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9 Issues You Should Consider Before Retiring

If you’re nearing retirement, you’re moving into a period of tremendous change, with a lot of critical decisions in front of you. The plan you set now will ensure that you’re able to enjoy the life you’ve worked hard for.

The Right Advice for Tax Efficient Income in Retirement

How You Can Maximize the Tax Benefit of Your Charitable Giving

Here's how to donate to charities, get pre-tax money out of your IRA, and pay 0% tax while lowering future required minimum distributions.

2021 Year - End Checklist

Silver Lining to Inflation: Social Security COLA

If there is a "silver lining" to all the inflation talk, it may be that Social Security benefits are expected to see a larger-than-normal increase in 2022. Preliminary estimates call for a 4.7% cost-of-living increase (COLA) in Social...

Want tax-free income in retirement? Consider after-tax plan contributions in your 401(k).

If you are interested in creating and growing a stream of tax-free income in retirement, don’t overlook after-tax contributions in your company retirement plan. For employees who participate in their employer’s 401(k),...

Have You Left Your Employer? Should you Rollover, Stay Put, or Withdraw your Retirement Plan?

As Featured in: We had a client come in recently with an old 401(k) plan notification in hand. This account was left at a company he had terminated employment from back in 2001 and has had no contact with since. In the ensuing years,...

Inheriting Your Spouse's IRA, a Cautionary Tale

With compassion, we would like to share a story with you. About a year ago we had a prospect named Jill come into our office. She was tragically widowed several years ago at the age of 52. She had three children, two who were in...

SECURE your IRA - Review your Beneficiary Forms Now

When it comes to your retirement accounts, do you know who your beneficiaries are? These types of accounts have complex distribution rules and significant tax implications for those who inherit them. This complexity is compounded if...

How to Grow and Protect Your After-Tax Wealth in Retirement

In retirement, with the possible exception of healthcare, taxes may prove to be your largest expense. Controlling the amount of tax you ultimately pay will help you maximize and grow your income and help your wealth last longer. Once...

Inheriting an IRA as a Non-Spouse is Now More Complicated

Pre-tax retirement accounts are a fairly new retirement planning tool all things considered. It wasn’t until 1975 that the Traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs) first became available. And in 1981 the Internal Revenue...

The Tax Bomb Called the Widow's Penalty

As Featured In: The widow’s penalty is often an unexpected and unwelcome surprise to a surviving spouse who has not had to deal with the disadvantages of being a single tax filer in decades but now faces a higher tax liability...

How to Get Financially Organized and Conquer Your Paper Piles

If you are looking at a mountain of paperwork, you might be tempted to toss it in the trash, but doing so could cause problems down the road. Schedule some time to look at each document and sort them out.

Checklist for Estate Planning: Review Estate Planning Documents

Because your estate is continuously changing and the circumstances that affect your estate can shift over time, it is important to keep a close watch on your estate plan and make adjustments as needed. This checklist can help you cover all

Avoiding Non-Spouse Beneficiary Mistakes in 5 Easy Steps

How can I avoid making costly mistakes when I inherit an IRA from a person who was notmy spouse? Inheriting an IRA can be a financial windfall, but it’s important to understand the complex,specific rules that apply to non-spouse...

Year-End Cash Management for Every Household

Having too much without having too little cash on hand at the end of the year is a great balancing act. As the year draws to a close, take the necessary time to plan so you can relax and celebrate the holidays with confidence.

Buckets of Money

Structuring your savings into different “buckets” can be an effective way to manage risk, not only market and withdrawal risk, but for inflation and longevity risk as well!

8 Ways to Boost Your Retirement Savings

Putting off planning is the most common regret among retirees today. Setting a goal for yourself and working toward it incrementally and diligently is the best way to begin boosting your retirement savings today.

End of the Year Tax Planning for Retirees

As a retiree, you’ve done well for yourself and your accumulated funds are a testament to your hard work. Proper and strategic end of year tax planning will allow you to further make the most of what you have.

How to Protect Yourself From a Data Breach

The right data in the wrong hands can cause a great deal of damage to your reputation and your bottom line. The best way to protect yourself from a data breach is to be aware, pay attention, and take action quickly.

Common Financial Scams and How to Avoid Them

Unfortunately, financial scams are growing even more prevalent these days and can cause a great deal of harm. Your best defense against financial fraud is a good offense. Keep your usernames, passwords, and account data closely guarded.

Should You Skip Required Minimum Distributions for 2020?

Allowing retirees to skip RMD payments can be advantageous in that it provides a tremendous opportunity for them to recoup losses from the drop in the market. So if you do not need the money to live on, you may want to let it stay put.

Debunking the Myth of Lower Taxes in Retirement

https://www.forbes.com/sites/garrettgunderson/2020/07/23/debunking-the-myth-of-lower-taxes-in-retirement/?sh=16ebcb7a5cd8 As Featured In: If you want to build wealth, it is your responsibility to save on taxes legally and ethically....

When Should You Claim Your Social Security Benefits?

Many wonder when the best time to claim Social Security benefits is. The truth is, that’s a complex question. There are as many different answers as there are strategies for claiming benefits. The right answer depends on the individual.

Why You Must Resist the Urge to Let Instincts, Current Trends, or Emotions Guide Your Investing Deci

When the pressure is on—for good or for bad—the individual investor tends to make reactive choices.By letting their emotions take the lead, they usually end up costing themselves a lot of money over time.

How Baby Boomers Can Gain Clarity and Confidence About Retirement

Retirement will happen one way or another; to make it as successful and fulfilling as possible, educating oneself on the basics of retirement planning and actively planning for it must be the top priority as one heads into the transition.

Diversification Is the Most Commonly Violated Investment Principle

No matter how much or how little risk you’re willing to take on as an investor, it is crucial to have a properly diversified portfolio. Diversification is one of the most violated principles but one of the most crucial to financial success.

How Visualizing Your Retirement Can Help You Set Financial Goals

Organized goal setting and having a clear vision of what you want for your future is not only an important part of retirement planning, it is absolutely essential to achieving the kind of retirement you dream of.

How You Approach Retirement Planning Makes a Difference in Your Financial Future

The retirement income planning process can be extensive but is too important to simply “hope for the best.” Don’t let fear tempt you into avoiding the problem or running away. You can reach your goals if you stay willing to learn.

Can impeachment cause a market crash?

Can impeachment cause a market crash? Key Takeaways Impeachments are rare events. Limited history shows that the stock markets, over the long term, are less focused on political drama and more on the overall strength of the US economy....

Got HSA? 5 Reasons to Fund a Health Savings Account

Ask the average person contemplating retirement for one of their top concerns after they stop working, chances are they’ll say something about being able to afford healthcare. And its a very rational concern! The Baby Boomer...

Partial Roth Conversions: Accelerating Income to Avoid Higher Tax Brackets

Beginning in 1998, taxpayers have been permitted to both contribute to a Roth IRA (subject to income limits), and to convert existing assets in a traditional pre-tax IRA to a Roth IRA. In 2006, under the Pension Protection Act, the...

What You Don't Know About RMDs May Hurt You

Anyone with a retirement account, such as a 401(k), Roth 401(k), 403(b), 457 plan, and most IRAs (but not Roth IRAs), will have to deal with something called required minimum distributions at some point during their retirement. A...

Our Philosophy, the Economy and the Markets:  2018 in Review

Every successful investor we’ve ever known was acting continuously on a plan; failed investors, in our experience, get that way by reacting to current events in the economy and the markets. We neither forecast the economy, nor attempt to ti

What Should You Do?

It’s been a wild few weeks in the markets, some people are surprised, while some are concerned. Some people will be proactive, and others will be reactive. What should you do?

Retirement and the Taxes you Pay

When creating income from your investments in retirement, the sequencing of your withdrawals, along with the decisions you make regarding how and when to claim social security along with some other pertinent factors, can have a large...

Have I Saved Enough to Retire?

Our experience of over 20 years tells us that pre-retirees are confused about how to go about determining the amount they need to accumulate in order to be “ready” to retire. . We are all aware of the importance of saving...

Retirement: The Big Transition Requires an Income Plan

The transition into retirement is one of the biggest and most impactful transitions of a person’s life. The only bigger transition, in fact, is the eventual decline of health along with the progression into old age. With a...

Have You Considered Growing Your Income in Retirement?

Most pre-retirees and recent retirees tend to focus on the risks of investing in the stock markets rather than what we believe is a more important risk to manage, protecting your purchasing power! To understand the importance of...

Is Your Retirement Portfolio Following the Fundamentals?

There is never a one size fits all answer to this question! There is, however, several fundamentals that all successful investors should follow. These fundamentals become even more important to execute as you approach retirement. When...

You the Market and the Prices you Pay

When it comes to investing (or anything in life worth doing well) it helps to know what you’re facing. In this case, that’s “the market.” How do you achieve every investor’s dream of buying low and selling high in a crowd of highly resource

Longevity and Retirement Income

What’s Wrong with the Conventional Wisdom for Investing in Retirement? It is not uncommon for us to hear from a prospective client “I’m getting closer to retirement, shouldn’t I be moving my money into something more conservative?”

Market Volatility in Recent News

This is a message of hope! Hope grounded in historical facts, combined with a pragmatic and admittedly limited view of where we are today, and a simple actionable plan forward. And in no way is it meant to be political in nature.