Welcome to the first installment of our Social Security series: An Introduction to Social Security. This article, and the others within our Social Security series, will focus on the particulars related to retirement and survivorship benefits.
Read MoreSearching online about how to retire and use your savings to live on in retirement turns up tons of information. There are articles about the percentage to take out, the taxes to be aware of, and the rules and regulations. The type of article that you probably won’t find is the one that puts these academic facts together with a person’s life considerations to try and offer a real plan of action for withdrawals. This Retirement Income Series of blog topics will seek to do that.
Read MoreWelcome back to our Retirement Income Series! Are you looking to retire and figure out what the retirement nest egg you’ve been building for all those years can do for you? In this article we’ll dive into the first step in the 4-step planning process that’s key to a retiree determining their own retirement income and withdrawal plan.
Read MoreWith your nest egg goal clearly defined, you are ready to move on to Step 2: figuring out how much money to take out and deciding what method is best suited. To determine which method is appropriate, we first need to know what methods are available. As it turns out, there are three methods that we will be covering among a number of withdrawal strategies that are available: 1) Budget Shortfall, 2) Portfolio Income and Gains, and 3) "Safe" Withdrawal Rate. Let's take a closer look at each of these methods so that you can understand how to apply them to your overall retirement income goal.
Read MoreTo effectively perform multi-year tax planning strategies, you need to start by looking at your overall income picture over your lifetime. Every single year is accounted for. Doing it this way creates a timeline that allows you to evaluate the bigger picture and identify where specific planning strategies along that timeline may help reduce your overall tax burden. Through this process, the goal is to determine which accounts to withdraw from and when based on your income and expense situation during various segments of time.
Read MoreThis article is entry #5 in our Retirement Income Series and is step #4 of a 4-step planning process that we employ, called “Getting to Know YOUR Retirement Building Blocks and When and How to Use Them for Maximum Effect."
Read MoreMechanics of Making Withdrawals is entry #6 in our Retirement Income Series. This article will focus on how to get money out of your nest egg. In addition, we will provide you with the knowledge you need to properly plan, organize, and structure your withdrawals so that you have an easy process to follow.
Read MoreThis article aims to provide the framework needed to understand how to take control of your RMDs throughout your retirement by teaching you what they are and how to calculate them. To tie everything together, we will illustrate why anticipating your RMDs can help you avoid the costliest mistakes, and then we will demonstrate how you can optimize your taxes with a little-known technique.
Read MoreSuppose you have a detailed financial plan and a strong projection that you will have a significant amount of money left after you depart this realm of existence. In that case, you may think of the best ways to use that wealth now and even after your departure. In this article, we will explore ideas and methods to use your wealth that you may not need after all.
This article marks the conclusion of our Retirement Income Series and is entry #8. To learn about the entire retirement income process from A-Z, we suggest going to our main resource page and starting from the beginning.
Read MoreA key component within the overall estate planning process is estate administration. Estate administration is the procedure by which a person’s financial dealings are managed and distributed to their heirs after they die. In other words, when a person with assets and property dies is when the estate administration process begins for the executor of the estate.
Read MoreEstate Planning can be complex and overwhelming, as there are many nuances to keep track of and potential pitfalls for the unaware. For that reason, it is best to consult with an attorney specializing in Estate Planning matters and seek their professional assistance in drafting documents. Even then, there are several estate planning matters that often get overlooked that no one warns you about. With that in mind, let’s look at the top 5 mistakes – detailed here:
Read MoreIf you are the kind of person that must plan ahead to ensure your family will have enough money to live on, AND you are not blessed with the gift of foresight, you’ve likely spent a few sleepless nights wondering if you have saved enough for retirement. To go along with those restless nights are a multitude of “what-ifs” that begin to creep in. With all that in mind, this article will explore a few rules of thumb and techniques used to estimate how much a retiree will need to have saved so that their nest egg lasts their lifetime.
Read MoreFor most investors at or nearing retirement, bonds have long been a place where you can go to get a secure and predictable stream of income. That experience that many have gone through since the 1980s is now being questioned as to whether it will continue for the years to come. The bond market through the first 3 quarters of 2022 has been historically bad and some would say doesn’t seem to offer much hope for the “bond-like” returns that we’ve grown accustomed to.
Read MoreAlas, the answer to the title question of this article is… it depends. I was tempted to say “yes” and make this a very quick read. However, I didn’t want to shatter anyone’s retirement dreams. As a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) practitioner, my goal is to do the opposite of that. Really, the honest way to assess this question is to examine if a retiree’s financial resources are enough to last them their lifetime. Doing so will go a long way towards determining whether or not they should consider unretiring during a stock market crash.
Read MoreYou took great advice from a friend years ago to open and start contributing to a Roth IRA. Over time you have employed other strategies like Roth Conversions and Backdoor Roth IRAs to boost your Roth IRA balances. Now it’s time to start drawing from those dollars. In a previous blog post, Roth IRA Owners Beware of the 5-Year Rule we touched on the 5-year Rule that must be adhered to in order to ensure that your distributions from your earnings are TAX FREE when you take them. Because after all, isn’t that the greatest benefit of owning a Roth IRA?
Read MoreYou’ve probably heard so much about “Asset Allocation” that you may have thought I left out “A” in the title by mistake. “Asset Location” is not talked about nearly as often but has the potential to impact the bottom-line of investment account performance. The premise behind this strategy is rather simple; some investments are more tax efficient than others.
Read MoreAs you prepare for retirement, a Roth IRA can be a wonderful way to build and grow your nest egg. The tax-free benefits previously discussed in our article, Why Choose a Roth IRA, are a major reason why investors gravitate towards owning a Roth IRA. However, the IRS is not in the habit of letting money just come and go willy-nilly, especially when it comes to tax-favored investment vehicles. Therefore, the Roth IRA has strict rules around contributions and withdrawals. This article focuses on one element of the withdrawal rules – the Roth IRA 5-year rule.
Read MoreThis must be an important topic because why else would the word MEGA be in the title? There’s Megatron - leader of the Decepticons, Mega Man of the video game series and state lotteries title their big jackpots as Mega Millions. So, this must be a BIG DEAL, right?
Well, it is and so much so that you’ll see political parties trying to ax this strategy every so often. But until that happens, it’s important to know what this is, how it works and when you would want to use this strategy.
Read MoreWhenever markets start to face some head winds, one of the most common questions to come thereafter becomes, “what to invest in during a recession?”. The easy answer is that there are no recession proof investments out there. The more realistic answer is that not all recessions are built the same way. Some recessions are due to pandemics, while others can be due to rising interest rates, a faulty housing dynamic, over extended stock markets, or a number of things.
Read MoreSo how does a disqualified Roth investor actually slip past the IRS? Their “backdoor way in” is, in a basic sense, a 2-step process.
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