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You’re never too young to plan for retirement. In today’s busy world, however, developing a retirement plan can be quite daunting. Fortunately, many financial resources make it possible for people to plan for their retirement early enough. Generally, these tools come with advice, great benefits, goals, and progress reports, all at your fingertips.

Plan Your Retirement

Retirement planning is simply the process of determining income goals in retirement and the necessary steps to achieve this. This part is important because it inspires you to take charge of your finances.

Knowing exactly what’s draining your purse is vital to planning your retirement. If you’re not sure of what’s emptying your account, what you have left, and at what level of saving you should be for your planned retirement, then you may need digital apps to help you budget and plan accordingly.

Determine A Good Amount For Retirement

When it comes to saving for your retirement, asking a stranger how much is the right amount is like asking a Londoner how much it costs to commute from Chicago to New York. He/she would more than likely reply with some follow-up questions such as “Will you drive or fly?” and “Where are you now?”

In the same vein, when it comes to how much you need to save for retirement, you need to put some things into consideration for effective planning, including:

• Your current financial status.

• Your anticipated retirement lifestyle.

• How much you stand to collect from social security?

• When do you plan to retire?

• Your investment options.

For early retirement, some financial planning experts suggest between 10-15% of your current income. Whether you’re pursuing early retirement or not, the best way to determine your savings level is to create a retirement limit plan and to do the math to see if you’re still on course.

The rule of thumb is that after you’ve calculated what you believe you possibly need during retirement, multiply the amount by 25. For instance, if the amount is $20,000 per annum, you’ll need 25 × 20,000 = $500,000 to retire comfortably. In contrast, if you’ll receive a $5,000 annual pension and another $5,000 in Social Security benefits, you’ll need only half of the $20,000 per year from your savings account. Therefore, you’ll need just $250,000 saved, which is a good amount for retirement.

Set A Guide For Your Retirement

The majority of the news about retirement nowadays is negative – you may have to work longer because Social Security won’t be enough to save you, and with a longer life span, your savings may not last. This sad commentary may spur you to give up and abandon your retirement goals. But, this approach is likely to complicate things in the long run.

The truth is that having an hitch-free retirement isn’t all about being wealthy, but more about investing your assets wisely. The steps you need to consider in formulating an effective retirement strategy include:

1. Setting your retirement goals to include what you wish to achieve and your financial needs.

2. Creating a financial retirement budget to achieve your objectives.

3. Getting online help from professional financial planners, counselors, financial institutions, and digital applications that could help transform your funds into investment vehicles for a financially stable retirement.

Conclusion

Now you’ve got one or two tips to set you up on the way to plan efficiently for your retirement without hiccups. If you’re finding it difficult to draw a proper retirement plan, consider hiring a financial advisor to help you outline your retirement plan and guide you accordingly.

You may also try out digital apps that are sometimes free to use and quite efficient.

However, for those who are not so tech-savvy, selecting the best apps to help plan your retirement early could be difficult since not much information is provided about them in the popular app stores. To this end, we compiled a list of the best applications to help you plan for your retirement.

Apps to help go into early retirement.

While going through the list, you’ll find many useful apps with unparalleled features for your benefits.

Are you frustrated by the amount of money you spend buying businesses checks? Have you been looking for ways to save on these expenses? Then I am glad you’re reading this post.

With the ever-rising cost of doing business, you’d want to ensure that every penny counts. One way of doing that is making sure that you spend the least amount on checks.

The ever-tightening budgets leave no room for unnecessary expenses and motivate businesses to find favorable deals. This includes reconsidering your way of ordering checks.

Here you’ll find our tips to help you save money when buying checks. Read on and learn more.

Avoid Buying Checks from Banks

While banks offer an easy and convenient way to get more checks, it is probably the last place you should go. As with many things today, you’re likely to pay extra dollars for the convenience when you order checks from a bank. Thus the need to explore other options.

Though paper checks are losing in popularity, some people still use them for paying rent as well as other payments. Not all merchants accept credit cards or electronic payments.

As of 2012, 18 billion checks were written in the US alone. This is according to Federal Reserve.

Banks will charge $20 or even more for a box of checks. You can save up to 50 percent when you buy checks from online printers.

Don’t know how? I’ll explain it.

It is important to understand that banks do not print checks themselves. Banks are in the business of savings and checking accounts, credit cards, loans and digital banking.

Banks hire large scale printers to print your checks. Remember the printing companies are in the business of making a profit out of your order, banks feel they need to make money for the time they spent acting as middlemen between their customers and the printer.

Therefore, when you order your checks from a bank, they will be marked twice before reaching you.

Besides, due to the high costs of processing checks, banks do not want their customers to write checks. Banks would rather see their customers use other methods of payments such as electronic payments.

The high prices of checks from banks are meant to push consumers to depend more on online payments over written checks.

Order Your Checks Online

Ordering checks online is a great way to save money when buying checks. But don’t worry. Checks from online printers are just as good as those offered by banks.

According to Check Payment Systems Associations, all reputable companies produce checks that met the industry standards so that banks and other merchants can accept them.

With online printers, you are assured of fast business checks delivery in a secure and easy process.

Security is Key

If you are going to spend more on a check, it should be because it comes with more security features. Check payment is a method prone to a lot of fraud.

The main reason that makes some businesses shy away from buying business checks online is security concerns. Most of them consider ordering checks from banks safe while ordering online risky. But this is not always the case.

This can only be true if you’re ordering your checks from non-reputable websites. Reputable check websites are just as secure and safe as banks.

In fact, most online check websites use the same printers like the one used by the banks, only that they eliminate the middleman to make it less costly for you.

Therefore, conduct due diligence before deciding to buy your checks from a particular website.

You can do this by looking at the padlock icon available at the right-hand side of your check, just below the “amount’’ box.

If the check contains this icon, it is an indication that it has been approved by the Check Payments Systems Association, an association left with the responsibility of ensuring the security of checks.

CPSA will not give this symbol to check printers that haven’t included a minimum number of security features to protect consumers from altered or duplicate checks.

Checks bought online can even be more secure than those obtained from banks. Some check printers give consumers the opportunity of buying checks with extra security features, such as micro printing, thermocon imaging and chemically reactive paper.

While you might be charged an extra fee for these features, but considering the level of security that comes with, it is worth it.

Before ordering checks online, be sure to understand the process, including the amount of time it will take before you get your check.

No matter what kind of business you run or which industry you operate in, there are always opportunities for you to save money. But for too many businesses, saving money quickly becomes a punishment game where employees and middle management shoulder the blame for systemic weaknesses in the way a business operates. Reducing costs and maximizing profitability should always be a concern for a modern business.

Here are some simple ways that you and your business can reduce your expenditures and ensure that you are keeping as much of what you earn as you can.

Get Smart With Your Marketing

A common mistake made by many businesses is to think that their marketing is a problem best solved by throwing enough money at it. In fact, you can utilize many of the most effective marketing methods out there without having a huge amount of money to spend on it.

Viral content, for example, can explode in popularity and become self-sustaining. If many of the viewers of your marketing are then showing it to their friends, they are doing your job for you. The best part is that you only need to pay for the creation of the initial content. Your audience will do the rest.

Always Be Cutting

No matter what your business is or how much of a stickler you are for efficiency, we can all but guarantee that there are some cost-cutting measures that you could take. Even small savings add up over time, so always be on the lookout for cost-cutting opportunities.

When you need new supplies, small or large, make sure that you shop around for options. For example, if you are renovating or upgrading part of your business and need some more space, it often makes more sense to use steel buildings, rather than renting expensive real estate. Through businesses like Armstrong Steel, you can buy prefabricated steel versions of most buildings. You can look here for more information about the buildings they offer and how much they will cost per square foot.

Reconsider Your Real Estate

This one very much depends on the kind of business you are in, but some people have little choice about where they work. However, for many people, a change in location can mean some pretty significant savings.

If you run a retail business or a business where the customers come to your premises, you will obviously need to think carefully before making any drastic decisions. But, regardless of the business you run, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that this is something beyond your control – it rarely is.

Once you start looking for ways of reducing your overheads and cutting costs, you may well find yourself going from thinking that your business is already operating efficiently to having a whole binder full of potential new cost-cutting measures. Don’t just make this a one-off thing that you do in response to unfavorable financial conditions. Instead, make cost-cutting a core component of your corporate ethos and encourage workers at all levels of your business to get involved.

Economic freedom and a debt-free lifestyle is everyone’s dream. You can achieve financial freedom and increase your savings for future use through proper budgeting. No amount of money is ever enough to satiate your needs and irrespective of our income, you should always save money for rainy days. A carefully crafted budget and being disciplined in your plans will enable you to save money and get out of debts. The following are some money saving tips, which will lead you to financial freedom.

Planning

Proper budgeting is a critical step towards controlling your finances. You can quickly outline your expenses in a month to form the budget’s baseline. A reasonable budget should cater for some savings after allocating funds for all the expenses. Prioritizing your basic needs as well as other needs requires discipline. This will control your costs and enable you to live within your income.

Personal Savings

Coming up with a good plan will enable you to save at least 10% of your monthly income. Total expenses should not exceed your income, and in the case it does, you need to review the budget to cut back on the non-essential expenditures. You should make it a habit to set aside some savings for future use. For example, if you’re looking for English teaching jobs in Taiwan, you can use the saved money for your transport and accommodation expenses.

Account for your expenses

Every dollar spent should be accounted for to realize some savings. Keeping track of your costs can easily pick any wasteful expenditure, which you can quickly pinpoint and cut out. Categorizing expenses will help in meeting your needs and organizing yourself. Expenditures can be grouped in terms of monthly bills like electricity, gas, house rent to transport, food, and so on. Without a proper tracking mechanism, you may not be able to save money. Several tools can be used to track down your expenses like an Excel worksheet or mobile phone apps installed freely on your mobile device.

Never spend more than your income

This is the secret to achieving financial success, and without which, you will always be in debts. At no given time should your expenses exceed your income, and if it happens, you will have to borrow money with interest to cover your needs. Also, this will create a hole in your income as you have to cater to the loan and the interest amount. If the process becomes cyclic, you might take forever to pay up your credits.

Debts payment plan

To clear off debts, you should prioritize the debts to repay first. Outlining liabilities in terms of the highest debts, interest rate, or period of repayments can help you get out of debt faster. Doing secondary jobs will go a long way on your debt repayment plan as you will have some extra cash to pay for your debts.

Conclusion

The most important means of becoming financially independent is to spend less than you earn. Budgeting will help control your money. If you’re traveling to seek English teaching jobs in Taiwan, you can use your saved money for the expenses such as accommodation.

In today’s digital age and globalized world, long gone is the 9-5 business day that used to be standard for most workers. While today’s fluid work environment offers an incredible amount of flexibility and creative options for both employers and employees, at the same time, there is increased urgency, pressure and expectations that work get work done and delivered fast, at the highest quality and at the lowest cost.

Companies of all sizes need to be able to provide their clients with what they want and need quickly – because if not, someone else will. While large companies with deep resources may have on staff enough employees of a varied nature to satisfy client demands for quality, speed and cost, it is a bit trickier for smaller businesses with more limited resources.

Imagine a situation in which a client approaches your business with a lucrative project that requires a graphic designer who specifically has expertise in animation. Although this project is a great opportunity for the business, it probably doesn’t make sense to hire another graphic designer with these specific skills (when you already have a great designer on your team) and to invest in training and paying benefits when this is a one time project. At the same time, though, the small business owner does not want to turn down this opportunity.

What is a small business owner to do?

One practical and cost effective solution is to hire a freelancer or independent contractor. Although this may deviate from the way the small business is used to operating, there are some major benefits to be gained by hiring out.

Save Money

It is well known that oftentimes full time employees are not actually working all of those hours they are being paid for. On the other hand, freelancers only charge you for the hours they work so a business may end up spending less money for the same work, even when taking into consideration a higher hourly rate. Plus, there are great apps out there to help keep track of freelancers’ hours to guarantee that an hour worked is an hour paid. Some to check out include Toggl, RescueTime, Harvest, Hubstaff, Time Doctor and Timely.

Save On Time

If a freelancer accepts a job chances are he or she is highly motivated to get the project done on time and done well. Since most freelancers’ business model relies on repeat customers, freelancers can be counted on to get the job done promptly, maybe even before deadline.

Save On (Office) Space

Hiring a freelancer means you don’t need to find space for another person to sit in your already cramped office. Not needing to find a larger workspace means business owners will save money on rent. The freelancer will work from home, from the coffee shop, from another country – it doesn’t matter as long as the job gets completed.

Get More Experience

Experienced freelancers have done their time working with a variety of different companies and many come well equipped with a toolbox of eclectic skills that will benefit your company and impress your client.

Gain Access to Global Candidates

Hiring a freelancer allows you to transcend borders and timezones. They can work while you are sleeping and even on weekends, helping to speed up a project or free up time for salaried employees to work on other priorities during the workday.

Overall, hiring a freelancer can give your small business the advantages of motivation and fresh skills, while saving your business valuable resources – time and money being two critical resources that all small businesses owners are seeking to maximize.

One word of caution, however. Both employers and workers need to be clear on who, according to the law, is classified as a freelancer. Sometimes, there are situations in which employers may classify employees as independent contractors when in fact the law sees them as employees. If this is the case, these workers may be eligible to make claims for employee rights and benefits. To prevent any misunderstanding or legal issues down the line, it is best for a worker and employer to execute a written contract that defines the relationship prior to beginning any work.

Lee Madison writes about financial topics relevant to small business owners. She is director of content at Yellowstone Capital LLC.