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Retirement planning is not difficult. The goal is to make sure that you have an adequate income so that you can live the way you want even though you are no longer receiv- ing a paycheck. To plan for retirement, then, you first need to figure out how much money you need to live on when you retire. A good starting point is what you already live on. Obviously, you want to adjust your living expenses estimate for a mortgage that may be paid by the time you retire and for work expenses you may no longer have. Also, you need to adjust your living expenses for any hobby expenses, such as travel, that you don’t have now because you are working, but will have after you retire. Finally, you should be prepared financially for the possibility of an increase in health-related expenses, especially those of a long-term nature, for yourself or for your partner.After you determine what you need to live on when you are retired, you are ready to begin to figure out where that money is going to come from. Clearly, for anybody who has worked, national pension plans, such as Social Security, are an important factor. In spite of the hand wringing and calls to arms concerning the Social Security benefits that U.S. residents may or may not receive, we think you can count on Social Security as a source of retirement.

After you have identified how much money you need during retirement, and have some idea what you will receive from Social Security and any other pensions, you need to calculate how much money you have to save in order to amass an investment portfolio that will provide any additional income.

The safest way to make the first part of this calculation - the calculation of how much money you need at the start of retirement in order to provide dependable retirement income, is simply to divide the amount of annual investment income you need by an appropriate rate of return. For example, and just to make the calculations easy,  suppose that you want to receive $50,000 of annual retirement income from your investment portfolio when you retire. Further suppose that you expect to be able to earn a rate of return equal to 5 percent during retirement. To calculate how much money you need at the start of retirement in order to earn $50,000 of retirement income, divide $50,000 by 5 percent. The result is $1,000,000.226

An important variable here is the rate of return that you expect on retirement. Particularly tricky is the fact that you need to deal with inflation that occurs over the years when you are retired. We recommend using a real rate of return, which is a rate of return that has been adjusted for inflation by subtracting the inflation rate from the rate of return. By using a real rate of return, you don’t need to worry about inflation.

In effect, you subtract inflation from the rate of return and therefore from your future financial forecasts. Real rates of return should typically run 3 percent to 7 percent. You can, for example, buy bonds from the U.S. Treasury that will return a real rate of return equal to approximately 3 percent. In other words, the bond will pay whatever inflation is, plus 3 percent. Over time, the stock market has produced real returns of around 7 percent. We recommend that you use a 5 percent real return for calculations of your income during retirement.

After dividing your annual retirement income by the real rate of return and thereby calculating how much you need to accumulate you need to use a financial calculator to determine how much you have to save on a monthly basis in order to amass the retirement nest egg you need. Unfortunately, Money doesn’t provide such a financial calculator in its features set. You can locate in several other places a financial calculator that will make this computation, however. If you have a copy of Microsoft Excel, for example, you can use Excel to make this calculation. If you have a handheld financial calculator, you can also use it. See the calculator’s documentation for step-by-step instructions on how to do this.

Debt consolidation works to save your funds and time, while reducing your total paperwork load at the same time. Not only will you save money when you begin the debt consolidation process, but you will also save money on gas if you find a source online and can avoid dozens of trips to your consolidator’s office.

Some debt consolidation programs offer resources with “no lending fees” and “guaranteed” low costs. Most debt consolidation online sources provide debtors relief by handling their cases “one-on-one.” Some debt consolidation agencies online even claim to get your debts reduced in a matter of minutes. All you need to do is fill out an application online. You may want to note that having all your bills together while filling out the application can also save you hassle.

Property Owners

Property owners are also offered debt consolidation resources online. Some companies will work to find you a loan that will reduce your monthly mortgages and interest rates. Few debt consolidation lenders will even help you get a loan up to 125% of your property value.

Non-Property Owners

Debt consolidation sources online can offer people who do not own their home a loan to help them consolidate their bills. Keep in mind that the loan is not directly handed to you in most instances; rather, the loan is applied to your debts. In addition, if you are a student, there are sources online that will help you reduce your student loans, or else get you the cash to payoff the debt. Many of the online debt consolidation sources have online tools to help you review the savings of consolidating your debts. Again, having your bills together when you go online will save you time and energy.

Finally, you may want to consolidate your bills by asking for help from a trustworthy source that will not charge you costly fees or rates of interest.

If you turn on your local financial news, you’re bound to hear the phrase Dow Jones Industrial Average at some point. Most people assume that this just means the stock market, or that it refers to the New York Stock Exchange. But what is the Dow, and what exactly does it measure?

The Dow is a market average. It is used by investors to figure out how certain companies that are being traded are doing. The Dow isn’t the only market average out there, there is the S&P 500 and The Russel 2000, as well.

The Dow takes into account 30 industrial stocks of well-known companies. The 30 companies are likely ones you’ve heard of, like Goodyear, Exxon, IBM or General Motors. The Dow calculates the rises and falls of these 30 stocks and presents a picture of how the overall market and the overall economy are doing. While it may sound complicated, it really isn’t. The Dow is simply a list of 30 companies that have their estimated values averaged together with a particular formula.

The other averages follow essentially the same methods. The S&P 500 uses the values of 500 major companies, while the Russel 2000 keeps up with 2,000 companies that are smaller than the ones used in the S&P and Dow.

The key to following the Dow or any of the other market indexes is to look for trends. Market analysts can decipher problems or benefits in the current economy by looking for particular stocks that go up in certain situation, and particular stocks that go down in others.

The Dow company, now known as Dow Jones & Company was founded in 1882 and they classify themselves as a financial information and publishing firm.

The Dow is responsible for the publication of the Wall Street Journal, maybe the most well known financial publication in the world. The Journal’s first issue was on July 8, 1889. Dow also publishes several other financial publications, as well as Barron’s Magazine.

The Dow also runs several websites dedicated to financial news and information, such as CareerJournal.com and OpinionJournal.com.

The Dow also has a hand in the broadcasting world, where it helps to provide financial content for the CNBC cable network, as well as two finance-oriented radio shows.

The Dow Jones & Company machine is one of the most powerful forces in American investing. Their indices are the industry standard, and the Wall Street Journal has the second highest circulation of any newspaper in North America. The Dow helped to start finance in the US and they look to be a big part of finance in the future.

Debt consolidation loans help debtors lower their monthly bills while paying off credit cards with high interest rates and debt, adhering to an overall debt strategy. Many online counselors or debt management services will offer to make your bills lower each month and may even claim to offer additional funds for your own purposes.

If you are having a difficult time paying off your debts, then consider that some plans will enable you to pay off costly interest rates on credit cards. The monthly installments, once the debt consolidation personnel settle on an amount, will not increase or decrease during your agreed plan. Some companies will claim that the loan offered has no restrictions. They will tell you the date your loan borrowed will be repaid, as well as offer you as much as “$10,000? fast in loans, and even may claim you can get the money the “same day you apply.”

Few of the online debt consolidation services will offer a variety of plans that will meet your budget. However, if your loan amount is above the “$10,000, then you will need home equity to get additional loans. The loans then become secured loans, which require collateral - and your home is generally the collateral.

To get a loan online, you must collect all your bills and provide the details on an online application. You must also have a detailed estimate of your debts, plus your income. After you fill out the online applications, some debt consolidators claim to take a few seconds to evaluate your application and then contact with their decision. Some companies who claim to lend you money will also claim that they will lend it on the spot as soon as you are approved.

Be aware that some companies charge high interest rates, plus additional fees for services in debt consolidation.

Secured credit cards are another very popular breed of credit cards. Secured credit cards, as their name suggests, are secured. Well, they are secured for the credit card supplier, really. Secured credit cards require you to open an account with the credit card supplier and maintain some cash balance in that account. This cash balance acts as a security for the supplier of secured credit card. Your credit limit is dependent on the amount you hold in the account that you have started with the supplier of secured credit card. This is generally between 50 to 100% of your account balance. So in that sense, secured credit cards are not really credit cards (since they don’t offer you any credit really). For this reason, the secured credit cards are sometimes also referred as debit cards.

Why is the concept of secured credit cards so important?

As we know, credit card debt is a raging problem which is caused by improper usage of credit cards. Such people end up spoiling their credit rating to an extent where they cannot get another unsecured credit card (that is what we call the commonly used credit cards). Even after they have paid off their dues and cleared their debt, their credit rating still haunts them. For such people, secured credit cards are a boon. Secured credit cards present them with an opportunity to not only get a credit card in the first place but also to improve their credit rating by using the secured credit card in a disciplined way (paying their dues in time, controlled spending, utilizing a maximum of 70% credit limit etc etc). As they continue with these good habits, their credit rating gradually improves over a period of time. Hence secured credit cards provide them with the means of rectifying their mistakes (credit rating).

It’s not just the people with bad credit rating who go for secured credit cards. Some people go for secured credit cards because they don’t want to bother themselves with the bills etc for credit cards. They don’t like to even fill-up application forms for unsecured credit cards.

Then there are some who just don’t like to borrow money (even if it means borrowing from a credit card supplier by using their credit card). However, such people are very rare to find.

Some people just go for secured credit cards because they have heard a lot of horrifying stories on credit card debt – maybe someone from their family or one of their friends was devastated by credit card debt and they don’t want to repeat the mistake. So they decide to go for a secured credit card.

Whatever be the reason for going for it, the secured credit cards are surely popular too.