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Highlights of the April 2007 Issue of
MONEY
[Full stories also available online at www.CNNMoney.com ] RETIRE EARLY , by Walter Updegrave, page 80 Forget the gold watch at 65. Your goal is even sweeter: financial freedom in your fifties. And what, exactly, is stopping you? It's the ultimate dream. Say good-bye to the daily grind and ease into retirement at 60, 55, maybe even the ripe young age of 50. Never again grit your teeth through 7 a.m. traffic jams. Never sit through another gaseous meeting on synergy (or e-mail security or HR policy or whatever). Instead you can do...whatever you want. Launch a business. Climb a mountain. Downshift to the soul-satisfying job you've always wanted but could never afford. All while you're young enough to enjoy it. You can do this if you want to. But you'll need the discipline to save a lot, a willingness to take investment risk and a plan. The discipline and the willingness you'll have to supply yourself. MONEY has the plan.
THE EXCEPTIONAL COSTS OF EXCEPTIONAL KIDS , by George Mannes, page 118 The cost of nurturing talent can wreck a family's finances A child who loves a particular activity and can do it well, maybe even spectacularly well, puts parents in a financial quandary. In the best of all worlds, supporting that talent could give the child a leg up when applying to college, earn him a scholarship or help launch a well-paying career. But the further a child progresses in what is likely to be an extremely competitive field, the more parents end up spending for lessons, equipment and myriad other expenses and the greater the financial gamble. Here's how one family gets it done. PLUS : Growing Big Talent on a Small Budget: How to nurture your child's special skills without breaking the family bank.
THE WEIRD SCIENCE OF PRICING , by Wilson Rothman, page 127 Seven elementary lessons in why things cost what they do—and how to use that knowledge to get a better deal. Unless you have a degree from the London School of Economics—heck, even if you do—retail prices often don't make a lot of sense. If nobody pays list price for much of anything, what's that term even mean? How come some things always seem to be “on sale”? And what's up with ending prices in 99¢? Like they think you can't round up? Simply put, you, the buyer, want to make sure that you're not agreeing to overpay the seller. And that depends on understanding some of the more opaque facets of “the market,” such as the politics between manufacturers and retailers, the life cycle of a product, even the long arm of the law. Follow along with our Cliffs Notes version of what goes on behind the scenes in setting a price, and you'll score yourself an A+ in Buying 101. PLUS : Cracking the Price Code: Discover what and item's tag says about its discount potential.
GET YOUR FINANCIAL HOUSE IN ORDER , by Walecia Konrad, page 113 Tax time, and your financial papers lie everywhere. Now's your chance to end the chaos forever. There's no better time than post-tax filing to put those piles of financial papers in perspective. And if you need extra motivation, consider the benefits. No more paying late fees, forfeiting deductions because you can't find a receipt or paying for repairs because you don't know where you put the warranty. It's easier than you think. MONEY consulted a host of experts to come up with the most efficient cures for the most annoying paper-chase maladies. Even for the most filing-challenged, fixing these problems shouldn't take more than a day. Call it spring cleaning for your finances—though, as you'll soon see, it's a whole lot more rewarding than washing the windows.
NEED LAST-MINUTE TAX HELP? , by Kate Hazelwood Van Ert, page 17 Who ya' gonna call? Turns out, you should get some pretty good answers from the agency that administers the code—a recent GAO report found 90% accuracy for questions fielded by the free IRS hotline. But if you can't get through, try one of these to-the-wire alternatives.
THE SHARPEST TOOLS ON THE NET, by David Futrelle, page 40 For a better fix on your finances, add these sites to your favorites list There's really no such thing as one-size-fits-all financial advice. Should you buy or lease your next car? How much life insurance do you need? It all depends. Fortunately the Web abounds with great calculators that make answering such questions a snap. Here's MONEY's guide to the simplest and most useful.
MONEY TALKS, OR DOES IT? , by Sam Grobart, page 41 Sharing salary information with colleagues is dangerous, difficult and, if you play it right, pretty darned useful. Strange, isn't it? You would tell a coworker about that severely embarrassing time you coughed up a porcini mushroom on your boss' tie before you would ever share that sacred number. We take it as a given that, to ensure professional tranquility, we keep such information to ourselves. And for the most part we should. Still, there's plenty to be said for sussing out the pay scale. After all, you work for money, and if you learn that you're earning less than everybody else, you can use the knowledge to press for more dough. Squeezing this information out of unwilling peers and managers isn't easy, of course, but you can do it—without hacking into the company computer. MONEY shows you how to conduct your investigation.
HOW TO FEEL SAFE WHEN YOUR JOB ISN'T , by Josh Hyatt, page 33 What do you do if your industry is shrinking but your monthly bills aren't? You come up with a plan—and hope you don't need it. Approximately 6 million Americans leave their jobs each month , either through layoffs or quitting. And while it's one thing for a recent college grad to switch jobs almost annually, a larger proportion of those affected by this churn rate are men in their forties and fifties—men with high incomes to replace and financial responsibilities. If your field is currently in a rough patch, you've got to do something before something is done to you. You can't eliminate the anxiety that it causes, but you can make sure that if the worst happens, you have a plan. MONEY helps you steer your way out of a career skid with three fast fixes:
FINDING THE RIGHT WORDS: ASKING YOUR FIANCÉ FOR A PRENUP , by Stephen M. Pollan and Mark Levine, page 38 Go gentle into this potential fight: A prenuptial agreement is a tough sell. Just broaching the idea can make you look like you have no confidence in your future mate or marriage. But if this is not your first trip to the altar, you want to make sure that your assets will be protected in case things go wrong. Have the conversation in private, after you've set a date but a few weeks before the ceremony. Your best hope: to induce your beloved to visit a lawyer with you to discuss the arrangement. Here's how.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU'RE IN TOO DEEP , by Carla Fried, page 51 Feeling stretched by housing costs? Then it's time to give yourself a helping hand. Many borrowers who took a short-term low-rate loan or home-equity line of credit a few years ago have seen their payments shoot up by hundreds of dollars a month. And another $1.5 trillion in mortgage debt is up for readjustment this year. If you're among the many homeowners now straining under the weight of a too-big housing payment, you're not doing yourself any favors by ignoring the problem. Instead, try the following strategies to avoid having your home wreck your finances:
SAY GOOD-BYE TO THE BANK OF MOM AND DAD , by Dan Kadlec, page 44 Tired of being your teenagers' ATM? Stop the handouts and put them in charge of managing their own money. Teens, like the rest of us, learn from their mistakes. Once they're on a budget, it's their job to make it work. That means no bailouts, advances or loans. Here are some basics to help sort out your teens' budgets and maybe help you:
PLUS START: Drive Down Your Car Bills: Auto insurance rates are expected to drop in 2007—the first decrease in eight years. Get a Better Deal on College: The right (and wrong) ways to pluck off more financial aid. Behind the Buzz: Windows Vista : MONEY's experts take a look at Microsoft's latest operating system. PLAN: All You Really Need to Know About…HELOC's: A home-equity line of credit (HELOC) works almost like a credit card, only it's secured by your home's equity (the market value minus the mortgage). INVEST : Sivy on Stocks: These Stalwarts Can Protect You from a Bear: Four Sivy 70 stocks have increased profits for 20 years straight. In an uncertain market, you like to see that. Fund Watch: For Do-Good Funds, an Ethical Dilemma: After years of poor returns, some socially responsible funds are changing the rules to boost performance.
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