"Middle Class" = $50,000 Per Year (Paycheck to Paycheck)

Outstanding article with data that you need to be aware of.  Dennis

How many Americans live paycheck to paycheck? A nation living precariously close to the financial edge.

The fuel that drives our economy is spending. There are few nations that rival our ability to spend. We spend with the gusto of a shop-a-holic. The assumption is that we simply have the money lying around to spend at this level. That is simply not the case since most Americans are flat broke by most standard definitions. For example, I was reading through the recent Money magazine and found that 55 percent of households making $100,000 a year or less are living paycheck to paycheck. This is the bulk of our entire nation. The median household income in the US is $50,000. This was from the most recent survey conducted this month! The economic recovery is now going into its fifth year yet Americans are no closer to planning for a stable retirement. Most Americans arenot adequately planning and preparing for retirement. In fact, a retirement train wreck is barreling down on us. If 55 percent of households are living paycheck to paycheck, then stashing money away for the far away future is probably not on their immediate radar. We have become a nation that is precariously living on the financial edge.

1.5 Million Per Year...

...for the next 15 years! That's what I call a market!  Dennis

There Go The Baby Boomers

America's 65-and-older population is growing rapidly thanks to the aging Baby Boom generation.

This means more and more people are dropping out of the labor force and spending less and less money.

"The retirement wave is just starting," notes Gluskin Sheff's David Rosenberg. "This is the primary reason for the secular decline in the participation rate. Indeed, from 2010 to 2013, more than 60% of labor force dropouts were retirees — more than double the share for the prior three years."

Graphically, the trend is breathtaking.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-boomers-turning-65-2014-3#ixzz2xlmxgQYk

Long-Term Joblessness

From full-time employment to part-time...it's happening everywhere!  If you can present a realistic solution to create a full-time income, how many people are going to listen? Answer: LOTS!  Dennis

Why long-time unemployed can’t get back on track

After long job searches, some only find part-time work

On the 10th month of her job search, Lori DeSousa, who had been applying for marketing jobs, walked into her local Walgreens to ask about a part-time job as a cashier.

It was January and her unemployment benefits had just been canceled after Congress failed to extend them at the end of last year. “I needed to get a job or we would have lost our home,” said DeSousa, 43, who was going through her second bout of long-term joblessness in four years.

Studies show that once a person is out of the job market for longer than six months, they face a slimmer chance of finding stable work. Only 11% of the long-term unemployed find permanent, full-time work a year later, according to a research paper by Alan Krueger and other economists from Princeton University. It’s more likely that those job seekers will find unsteady work, with 14% of job hunters finding part-time work and 11% landing temporary work more than a year after losing their jobs. ( Study: Are the Long-Term Unemployed on the Margins of the Labor Market? )

The Middle Class: A Question. An Answer. A Suggestion.

QUESTION:  Where do most of the VERY successful network marketing distributors come from? 
ANSWER: The Middle Class
SUGGESTION: Talk everyone you know like the ones I've highlighted in red below! Ask them if they are looking for a financial solution.

More Americans see middle class status slipping

WASHINGTON (AP) — A sense of belonging to the middle class occupies a cherished place in America. It conjures images of self-sufficient people with stable jobs and pleasant homes working toward prosperity.

Yet nearly five years after the Great Recession ended, more people are coming to the painful realization that they're no longer part of it.

They are former professionals now stocking shelves at grocery stores, retirees struggling with rising costs and people working part-time jobs but desperate for full-time pay. Such setbacks have emerged in economic statistics for several years. Now they're affecting how Americans think of themselves.

READ THIS VERY IMPORTANT ARTICLE

What Do Your Prospects Earn?

Knowing what most people earn on a means-average basis helps to determine how you present the business opportunity.  In other words, for someone earning $4-5,000 a month, an extra $1,000 is HUGE and will certainly get their attention.  Why use earnings figures that are completely unrealistic to someone earning $40-50,000 a year?  Use your common sense!  Dennis

OCCUPATIONAL EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES

Retail salespersons and cashiers were the occupations with the largest employment in May 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. These two occupations combined made up nearly 6 percent of total U.S. employment, with employment levels of 4.5 million and 3.3 million, respectively. National employment and wage information for all occupations is shown in table 1.

The data in this release are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program, which provides employment and wage estimates by area and by industry for wage and salary workers in 22 major occupational groups, 94 minor occupational groups, 458 broad occupations, and 821 detailed occupations.

Click here for BLS report, including charts:

How's It Going Today?

Remember, there's always somebody who has it worse than you... Dennis

The Choice is Yours

You can either LOWER your taxes or RAISE your income level.  Which do you have more control over?  Dennis

A List Of 97 Taxes Americans Pay Every Year

If you are like most Americans, paying taxes is one of your pet peeves. The deadline to file your federal taxes is coming up, and this year Americans will spend more than 7 billion hours preparing their taxes and will hand overmore than four trillion dollars to federal, state and local governments. Americans will fork over nearly 30 percent of what they earn to pay their income taxes, but that is only a small part of the story.

As you will see below, there are dozens of other taxes that Americans pay every year.  Of course not everyone pays all of these taxes, but without a doubt we are all being taxed into oblivion.  It is like death by a thousand paper cuts.  Our politicians have become extremely creative in finding ways to extract money from all of us, and most Americans don't even realize what is being done to them.  By the time it is all said and done, a significant portion of the population ends up paying more than half of what they earn to the government.  That is fundamentally wrong, but nothing will be done about it until people start demanding change.  The following is a list of 97 taxes Americans pay every year...

#1 Air Transportation Taxes (just look at how much you were charged the last time you flew)

#2 Biodiesel Fuel Taxes

#3 Building Permit Taxes

#4 Business Registration Fees

#5 Capital Gains Taxes

#6 Cigarette Taxes

#7 Court Fines (indirect taxes)

#8 Disposal Fees

#9 Dog License Taxes

#10 Drivers License Fees (another form of taxation)