Time is running out for higher male annuity rates

by

John T. Hughes

Under the European Directive on gender equality which comes into force later this year it will no longer be possible for annuity providers to offer separate rates for males and females.

An annuity is a regular income purchased on retirement with a lump sum, usually the result of a lifetime of contributions to a pension fund. Unless you are purchasing a fixed term annuity product, the annuity that you purchase when you retire will normally continue to pay out until the end of your life. Annuities are the most common route taken to turning a pension pot into a regular retirement income.

Currently annuity providers will often offer men a better annuity rate than women simply because men have a shorter average life expectancy than their female counterparts. From an annuity provider’s point of view this means that they are likely to have to pay out for a shorter period of time and they can therefore, generally speaking, afford to offer a men a higher rate life annuity.

From the 21st of December this year annuity providers will only be able to offer uni-sex rates. As a result annuity rates are likely to fall for men and climb slightly for women.

What should I do if I am considering buying an annuity in the next year?

If you are a man you may benefit from higher rates if you purchase an annuity before December 2012, but like so many things in the annuity market at the moment, this is far from certain because annuity rates are effected by a whole host of influences.

Typically the retirement income, also known as the “annuity rate”, that you are able to purchase with your pension fund is based on you age, the state of your health and the standard annuity rates across the market at the time that you make your purchase, as well as your gender under current rules. So although gender is likely to become an obsolete consideration come January 2013, annuity rates may still rise or fluctuate for other reasons.

While the European Directive on gender will mean that overall annuity rates are likely to drop for men they are also likely to rise slightly for women, so it’s not all bad news for those approaching retirement.

Nevertheless, an impact on annuity rates, however small can be keenly felt in today’s tough market, and purchasing an annuity may be one of the most important decisions that you make in later so it’s vitally important to consider all your options carefully before you proceed. Shopping around and comparing the market can help you get the most competitive deal for your circumstances.

John T Hughes writes for

Annuity Rates UK

, a site that connects consumers to

annuity advice

they can trust.

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Time is running out for higher male annuity rates

Carlos Hank Rhon: Self Employed Individuals Can Benefit with a Retirement Accounts.

by

Sandeep Soni

A retirement account can supply you with many benefits later on in life. As you work, explains Carlos Hank Rhon, you add in funds to your retirement account a little at a time. If your retirement account has the added benefit of interest then you will gain more money the longer you keep it in your account. This will supply you with the funding that you will be in need of once you decide to retire from working and live off of your benefits. Therefore, it is very important that you save as much money as you possibly can right now in order to prepare yourself for the future.

There are several different types of retirement plans available to you, explains Carlos Hank Rhon. You can decide to invest in an individual retirement plan where you deposit money into your account all on your own or you may want to go with a retirement plan that is set up through your employer such as a 401k retirement plan. There is also a self-employed 401k Plan. This is often referred to as a Solo 401k plan. It allows small business owners to have the ability to create their own tax free retirement account for their workers.

There are a few similarities when it comes to a solo 401k plan and a regular 401k plan that is used in many large businesses. A self-employed 401k plan is also very different from a regular 401k plan. It is important that you understand these differences before you decide to offer this type of retirement plan to those who work for your small business.

Just like with a regular 401k plan, you cannot withdraw from your plan before the age of 59.5 unless you want to pay the 10% penalty as well as any taxes on the amount that you withdraw. There are some hardship requirements that you may qualify for but for most cases the penalty and taxes remain in effect. The amount that you are able to deposit on an annual basis is also the same for both types of 401k plans, which was $16,500 in 2009.

However, notes Carlos Hank Rhon, unlike most traditional 401k retirement plans, with a solo 401k plan you have the ability to set aside up to 25% of your income as long as the total investment doesn t exceed $49,000. This amount goes up to $54,500 once you reach the age of 50.

These plans allow you to withdraw money over time once you reach a certain age or you can also take out a loan using the money that is currently in your 401k plan. Therefore, you get the added benefit of using your retirement money now while still having money in your account drawing interest to be used at a later date. Many people may not think about the benefits of a retirement plan when they are young and first start working but, it is a good idea to find out all that you can about the many benefits that you can receive from a retirement plan now and later on in the future when you will need the money for your everyday living expenses.

Carlos Hank Rhon – Carlos Hank Rhon is Chairman of the Board of Grupo Financiero Interacciones. Carlos Hank Rhon is one of Mexico\’s top investment bankers.

Carlos Hank Rhon

: commercial business lending.

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Takeover Saves Two Yorkshire Care Homes

by

Kelsey Russel

Two

care homes in West Yorkshire will continue to provide a service to the elderly and infirm thanks to them being taken over by a newly-formed company.

P&C care Ltd s move to purchase the Ivy Nursing Home in Shipley and The Mount Nursing Home in Bolton Woods, Bradford, will also safeguard 84 jobs.

Patrick Berry, who is a qualified nurse with 17 years experience working for the NHS, and his wife Catherine, who has worked in finance and administration for nursing homes, will manage both of the 40-bed properties.

Mr Berry said: Having spent most of our lives working in the care home sector, we are passionate about providing the very best for our clients.

We look forward to continuing to operate these homes to a high standard and building on their excellent reputation and business success, as well as expanding and acquiring further homes in the future.

The purchases were made possible thanks to multi-million pound funding from National Westminister Bank and support from Reward Capital.

The news comes shortly after the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, announced a scheme which will see 150 million each invested into caring for the elderly.

A surprising number of people are paying for their own care in later life privately, according to new data.

Research by Laing & Buisson found that there has been a gradual but consistent decline in the number of people who qualify for state support.

In England in 2011, 41 per cent of care home residents, accounting for 159,000 people were responsible for paying for their own care.

If \’quasi private payers\’ who pay top up fees on top of what their local council pays were taken into consideration then this figure increased to 55 per cent.

Commenting on the findings, report author William Laing said that those who pay for their care privately and those who are state funded are experiencing very different market conditions.

\”Within the state paid sector, most councils froze their baseline fee rates in the face of swingeing cuts in central government funding,\” he said.

\”In contrast, the private pay market continues to bear significant fee increases.\”

Research from consumer site Which? recently highlighted that care in the UK is a postcode lottery, with many councils being advised to make their criteria for care needs more stringent.

An initiative to improve rehabilitation therapies in care homes in Derbyshire has picked up its third accolade in just two months.

Liberating Ideas competition, which is organized by the Health Service Journal and Cap Gemini (healthcare consulting organization), rewarded members from the Care Home Support Team at Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Trust for the way in which they demonstrated new ideas in primary care.

Winning the national award now means that members of the team will be required to attend a workshop that will enable them to share their ideas for care with a panel of experts.

It is then hoped that such plans will be rolled out to other care groups and organisations across the country.

Sam Pessoll, team leader for the Care Home Support Team at Babington Hospital, told the Belper News: This is a fantastic opportunity for us and we are delighted that we ve been able to introduce a service which is making a real difference to the quality of life of elderly people in care homes in Derbyshire.

The scheme is a welcome addition to the health care sector at a time when the NHS is having to make several cutbacks.

Read more about home care at

Paying for Care

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A contemporary wood stove design

by

abigaylemark3There are many different things you are looking for when you want to decorate your home. This is the space that has to reflect who you are and what you like, but it has to stick to a few features that will fit in the current trends. How hard do you think it is to make all these things come together in harmony? How hard will it be to find the best ideas?

There are many different blends you will find today, but not all of them lead to the success you intended them for. If you are looking for a certain image for your home, you have to focus on a few things that will work. For instance, how well do you think a contemporary wood stove will fit in your home? Do you even know how one looks like?

Many people are aware that traditional homes are usually built around the fireplace and they are the ones that old homes are focused on. They are big, they are imposing and they usually capture the attention of the people who you bring in your home. Usually a modern wood burning stove would be the same, but with a few modern features.

Would you like to have one of these things in your living room? Would you like to centre the entire design of your home on one element? If you want to bring out the best features of your home, the contemporary wood stove must not be the only element people look at. This has to be in tone with the rest of the house as well as the other items.

But how will you be able to find a modern wood burning stove that will fit your profile? How will you be able to bring out the best in your home while still having such a piece in the living room? You must not be stuck in the past and you have to keep an open mind if you are decorating your home. You would be surprised by what you can find.

The lines of the contemporary wood stove have to be simple and elegant so it will fit in any space with little effort. The colours you will turn to must not be flashy either. A neutral, natural colour is one of the best options you have at hand for it. The easier it is to miss when you look around, the more you will appreciate the way it has been made.

Adding value to the design of your home is not easy, but a modern wood burning stove can do a lot more than you can imagine. If you are looking for a design that will fit in your choices properly, you should take the time to learn as much as you can about your options before you commit. If you want to know what a stove like this looks like and how you can get your hands on one, the site of futurefires.co.uk will provide the answers you had in mind.

A contemporary wood stove (http://www.futurefires.co.uk) does not look like a traditional one at all. If you want to find the modern wood burning stove (http://www.futurefires.co.uk) that will fit in your home, you should turn to the site named before to find the solutions you had in mind for this.

A

contemporary wood stove

does not look like a traditional one at all. If you want to find the

modern wood burning stove

that will fit in your home, you should turn to the site named before to find the solutions you had in mind for this.

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401K Employer Match For Substantial Retirement Savings

by

Smith George

What is 401K? 401K is a retirement savings plan set up through your employer to encourage saving substantial amount of funds for your retirement years. A fixed percentage of the pre-taxed income is contributed to this account from the monthly paycheck. These contributions are invested in mutual funds, stocks, and bonds etc that earn high returns over the years.

To encourage employees to take the best advantage of this opportunity and to save for their retirement years, many employers offer to match an employee s 401K contributions up to a certain percentage or limit. 401K employer match is the best way to retain potential resources. But to take full advantage of employer matching it is always important to ascertain the investment options in the 401K plan.

An employer chooses to contribute in either of the following ways. Dollar to dollar match for all employee contributions up to a certain percentage of the employee s salary (i.e. 100 % of contributions matched up to 6 %).

Though the 401 K employer match may seem to be a very small percentage, but over the years gets accumulated as a substantial amount earning high returns. By the time you attain your retirement age, this amount grows into a respectable amount that allows you to retire without giving a second thought.

401K employer match is the organization s way of profit sharing as the company gives you additional compensation towards retirement. An employee contributes to the overall growth and development of the organization. Employer matching contributions is a way to reward employees for inputs to the company s profit.

401K employer match may also prove to be a motivational factor for an employee to work hard in order to earn higher employer contributions when he makes more contributions from his pre-tax pay check. It is not mandatory for an employer to match his employee s contributions, but the best set up 401K plans offer to match.

401K employer matching contributions is the best way to assess the quality of a 401K plan. A good quality 401K plan offers low cost market index funds that have very low expenses that allow your and 401K employer match work for your retirement.

Some employers have a required amount of time you need to be employed with them to receive the 401K employer match. Typically a common employer match is a 3% match which means that if you save 3% of your paycheck, the employers contribute the same amount of 3%. Many employees commit the mistake of saving just 1% of their paycheck, but the employer just matches that 1% and not 3%.

401 K plans are protected under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, or ERISA .If an employer gets bankrupt or goes out of business, the 401K money of its employees is saved and protected from the creditors to settle any debts.

If you are not aware about your organization s 401 K employer match, then an employee must contact his Human resource department so that he does not miss out any more money for his future.

401k Employer match

|

What is 401k

Article Source:

ArticleRich.com

Submitted by: Alex Anderson

If you read from the Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad book series, you may start to wonder when exactly you can jump in and start buying up investment properties. After all, Kiyosaki spends the entirety of Cash Flow Quadrant telling you how you will never make your financial goals come true unless you become an investor, preferably a real estate investor. That is, if one of those goals is to become wealthy.

You may think, Great! I’ll get right into investing! only to find that you have no idea how to do that. Or that you have tons of preliminary work to do.

Preliminary work is very important. In Cash Flow Quadrant, Kiyosaki says that plenty of people who had followed his advice, subsequently lost everything they had built simply because they had neglected to take their time to learn to do it right. Don’t be that person. Take the time. Set your ground work.

Part of that ground work is educating yourself on the basics basic accounting, basic tax law, basic real estate law. Yes, you will have professionals doing the bulk of that work for you, but you don’t want to be completely dependent on them. And you want to know what they’re talking about when they give you updates. You also want to be able to ask them intelligent questions. After that, you need to consider what type of property you want to pursue and where you want to pursue it. Get to know the area. Get a feel for what you are getting yourself into.

Ken McElroy, author of The ABCs of Real Estate Investing, breaks it down into the different levels of research. First, do online research in order to find an area to explore for possible real estate purchases. When you choose an area, call ahead and set up meetings with people who will be your advisers for the area. Then visit the area and the people you contacted. Look for investment leads. Visit sites.

Finally, know the limits of your abilities. McElroy advises would-be real estate do-it-yourselfers to avoid trying to save a buck in the beginning of the game by neglecting to build a team. Even though you need to have a basic knowledge of every aspect of the real estate game which you will continually expand upon you need to build a team of experts that will be able to save you time and money. Even though it doesn’t seem like they’re saving you money in the beginning, they are actually saving you from making costly mistakes.

McElroy advises the investor to begin by hiring on an attorney, an accountant, a real estate broker and a property manager. He warns that, before you make any purchases, make sure your real estate acquisitions business is set up correctly. (Yes, it is a business. It is a money-making venture isn’t it? Then it is a business.)

After that, you will need to meet with appraisers, architects, insurance agents, property tax consultants, income tax consultants, estate planners, surveyors, structural engineers and industrial hygienists. Keep searching and meeting with people, McElroy says, until you find people whose goals and business methods mesh with your own. After all, your livelihood will depend in large part on your team. You want it to be a good one.

After you have educated yourself, researched the markets, made your goals and set up your team, then you are ready to begin hunting for investment properties.

About the Author: Alex Anderson Represents

Real Estate For Sale In Minnesota

, and

Minnesota Investment Property

for

Buying Investment Property

.

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By Bruce Swedal

One of the hottest trends in bargain real estate buying is the short sale. This occurs when a home sells for less than the total amount owed on the mortgage and can be an alternative to foreclosure. This can provide a bargain for the buyer as well as an alternative solution for both the seller and the lender.

The most important member of the short sale transaction is the mortgage lender. The mortgage lender has to approve the short sale, and that permission is not automatic. The seller will need to research the lender’s requirements for approving a short sale and meet those conditions promptly.

Several factors may affect the lenders decision to approve a short sale. One factor is the number of foreclosures in the area. Lenders don’t want a large number of vacant foreclosure homes on the books. Besides the risk of vandalism and deterioration, a large number of REO (Real Estate Owned) properties look bad for bank management. Another influencing factor is the reason the seller is facing foreclosure.

The bank may look more favorably on circumstances that are not the “fault” of the homeowner, such as illness, layoff, or divorce. It may help for the homeowner to write a letter to the lender detailing the circumstances surrounding the financial problems. Some lenders are even willing to refrain from reporting the short sale on the seller’s credit report.

Sellers may start out by trying to list the home at a price that will pay the loan in full. An experienced Realtor may recognize that the price is too high and suggest the seller consider a short sale. The Realtor can also be instrumental in convincing the lender to approve a short sale by presenting information on comparable sales (comps) in the area.

Short sales are popular with buyers because of the bargain price. However, if prices in the area continue to fall that bargain may turn into a burden. Furthermore, a homeowner with financial problems may have deferred maintenance on the home that could lead to the need for expensive repairs.

Finally, many common inspection expenses are traditionally paid by the seller. In a short sale, the seller may not be willing or able to pay for inspections. Again, this can lead to considerable expense if a hidden problem arises after the sale.

The seller’s financial problems may also have resulted in liens placed upon the property, so title insurance is essential.

The approval process for the short sale may add several months to the closing process, so be prepared for delays.

A short sale can be an ideal solution for both buyers and sellers, as long as both sides know what to expect.

If either side of the transaction goes in with unrealistic expectations, the process can turn quite frustrating. Deadlines are often missed as the lender does not adhere to them. The lender will never respond to the offer as quickly as the parties would like. In cases where the buyer is under a timeline to move the process will often end badly.

About the Author: Denver Real EstateFirelight Homes

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Submitted by: Mary Angel Brown

Because of our busy and hectic lives, we most likely take in shallow breathing barely enough to make us breathe in the air that we need. It is even more difficult when vices like smoking or maybe a bad posture is the barrier to do some deep breathing. Yoga helps us observe deep breathing. It allows us to place our focus on taking in and breathing out air and helps make us feel more renewed and revived from all the pressure and stress and anxiety drowning us.

When take in deep breaths, we boost our oxygen consumption and with more oxygen we get into our blood, the cells in our entire body carry them to all parts of the body which then helps fortify our entire system. Aside from this, we furthermore take full benefit of oxygen intake; we permit the exit of the carbon dioxide from our system. At now, we might be capable to proficiently exercise and we don’t run out of breath easily.

Oxygen is definitely important for proper and efficient functionality of our brain, nerves and some other internal organs in our body.

For improved breathing we need to make positive that our position is correct. When we are breathing deeply we need to roll down and back our shoulders and we really need to enable the space in our lungs expand fully. You also need to make certain that whenever you breathe, you breathe through your nose and not using your mouth. You can additionally be involve in other types of sports simply because it’s additionally a sort of exercise and promotes oxygen intake.

When doing yoga poses, you need to integrate breathing. whenever we place our focus and give attention to inhaling and exhaling, we already are gradually getting into observe the breathing exercise.

Yoga when performed with yoga breathing promotes improved health and brings in more benefits to our body. It’s wonderful exactly how one practice can bring so much positive change.

Simple Deep Breathing Exercises

These are the extremely basic breathing exercises any individual can do in their home.

Doing these simple yet really powerful deep breathing exercises can hugely enhance your life.

1. Lie down on your back and put a so light weight object on your abdomen so you can feel the movement of the item up & down all through the deep respiration excerice. Gradually breath deeply so the item on your belly rises then slowly breath out. Try this deep breathing exercises regularly in the morning before you eat something. Performing this deep breathing exercises ten minutes everyday will give you huge advantages. This is really a superb and easy method of doing deep breathing exercises.

2.Sit in a comfortable posture in a chair together with your back straight. Slowly exhale deeply through your mouth as much air from your lungs as possible. Have a deep breath via your nose. Load your abdomen with air to expand. Gradually let out your breath through your mouth.

In the beginning try this 2-3 times then gradually you can increase to 5-6 times. You need to this empty tummy.

About the Author: Yoga and deep breathing exercises are certainly handy to all of us. If you want to examine more about yoga and other forms of physical exercises, please check out here.

yogaandmeditation.co.uk/yoga-and-deep-breathing/

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