“What can I do to capitalize on the current market downturn?”

A frequent recommendation, which affects most of our clients, is to consider increasing retirement contributions.  If you can afford to increase your salary deferrals into your company’s retirement plan, it may be a great opportunity for you to “max out” your plan. 

But, be careful…..

Several times a year we find someone who is maxing out their retirement plan very early in the year.  Makes sense right?  Get it in there quickly so it can go to work…….

As Lee Corso, ESPN College Football analyst, says: “Not so fast, my friends”

If your company offers a match, maxing out your retirement account early in the year will usually leave money on the table.

An example

Company ABC offers a 5% match

Joe Smith earns 100k per year

2008 401(k) maximum contribution is $15,500

Joe contributes 20% of each paycheck into his 401k.  He will max out his 401k some time in October ($15,500 is 20% of $77,500).  This means that his employer will not match his contributions for the $22,500 that he earns the remainder of the year.

In this example, Joe left $1125 on the table (5% of $22,500 is $1125).

An employer only matches contributions as the EMPLOYEE makes contributions. 

To maximize the employer match, it is important to max out the plan as late in the year as possible. 

To calculate how much to contribute in order to max your account out at the end of a full year, divide your salary (include the bonus if your employer uses the bonus in the matching formula) by the current year limit.

In the example above, Joe should contribute 15.5% of his salary.  By doing this, he will contribute the full $15,500 into his plan AND the company will match for the entire year (putting $5000 into his plan).

If you are a high earner (over 250k in 2008) there is a caveat to this, however.  In 2008, only the first $250,000 of salary is allowed to be matched (this maximum match amount is indexed for inflation).  Since the employer only matches as the employee contributes, someone who earns a salary of 250k or above would want to contribute 6.2% of their salary.

By contributing 6.2%, the maximum $15,500 will have been contributed by the time this employee earned 250k (whether that milestone is hit early or late in the year).

This is an illustration of how the mechanics of company matching contributions can work.  Your results will vary.

Cass Chappell
http://www.articlesbase.com/personal-finance-articles/quotnot-so-fast-my-friendsquot-740868.html

Online gambling has many advantages. It offers a large variety of games that you can never get tired of! You can train yourself at various games. It allows you to refine your skills. You can even play the game of your choice from wherever you are at any time!

Online gambling is the internet’s fastest growing section and offers a large range of games such as blackjack, poker, slots and lots more. With the facilities available today, these games can be enjoyed right from home.

Although it appears confusing at first, one gets the feel of the games pretty soon and they can be enjoyed by everyone. Casinos also offer bonuses for winners. One such bonus is the trivia questions or incentives.

All casinos offer bonuses for online gambling. Even without a large investment, players can play games of their choice. So people play at particular sites and keep returning to them. For such players trivia is offered as incentive.

In order to get bonuses, there are some rules.

• Players with free accounts can win only a limited amount.
• For players with free accounts, the winning money will be paid after a small time. This is because the records of the player are checked meticulously before the money is handed out.
• Withdrawal for people with free accounts must be done only through certain means of payment.
• It is required that a free account be open for a particular number of days before payout.

Some of the popular sites and the bonuses offered by them are

1. River Nile Casino – free $15 plus additional casino bonus.
2. Virtual City Casino – free $10 plus additional bonus
1. Aceshigh Casino – free $15 plus additional casino bonus
2. Crazy Vegas Casino – free $10 plus additional bonus
3. Aztec Riches Casino – free $10 plus additional casino bonus
4. Lucky Emperor Casino – free $10 plus additional casino bonus
5. Jackpot City Casino – free $25 plus additional bonus
6. Club Player Casino – free $16 plus additional casino bonus
7. Casino Kingdom – free $16 plus additional bonus

• An amateur gambler should choose a licensed casino that offers good payout and bonuses.

• Then, to start playing, download the required software that is free.

• The next step is to set up an account into which all the money won is sent. The player should be careful and type in the data correctly.

• Now the person can choose any game offered by the site.

• With enough practice, one will be ready to play for money. This needs payment through Western Union, NETeller, Stormplay or any credit card.

• Now one can try all the games available and claim the bonus!

• For information on the ways to claim winnings, check the websites of the casino.

• Enjoy!

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/online-casino-triviayour-gateway-to-fun-and-money-702718.html

Wagering requirements protects the interest of no deposit online casinos as it prevents abusers making multiple accounts to cash out their winnings without having any intentions to join as a regular player.

Just as the brick and mortar casinos offer perks of complimentary drinks and food to attract players, similarly it is quite common to witness various bonuses on offer by online casinos as well. No deposit bonus is one such bonus that provides new players with free money to try out their luck at the casino table while earning real money.

No initial success for no deposit casinos

While this may sound interesting and really attractive to many, this bonus failed immensely during the advent of online casinos. Gambling industry saw a widespread increase in the abusers of the no deposit bonus with very few regular casino players. Players would open multiple fraud accounts in order to reap sign up bonus benefits and cash out their money soon after. 

Wagering requirements – A solution to no deposit bonus frauds

Hence, introduction of wagering requirements is the ultimate solution for no deposit bonuses frauds. Online casinos could finally take a sigh of relief from huge losses due to no deposit bonuses on offer. A little amendment is thereby made in the conditions of the no deposit casino bonuses with wagering requirements, which are the rules that protects the interest of online casinos while still allowing the same benefits to genuine casino enthusiasts. Wagering requirements is also known as playthrough requirements and may vary from one casino website to another. 

How these requirements work?

The most important point associated with wagering requirements is that the player must wager multiple amount of money of the initial deposit made by them, so as to cash their winnings earned through no deposit casino bonus. 

However, how much multiple of the original deposit should be played by the player depends upon the casino. Players should therefore read the terms and conditions of the online casino before they avail their no deposit bonus. For instance, if the playthrough requirement of a casino is 15x, the player must place bets and play casino games of the value that equals 15 times of their amount of initial deposit so as to cash out their winning amount earned through no deposit casino bonus. 

Is it fair?

This may not sound fair to many but for genuine players it surely is! These help online casinos to avoid players who sign in merely to enjoy themselves and earn without any intentions to become a regular casino player. Whereas, the main aim of no deposit online casino to introduce this kind of bonus is to encourage more players to play online casino games.

Further variations in wagering requirements

Furthermore, these wagering requirements are complicated as some no deposit casinos assign certain percentages to a few games that reduce or increase the target of the player towards meeting these requirements. That is to say, if the poker has a percentage of 40%, then a $100 bet would contribute only $40 to the target given in the wagering requirements. Every bet that is made takes the player closer to the target. So, make sure you have thoroughly read the wagering requirements of the online casino you are playing with.

Charle Chamblne
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/no-deposit-online-casino-wagering-requirements-676147.html

Most if not all online casino sites offer special bonuses to their players during Christmas. In this article we will look at some of them and what that means for the punter and how they play the online casino games during the holiday season.

For most casinos, bonuses means slots, so the slots players, who are the largest group of players, get the best offers. By giving the players bonuses they double their chance of winning, some would say. Others claim that this is a way for the casino to lure more cash out of the player. They are both partly true.

When an online casino offers a games bonus it always comes with restrictions. Certain games are not allowed, and there is a wager requirement that needs to be fulfilled before a player can make a withdrawal of any kind. And most casinos offer what is called a sticky bonus, meaning that the bonus will be removed from a players wins when they request a withdrawal. The sticky bonus is thus useful only as free rounds or free spins in which you can win without the risk of loss.

The wager requirements differ from casino to casino but it works the same way in all of them. A common wager request from online casinos is 12*(bonus+deposit). In other words the player has to use up a sum that is 12 times the bonus and deposit. Let’s for arguments sake say that the casino offers a 50% deposit bonus and the player deposits €50. This will give the player €75 to play for, so, if the wager requirement is 12*(bonus+deposit), then that would be 12*75, or a total of €900 that needs to be wagered before withdrawing is allowed.

To bet/rebet a total of €900 to make a withdrawal might sound like a lot, but considering that most rounds/spins return a player winnings of different amounts, reaching a wagering requirement of that amount does not take that long.

With the many different slots games on offer I often get the question on what online casino slot game is best suited for bonuses. The first advice is to stay away from progressive games – they might sound tempting with their multi-million euro jackpots, but since they are connected to a wide jackpot network spanning many online casinos and have a lower payout ratio compared to the non-progressive slot machines, there is a considerably higher chance of winning when playing multiline slots with bonus rounds — although the possibility of winning a massive jackpot are always quite empowering.

Some of these slot machines have top prizes of €500,000 or more, plus bonus rounds that can give you smaller but still very large sums of money. Nowadays, the bonus rounds are what most online slots players are looking for when choosing an online slot machine. If you are not sure what online slots you want to use your bonus on then log in as a fun player and try out the free casino games before you decide. This will give you time to test all the online casino games available and see what slot games you like the most.

Some nostalgic players prefer the classic single-line slot machines, but the vast majority go directly into the more modern Vegas-like video slots games.

All in all, online slots are the gamblers’ favorite casino game, and during holidays like Christmas slots become even more popular as players are offered extra bonuses to play with. So this Christmas, shop around for the casino with the best bonus offers and the lowest wagers. Good luck, gamble responsibly, and happy holidays!

Afshin Rifat
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-gambling-articles/types-of-online-casino-slots-and-how-to-win-playing-them-691345.html

Most online casinos offer bonuses to entice new customers and to keep their existing members motivated. These bonuses depend on the online casino site that you are on at the time; there are no standard rules to any bonus offer, as each online casino site has their own set bonuses and with the internet being such a vast market most sites don’t worry about matching their competition. There are quite a few different types of bonus offers you will come across as you surf the different online casinos such as sign up bonuses, referral bonuses, match deposit bonuses and so forth. You can think of a bonus offer as free money, because that is basically what it is – the casinos will offer you in-game cash bonuses to play their games, although sometimes these bonuses may be in the form of a gift, such as a cruise trip, dinner, movies etc.

There is no denying that most often these bonus offers are hard to resist, but before you go signing up for all these bonuses you should do some research to see what the downside to these bonuses might be. In other words read the fine print! Most bonus offers are not very easy to cash in; the majority of them require you to place a certain amount of bets before you can qualify to receive your bonus. Many of these bonus offers are so very tempting at first glance immediately but if you were to read the fine print, you would discover why the casinos are so free to give them out to new players as in order to cash in on some of these bonuses sometimes you are required to play triple times the bonus before you can qualify to receive your bonus. Now this is not to say that there absolutely are no free bonuses in online gambling this is just to warn you not to go in expecting to be given everything you think you’re being offered.

As you can see online casino bonuses have their advantages and their disadvantages, but you must know by now that nothing in life is really free, you have to pay a price. Whether you should take an online casino bonus or not is really up to the individual. If you are willing to spend the extra cash or you feel the bonus they offer is worth it well it’s all well and good, but on the other hand if you cannot afford to spend the extra cash then it would be best if you do not sign up for the online casino bonus.

Finally if you are still uncertain whether you should take that online casino bonus or not, try doing some research for yourself. Visit some of the online casinos and compare their bonus offers to see if they are worth the trouble or not. Be sure and read the fine print to see what the requirements for each online casino bonus entails. You can save yourself a lot of headache and grief, not to mention money, by familiarizing yourself with what these online casino bonuses are all about.

Sarah H
http://www.articlesbase.com/sports-and-fitness-articles/online-casino-bonuses-to-take-or-not-to-take-712090.html

Yesterday I chanced on an offer called “Reviews In A Box” created by Jean-Philippe Schoeffel. I have bought products from this guy before such as Niches-In-A-Box, VisitorSense, AdSpy Pro, Niche Video Creator, etc. Most of his products are of high quality with affordable prices.

But the Reviews-In-A-Box’s sales page is dull and ugly, not a typical sales page you see. It’s of narrative style and it seems like was done in a hurry. But the good point is that it has less hypes. Anyway, I don’t care about what he wrote in the sales page because my concern is to look for quality product with good price.

I skimmed through the sales page and watched the video hoping to see what he means by “professional review site”. Well, from the video I can see that the review site looks great and very thorough. The anatomy of the review site consists of a catchy headline, first impressions, contents, analysis, bad points, good points, summary and final score/rating. It also includes two review videos and the bonuses as well.

The structure of the professional review site he demonstrated looks great and complete. But it still doesn’t make me want to click the order button because I need to read and assess the quality of its contents first.

I was about to leave the site when I spotted the pictorial message “Test Drive For $1″. Essentially, you will get TWO professional review sites complete with unbiased review contents, videos and bonuses for only $1. Well, this offer is too good to refuse, so I jump on board and download the two review sites immediately.

So, does Reviews-In-A-Box deliver?

Here is my analysis…

1. The review site’s structure is really good. I like how the two review videos are positioned; one at the beginning of the page and one near the end of the page. I also like the unbiased nature of the review. Meaning that it not only talks about the good points of a product but also its bad points (something like the pros and cons).

I also like the summary and the final score sections which basically sum up the entire review and assign a rating or score of 1 to 10 for the product under reviewed. And I also like the bonus section; the bonuses are very compelling and yes, all the bonuses are included in the package.

2. What I do not like about Reviews-In-A-Box?

Well, the biggest problem I have with this product is “duplicate contents”. So, if you do purchase the product, DO NOT upload it to your site without first editing it. You will need to sit down, read through the entire review yourself, change the headline and contents to make it unique. For me, this takes 1 to 1.5 hours. But it’s well worth the effort because your review site will appear unique. You’ll get a professional designed and unbiased review site with unique contents!

Go to Reviews-In-A-Box bonus page to test drive the product, receive two professional review sites for $1 and claim all the bonuses worth over $900. 

Leon
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-business-articles/reviews-in-a-box-review-bonus-over-900-get-2-professional-review-sites-for-1-719900.html

Trivia Thread for August 22nd – redabroc

Some car insurance companies will let named drivers build up their own no claims bonus. But who are they?

So what’s a named driver? Well it’s a person who is legally allowed by the insurance company to drive the owners car, their name will be registered on the motor insurance policy along with the main driver.

The policy owner or the main driver is the person who will be driving the vehicle the majority of the time.

You can add several drivers or named drivers to a car insurance policy; these people would be known as second or third driver on the policy document. A good example of this for a family would be dad would be the policy holder, mum and daughter would be known as the named drivers.

However, it is best to keep the number of named drivers to a minimum as this could potentially increase the cost of your insurance premium.

The more years you have as a motorist with a no claims bonus the bigger the discount you will get off the price of your car insurance premium. In some cases it can make a big difference.

The majority of the main insurance providers only give a no claims discount to the policy holder or the main driver on the policy. So if you are a named driver and you have been on some else’s insurance policy as a named driver you will not have any of your own no-claims bonus when you come to take out your own insurance. This can be a big problem especially for the young drivers or first time drivers who want to go on their own insurance policy but cannot afford the premium.

However there are hands full of insurers who will allow named drivers to earn their own no claims discount or NCD as a named driver. One company that springs to mind is Direct Line.

So when you’re buying your next vehicle policy make sure you check to see if they give named drivers there own no claims bonus.

Simon Smith
http://www.articlesbase.com/cars-articles/can-named-drivers-get-their-own-no-claims-bonus-1072912.html