2003 Year in Review - Trends and analysis of Employees' financial behavior.
City: San Francisco, CADate: March 2 2004Financial Finesse notes problematic trend in employee retirement issues Year In ReviewHelpline demographics in 2003Gender Ratios???64% Female???36% MaleCaller Type???97% Employees of corporate clients???3% Spouse/Partner2003 Call Duration:Average call length was 22.45 minutes with each caller in 2003. ??? Call Topic BreakdownTopic???Q1???Q2???Q3???Q4???2003Debt???39%???44%???45%???39%???42%Budgeting and Saving???15%???17%???14%???17%???16%Retirement Planning???12%???7%???10%???9%???10%Homeownership???5%???11%???9%???9%???8%Misc.*???7%???6%???8%???13%???8%Taxes???13%???6%???6%???7%???8%Finding a Financial Planner???6%???7%???4%???3%???5%Education Planning???3%???2%???4%???3%???3%* Misc. includes Estate Planning, Stock Options, Insurance and Investing 2003 Most Frequently Asked Questions (ranked by frequency)Debt1 How do I deal with my creditors?2 Am I a candidate for credit counseling?3 How can I refinance or consolidate my debt?4 Should I consider bankruptcy or foreclosure?5 How can I check/improve my credit rating?Budgeting and Saving1 How do I put together a budget?2 How do I manage my financial affairs after a divorce?3 I am having trouble making ends meet, what can I do?4 How do I manage the stress of money problems?5 I need help evaluating my financial situation due to a change in employment status.Retirement Planning1 I have general administrative questions about my company retirement plan.2 What do I do with my previous employer retirement plan?3 How much do I need to retire and how much should I be saving?4 How do I choose the right investments in my retirement plan(s)?5 What are some of the options for funding my retirement?Homeownership1 What steps are involved with the purchase of a first home?2 Are there any programs available to help me purchase a home?3 I am interested in investing in rental real estate.4 What are the tax consequences of selling a home?5 When is it a good idea to take out a home equity loan?Taxes1 How do I estimate the tax withholding allowance on my paycheck?2 I have specific questions on the deductions I am eligible to take.3 How do I find someone who can help me with my taxes?4 What are the penalties for taking an early distribution from my retirement plan?5 What options do I have if I can't pay my tax bill or haven't filed my tax return?Finding a Financial Planner1 I have never met with a financial planner before and am interested in what an FP can do for me.2 I need someone to help me plan for retirement.3 I need someone to help me assess how my investments should be allocated.4 I need help planning for college expenses.5 I have questions about my stock options and how they impact my overall investment strategy.Education Planning1 I need help planning for college expenses.2 What if I can't repay my student loans?3 Is it better to pay cash or take out a student loan for college expenses?4 What repayment options are available on student loans?Trends AnalysisAbout the DataFinancial Finesse's Financial Helpline is available to approximately 300 different companies and 250,000 employees. The companies represent a wide range of industries and are located in different cities and towns across the country. Since the service is generally available to all employees within the companies, callers range from CEOs and executives to frontline employees who work in factories.
We do not track specific demographics such as race and income from callers, but we believe the callers are representative of the population as a whole based on the demographics of our client companies and the wide range of financial questions we get from callers.Key TrendsThe data this quarter is quite revealing. On one hand, we continue to see strong signs of the economic recovery that economists have been touting for the last 18-24 months. On the other hand, we also see some troubling trends in employees' retirement planning issues. With the oldest Baby Boomers turning 58 this year, we believe that we are seeing the beginning of an emerging retirement crisis.Economic Recovery ContinuesIn last quarter's trend analysis, we called out signs of an economic recovery. In Q4 2003, this trend continued and gained momentum.
Debt calls are down significantly, and employees are shifting their focus to more pro-active financial issues, like budgeting, saving, and investing.??? ????As a percentage, debt calls were decreased nearly 20% from Q4 2002 and 13% from Q3 2003. In fact, there were less debt calls in Q4 than any other quarter in 2003. This is very unusual considering that we generally get more debt calls in the fourth quarter as employees become overextended with holiday expenses.????There was a 42% increase in budgeting and saving calls from Q4 2002 and a 21% increase from Q3 2003, indicating that employees are becoming more proactive about managing their money and saving for their goals. In addition, it appears that employees are increasingly tackling budgeting and saving issues before their finances reach a point of crisis. In 2003, the most popular question was "How do I put together a budget?" vs.
"How do I find money to begin saving for the future and stop living paycheck to paycheck?" in 2002.????Investing calls doubled. Normally investing calls only make up for about 2% of the total, but in Q4, they surged to 4%--another anomaly in a quart!er that is traditionally a time when employees become more reactive about their finances. It is possible that the calls on investing are a response to the mutual fund scandal, which received a tremendous amount of media attention in the fourth quarter and undoubtedly prompted many employees to take greater control over their investments. An Emerging Retirement CrisisRetirement, in general, seems to be an increasingly important issue to employees. Retirement planning calls decreased slightly in the fourth quarter, as to be expected.
However, as a percentage, there were significantly more calls on retirement planning in 2003 than 2002 (10% of total in 2003 vs. 7% of the total in 2002).While this normally would be an encouraging sign, there was a marked shift in the nature of the retirement issue calls in Q4 2003. For the first time ever, a question on the penalties for taking an early distribution was one of the top 5 questions employees asked about retirement. Equally concerning, the second most popular question in Q4 was on the pros and cons of taking out a loan against the retirement plan. Of all the top 5 questions, only 2 questions were about planning for retirement.
This is a very significant issue considering that the average age of employees is rising and most employees are far behind where they need to be in terms of funding thei!r retirements.This press release was distributed through eMediawire by HR Marketer (www.HRmarketer.com) on behalf of the company listed above..
10 POWERFUL Reasons Why You're Crazy NOT To Start A... HomeBased Business In 2005
Home Based Business's are spreading across North America and have become widely recognized as one of the most desirable business's to start for several reasons. Just think for a minute what it would be like to work from home and never have to worry about waiting in grid lock traffic or to answer to your boss's demands. Wouldn't that be great? In todays fast paced world a little extra income doesn't hurt in order for the average guy or gal to get ahead in life so they can enjoy the little extra's life has to offer that there current job doesn't allow them to do. I know from experience because that's what made me take the neccessary action steps required in order for me to enjoy the quality of life I wanted to live and provide for my family. But, the problem that usually occurs is people need to be motivated by something or inspired in order to take action.
Well, the purpose of this article is to do exactly that, inspire you. I'm going to cover with you the 10 main reasons why You...
10 POWERFUL Reasons Why You're Crazy NOT To Start A... HomeBased Business In 2005
Tax help > 10 POWERFUL Reasons Why You're Crazy NOT To Start A... HomeBased Business In 2005
Consolidate Debt With A Home Equity Loan
If you are a home owner who is having to borrow from Peter to pay Paul due to a mounting debt load, a debt consolidation home equity loan may be the answer. A debt consolidation loan will allow you to consolidate your high interest credit card and consumer loans into one low rate, affordable monthly payment.A debt consolidation home equity loan is a secured loan. Your home will be used as collateral and the lender will have a lien on your home until the loan is paid off. None the less if you are drowning in a sea of debt, a debt consolidation loan can give you a new financial start. It can help you avoid bankruptcy as well as end harassing creditor phone calls.
In addition, in most cases your monthly payment will be significantly lower freeing up cash that can be used for savings.It is important that once you obtain your debt consolidation loan that you cut up your credit cards and close out the accounts. This will help you to avoid the temptation of running up another debt load...
Consolidate Debt With A Home Equity Loan
Tax help > Consolidate Debt With A Home Equity Loan
Need Ezine Content- Think Holidays
Publishing an ezine certainly has its benefits and rewards, but even the most prolific publishers often need more content ideas, topics and graphics.One of the best resources for newsletter and ezine publishers is holidays; they are a true gift because they can provide an overall theme, a topic, graphics, as well as content. They can add a little spice to your usual, consistent branded newsletter. The best part is that most of the holiday content is free, and it doesn't have to be in your industry or on your specific newsletter topic.There are countless holidays to choose from, with varying lengths- Mother's Day, Book Week, American Heart Month.A common holiday theme is Halloween, which many publishers use as an excuse to add a fun graphic to their ezine. It's an easy one because Halloween images exist in most clip art collections, many can be found online for free as well as for purchase; custom graphics are always an option. Halloween is a fun holiday that brings out the kid in all...
Need Ezine Content- Think Holidays
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Governor Rick Perry Sued; Lawsuit claims Governor Lacks Authority to Privatize and Toll Already Tax-Funded Public Highways
Austin, TX (ContentDesk) October 6, 2005 -- People for Efficient Transportation, Inc. filed a lawsuit today in the District Court of Travis County, on behalf of taxpayers throughout Texas against Governor Rick Perry. The lawsuit takes Gov. Perry to task, as the state's Chief Planning Officer, for allowing unlawful Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to allocate federal dollars, which includes allocating funds for Perry's plan to privatize and toll already tax funded Texas public highways.AUTHORITY TO ALLOCATE FEDERAL FUNDS IN QUESTIONGovernor Perry has mandated that MPOs shift the publics freeways into tollways across the state; however, the lawsuit claims Perry's MPO simply have no authority whatsoever to dispense funds for such an unpopular and unconstitutional scheme. That includes allocating tax dollars to Gov.
Perry's unelected, therefore unaccountable Regional Mobility Authoritys (RMAs) who will set the toll rates for already tax funded public highways. It's important...
Governor Rick Perry Sued; Lawsuit claims Governor Lacks Authority to Privatize and Toll Already Tax-Funded Public Highways
Tax help > Governor Rick Perry Sued; Lawsuit claims Governor Lacks Authority to Privatize and Toll Already Tax-Funded Public Highways
IRS Scrutiny, New Sarbanes-Oxley Regulations are Impacting Non-Profits! - Expert Help Now Available in New Webcast Series from Board Boost, in Cooperation with Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and Kindstream Media! View on www.tvworldwide.com
Expert help is available with a series of highly informative 90-minute e-learning webcasts to educate non-profit organizations on liability avoidance and accountability issues. Developed by BoardBoost Seminars, in cooperation with Kindstream Media and the Institute of Internal Auditors, the programs will be webcasted live and in archived versions by TV Worldwide.com. Live program audience members will be able to interact by e-mail with comments or questions during the program.
October 14, 2004, 1:00 PM EST. Rethinking Non-Profit Executive Compensation ? The Reasonableness Challenge November 4, 2004, 1:00 PM ESTDrawing the Line: Tax-Exempt Status Purposes vs Unrelated Business Income December 2, 2004, 1:00 PM ESTSix Ways to Lose Your Tax Exempt Status: Is Your Organization at Risk? December 16, 1:00 PM ESTSimplifying Non-Profit Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance ? Even on a Shoestring Budget An earlier session is also available from Sept 1, 2004First Principles: Non-Profit Responsibilities...
Tax help > IRS Scrutiny, New Sarbanes-Oxley Regulations are Impacting Non-Profits! - Expert Help Now Available in New Webcast Series from Board Boost, in Cooperation with Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and Kindstream Media! View on www.tvworldwide.com
Possible car rentals in Bournemouth
When you arrive at the Bournemouth airport, usually the first thing you want to find is some information on car rentals. In Bournemouth there are a lot of rent-a-car companies, so finding them is not a problem. Just connect to the Internet and look for them. By the way, keep in mind that the common spelling mistake is forgetting about "n" in the town's name, so you should check both "car rentals in Bournemouth" and "car rentals in Bouremouth" phrases.
How to find all car rentals...
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