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QuickBooks Pro w/Enhanced Payroll 1-3 Employees 2010

QuickBooks Pro w/Enhanced Payroll 1-3 Employees 2010From: Intuit
Category: Software

List Price: $299.95
Buy New: $189.99
as of 9/8/2010 11:54 CDT details
You Save: $109.96 (37%)



New (26) from $189.99

Seller: Amazon.com
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars 15 reviews
Sales Rank: 85

Format: CD-ROM
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Pro
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Number Of Items: 1
Operating System: Windows Vista
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 11 x 7.5 x 2

MPN: 409615
Model: 409615
UPC: 028287024205
EAN: 0028287024205
ASIN: B002KIJOUM

Release Date: October 10, 2009
Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Features:
   Bundles QuickBooks Pro 2010 and QuickBooks Payroll Enhanced for 1-3 Employees
   Easily organize and maintain your business finances, all in one place
   Automatically calculate payroll taxes and create paychecks in just a few clicks
   Save time and money by tracking every dollar going in and out of your business
   Easily add more employees as your business grows

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
QB Pro 2010 w/ QB Enhanced '

Amazon.com Product Description
The most popular version of America's #1 small business financial software helps make your business more profitable. New features show you exactly where your business stands and saves you time to focus on your business: organize your finances all in one place; manage and customer, vendor, and employee data; save money-track every dollar in and out; know where your business stands with real-time reports. Bundled with Intuit Quickbooks Payroll Enhanced--complete your entire payroll in just a few clicks so you can get back to business.

Intuit QuickBooks Pro 2010

Easily print checks, pay bills & track expenses. Click to enlarge.

Track sales, sales taxes & customer payments. Click to enlarge.

Manage payroll & payroll taxes and offer Direct Deposit. Click to enlarge.

Save time when tracking your finances

Easily print checks, pay bills & track expenses
Easily print checks, pay bills & track expenses. Aggregate all your checks to be paid and print them in one batch. QuickBooks will keep track of each check so you can keep tabs on where your money is going. Enter bills from vendors. Since QuickBooks organizes everything in one place, you'll be able to access all past payments & bills for each vendor with just a few clicks.

Track sales, sales taxes & customer payments
Get rid of piles of paperwork. Easily enter customer payments. Since QuickBooks organizes everything in one place, you'll be able to access all past payments for each customer with just a few clicks.

Manage payroll & payroll taxes; offer Direct Deposit (sold separately)
Intuit QuickBooks Payroll Services, QuickBooks Payroll for Mac powered by PayCycle, and Payroll for QuickBooks Online save you time by eliminating steps and giving you the tools to get your payroll done right.

Create professional-looking invoices and forms
Select from Free professional designs to create a distinct look for your business across all your invoices, statements, and other forms. Apply across all your forms at once.

E-mail estimates, invoices, reports, and more
Create customer communications and e-mail directly from your QuickBooks using Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express using your existing e-mail address.

Organize and back-up documents by attaching them to your QuickBooks records
Document Management lets you save time by attaching any electronic or scanned document--to any customer, vendor, employee, account, or transaction.

Accept credit and debit cards right in QuickBooks
Process credit card approvals right in your QuickBooks software. If you use Intuit QuickBooks Merchant Services, the data is automatically recorded in QuickBooks when you make a sale. And, it has no teaser rates, no hidden fees, no cancellation fees, and no long-term contracts.

Scan and deposit your checks with Intuit Check Solution for QuickBooks (subscription required)
Easily scan and deposit your checks into QuickBooks with Intuit Check Solution for QuickBooks. Subscription required; scanner sold separately.

Track time, mileage, and expenses to bill clients
Record time and expenses by client job so you can easily stay on top of your projects. From there, it's easy to invoice clients in a few clicks so you won't miss any billable time and expenses.

Allow multiple users to work in QuickBooks at the same time. Click to enlarge.

Import data from Excel, Quicken, Microsoft Office Accounting & prior QuickBooks versions. Click to enlarge.

Get insights so you make better decisions

Allow multiple users to work in QuickBooks at the same time*
Multiple-user functionality enables more than one person to work on a company file at the same time, increasing collaboration and productivity. It ensures that all users are working on the most up-to-date data.

*QuickBooks Pro and Premier: Requires purchase of a license for each additional user. All copies of QuickBooks must be the same version-year.

One-click business reports
Get pre-designed, customizable business reports to gain insights into your business. See all available reports in one screen to easily choose the right one. Drill down with one click to see the detail behind the numbers. Export any report to Excel--your QuickBooks formatting and formulas go with it. Access industry-specific reports in QuickBooks Premier and Enterprise Solutions.

Import data from Excel, Quicken, Microsoft Office Accounting & prior QuickBooks versions
Get up and running fast by importing data from the tool you use to track your finances now. However little or much data you currently have, you won't have to start over from scratch.

Track inventory, set reorder points & create purchase orders
Easily track your inventory to avoid overbuying and backorders. Indicate re-order points for each inventory good and turn on reminders to automatically let you know when its time to reorder.

Download your bank & credit transactions into QuickBooks
Save time and avoid data entry errors. Instead of typing in your bank and credit card transactions, download them securely from over 3000 participating financial institutions and easily import them into QuickBooks. Learn More

Get an immediate view into your bottom line all in one page with Company Snapshot
Stay on top of your business by customizing your Company Snapshot. Choose at-a-glance reports of yearly expenses and income, expense and income details, and top customers.

Track international sales & expenses in multiple currencies
QuickBooks supports all global currencies and does all the currency calculations for you. You can even download exchange rates or do wire transfers from right in QuickBooks.

The QuickBooks Coach guides you step by step, so you can learn how to use QuickBooks features faster and explore QuickBooks as you enter your data. Click to enlarge.

Learn QuickBooks Quickly with built-in tutorials. Click to enlarge.

Help functionality allows you to find the information you need quickly and easily. Click to enlarge.

Learn how to do common tasks in the QuickBooks Learning Center. Click to enlarge.

Connect with other QuickBooks users and experts to get help and share ideas. Click to enlarge.

Easily Get Started

Import Data from Excel
Excel templates make it easy for you to import your existing customers, vendors, or product information into QuickBooks. You can also assign each column in your existing Excel spreadsheet to a corresponding QuickBooks column. Save these settings to use again the next time you want to pull in data. You can even preview your data before you transfer it.

Import Data from Quicken, Peachtree, and Microsoft Office Accounting
Access the Quicken conversion tool in QuickBooks to convert your data from Quicken 1998 through 2007. If you are currently running your business using Peachtree 2001-2008, Microsoft Small Business Accounting 2006, and Microsoft Office Accounting/Office Accounting Express, you can also easily convert your data into QuickBooks 2010.We've created a special site to provide conversion tools and information to help you easily move from your current accounting software to QuickBooks. Visit our Switcher center.

Get Set Up and Running Quickly
Answer a few basic questions, and get a customized setup you can change at any time.

Step-by-step Coaching for New Users to Help you Learn QuickBooks Faster
Get up to speed on QuickBooks easily. The QuickBooks Coach guides you step by step, so you can learn how to use QuickBooks features faster and explore QuickBooks as you enter your data.

Learn QuickBooks Quickly with Built-in Tutorials
Learn QuickBooks skills as you need them – in your own time, at your own pace. The built-in Learning Center offers short tutorials on basic and advanced features to help you get the most out of QuickBooks.

Upgrade your QuickBooks Effortlessly
Easily transfer your existing data file into QuickBooks 2010. Your company file and preferences will transfer automatically. In just a few steps, you can start working in QuickBooks using your information, including customer lists, vendor lists, balances, and inventory lists.

Get Help When You Need It

Find Answers Fast
Help functionality allows you to find the information you need quickly and easily. You'll find answers to most questions in QuickBooks in-product, onscreen Help. Type a question, choose from a list of topics, or search by keyword.

Connect with Other QuickBooks Users and Experts to Get Help and Share Ideas
Connect with a vibrant community of QuickBooks users, QuickBooks experts, accountants, and Intuit employees. Instant access to a wealth of questions and answers to assist with QuickBooks and small business problems.5

QuickBooks Pro Reports

With QuickBooks reports, you'll always know where your business stands. See who owes you money and how much. Find out who your best customers are and what they're buying. Learn where your business is profitable and where you're losing money. You can also customize report templates to best meet your needs.
  • Profit & Loss Standard
    How much money did my company make or lose over a specific period of time?
  • Company Snapshot
    Get an immediate view into your bottom line all in one page--tailored to your business. Choose the at-a-glance reports that are most important to you- including new reports for yearly expenses and income comparisons, detailed expense and income breakdown, and a top customer list.
  • Inventory Stock Status by Vendor
    What is the detailed information about each inventory item, organized by vendor?
  • Purchases by Item Summary
    For each item or service, how many has my company bought, and what is the total amount spent?
  • A/P Aging Detail
    Which bills are due and overdue?
  • Profit & Loss Budget Performance
    How do the actual income and expenses compare to what has been budgeted for the current month and year?
  • Statement of Cash Flows
    What was the cash inflow (from profit and additional cash received) and cash outflow (cash spent) during a specific period of time?
  • Income Tax Detail
    What transactions make up each amount on my company's income tax forms?

Self-Help Resources

Find Answers Fast with QuickBooks In-Product Help
Help functionality allows you to find the information you need quickly and easily. You'll find answers to most questions in QuickBooks in-product, onscreen Help. Type a question, choose from a list of topics, or search by keyword.

Learn to Complete Common Tasks in QuickBooks Learning Center
Learn how to do common tasks by watching interactive, in-product tutorials in the QuickBooks Learning Center. Learn how to record sales, bill customers, generate reports, and more.

Get Step-by-Step Coaching for New Users
Get up to speed on QuickBooks easily. The new QuickBooks Coach guides you step by step, so you can learn how to use QuickBooks features faster and explore QuickBooks as you enter your data.

Connect with Other QuickBooks Users and Experts to Get Help and Share Ideas
Connect with a vibrant community of QuickBooks users, QuickBooks experts, accountants, and Intuit employees. Instant access to a wealth of questions and answers to assist with QuickBooks and small business problems.

Get free Access to Our Support Website with Thousands of Answers
Visit the QuickBooks Support Website to search and browse thousands of detailed Support Topics and Frequently Asked Questions.

Get Personalized Help from QuickBooks Support Experts
Live technical support is available on a per-call basis or as part of a QuickBooks Support Plan Support Plans offer much more than just tech support! They include data protection services like online backup and data recovery to help protect your important QuickBooks information. Plus, they provide 24/7 access to trained support experts for an unlimited number of questions and issues,3,4 as well as tools to help you learn how to use QuickBooks and manage your business more efficiently. Fees apply.

Find a Local Accounting Professional
Find a certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor who can help you get set up and provide accounting advice tailored to your business.


Intuit QuickBooks Payroll Enhanced

Complete your entire payroll in just a few clicks so you can get back to business. Manage payroll in just 3 easy steps.

Manage payroll in just 3 easy steps.

  1. Create paychecks in just a few clicks
  2. Enhanced Payroll automatically calculates payroll taxes, use E-Pay for no additional cost
  3. Enhanced Payroll instantly generates federal and state tax forms for you, use E-File for no additional cost

Easily manage payroll yourself within QuickBooks. Enhanced Payroll helps with your three key payroll jobs:

1) Easily pay employees

  • Simply enter employees' hours in QuickBooks and with just a few clicks, Enhanced Payroll automatically calculates earnings, payroll taxes and deductions for you.
  • Easily print paychecks yourself, or use convenient Direct Deposit (additional fees apply).

2) Instantly calculate payroll taxes

  • Enhanced Payroll instantly calculates federal and state payroll taxes for you. It helps keep track of what you owe and reminds you when and how much to pay. You can easily write a check or pay your federal and state payroll taxes electronically with E-Pay at no extra cost.
  • Intuit Payroll's team of compliance professionals works with tax authorities to help keep your payroll tax rates accurate and up-to-date.

3) Confidently handle tax forms

  • Enhanced Payroll automatically fills in the latest federal and most state payroll tax forms for you - just print, sign, and mail. Or, conveniently file federal and state payroll tax forms electronically with E-File at no extra cost.

Get started quickly with an easy step-by-step setup guide. Click to enlarge.

Create paychecks in just a few clicks. Click to enlarge.

Keep track of when payroll tax payments are due. Click to enlarge.

Confidently handle tax forms. Click to enlarge.

Easily pay employees within QuickBooks and handle your own federal and state payroll taxes and filings.

Get started quickly

  • Get started quickly with our easy step-by-step setup guide

Easily pay employees

  • Create paychecks in just a few clicks: Enhanced Payroll automatically calculates earnings, payroll taxes and deductions for you
  • Easily print paychecks yourself, or use convenient Direct Deposit (additional fees apply)
  • Stay current on federal and state payroll tax rates with automatic updates in QuickBooks
  • Run customizable reports anytime to see how payroll affects your bottom line

Instantly pay payroll taxes

  • Instantly calculate federal and state payroll taxes
  • Keep track of when payroll tax payments are due
  • Easily pay your federal and state payroll taxes electronically with E-Pay at no extra cost

Confidently handle tax forms

  • Enhanced Payroll automatically fills in the latest federal and most state payroll tax forms for you--just print, sign, and mail
  • Conveniently file your federal and state payroll tax forms electronically with E-File for no extra cost

Get help when you need it

  • Get free callback support from our payroll specialists, even choose a time that is convenient for you
  • Receive 24/7 access to our online Payroll Answer Center

Run payroll within QuickBooks

  • Enhanced Payroll works within QuickBooks so you don't have to enter the same data twice

There are several ways to get assistance when you need it.

In-Product Help
Many of your needs can be met from within your QuickBooks software. Easily take care of some activities any day, at any time. Examples of in-product activities include the following:

  • Updating your credit card number, expiration date or billing information
  • Changing to a higher level of service
  • Adding another company file to your subscription
  • Resolving issues related to updating or downloading payroll updates

To read the instructions for performing these activities and many others, press the F1 (Help) key while you're in QuickBooks to bring up the QuickBooks Help page. Enter your question in the search field or click the Index tab and type the keywords you want to find.

Online Help
Online support provides assistance when you need it, so you can get back to running your business. Go to http://payroll.intuit.com/support. Bookmark this URL as a favorite--we think you will find it most useful.

Payroll Answer Center
Our Payroll Answer Center (PAC) answers your questions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Give it a try! Go to usepayroll.com/pac.

QuickBooks Community
The QuickBooks Community site is a great place to find answers from other QuickBooks users. Learn more tips and tricks for operating payroll at QuickBooks Community.

Phone Support
If you need a payroll specialist to assist you with a payroll question, you can receive support Monday through Friday, 6 A.M. to 6 P.M., Pacific Time. You can either schedule an appointment or call us.

  • Schedule an appointment. To arrange for a service appointment with a payroll specialist at no charge, go to QuickBooks.com/contactme and choose Payroll for the product you would like help with. You will be asked for your federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) and one or two pieces of identifying information. Then you can select a convenient time for us to call you at no charge. Or you can choose to have us call as soon as possible, usually within 30 minutes.
  • Call us. For immediate payroll phone support, call us Monday through Friday, 6 A.M. to 6 P.M., Pacific Time and wait for the next available agent. Click here for phone numbers: http://payroll.intuit.com/contact.jsp




Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15



5 out of 5 stars Just what I needed!   September 5, 2010
James
I called intuit diretly and they siad it would be 199.99 for payroll anlone with my 50 discount. I highly recommend you buy this set!


4 out of 5 stars QB is a good Product - They own the market for a reason...   August 27, 2010
Polemicuss (New York City)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I have to add my two cents on the raging debat about quickbooks. First and foremost, yes I purchased it as a small first time business owner and this has been my impression so far:

- People are screaming about only being able to use the product for 3 years - these seem to me like the people who buy a lucky t-shirt and want to keep it for 10 years. 3 Years is an eternity in technology and you are paying 150 or 200 bucks for a business application ... that is like 40 dollars a year, yeah Intuit is becoming rich off of you... you probably spend more in Statbucks than on Quickbooks - you are running a business for christ sake... get over it and cough up the cheap price of admission... it probably saved you thousands already in an audit. Should Intuit give you free bank downloads for life for a couple hundred bucks???
- Enough already about bashing the product - simple fact is MS fell out of the race and Quickbooks owns the market. If you are using an accountant - probably 90% of them are using quickbooks you will save time at tax time since they can read your files. It is an excellent product than single owner businesses use and also 200m companies use. You can talk about freeware or peachtree (complicated) or if you want real business osftware go buy MS dynamics/xapta or oracle or sap at about $50k - $200k... Wuickbooks is a bargain
- Enough already that they are trying to sell you stuff. I read all the horror stories and was ready to fight when I registered the product... My registration call was quick, professional and they asked me two meager questions to upsell me merchant services and payroll (already have it in the bundle) and that was it. I am in sales and I hate being sold more than anyone but I was surpirsed how professional, quick and efficient the call is so that myth is completely busted.

So I am not ever compelled to write a review unless I think someone got it completely wrong... in this case the naysayers did. Yes it is intimidating for the novice users like me to setup becasue you dont understand accounting... you dont understand a P&L and debits/credits and double entry, etc. Well you need to learn it or use spreadsheets or hire an accountant to charge you a couple hundred a year to do your books. But Quickbooks does what it is supposed to do and in my opinion (may be blasphemy here) is a great value, dare I say cheap for all the functionality it provides managing your business...



5 out of 5 stars never received this item   July 31, 2010
shel
Beware, when you purchase over the internet you may not be able to select a shipper. The US Mail does not ship to all addresses. please inform the shipper if you are concerned about US mail delivery. If you reveive mail at a PO Box you will not receive goods shipped via US mail to your street address. The post office considers your address vacant. Although US mail wants to compete with UPS and FEDEX they do not follow the same rules.

i have been using QuickBooks to run my business since 1997. It is the best program for small business. i ended up purchasing at a local retailer for $30 less than Amazon.



4 out of 5 stars Quick Books Payroll Kit   June 29, 2010
Bob
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This product was just what we were looking for. Three days after placing the order we were loading the software on our computer. It takes a little time to figure out but is now going to save us a lot of time & money when doing our payroll.


3 out of 5 stars OK for general use   June 24, 2010
Scooter Girl (Seattle, WA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Quickbooks is OK for general use. It becomes more difficult to work with when you have more industry specific items to work with sometimes. I would like to see a longer Item List description. Part numbers can be very long sometimes and it doesn't leave room for a text description.

Intuit also takes your credit card info and automatically renews your payroll subscription without your permission. You can't shut off the auto renew either. You have to call them after you find out that they have charged you and ask for a refund. They also set up a charge twice so that you have two authorizations holding your money for several days. They may only run one charge but they authorize it twice.

Overall they have the market for a general small business accounting system. I'd like to see something else with better pricing but I understand that they are all similar. Quickbooks basically does the job. For the price I guess it is OK. Industry specific software for our industry costs $5000-7000. So I use Quickbooks for the time being until it is worth us spending that kind of money and making our life mush easier.


Showing reviews 1-5 of 15


Worthwhile Reading

Expectations Versus Reality in Retirement
By Marc Cram

As we baby boomers approach retirement many of us have started to take a much closer look at what we will need in the form of assets if we are to live to the age of 80 and beyond. Most of us have been very focused on accumulation of assets up to this point and may not have stopped to consider what the future outcomes might look like.

We all have had expectations of what our accounts might look like and some of us have had those expectations dashed by market corrections or other financial setbacks. I think it is time that we took a close look at what other expectations we have for the future versus what reality might spring upon us. If we are to be successful in our own retirements we should move toward it with our eyes wide open and our plans firmly in place.

What follows is a short examination of five areas that each of us should prepare for and a few ideas that might help you improve your chances of success. Some of this might appear to be doomsday like but I think we will all be better off if we prepare for the worst while expecting the best, so let’s dig in.

Expectation #1: The stock market will continue to provide above average returns well into the next decade.

We know that investing in the stock market has produced the best chance of growing our assets at rates that beat inflation and other fixed money instruments over time. If you stay invested you will always get the average market return for the period you are in the market.

One thing we can say for sure about the markets, though, is that they will never go straight up or straight down. We tend to see periods of growth and periods of stagnation. In the short-term no one can predict whether you will make or lose money but we know that over the long term (10 plus years) you will get whatever the markets return.

The danger for us going forward is that when we start taking income from our investments, every negative year will shorten the lifespan of our potential income stream by as much as 5 years or more. If we want to live comfortably to ages of 85 or 90 we will need more predictable returns than those odds will give us. Are you willing to bet that the markets will perform the way you want them to when you get ready to retire? I don’t think any of us is willing to take that bet and that is why more and more of us are looking for instruments that will guarantee us a minimum return and lifetime income streams with the money we already have accumulated. A little research on your part should yield some good choices for those assets you can’t afford to lose.

Expectation #2: I will be in lower tax bracket when I retire.

I am sure you have been told this by every planner or investment professional you have ever talked to. They all encouraged you to fully fund your IRAs and 401ks because of the current tax deductions and the tax deferred growth with the promise that when you retired you will be in a lower tax bracket. I have conducted seminars for over 5 years now where I ask the question of my audience, “do you think future tax rates will be lower, the same or higher”? I can count on one hand the number of people who said lower or the same. When you look at our country’s current level of debt along with the future liabilities for our major entitlement programs (which we will look at next) I think you too will be hard pressed to think your taxes will even stay the same going forward, let alone reduce.

Whatever your current tax bracket is, can you imagine living on less than you are today? If your income stays the same and your deductions disappear because your kids are gone and your home is paid off, what chance do you have to reduce your tax burden? The reality is that during a 20 year retirement, if you have accumulated all of your retirement assets in tax-deferred accounts, you will pay 10 times more in taxes than you saved in taxes over your lifetime, assuming no tax increase. Every increase in taxes going forward will mean you will need to take more money out of your savings to maintain the same lifestyle.

One way to solve this dilemma is to start funding a private tax-free retirement plan using an insurance product that is linked to a market index and designed to provide maximum cash accumulation with a minimum death benefit. This product is known as equity indexed universal life. Here again, a little research on your part will reveal multiple, high quality companies that currently offer these products.

Expectation # 3: I can count on Medicare and Social Security to be there for me like it was for my parents.

The reality is that both of these programs are in trouble and will only get worse as the 80 million baby boomers enter retirement. Ask anyone under the age of 40 if they think Social Security will be there for them and you will soon see that this reality is already well entrenched in our culture. The facts are that 60% of current retirees say that 50% of their income currently comes from Social Security, 34% say that it is 90% of their income and 22% say that it is 100% of their income.

By one account, it is predicted that by 2019 Medicare will consume 24% of all tax receipts and by 2042 it will consume 51% of all taxes collected.1 If you think universal health care will solve this problem, you must realize that Medicare is a form of universal health care and anything that will replace it will be burdened by the same reality of baby boomers living much longer in retirement than their parents ever did.

As for Social Security, it is predicted that the Social Security trust fund will begin be tapped into in 2018 and be completely depleted by 2044.2 If we had made changes to this program years ago we might have been able to extend it but I don’t see any congress willing to touch this problem until it is too late.

The bottom line is that benefits will need to go down, we will need to wait longer to be eligible and taxes will need to go up to pay for the massive increases in cost that will result from the higher usage figures projected. We are going to have to become responsible for our own retirement planning and should these promised benefits materialize for us we should feel lucky if we can plan an extra night on the town every month.

Expectation #4: I will live to my normal life expectancy.

This might well be true but then you must ask yourself, what is my life expectancy? When Social Security was instituted the average time spent in retirement was 3 years. Many of us today will spend 20 to 30 years in retirement. Statistically speaking, if you are a single male age 65 you have a 50% chance you will live to age 85 and a 25% chance to live to 92. If you are a single female age 65 you have a 50% chance you will live to 88 and 25% you will live to 94. If you are a married couple age 65 one of you has a 50% chance to live to 92 and a 25% to live to 97.

If these numbers don’t get you thinking about how long you will need for your money to last consider this. One of the fastest growing age groups in the United States are those people over the age of 100. There are currently over 27,000 people over 100 and that number is sure to grow as the baby boomers begin to age.

Expectation # 5: I will stay healthy well into my final years.

There is no doubt about it; we are much more conscious of our health and taking care of our bodies and minds than any generation in the history of the world. We are finding new ways to combat disease and to stave off illness as well as to treat conditions that would have killed us only a generation ago. However, all of this has come at a price and that price needs to be calculated into our future income needs.

According to a study by Fidelity Investments, a retired couple without employer-sponsored health insurance can expect to pay $215,000 for out-of-pocket health care costs like premiums and co-pays. Moreover, this number does not include significant costs like long-term care, which isn't fully covered by Medicare. These numbers also assume you live to your life expectancy and not beyond. Last year these costs rose by 7.5% and we do not know what kind of increases we may see in the years ahead. As we have outlined above, Medicare costs could easily rise by double digits in the next 20 years.

If we add in home health care and long-term care into this equation we can easily double the numbers above and put a further strain on our already over taxed retirement funds. One thing you can do about potential long-term care needs is to purchase a long-term care policy from one of the many experts in this field. What you can do to prepare

The numbers aren’t pretty but there is no need to despair. Whether you have years to prepare for retirement or you are already there you can create a plan to succeed and prosper in your own retirement. To summarize let’s go over the realities again:

• Investment directly into stock market investments can leave you at the mercy of the markets and geopolitical events. You will need to be in investments that can give you predictable returns without the threat of market downturns.

• Taxes will probably be going up over the next few years and into your retirement. It would be best to use your tax-deferred retirement plans early in your retirement and it may be prudent to move them to tax-free instruments at your earliest opportunity.

• Government entitlement programs will take a larger and larger share of the tax revenue in the future and future benefits may well be reduced or eliminated. Start taking responsibility of your future income needs by using instruments that can give you market based growth in a tax-free environment.

• Plan to outlive your own life expectancy. Create plans that will provide income streams you cannot outlive. There are many instruments on the market today that provide living income benefits you cannot outlive and that can be funded with both taxable and tax-deferred assets you now own.

• Expect to stay healthy but plan for the probability that you will need to spend more on heath care in the future. Purchase a long-term care policy that will pay for future needs at home and in care facilities.

One thing you can do right now is to get educated and speak with a professional advisor, preferably one who carries the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® designation. The sooner you take action the greater your success will be. Remember, by planning for the worst while expecting the best, you will be the ultimate winner and your retirement years will be all you have dreamed they would be.

1 According to Medicare Trustee Thomas R. Saving, a professor of economics at Texas A&M University and senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis. 2 Trustees of the Social Security Trust Fund

Marc Cram is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® in Durham, North Carolina. He works with families to protect and increase their assets using safe liquid investments. Marc holds a free online seminar every Monday evening at 9:00 pm Eastern time and can be contacted through his website at www.cramgroup.com. You can download a free 12 page article on how to safely and conservatively build wealth at www.wealthyyou.us

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Retirement Facts
Whether a worker is offered and participates in a retirement plan at work depends greatly on what type of worker the person is: • Public-sector workers have the highest level of participation in a retirement plan (75.8% in 2004), while parttime workers typically are not offered a retirement plan or rarely participate when they are. • Among all workers, less than half (41.9% in 2004) participate in a retirement plan. • Among full-time, full-year wage and salary workers, more than half (56.6% in 2004) participate in a retirement plan.
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