are reasonably long-lived, you’ll wind up collecting more -and you’ll have extra income from your additional years as a wage slave. Working in retirement can also up your payments in other ways. Your check is based on your 35 highest years of wages. If you work fewer during your career, your benefit will be adjusted to reflect any extra years of work. Even if you clocked all 35 years pre-retirement, you could still get a bump if your annual earnings during your golden years were higher than some years earlier in your career.

QUESTION 5: Will my benefits be taxed? You thought Uncle Sam would cut you a break after retirement? Fat chance. Currently, about a third of Social Security recipients pay income tax on a portion of their benefits, and the Social Security Administration projects upwards of 42% of recipients will be doing so by 2018. If you want to lessen the tax bite, there are a couple of options. One is to wait at least until full retirement age to claim Social Security, if you think that income from a post-retirement job could result in a big tax bill. Another way to avoid taxes is to pull money from a Roth IRA instead of a traditional IRA or 401(k). That’s because Roth withdrawals don’t count as income in figuring whether your benefits are taxable. So if you don’t already have money in a Roth, you may want to fund one or convert some of your traditional IRA to a Roth. After all, in retirement, you’re likely to need all the cash you can get.

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In a previous article, we began Part I of a discussion on Social Security and Retirement. Let’s continue with more questions and answers:

QUESTION 2: How much will I get every month? Like all things Social Security, there’s a complex formula involved. But essentially, the amount you’ll get at your full retirement age is based on your average lifetime earnings, adjusted for rising wage levels over the years. Depending on when you were born, your full retirement age varies between 65 and 67. Grab your payments earlier than your full retirement age, and they’ll be reduced: Wait, and you’ll get more. Spouses can also qualify for up to 50% of their husband or wife’s full retirement age payment; if that amount is larger than what you would get based on your own earnings, you’ll get the higher figure. Similarly, if your spouse dies, you would receive a survivor’s benefit of up to 100% of what your deceased spouse was collecting, if that amount is higher than your own payment. Divorced? You may still be eligible for spouse and survivor benefits as well. Your checks are also automatically adjusted for inflation each January. Payments increased by 5.8% for 2009. But given the near-term inflation outlook, the Congressional Budget Office estimates there may not be a cost of living increase for the next few years.

QUESTION 3: At what age should I begin collecting? The majority of people take Social Security before full retirement age. But it often pays to wait. Just in terms of benefits accrued, if you have an average life expectancy or better, you’d probably come out ahead waiting for a larger payment that you won’t collect as long. More important, you’ll have a bigger check at an age when your retirement savings are diminished and you aren’t likely to be able to work to supplement your income. The math gets more complicated for married couples, however, since in addition to what they get from their own earnings, one of them may also qualify for spousal benefits and eventually collect payments as a surviving spouse. So married couples should aim to max out their benefits over both their lifetimes. Generally, the best strategy is for the higher-earning spouse to delay taking Social Security for as long as possible. That’s because survivor benefits are based on the larger of the couple’s checks. The lower-earner, meanwhile, should usually claim benefits earlier. That will often, though not always, provide the greatest amount of income as well as security in old age.

Continued in the next post!

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Everyone 50 and over should know these principles by heart.

(Money Magazine) – You’ve probably spent a lot of time sweating over your 401(k) and IRA. But have you given much thought to the way Social Security will fit into your retirement plans? You should. In fact, Social Security provides 50% of the income for more than half of married retired couples and about 20% for high earners. Moreover, it’s the only source of income you’re likely to have that’s guaranteed to last for life and keep pace with inflation. But given the complexity of the Social Security calculations, it’s tough to figure out how to make the most of it. The amount of your monthly check will depend on when you retire, how much you and your spouse earned, and whether you work in retirement. “That makes it hard to plan,” says former Social Security Administration deputy commissioner Andrew Biggs. The following guide will answer those questions and give you strategies that can help you maximize your benefits.

In this article, we will initiate a series where, over the next week, we will pose and answer some essential questions about Social Security.

QUESTION 1: Can I count on Social Security to be there? You can. Despite what you may hear about the system going broke, the funds from workers’ payroll taxes will cover all retirees’ payments until 2016 even if no changes are made to the current program. After that the Social Security Administration can cover full benefits until 2037 by cashing in its Treasury bonds from the Social Security trust fund. And when the bonds run out, income from payroll taxes would be enough to cover about 75% of payments for decades. That said, the government is look”ing at ways to shore up the system. President Obama has talked about imposing Social Security payroll taxes on income over $200,000 (currently, earnings over $106,800 are exempt). Other possible fixes: upping payroll taxes, raising the retire”ment age, and scaling back payments in some way. The good news for anyone in or near retirement: “People 55 and over are likely to see no change or just a marginal change in benefits,” says actuary Bruce Schobel, who worked on the commission headed by Alan Greenspan nearly 30 years ago that fixed the system (at least until now). But even younger workers can rest assured that drastic cuts are unlikely.

More questions and answers in the next post!

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The point of this article is that in the USA, the “retirement safety net” is Social Security, which only covers about 45% of the retirement needs of the average retiree. The article does not even bring up the potential of the Social Security system to go broke in about 25 years, but that’s another story.

The remaining 55% of the average retiree’s needs either has to be made up by private savings or through corporate pensions. Since fewer than 1 in 12 people now can expect to receive a pension, the 401(k) or other savings vehicle is the account of choice.

As we know, these accounts have been heavily invested in the stock market. Since the markets have taken such a dive, many people’s retirement plans have been put on “hold” until the markets come back, or until they make additional contributions to build their account balances back up.

Visit www.nytimes.com for the article.

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