The timing of your Social Security benefits can be important. It could make a difference of thousands of dollars in your retirement income. Although there are many factors to consider when making a decision about Social Security (more about that later), it’s fairly simple to calculate your break-even age. Let’s use an example to illustrate the calculation:
Many investors understand the basics of Roth conversions, however just as many do not. In this blog we will discuss the basics of Roth conversions as well as why you might do them, when you might do them and how you actually do them.
When you retire from your cooperative you have several options on how to receive your R&S pension. For example, you can take it as series of payments, you can take it as a lump sum distribution or you can do a combination of both. For those of you interested in the lump sum distribution, I want to make sure you avoid a critical mistake that I have seen retirees make.
Let's Make A Deal! (With your R&S Pension)
You probably hear the term “financial plan” often, but what does that mean?
The picture associated with this blog shows what the average investor not working with an advisor often does.
It depends on your goals, your long term financial plan, your age even factors into things here. Let's just run through these options real quick.
As your advisor we are a walking talking insurance plan hired to protect one of the largest assets you own, your retirement nest egg. The difference being that unlike most insurance plans we protect you before a disaster strikes, not after the damage has been done.
Retirement has two doors. One leads to a chance of success. One leads to certain failure. Which door will you choose?
Many of you are blessed to be employed at a cooperative that offers a defined benefit pension plan that provides you with a lump sum payment or a monthly pension payment for life when you retire. Congratulations! Such plans are uncommon today. Many of you will face a challenging decision at retirement. Should you take the lump sum payout or should you take the monthly annuity payment for the rest of your life and, in some cases, the life of your spouse and beneficiaries as well?
The U.S. Postal Service announced price increases for 2023. The cost of a postage stamp will increase from 60 cents to 63 cents. That's a 5% increase! What lesson can we learn from a postage stamp that also applies to your retirement plan?
Considering early retirement from your cooperative? Here are two options that can make that a reality.
In the Book of Genesis, God gives Adam and Eve authority over the earth, forbidding them of only one thing. They are forbidden from tasting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. And for a few moments, their innocence is perfect. Then it happens. They taste the fruit and commit the original transgression. And after that, everything bad and wrong with earthly life suddenly enters the world: sin, shame, struggle, sickness and death. They only made one little mistake, but it was the only mistake they couldn't afford to make.
Our strategy is long term and not affected by day-to-day fluctuations of the stock market. Our retirement plans are designed with one thing in mind and that is to keep you as worry free as possible so you can enjoy this time in your life that you have earned and deserve.
It's March 2023 and we're smack dab in the middle of a Bear Market. What should you do with your investments? Should you do anything? Do you have time for them to recover? Let's talk about that for a minute..
As I write this blog in February 2023, the last 14 months have given us a master class on how inflation can affect retirement planning and your purchasing power in general. Probably the biggest misconception I see when talking to retirees or soon to be retirees is that they worry about losing their "money" in retirement but they don't worry about losing their purchasing power.
