Yesterday morning I got home from my aikido class and got on my computer. I was running agonizingly slow. I thought maybe one of the processes was running out of control, sucking up resources. So I was trying to shut down Outlook Express, etc. Even shutting stuff down was slow. I finally just unplugged the machine, and then plugged it back in. I couldn’t get my machine to boot up. I started getting a screen at the very benning saying “Primary master hard disk S.M.A.R.T status bad. WARNING: Immediate back-up your data and replace your hard disk drive. A failure may be imminent.” How scary is a message like that? I tried to boot the machine up in safe mode, but no luck. I chose an option saying something about booting up in last known good configuration of something. It ran chkdisk, and was trying to fix issues, but was having problems. One of the last things it said was that it was unable to save $MFS. I did a search found the $MFS is the master file system. So it basically erased my hard drive.
I couldn’t find my original CDs for the eMachines computer. I had another Windows XP cd though. I reformatted the hard drive. I chose the quick option. It then tried to install Windows XP on the machine, but died shortly into the install saying it couldn’t save files. I reformatted the HD again, this time not the quick. I gotr farther in the install before it died. I was still getting the Primary Master Hard Disk SMART Status Bad message. So I figured the drive was toast.
I looked around online at Circuit City and Staples, both of which are nearby. I figured I could get a 160 gig hard drive for around $100. Later, my wife and I headed to Officemax (also nearby), and found a Western Digital 160gig HD for $120. She had a corporate discount card, but I didn’t think it would drop the price much. We headed over to Circuit City. I found a Western Digital 250 gig HD for $120 with a $50 mail in rebate (final cost about $70). So I bought it and brought it home. The install was easy. I like the way the eMachines computer is set up on the inside. I removed a couple thumb screws and the side panel came off. I remove one screw, and the drive cage came out. I unscrewed 4 little screws, removed the old drive, slid in the new drive, screwed it in place. I reinstalled the cage, and then transferred the cables from the old drive to the new one. I put everything back together, reconnected the cables to the back, and was on my way.
I formatted the new HD, and installed Windows XP. The machine worked fine, but I couldn’t access my network. It was like WinXP didn’t see my network card. I then found the CDs that came with the eMachines computer in the first place. There were three CDs with an exact image of the original machine as it came from the store. It use Symantec Ghost. I used these to install the machine, and it reformatted the HD, and installed the stuff. When I booted the machine, it worked great including the network interface. Then I spent hours updating the OS, and Norton Antivirus stuff, reinstalling software, etc. Fortunatly, I had backed up a bunch of stuff a week ago to an external harddrive. I still lost a lot:emails, bookmarks, etc.
Today, I was going to fill out the mail in rebate, and found that the yutz at Circuit City, had printed my wife’s name on the reciept and rebate forms. Same address, different name. I don’t look like a Helen. My credit card doesn’t say Helen! So, hopefully, I will get back up there tonight, and have them reprint the stuff with my name! Not that I couldn’t have mailed the stuff in, and gotten a check in my wife’s name. But it is annoying.
My computer is my business! I make a lot of money with that computer. So spending the money to get it up and running kind of sucks, but it is a necessary evil! It is an investment. I use my laptop computer too, but the desktop is easier to type on, and has a real mouse, and had all of my data on it, etc.
How do I rollover a 401k into an IRA? If you leave your job, you have a number of things you can do with your 401k.
The absolute dumbest thing you can do is cash it out. Because if you take the money, you have to pay taxes on the money, and more than likely you will have to pay a 10% penalty. You also diminish your retirement savings.
If you have at least $5000, the law says your employer has to let you leave it there if you want.
OR…you can rollover your 401k into an IRA or another 401k.
If this is what you choose to do, then you want make sure you NEVER touch the money! You need to do a trustee-to-trustee transfer. You would need to contact the company that runs your IRA plan to initiate this. That is the safest easiest way.
Another ugly option would be to have the your previous company write you a check. But they will withhold 20% for income taxes. You will get the 20% back when you file your income taxes. But the problem is that in the meantime, you are required to deposit 100% of the balance from your previous employers 401k plan into the new account within 60 days. But since the IRS is holding 20%, you only have 80% of the balance. You would have to come up with the remain 20% to deposit into the new account, or pay taxes and penalties on the missing 20%.
Ouch!
401k plan rollovers can be tricky! Be careful. Talk to the plan admistrators, and make sure you understand your choices!
There is a book titled How To Make A Fortune On The Stock Markets by Samuel Blankson. It apparently discusses Fibonacci, Elliot Wave analysis, Candlestick Charting, MACD and Moving Averages, yadda, yadda, yadda. That stuff is called technical analysis. Technical analysis is an oxymoron, because it is neither technical analysis. Anyone can look at a chart after the fact, point to features on the chart and say the stock went up because of this or that. I have read some stuff about different people following the same technical analysis principles, look at the same charts, and come up with different conclusions.
I will tell you how to make a fortune on the stock markets. Start investing as early as possible. Start now. Invest frequently (buying, not selling). Increase your investments over time. Diversify. I recommend investing in funds. I like funds. I have mutual funds in my 401k. I have exchange traded funds (ETFs) in my Roth IRA. Funds are making me rich! It is hard to pick the right stock. Pick the wrong one, you lose money. If you buy a fund, chances are 1/3rd of the companies in it will lose money. But the good news it that the other 2/3rds will make money. So open an account now. Buy some general funds. Large cap, small cap, mid cap, S&P 500, whatever. Invest some into your funds every month. Keep buying. Don’t sell! If the funds drop, that is okay! Keep buying! Because now you are getting more shares for your money! If you buy a stock, and it is dropping, you don’t know how far it will drop. If you buy a fund like the S&P 500 that is made up if hundreds of solid growing campanies, you know it will go up! Meanwhile keep buying those cheaper shares!
THAT is how to make a fortune on the stock markets!
I just got up, and flipped on the TV. There was an infomercial for something called John Beck’s Free and Clear System. It looks like it’s the same kind of thing that I saw Wayne Gray selling at the Millionaire Conference. Basically, you are buying tax liens and tax deeds. Yeah, I think a lot of money can be made buying tax liens and tax deeds. But I don’t think it is nearly as easy as what they make it out to be. On the John Beck infomercial, they are showing all kinds of houses that were bought for pennies on the dollars. They don’t tell you that the process to get these houses may have taken years, and that these types of deals are few and far between. You will be competing against a lot of other people for the tax liens and tax deeds. If there is a mortgage on the home, you will be competing against the bank. The bank is not going to lose the home to taxes if there is much of a balance on it.
Also, keep in mind that some of these homes may not be in the greatest shape. Can you imagine how well someone will take care of a house if they are about to lose it to taxes?
And besides tax liens and tax deeds on houses, and lots, there will be tax liens and tax deeds on worthless pieces of property. Worthless property? Imagine a drainage ditch. What are you going to do with a drainage ditch? How about a strip of property 100 feet long, and 3 feet wide? What can you do with that? You probably won’t be able to sell them. So can you figure out now why these are being picked for the taxes? Imagine owning something that you can’t use or sell, but you have have to pay taxes on anyway.
There are deals out there, but you need to know what you are doing. You must also be willing to do a lot studying, and digging through tax liens and tax deeds for those few gems.
Before you invest the money in John Beck’s system, you might want to buy a few books on the subject. It will give you a bit of background on the process, and allow you to make an educated decision.
Books about Tax Liens:
Profit by Investing in Real Estate Tax Liens : Earn Safe, Secured, and Fixed Returns Every Time by Larry B. Loftis
Make Money in Real Estate Tax Liens : How To Guarantee Your Return Up To 50% by Chantal Howell Carey and Bill Carey
The Complete Guid to Investing in Real Estate Tax Liens & Deeds: How to Earn High Rates of Return - Safely by Jamaine Burrell
Tax Lien$ by Michael Pellegrino
The “You Can Do It” Guide to Success in Tax Lien and Tax Deed Investing, Vol. 1 by Lillian Villanova
The “You Can Do It” Guide to Success in Tax Lien and Tax Deed Investing, Vol. 2 by Lillian Villanova
The 16% Solution How To Get Interest Rates by Joel S. Moskowitz
Tax Lien Certificates: A Little Known Government Program That Can Make You Financially Independent by Jim Yocom
Winning with…Real Estate Tax Sales: An Investor’s Guide to Real Estate Tax Lien and Tax Deed Sales by S Hennin and SK Kenney
Tax & Liens Auctions: The Ultimate Guide for Investors by Natalia Foley
How to Buy New Jersey Tax Liens that earn 18% by Merlin B. Coslick
Real Estate for Pennies!: Investing in Property Tax Liens for Profit and Property/Based on Colorado Real Estate Law by Ed C. Tomlinson
Property tax lien foreclosure: Forms and procedures by William A Campbell
Federal Tax Collections, Liens, and Levies by William D. Elliott
College is expensive. If you want to pay for your child’s college education, you would be well off to start saving early. Since you have 17 or 18 years, time is on your side. Take advantage of the time to let your college investment funds to grow.
If you start investing the day the baby is born, at 10%, $1000 will grow to $5000. And you need all the growth you can get. As college time approaches, you will want to start moving funds to more conservative investments. Just like any other investing, you want to diversify your investments.
You should also look into section 529 plans. There are couple different kinds of section 529 plans. One is a tax exempt savings account, and the other is a prepaid tuition plan. The prepaid tuition plan locks in future tutuion rates which might be good since colleges seem to raise rates faster than cost of living increases. Tuitions seem to rise as the economy goes down. This is because the states reduce college support. So as your investments fall in value, an college tuitions increase, the prepaid tuition plan becomes a great deal.
But if you think you can invest well, and increase your money, you might want to look at the tax exempt savings account. So while the prepaid tuition plan locks in tuition rates, the tax exempt plan doesn’t But the tax exempt plan has the potential to grow faster.
The money in the section 529 plans in controlled by the account owner. So if the child decides not to go to college, they wont have access to the money as they might with a UGMA account.