Theodore R. Daniels: Looking Ahead: Have It When You Need It Many of us look forward to retirement. We can hardly wait for the time to put down our tools and change our daily routine. In spite of this desire, many Americans do not plan for retirement until just before they stop working. By then, it is often too late. You can expect to live 15 to 20 years after age 65. To make sure that these retirement years are filled with leisure and contentment you have to set aside money and make investments to insure that there is a sufficient flow of income to cover living expenses and other activities. A vast majority of people continue to rely primarily on receiving Social Security and pension benefits for retirement income. Today, we have to be more concerned with planning for our retirement years than ever before. Traditional family relationships, as we used to know them, as not so dominant as they used to be. Retirement planning consists of two components. Theodore R.
How to start a business that works The most important thing I learned in business school is this: Most businesses fail. Not because the product wasn't any good (in many cases the product is amazing). They failed because not enough people knew about it. In fact, 6 months with Seth Godin has made me realize that not only is marketing important, it's pretty much everything. If you want a high likelihood for success, start by picking a business or product that lends itself to great marketing. Well, luckily I've created a set of 4 marketing questions that can help you. So, if you're serious about starting a new business or developing a new product for an existing business, here's what I want you to do: First, read the 4 questions and their explanations below (and it wouldn't hurt to read the books I reference either)Come up with a list of 50 business ideas (sound like alot? Ready? Does your business lend itself to virality? Everybody wants their product or brand to go viral. Does your service create an emergency?
Logical Paradoxes David Cay Johnston: The Dangers Of Low-Interest Rates (The author is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own) Jan 10 (Reuters) - The Fed's campaign to hold short-term interest rates near zero is a loser for taxpayers. A rise in rates would also burden taxpayers, but it would come with a benefit for those who save. Low rates keep alive the banks that the government considers too big to fail and reduce the cost of servicing the burgeoning federal debt. Low rates also come at a cost, cutting income to older Americans and to pension funds. Raising interest rates shifts the costs and benefits, increasing the risks that mismanaged banks will collapse and diverting more taxpayers' money to service federal debt. No matter which way interest rates go, taxpayers face dangers. The federal government paid $454 billion in interest on its debt in 2011. If rates return to, say, 6.64 percent, the level they were in 2000, one year's interest costs would equal the individual income taxes for all of 2011 plus the first few weeks of 2012.
maps home page Down to: 6th to 15th Centuries | 16th and 19th Centuries | 1901 to World War Two | 1946 to 21st Century The Ancient World ... index of places Aegean Region, to 300 BCE Aegean Region, 185 BCE Africa, 2500 to 1500 BCE Africa to 500 CE African Language Families Alexander in the East (334 to 323 BCE) Ashoka, Empire of (269 to 232 BCE) Athenian Empire (431 BCE) China, Korea and Japan (1st to 5th century CE) China's Warring States (245 to 235 BCE) Cyrus II, Empire of (559 to 530 BCE) Delian League, 431 BCE Egyptian and Hittite Empires, 1279 BCE Europe Fertile Crescent, 9000-4500 BCE Germania (120 CE) Greece (600s to 400s BCE) Gupta Empire (320 to 550 CE) Han China, circa 100 BCE Hellespont (Battle of Granicus River, 334 BCE) India to 500 BCE Israel and Judah to 733 BCE Italy and Sicily (400 to 200 BCE) Judea, Galilee, Idumea (1st Century BCE) Mesopotamia to 2500 BCE Mesoamerica and the Maya (250 to 500 CE) Oceania Power divisions across Eurasia, 301 BCE Roman Empire, CE 12 Roman Empire, CE 150 Roman Empire, CE 500
Davos 2012: Setting the gloom level to 11 26 January 2012Last updated at 00:11 By Tim Weber Business editor, BBC News website, Davos Bankers and economists are in a gloomy mood Is there any good news for the economy? Not much, if this year's meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) is anything to go by. For starters, the global economy seems to have become so unpredictable that the organisers ditched one of the forum's big opening events, the annual session making an economic forecast for the year ahead. They replaced it with a session that asked a more fundamental question: does capitalism have a future? Still, economic worries dominate all discussions here: will the eurozone fall apart? Last year, at least, investors were still confident that big risks could deliver big rewards; it seems to have worked for many of them. This year, as some Western economies lurch back into a second recession, many wonder whether the basic flaws of our financial system have been fixed at all. Hiding under a blanket Record debt A short, sharp shock?
Murphy's Law Calculator Murphy's Law Calculator From a formula for * Sod's Law provided by British Gas: ((U+C+I) x (10-S))/20 x A x 1/(1-sin(F/10)) "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong!" Find out in advance whether you will be able to successfully repair your VCR, get to a meeting on time, impress your date, or be a success at any activity whatsoever ! Score: 4.355 Risk Factor: 35286.9 You have a 43% chance of screwing this up ! You can minimize your risk by having a backup plan (redundant circuitry, alternate route etc.) British Gas commissioned Dr David Lewis, a chartered psychologist; Dr Keylan Leyser, an economist and business consultant; and Philip Obadya, a mathematician, to devise the formula. Murphy's Law Links: Note: Murphy's Law has long been known in the UK as "Sod's Law".
The 7 Most Expensive Investing "Truisms" You Must Ignore - The Huffington Post Investing isn't complicated. But it is often counterintuitive. That's why some people stop trying to understand investing and just accept financial truisms (that are often anything but true). 1. You don't need to be Einstein to figure out how to invest your money. 2. Your broker might indeed know what she's doing -- but then again she may not. Once you understand how to read your investment statements it will be easier for you to know. Use your gut. 3. If you are a Do-It-Yourself investor you might use index funds and ETFs because they are so inexpensive. But cutting costs isn't your main purpose. Make sure you understand how the ETF or index fund invests. 4. Brokerage companies often make monthly statement complicated out of choice. Of course you'll have to overcome the subterfuge your brokerage firm throws at you but that's easy enough. And don't worry if you still have questions later on or you forget something. 5. Your 401(k) is your long-term money so invest for the long-term. 6.