Squidoo is a new website from the marketing guru Seth Godin. He says that everyone is an expert in something, and Squidoo is the place to share that expertise. Users can create a "Lens" about they are passionate about and others can reap the benefits of their knowledge.
From the Squidoo FAQ
"A lens is one person's (lensmaster's) view on a topic he cares about. More specifically, a lens is a single web page filled with information and links that point to other web pages, to continually updated RSS feeds, or to relevant advertising. It's a place to start, not finish."
I've created a lens about Retirement Planning. Squidoo : Getting Ready For Retirement.
Perhaps I should create a post about all ways to suppliment your retirement income by making money online. Squidoo seems like it'll join Ebay and Amazon Affiliates as ways for retirees to earn money online.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Retirement Planning News
Brave New World of Retirement Planning: "With the Dow Jones average above 11,000 again and other stock indexes at five-year highs, workers with 401(k)s and other tax-favored retirement accounts may feel emboldened about investment risks and forget the bear market that tanked their accounts..." - Rocklintoday.com
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
House Flipping
A few months ago my father and I had a talk about what he might want to do with his new found free time once he retires in March. One of the ideas that he mentioned was House Flipping. House Flipping is when you buy a house with the sole purpose of selling it for a profit. Usually House Flippers buy a house with great potential but one that has been neglected by it's previous owners. They make some quick renovations like a new kitchen, landscaping, paint, carpet/hardwood floors, etc and quickly put the house back on the market.
My dad being very handy and experienced with tons of home improvement projects thought this might be a good fit for his retirement time. I told him we should look into what it takes to become a sucessful House Flipper and see if it was something we could do together. If it all worked out I'd partner up with him and help fix up these houses. Now it was time for some research to see what House Flipping was all about.
We bought some books and magazines and started reading. It seems like House Flippers need lots of great contacts in the real estate industry. It's good to know agents, mortgage lenders, foreclosure people, contractors, landscapers and tons of other folks who do this stuff day in and day out.
While House Flipping seems like a business suited for someone who's good with a hammer, it's actually more tailored for someone with salesmen's personality to create and maintain all these relationships. And you'll definitely need these relationships in order to prosper.
Our house flipping idea wasn't going to work out so my dad began focusing more on his wine making hobby and we didn't give it another thought.
Last night while flipping through the channels, I found a show on A&E Network about house flipping called Flip This House. Besides being entertaining, it shows you why some house flippers are successful. The key seems to be having good contractors and other contacts that you trust to get work done quickly.
In the show I saw last night, they bought a house for $849K, put in $50K in about a week and then sold it for $1.5mil.
It seems that buying a house, doing the work yourself and holding on to it for too long is a great way to lose money. I think I'm going to invite my dad over to watch this show while we enjoy a nice bottle of homemade wine.
My dad being very handy and experienced with tons of home improvement projects thought this might be a good fit for his retirement time. I told him we should look into what it takes to become a sucessful House Flipper and see if it was something we could do together. If it all worked out I'd partner up with him and help fix up these houses. Now it was time for some research to see what House Flipping was all about.
We bought some books and magazines and started reading. It seems like House Flippers need lots of great contacts in the real estate industry. It's good to know agents, mortgage lenders, foreclosure people, contractors, landscapers and tons of other folks who do this stuff day in and day out.
While House Flipping seems like a business suited for someone who's good with a hammer, it's actually more tailored for someone with salesmen's personality to create and maintain all these relationships. And you'll definitely need these relationships in order to prosper.
Our house flipping idea wasn't going to work out so my dad began focusing more on his wine making hobby and we didn't give it another thought.
Last night while flipping through the channels, I found a show on A&E Network about house flipping called Flip This House. Besides being entertaining, it shows you why some house flippers are successful. The key seems to be having good contractors and other contacts that you trust to get work done quickly.
In the show I saw last night, they bought a house for $849K, put in $50K in about a week and then sold it for $1.5mil.
It seems that buying a house, doing the work yourself and holding on to it for too long is a great way to lose money. I think I'm going to invite my dad over to watch this show while we enjoy a nice bottle of homemade wine.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Half of us are not ready
"More than half of U.S. workers fear they may not be financially prepared to retire and will have to keep working, according to a Financial Services Forum poll released on Wednesday..." - Reuters
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Don't Forget College
What, me worry about college costs? - Yahoo! News: "'Even with nearly $122 billion in financial aid currently made available, paying for college is indeed a major challenge for most families.'"
Most of the retirement planning books that I've been reading talk about eliminating unnecessary spending. For example those bottled waters that you buy everyday, if you drank tap water and invested the water money, in 25 years you'd have 800 billion dollars. Obviously I'm exagerating but you get the idea.
There's usually two problems with this cutting back idea. First, you had to start putting away those few dollars a day when you were like 20 years old. Second, guess what? You have to pay for your kids to go college. When your kids are college age, usually about 20 years before you retire, you'll have to fork over up $40,000 a year for their tutition. What's that you say you have more than one child? Well then you'll be paying more. Large families are screwed.
Paying for college while still saving for retirement can be a problem for a lot of families. The answer that most of these retirement planning books give us is that college can be paid for with a loan such as a student loan or home equitity and you should never put off your retirement savings or that bottled water money that you're putting away won't ever earn any compounded interest and turn into those billions that you'll need.
I don't really have a solution for paying for college yet but I know I don't want my kids to take student loans. This is my burden, not theirs. Perhaps I'll have to give up something besides bottled water, like maybe food.
Most of the retirement planning books that I've been reading talk about eliminating unnecessary spending. For example those bottled waters that you buy everyday, if you drank tap water and invested the water money, in 25 years you'd have 800 billion dollars. Obviously I'm exagerating but you get the idea.
There's usually two problems with this cutting back idea. First, you had to start putting away those few dollars a day when you were like 20 years old. Second, guess what? You have to pay for your kids to go college. When your kids are college age, usually about 20 years before you retire, you'll have to fork over up $40,000 a year for their tutition. What's that you say you have more than one child? Well then you'll be paying more. Large families are screwed.
Paying for college while still saving for retirement can be a problem for a lot of families. The answer that most of these retirement planning books give us is that college can be paid for with a loan such as a student loan or home equitity and you should never put off your retirement savings or that bottled water money that you're putting away won't ever earn any compounded interest and turn into those billions that you'll need.
I don't really have a solution for paying for college yet but I know I don't want my kids to take student loans. This is my burden, not theirs. Perhaps I'll have to give up something besides bottled water, like maybe food.
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