Green Retirement Blog

 Free Layoff Prevention Tool for Human Resource Managers

Human Resource managers in corporations, and local and state governments across the nation, are under pressure to conduct mass layoffs. The end result will be millions more unemployed American workers in 2009.  Which will then result in negative consumer confidence and less consumption, lower profits and tax revenue, and the need for further layoffs.  Layoffs create a vicious downward economic spiral into self annihilation.  They harm the individual, organization, and the economy.

How can layoffs be prevented?  Retirement.  Corporations and governments should be retiring not firing their workers.  Retirement benefits the individual, organization, and the economy.  Retiring instead of firing workers, still results in a smaller workforce and lower overall compensation costs without all the negative consequences of layoffs.   Retiring instead of firing workers boosts moral within the organization, increases worker productivity, and creates new opportunities for advancement.  It also helps the economy, which in the end, returns the favor by helping the organization become more profitable.

Retirement is always a better alternative to layoffs.  But how can Human Resource managers create an effective early retirement program?  The traditional method of creating early retirement programs, is to offer employees, regardless of their ability to retire the same voluntary early retirement packages.  This approach, depending on the size of the voluntary early retirement package, can be effective but very costly.  And many employees, unsure if the severance package will actually allow them to retire, hesitate in accepting the offer of early retirement.

However, their is a new alternative to the traditional early retirement approach, that helps organizations identify employees that are already in a position to retire,  and enables organizations to develop more effective voluntary early retirement packages.  And it is free!

Due to the rapidly deteriorating economic situation, Green Retirement LLC is offering human resource managers our Free Layoff Prevention Tool, to encourage corporations and governments to choose retirement instead of layoffs.  Using this simple Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, human resource managers will be able to quickly determine, which of their employees are in a position to retire.  Human resource managers will also be able to see how many employees are close to retirement, in dollars and percentage, enabling them to easily design an effective voluntary early retirement package.  Employees, knowing that they will be able to safely and securely retire, will more enthusiastically accept their employers package.

Human resource managers can download the Free Layoff Prevention Tool, on the Green Retirement website, where they can also download the ready-to-use Employee Retirement Survey (to collect the necessary data) and a how to guide.  All of this is free, in an attempt by Green Retirement LLC., to help the economy avoid entering into a depression.

If you are a human resources manager, please visit the Green Retirement Website, and download the Free Layoff Prevention Tool.  You can prevent layoffs, and it is in your interest to do so, because the next job you cut - may be your own.

 Why the Rich Love Being Green

A surprisingly large number of people, who try the Free Retirement Analysis, are rich millionaires.  Green Retirement benefits the middle class the most, reducing the savings they need for retirement, and enabling them to achieve their retirement goals.  So, why would rich people who don’t have to worry about retirement, be interested in Green Retirement?

Why?  Because with traditional retirement planning, you get penalized for doing well, and that means even a lot of rich people have trouble retiring.  If you are a C.E.O, Internet Entrepreneur, Surgeon, or upper management executive, and have a high net worth and six figure salary, even with a few million you may still not be able to retire - according to traditional retirement planning.   For instance, if you have a net worth of $2.2 million and a salary of $180,000 per year, you will need $3.6 million dollars.  A person with a salary of $225,000 per year, will need $4.5 million to retire.

I know, don’t cry for the rich, wouldn’t be lovely if we all had the same problem?  The problem however, is that the same problem that affects the rich, also affects you and it makes it harder for you to retire.  If you get a $10,000 raise this year, you will now need an additional $200,000 in savings, to be able to retire. And then next year, you only get a $5,000 raise, but that means you will need to save an additional $100,000 to retire.  Were you able to increase your net worth by $300,000 in the past 2 years?  I hope so, because next year, you’ll be getting another raise!

And well, that’s just un-American.  That is why the rich love Green Retirement, they get to enjoy the fruits of their success, and so should you. Find out how much savings you really need to retire on the Green Retirement Website.

After two brutal years in the stock and bond markets, 2009 may bring seniors in retirement, some relief and added income. In 2008 alone, seniors watched as the S&P 500 fell an incredible 40%, and bond yields declined to near zero.  Usually, and as everyone knows these are unusual times, bond yields and stock market returns move in opposite direction.

When one is doing bad, the other one does well, and seniors can count on either higher income from bonds or stock appreciation to fund their retirement.  That has not been the case for the past two years, as both sources of retirement income for seniors, have been hit very hard.  Added on top of the misery of poor investment returns, extremely high oil and gasoline prices, which forced many retirees to cut back or dip into their savings.

Although both the stock and bond markets will likely remain bearish in 2009, seniors in retirement will see extra income, and lower food and fuel costs.  Beginning in January 2009, seniors will receive a 5.8% increase in their Social Security checks, based on  the Social Security Administration 2009 Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA).   The figure was calculated by the Social Security Administration in the fall of 2008, when food and fuel prices were at their peak, and was an official projection of inflation for 2009.

However, in just a few months time, oil has tumbled from $150 per barrel down to only $40 per barrel, and now the Federal Reserve is worried about deflation instead of inflation.  The effect of low oil prices is already being seen at the pump, where customers are paying half what they used to, to fill up their cars.  Seniors should soon also see decreased home fuel costs, and after low oil prices make their way through the food supply chain, lower food costs as well.

The result is that in 2009, seniors in retirement will receive extra income from Social Security, and need to spend less of their income for food and fuel.  So, even if the stock and bond markets go nowhere in 2009, seniors in retirement will still be better off than they were the previous two years.  That is good and welcome news, and a reason for seniors in retirement, to celebrate a “Happy New Year in 2009!”

 Not This Christmas - I’m Going Green!

After 44 continuous years of celebrating Christmas with a tree, this year I have decided not to have a Christmas tree, I’m celebrating a Green Christmas.  Last year I was shocked by the number of discarded Christmas trees, that littered the sidewalks of my San Francisco neighborhood, for months after Christmas had ended.

In my growing Green consciousness, I realized that Christmas had become un-sustainable, and was in reality a leading cause of global warming.  The hyper-consumption that occurs around Christmas, forget the moral implications (What would Jesus say?), is extremely damaging to the environment.

From Christmas trees, to wrapping paper, holiday lights, mall shopping, packaging, multiple gifts, Christmas cards, and on and on, all cause global warming.   So this year, I am not participating, I will not help destroy the planet in the name of Santa Claus. I will be celebrating a Green Christmas.  No tree, lights, decorations, x-mas cards, everyone gets one gift.

What about you? Are you already celebrating a Green Christmas?  Have you greened your Christmas?  Are you starting to realize how environmentally damaging Christmas has become?  How do you convince kids to celebrate a Green Christmas?

What is the first thing you should consider if you have been laid off from your job?  Retirement. Before you write your resume, look for jobs on the internet, or buy a new suit, you should first eliminate the possibility of early retirement.

“But I’m not rich”, you are saying to yourself, “I don’t have enough savings to retire.”  “I tried an online retirement calculator, and it told me that I needed well over a million dollars to retire, I don’t have anywhere near that amount of savings.”

First, you don’t need to be rich to retire, and second, online retirement calculators are all wrong.  The retirement industry uses a worthless guess, 70% to 80% of your current salary, to determine how much savings you will need.  This guess, causes Americans to save more than is necessary, and delays their retirement by many years.  Green Retirement is a much more accurate formula and method.  Learn more about Green Retirement Planning.

Also, on the Green Retirement website, are several free retirement calculators.  Including one that will let you know if you can retire today.  Check out the calculator and find out if you can retire today, otherwise you may be burning through your retirement savings looking for a job and stressing out, when you could be lying on a beach somewhere.

 I’m Sorry San Francisco

To the 400 San Francisco city employees, who will soon face layoffs, I’m sorry.  I am trying to save your jobs, and I am failing, your leaders are not responding to my offer to prevent layoffs in San Francisco.  Starting over a month ago, I have written to the city’s Green Division, Mayor Gavin Newsom, the SEIU boss, the San Francisco Chronicle, Board Supervisor Peskin, and incoming Board member David Chiu.  The only person who wrote back, was Aaron Peskin, who told me to contact David Chiu after Thanksgiving.

The truth is that you don’t need to be losing your jobs, San Francisco can avoid layoffs of it’s city employees, by promoting early retirement.  I have offered the City of San Francisco, the ability to prevent layoffs, by identifying qualified employees for early retirement using the Green Retirement formula and method.  Green Retirement enables individuals to retire, with much less savings and years earlier, than is possible with current retirement methods.

Even though I have failed thus far, the battle is not over, their is still time to save your job.  But you are going to have to help me, I have been unable to break through the walls of indifference, that run through San Francisco City Hall.  Please contact your head of H.R., the Mayor, Supervisors, and anyone else, and tell them that their is a plan to save San Francisco city jobs.

If you are one of the 400 San Francisco city employees, who receives a layoff notice this week, please contact me.  I will give you a modified version of Green Retirement Planning and Software free of charge.  My way of saying sorry.  If you  do not receive a layoff notice, do not breathe a sigh of relief, your time is coming.  You need to get ahead of the curve, and demand early retirement packages, instead of quietly accepting layoffs.

None of the politicians and economists, in San Francisco or around the nation, understand the gravity of the economic situation.  They are all making decisions that will send this recession into a full depression.  It must be stopped, it can be stopped, but only if you join me.  And you can start by helping me save your job.

Please tell your bosses, and the politicians, their is a plan to save San Francisco City Jobs.  For more information, and to get your free retirement planning and software, please visit the Green Retirement website.  Now I have to contact Contra Costa County - they just announced 200 employee layoffs.

 Baby I’ve Changed - Please Take Me Back!

What do picking-up chicks and saving the U.S. economy have in common?  Confidence.  Without confidence, no one, not foreign chicks, nor American chicks, are willing to invest in the U.S. economy.  The American economy can’t get a date.  Everyone now  knows that our economic muscles were created with financial steroids.  That our fancy car and clothes, were purchased on credit, and that we have an impressive business card - but no business.

It’s sad.  First the picky foreign chicks stopped dating the U.S. economy, tired of our arrogant behavior, and un-impressed with our false bravado.  Then, even the easy American chicks gave up on the U.S. economy, when we maxed out our credit card and could no longer buy them colorful cocktails.  When the U.S. economy walks into a bar, all the girls laugh and say to each other, “Look at that old gigolo with a pocketful of Viagra! What a joke!”

What’s sadder still is that the Viagra no longer works.  Even if we could get a date, it would eventually become apparent, that the U.S economy is impotent. Ouch!  So, what do we do?

We elect Barack Obama, give him dating advice, and tell him to go back into the bar and try again.  No more “Hey, baby. I’m the U.S.A., check me out!”  Instead, we instruct him to politely approach the women and say, “Hello. My name is America. I’ve changed. Please give me another chance - you won’t be sorry.”

After repeating this new and improved pick-up line, with all the women in the bar, America still can’t get a date.  But at least,  the women are not laughing at him or throwing drinks in his face, and he’s even managed to get a couple of fake phone numbers.  Years of being lied to, cheated on, robbed, and generally abused, the women are skeptical to say the least.  The women gather, as women do, to discuss this new America guy.

“He certainly looks different, and behaves more like a gentleman, than that other ugly American guy.” Says one of the rich foreign chicks.  “And I love the way he talks.” Says an American chick. “So smooth, and cool, very sexy!”  “Yeah, but look at him over there, he’s still hanging around the same group of friends.” Says a still angry American woman.  “And I overheard him telling his friends that he’s still got his stuff. What is this stuff?” Asks the foreign woman.  After a quick giggle the women get serious. “Has he really changed, or is this new America guy just putting on a better act, and we’re going to end up getting hurt again?”

One of the American women, finally asks the group the big question of the evening, “So, is anyone here going to take a chance and invest with America tonight?” Silence.  It’s obvious to everyone, even poor America realizes, that no one has confidence in him.  And that if he wants to ever get a date again, let alone have the chicks invest in him, he’s going to have to show up at the bar with more than a bright smile and slick talk.  He’s going to have to show the American, and foreign chicks, that the change is real and not just cosmetic.

What does America need to do to regain the confidence of American, and foreign chicks, and convince them to invest in him again?  What changes does America have to make, to convince them that he is worth another try, and to get them to go out on a date?  Subscribe to this blog and find out.  You will be automatically notified when, America discovers how to save the U.S. economy, and  pick-up chicks.

Living a green lifestyle can save your retirement, and allow you to achieve your retirement plans, even after the housing and stock market crashes.  Living a green lifestyle and consuming less,  allows you to save more for your retirement,  need less savings to retire, and enables you to retire much earlier.

A green lifestyle is a low consumption lifestyle, conserving natural resources, conserves your financial resources.  For example, if you decide to give up your car in retirement, you can retire with $180,000 less in savings.  Get rid of your $150 per month mini-storage unit and retire with $45,000 less in required retirement savings.  With these two simple lifestyle choices, an individual can retire with $225,000 less in required savings, and therefore several years earlier.

And going green before retirement, reducing your consumption and investing the savings, can add up to a very nice retirement nest egg.  For instance, if you are 35 married and own two cars, giving up one of your cars and investing it’s $600 monthly expense,  will give you an additional $455,000 in retirement savings by age 55.

These examples of how going green helps save your retirement, were determined using the Green Retirement Planning formula and method, a new formula and method that calculates the positive retirement benefit of living a green lifestyle.  The Green Retirement formula can also be used to calculate retirement savings needs, replacing the traditional formula which over estimates required savings, enabling individuals to retire with dramatically less savings.

The current formula for calculating your retirement savings needs, assumes that you will need to be able to spend between 70%-80% of your current salary annually in retirement, it is a guess that treats everyone the same no matter how much the actually consume.   For instance, if you earn $80,000 per year, traditional retirement planning calculates that you will need $1,600,000 to retire.

Instead, the Green Retirement formula calculates how much you will need in retirement, based on how much you will spend in retirement.  A much more accurate method.  You control your spending, therefore you control how much savings you will need for retirement, not your salary.

If you have a retirement budget of $3,000 per month Green Retirement calculates that you will need $900,000 to retire, and if you reduce your retirement budget to $2,500 per month, then you need $750,000 to retire.  The greener your lifestyle, the less you consume in retirement, the less savings you need to safely support your retirement.  In some cases, the Green Retirement method enables individuals to retire with $1 million less in savings, and a decade earlier than they could with traditional retirement planning.   On the Green Retirement website, their is a free retirement calculator, which compares Green vs. Traditional.

This simple common sense approach, is actually a revolutionary development in retirement planning, that changes how retirement is calculated.  Now, Americans are no longer bound by an arbitrary number, but are instead able to determine their own retirement savings needs.  By living a green lifestyle both before and during retirement, Americans can retire with a lot less savings and many years earlier, than they ever imagined was possible.  Going green can save your retirement.

Dear President-elect Obama:

I want a Green Job.  I don’t want more wars, more prisons, or more corporate bailouts.  I want Green Jobs.  Your plan to create 2.5 million Green Jobs is not enough.  The nation has lost 1 million jobs so far this year, our nation has lost millions of good paying jobs through decades of out-sourcing, and we will likely lose millions of jobs next year. Your Green Jobs plan will not make up for the past, present, or future job losses.

What is needed is a much larger investment in the Green economy, one that will create middle class jobs, and strengthen the overall economy by reducing government budget deficits.  The following plan will inject $150 billion per year, ten times the amount of your proposal,  creating 25 million net green jobs over the next 3-5 years, and very importantly reduces annual government deficits by $100 billion.  Here is the plan:

1.  Double the gas tax and generate an additional $38 billion per year in federal revenue.  The price of gas at the pump has dropped $1 per gallon over the last few weeks, and it appears it will continue to decline, consumers will not notice a 17.4 cent additional tax. $30 billion for Green and $8 billion toward budget reduction

2.  End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The American taxpayers spent $188 billion in 2008 on two needless and unpopular wars.  $100 billion to Green and $88 billion to budget reduction. Give all veterans free Green Job training, to avoid repeating the mistake of Vietnam, and flooding our streets and prisons with homeless vets.

3. Cut the prison population in half.  As one of the impacts of out-sourced manufacturing jobs, the prison population has nearly doubled during the Bush administration.  The nation spends $49 billion per year, to house and feed  2.3 million of our fellow citizens, up 76% from 1.3 million in 2000.  Provide Green Job training in prisons, and as a diversion program for non-violent offenders, giving graduates the opportunity to work for the state installing a green infrastructure.  $20 billion per year for Green and $4 billion in debt reduction.

Combined, this plan will generate $150 billion per year towards Green Jobs, and reduce budget deficits by $100 billion.  Economist Robert Pollin, writing in The Nation magazine, estimates that 18 jobs are produced for every $1 million invested in green infrastructure. On the other hand, the military and oil industries, only produce 7.5 jobs for every $1 million spent.

What our nation needs is not a bailout, or tax rebate checks, but a massive investment in Green Energy and infrastructure.  One that will create jobs, strengthen our economy, increase exports, and maintain America’s technological lead.

Sincerely,

John and Jane Q. Public

To send this letter to Barack Obama, click on the green ShareThis button, and enter Obama’s email address: info@BarackObama.com

Then tell your friends to send this letter as well, digg, reddit, stumble upon, do your social networking thing, quantity is critical.  If we can bombard Obama with a mass email campaign, then this plan, the only plan that has a chance of saving the economy and creating jobs will succeed. A few clicks could get you and others good green jobs. To be automatically notified, on updates to this campaign, please subscribe to this blog.

Good Luck, Thank You, and may God not be needed to Save America.

How much savings do you need for retirement?  Traditional retirement planning says that you need to be able to spend, the equivalent of 70%-80% of your current salary, every year in retirement.  Is that correct? No, it is not, it is a complete guess.  And this guess, causes most people to save more than is necessary for their retirement, and work many years longer.  So, how much savings do you actually need for retirement?  And, how do you calculate how much savings you will need for retirement?

How much savings you need for retirement, is not determined by your salary, the amount of savings you need for retirement is determined by how much you spend in retirement.  It’s really that simple.  And, since you determine how much you will spend in retirement, you determine how much savings you will need for retirement.  You have control over your retirement.

So how do you calculate how much savings you need for retirement?  The calculation, is pretty simple as well, so simple a 5th grader could calculate your retirement savings needs.  Here is the formula:

Retirement = Spending / SWP

Retirement is your Net Worth.  Spending is your Retirement Budget.  And SWP is your Safe Withdrawal Percentage.  The percentage you can safely withdraw from your savings each year without ever running out of money.  The SWP varies between 3% for a 40 year old, to a maximum of 4.75% for a 65 year old person.   As an example on how to use the Green Retirement Formula, let’s assume you are a 55 year old person, with a net worth of $500,000. Your SWP will be 4%.

$500,000 = Spending /4%

Spending =  $20,000 per year

$20,000 per year is the amount that he can safely spend each year without worrying about running out of money.  But what if you calculated that you will need to be able to spend $3,000 per month? How much savings will you need to support a $3,000 monthly retirement budget?

Retirement = $3,000 / 4%

Retirement = $900,000

$900,000 is the net worth you will need to be able to support a $3,000 monthly retirement budget.  Now, here is where you get control of your retirement, you can adjust your retirement savings needs by adjusting your retirement budget.  If you decide that you don’t want to continue working until you are able to save an additional $400,000, and you find a way to adjust your retirement budget to $2,500, now you need a $750,000 net worth to retire.  You control your retirement budget, and therefore, you control your retirement savings needs.

If you earn $80,000 per year, traditional retirement planning calculates that you will need $1,600,000 to retire, that is almost a million dollar difference between Green and traditional!

To find out how much savings you need for retirement, and to compare Green Retirement vs. Traditional Retirement, visit the Green Retirement website and try the free retirement calculator on the home page.