Lifestyle funds or ETFs have been in the forefront in recent years. For some people they have definite value.

The concept behind retirement investing with lifestyle funds is that the fund manager does the work for you to allocate your money. The allocation is based on when you expect to retire.

The principles of the lifestyle funds are based on the age old concept of diversification and allocation of your investments according to your age. This philosophy basically revolves around the concept that when you are young you can take more risks with your money than when you are older.

There are a number of ways this allocation can work, but here are a few simple examples:

For 20 -35 year olds:

• US stocks – 60%
• Foreign stocks – 20%
• Bonds – 20%

For 40 – 50 year olds:

• US stocks – 50%
• Foreign stocks – 20%
• Bonds – 30%

For 50 – 65 year olds:

• US stocks – 40%
• Foreign stocks – 15%
• Bonds – 45%

For 66+ years of age:

• US stocks – 20%
• Foreign stocks – 10%
• Bonds – 70%

As you can see from the progression when the allocation changes the money manager puts your money into more stable and conservative choices. These choices are less risky. Even the choices of stocks become more stable, for example from stocks with high gain potential to stocks with some gain potential but ones that also issue dividends.

Lifestyle funds or etfs are offer by different brokers and families with the funds having names designating when they expire or your retire, for example

• Lifestyle 2020
• Lifestyle 2025
• Lifestyle 2030

Like any other stock or mutual fund choosing a lifestyle fund (ETF) requires a bit of research. Check out the performance for not just the last year but for a number of years. But check not just the fund for the year based on your projected retirement but also some of the earlier years or even later years. This will give you an idea of how the manager does in producing performance at different times.

And of course you want to compare a few different lifestyle families.

A different use of Lifestyle funds is to use them based on your own objectives, whether they be aggressive or conservative. This concept is based on the philosophy that is going to diversify your money in a manner that works with your risk level and concept of safe investing.

For example, if you want to be an aggressive investor, but don’t want to be watching the market all the time, you could invest in a Lifestyle fund based upon many years until retirement – i.e. 2050 – and every five years switch again to an ETF that is the most years away.

On the other hand if you want to play it super conservative you would pick a Lifestyle investment that is only five years away, something like 2015 or 2020.

If Lifestyle funds or ETFs interest you and you are not sure which ones to choose, you can still use an investment software program to help select and then monitor the performance. In this way you can easily compare one to another and be sure you are in the right one that meets your safe profitable investing objectives and that will produce the retire account you desire.

Private Investigators are always thinking about safety. It’s a big part of the job, and our awareness always has to be taking safety into consideration. For that reason, I recommend that if you’re going on a trip, you share the details of your trip with somebody who’s not going, and here are five reasons why.

1. Your Home is Safer.

When you’re away and your friend or a friendly neighbor knows it, that person can check on your house for you, make sure to pick up your newspaper so the house doesn’t look vacant, and even put on a porch light for you just before you return. In fact, you may consider installing timers on your lamps that will turn on and off your lamps around the house on various intervals so the house still looks lived in. You can stop the newspaper, but there’s no substitute for a friendly person looking out for you.

2. You’re Safer.

If your friends or family know your itinerary and you’ve made arrangements to call, they’ll know if you failed to show up at your destination within a reasonable amount of time. By the same token, if you don’t arrive home by a certain date, concerned friends and family members will try to reach you. If your car has broken down in a place with no traffic and a dead cell phone, having someone who knows when you’re supposed to be home could really be handy.

3. Reduces Stress.

Nobody wants a person worrying so much about their every move that they become more like busybodies than friendly helpers. But having a person who knows your plans can save a lot of stress. Let’s say, for example, that you decide to moderate your trip after you’ve left. Notifying someone at home can save on stress and unnecessary missing persons reports.

4. Social Media Stories.

Fun is a valid reason to do a lot of things, and if you’re the kind of person who likes to get your friends involved in your life, chronicling your trip on social media could be a lot of fun. Some people have made professional careers out of travel blogging, so why not stretch out a bit and show some pictures to your friends as you go? They’ll appreciate it, and it’ll feel almost like you’ve been on vacation together.

One word of caution, though. Share your trip on social media, but not necessarily your advance plans, at least not in any great detail. There are stalkers in the world looking for an easy target, so instead of giving your exact street address in Barcelona, you could simply tell your friends you’ll be staying in Barcelona. You do want one person to have your street address, just in case you need to be reached or you get waylaid on the way to your destination.

5. You Might Need a Pick-Up.

Don’t forget that you might just need a drop-off and pick-up at the airport. Sharing your travel plans with a trusted friend well in advance of your trip might just remind you to make those arrangements well in advance.

These are my reasons for encouraging people to share their travel plans with a trusted friend or two. Peace of mind is a precious commodity, especially on a trip.

Education is a stepping stone for increasing knowledge for personal and professional development. Thorough knowledge of education in a particular field gives a way to professional career or gives a path to start a promising business venture. But many professionals feel that due to time and job constraints’ attending a college for attaining higher education is not possible. There comes the idea of online education or distance learning.

Online education plays an important role in connecting students with colleges through online classes worldwide, despite of time, location, distance or any other barrier. It offers students an equally effective alternative to traditional class room learning. In recent years distance learning has evolved tremendously and become the most viable and hot option for students and even working professionals to attain higher education degrees. Due to great flexibility and ease in study through online mediums working individuals are enrolling more for online learning.

Internet has completely changed the way in which education is being delivered with the focus remain the same that students get a good learning environment. Many top universities, colleges, education institutes provide internationally recognized online courses.

Value and Effectiveness of Online Education

Online education provides the same value and effectiveness as class rooms practical classes. The main factor in making an online education valuable is the learner’s dedication and sincerity, and suitable support from the institution. Universities provide filed experts to prepare online education curriculums and study material, so that online students get the same high quality education and training like the traditional ones.

There are many advantages of distance or online learning and degree courses. Not only students but many professionals on different levels can be benefited from it. Online education is broadly acknowledged as being just as helpful and valuable as the classroom knowledge. It provides flexibility of program completion time, exam time, training place as per student’s convenience. With the help of internet online students gets the same knowledge being given in traditional classroom teaching. Like with the help of videoconferencing the college lecturers and students can interact, discuss the course material and even solve the issues students are facing.

The cost of education in case of online is less than the traditional ones. Professionals can earn from their job while completing their education courses online. Other cost savings are done in transportation, hostel fees. Also, if anyone wants to take course from universities located in different state or even different country can take easily online, without locating to that particular place.