It Pays to Be Financially Prepared
Wednesday, 04 March 2020
Are you worried you and your spouse aren’t saving enough for retirement? It’s a growing concern among many Americans, and rightly so. With new medical advances, retirees are living longer than ever before – meaning their retirement savings need to stretch further.
According to the 2017 Lincoln Retirement Power® Participant Study by Lincoln Financial Group, most Americans will need to save a minimum of 10 percent of their income each year – more if they plan to work for fewer than forty years. However, only 4 in 10 workers are currently meeting that savings goal.
Luckily, it’s possible to build a secure financial future, even if you feel behind. Follow the eight steps below to master your savings plan and set yourself up for retirement success.
Rising Health Costs Remain a Barrier for Many Americans
Wednesday, 19 February 2020
Do you dream of the day when work becomes an option, rather than a necessity? If so, you’re not alone. Many Americans in their thirties, forties, and fifties are working hard to save and invest with the hope of achieving financial independence and leaving the working world behind. This is no small feat, what with concerns like boomerang children, inflation, college costs and caring for aging parents. It’s health care costs, however, that act as the biggest hurdle.
Learn Whether Retiring Early is the Right Move for You
Wednesday, 05 February 2020
The dream of early retirement is a common one, but is it really all it’s cracked up to be? Like anything else, there are pros and cons to this major life decision, as well as alternatives that may be worth considering. So, before you set your sites on saying sayonara to the working world, read on.
Monday, 03 February 2020
We at TriCapital take seriously the high degree of trust placed in us by our valued clients and I thought it would be appropriate for me to take a minute to address the current global viral epidemic that is impacting the markets.
On Friday, January 17 – after a spectacular 40% runup that started the day after Christmas 2018 – the Standard & Poor’s 500-Stock Index closed at 3,329.62.
Two weeks later to the day – last Friday, January 31 – the Index closed a little over three percent lower, at 3,225.52. (Indeed, more than half that damage was done on Friday.)
As a result, we have been invited by financial media to suspect that the blended value of 500 of the largest, best-financed, most profitable businesses in America, and indeed the world, has “lost” three percent – with more “losses” to come – due to the outbreak in China of a new strain of coronavirus.
Please permit me to doubt this, and to suggest that you – as goal-focused long-term investors – join me in doubting it.
Resolve to Set Yourself Up for Financial Success in the New Year
Wednesday, 29 January 2020
Making New Year’s resolutions is common but sticking to them isn’t easy. If you’re interested in tackling your financial fitness in 2020, read on for five suggested resolutions to tackle throughout the year.
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Create Your Budget Roadmap
From a big picture standpoint, finances are all about how much money is coming in and how much is flowing back out. Creating a personalized budget roadmap can help you visualize your long-term goals and assess whether you’re making progress year to year. Here’s how to get started:
Learn More About the Sweeping Legislation Designed to Fight America’s Retirement Savings Crisis
Wednesday, 08 January 2020
In May 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, commonly called the SECURE Act. Designed to help tackle our country’s growing retirement savings crisis, the far-reaching legislation spent months tied up in the Senate. On December 19, 2019, it passed the Senate with a 71 to 23 majority.
Let’s take a look at a few standout provisions of the legislation and discuss what they could mean for you.
Practical Tips for the ‘Sandwich Generation’
Thursday, 26 December 2019
A growing group of Americans in their 30s, 40s, and 50s find themselves caring for both growing children and aging parents at the same time. Labeled the “Sandwich Generation,” these caregivers have unique financial planning needs – and they face unique financial stress, too.
Aging parents often have health-related expenses, while minors and college-age children require substantial financial resources as well. At the same time, these caregivers caught in the middle need to be saving for retirement and they may still be paying off debts of their own.
Learn More About a Valuable Measure of Your Financial Health
Tuesday, 03 December 2019
Choosing to leave an inheritance to your children will greatly impact your retirement planning. You will need to adjust the amount you save, which retirement plans you choose and how you’ll take your distributions from them. However, the decision to leave wealth to your heirs requires careful consideration of other factors, too.
1. Your Income Needs
One of the most damaging errors you can make is to give away retirement savings that you’ll actually need for your own income in retirement. While it’s admirable to want to share your nest egg with your children, you need to consider how much personal income you’ll need to live the retirement life you desire. If you’re unsure how to determine this amount, try a retirement calculator like this one from Bankrate. It can help you determine how much to save and how much to withdraw annually once you retire.
How the PATH Act of 2015 Removed the Guessing Game and Created More Flexibility for Retirees
Wednesday, 13 November 2019
An Introduction to the Qualified Charitable Distribution
For years, the rules surrounding the ability to utilize a tax-free Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) directly from your IRA to a non-profit were on-again, off-again. The rules would lapse frequently, then be reinstated by Congress – but only for two years at a time. Finally, with the passage of the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes (PATH) Act of 2015, the rules allowing for the QCD were made permanent in tax law.
Consequentially, it is now much easier to take proactive steps in your charitable giving strategy so that you can minimize the tax implications of your IRA’s Required Minimum Distribution (RMD). However, you must follow very strict requirements if you want to receive the tax benefits associated with gifting a QCD to a registered charitable organization. These requirements include age limitations, maximum dollar amount limitations, and regulations on the particular types of charities that are eligible.
Six Strategies for Making Good Decisions in Difficult Times
Wednesday, 23 October 2019
Even the most thorough planner among us will sometimes be caught off-guard by life circumstances we simply could not foresee. When this happens, we often find ourselves at the crossroads of a major life transition, and it can be both challenging and stressful to determine the best path forward.
Rather than making a snap decision that is likely to be ineffective or problematic in the long-run, it’s best to pause and reflect on our families, our careers and our money. The strategies offered below provide recommendations for doing just that so that we can arrive at decisions that balance all of the most important variables in our lives.
Tuesday, 15 October 2019
The latest three-month returns in the U.S. and international stock markets can be viewed with two very different attitudes. The first is that many indices (though not all) produced a loss for the quarter, and where there were gains, they tended to be very small. On the other hand, the losses, where they occurred, were too small to wipe out the gains of the previous two quarters, meaning that most investors have still made money so far this year.
Whether that will continue is anyone’s guess, but in today’s uncertain political and economic environment, it’s easy to feel like we all managed to dodge a bullet and are holding onto our gains with gratitude.
So, you’ve decided to hire a financial advisor. Congratulations! Studies show a good financial advisor can increase investor returns by 3.75% annually.
Tuesday, 08 October 2019
A financial advisor can bring knowledge and expertise to financial areas and help you create overall investment strategies. They can help reach your retirement goals, minimize taxes, and help structure your withdrawals in retirement. Financial advisors are also more versed in the long-game of investing and can help assuage any fears and help provide support by providing fact-based advice.
Taking advantage of employer matches and pre-tax savings
Friday, 27 September 2019
Chances are if you are reading this article you are at least thinking about your retirement, or more specifically, your retirement savings. Or lack thereof. What some people don’t realize or take advantage of, especially if they are working in a mid-size to large company is that they are often offered helpful employer benefits. These benefits may be classified in your employee handbook in various ways, such as:
- defined benefit plan
- company pension
- lump-sum payments
- lifetime annuity
- vesting schedule
When any of those words crop up, the next step is delving in to figure out what your employer offers that you could be benefitting from. You may be surprised that 1 in 5 Americans do not take full advantage of their employer match 401(k), resulting in $1.4 billion in unclaimed employer match money annually.
Tuesday, 10 September 2019
It can sometimes be hard to understand just how large the U.S. economy is compared with the other countries of the world. You’ve probably read that California, alone if it were an independent country, would have the world’s fifth-largest economy. But what about the rest of the states?
Thursday, 05 September 2019
Retirement is a time when people can take some time for themselves and travel, spend more time on hobbies and leisure activities, start a side business, volunteer or go back to school. Whatever your goals are in retirement it is also important to keep ongoing retirement planning in mind even after you have blown out those candles.
There can often be the mindset that you’ve done all of your planning and now it’s on autopilot so you can sit back and enjoy the ride. While this is partially true, especially if you have been proactive about your retirement planning for many years, it is important to keep your goals and your plans to achieve them firmly in sight.
