Business without pain

Baby Boomers are living longer and healthier lives than any generation in history, but in advanced years, the majority will require some type of long-term care.

After 2021, when the oldest Boomers hit 75, nursing home populations are expected to grow dramatically.

Such care already costs more than $100,000 per year and is expected to grow steadily upward. By the time people require skilled care, however, it’s too late to start planning financially. To prepare for their 80s, 90s and 100s, long-term care insurance is an option for people in their 50s and 60s to consider now.

“There is a pretty good chance that something is going to happen to us that will require us to need some kind of care,” says Dane Petchul of Long Term Care Insurance Pros. “The best time to plan is now. The longer you wait, the more you’re going to pay.”

The older a person is, the more premiums go up, and by age 70 a person may no longer be able to obtain coverage, especially if they have serious health issues. Like any type of insurance, there are numerous companies to choose from and policies vary in price and quality from carrier to carrier.

It is true that there is no guaranteed premium. Some carriers have had multiple rate increases but most of the top carriers have increased rates only once in 20-30 years. Dropping the policy due to a rate increase usually results in the loss of all the payments made.

When purchasing long-term care insurance, you are betting that you’re going to need some type of long-term care. If you purchased a policy when you are 55 years old at $1872.00 year, in thirty years you would spend $58,032 by the time you’re 85. If you are in need of care or a nursing home, you’ve made a wise investment. The cost today for one year in a nursing home is over $75,000. So, you have already broken even. If you are fortunate to never require any long-term care, the money goes by the wayside with all the other insurances you’ve paid for and never used.

The reason people buy such insurance is to protect their financial assets, so they can leave something to their children instead of having it all go to pay for nursing home costs as well as staying in control and choosing where and how they received care. In addition, they are adverse to becoming burdens to their children.

The purchase of long-term care insurance depends on the person’s financial situation. If they have little or no savings, a long-term care insurance doesn’t make sense. Like many others, that person would probably rely on Medicaid. To qualify for Medicaid, you need to have no more than $2000 in assets.

Some lawmakers have suggested giving greater state and federal tax credits to people who buy long-term care insurance, hopefully reducing people’s reliance on Medicaid. While it might help, it’s doubtful it would solve the program’s problems overnight.

With the ongoing debate over national health care, some feel it might be best to take a wait-and-see approach. Waiting to see if the government will provide the care you would need is not the best way to plan for one’s future. Everyone should be looking at this and making a conscious decision, how am I going to pay for my health care if I become ill and require some type of institutional care?” The bottom line is to do your own long-term care planning. Find a long-term care specialist who is independent and has the ability to compare all the top carriers in an unbiased manner.

It’s funny to see a topic like this because I don’t really have to speculate on what life would be like without the Internet. I’ve LIVED life without the Internet. So have the majority of writers on this site, I bet.

It would be different, sure. Much less efficient. Transactions would be slower, news would be slower, information gathering much, MUCH slower. But, somehow, I think life would go on just fine. It did for hundreds of years prior to the Internet, and were we to lose that handy little device I think society could manage to stumble out of the ashes of the old era and keep on trucking in much the same way it always did.

There would be many sacrifices, of course. Like I said, everything would slow down. We’d lose much of our sense for instant gratification: we’d actually have to wait for things again, and information wouldn’t be as readily available as before. We might - gasp! - actually have to INTERACT with one another again, in the flesh, and lord knows that would be a tragedy of unparalleled proportions. If nothing else a lot of us would lose jobs - all those programmers, web designers, web editors and content writers would find themselves looking for gainful employment elsewhere, and the sudden glut of unemployed might bring the job market to its knees for a while. (I’d be one of those sad people. Sigh.)

But think of all the good that would could of an Internet-less world. We could be PEOPLE again, not just biological organisms with keyboards strapped to their hands and monitors shielding their eyes. We’d have to go out and experience the world rather than sitting back and passively letting information come to us. We might gain a certain level of curiosity about the world around us again, rather than relying on the first-hand accounts of others to supplement our own lack of experience.

I think we’d find the overall populace getting healthier, as well. As I noted before, we’d have to go outside to work. I spent a lot of time indoors working each day, and I try to supplement that work time with lots of exercise in the sunshine, heading out into natural spots and just enjoying the world. I doubt everybody does that, though. I’m sure lots of workers just sit online all day, whether they’re working or not. Lacking the Internet they’d have to find something else to do, and since television is so devoid of intelligence these days (except you, blessed Discovery Channel) they might actually get off their butts and tone their bodies a bit, if only by going for walks.

The world would slow down. We might be more willing to tolerate a turtle’s pace through life - and to be honest, given the stress inherent with a hectic, always stimulated life, I think I’d enjoy being a turtle for a while.

So bring on the end of the Internet. I’d have to find a real job, sure, but that’s okay - as long as it doesn’t have a computer and gets me outside occasionally, I wouldn’t mind.

If you run or own a business, you may use an accounting method that allows for customers to pay at a later date. This account is known as the “accounts receivable” account. Basically, this account represents the money that is owed to your company from customers that have not yet paid. Having this option is good because it allows customers to pay their bill at a later date (like a credit card). However, problems can arise if customers do not pay their debt for services rendered.

When customers do not pay, you have to try to go through in-house collection processes. You cannot automatically send this person to an outside collection agency and negatively impact their credit report for being a little late. Additionally, depending on the size of your business and the amount owed, it may not be worth the time and money to pursue an account to that extreme level. As such, you have to determine whether outside collection services are needed or are even warranted.

In-house collection processes usually means that you send a late notice to the customer reminding them that their account is due. If this does not work, you may try to call the customer so that they can verbally tell you the situation. If this does not work, another late notice or another phone call may be warranted. However, you have to be sure that your collection attempts to not reach level that could be considered “harassing.”

If you are noticing that the customer is avoiding your correspondences, you have to analyze whether or not to pursue the account further. The amount owed, the likelihood of being paid, and the cost of further collection attempts (whether in-house or outside) need to be factored into your decision. You may find that trying to collect is not worth your time and as such, you will write the debt off as bad debt.

By deciding not to pursue the customer, there are disadvantages and advantages. The most obvious disadvantage is that you do not get paid the amount that is owed to you. Many companies hedge this loss by requiring new clients to deposit a retainer or some other type of deposit as a sign of good faith or willingness to pay the bills. The advantages of not collecting on the debt is that you get to write the debt off for tax purposes, you save time and money by stopping your debt collection process, and you can make more money by using this saved time to help other clients and customers.

Make your decision as to whether to pursue a nonpaying customer. Decide an appropriate amount of time for which to pursue the debt. Once this timeframe has passed, move on with your business and utilize your time for more important purposes. Fire the nonpaying customer and take care of your loyal, paying customers.

Happy New Year all…
Hope this year could be better tha previous year…
As a time which always move ahead,
we also must move ahead and there isn’t any reason for wayback…

Your finances are complicated. You have money coming in and money going out. You have bills and investments as well as multiple bank accounts. Personal finance software will keep everything organized for you. Depending on the software you use, it may be able to separate portions of your finances into various categories for you. For example, Quicken 2005 separates your checking accounts from your savings accounts and allows you to track your investments all at the same time.

Organization saves time. Taking a few minutes to input your purchases and paychecks eliminates those hassles associated with staying on top of your finances. Rather than rifling though bank statements and bills for hours, everything is right here in the program. As long as you put each purchase and paycheck into the software, your checkbook will automatically be balanced. Some programs also feature functions that will create a budget for you; yet another time saver.

Personal Finance Software Knows Where Your Money Is

In order to keep more of the money you make, you must know where it is. Personal finance software gives you the power to know where each penny is at a glance. Some will even create reports for you that detail where your money goes each month. This feature will help you locate the leaks in your budget and reduce your expenses every month.

The overview personal finance software gives you is one of its main benefits. It allows you to take off the blinders and truly assess your financial situation. With this new-found view of your finances, you will be able to effect changes like never before. The old adage applies; you have to know where you are before you can get to where you want to be.