Consumer reports can be very beneficial to you when it comes to purchasing certain items of value. That’s because, when you locate a consumer report that is of interest to the product that you are interested in buying, you get first-hand information from someone with a similar purchasing decision process as you. Consumer reports are written by consumers, for consumers, so that an open and honest account of the product in question is presented. Many people actively seek out free consumer reports on the internet whenever they are looking to spend money on an item of substantial worth. Items such as automobiles, cars, vacations, electronics and other high-end goods are prime candidates for consumer report research.
Let’s use the automobile as an example. If you are interested in purchasing a particular brand of car, you want to get as much information as possible before deciding whether or not you are going to buy. That information includes frank and honest reviews of the product from people that you can relate to and understand. Now, trying to get that information from the car salesperson is a dead-end, because their job is to sell you on all of the features and benefits that the car has to offer. Therefore, you want to get opinions from people who have purchased, driven and used the car. Unless you can collect all of these people and round them up in a stadium and ask for their opinions on the car, your best bet is to search and scour the internet for a free consumer report.
Consumer reports, because they are designed to be as understandable and as bi-partisan as possible, are often easy to read, simple to understand and feature a mixture of simple information and detailed results. This means that when you read a consumer report, you’ll be able to easily get the information that you are looking for. If we revert back to the car as our example, you’ll get information on fuel efficiency, safety, engine power, braking systems, cargo space and more. And, certain free consumer reports not only will give you information on the vehicle that interests you, but will also provide comparison information with cars in the same price class and design standards.
There are many websites, magazines, publications and broadcasts dedicated to providing consumer reports to the masses. And, as much as there are consumer report programs available, there are ordinary citizens who simply write their opinion on a product or service and post that information on various free consumer reports pages splattered all over the web. Doing that creates a dialogue of consumer reports that’s open, honest and engaging.
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Avoid the Social Security Tax Trap
In the good old days Social Security was tax free. But times have changed, and now many taxpayers can expect to see at least a portion of their Social Security income make its way onto the taxable income line of their 1040s.
More from Investopedia.com:
• 5 Tricks for Stretching Your Social Security Benefits
• Top 7 Social Security Myths: Exposed
• 10 Retirement-Wrecking Moves
People who convert their Traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs often fall into this hidden trap. If they exceed the funding limit, the extra income pushes them beyond the income threshold level and boom! They are stuck paying tax on thousands of dollars in Social Security income they thought was tax free. In this article we'll explore why and how Social Security benefits become taxable and provide some tips to help you dig your way out of the trap.
Income Thresholds
There are two separate income thresholds for filers that will determine whether they have to pay tax on their Social Security benefits. Here is a breakdown of the categories:
Calculating Your Income Level
Filers in either of the first two categories must compute their provisional income - also known as modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) - by adding together tax-exempt interest (such as from municipal bonds), 50% of the year's Social Security income, as well as any miscellaneous tax-free fringe benefits and exclusions to their adjusted gross income and then subtracting adjustments to income (other than education-related and domestic activities deductions.)
Example 1
Jim Lorman is single, he earned $19,500 for the year and received $2,000 of interest income and $1,500 from gambling winnings. He also receives $10,000 in Social Security income. ($19,500 + $2,000 + $1,500 + $5,000 = $28,000)
• Jim's provisional income will come to $28,000. He therefore may have to pay taxes on up to 50% of his Social Security.
Example 2
Henry and Sharon Hill have joint earned income of $48,000 and $4,000 of interest and $3,000 of dividends. Their Social Security benefits come to $20,000. ($48,000 + $4,000 + $3,000 + $10,000 = $65,000)
• The Hill's MAGI is therefore $65,000. They may have to pay tax on up to 85% of their Social Security benefits.
You can use IRS worksheet 1341 to estimate the amount of taxable Social Security income you will have. Qualified plan participants who also contributed to a deductible IRA must use the worksheets found in IRS Publication Form 590 instead. Those who file as Married Filing Separately and lived at any time with their spouse during the year must include the lesser of 85% of Social Security benefits on Line 1 of Form 1341 or 85% of the calculated provisional income from the same worksheet.
How to Lower Your Social Security Taxes
There are several remedies available for those who are taxed on their Social Security benefits. Perhaps the most obvious solution is to reduce or eliminate the interest and dividends that are used in the provisional income formula. In both of the examples shown above, the taxpayers would have reduced their Social Security tax if they hadn't had declarable investment revenues on top of their other income.
Therefore, the solution could be to convert the reportable investment income into tax-deferred income, such as from an annuity, which will not show up on the 1040 until it is withdrawn. If you have $200,000 in certificates of deposit (CDs) earning 3%, which translates into $6,000 a year that will be counted as progressive income. But the same $200,000 growing inside an annuity will effectively yield reportable interest of $0 when computing provisional income. Therefore virtually any investor that is not spending all of the interest paid from a CD or other taxable instrument can benefit from moving at least a portion of his or her assets into a tax-deferred investment or account.
Another possible remedy could be to simply work a little less, especially if you are at or near the threshold of having your benefits taxed. In the first example listed above, if Jim were to move his taxable investments into an annuity and earn $1,000 less, he would have virtually no taxable benefits. Shifting investments from taxable accounts into a Traditional or Roth IRA will also accomplish the same objective, provided funding limits have not been surpassed.
Conclusion
There are many rules concerning the taxability of Social Security benefits, and this article attempts to cover only the major rules and issues related to this topic. For more information on this topic, visit the IRS website and download IRS publication 915 or consult your tax advisor.
- Mark P. Cussen,CFP®, CMFC (Contact Author | Biography) has more than 15 years of experience in the financial industry, which includes working with investments, insurance, mortgages, taxes and financial planning.
More from Investopedia.com:
• 5 Tricks for Stretching Your Social Security Benefits
• Top 7 Social Security Myths: Exposed
• 10 Retirement-Wrecking Moves
People who convert their Traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs often fall into this hidden trap. If they exceed the funding limit, the extra income pushes them beyond the income threshold level and boom! They are stuck paying tax on thousands of dollars in Social Security income they thought was tax free. In this article we'll explore why and how Social Security benefits become taxable and provide some tips to help you dig your way out of the trap.
Income Thresholds
There are two separate income thresholds for filers that will determine whether they have to pay tax on their Social Security benefits. Here is a breakdown of the categories:
Calculating Your Income Level
Filers in either of the first two categories must compute their provisional income - also known as modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) - by adding together tax-exempt interest (such as from municipal bonds), 50% of the year's Social Security income, as well as any miscellaneous tax-free fringe benefits and exclusions to their adjusted gross income and then subtracting adjustments to income (other than education-related and domestic activities deductions.)
Example 1
Jim Lorman is single, he earned $19,500 for the year and received $2,000 of interest income and $1,500 from gambling winnings. He also receives $10,000 in Social Security income. ($19,500 + $2,000 + $1,500 + $5,000 = $28,000)
• Jim's provisional income will come to $28,000. He therefore may have to pay taxes on up to 50% of his Social Security.
Example 2
Henry and Sharon Hill have joint earned income of $48,000 and $4,000 of interest and $3,000 of dividends. Their Social Security benefits come to $20,000. ($48,000 + $4,000 + $3,000 + $10,000 = $65,000)
• The Hill's MAGI is therefore $65,000. They may have to pay tax on up to 85% of their Social Security benefits.
You can use IRS worksheet 1341 to estimate the amount of taxable Social Security income you will have. Qualified plan participants who also contributed to a deductible IRA must use the worksheets found in IRS Publication Form 590 instead. Those who file as Married Filing Separately and lived at any time with their spouse during the year must include the lesser of 85% of Social Security benefits on Line 1 of Form 1341 or 85% of the calculated provisional income from the same worksheet.
How to Lower Your Social Security Taxes
There are several remedies available for those who are taxed on their Social Security benefits. Perhaps the most obvious solution is to reduce or eliminate the interest and dividends that are used in the provisional income formula. In both of the examples shown above, the taxpayers would have reduced their Social Security tax if they hadn't had declarable investment revenues on top of their other income.
Therefore, the solution could be to convert the reportable investment income into tax-deferred income, such as from an annuity, which will not show up on the 1040 until it is withdrawn. If you have $200,000 in certificates of deposit (CDs) earning 3%, which translates into $6,000 a year that will be counted as progressive income. But the same $200,000 growing inside an annuity will effectively yield reportable interest of $0 when computing provisional income. Therefore virtually any investor that is not spending all of the interest paid from a CD or other taxable instrument can benefit from moving at least a portion of his or her assets into a tax-deferred investment or account.
Another possible remedy could be to simply work a little less, especially if you are at or near the threshold of having your benefits taxed. In the first example listed above, if Jim were to move his taxable investments into an annuity and earn $1,000 less, he would have virtually no taxable benefits. Shifting investments from taxable accounts into a Traditional or Roth IRA will also accomplish the same objective, provided funding limits have not been surpassed.
Conclusion
There are many rules concerning the taxability of Social Security benefits, and this article attempts to cover only the major rules and issues related to this topic. For more information on this topic, visit the IRS website and download IRS publication 915 or consult your tax advisor.
- Mark P. Cussen,CFP®, CMFC (Contact Author | Biography) has more than 15 years of experience in the financial industry, which includes working with investments, insurance, mortgages, taxes and financial planning.
Talent Management - Measuring Success
Imagine that these are numbers for your business:
70% of users are dissatisfied with the process
50% of customers regret their buying decision
46% turnover among new buyers
46% failure rate from the process
Less than 20% of transactions ate successful
If these numbers were related to customer satisfaction, a business could not survive. It is clear how these numbers would have a dramatic impact on the profitability and viability of the business. However, these numbers are not about customer satisfaction, but rather come from a study of recruiting and retention processes by Dr. John Sullivan. What is interesting is that many businesses do not even measure the effectiveness of this key business process. According to Sullivan, less that 30 percent of companies measure the quality of hires, and less than this measure key elements of the talent management process.
In one survey, 70% percent of applicants and 28 percent of hiring managers (Source: Staffing.org) were dissatisfied with the hiring process. The biggest complaint that I hear from job applicants about the hiring process, is that they are left hanging throughout the process. The company doesn't follow up or fails to get back to the candidate when they it promised to do so. As a rule of thumb, the company should put closure on every solicited resume or application it receives. I don’t think it is necessary to put closure on unsolicited resumes. As soon as a candidate is eliminated from consideration they should be told, with email being a very efficient and low cost way to do this. Keep applicants who you are interested in informed of the status of the selection process. I know a friend who took a less desirable job since he never heard back from his primary interest weeks after an interview. Two months later the company called to make an offer.
The failure rate of new hires is significantly high according to many studies.
25% of new hire regret taking the job (Source: Challenger, Gray)
50% of hiring managers and new hires later regret their decision (Source: The Recruiting Roundtable)
46% of new hires leave their job within one year (Source: eBullpen, LLC)
50% of current employees are actively seeking a new job (Source: Deloitte)
46% of new hires are categorized as failures within the first 18 months on the job (Source: Leadership IQ)
40% of newly promoted managers fail within 18 months of starting a new job (Source: Manchester, Inc.)
The cost of this failure in the selection process has incredible economic implications. According to McKinsey & Co., top performers increase productivity, revenue, and profit by 40 to 67 percent over average performers. Businesses are leaving lots of money on the table as the result of making poor hiring or internal selection decisions.
The principles of process improvement used for years in manufacturing can be applied to improving the selection process. The first step is to have a clear definition of job requirements. Think about trying to deliver a product without knowing what the customer wanted. The same is true of selection. Job requirements go beyond skills, knowledge, and experience—they must include behavioral and attitudinal factors as well.
Once the job requirements have been clearly defined, there needs to be a system in place to match candidates to the requirements. The primary reason for poor selection decisions after the job requirements have been defined, is inaccurate or incomplete information about the candidate. If we knew exactly what type of person we needed and knew everything about a candidate relative to those requirements, there would be very few selection mistakes.
To improve the accuracy of information, these elements need to exist:
A formalized process for seeking all public information about a candidate which includes background checks. An underutilized tool is to Google a person’s name and see what comes up. I found out someone I knew was a convicted felon by simply by Googling his name and found a newspaper article about the situation.
A highly trained and skilled group of interviewers who know to ask the right (and legal) questions to learn as much as they can about a candidate. Interviewers should be required to independently evaluate candidates using a formal system.
Assessments provide valuable information that is very difficult to get through other means. Properly designed and validated assessment instruments are instrumental to improving the selection process.
Even if the job requirements were clearly defined and the best candidate chosen for the job, there is still more to the process. The popular term for this is “onboarding”. For most employees, the most exciting day of their career was their first day on the job. Then it goes downhill from there.
Companies should have a formal onboarding process for new employees. There are a number of resources available that provide ideas and structure for such a program. One particular aspect of onboarding that I get involved in is helping new supervisors and managers hit the ground running in their new job. Many new managers have never received any form of training and I find that the first 90 days are essential to the long term success of a manager.
70% of users are dissatisfied with the process
50% of customers regret their buying decision
46% turnover among new buyers
46% failure rate from the process
Less than 20% of transactions ate successful
If these numbers were related to customer satisfaction, a business could not survive. It is clear how these numbers would have a dramatic impact on the profitability and viability of the business. However, these numbers are not about customer satisfaction, but rather come from a study of recruiting and retention processes by Dr. John Sullivan. What is interesting is that many businesses do not even measure the effectiveness of this key business process. According to Sullivan, less that 30 percent of companies measure the quality of hires, and less than this measure key elements of the talent management process.
In one survey, 70% percent of applicants and 28 percent of hiring managers (Source: Staffing.org) were dissatisfied with the hiring process. The biggest complaint that I hear from job applicants about the hiring process, is that they are left hanging throughout the process. The company doesn't follow up or fails to get back to the candidate when they it promised to do so. As a rule of thumb, the company should put closure on every solicited resume or application it receives. I don’t think it is necessary to put closure on unsolicited resumes. As soon as a candidate is eliminated from consideration they should be told, with email being a very efficient and low cost way to do this. Keep applicants who you are interested in informed of the status of the selection process. I know a friend who took a less desirable job since he never heard back from his primary interest weeks after an interview. Two months later the company called to make an offer.
The failure rate of new hires is significantly high according to many studies.
25% of new hire regret taking the job (Source: Challenger, Gray)
50% of hiring managers and new hires later regret their decision (Source: The Recruiting Roundtable)
46% of new hires leave their job within one year (Source: eBullpen, LLC)
50% of current employees are actively seeking a new job (Source: Deloitte)
46% of new hires are categorized as failures within the first 18 months on the job (Source: Leadership IQ)
40% of newly promoted managers fail within 18 months of starting a new job (Source: Manchester, Inc.)
The cost of this failure in the selection process has incredible economic implications. According to McKinsey & Co., top performers increase productivity, revenue, and profit by 40 to 67 percent over average performers. Businesses are leaving lots of money on the table as the result of making poor hiring or internal selection decisions.
The principles of process improvement used for years in manufacturing can be applied to improving the selection process. The first step is to have a clear definition of job requirements. Think about trying to deliver a product without knowing what the customer wanted. The same is true of selection. Job requirements go beyond skills, knowledge, and experience—they must include behavioral and attitudinal factors as well.
Once the job requirements have been clearly defined, there needs to be a system in place to match candidates to the requirements. The primary reason for poor selection decisions after the job requirements have been defined, is inaccurate or incomplete information about the candidate. If we knew exactly what type of person we needed and knew everything about a candidate relative to those requirements, there would be very few selection mistakes.
To improve the accuracy of information, these elements need to exist:
A formalized process for seeking all public information about a candidate which includes background checks. An underutilized tool is to Google a person’s name and see what comes up. I found out someone I knew was a convicted felon by simply by Googling his name and found a newspaper article about the situation.
A highly trained and skilled group of interviewers who know to ask the right (and legal) questions to learn as much as they can about a candidate. Interviewers should be required to independently evaluate candidates using a formal system.
Assessments provide valuable information that is very difficult to get through other means. Properly designed and validated assessment instruments are instrumental to improving the selection process.
Even if the job requirements were clearly defined and the best candidate chosen for the job, there is still more to the process. The popular term for this is “onboarding”. For most employees, the most exciting day of their career was their first day on the job. Then it goes downhill from there.
Companies should have a formal onboarding process for new employees. There are a number of resources available that provide ideas and structure for such a program. One particular aspect of onboarding that I get involved in is helping new supervisors and managers hit the ground running in their new job. Many new managers have never received any form of training and I find that the first 90 days are essential to the long term success of a manager.
Monday, 22 November 2010
How To Get Your Site Indexed In Google & Start Getting Traffic
The first and foremost concern of every website owner as they begin their website is indexing their website in the search engines like google. There are many beginners who are not aware of the rules and regulations of indexing a website. This article will guide such people to index their website in search engines like google and create traffic to their website.
There are many website owners who prefer to index their website through google’s submission page. Of course this is the lengthiest way of indexing a site. This process takes at least a week or more than that to index your site. So, I will provide you an easy and quick way of indexing your website.
Before indexing your website should comply with the following things:
* Avoid indexing your website when it is under construction. A website that is “under construction” can be indexed in google, but the search engine spider may not act in favor of your website. If you leave your website with under construction message and index it, then google will find it difficult or ignore your site while ranking the sites. The search engine spiders can easily recognize the under construction sites. In case if your website is not completed, you can at least fill up the first page of your website with informative content. The first page content with proper keyword can give some amount of strength to your site. Otherwise, search engine spiders completely ignore your website.
Why sites “found by Google” is better than the ‘submitted’ one?
It is highly believed that the website that is found using google search engine spider has the advantage when compared with the sites that are directly submitted with google. So, instead of submitting your website through google search engine, you can optimize your website to be “found” by google. The best way to get your website in the found list can be done through blogs. Choose a blog that is related to the same subject of your website and leave the backlink of your domain at the end of the blog post. Whenever a new blog is created google will come to check it. So, your blog will be indexed within 24 hours by using this blog posting method.
Indexing website through Google
Once you create the website with SEO techniques, you should look for creating the site map for your site. This site map is created to give domain name for your webpages or website. Visit the google webmaster’s site and add your domain name in the “ADD SITE” option. The process takes only few minutes to index your site.
Few traffic generating techniques
Choose the website either of your friend or a well known person and give backlink from that site. The website you choose should have good ranking. So, when the number of people who visit your friend’s site increases, your website will also automatically drive more visitors.
All the above procedures if followed correctly can bring your website to the vicinity of the search engine spiders and list your website in the top of the search engine results.
There are many website owners who prefer to index their website through google’s submission page. Of course this is the lengthiest way of indexing a site. This process takes at least a week or more than that to index your site. So, I will provide you an easy and quick way of indexing your website.
Before indexing your website should comply with the following things:
* Avoid indexing your website when it is under construction. A website that is “under construction” can be indexed in google, but the search engine spider may not act in favor of your website. If you leave your website with under construction message and index it, then google will find it difficult or ignore your site while ranking the sites. The search engine spiders can easily recognize the under construction sites. In case if your website is not completed, you can at least fill up the first page of your website with informative content. The first page content with proper keyword can give some amount of strength to your site. Otherwise, search engine spiders completely ignore your website.
Why sites “found by Google” is better than the ‘submitted’ one?
It is highly believed that the website that is found using google search engine spider has the advantage when compared with the sites that are directly submitted with google. So, instead of submitting your website through google search engine, you can optimize your website to be “found” by google. The best way to get your website in the found list can be done through blogs. Choose a blog that is related to the same subject of your website and leave the backlink of your domain at the end of the blog post. Whenever a new blog is created google will come to check it. So, your blog will be indexed within 24 hours by using this blog posting method.
Indexing website through Google
Once you create the website with SEO techniques, you should look for creating the site map for your site. This site map is created to give domain name for your webpages or website. Visit the google webmaster’s site and add your domain name in the “ADD SITE” option. The process takes only few minutes to index your site.
Few traffic generating techniques
Choose the website either of your friend or a well known person and give backlink from that site. The website you choose should have good ranking. So, when the number of people who visit your friend’s site increases, your website will also automatically drive more visitors.
All the above procedures if followed correctly can bring your website to the vicinity of the search engine spiders and list your website in the top of the search engine results.
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