Steal My Deal

The Roth IRA was born on January 1, 1998 as a result of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. It’s named after former Senator William V. Roth, Jr. The Roth IRA provides no deduction for contributions, but instead provides a benefit that isn’t available for any other form of retirement savings: if you meet certain requirements, all earnings are tax free when you or your beneficiary withdraws them. Other benefits include avoiding the early distribution penalty on certain Roth IRA withdrawals, and avoiding the need to take minimum distributions after age 70. Contributions to a Roth IRA are not tax-deductible, but earnings grow tax deferred and can be withdrawn tax-free in retirement after age 59 1/2 if the account has been in place for at least five years. In addition, the Roth IRA withdrawals may be permitted without penalty sets no maximum age limit for contributions and imposes no schedule for withdrawals. Roth IRA also incorporates a few other options. Both traditional and Roth IRAs allow withdrawals after age 59 1/2, but unlike the traditional IRA, a Roth will permit contributions after age 70 1/2 and does not require Roth IRA withdrawals on any particular schedule. After five years, a Roth IRA allows tax-free withdrawals for a first-time purchase (up to $10,000), disability or certain emergencies without penalty, up to the amount deposited.

Larger Roth IRA withdrawals, including some or all of the interest earned in the account will be subject to tax. There is also a loophole for early Roth IRA withdrawals know as the “72(t) exception”. Under current tax law, you can avoid the 10% penalty tax if you take “substantially equal periodic payments.” The Internal Revenue Service 1989 Cumulative Bulletin tells you how to calculate what it considers to be “substantially equal periodic payments”. IRS Revenue Ruling 2002-62 adds additional details and clarifies some issues pertaining to Roth IRA withdrawal early. All of these engrossing volumes are very likely available at your local law library. To take a series of “substantially equal periodic payments” from your IRA without penalty, you must withdraw money at least once a year, and you must keep taking withdrawals for five years or until you reach age 59, whichever is longer. So, a 35-year-old must take withdrawals for twenty-five years, while a 51-year-old must take them for eight-and-a-half years. A 57-year-old would have to take withdrawals for five years, until age 62. Also, you must let a minimum of 5 years plus 1 day elapse from the date of your first SEPP withdrawal before making “unlimited” withdrawals from your IRA, even if you’ve reached age 59 1/2. Otherwise, the IRS will hit you with the 10% penalty and retroactive interest charges. The amount of your withdrawal is calculated based on the balance of your retirement account on December 31 of the preceding year or any date in the current year prior to the first distribution using your age on December 31st of the year in which you make the withdrawal.

LeeAnna is an expert author who writes for Roth IRA withdrawals

Let’s say that you have a software project that’s under severe time pressure. Let’s say that this deadline is so tight that you already know it will involve many late nights of black coffee and frenetic programming. What can you do to make this process go faster?

I honestly don’t know, since the correct answer will depend on one’s individual circumstances. However, I can tell you how many programmers do respond under such circumstances. They decide to save time by skipping over the software planning and design phase, and immediately start coding away.

To an inexperienced or otherwise undisciplined programmer, this seems to make sense. After all, the finished product is what truly matters, right? The customer doesn’t care about flowcharts, class diagrams or software architectures. All they want is something that works.

It seems to make sense, but it’s a foolhardy approach. That way lies madness. We’ve all heard that an ounce of planning is worth a pound of cure, but in the world of software development, this adage is often forgotten.

If a real estate developer needs to get a house built quickly, does he save time by skipping over the architectural design phase? Does he decide to dispense with blueprints, and just start laying down concrete? Of course not. He knows that the results would be chaotic, and that work will progress more slowly without careful forethought and a concrete plan.

Yet that’s the approach that many people take when it comes to software. They decide to just start coding away, thinking that this makes the software development process more efficient. On fairly simple projects, this might work. On anything of moderate complexity though, such an approach is doomed to fail. Sure, you may save time at first. However, without a concrete software plan and a carefully considered design, problems are bound to catch up with you before long. Many of these problems won’t become clear until the testing phase comes around, and by then, it may be too late.

Sadly, such reckless thinking is often encouraged in the corporate world. Due to time constraints, a misguided manager may instruct his team to skip over the design work and just start hacking away. This makes the team seem focused and productive, but this strategy can wreak havoc on the project timeline. What’s more, the resultant code is often a tangled, poorly documented, chaotic mess. If this software must be maintained for years to come, then you have a recipe for disaster.

Mind you, I’m not saying that an elaborate design is always necessary. If time is short, then one might not have the luxury of an intricate software plan with exhaustive design documentation. However, one should at least have a general software architecture laid outone which is detailed enough to make the software development process smoother and easier. Programmers rarely err on the side of over-planning, but they frequently fall into the trap of insufficient design detail. Don’t make this mistake, if you really want to save time.

About the author:

V. Berba Velasco Jr. is proud to work as a senior electrical and software engineer at Cellular Technology Ltd (http://www.immunospot.com, http://www.elispot-analyzers.de, http://www.elispot.cn) a biotechnology company that prides itself on its standards of excellence.

As an entrepreneur, information is the base of all profits. Knowing how to get the right information about your projects and doing it quietly is like money in the bank.

1) Networking is number one on the list. A good working relationship with a selection of peers can really help in finding and assessing projects. It takes time to develop a good network of hand picked people that you commonly keep contact with. Trust is a big issue but more importantly quality of positioning is more of an issue. By positioning I mean how that person fits within the relationship of the type of project you do and where they fit within that scheme. For example a rich source of contacts is the humble sales person or broker. They are easy to meet and very willing to do business with you even if you aren’t buying anything from them initially. Real estate agents, Car dealer principles and Marine brokers all fit in this group. It depends on your market, your niche of course.

Experts and valuers are also excellent quality positioning candidates for your network. Finally your competition. Other entrepreneurs that deal prolifically in your market. This last one might seem counter intuitive, but entrepreneurs often “hunt” in groups and help each other. There are only so many projects you can take on at any one time, however your network will continue to keep filling your Hopper with fresh leads and contacts. These can be traded or exchanged for favours later on or Joint Venture’s could be formed with other entrepreneurs. Usually there are two elements that stop you from taking every acceptable project that arrives on your door step, they are time and money. You may be over extended financially but have lots of time up your sleeve with the way your current project is structured. So you can often trade off with another entrepreneur who has funds, but is over committed time wise. And vice versa.

2) Expert authors are an excellent source of inspiration and information. By seeking out authors that deal with topics that you yourself are engaged in you leverage your knowledge. By reading a lot you save time and money by avoiding problems and being opened up to seeing things in different ways. Authors often are old hands looking for a less strenuous way of moving in some income and their own insight is often worth the cents per dollar you pay for their information.

3) Current people you are doing business with. Making a profit is seen as a shameful thing. Well not quite, but we tend to deal with the people that are directly responsible for our profits with guarded care. This is a reasonable attitude, however it need not be so guarded. If they are happy with the deal they made, there is no reason why you should feel concerned about their having remorse. Its not your concern, you are an entrepreneur not a nurse maid. With this in mind, often a chatty attitude will uncover all sorts of insights from the people you do business with. Maybe they know somebody else who is in precisely the same position they were in and you could repeat your deal with their acquaintance. Possibly the biggest reconnaissance you can get from people you have done business with is to be able to identify your own strengths and weaknesses through their eyes. What this does is give you valuable insights into how you operate and how you can improve that core business of yours…..doing deals.

Martin Thomas (c)2005

Martin is a professional investor and Entrepreneur. If you would like to discover more about being an entrepreneur, you can read “The Million Dollar Mentor” by Hayden Muller. Martin recommends this work highly and has used the very concepts contained in the work for his own successful entrepreneurial activities.
http://www.opportunity-investor.com

This second article in the series on Coaching Your Business to The Next Level Series explores how many business owners and executives are consumed with working in their business and not on their business. (NOTE: Article 1 was the Top 7 Tips to Avoid the Top 7 Mistakes Small Business Owners Make. See link at bottom of to previous article.)

Work on Your Business Not in Your Business

Mistake: Most new business owners and many experienced business owners are so busy working in their business, they fail to work on their business and demonstrate the leadership that the business demands. In the book, It’s Not the Big that Eat the Small, But It’s the Fast that Eat the Slow, the authors revealed that executives spent less than 15 minutes each day thinking about the future of their business because they were so busy dealing with yesterday and today’s events.

Think about that incredible statement. Business owners spend more time in the past and the present than in the future. Talk about being consumed by working in the business instead of working on the business.

Here are two quick questions to determine if you are an On Business Person or an In Business Person.

• Where is your business coming from: the past, the present or the future?
• If you answered, the future, then how much time are you spending on your business? Be honest! If you answered less than 4 hours per week, then you are indeed working in your business and not on your business.

In the book, The On-Purpose Person, author Kevin W. McCarthy uses the analogy of a light switch. When the switch is on, you are on purpose. This analogy can be used within your business to ensure that you are working on your business and not in your business.

Possibly, you are unsure if you are working in or on your business, the following four questions may help to ease that confusion. NOTE: Any yes response suggests that you are working in not on your business.

1. Do you invest your time in daily routines from mail pick-up to payroll?
2. Do you invest your time in going to the same networking or business events?
3. Do you invest your time and dollars in using the same marketing tools?
4. Are you more concerned about doing what you have been doing and not looking at doing things differently?

Changing from working in your business to on your business will require a change in attitude and more importantly a change in beliefs. However, once that you recognize that you need to work on your business instead of in your business, you have taken the first step. Look for series 3 and 4 to further help you to make those changes necessary for business success.

If you missed the first article, click here to read it.

Leanne coaches individuals, small businesses and large organizations to double performance in wrap time. Click to learn the Secrets of Success and sign up for a free monthly newsletter.

Please feel free to contact Leanne at 219.759.5601. If you truly don’t believe doubling your results is possible, read some case studies where individuals and businesses took the risk and experienced unheard of results.

As I always like to say, you only live once. As true as this statement is, I feel like sometimes people have a hard time “stepping out of the box”, or traveling outside of their comfort zone. If you love the outdoors, and adventure, but are unsure of a way to try something new and exciting, a breathtaking Las Vegas kayak adventure may be just up your alley.

Many people, simply upon thinking about “Las Vegas”, immediately get a mental image of gambling, celebrities, and debauchery. This is completely not the case. There is so much more to do in and around Las Vegas that it is practically impossible to do and see it all.

One of these activities is kayaking. Kayaking is a great physical workout, as well as a grand adventure. From the base of the Hoover Dam, you can kayak to many splendid locations such as Black Canyon, Lake Mead, and a variety of hot springs to explore. Kayaking is a great way to both get a good upper body workout, and take in the beauty of nature that surrounds Las Vegas.

Make sure to register for a Las Vegas kayaking trip today. You will be provided with all the equipment you need, and an experienced guide to take you on your journey.

Pilates could be described as a method of exercise developed by Joseph Pilates. It is a physical movement designed to stretch, strengthen, lengthen and balance the body. It was in 1926 that Joseph Pilates brought the Pilate program, then called “Contrology”, to the city of New York. Their program centered on postural symmetry, breathing control, abdominal strength, spine, pelvis and shoulder stabilization, muscular flexibility and joint mobility. Training with Pilates you will find that your whole body is trained using the upper and lower extremities with the trunk.

Pilates is an exercise that almost anyone can do and achieve amazing results. There is no bouncing, jarring or any stress to your body. Pilates is also convenient because it does not require any special or expensive equipment. One could do Pilates anywhere and anytime. There are some Pilates workouts that are only ten minutes long. It makes it so anyone can find time to do a quick workout.

If you practice Pilates faithfully, it will yield many benefits. You will notice an increase in lung capacity and circulation. This is achieved through deep breathing which is the primary focus. Strength and flexibility, especially in the abdomen and back muscles. The coordination between these, are the key components for a Pilates program. Your posture, balance and your core strength are all increased. It has been noticed that bone density and joint health improve. Many people who practice Pilates notice positive body awareness. Overall Pilates teaches control and balance of your body.

If you are out of shape and looking for a program to ease into, then Pilates would be the best thing to start out with. Pilates can be rehabilitative, almost like going to your physical therapist; in fact some of their techniques are based on Pilates. Unlike other forms of exercising you can do Pilates every day without overstressing your body, muscles and joints. To see results you would only need to do Pilates three days a week.

Pilates will benefit your emotional health as well; the steady and smooth movements calm your mind and relax your nervous system. When you start to lengthen and strengthen your muscles you will improve your circulation and the tension will melt away. After each workout, you will be calm, relaxed, balanced and rejuvenated. While you are working out you need to focus on letting the tension go

As you get older your balance starts to deteriorate because your muscles weaken and your nerve receptors begin to lose their sensitivity. Pilates will reverse this aging process by stabilizing your core. A Pilates workout works the small, deep muscles that are needed to keep your body steady when you are walking and your spine will be supple and strong.

Pilates is wonderful after you have a baby to lose the pregnancy tummy. And because it is low impact it is easy to start doing. If you do a few key moves on a regular basis you see an improvement. Muscles have a great memory! They will come back after a little toning.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Pilates

To find money to invest for your future, you need to make sure that your outgoing expenses are less than the income that you are receiving. You need to develop an excess that you can have free to invest.

Now before you start to think….”well I don’t have any excess left…if I was earning more money….then I would have some free”. Let me dispel this myth…and tell you that it is a known and excepted fact that the amount of money that people earn has little if any bearing on whether or not they have an excess left to invest. The only way to create an excess it to spend less than you earn, instead of spending all that you earn.

Even doctors and lawyers, who earn well over $100,000.00 per year, often end up at retirement with little more Net Worth than factory or office workers.

Net Worth is calculated by deducting the value of all the liabilities or loans you have from the income-producing assets owned to give you the net value of your income-producing assets.

Why aren’t high-income earners retiring wealthy? Why don’t they end up with a greater Net Worth than someone on a low income? It is quite simple. Human nature seems to dictate that whatever anyone earns….they spend….some even spend more than they earn and charge it on their credit card.

The higher your income grows…the more you spend and the only way to get out of this cycle is to realise that it is happening, and make a concerted effort to reverse this habit….and to begin reducing your expenditures so that you can free up money to invest.

The best way to do this, is to try the 10/90 plan. This plan simply means that as soon as you receive your pay….you put aside 10% of it for investment….and then use the other 90% to live off of. Put aside the 10%, and then pay all the bills and do the grocery shopping….and then after that whatever is left over you can spend.

Most people do it the wrong way around…they pay the bills, do the shopping and spend what is left over, never leaving any left to save or invest. By taking the investment money out first you will alleviate the temptation to spend it.

The road to wealth is not determined by how much you earn, but by how you utilise the income you have and how much you save and invest.

You need to take control of your finances. One of the best ways to start having more control over your money is to find out where it has all been going, and then amend your spending habits to allow you to live within the 10/90 plan.

If you write down a list of your monthly net income, then in another column write down a list of the essential items that you have to spend money on. You should be able to work out an average for telephone, gas, electricity, insurances and rates, from your previous bills. Work out an average of how much is spent on grocery shopping and petrol. If there are any other necessary utilities include them as well. Then deduct the second column from the first - and this will give you the maximum potential savings for each month.

It can be quite startling how high this figure can be and make you wonder where all the extra money went.

Another good learning experience is to simply write down for a fortnight every dollar spent and write next to it what it was for. You will soon find that there are a lot of unnecessary expenses, often caused by impulse buying, where you have spent money on items that you neither needed or really wanted, and could easily have gone without.

When you can begin to recognise these areas, and start to consider whether or not you are spending your money wisely, before you hand it over, then you will be beginning to take control over your money and are well on the way to embarking on your investment journey, which will enable you to have a financially secure future for you and your children.

Debra Lohrere is an author of several books on property investment and how to create financial security. Please visit. http://www.debra.lohrere.com/home.shtml

Debra Lohrere works as a Commodity Trading Logistics Administrator. She previously spent over ten years working in an Accounts Administration position with her primary roles being collections and financial forecasting. She also ran her own computer retailing business for many years.
Knowing the vital importance of cash flow in business led her to begin investigating the benefits of personal investments. She decided six years ago that it was time to start taking control of her personal finances and begin building a wealth base for her future.
She began researching the powerful medium of property investment as a means of bringing financial independence into a reach and began to build her own property portfolio.
Within the space of four years she was able to go from renting a house, to owning her own home and three investment properties, while having contributed very little of her own money to secure these.
She built up a large base of contacts with fellow property investors, which has proved to be an invaluable source of information.

Connect two of people’s topmost pursuits and what you’ll get is something generally termed a sportsbook betting web site. Really now - what could be more imaginative… Envisage a group of enthusiasts clapping in support of any chosen lineup, and always stakes are established besides the din. Wanting to catch more of the excitement, spectators routinely venture to conjecture who will prevail in the forthcoming competition. At the end of the day, this evolves into a cute little competition called sportsbook betting web site.

Wow your friends: Learn to play bet create sports like the pros!

No doubt it might easily sound quite habit forming, but, instead, sportsbook gambling is essentially only fun and of tying up with fellow sports aficionados. Here, you’ll be able to risk a a slight amount of moolah and regardless enjoy a amazing time. Beyond this, here are a group of basic guidelines to get you started sportsbook gambling.

In order to wager, you will search for a sportsbook betting web site, that’s to say a place which accepts sportsbook betting web site. In the U.S., there’s currently four states where to go for sportsbook gambling in a legal manner, but if you don’t care for legality, you can try it practically anywhere provided you are able to find a bookie AND you are a legal adult. Covered sporting contests you’ll be able to wager on are professional including, naturally, college level football and college basketball, professional baseball, professional hockey, including, naturally, dog and horse racing. Punters can bet money on the overall results of a fight or game, in what round a given contester will be vanquished, and even whether a coin toss in a fight or game comes down either heads or tails.

The odds makers confide in pure statistics be of assistance to you decide which lineup you believe will prevail. First, we have the spread, that’s points leverage allocated to a losing side that is assumed to go down by a specific number points. Evidently, this comprises the bookmaker’s procedure of organizing impartial stakes for a Sportsbook. Thus, you may choose to bet on a side that is assumed to go down and and regardless profit from that wager provided the side does actually take a licking by a specific number of points.

You will see so many varying classes of lays, the straight bets, where you simply specify the club which you feel is most likely to win or go down being the general favorite in sportsbook gambling.

So why don’t you just check it out, and enjoy yourself in the process… Only determine that you won’t get overwhelmed and use up your total retirement pension frivolously… For you’ll be sure to find yourself being sorry till the end of your life…

I have recently been offered to take advantage of health insurance cobra because the company that I had been working for had to close down. I am new to what cobra can offer me and I no longer have a personnel office at my former job so that I can get more information.

My old insurance helped me out with a chiropractor but this current coverage makes no mention if this sort of treatment would be included. I have heard that I get the same coverage as I had when I was employed but I would like to see it in writing somewhere before I make an appointment.

It seems like drug stores are popping up around time at the same frequency of coffee shops. How can they all afford to be kept in business? Is the prescription market that demanding that the supply can handle the large saturation in the market?

I have recently been thinking about taking up the health insurance cobra I was offered but I am wondering if I can just buy the prescriptions out of pocket. It seems like it may be cheaper to go through a competing drug store versus the cobra program that charges a lot of money to fill a prescription.

As a decorator, I have gone into many different homes and met homeowners with questionable taste. One thing I am shocked about is people living in a time warp. I recently had a client who hired me because they had an “ah- ha moment” seeing their living room style on a circa 1980’s sit-com rerun. Yes, their living room had not been restyled in 25 years. Sometimes people just decorate like their mother did because that is all they have ever known. Let’s not be frumpy and stale.

So how can you tell if you are living in a time warp and need to freshen up your home’s look?
Here are just a few of the telltale signs:

1. Look up. What do you see? If you see a popcorn ceiling or glitter mixed with ceiling paint, you have an outdated look.
2. Now, look down. Do you see dark carpeting? over 10 years old? Do you see wall to wall plush carpeting? The trend is most definitely hardwood floors with gorgeous area rugs
3. Look to the side. Do you see any fake wood paneling whatsoever? The darker and shinier it is, the worse it is. No paneling!
4. What do you see on the wall? Please don’t tell me that you see white paint. The trend is color, color, and color. Don’t be bland! A rich complex color can bring your room up to the new
5. If you removed a picture from the wall, will there be a telltale sign that it hung in that exact spot too long? Paint fades over the years, ya know. Be sure to change the accessories around every few years. I bet that picture is hung way too high also. Is it hung more than 6 inches from the top of the sofa? See told ya.
6. Do you have over 5 photographs of children who are now grown? Subtract points if the frames are all different types and sizes.
7. How about the furniture? Is it lumpy and bumpy (formally known as cascade back style)? It reminds me of rolls of fat. Yuck! The updated look it smooth sleek lines with classic styling. Toss it to the curb with its buddy, the extra large lazy-people recliner.
8. Speaking of the couch, please don’t let me see a knitted afghan folded over the back of the sofa. I love things made by Grandma too but it doesn’t need to be the focal point. It is no longer fashionable to place a folded blanket of any kind over the back of the couch.
9. How about the accent pillows? The old style of placing matching pillows at each end of the couch is dated too - just because they came with the couch doesn’t mean you have to use them. Spice it up with pillows of contrasting colors, unique motifs, and hip textures.
10. Let’s check out the kitchen. This is an easy room to tell if is out of date. On the floor, do you have bold geometric vinyl? Are your appliances harvest gold or avocado? Do your cupboards lack character? Do they have their original knobs and pulls? Are the counters a color like 70’s Brady Bunch orange or even 80’s country blue? It really pays to redo a kitchen but if you can’t right now, update the knobs, get a rug, and gallons of paint.

And the bonus question:

11. On your bathroom counter, is there a grouping of lotions and potions? The big pump bottle of everyday moisturizer? On your bedroom dresser, you don’t have your collection of perfume bottles of scents you haven’t worn in several years, do you? Don’t you remember your mother doing this? Let’s not decorate how mom did.

Now you know if your décor is frumpy and stale. You also know a few ways to make it fresh. Next, how about those pleated slacks?

Julie Dana is a professional Interior Redesigner and Accredited Staging Professional. Her company, The Home Stylist, offers online decorating consultations, do-it-yourself decorating plans and real-estate staging.
Visit http://www.thehomestylist.com to take a fun style quiz, vote on a color poll, and sign up for free decorating e-newsletter.