Thinking About Going Back to College? Make a Plan First
You’re in your 40s, 50s or beyond and you’ve either always dreamed of going back to school or realized you need a degree or extra preparation to get to the next level of your career. The mid-career college plan should be very different than the one you and your parents had in place when you were 18 – and that’s probably a good thing.
A July/August 2006 story in AARP Magazine by noted workplace and career expert Rosabeth Moss Kanter pointed out that retirement-phobic mid- or late-career types may retreat to college campuses instead of the golf course to prepare for the next phase of their life. Why? They want to train for completely new careers in all-new professional fields or public service. According to the piece, “Traditional volunteering is not what leading-edge boomers have in mind. They want to be leaders and to help improve the world.” Education will be a part of that movement.
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Think it’s Time to Tap Your HELOC for an Investment? Get Some Advice First
Any bank or mortgage broker who wants to loan you money for a home equity line knows it’s in their best interest to lend right up to your credit limit. They make more money that way. Yet just because you qualify for a home equity line doesn’t mean you need to use it, particularly as a bank for investment purposes.
Quite a few things need to go your way for you to use your home equity line effectively. There’s plenty of risk in plowing loan money into investments that may suddenly lose their value if they mirror the Dow’s drop over recent weeks. While home equity loan interest rates may cost you less than borrowing from your investment brokerage firm by purchasing investments in a margin account, you still need to be very careful.
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Should You Consider an HSA?
The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (TRHCA) that went into effect this year made it a bit easier for both employers and their workers and self-employees to obtain Health Savings Accounts, a kind of IRA for health care expenses.
Health savings accounts were created as part of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 but have not been wildly popular because they’re complicated. Anyone under age 65 who buys a qualified high-deductible health plan (HDHP) open an HSA. However, you can still own an HSA and be covered under other types of insurance policies that cover liability, dental, vision and long-term care needs, as long as the same expenses are not covered by both your HSA and the insurance policy.
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An Annual Insurance Checkup Can Save You Money Without Hurting Your Coverage
As we go through life, our insurance needs change. It makes sense to put certain dates on the calendar each year to see if your home, auto, umbrella liability, life, health, business and disability coverage not only fit your current needs at the right cost but protect you and your family in case of a disaster.
It really hasn’t been that long since Hurricane Katrina underscored the need for individuals and families to think about how insurance fits into an overall financial plan. Weather-related disasters, however, should be only one part of your assessment – it’s wise to consider if you are adequately insured in case a spouse or partner dies suddenly or becomes disabled or if your business is damaged or destroyed.
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Other articles: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26]
