Wise Money Retirement

One of the primary goals of retirement planning is to figure out how to use your retirement assets in the best way to generate the income you'll need after you stop working. But to do this, it is important to have a pretty good idea as to the amount of income you'll actually need. Estimating this is not a simple matter because there are so many things to consider. How much income will you need to pay your bills and essential living expenses? What amount do you want to spend for travel, pursuing hobbies and living your retirement dreams? How might your needs for income change over time as you age? What rate of inflation should you assume in your planning? These and other factors mean that the exact amount of income you'll want to try to plan for is not static. Instead, it's fluid and ever-changing. Therefore, establishing accurate future income targets is a complex, but necessary component to sound retirement income planning. A good financial advisor will typically spend hours, with the help of sophisticated computer programs to narrow all of this down to realistic lifetime income objectives. Once this is done, the planning job shifts to figuring out the best way to marshal all retirement assets so that they can produce this required income. But there are many so-called professionals out there who will tell you that it's easy to cut through all this clutter and complexity by instead using a simple retirement rule of thumb. The advice is… "You'll need 70 to 80 percent of the income you made in your final years of employment in order to live a comfortable retirement." Well, that's easy enough. Or is it?

There is a very definite and unbreakable connection between risk and reward. Choose a financial instrument that helps provide greater potential returns, and you inevitably increase the degree that your money will be subject to investment loss. If instead you chose safety and protection over growth, expect the compromise of lower rates of return. Many retirees become frustrated as they search for the "perfect" investment that breaks this rigid risk and reward connection. Any time you hear of people getting taken advantage of and becoming the targets of fraud and financial abuse, it is typically because they wanted to believe there is some magical way to get high returns with no risk. Unfortunately, such excellence does not exist in the world of investing. And the more a person searches for this false perfection and refuses to recognize the unyielding relationship between risk and reward, the harder it will be to achieve retirement security.

4 Steps to a Better Retirement Plan Do you have your retirement date set, or have you already retired? And how about your financial plan…. Do you have things squared away? Or are you still working on putting all the pieces together? Creating a financial plan for retirement can be a tough job. There are a lot of moving parts and a ton of uncertainty that you'll have to consider. We want to help you with some easy tips that you can follow to create a better retirement plan. These 4 areas of retirement planning are all areas that we see a certain level of misunderstanding. When we consult with clients and prospective clients each and every week, and in our daily discussions with retirees and pre-retirees, these are the areas that we see people simply get it wrong. So, today on the show we have identified 4 steps for you to take to make sure you create a better, more confident, financial plan! You still need a paycheck during retirement to live comfortably. Some people will have Social Security and/or a pension. But most people won't have enough of a paycheck to keep the same standard of living. And that group of people will be forced to take the supplemental income they need from their retirement savings nest egg. To understand your budget and income needs make sure your money is aligned with your objectives, and what your monthly income "shortfall" may be. Once you understand your shortfall and how much income your retirement savings nest egg needs to generate. Then create an effective income withdrawal and investment strategy. This is the monthly paycheck that you need still after your Social Security check and/or pension check comes in. If you still don't have enough monthly income after those income sources arrive because your budget calls for more, than you have a shortfall.

Strategic Roth IRA Conversion How would you like to switch your retirement savings to an account that grows tax-free? You can make tax-free withdrawals from the account. And you can leave a tax-free inheritance to your heirs. Right now, there are no restrictions on converting to this tax-free oasis. So, if you're considering a Roth IRA conversion you are going to want to think taxes. Like most people, your taxable income is fixed and tied directly to your paychecks. However, the day you retire those paychecks end. But, the degree of control you may have over your tax may improve. Now you can manage the amount of income you will have to report to Uncle Sam. You'll have control other things that determine your taxable income. It's pretty much up to you as to how much money you withdraw each year from your retirement accounts. How to Decide? You decide if you want to start your Social Security benefits as early as age 62, or delay those benefits, and any associated taxes they might trigger. It's entirely up to you as to when you might sell any stocks in your brokerage account, taxed at lower capital gains tax rate, if you want more income. Best of all, if you have some money in a Roth IRA, by now you may have fulfilled the requirements allowing you to take withdrawals … entirely free from income taxes. Any income that is tax-free will surely bring a tear to Uncle Sam's eye. Don't have a Roth IRA? It may not be too late. In fact, those first five or so years after you stop working may be a great opportunity to convert some of the money in your taxable retirement accounts to a tax-free Roth. One very important thing to consider is that you'll have to pay tax on the money you convert. There's no free lunch here. Every tax dollar you are forced to pay now because of any conversion will certainly be painful, but just remember that paying this tax today could save you or your heirs many more tax dollars in the future. However, the day you retire and those paychecks end, the degree of control you may have over your taxes might improve dramatically. It's a great time for some advance planning because now you can better manage the amount of income you will have to report to Uncle Sam each time April 15th rolls around. You have control other many things that determine your taxable income. It's pretty much up to you as to how much money you withdraw each year from your retirement accounts. You decide if you want to start your Social Security benefits as early as age 62, or delay those benefits, and any associated taxes they might trigger. It's entirely up to you as to when you might sell any stocks in your brokerage account, taxed at lower capital gains tax rate, if you want more income. Best of all, if you have some money in a Roth IRA, by now you may have fulfilled the requirements allowing you to take withdrawals … entirely free from income taxes. Any income that is tax-free will surely bring a tear to Uncle Sam's eye. Don't have a Roth IRA? It may not be too late. In fact, those first five or so years after you stop working may be a great opportunity to convert some of the money in your taxable retirement accounts to a tax-free Roth.

Don't Out Live Your Money With These Helpful Tips A common question people ask is, "Do I have enough to money to retire?" The subtext is, "Could I run out of money before I die?" It's only natural for a pre-retiree or someone who has just recently retired to wonder if they will make it through. I've never met anyone who told me that they wanted to become a burden to their children later in life. Or that they wanted to run out of money and live in poverty in the final days that they have left. If you want to make it all the way through retirement, make sure you develop a plan longevity risks. Today, we want to discuss some tips that could help you make sure you wont out live your money. One of people's biggest fears is that they will run out of money before they die. It's really a normal fear, and for good reason. There are several risks that make the possibility that you will go through your entire life savings too quickly a reality. We have 4 tips to help people not out live their money. #1 - Be careful following the 4 Percent withdrawal rule This tip involves spending money you have saved a lifetime for. Many retirees today might use Social Security and pensions supplemented with regular withdrawals from their savings. A strategy that many financial advisors tend to follow is called the "4 Percent withdrawal" rule. It was created over 20 years ago and says do not take out more than 4 percent of your saving out. However, the 4 Percent assumes that 50-75% of your savings are invested in stocks. Inflation could be higher than the 3 percent historical norm. Market performance could be poor. You could also live longer than you thought you would, or you planned for.