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Age Discrimination is Alive and Well

I have talked to many seniors who lost their jobs late in their career. It’s not fun at any age. When you over 50, send your resume out and see how many employers are willing to even talk to you let alone offer you a job at the salary and benefit level that you had in your last job.

Age discrimination is very hard to prove. It is subjective and employers can simply say they found someone more qualified. How to fight that?

Here is my simple advice. If you really want to avoid this demoralizing experience, find a way to develop a second source of income working for yourself. Work to eventually replace your primary jonb with your second job. Then when you are let go or are forced to leave a good job you have a hobby or second career you now spend full time on and not worry about someone telling you are no longer qualified to do what they are willing to give to someone 20 years younger with none to little experience.

It’s a sad fact but age discrimination in real. I have experienced it and talked to enough seniors to know that what I am telling you is fact. Start today figuring a way to take care of your family if and when you get the pink silip in your peak years so the company can give you job to a younger person for half what they are paying you.

My grandfather went through the stock market crash of 1929 and would put me on his lap as a young boy and tell me about people with money buying things for pennies on the dollar. I am not sure why that stuck in my mind but it did.

I don’t believe we are headed for another great depression, (let’s hope not) but the real estate market is definitely struggling at the moment due to the mortgage crisis, the falling value of the dollar, gas prices going out the roof and general uncertainty in the world in general.

The good news is that if you have money and/or good credit, this is a fabulous times to buy real estate. There are far more properties for sale then buyers so prices come down in a buyer’s market. I realize that what this means is that many people will profit from the misery of others but that’s life when times slow down and get tough. There is always someone waiting to take advantage. As they say, buy low and sell high.

It was not too long ago when there were more buyers then sellers. That drove prices up and many that bought in early made a profit. That’s how the market works. Nothing lasts forever and the down market we are in today will once again recover. Those that bought in low now will make a lot of money when the market turns back around.

New Millennium Bank Secured Platinum Visa or Mastercard

I am not a real estate expert so I won’t pretend to know if the market has hit bottom yet or not.
Timing the market is hard to do. However, my sense is that there are great buys to be had now even if the market continues to dip because once it comes back it will most likely exceed the past higher prices. Buy now and then be patient. Time will tell if that is a good decision or not.

Here are Ten Mistakes to Avoid.

Unfortunately I have made most of these myself and could probably ad several more. These are ten that come to mind having lived on this wonderful planet for 64 years so far. See what you think:

1. Depending on Social Security to take care of you in your old age.

2. Not maxing out your 401K when you had the chance; especially if your employer was willing to contribute to your plan.

3. Expecting your kids will take care of you

4. Not planning for Long term Care and you Final Arrangements while you are of sound mind

5. Not Taking care of your health. Even a 30 min. walk a day can do wonders. Watch your diet!

6 Negative Thinking. If you glass is always half empty no one will want to be near you and you will probably not enjoy retirement no matter what anyone has to say to help you.

7. Smoking. I watched it kill my mother. Not much fun when it catches up to you.

8. Failure to save and invest. When you clock out for you last day on the job no body cares that you did not save or plan for the next 20 years.

9. Work until to are too sick to retire. What’s the point?

10. Living a selfish life. Give and it shall be given unto you. Help others to succeed and you will never worry about having enough good things in live.

When to Retire?

The best time to retire is the date that you set and not a date determined by circumstances beyond your control. When I lost my business and everything I owned after 911, I had to start from scratch at age 50. At the time it seemed nearly impossible to recover from such a huge loss.

Once I stopped feeling sorry for myself, I had to put a plan together to recover my life. That is honestly want got me started on this blog. As I read and learned new things about life before and after retirement I decide to share that journey of discovery with folks like you.

Even before my world came crashing in I never wanted to quick working. I wanted more time to work at the things I enjoyed. I wanted to put life in better balance to spend more time with family, fish, spend time with my bride of 43 years and kick back on my time not someone else’s schedule.

That’s me. But I have friends that live for the day they can do nothing but walk on the beach and mow the law. Others want to travel. So what ever your vision of retirement may be, put a plan together and do it.

When I lost all my worldly assets I decided to use the gift God gave me to write and build websites and blogs like this one that I enjoyed writing and also generated an income. As you can see I am blessed with great advertisers on the site.

I also moved to Charleston, SC which was the best thing Rosemary and I have done in years. How great it is to live in such a beautiful place, near the ocean near so much history, great food, and most importantly charming people.

Now imagine producing ten sites like this a year. In five years I will have 50 sites all making money. I call it my web portfolio. Instead of buying stocks I build websites that make money. So when I do retire I can keep up my sites for as long as I am healthy and enjoy the income they produce. That is my plan. What’s yours?

Why identity theft is likely to get much worse by Invicta

In 2005 some ten millions residents of the USA were victims of identity theft with each one losing an average of about $7,000.

Clearing their name can take each victim a year during which time they’ll spend some 200 hours working on the problem (writing letters, making phone calls, etc.) at a personal cost of over $1,000 in expenses. That’s over a month of full time employment.

Even then a quarter of all victims will not succeed in clearing their name.

So how do identity thieves steal the personal information they use to such devastating effect?

Identity thieves will steal your mail, search through your trash, steal from your home, steal your purse or wallet.

And don’t imagine these identity thieves are always unknown to you because the people who have the easiest access to your belongings are people you let into your home or people you associate with at work, in clubs and in public place.

Identity thieves can also make use of public records and phone books. And these days many of these records are stored and easily accessed online.

Of course, some identity thieves will go to greater lengths by using easily available software programs to attack insecure networks or vulnerable home computers.

Having stolen your identity what do the thieves do with your personal information?

42% will steal from existing credit card accounts or spend money on a new account created in the stolen name.

20% will commit telephone or utility fraud.

13% will steal from an existing bank account or open a new account in the stolen name from which they can withdraw money.

9% will use the stolen identity to gain employment, 7% to obtain a loan and 6% to obtain documents such as a driver’s license, social security number or government benefits.

It behoves us all to take care of our identity, to treat it as something just as precious as other valuable belongings and to take all reasonable steps to ensure that others cannot steal it.

Author Michael Soliatis provides essential steps to protect your identity from theft and avoid becoming a victim.

Article Source: http://www.articlenetworks.com