Cougars, grr

Light reading for the weekend

Allure did another one of those fluffy surveys.  This time it was to find out how men and women really feel about a woman’s changing looks, the effects of plastic surgery, and whether sex gets better with age.  Allure polled 2,000 people nationwide

survey says:- women believe their beauty peaks at 31 – but agree with men that 30 is the most seductive age for a woman.

- men are the most confident in bed between the ages of 50 and 69, while women experience their peak of sexual confidence between age 18 and 29.

-57% of the men and women polled agreed that sex gets better with age, only a third of male baby boomers said they were attracted to women their own age.

-36% of men between 18 and 29 say that ’cougars are hot’.

-women are more pressured to look young.

-grey hair makes a women look old, but on a man it’s considered distinguished…although 63% of men color their hair to look younger, compared to only 36% of women.

Overall, 70% of men and women say they take non-invasive anti-aging measures, and only 1% admit to getting cosmetic surgery, injections and/or laser treatments.

thought for the day

so few people view low interest rates as a form of financial repression that favours the elite

reverse mortgaging

If you have a home that's paid off - or almost paid off - a reverse mortgage can help you live better by providing a steady stream of dependable income.

This type of mortgage is called a reverse mortgage because instead of you paying the lender a certain amount per month for a certain number of years, the lender pays you. These payments are cash advances against the value of your home.

There are different kinds of reverse mortgages, but all of them are similar in certain ways. You continue to own your home just as you do with a normal mortgage. You pay the property taxes and are responsible for maintenance, homeowners insurance and property repairs.

At the end of the mortgage, you or your heirs must pay all of your cash advances plus interest. If you or your heirs cannot do this, the lender can foreclose on your house.

There are financing fees associated with a reverse mortgage just like with a forward mortgage. The money you get form the reverse mortgage can be used to pay these fees. These costs are added to your loan balance and must be paid back with interest when the loan is over.

How much money can you get with a reverse mortgage?

The monthly amount you get will depend on your age and the value of your home. Here's an example. One reverse mortgage currently available is the Federally-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage or HECM. Assuming you have a home worth $200,000 and owe nothing on it, an HECM could get you $641 a month for the rest of your life. Alternately, you could get a credit line account in the amount of $107,466 that you then could draw from whenever you wished. Or you could choose to get a single lump sum payment for the same $107,466.

Keep in mind that, as a rule, reverse mortgages are first mortgages. In this case, if you still owe any money on your home, you must pay off the old mortgage first. If you don't have the money to do this, you can usually use money from the reverse mortgage to pay off the old debt.

How much will you or your heirs end up owing?

The debt will equal all the cash advances you have received, plus all interest that is added to your loan balance. If that amount is less than your home is worth, you or your heirs get to keep the difference. The other good news is that you can never end up owing more than your house is worth at the time the loan is repaid.

If you are "house rich" but "cash poor," a reverse mortgage could help make your golden years more golden, However, make sure you read the loan papers carefully to be certain you understand all the loan's conditions.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/128247

start of something extraordinary

Three lenders cut some of their variable interest rates in the past week. Unsurprisingly, they did not include the major banks, but financial comparison website RateCity says it is “the start of something extraordinary”.

IMB cut one home loan by 0.05 percentage points, BMC Mortgage cut several loans by 0.10 percentage points and Holiday Coast Credit Union cut several loans by 0.20 percentage points.

RateCity said it was the first time it had recorded three lenders cutting variable home loan rates out-of-cycle.

"While there have been several rate increases out-of-cycle, we've never seen lenders drop variable home loan rates while the cash rate remains stable,” said RateCity spokesperson Michelle Hutchison.

"Lenders have room to move after keeping on average 0.42 percentage points of the Reserve Bank's 1.75 percentage point cut to the cash rate since November 2011 from variable home loan borrowers. If these three lenders can afford to cut variable rates out-of-cycle, other lenders - including the major banks - have no excuse to sit on their hands."

Hutchison said borrowers needed to take control of their home loan instead of waiting for a discount from their lender.

"This is the start of something extraordinary as it's likely to shake up the home loan market,” Hutchison said. “It opens the door for borrowers to expect better deals and more discounts without needing to wait for the Reserve Bank to lower the cash rate.

"But it will be up to borrowers to keep your lender in line with the competition: find out what interest rate you're paying, compare your home loan to the rest of the market and demand a discount from your lender or switch to a better deal.”

She said a 0.20 percentage point discount - for instance, for a $300,000 home loan dropping from 5.9% to 5.7% - could mean a saving of $456 per year or $13,680 over 30 years.

What you could buy with the gender pay gap

When President Obama mentioned the US gender pay gap during his State of the Union address last week, he declared his commitment to the Paycheck Fairness Act that would ensure women earn "a living equal to their efforts".

So far, it seems he's only referring to a pipe dream. According tonumbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2012 U.S women who worked full-time earned just 80.9% of the salaries of their male counterparts.

That adds up to approximately $10,784 in lost salary each year according to The National Partnership for Women and Families. It's a number that's dipped one full percentage point since 2011 and takes any progress in closing the American gender pay gap back all the way back to 2005.

Forbes has calculated the pay gap and come up with a few ideas on how women might spend the extra money based on their locations- and it isn't just a bit of pocketchange.

The $10,784 could see women afford:

• 1.7 years worth of groceries in Washington
• Mortgage and utilities for 4 months in New York
• Rent for 14 months in Wisconsin
• Family health insurance premiums for 3.7 years in Connecticut
• College tuition for three semesters at a State University in New York
• Nearly $800,000 in retirement savings (based on an assumed 25-year career)

In Australia, our numbers don't fare much better. The national gender pay gap hovers at around 17.5 %, and a report by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency in January found the Graduate gender pay gap had doubled since 2011, now sitting at $5000 per annum.

As of August 2012, the average full-time working woman took home $252.80 less per week than a male who also worked full-time. That's extra cash that could pay a week's rent in Sydney, or a few trips to the supermarket.

There's still a way to go until we reach gender pay equity. Until then, we can always dream.

Super!

Sadly, the 17.5% gender pay gap combined with breaks from the workforce associated with maternity leave means women are at a considerable disadvantage to men when it comes to the funds they have to retire on. A 2012 Suncorp-ASFA Super Attitudes Survey found women hold just 37% of Australia's total super account balances.

In line with International Women's Day, ASFA is encouraging women to start thinking about super. It's a big job given 81% of us "are not currently engaged" with our super, according to ASFA/Suncorp research. A new independent website called Super Guru, which provides information and tools to get the most out of their superannuation, should help.

According to Vamos, women need to accumulate $250,000 in super by the time they retire, in order to supplement the pension (giving them a total of $500,000). That's a lot of money to earn when you factor in career breaks, a slow start on salary and numerous debts associated with education, property and raising children. Indeed, for most of us it's almost impossible without making voluntary super contributions on top of compulsory savings.

For women planning to take two years out of the workforce while raising children, Vamos recommends they contribute an extra 1% over the course of their working life. She adds that while it'd be sensible for school-leavers to start making voluntary contributions – and she makes such contributions on behalf of her own daughters as a "Christmas present" each year – the reality is that most women will wait until they've finished university and joined the workforce in a full-time and secure capacity before making such contributions. All women, at least by the age of 25, should be considering their super.

So what can you do right now? Here's what ASFA recommends:

1. Roll you super accounts into one. You need to know your tax file number.
2. Get excited about your super. Check your account balance and insurance arrangements regularly, remembering that it's your money and you have the right to know how it's performing.
3. Build it up. Make voluntary contributions and pay an additional 1% if you've had/are considering having children.

Dominant driver of economy

The Resources Revolution is the dominant driver of the economy – and likely to remain so for many years. Cities and towns with export ports have a head start in generating growth.

Export ports are one of the nation’s greatest growth industries. Projects under way or in planning for new ports or expansions of existing ones total $82 billion