Simply Junior

There are big headlines on the internet about Social Security being in the red this year. They are paying out MORE than they are getting in this very year. Did you catch that? Not running out of funds in 10 years or 5 years or 2 years, but this very year!

The Congressional Budget Office had issued a report saying that would happen in 2016. WRONG! Between the early retirees and job losses, both due to the downturn in the economy the last few years, there are fewer people paying into the system and more folks receiving benefits.

We’ve all known it was coming, so it shouldn’t be a big surprise, right? But it is one of those huge, major type, awful things that you don’t want to see happen, so you try not to think about it or dwell on it. Humph! And I am hoping to retire within the next 5 years. Guess that will be up in the air. How about you?

It is not all terrible news, but maybe this should serve as THE wake-up call for all of us. There is a surplus which the government has in trust funds. This is currently estimated to last until 2037, although that number will surely be adjusted in the future. The main issue with the trust funds is that the government has borrowed from them to pay for other programs and things they couldn’t pay. So the majority of the funds now reside in IOU’s which will have to be paid back somehow by some other funds from somewhere else. Does this sound promising to you?

Even if they do, by some miracle, find the money to pay back the IOU’s, it is still only estimated to last until 2037. What happens to us when that runs out? What happens to our children when they reach our age? And our children’s children?

What are our options? What are our children’s options? What will work when we all need to retire and still have money to live on? Very few companies still maintain a retirement account for their employees. And let’s face it, who works for the same company for their whole life anymore? That is much more of the rarity than it is the common place. So where will the money come from?

I believe we need to stop thinking the government is going to care for us in our ripe old age. The only ones we can truly depend on to take care of us is ourselves, and maybe other family members. Have we all saved enough money? Woefully, no. By far, the vast majority of people do not have enough money in retirement accounts or savings. So where does that leave us? What can we do?

We need to start up our own retirement funds. How can we do that when we already need most of, or all of, the money to live on? We need to find and capitalize on second jobs or work from home and internet opportunities which do 2 things: pay for themselves and grow a residual income. And since many are short on extra funds, the opportunities need to be cheap. Very cheap.

Would you do something to build a residual “retirement fund” for yourself and your family if it only cost – - let’s say, only cost the price of one dinner in a local restaurant? Or the price of 2 cups of specialty coffee? Or less than the price of 2 movie tickets? And what if it paid for your investment in 1-3 months?

But you don’t think you have the time. You aren’t a salesperson. You don’t want to have to do anything to make money. Well, there are lots of opportunities out there. You just need to find the right one for you. One which costs very little money, takes very little time, sells itself, and can grow a wonderful residual income which you can use for your retirement plan.

What does it take to encourage a child start saving as early as 5 or 6 or perhaps when they start going to school and being exposed to money, may it be paper or coins?

I would say that when kids are encouraged by parents through example, it will not be so difficult to parents to convince their kids to save in the future. When there is initiative in the part of a child to save every penny that is left of the daily allowance, then that will be a sign to parents that their growing kid will be a person who will value money, great or small.

There are banks that have saving programs for kids and the minimum age starts at 6 years old. The best thing here for the kids is, while they are able to save as they are growing and on their way to college it will be easier for them to start on their own by the time that they decide to totally be on their own. This means they do not have to ask a penny from mom and dad, unless of course mom and dad will offer to give help or a surprise in the form of money.

So, how are kids motivated to save early on. We all know that whatever the kids will see their parents do that is what they will also do, sooner or later. So, basically when the kid starts to learn about money and they see their mom, dad or both parents’ attitude about money that subconsciously gets programmed in their minds.

For example, when the kid sees her mom splurges on make up, perfume or expensive clothes and shoes too. Soon when she is probably in college or when she is already earning for herself, she might do the same or perhaps a little bit different.

It would be good that parents would explain about spending and saving. Spending is easy IF you are earning for yourself already. Spending really depends on what you are spending on. Expensive items are supposed to be explained as little rewards after working for a long time. Spending on luxurious things is not a hobby like collecting things. It is okay to spend on luxurious items as long as it will not instantly drain your savings. Saving is the best thing that anybody could do because that would mean we do not have to loan either from banks or even friends. Being able to save is supposed to be one’s pride because it would show others that you are responsible enough to value money.

It’s well-known that the IRS adopts to new technology grudgingly, if at all — the jump to punched cards would still be a long way off if taxpayers didn’t happen to be voters, too. So it should come as no surprise that, even though the IRS allows some online filing, they haven’t made it easy to do your 2007 tax return online. But even if they don’t want it to be convenient, they have made it possible to complete that filing almost entirely via Internet.

The IRS rules are fairly complex, but what they boil down to is straightforward: you can do your current taxes online, with the help and blessing of the tax authorities. But if you want to do any obscure, complex, or late filings, you’ll need to jump through some hoops. If you’ve tried to fill out your 2007 tax return online before, you know what that means: they want you to send in a paper copy, along with another form telling them that the current one is late. It might sound like lots of extra work, but it’s actually quite simple.

Of course, the obvious question is: if I could do my 2007 tax return online when it was due, why can’t I do it now? It’s hard to say for sure — late taxes are already more work-intensive than taxes paid on time, so forcing people to do them on paper only compounds the problem. In fact, this might lead the IRS to collect even less money than they’d usually get, since people might steer clear of the late-filing process altogether. But perhaps the IRS thinks it’s better to make it more inconvenient to do your taxes late: if you can’t file them online, they might think, you’re more inclined to fill out your 2007 tax return right when it’s due.

But your doing your 2007 tax return online isn’t impossible. In fact, many sites make it easy to do your 2007 tax return online, and to complete other required tax forms. If you need to do your 2007 tax return online, you can simply visit a website that specializes in helping people pay taxes after they’re due. Your complete 2007 tax return online is just a few clicks away! Granted, the IRS will make ask you to send them a printed copy – but you can get all the convenience of filling our your 2007 tax return online, with only the cost of printing a few sheets of paper and buying a single stamp.

Doing your 2007 tax return online now that 2008 has come and gone might sound daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. The IRS may not be on your side here (though they’ll still happily collect your money!) but you can use online resources to make the process much easier. Once you get started, you’ll see how fast and efficient tax filing has become. You’ll also be able to see how much someone can contribute by taking a new look at an old problem like taxes. Filing your 2007 tax return online is nearly as easy now as it was on the day it was due.

Poster printing is as much an art as it is a science as well. Print posters can be considered as art, individual, creative and free, but they are also bound by theories of beauty, aesthetics, proportion and other concepts that are science-like. So it comes as to no surprise that there are a couple of basic formulas on the layout design when it comes to poster printing. Human psychology and perception play a big role in defining these common layouts making them attractive, easy to understand and effective in advertising.

Below are a few of the common layouts that you can consider adhering to when creating your color poster design. Using these layouts should help your design become as attractive and as effective as possible when dealing with a human audience.

The Wanted Poster – Some Poster artists may not be aware of it, but most poster designs gravitate to a “wanted poster” layout or a similar variation of it. The “wanted poster” layout basically has the main poster title or header on top, the main design object in the middle and then the other details of the poster at the bottom. If you can imagine an old western style wanted poster, you should have a pretty good idea of what the layout should look like.

This layout is one of the most common and best layouts for poster printing because it is the easiest to notice and it is also the easiest to read. The big header text immediately draws our attention to it (i.e. WANTED!). Then, most of us have the tendency to look downwards, just like you are ascertaining a person. Looking down from the header, we see the main poster image which will attract us further. This causes us to look for supporting text typically by looking downwards more. Once we read the text and other details, the poster’s work is done. As you can see, all the relevant information is given to the viewer in a step by step process making the color poster easier to understand. This makes the wanted poster layout the ideal layout for most poster printing occasions.

The Streamer Poster – A streamer layout for a poster basically involves stacking up all the poster details in one central column. This includes the main header or title, and all the supporting details. Typically the main object is relegated to the background or it is placed at the bottom of the stream. Again this follows the human tendency to look from up to down as we look at something. The difference here is that the layout relies on the text details itself to keep a person’s attention.

The Framing poster – As the layout’s name suggest, the framing poster has a “framed” layout. This can be done by actual frames on some or on all four sides of the poster. However, the frame can also be a person, tree or other object which frames the poster artistically. Framed posters will center people’s attentions on the center of the design. If you have a great centerpiece in your design, then this layout may be a good choice.

The Column/row Poster – The column and row poster layout is typically used in informative posters, such as scientific research posters, or awareness posters. Their layout basically involves content that are organized into rows or columns. This caters to our tendency to read text in books or newspapers. Basically we read these types of printed material either left to right by rows or top to bottom by columns. If you are creating an informative poster, this layout is the most efficient to display your data so that people can read them well.

As you can see, with just the top 4 common layouts for posters, you can already manage to create a lot of types and designs. Of course these are just major guidelines in a layout, and you can make a few changes to them to make your poster more unique, or you can completely throw them out the window and make a layout from scratch. However, take note of how these layouts are effective because they take into account how humans view and read posters. So learn what you can, and design the best layout for your full color poster printing.