BALI GLOBAL MARKET EZINE
Weekly Tips Newsletter # 3 Saturday, December 2005
THOUGHT OF THE DAY MOST PEOPLE GIVE UP JUST WHEN THEY 'RE ABOUT TO ACHIEVE SUCESS. THEY QUIT ON THE ONE YARD LINE. THEY GIVE UP AT THE LAST MINUTE OF THE GAME, WE FOOT FROM A WINNING TOUCHDOWN. - H . ROSS PEROT -
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FROM THE EDITOR
Dear Subscribers !
We hope things are going really well for you . Glad to see you again this day. Like Brian Tracy had said that " It doesn't matter where you come from. All that matter is where is where you are going ". Bali Global Market have building subscribers from around the world that the same vision to gain success on business on line. Tha's way , we try to give much information and motivation to our subscribers because helping people is our mission.
Warm regards
Erny Setyawati ( Editor / Publisher
http://www.baliglobalmarket.com
NEW TO HOME BUSINESS
COLLEGE EXAM QUESTION : ARE YOU READY TO LIVE FOR 150 YEARS ?
( IF YOU 'RE COLLEGE AGE, YOU MUST READ THIS ARTICLE ! )
By Yank Elliott, MBA and IAHBE Staff writer
Why should I worry about this? Nobody lives that long.
If, as some experts predict, there will be medical techniques available by the year 2100 to enable some people to do that, then someone is living already who may survive to age 150. And that's not expected to be the end. Continuing progress in the sciences dealing with gerontology and longevity will mean ever longer survival. Charles Mann addresses this issue and many related problems in "The Coming Death Shortage."
Though there are social dilemmas relating to immortality—like endlessly working seniors, 80-year-old children living at home, and a host of others—the overarching problems are in some form economic. Some will say this improves one's opportunity to accumulate the assets necessary for long-term survival; you have more time to let compound interest work as well as just more time to enjoy spending in youth and only begin to save later. The problem is, there is only so much total wealth, and by living forever, seniors will not only control more wealth, they will reduce the supply available for younger citizens to accumulate for themselves.
Here we will only discuss some of the economics to show how important it is for a person to begin a long-range wealth accumulation program, starting immediately. A perfect time for this is when one is in college. Those in the same age group who aren't attending college should also be gathering their own supply of wealth, but that is another subject. For now I direct my consideration to college students.
These are a few things people must address relating asset requirements for survival in old age, regardless of whether they are considering our present normal life expectancy of 77.2 years or a possible future extended life up to 150 years or more.
First on the list is the money required to build assets needed for future income. Before retirement income normally is provided by the wages you are paid for whatever it is you do in your job. Whenever you decide to retire you will have to rely on the monthly income you receive from accumulated savings, other investments, and Social Security.
So, how much money will you need 45 years in the future when you retire? As a college student, you're about 20 years old and you're going to be healthy and live forever-let's hope. To plan for future needs, you must determine how much income you will need and then see how much you have to put away on a regular basis so you'll have the wealth needed to furnish the monthly income you want and need upon retirement at age 65 or 70.
There are many retirement calculators you can use to help you have an idea of your financial situation years into the future. You will need one kind of calculator, for instance, to show how much monthly income you will receive from a given amount of accumulated assets. The idea is to estimate your income requirements and use this calculator to see how much you must acquire during the intervening years to give you what you want. Always remember this kind of planning is continuous and must be updated regularly. You can't just make the estimates and do the calculations once and then forget it, because the factors that influence it (inflation, interest rates, etc.) are constantly changing. You must constantly revise this even, after you may begin drawing down your assets.
am a 20 year old college student just beginning to think about my financial future. How do I know how much money I'll need 50 years from now when I may retire?
Start with the best data you can find which may be from the US Census Bureau. Whatever income estimate you first use, it is necessary for you to constantly revise it and adjust for future inflation. We aren't going to do this; we're just going to use current information to illustrate how you might use this information.
The Census Bureau says a bachelor degree graduate earns an average $51,206 annually. Begin with this and estimate you will need only 75% at retirement because you may not have the mortgage payments and costs associated with daily working (you can play with this any way you want; just remember the more you want the more you have to save). Using this method you can estimate you will need $38,404 (51,206 X .75 = 38,404) which is $3,200 monthly. Using the calculator above, you will find that an accumulation of about $700,000 is necessary to achieve this after-retirement income. This assumes 5% rates of return, current tax rate 25% and after retirement rate of 15%. To use this formula you must juggle the Starting Balance as well as the other variables to achieve your target income amount. We also assumed a retirement age of 70, anticipating that future changes in retirement rules will increase "normal" retirement from 65 to 70 years.
So how do I accumulate this much money?
Begin your first plan by using this "Retirement Calculator." It's very simple to enter your present age of 20, your expected retirement age of 70, assume 5% rate of return, and then show your expected asset accumulation of $700,000. The calculation will show you need an annual fund contribution of $3,344 each year for the next 50 years. That should be easy because you'll be making over $51,000 every year. Isn't this true?
Not exactly. There are some serious deductions from your $51,000. Consider these hypothetical expenses:
Annual home mortgage payments $12,000
Property taxes and fire insurance $2,500
Annual premiums on $1,000,000 whole life insurance $15,000
Annual auto and credit card payments $12,000
Income
tax @ $12,802
Total expenses are $54,302. You have run out of money to live on, not even
allowing for any saving for the future. These assumptions do not include regular
living expenses or anything set aside for children's college costs! Also not
included is any provision for early retirement or the possibility of a disabling
disease or other situation prohibiting you from working. Other terrors also
await in unknown hiding places, ever ready to disrupt your meticulous financial
planning for years in the future. Terrors like plant closings, downsizing,
offshoring of your job, robotics and who knows what else. The point is this:
everyone must begin to use every means they have as soon as they can to direct
every possible source of income into their accumulated asset fund.
As a 20-year-old, soon-to-be college graduate you must immediately face these problems. And there is much more. Remember we began this article talking about coming changes in human longevity? No matter the many problems to be associated with this, the financial requirements are the most pressing and they are something you as a young person just entering your working career can do something about.
Right now you should be including these things in your plans:
Plan for disability shortening your career
Possibility of job termination due to causes beyond your control
Provision for early retirement
Current possibility of living 120 years
Increasing life expectancy to about 88 years
Possibility of normal retirement increasing to 80 years old
Likelihood
of ultimate maximum life span to 150 years
There are some immediate problems involved in working through these new obstacles.
For one, most of the financial calculators won't take age calculations over
about 75 years, and they are based on receiving benefit for another 30 years
after retirement. That places a limit on these calculators of about 105 years—not
nearly enough for the possible increased longevity. You can get around this
by using the tools available on a site like this one. This site also has a
present value calculator and several others that may be useful in your planning.
You will find many similar sites using a Google search with keywords "financial
calculators."
All financial planning requires focus and a strong dedication to your goals. Right this minute you may be able to say you can count on $1,000 to $1,500 in monthly Social Security benefits. But I never thought there would be any of this kind of money available and, like many people, I'm still not sure anyone will get anything in the future. At least you have to consider that the ultimate amount of benefits is at great risk right now as the US Congress, prodded by the President, debates the future of this program. Everybody should be frightened of the result.
So don't include much Social Security in your planning. And don't count on any inheritance either; your relatives will be living so long there won't be much left for you! You'll have to take care of your future pretty much on your own. Wealth accumulation is further inhibited by our general attitude toward saving. According to The Office for Social Justice average family 1998 wealth in the US was just $60,700, very much less than the $700,000 we calculated as the amount of accumulated assets you will need to stop working at age 70. This average includes everyone including Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and the Waltons. Average Person has a lot of concentrated saving to do to secure his financial future.
At 20 years of age, a college student has other obstacles to initiating a fund accumulation program. Here are the major ones:
A 20 year old expects to live forever and have plenty of time to save later.
Good health of youth bodes no concern for disability in the future.
There's
no urgency to begin a saving program; I have 50 or 60 years before anything
must be done.
Just on the surface none of these ideas is valid. To amass $700,000 or more
you must begin right now. This necessary amount will grow larger through the
years as you adjust for inflation and increased life expectancy. Every second
you wait works against you because of the time-value of money. The sooner
you put something aside to work for you, the quicker effects of compound interest
will begin working for you.
I'm a penniless college student, so how can I begin to accumulate anything?
The answer is that most students have discretionary money available from working, monthly stipend from home, or student aid. This may not be much, but you must realize there are thousands of Internet affiliate programs you can begin. Many are completely free but require some effort on your part in order to earn commissions for selling products. The better way to do this is to join a free program and scrape up about $125 each month to promote your program and enlist others to help you.
An Internet affiliate business is an ideal way for any college student to begin preparing for a financial future. This kind of business overcomes the time obstacles everyone encounters because there is only a limited amount of time available to anyone so the amount any person can accomplish by themselves is very limited. Having others work for you as additional affiliates multiplies individual effectiveness in this kind of business. As a college student you have a flexible schedule so you can do the relatively small amount of work required as an affiliate and you also have about three years to experiment to find the best business for you. You have the advantage of not having to depend on this business for any of your required living expenses for about three years. This should be enough time for your sideline business to begin to be successful.
Of the many affiliate programs available, you are already involved with the best, IAHBE and Strong Future Marketing Group. My suggestion is to continue to build this one and perhaps pick up one or two others as you find them. It's always best not to depend only on one source of income.
Over the years your college business will provide ongoing income you can use to build your financial shield. It could become so good you will be able to support yourself entirely from your Internet home based business. Reinforce this idea by reviewing the many successful entrepreneur interviews in the IAHBE archives.
Whether in college or not, insure your future by starting your home based business at whatever age or stage in your life, even at 70 years of age!
RESOURCES
About.com
College Degree Nearly Doubles Annual Earnings
Bloomberg.com
Retirement Calculator
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Table 1. Average annual wages
Financial Calculators at Dinkytown.net
Retirement Income
Google Search Engine
Mann, Charles C. "The Coming Death Shortage." The Atlantic Monthly,
May, 2005.
Moneychimp
Compound Interest Calculator
NAIC
Life Insurance FAQs
Office for Social Justice
Facts about Wealth
U.S Department of Labor
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages
Yank is a home-based entrepreneur and freelance business writer living in Hurricane Alley, North Carolina, USA. His Website is http://www.furriwhalesworld.com/. Contact Yank at globalbiz@furriwhalesworld.com.
MARKETING STRATEGIES
DOES YOUR BUSINESS NEED A NEWSLETTER ?
By Rachael Willis
If you are not yet using a newsletter as a part of your marketing efforts then you are missing out on potential and existing customers becoming valuable long-term buyers.
Newsletters provide an effective tool for collecting interested visitors' email addresses and converting them into buyers. They also are a great vehicle for keeping in touch with your most valued contact - previous customers. How?
NEWSLETTERS KEEP CUSTOMERS
When you have a customer buy from you, but no newsletter to follow up, than you are virtually handing him or her back to your competitors. Of course, if the service was good and the product memorable they may come back, but what if you have a new product that your existing customer may wish to buy and they do not know about it? What if they lose your website address? What if they just forget about you? A newsletter will prevent these things from happening.
HOW OFTEN?
That depends on various factors. Some businesses contact their subscribers as often as every day, others as infrequently as several times per year. What works for you depends a lot on what you are selling, what information you can give them, how often your subscribers will want to hear from you, etc.
A good rule of thumb for many businesses is once per week. Twice a month if you really feel that is the most you can do. More often and the customer may unsubscribe or routinely delete your messages. Less often and you're allowing your competition the chance to win over your potential customer.
WHAT DO I WRITE ABOUT?
Are you very informed on the product or service? Do you have a lot of contacts? Can you point out related products or services they might be interested in?
You do not need a long newsletter. A sale alert or announcement of a new service or product can do just as well for some businesses, while others find a tips format more suitable. Industry news or 'How to...' and 'Top 5...' topics are a good idea and always try to make a connection between the newsletter and your product or service. Subscribe to several competitors' newsletters (they will surely be subscribing to yours). Use a free email account to subscribe and see what they are providing their customers.
KEEP IT CONSISTENT
It's amazing the amount of newsletters that abound online. Because of this subscribers can forget which ones are legitimate and which are spam.
Keep your format consistent so your newsletter becomes visibly familiar. Also indicate that the subscriber requested the information and provide an unsubscribe link on EVERY issue. You must do this if you want to limit complaints or spam reports.
Your newsletter deserves time and attention - it is the voice of you and your business and will help you to build relationships with your customers (and potential customers) in a way that no other tool can.
Rachael Willis is the webmaster of http://www.infoproductscentral.com/ and the publisher of "The Genuine Truth" newsletter. "The Genuine Truth" newsletter is full of freebies,articles and reviews of the hottest products. If you are tired of spending money on bad products then you need "The Genuine Truth". Join us today and let me spend my money to test these products so you don't have to.
MOTIVATION
ACHIEVING YOUR PERSONAL BEST :
MAKING THE LEAP FROM GOOD TO GREAT
By Bill Lampton, Ph.D
Jim
Collins opened his book Good to Great with the statement, "Good is the
enemy of great." He explained that when we have good schools, good businesses
and good government, we are prone to accept that level of quality as sufficient.
Collins observed: "Few people attain great lives, in large part because
it is so easy to settle for a good life."
What about you and your business? Have you become comfortable - possibly complacent
- with what you have accomplished? Sales have been good, your employees seem
to be happy and customers rarely complain. Next year, you project, will match
or even surpass (slightly) this year.
Yet deep down, you may have a silent yearning to move from being merely good to becoming recognized as great in your profession. What might prompt you to make that leap forward and upward?
Recently, several highly accomplished professional people recalled what had motivated them to shift from "doing OK" to launching a quest for their personal best.
Bill Bell, a retired advertising sales person, said his grand awakening came when he reached his fiftieth birthday. The occasion prompted him to review his financial picture: "I woke up to the realization that I had accumulated very little money though I had been a better-than-average advertising space salesman for my employer, a publisher of trade magazines. Further, this company's retirement program was iffy at best."
So he "set up my own firm as a publisher's representative. One of my first clients was my former employer. Others came along fairly soon, and it was not long before I was able to start saving money for the future. The intense purpose of earning retirement money was the 24-7 motivating force that lead to attracting more clients, and hiring office staff and sales staff."
Today, Bill Bell enjoys his retreat-style mountain home in Otto, North Carolina-part of the reward for establishing his entrepreneurial firm.
Carol
Moore, Executive Director of the Georgia Mountains Center in Gainesville,
Georgia, credits her mentor who "provided me with honest, on target advice.
While he would never give me the decision to the dilemma, he would discuss
the pros and cons to
both sides of the issue and allow me to make the decision. At times when I
perceived my career as 'stalled' I would call Don and bemoan my fate. Don
never allowed me to have a pity party. He would tell me 'If you're looking
for a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your sleeve,' or 'You get
what you expect -- raise your expectations.'"
Lab Products Inc. President Betty Fatzie echoed the value of a mentor: "My
boss felt I had the initiative to move up th corporate ladder and gave me
opportunities to do so. I always gave it that extra effort to prove I could
do better than a mediocre job."
Does
your company's environment provide the incentive to generate your personal
best? That was the case with Steven Freund, a veteran Ritz-Carlton Hotel executive.
Freund commented: "The culture of an organization has a powerful impact
on a person's
behavior. Companies that are highly competitive, where high levels of performance
are held in high esteem, generally promote
highly motivated behavior."
Hospitality industry expert Dianne Henry of Baltimore wanted to excel because "My passion became my profession." Pursuing her love of cruising, she plunged into the travel industry at top speed. Recently she ranked "number four for September and number ten for the year 2005 in sales volume out of over four hundred agents."
Do
any of these stimulating factors fit your case? If so, make
the most of them. If not, consider these other incentives that
propel you toward your personal best:
An excellent role model: This could be a parent, a friend or a nationally known individual.
Your reputation and legacy: Yes, you want to establish a record that your contemporaries and your successors will admire and emulate.
Internal rewards: You experience well-merited pride and serenity when you are sure you reached your highest potential in performing a task.
Family
responsibilities: Your drive for success is not selfish, but is geared toward
the well-being of those dearest to you.A closing suggestion: List the people,
circumstances and ideas that encourage you to set new goals, adopt more productive
habits
and steadily move from "good to great." Keep the list handy for
daily review, as a reminder of why you work-and why you are
determined to expand your expertise and emerge from the pack of the also-rans
to become a winner.
About
The Author
Bill Lampton, Ph.D.
Bill Lampton, Ph.D., Helps You Finish in First Place.
He
has shared his expertise in communication, motivation, sales and customer
service with a diverse client list. He wrote a popular book: The Complete
Communicator: Change Your Communication, Change Your Life! Visit his Web site:
http://www.championshipcommunication.com .Call Dr. Bill Lampton at 770-534-3425
or 800-393-0114.
E-mail him: drbill@ChampionshipCommunication.com
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