I’ll share with you how and where to get the best deals on mortgages, cars, and insurance; give you the best ways to save for college and retirement, get out of debt, improve your credit rating, and save on your taxes. I will even provide you with great tips on investment opportunities in real estate, stocks, annuities, and other investment vehicles.

It is so easy to listen. Just click on this button. It will take you right to my radio show web page. If you do it at the time I am on air you will automatically be tuned in to listen. If you do it now, you can listen to archived shows.

I would love to get your feedback about my show. What did you think?

But recently, credit scores – the standard gauge of your creditworthiness for lenders and traditionally the most mysterious component of your financial profile – became available to consumers for the first time.

The idea of a credit score was developed about 20 years ago by Fair, Isasc and Company (FICO), a san Rafael, California data provider. Today the FICO score is used in three out of four mortgage and auto loan decision and has become to borrowing what the SATs are to college applications.

What is this score that mortgage lenders, banks, credit card companies auto dealers, and retial stores have had access to all this time? It’s a number ranging from 300 to 850 that is calculated from data that your cresitors supply to the credit bureaus, whish are then recorded in your credit report.

Your credit score is determined by comparing your borrowing record with every other person in America who has a credit history. Credit experts who design credit scoring forecast models review a set of consumers who opened a credit line or started a loan at the same time and determine who paid back the loan – and how quickly – and who did not. Both sets – payers and nonpayers – are reviewed to find the common traits they had when they applied for the loan.

The idea behind the scoring model is that past performance is indicative of future behavior. In other words, the higher your score, the better the statistical odds that you’ll repay a loan.

So, what number is a good credit score?

Lenders generally consider a score in the 700s to be an easy score to underwrite. A score that’s in the 600s is more problematic. Why? According to FICO’s forecase model, the delinquency rate for people with scores of 750 is about 2 percent; scorers with 630 have a delinquency rate of 31 percent.

How do you find out your credit score?

I recommend the Equifax Score Power services at www.GuardMyCredit.com.

By the way, it is a common misconception, but checking your own credit report does NOT affect your credit score.

1)
A professional skilled in choosing stocks does all of your work for you.

Manages of stock mutual funds spend their entire day determining which stocks to by and sell. They have instant access to information about every stock around the world at the push of a few computer keys. They work in companies where teams of research analysts pore over corporate quarterly and annual reports and managers and analysts visit company executives and factories to evaluate the firms’ prospects first hand. You have almost no opportunity to become as knowledgeable as these fund managers without quitting your job and taking up investing full-time.

2)
A mutual fund gives you instant diversification.

If you have only $1,000 to $5,000 to invest, the money will not buy many shares of a single stock, and it will certainly not buy many different stocks. By putting your money in only two or three stocks, you are exposed to the possibility that one of them will plummet in price, wiping out much of your investment capita.

Instead, when you put your $1,000 or $5,000 in a mutual fund, your money buys into a portfolio that may comprise 50 stocks, or maybe 500 different issues. If one or two stocks in the portfolio get hit hard, your losses will be much more limited because many of the other stocks will probably be going up at the same time.

3)
A fund exists for every financial goal and risk tolerance level.

Armed with our goals and risk level, you can find a fund that fits your situation. In broad terms, there are funds designed for various degrees of growth and for varying levels of income, as well as funds that combine both growth and income objectives.

***
This is an excerpt from my book, Everyone’s Money Book.

If your company or your bank offers you free money, take it and watch it grow. Check out the Keep the Change program at Bank of America.

2. Use time when it is on your side.

Young people should start investing earlier than they are. According to a new survey by Bank of America, one in five 18 – 34-year-olds have never thought about saving for a rainy day.

3. Set up automatic savings plans.

There are many programs that encourage improved savings behavior and require very little from you. For example, US Bonds, company savings plans and the Keep the Change program from Bank of America are all automatic savings plans.

4. We live in the “sandwich generation.”

Americas are faced with more challenges now as their parents live longer, forcing them to take on more financial responsibility for the older and younger generations. Seek savings plans that encourage a change in your savings behavior and ensure a solid future for you and your dependants.

5. Know where you spend your money.

Americans tend to lose track of where their money goes. An automatic savings plan helps to offset some of those behaviors and encourages better management of your finances.

Age 14:
The Kiddie Tax disappears. After age 14,you pay income tax at the child’s tax rate, no matter how much income is earned. Under age 14, you pay tax at the parent’s rate on any income over $1,500.

Age 17:
Your parents lose the child tax credit. Under that age your parents can claim $600 off their taxes. This is also the last year that you can contribute to the Coverdell education savings account up to $2,000 a year.

Age 18 or 21:
The age of majority in your state, which means you can do whatever you want with money in a Uniform Gift to Minors Act (AGMA ) account in your name.

Age 50:
First year you can contribute the extra catchup $500 into an IRA and/or a 401k. That means you can contribute $3,500 instead of $3,000 if you are merely 49. These catchup amounts will rise in
coming years, eventually to $1,000 a year.

Age 59½:
First time you can take withdrawals from a 401k, IRA or other retirement plan without a 10% penalty.

Age 60:
Age at which a surviving spouse can get Social Security benefits based on the deceased spouse’s work record.

Age 62:
The first age at which you can start collecting social Security, though you are penalized as much as 20% for starting to take benefits so early.

Age 65:
First age when you can retire and get full Social Security benefits.

Age 70:
Age at which you can delay taking Social Security to get the maximum benefit. Benefits don’t increase any more if you wait longer, so start collecting now.

Age70½:
Age at which you must start taking minimum distributions from your retirement plans like IRAs and 401ks,or you get heavy penalties.

Whatever birthday you celebrate this year I wish you the best year ever and a solid financial future.

Happy Birthday!

Jordan

• 1- How Are You Doing Financially? (60sUp)
• 2- How Should You be Maximizing Your Wealth? (60sUp)
• 3- Real Estate Implications (60sUp)
• 4- How Does My Credit Impact Me Now? (60sUp)
• 5- Should I Buy My Car? (60sUp)
• 6- What about Insurance Now? (60sUp)
• 7- Utilizing Employee Benefits (60sUp)
• 8- What Do I Need to Know About Estate Planning (60sUp)
• 9- College Funding (60sUp)
• 10- Maximizing Retirement (60sUp)
• 11- Tax Reduction Strategies (60sUp)

Section 1 of 11:
GIVING YOURSELF A FINANCIAL CHECKUP:
How Are You Doing Financially?
============================================

If you have planned for retirement most of your working life, the
transition into retirement starting in your 60s should be relatively
smooth. Ideally, you have accumulated enough capital through a
combination of employee benefits plans and personal investments
to produce enough income to live comfortably.

You have developed enough hobbies and other interests aside from your job that you
don’t feel at a loss about what to do with all the free time that retirement offers. And you have given thought to your retirement housing options and done some estate planning.

This report will help you learn how to micro-manage your funds so
that your money multiplies itself. Each section contains useful tips,
techniques and action strategies you can implement right away.

Read on and reap the financial rewards!

Jordan E. Goodman
America’s Money Answers Man
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GIVING YOURSELF A FINANCIAL CHECKUP:
How Are You Doing Financially?

Few people actually get around to mapping out all the aspects of their retirement ahead of time. However, the average life expectancy for someone in good health who retires in his or her early 60s is at least 20 years, and many retirees live into their 90s or even 100s. Therefore, you have many golden years for which to plan.

As you enter your pre-retirement and retirement years, set aside a couple of hours to give yourself a financial check up and evaluate each aspect of your personal finances so you can enjoy an active and stimulating retirement.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVING YOURSELF A FINANCIAL CHECKUP

1.
Determine Your Net Worth.

Add up the total value of what you already own, known as assets,
and subtract the amount of debt your owe, known as liabilities. The
remaining sum is your net worth.

Hopefully, you will have amassed a significant amount of assets
and paid off most, if not all, of your debts. You should be operating
with much positive cash flow because many of the expenses of
your earlier years, such as college tuition and buying everything
from baby clothes to furniture, no longer apply.

Meanwhile, once you retire, you should receive income from Social
Security, your company’s defined benefit and/or defined
contribution pension plan, your investments, and your annuities.

On the other hand, if your living expenses exceed your income,
compile a budget to find ways to reduce your expenses, as
well as increase your income.

2.
Create a Record Keeping System.

Be sure to have a clearly developed record keeping system so your
family knows the location of all records and can locate all financial
advisors when you die. By now, you will have built up a lifetime of
contacts, and it could be extremely time consuming for your loved
ones to reconstruct the family’s financial life without this
information.

3.
Define Your Financial Goals.

As you redefine your financial goals, consider how many of your
past goals you have accomplished. It may give you a great sense of
satisfaction to remember that the most important goals of your
youth—to buy a home, to put your children through college, or to
travel extensively, for example—were met. Or the exercise may
remind you of what you hoped to accomplish but never got around
to during your working life. In reprioritizing your goals for your
retirement years, you might aim to achieve some of these
unsatisfied goals, if they still apply.

4.
Analyze your Cash Flow.

Simply: Where does your money come from and where does it go?

5.
Create a Budget that Works.

Note all your income and expenses and use it to take control over
your finances.

6.
Assemble a Long-Term Financial Plan.

Prioritize short-, medium-, and long-term goals.

7.
Assess Your Risk Tolerance.

In reassessing your risk tolerance, you will probably find that you
have grown much more risk averse than ever. That is appropriate.
As you move into retirement, capital preservation takes priority
over capital growth.

8.
Use Your Computer to Keep Your Finances in Shape.

Enter your data into a personal finance software program and/or
use the Internet and its many Web sites (like
www.MoneyAnswers.com!) to educate yourself about finance and
to track your progress toward your financial goals.

****************************************************
HOW TO REAP THE REWARDS YOU DESERVE!

Starting Now . . .

Use the following Resources, Action Steps and Extra Info to take
the next step toward your solid financial future.

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Everyone’s Money Software includes 36 easy-to-use worksheets
contained in Everyone’s Money Book (2nd Edition) to help you
apply Jordan’s advice to your situation quickly and easily.

With this software you will be able to:

Calculate your net worth.

Keep records (professional contacts and banking,
tax, brokerage, and insurance records)

Set and track progress toward your financial goals.

Analyze cash flow and budgeting.

Pick stocks using five styles
(cyclical, growth, income, out-of-favor and value).

Make mortgage calculations.

Determine if it’s better to buy or lease a car.

Pick the right amount of insurance
(auto, disability, homeowner’s and life).

Determine the best options for funding college.

Figure out how much to save for retirement.

Determine how much to put aside in your
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Section 2 of 11:
INVESTING:
What Should You Be Doing to Increase Your Wealth?
=============================================

This report will help you learn how to micro-manage your funds so
that your money multiplies itself.  Each section contains useful tips,
techniques and action strategies you can implement right away.

Read on and reap the financial rewards!

Jordan E. Goodman
America’s Money Answers Man
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

INVESTING:
What Should You Be Doing to Increase Your Wealth?

Once you stop bringing home a salary, you might be tempted to
convert your investment portfolio from a broad mix of stocks,
bonds, and cash instruments to solely income-oriented bonds. That
could be the worst investment move you’ll ever make.

If you live for another 20 or 30 years, not only will your portfolio
have to provide you with current income, it must also protect you
against inflation. Someone who retired in the 1950s might have felt
totally secure putting all his or her money in long-term bonds
yielding about 3 percent. But over the next few decades, the
purchasing power of the money would have been devalued
considerably by rampaging inflation. Therefore, if you lock yourself into current yields by buying only bonds, your capital will not grow as it most likely will if you own stocks.

The best investing strategy in retirement is to assemble a
conservative mix of stocks, bonds, and cash vehicles that produces
enough income to live on but also grows in value over time. This
might mean keeping about 80 percent of your assets in cash
instruments, like money-market funds, and fixed-income assets,
such as Treasury, high-quality corporate, junk, and municipal
bonds; mortgage-backed securities; and the mutual funds that hold
these assets.

In assessing which bond fund is best, scrutinize expense ratios; the
greater a fund’s expenses, the less your yield. Bond funds should
have expense ratios of 1.3 percent or less, and preferably less than
1 percent of their assets—a figure you can determine by looking at
the cover of the prospectus or asking a fund representative.

Also, consider closed-end bond funds, which can offer very
attractive yields, particularly if they sell at a discount. Depending on
whether yields make it profitable, some of this fixed-income money
could be invested in CDs.

Invest the remaining 20 percent of your money in stocks or stock
mutual funds, which provide an inflation hedge. Most of these
stocks and funds should be high yielding so they give you current
income, as well as growth.

To find safe, high-yielding stocks, search such industries as electric,
gas, water, and telephone utilities; banking; oil; and insurance. If
you would like to have a bit of fun, invest a small portion of your
portfolio—perhaps 10 percent—in more speculative growth stocks.
Be prepared to lose some or all of this money, and don’t invest
cash you can’t afford to part with.

For a more diversified portfolio, buy mutual funds holding mostly
high-yielding stocks. Types of funds you might want in your
portfolio that offer growth potential and current income include
total return, balanced, flexible, equity-income, growth and income,
and convertible funds. You can buy such funds in either open-end
or closed-end form.

As the value of your portfolio changes over time, keep a proper mix
of income and growth components. For example, if the stock
market rises sharply, your equity portion may rise significantly
beyond 20 percent. Thus, you might consider selling some of the
stocks and reinvesting the money in bonds, which will produce
more income. If stock prices fall, you might buy stocks at bargain
prices with some of the income from your bonds.

HOW TO REAP THE REWARDS YOU DESERVE!

Starting Now . . .

Use the following Resources, Action Steps and Extra Info to take
the next step toward your solid financial future.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RESOURCE | RESOURCE | RESOURCE
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Everyone’s Money Book on Stocks, Bonds and Mutual Funds
by Jordan E. Goodman

Understanding the vehicles for investment and changing markets can give you the edge when choosing smart strategies in changing times. Everyone’s Money Book on Stocks, Bonds and Mutual Funds will help you make sound decisions regardless of market movement…..

www.moneyanswers.com/bookstore/