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Enjoy Retirement by Recreating a New Mental Outlook
Retirement is our third phase of life. Our first phase found us growing up and becoming educated to make a living. In the Second phase we create a family and the wealth to support and raise the kids through their own first phase. we need to recreate our outlook for our third phase to reap a new opportunity for enjoyment and avoid the depression and loss of purpose that many retirees feel. This article addresses how you can do just that.
It's Never Too Late to Create an Agreeable Retirement
If you're a Boomer or fast approaching retirement age but you're far behind in retirement savings, don't give up. You can still pull together a retirement that you can enjoy. With perseverance, planning, and sacrifice, you can retire in relative comfort even with a late start. In this article I show you how to set up a strategy for achieving a good retirement by maximizing your retirement income and minimizing your living expenses.
Medical Tourism - Going Off-Shore for Less Expensive but Quality Procedures
With the cost of U.S. healthcare increasing, finding alternatives that lower costs come into play. If you require a hospital procedure that's too expensive for you, consider going off-shore. There you can find quality care at significantly reduced prices. This article introduces you to taking the off-shore alternative called Medical Tourism. I explain what it means and who's taking advantage of it.
IRAs and Qualified Plans Offer Limited Asset Protection
You can lose your assets to creditors (whom you've borrowed from), to claims under divorce or paternity suits, to trumped-up claims against your deep pockets, or to government for taxes owed. What you have in your IRA or other qualified plan has some asset protection. But federal and state laws together determine when and how much protection those assets actually have - and from whom. That's what this article addresses.
A Self-directed IRA: the Pros and Cons
Government rules allow use of your IRA for more types of investments than banks and mutual fund companies allow. But you must steer clear of violation self-dealing rules for those nonconventional IRA investments. But, taxation of IRAs obliterates the tax-advantages of some alternative investments. This article overviews nonconventional investments, tax rules and restrictions, and suggests reasons for and against investing in them.
Allocate to Achieve a Goal and Rebalance to Maintain It
Entering retirement is a good time to strategize on how best to allocate your resources to achieve your goals. Maintaining your strategy will keep you on track. In this article I'll review the basics of allocation.
Which Type Of Life Insurance Suits You?
The ultimate reason for buying life insurance is for paying a benefit (i.e. a dollar amount) to a beneficiary when you die. It can also help you save money. Life insurance policies take one of several basic types. This article summarizes each type and some of the benefits it offers to your situation.
Term Insurance and Terms You Need to Understand
Insurance companies charge you premiums based on your health and age. When you buy life insurance to cover you for only a set number of years, the insurance companies offer you different types of premium options to pay for your coverage. This article explains some key words that insurance companies use to characterize these premium types. Understanding them is critical to recognizing the possible cost and length of your coverage.
How to Let Medicaid Pay for Your Long Term Care
'Medicaid Planning' has come to mean planning to transfer your assets to loved ones in order to qualify for Medicaid coverage of your long term care (LTC) costs. That's because annual nursing home costs about $75,000 nationwide and can easily eat through assets and savings. This article explains some key issues involved in arranging to let Medicaid pay for your long term care.
Annuities Help Retirees Secure An Income for Later in Retirement
One aspect to living is that we never know when we'll die. Having saved money for their retirement income, retirees often worry that they'll outlive their savings since life expectancies are increasing. An annuity is an investment that is uniquely addressed to providing income for life. This article shows how you can use an annuity to assure yourself a future income if you live longer than you planned.
Income Taxation of Annuities, When and On What?
An annuity is both a contract with an insurance company and an investment. Your contributions (often called premium payments) to it are invested to produce earnings. This article explains when and what is taxed as income under annuitization, withdrawals, and gifts of your annuity.
How to Calculate Your Minimum Required Distribution If You Own an IRA
An IRA owner is the person who started and contributed to his IRA. As an owner, you must take a minimum required distribution (MRD) from your traditional IRA or non-deductible each year after reaching 701/2. This article explains the MRD rules for IRA owners only - not for beneficiary owners who have slightly different rules.
Your Remaining Life Expectancy for Retirement Planning
How long will you statistically live? You probably think that statistically you'll live to about 75. But that's somewhat of a misconception. Having a better idea on what life expectancy means will help you better project how many years of retirement you need to plan for. And clearing up what life expectancy means to you is what this article is about.
Different Tax Treatments Suggest an Order for Tapping Your Sources of Income
By the time you hit retirement, you've probably acquired a variety of savings and income assets. From these you'll withdraw income to live on and enjoy your retirement years. But because the tax treatment of your various assets differs, you should know that ordering how you withdraw from them can help preserve them longer. In this article I suggest a sequential order you should withdraw from the six common assets categories and why.
Keep Your Wealth Longer by Withdraw Income from Your IRA or 401(k) Only After Using Up Your Taxable
As a retiree you've probably accumulated savings in both IRA-type retirement accounts and regular taxable accounts. You'll withdraw from them for your annual living expense. But the different tax treatments that apply to IRA-type and regular taxable accounts make it confusing about which type you should withdraw from first. Below I'll show that withdrawing from your taxable accounts first allows you to preserve your wealth longer.
Holding Time Makes Tax-advantaged Retirement Accounts Much Better Than Regular Taxable Accounts
Because of the income tax rates imposed on withdrawals from government-regulated retirement savings plans - like IRAs - you may think that they're not all that much better than using regular taxable accounts. Below I'll show how your IRA-type account can eventually put a lot more in your pocket.
Withdraw Conservatively While Investing Aggressively to Preserve Your Income and Portfolio's Purchas
Since you have a 50% chance of living more than 20 years at age 65, you really must plan to avoid dipping into principal until you're quite old. But inflation over this time will eat into your principal. In this article I'll show you just how conservatively you must withdraw income from your savings and how aggressively you must invest your savings to maintain the purchasing power of both your withdrawal income and your savings portfolio.
3 Serious Health Questions You Must Answer Before Others Do - When You Can't
Strokes and dementia can put you at the whim of someone else's decisions about your health care. To keep control of your own health-related decisions when you become incapacitated you must create distinct medical directives that answer how you'll be treated when incapacitated, when relying on life-sustaining equipment, and when you should be resuscitated. In the following I explain what each of these directives mean.
Know the 7 Key Parameters of Long Term Care Insurance
Our chance for needing long term care (LTC) increases the longer we live. Directly paying for LTC can easily deplete an average person's estate leaving a beneficiary with no legacy. You can purchase LTC insurance to protect your legacy. But you must understand if the 7 key parameters of your policy will do the trick for you. These are explained below.
3 Strategies for Using Your IRA to Invest in Real Estate
With real estate prices depressed and a lot of wealth sitting in qualified plans, you may wonder how you can use that wealth to invest in real estate. In this article I offer considerations and strategies for using your IRA to position yourself in real estate for your future benefit.
Inflation Will Erode Over Half Your Income after 25 Years of Retirement - Unless You Invest Right
Sixty-five year olds have a remaining life expectancy of about 20 years. And that means 50% will live even longer. So you should plan for your retirement income to last for at least 25 years. By all measures, inflation will take a big bite of a dollar's purchasing power over that time. Below, I review inflation's effect and the amount of portfolio growth you'll need to maintain your purchasing power in your withdrawal income.
Four Investments Carry 'Government' Asset Protection - But with Limitations
Protecting your assets from unfair or unjust complaints is an important part of financial and estate planning. But before constructing a comprehensive asset protection plan, you should know what protection the government offers for 4 investment categories. Below, I overview from whom you are - and are not- protected and some limitations for these 4 investments categories: qualified plans, life insurance, annuities, and your homestead.
Use a Power of Attorney and a Medical Directive to Appoint Someone You Trust to Act on Your Behalf
Dementia and other mental disabilities destroy our ability to act for ourselves - such as handling our financial and medical decisions. If you haven't assigned someone to make those decisions for you, someone else will - and may not make the kind of decisions you'd like. But you can only choose someone to act for you when you're mentally competent. So, below, I discuss the type of powers of attorney you can assign to anyone to act for you.
Six Answers about You and Long Term Care
Long term care of elderly is everyone's concern since it will most likely affect you or your loved one. In this article I'll respond to 6 questions that encompass your long term care (LTC) concerns: 1. What is LTC? 2. Who needs LTC? 3. Who provides help for LTC? 4. What's the cost of LTC? 5. Who pays for LTC? 6. What should you do about LTC?
Know Your Retirement Health Phases To Optimize Lifestyle Choices at Minimum Expense
Our health and activity level passes through 3 phases during retirement. And that'll alter our living options and expenses. By recognizing this, you can modify your living expenses now to suit your wishes and happiness. I'll outline these phases and the actions you can take to optimize your lifestyle choices by minimizing your expenses.
Plan Not To Be Gouged By Estate Taxes in 2011
Just because the Estate Tax has been phased out in 2010, don't be lulled into thinking it won't be back with a vengeance. On the books, it's slated to return with only a $1 million exemption. Efforts to get rid of it altogether have failed. The government will be looking for more money anyway now anyway. The following give you the full picture and how to prepare for it.
12 Things To Consider Before Moving Off Shore
Living offshore (in a country other than the U.S.) can lower your living expenses and give you a better climate to enjoy. If you're thinking about moving offshore, do your research on the issues below for the country(s) you choose to move to.
Medicare - What's It All About?
Medicare is a government regulated healthcare program for those 65 and older. We'll all be on it, so it's important to understand how it works. In this article I summarize the different parts and coverages that come under the Medicare program.
Know What Asset Protection Is All About
Asset protection seeks to protect your assets from being taken under an unfair or unjust court action against you. In this article I'll orient you to the nature of such court actions, how they're enforced, and protection strategies to address them.
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