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Retirement planning is a serious business and the sooner you get into it, the better. We often tend to procrastinate, thinking that we have enough time left for the same, but this often makes the task tougher than it would otherwise have been. So the question is what exactly is retirement planning, and how important is it for your future?

The process of retirement planning involves determining what kind of funds should be available to you at the time of retirement, to live comfortably post your retirement. There are a lot of factors that you would need to consider like when will you want to retire, where will you live, and what kind of a lifestyle will you have post retirement. Each additional year you want to retire early raises your goal considerably as you need to account for all the regular monthly expenses, medical and emergency expenses, vacations, celebrations etc.

When you see the costs add up after keeping in mind the inflation, this is likely to be your retirement goal and is clearly dependent on the type of life that you wish to lead. You may come across many typical figures that people throw at you regarding a retirement corpus that one should have, for example 20 times your income and so forth, which can be only used as some vague guideline. You must consider some important points to make sure that you are a smart investor when it comes to your retirement investing.

Evaluate the available instruments for retirement savings

There is a host of saving options available in the market when you want to invest for your post retirement days. There are many tax- efficient ways that can help you build up your retiral kitty, some of which can be availed directly through the employers while other plans are available through investment brokers or banks. However, it is important to closely look at each of these options to determine the benefits and derive the maximum profit by using them judiciously, when your aim happens to be a healthy retirement corpus.

There are some good retirement options that you can explore at your employers, as some may offer unmatched benefits and even give some kind of cushioning against the volatile stock market conditions. It is important to understand and evaluate the risk and benefits associated with each of the options. It is often seen that younger investors are more bent on investment options that have higher returns even if they have higher risks as they have enough time available to recover from the losses that may arise. However, in case you do not have too many years before you retire, then it’s best to avoid such options as you may not be able to recover if you lose your investments and will be better off with some conservative instruments with lower risk factors.

The following are some of the options available for planning your retirement:

• 401 (K) and other Employer Plans: There are several employer driven plans like the 401(K)s that can be utilized by the individuals to build up their retirement kitty while saving a considerable amount of tax too in many cases. They are also quite hassle-free as you can directly get the amount debited from your paycheck.

• Fixed Benefit Plans: There are many employer sponsored plans that offer a fixed the sum of money based on certain factors like salary drawn and the years of service one has put in at the establishment .

• IRAs or the Individual Retirement Accounts: These allow you to move pretax amounts up to certain annual limits towards tax efficient investments. These investments can also be tax deferred.

• Roth IRA: This can be seen as a retirement option that is similar to a traditional IRA though there are certain differences in the taxation of the contributions as well as the distribution income.

• SEP IRA: This is targeted at the employer or self-employed individuals, and they can direct 100% of their contributions towards various channels of their choice.

• SIMPLE IRA: this is a commonly used retirement plan by employers with 100 or less employees in that establishment.

Keeping your budget balanced as a freelancer can be difficult. With a regular job, you have steady hours and a steady income that rarely fluctuates. There is a safety and a guarantee in your salary. Normal jobs provide consistent paychecks no matter what is happening in your industry. A freelancer faces a totally different world. You never know when your work will go through dry spells, and you must be prepared financially to handle these dry periods. Special budgeting tips may help a freelancer survive the hard times while they prosper in the good times. Consider these tips for a healthy freelancer budget.

Go All In

When the work is ripe for the picking, keep your nose to the grind stone. You should work extra if at all possible when there is plenty of work for your choice. As a freelancer you probably have a set amount of hours or projects you complete each week. When the work is steadily coming through, you should increase your schedule to match it. If you make extra money when it is there to be made, you can put some of it into your savings account and send money online to an emergency fund. You’ll inevitably find some times when the work isn’t so plentiful, and you should be ready.

Cut Down Costs

If you work from home, you already save money on gas. Did you know that you can also lower your insurance premiums on your vehicle if you drive less miles? If you report to your insurance company that you work from home, you could qualify for a discount due to driving fewer miles per year. You can also claim some of your needs as business expenses and get tax refunds for them. For example, you may claim your monthly internet bill in certain circumstances if you use it for your work. You may also be able to get a tax deduction for your cell phone bills if you use them for your job to communicate with other companies or workers.

With some smart planning, a freelancer can make the financial gains necessary to survive the harsh times. Make sure to check into tax deductions for business expenses. You may be surprised at what your tax representative can do for you. You will need to work hard when the work if plentiful so that you take advantage of the best opportunities. The freelancer life can work for you.

Running any kind of business includes an element of risk, and this risk is all the more evident when you are running a small business. Considering the current economic climate, saving money has run to the top of many businesses’ to do lists, and it’s not actually as hard as you may think! Some of these tips are as simple as changing the way you use your phone system at work, and communication specialists like Com2 can help you save money by implementing a cheap and efficient telecommunication system. If you’re eager to hear some more, here are some more tips you might want to think about implementing in your business, as these simple steps will allow you to save a decent amount of money.

Buy in bulk

Buy essentials for the office in bulk, whether it be from wholesalers or your local office supplies store. These items include reams of paper, packets of pens, notebooks and even printer cartridges. Buying in bulk will normally get you a discount on these products, and will also increase productivity throughout the workplace –your employees will not have to waste precious time buying these essentials when you run out of them!

Don’t buy office furniture from retailers

There are now many other ways to get hold of furniture without having to pay a fortune. The advent of Craigslist and similar sites has allowed hundreds of people to sell their unwanted goods online, and this is the perfect place for you to score some normally expensive products for a relatively inexpensive price. Of course, always remember to be careful when you are dealing with strangers in an online forum.

Broaden your advertising horizons

Word of mouth is widely regarded as the most powerful form of advertisement, yet many businesses do not use this utility to the best of their ability. One way to increase word of mouth advertising might be through the introduction of a loyalty system whereby clients who refer new customers receive a reward of some kind. There are many other ways to boost this kind of advertising, especially considering the power of the internet and how fast news can travel through this medium. If your business has many different products, you might also want to try cross promotion – advertising more than one product at the same time, so as to get the most out of your advertising budget.

Use free products when you can

There are so many free tools out there that businesses can use to help them in their everyday tasks. Google provides free email, calendar and communication services, which may be cheaper than shelling out money for business branded emails, and there are many other task management platforms and templates that are also available for free.

These are just some steps you can take if you need to save money for your small business. Of course, these tips can be applied to larger businesses, as well as at home. It is always good practice to exercise caution when it comes to the spending of money, just in case something out of your control or unexpected happens to the business.

Now we want to hear from you. If you run any kind of business, whether it be large or small, what kind of things have you been doing to save money? In your experience, what has worked and what really hasn’t? Leave a comment down below and help out your fellow businessmen and women.

When the main area of interest is associated with litigation funding, then there are various issues associated, which lawyers are still struggling. To minimize the problems, associated with contingency fees, the jurisdiction level has made a new law where the borrower or the client has to pay the money to a lawyer, appointed by him. In maximum instances, the loyalty is owned to someone from whom the money has been borrowed. On the other hand, the risk factor of the lawyer is mostly related with the contract made by clients. When the main area of interest is related with lawsuit lawyers, then he holds the major power to decide whether to take advantage of litigation cost or not, if it is not worth it.

Previous cases are not same

In former times, it can be seen that lawyers used to charge a particular fee to their clients, who are associated with lawsuit cases. The client can either pay the amount entirely or can wait for the monthly fees scheme. However, this practice kept on changing, after checking the profitable level of the attorneys. On the other hand, during previous cases, the payment created confusion between the attorney and his clients. It is an inevitable truth that the lawyer needs to be paid his exact fees, no matter what is the outcome of any lawsuit case. Even if a person loses the settlement case, still he is liable to pay a stipulated amount to the attorney. Moreover, in other cases the lawyers can even charge for an hourly rate, as per his sweet will.

Focusing more towards litigation fees

It has been found out that the litigation fees have already shifted the risk and cost factor associated with litigation services. In this respect, the lawyers just need to bear the risk associated with financing cost, which will be higher than the estimated amount. In this respect, the lawyers can work on the golden opportunity to keep the incentive for lower costing level. On the other hand, it has also been found out that the lawyer’s incentives can be aligned with the notification of the clients. This is the result due to share in the field of increased recovery financial services, which come with extra investment policies.

Other measures to have taken

There is another measure, which mingle the relationship between lawsuit funding and attorneys. When the cost shifting procedure is revolving around the client and lawyers, then the clients can easily take help of third party, to bear the financial services on someone else. This case might involve the workings of insurance companies; where else the corporations are going to pay for the employees and their officers. On the other hand, parents can also take an active part in this segment, by focusing more towards payment for their children or spouse.

No ethical problems arises

There are different kinds of lawsuit funding solutions, which are provided to the interested candidates and other lawyers, associated with the lawsuit funding field. However, it has also been found out that there is no moral problem associated if the lawyers look for new funding forms, for defending case. Moreover, it has also been found out that, from recent times, lawyers were given the liability to take help from banks for running their cases. They can even take help of non-recourse funding option, which is another significant part to lay focus.

Choosing the right lender

In case of banks fail to help the attorney with financial support, they can easily take help of lawsuit lenders. However, it is the duty of an individual to check the background of the lenders before opting for attorney lawsuit lending services.

John Sigmon is a world class name with special emphasize of various forms of lawsuit funding solutions. He is also known for offering monetary services to various lawsuit attorneys, related with alternative litigation funding areas.

While there are still a number of consumers who have not filed their tax returns for the year at this point, there nonetheless remain millions who have turned in these documents and are anxiously awaiting what they hope will be sizable refunds. However, not all of them will necessarily know how best to spend those funds once they receive them, so it might be wise to look into a few ways to spend that money wisely.

Instead of buying a new TV or going on a clothes shopping spree, it’s often much wiser for Americans to concentrate any tax refund money on improving their financial standing overall. Perhaps the best method for doing this, in a number of ways, is to pay down outstanding debt of almost any kind. This will have the dual purpose of both reducing the cost of monthly payments faced for having such balances outstanding, but also improving their credit scores. Usually, it’s the wisest idea to pay off the debt that comes with the highest interest rate (usually credit card balances) because of the ways in which big rates can tack on additional debt in a shorter period of time. The larger the refund, the more substantially debt can be cut, and thus the pressure on a household budget can be reduced.

What about consumers who don’t have big debts?

Of course, not everyone has thousands of dollars worth of credit card bills to deal with, or might be constrained by parts of mortgage or auto loan agreements which state they cannot pay them off before a certain date. For those people, it might be wise to simply put a tax refund into savings, instead. This, though, can be approached in a number of different ways. It could be used to build emergency savings, in the event of a problem that arises down the road, or they could simply put them into retirement accounts that will help to secure their financial futures.

For those who haven’t yet filed their returns but want to maximize their refunds, it might be wise to speak with a tax professional who may be able to help identify some potential deductions that could help to increase the amount of money they receive back from the IRS.