You can deposit a large sum of money in a bank, making arrangements (as some banks will do) for the interest earned on the principal to be mailed to you each month. To receive $300 per month, you would need $72,000 invested at 5 percent interest or $60,000 invested at 6 percent.
If you choose this method, there is always the danger that you will dip into the principal, though you’ve sworn not to. If you select this method, keep reminding yourself that once the principal is gone, there is no way of replacing it.
You may consider investing surplus funds in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or real estate. Where you decide to place your money depends on your investment objectives. What are yours? Do you want your investment to supplement your retirement income? To provide some income but mostly to conserve capital? To provide both income and capital growth? To realize large capital gains? Your objectives will determine the risk, so before making an investment, be certain that you have the best advice obtainable and that you understand the risks thoroughly. Whatever vehicle you choose, remember that there is no such thing as a "risk less" investment and no such thing as a "perfect" savings investment.
While a large income at retirement won’t assure a happy, rewarding retirement, it will give you a better chance at it than a small income. Financial planning is not a whole answer, but it is the foundation which many retirement plans rise or collapse.
Do not make the mistake of putting off planning in this area. Start now. The longer it’s delayed, the more difficult it will be to get started and the harder it will be to ever reach your goals.
- Posted by e2 on 10.12.09
- Tags Modern Family, Site Review
We have always dreamed of perfect places: Eden, heaven, Oz – places over the rainbow, beyond death and loss. Now through computer technology, we can inhabit those worlds together via massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG). Using MMORPG a group of disabled men and women inhabit one virtual body, which frees them from their lifelong struggle to be seen and heard.
There is a question why people continue to play MMORPG and form a community. The answer is encompassed within the community itself, the players that actually play the game, and form relationships not with the game itself, but with other players. These relationships which are usually built on the player’s experience within the game are the founding cornerstones of a virtual community. Although this type of relationship is deemed not as important as ‘real-life’ relationships by society, to some it is the most important relationships they have in their lives.
One honest answer to the question “Don’t these people have a life?” is that most people don’t have a terribly glamorous life. They work, they subsist, and they are lonely or afraid or shy or unattractive or feel that they are unattractive. Or they are simply different. The phenomenon of fandom is evidence that not everyone can have a life as “having a life” as defined by the mainstream and some people just go out and try to build an alternate life.
There are three mayor psychological aspects of MMORPG which are achievement, social, and immersion. The achievement component was based around players wanting to advance within the game, optimize their characters, and compete with other players. The social component incorporated the different relationships a player may have within the virtual world, such as casual socializing, building of personal relationships, and teamwork involving a guild (an organized collaboration of players). The final component immersion involved discovery, role-playing, customization of player avatars and escapism. Those components do not invalidate each other (a player can achieve high ratings in all three components).
Though MMORPGs have been around for years, it has taken this long for the genre’s breakthrough hit to finally emerge of Aion. Aion is the online role-playing game you should play, no matter who you are. This is because aion brings out all the best aspects of this style of gaming, if not many of the best aspects of gaming in general. You can explore one of the most amazingly beautiful and detailed MMORPGs ever as you fight to save a vibrant world ripped asunder by a celestial war. Wielding divine powers and the capability for true flight, you must bring salvation to your people and restore balance to a vast, beautiful world shattered by cataclysm.
Aion can be defined as an online fantasy role-playing game presented in a 3-dimensional virtual world where players connect to a common network of servers over the internet and are represented by virtual avatars in a third person perspective.
First and foremost a player creates their online avatar, which involves selecting one of the ten races available that are split into two different warring factions, Elyos and Asmodians. Elyos follow the five Seraphim Lords known as Ariel (Lady of Light), Nezekan (Lord of Justice), Vaizel (Lord of Freedom), Kaisinel (Lord of Illusion), and Yustiel (Lady of Life). Asmodians follow the five Shedim Lords which are Azphel (Lord of Shadow), Zikel (Lord of Destruction), Triniel (Lady of Death), Lumiel (Lady of Wisdom), and Marchutan (Lord of Fate). Once a race has been selected, the player must then decide on a class they wish to role-play.
There are four primary aion classes that players can select from when they create a new character: Warrior, Scout, Mage and Priest. Once you have gained enough experience, you will be able to ascend to one of the two specialized classes available to your primary class.
After an appropriate name for their avatar is chosen, the player can load into the game world. You can visit aion forum to get better information about how to play aion in details.
- Posted by e2 on 10.05.09
- Tags Family Changes, Modern Family
Exactly what will your pension plan do for you? How long do you have to remain with your current employer to fully qualify for a pension? If you quit before retirement, can you take any pension rights with you? If you move to another job, would it be to your advantage to leave your pension contributions with your former employer? What would happen to your financial plans should you become disabled before reaching retirement? What would your family be entitled to if you died before retirement? How does the company calculate your pension? What pay out options do you have?
Pension plans differ: Some discuss monthly payments exclusive of social security; others include social security in stating specified monthly payments; retirement income may or may not continue on a reduced scale to a widow; etc.
Apart from pension programs, some companies have profit-sharing plans, employee savings or stock-purchase programs. Learn the details of any such plan that you are involved in.
You may be surprised to find a large gap between your retirement income goals and your potential retirement income as it exists today. How can you bridge it?.
Living expenses may be lower perhaps because you can substract child support and mortgage payments, because of a decrease in income tax payments or an end to your savings plan.
You may also drive a less expensive, older automobile. Why not? You need transportation, but you do not need to impress anyone and you are no longer as dependent on your automobile.
You can save by getting a smaller house or an apartment that will eliminate the upkeep that a home requires. Either way, moving into smaller quarters can save you money.
You will not have to go to work every day so your clothing costs will be lower.
Yet, as many retired people put it,"It is pointed out all to frequently, by those a score of years or more away from retirement, that "When you reach the age of retirement, you can live on less income." I am retiring next year and I ask, Who wants to?! Why should not a man or woman, after a lifetime of sacrifices, of hard work, of effort, of giving, want most to do and to have and least to do without and to have not?"
The argument that a retired couple does not have the same commuting, clothing, luncheon, education, etc., expenses is strong enough in some respects, but what if they want to visit their grandchildren?
Chances are that nowadays if they are living in Connecticut, the grandchildren are living in California, and if they are in California, the grandchildren are probably in Connecticut. What if they want to take gifts to their grandchildren? Or help their children? Or live in a favorable climate and return to their home base occasionally to see old friends? And what about travel? All of these desires - and there are many others - cost money. There are new expenses. There are retirement expenses. They can offset the other expenses that they no longer have.
You can deposit a large sum of money in a bank, making arrangements (as some banks will do) for the interest earned on the principal to be mailed to you each month. To receive $300 per month, you would need $72,000 invested at 5 percent interest or $60,000 invested at 6 percent.
