Month: March 2022
Trending Beauty Hacks On a Budget
If you’re wondering how to perfectly achieve unique beauty styles, check out these budget-friendly beauty hacks.
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The post Trending Beauty Hacks On a Budget appeared first on MintLife Blog.
The Deadline for Your First RMD is April 1
If there’s one thing my father complains about every year, it’s having to take required minimum distributions (RMDs) from his IRAs and 401(k) plan. He did a good job saving money for retirement when he was younger, so he doesn’t really need to withdraw much from his retirement accounts each year. He has reluctantly been taking RMDs for several years now, but if you turned 72 in 2021, you’re just getting started. In fact, if you turned 72 in last year, you might have to take your first RMD by April 1, 2022, if you haven’t done so already. That’s this week, so you better act now!
- SEE MORE RMDs: An IRS Change is Making Them Smaller in 2022
And please take the deadline seriously. If you don’t withdraw your first RMD by the April 1 due date, or if your distribution isn’t large enough, you could be hit with a big IRS penalty. That’s something you really want to avoid.
Due Dates for Required Minimum Distributions
As the IRS tells us, “you cannot keep retirement funds in your account indefinitely.” That’s why you’re generally required to start taking money out of your retirement accounts each year (except Roth IRAs) once you reach 72 years of age. (Distributions from a Roth IRA are not required until after the owner’s death.)
- SEE MORE State-by-State Guide to Taxes on Retirees
Normally, you must take your annual RMD by December 31. However, you can delay your first RMD until April 1 of the year following the year in which you reach age 72. You don’t have to delay the RMD, but it’s an option.
If you’re still working and don’t own at least 5% of the company, you can also delay taking RMDs from your current employer’s 401(k) plan until April 1 of the year after the year you retire. Again, it’s your choice.
Delaying your first RMD can work for you or against you. If you delay your first RMD to the following April 1, you’ll have to take two RMDs in that year: One for the year you delayed the RMD (i.e., for the year you turned 72), plus the one you’d normally have to take by December 31 for the year. This could trigger unintended consequences that increase your tax bill. For example, two RMDs in one year might kick you into a higher tax bracket or affect the amount of Social Security benefits that are subject to tax. One the other hand, if you had a lot of income in the year you turned 72 or retired, it might make sense to delay your first RMD to avoid similar problems that year. It all depends on your circumstances.
Calculating Your RMD
Generally, the minimum amount you’re required to withdraw each year is calculated by dividing the account balance at the end of the previous year by a life expectancy factor that the IRS publishes in Publication 590-B. To help with the computation of RMDs for 2022, we’ve created an easy-to-use tool that calculates RMDs for you. (Note: For first-time RMDs that are due April 1, 2022, for people who turned 72 in 2021, use Publication 590-B for the 2020 tax year.)
- SEE MORE 12 States That Tax Social Security Benefits
If you have more than one traditional IRA, you need to determine a separate RMD for each IRA, but you can add up the RMD amounts and take the total from any one or more of your IRAs. However, if you have multiple 401(k) accounts, you have to calculate and take the RMD from each plan separately. (Your 401(k) plan sponsor or administrator should calculate the RMD for you.)
Penalty for Failing to Take RMD
There’s a stiff penalty for failing to follow the RMD rules. If your retirement plan distributions are less than the RMD for the year, you may have to pay an excise tax equal to 50% of the RMD amount that was not distributed.
You may, however, be able to get out of paying the penalty tax. You can request a waiver if your failure to take the RMD is due to a reasonable error and take whatever steps are necessary to increase your distribution to the required level. To request a waiver, submit Form 5329 with a statement explaining the error and the steps you’re taking make things right.
Beating the Clock
If your first RMD is due April 1 and you haven’t withdrawn the necessary funds yet, don’t delay. Contact the financial institution administering your retirement account right away and set up a distribution. Most large financial institutions allow you to set up an RMD online. Some companies will even process an RMD automatically if they don’t receive a completed form or online request before the deadline (so you aren’t hit with a penalty). You can also decide how much, if any, to withhold from your RMD for income taxes. But do it now!
- SEE MORE How 10 Types of Retirement Income Get Taxed
Headsup: Automatic Product Changes on Bank of America MLB Cards Come With $200 Spend Bonus
Just a quick headsup: many people are getting their old Bank of America MLB cards automatically product changed to become the Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards card. A lot of people are tossing the paperwork without noticing that there’s actually a sweet spend offer included there with $200 cash back after $1,000 spend. I’m […]
Retirement Planning for Independent Contractors
There are several retirement plans for independent contractors, consultants, and freelancers that can help you build up a nest egg for retirement, including a SEP IRA, traditional or Roth IRA, and solo 401(k). While you may have to do some research to determine the best options for your needs, thereâs a benefit to having the […]
The post Retirement Planning for Independent Contractors appeared first on SoFi.
Cardano (ADA) Overview – Will It Be the King of Cryptocurrency?
From Data Warehouses To A Shift in Mindset – Everything Your Business Needs To Become Data-Driven
Data has radically changed business, impacting almost every industry and bringing them data-driven insights, automated processes, and clarity within decision making. In fact, it’s been proved that adopting a data-driven mindset can boost productivity, increase profit, and even ensure cost reductions.
But, considering that over half of all data collected by businesses ‘goes dark’, meaning it is lost or left unstructured, it’s clear that organizations aren’t yet doing enough to embrace these data-driven ways.
In this article, we’ll be exploring the central tools and mindsets that your business needs to adapt to become fully data-driven. Let’s get right into it!
What is a data warehouse?
A data warehouse is a central location where a huge range of different data sources can be stored. This hub acts as a site where all the company data can be placed, giving employees a place to go to when they’re seeking data.
Businesses that have to deal with unstructured data will often use a balance of data warehouses and data lakes. Increasingly, managing many different forms of data at the same time is becoming a problem for businesses, with 95% of businesses citing this as a central issue for their operations. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that people around the globe are turning to storage solutions for data their business collects.
Most commonly, data warehouses use cloud services, simply due to the nature of having to compile lots of different data sources in one location. With the number of different sources that a business could use, this quickly can become costly if a company is using local storage.
Cloud data warehouses have become incredibly popular, with many businesses now turning to cloud storage as their go-to data solution.
If your business is actively searching for an effective cloud warehouse solution but doesn’t know where to begin, take a look at this comprehensive Snowflake vs Databricks comparison which will highlight the most important aspects.
How can data impact your business?
Business has become vital to the day-to-day success of a business, with users from around the company relying on it and it playing a key role in effective scaling. Each year, the poor handling of data costs businesses up to $3.1 trillion dollars. Additionally, businesses with poor data management spend up to 35% of their revenue on fixing these issues.
Quite simply, if you’re looking for an effective way to increase the output of your business, streamline your processes, and make the process more naturally, then getting your data in order should be your first priority.
The impact of data reaches far and wide within business, but perhaps nowhere is it more apparent than:
- Breaking business goals up – With data analytics at your fingertips, you’ll be able to begin to forge a clear strategy when it comes to getting your business to where you want it to go. If you have a large-scale goal, you’ll be able to break down what data is involved in getting there. With this known, you can then more effectively make changes in your organization to get there, putting data to work.
- Detailed analytics – Within every area of your business, data will give your employees the information they need to make better business decisions. Instead of making decisions based on their own guesses, your employees will be able to put data to use, using it to propel their decision-making forward with effective and accurate decisions. Once your business has a fully connected data enterprise, the insights and analytics that you’ll be generating will thoroughly change how your employees work.
- Customer understanding – By collecting customer data, you’re able to build up a more accurate picture of what customers you’re dealing with. As a business, the correct use of this data will allow you to begin to run personalized, data-driven marketing campaigns to directly target what your users enjoy. Due to this, you’ll be able to cut down on marketing costs, reduce your cost of acquisition, and ensure that your customers are always coming back for more.
These are only a few of the ways that data is penetrating into industries around the globe, its generation, consumption, and use quickly becoming vital to modern business.
How to create a business that more effectively engages in data
If you’re looking to create a business that directly uses data to promote better decision-making, then there are a range of approaches that you can take.
We’ve outlined four central concepts that you need to introduce on your way to becoming data-driven:
- Democratize your data
- Show employees how to use data
- Frame data as a central business language
- Update your data tech stack
Let’s break these down further.
Democratize your data
One of the central problems that businesses face when it comes to managing their own data is the inability to pass data through the poor data infrastructure that they have in place. Typically, a business that hasn’t thought about its data management will find itself creating data silos within its organization.
A data silo is where one department holds certain data, forgetting or not knowing they should pass it on to other departments. Without all the data puzzle pieces to make correct decisions, other departments may then suffer due to these data silos.
Due to this, one of the very first steps when seeking to create an organization that has data at its center is to democratize data. To go about this, you should:
- Invest in data pathways – Without effective ways of sharing data and storing new data that’s recovered, it becomes very difficult for your team to create a data democracy.
- Demonstrate the importance of data – Be sure to let every single team know the importance of contributing to your organization’s data pool. Once they know that they should be actively sharing data, they’ll be much more likely to remember to actually do it.
- Prioritize communication – Data silos often form due to a lack of communication pathways between departments. Be sure to prioritize communication as a central tool that everyone can turn towards. If all of your departments know they can reach out and communicate freely with other teams, then the flow of data will be much easier to facilitate.
By following these steps, you’ll be on the right pathway towards creating a business that can thrive alongside its own data.
Show employees how to use data
When the word data gets thrown around, simply due to how all-encompassing it is, many people may not actually know what this involves or how it relates to their jobs. One of your primary objectives when creating a business that is more reliant on data is to demonstrate how it actually impacts people’s jobs.
While many people may think that they never have to come across data in their role, this is actually far from the case. Just due to the sheer application of data, it is likely to arise in almost any business career path.
Early in the process of creating a data-driven company, you should endeavor to ask each team manager to make a presentation about how data is used in their team. Not only will this consolidate managers’ opinions of data, but it will also ensure that everyone within their department has a thorough understanding of how data arises.
Once people understand how data impacts them and can make their job significantly easier, they will then be much more open to getting on board with your data-driven approach.
Frame data as a central business language
Considering that data can help businesses make guided decisions when operating, it’s important to demonstrate that data is a useful thing for employees. One way to do this is to propose that when making decisions or submitting ideas to discussions, employees use quantitative data that they’ve found.
This is to say, instead of suggesting a change based on their personal opinion or experience, they should find the data within the business that backs them up. If they can find the data, then their point will be much stronger and will help streamline the decision-making process considerably.
When data is always a central talking point, and your business begins to move away from insubstantial evidence, you’ll be able to accelerate your progress significantly.
To directly prove my point, data-driven marketing strategies can increase revenue by around 20% while reducing costs by 30%. This is directly due to the fact that data becomes central to the decision-making process, pushing aside unfounded ideas and concentrating on what is proven to work.
Update your data tech stack
Every single business that aims to make data a core part of their company needs to also make sure that their employees have access to a data tech stack. While tech stocks are a complex topic, there are a few core elements that you should have when it specifically comes to data awareness and exchange.
You should make sure that your business has access to:
- A data warehouse – This will act as a central location where all of your business data is stored. Employees will be able to access this cloud site and get all the information they need.
- Analysis software – While all data is good data, if it is unstructured, then it can’t be used for analysis and therefore isn’t particularly useful. When dealing with data, you should ensure that your employees have access to tools that can help them to analyze the data that’s before them. This will typically be the job of a data analyst that will specialize in the tools you’re looking to use.
- Communication platforms – Without communication software, users won’t be able to accurately and rapidly change information amongst themselves. Typically, this will lead to a breakdown in communication and the formation of data silos. To put a stop to this, business owners should make sure that they have rapid communication software on hand.
When combining a system of these above three, you’ll have the most effective structure in place for the collection, analysis, and sharing of data.
Final thoughts
When it comes to data, if you’re not already on board in your business, you’re probably being left behind. Millions of organizations around the globe are turning to data solutions, with this way of doing business having become integral to a range of industries.
From using data-driven analytics to make more effective marketing campaigns to analyzing different supply chain pathways to find which would be the most cost-effective for a company, data is now absolutely everywhere.
In this article, we’ve outlined some central plans that your business can begin to conduct in order to become more aligned with data. If you engage with them all, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a data pro.
How to Buy a House With Bad Credit
Home ownership is possible even if your credit score isnât in the 700s. Hereâs how to buy a house with bad credit.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
Do You Qualify for Any of Aprilâs Class-Action Settlements?
Several class action settlements give consumers the opportunity to claim compensation this month. The settlements involve brands such as Apple, McCormick, Nissan and more. Check out the list below to find out if you qualify The April deadlines for filing claims in these settlements are fast approaching, so read on to find out if you [â¦]
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
Are the Housing Bears Being Too Rational?
Now that 30-year fixed mortgage rates are flirting with 5%, thereâs been quite the uptick in housing bubble chatter. The basic reasoning is because interest rates are higher, the balloon that is inflated home prices must certainly pop. On the surface, itâs a seemingly logical argument. The financing cost has gone up substantially, so the… Read More »Are the Housing Bears Being Too Rational?
The post Are the Housing Bears Being Too Rational? appeared first on The Truth About Mortgage.