At first glance, this might sound like a rhetorical question — of course things are different! But let me tell you, the answer isn’t as simple as you might think. When I first entered this business back in 2006, retirement planning looked very different. We built every plan by hand — I’m talking budgets, calculators,…
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Your account statement might say you earned 10%, but is that really what you get to keep? Not exactly. Once taxes and inflation step onto the scene, the picture changes—sometimes drastically. For example, let’s say your tax rate is 40% and inflation is 3%. That 10% return suddenly shrinks to an after-tax, real return of…
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Retirement accounts and trusts…Could be like oil and water. If you have a substantial retirement account like an IRA or 401(k), it’s not uncommon to want to name a trust as a beneficiary. There are a number of reasons. Maybe you have underage children. Perhaps you are concerned that your heirs would spend everything the…
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Think back to the last time you took a vacation. Do you recall how much time you spent deciding your destination, where you would stay, transportation, dining, and activities for your trip? It may surprise you to know that travelers typically spend an average of 303 minutes (over 5 hours) PER DAY on travel content…
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Wait…That doesn’t sound right! Retirement years are supposed to be “the easy years,” right? There is a saying (paraphrased) that states that what messes up most in life is the picture in our head of how things are supposed to be. Retirement is a prime example of this. We assume that if we work hard,…
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For many Americans, putting money back into a retirement account such as a 401(k) or traditional IRA has been their primary choice to save for retirement. After all, most company plans offer some sort of matching incentive based on what you contribute and your contributions are deducted from your taxable income. In fact, you may…
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Everything is so expensive! Can I still retire? For most of the last 30 years, we Americans have lived in a bubble where no one really understood first-hand what inflation was. There were a couple years from 1991-2020 that the cost of living increased by over 4%, but for most of these years the cost…
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Recently I was speaking with a client about how important it is to take preventative measures in regard to health – eating right, exercising, and taking the right supplements. People are living longer than ever before, but that doesn’t mean we are living healthier than ever before, which can prove to be a double whammy.…
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The word “guarantee” most often breeds two responses— Sigh of relief…Safety Is this too good to be true??? I think it’s safe to say that anyone facing imminent retirement today or anyone who has been retired for quite some time would tell you that they would love to see the success of their retirement guaranteed.…
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Across most of the world, our American work ethic is perceived as crazy. There was an article in Business Insider called, 11 American Work Habits Other Countries Avoid at All Costs.1. It named these: Crazy long hours Very little vacation time Not enough family leave Americans eat at their desk Breaks during the day are…
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