A question we are often asked is, “What should we be doing before we retire?” One of the most important things to do is to start practicing retirement now. Too many people enter retirement unprepared. Don’t let that be you. Here are the top five must reads to help you start practicing your retirement: Power…
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Let’s start with a reminder of what a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) is: A required minimum distribution (RMD) is the amount of money that must be withdrawn from an employer-sponsored retirement plan, traditional IRA, SEP, or SIMPLE individual retirement account (IRA) by owners and qualified retirement plan participants of retirement age.1 The main question here is…
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Beginning January 2023, Social Security checks will increase a whopping 8.7%! This is the largest increase in 41 years… and comes on the heels of a 5.9% raise in 2022. To top that off, Medicare premiums will actually decrease a small amount in 2023. This is great news, but beware! Uncle Sam may think it’s…
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You were probably hoping to click on this article and finally get a straight and simple answer…And looking to your friends and relatives, you think you know the answer already. Over 80% of the people eligible to start taking Social Security file their claim before their Full Retirement Age (which is most commonly age 67).1…
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There are several reasons you may want to move your 401(k) to an IRA. It might simply be to consolidate your investments or to get away from unnecessary fees. It might be to make a Roth conversion. It might be to obtain an active money manager or work with a more holistic advisor. Whatever the…
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We may not exactly be post-COVID yet, but our world is certainly settling into a new rhythm that looks a lot more normal than the past couple of years. With that being said, many Americans have made huge changes in this short time. Many companies went virtual in 2020, giving their employees the opportunity to…
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We have all been completely blind-sided by this Pandemic and the weight of it is carrying through to almost every aspect of our lives. Needless to say, in many areas, Pre-Pandemic thinking may need rethinking. Day-to-day living has changed beyond imagination – not only are we trying to stay safe, we are trying to stay…
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Have you ever met anyone that doesn’t have at least one area of clutter in his/her house? I would bet that even the tidiest of homes has a closet or drawer that gets cluttered from time to time. Life gets busy. We throw stuff here and there, planning to deal with it later. Then before…
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Did you know you can often choose when to pay tax? By default, you can often choose how much you will pay. There is no trick or “gotcha.” It is simply a result of understanding how taxes work for or against your situation. “The hardest thing to understand in the world is income tax.” —Albert…
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I recently read an article offering a few statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and one in particular caught my eye: Did you know that the average age of a farm operator in the U.S. is 57.5 years old?!1 At age 57, every farmer or rancher should be considering – or have already considered –…
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