Let’s face it, in today’s world, managing your personal financial affairs can be complex. There are many decisions that need to be made on a weekly or even daily basis. For a large and growing segment of the population, who are trying to help (often unwilling) aging parents with their finances, this can be incredibly frustrating, stressful and burdensome.
Contribution limits to IRAs and other employer-sponsored retirement plans have changed for 2013. Here are the most recent deferral limitations:
The following question was posed to over 1,000 U.S. adults in a recent Gallup poll:
How much control – your ability to influence or impact – do you feel you have over your efforts to build and maintain your retirement savings in the current environment?
Small business owners have a number of alternatives to choose from when it comes to establishing retirement plans for their business. Each plan type can vary in their contribution level and matching requirements, as well as their ongoing regulatory and administrative burden.
One of the most pronounced fears for retirees and pre-retirees is outliving their assets. This has especially been a large concern in light of low investment returns over the last decade. (more…)
There are a number of indexes that attempt to measure the performance of the financial markets and serve as a gauge of economic activity. The following are descriptions of several of the most common indexes: (more…)
Roth IRAs are great savings mechanisms and can be used effectively for retirement and education planning. One of the less publicized advantages to Roth IRAs is that they can be a great estate planning technique when someone wants to pass along as much as possible to their heirs. (more…)
When we begin new client engagements, one of the first things we review is whom our clients have chosen as their primary and contingent beneficiaries on life insurance policies, qualified plans and IRAs. There have been many occasions that we discover a serious mistake or oversight during this process. (more…)
One of the major goals that most people have is to, at some point, be debt free. This is a goal that we (Chip and Erin) strive for in our personal lives and we highly encourage our clients to prudently consider as well. In fact, research has consistently shown that people with manageable debt levels tend to be happier than those who are burdened with a high debt load. (more…)
This video provides some insight into Beacon Financial Strategies’ Retirement Feasibility Analysis service. This service is normally a planned portion of our Net Worth Management and Ongoing Financial Planning Retainer arrangements. It can also be a component of an Introductory Financial Planning engagement.