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Financial
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Are We Turning the Corner Yet?
We have finally seen some positive news on the financial front, and many optimists think the stock market has hit the bottom and bounced off its low point. It's pleasant to be able to take a breather from the brutal onslaught of bad news over the past year.
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Taking Responsibility For RetirementFor retirees facing a sudden loss of pensions and benefits, there are really very few options save going back to work or turning home equity into a personal bank. So the time to start taking on the lion’s share of your retirement responsibility is now, whether you’re five, 10, or 20 years away from hanging it up, if that’s your plan.
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Preparing
Financially for Disaster
Disasters – be
it hurricanes, earthquakes,
terrorist attacks,
or wildfires – are
sadly an inevitable
fact of life. And just
as you might protect
in advance your house
and personal belongings
from disasters, so
too you must prepare
your personal and financial
information.
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Tips
for College Graduates
For many of our “kids,” this
summer is their first
after graduating
from college. They
have either started
their first real
job or are still
looking. What steps
do they need to do?
Here are a few ideas.
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Tips
for Freshman Year Finances
If
your son or daughter
is planning to go to
college next September,
you are probably making
a list of all the things
to bring: sheets, towels,
desk lamp, and backpack. Their
list may be more elaborate
and include a TV, microwave,
and refrigerator. However,
there is one item more
important than all
of these – a
budget.
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Are
Your Old Savings Bonds
Still Earning Interest
Do you, your parents, or elderly relatives have old
E bonds, H or HH bonds, or the rare Savings Notes,
lying around? If so, it may be time to cash in some
of these bonds because they are no longer earning interest,
and in some cases could have tax problems.
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Tips
For Financially Helping
Your Adult Children
You can help your
children financially
in many ways, even
after they are well
into their adult
years – and
most of those ways
don’t involve
giving them money.
Here are a handful
of tips about how
to make your children’s
financial lives a
little easier, often
in ways you might
not expect.
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Go
Easy On Home-Equity
Loans
Homeowners are unlocking the equity built up in their
homes like never before. But before opening the home-equity
loan door, be certain you don’t overextend yourself
and put your home at risk.
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IRS
Eases Retirement Account
Rollover Nightmares
The IRS eased some
of the nightmare
financial consequences
of mishandled tax-free
rollovers from individual
retirement accounts
and retirement plans – but
taxpayers need to
remain vigilant to
avoid unnecessary
taxes and penalties.
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Roth
Conversions Become
More Attractive For
Retirees
Affluent retirees
who have wanted to
convert sizable traditional
individual retirement
accounts into Roth
IRAs but weren’t
eligible because
of income restrictions
may find 2005 the
year to make the
conversion.
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Insurance
For Young Adults
You recently graduated from high school or college,
or just finished a brief stint in the military. For
the first time, you’re truly on your own. Having
adequate insurance coverage is undoubtedly not uppermost
in your mind.
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Should
You Stay in Your Old
401k
Every year millions
of workers who are
retiring or changing
jobs struggle with
a difficult decision
regarding their old
employer’s
401k. They don’t
want to cash in yet
they are unsure what
to do.
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How
to Cut Your Insurance
Costs
Add up what you pay in insurance premiums each year:
medical, auto, homeowner’s, life, and so on.
Here are some ideas about how to reduce your insurance
costs.
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Investment
Options for Education
Funding
One of the biggest challenges for families saving for
their children’s college is that there are so
many options for saving, and one size does not fit
all. Which options are right for you depend in part
on the age of your child, family income, potential
for financial aid, and the expected cost of college.
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Winning
the Lottery - Lump
Sum or Annuity
A Massachusetts woman recently won one of the largest
lottery jackpots ever: $294 million. Like most lottery
winners, she took her winnings in a single-check lump
sum. But is taking the lump sum always the best choice?
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Buying
a Long-Term Care Insurance
Policy
Buying a long-term
care insurance policy
is a complicated
process involving
many decisions about
which features are
right for you and
what price you can
afford. Among the
many choices will
be five factors with
the largest impact
on price: your age,
daily benefits, inflation
protection, benefit
period, and the elimination
period.
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Choosing
a Small Business Structure
Small-business owners have more factors and choices
to consider than they once did when choosing the best
business structure for their company. Yet many owners
casually pick off the shelf “what everybody else
is doing” instead of what’s best for them.
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Start
Planning Now to Avoid
the AMT
The dreaded alternative minimum tax may soon
be coming to a tax return near you – perhaps your own.
But don’t wait until next spring, when it’s
too late, to find out whether you’re subject
to the AMT. Take steps now to minimize or avoid the
impact of this tax.
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How
Grandparents Can Help
Pay for College
One of the best
gifts grandparents
can give their grandchildren
is to help pay for
their college education.
Yet many grandparents
don’t realize
the most effective
ways of going about
it.
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Treasury
Bonds for Inflationary
Times
The smell of rising inflation is in the wind, and some
investors are taking a look at a type of investment
they’ve generally ignored during these low-inflation
times: inflation-adjusted government bonds.
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How
to Make the Most of
Your 401(k) Plan
Let’s get one thing straight: 401(k) plans, and
similar employee-funded retirement plans, are here
to stay. These plans have been battered by the sour
stock market of 2000-2002, corporate scandals, and
the mutual fund scandals. Despite this, employee-funded
retirement plans will remain the primary source for
building retirement assets for millions of workers.
Here are eight key ways to make the most of your 401(k).
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Making
Your Own Health Decisions
When You Can't
Like most people,
you probably would
want to exercise
control over decisions
about your health
care even when you
are physically or
mentally unable to
do so. You can accomplish
that with the combination
of a living will
and a durable power
of attorney for health
care.
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The
Challenges of Being
an Estate Executor
At some point in your life, you may be asked to serve
as an executor of a loved one’s estate, spouse,
a parent, a good friend. Actually you may not even
be asked, but simply find yourself named in the deceased’s
will. But before accepting out of love and duty-bound
honor, be aware of the many duties and challenges of
this job.
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Insuring
a New Marriage
Reevaluating their
insurance coverage
isn’t uppermost
on the minds of most
newlyweds, and it
won’t ensure
a long and happy
marriage. But the
right insurance can
go a long way toward
shielding you against
the kinds of financial
calamities that can
strain and sometimes
break a marriage.
Here are several
key insurance areas
that newlyweds review.
-
9
Business Succession
Mistakes To Avoid
Most business owners expect to pass on some day their
pride and joy – mostly likely to their children,
but possibly to an employee or an outside buyer. This
change in ownership is what will fund the owner’s
retirement and carry the owner’s creation down
through the generations. Yet many small-business owners
make mistakes when it comes to succession planning
that can thwart their dream.
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Financial
Planning for Life
Life’s full of financial surprises – and
many of them we can see coming. Many people prepare
for life’s unexpected financial surprises: insurance
for health problems or an auto accident, estate plans
for death, an emergency fund for the unexpected loss
of a job. Yet people frequently fail to anticipate
and prepare for financial “surprises” they
can see coming: an impending marriage or divorce, a
terminal illness, the birth or adoption of a child,
an inheritance, a career change.
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What
To Do if Your Pension
Plan is in Trouble
Is your pension plan in trouble? And if it is, what
can you do about it? Traditional pension plans are
defined benefit plans in which the employer promises
to pay a specific amount, usually monthly, based on
years of service and salary in the last years before
retirement. In the wake of the recent stock market
decline, the defined-benefit pension plans of many
private and public employers are under funded, and
some may not be able to meet their pension obligations.
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New
Tax Act Aids Small
Businesses
While attention has focused mostly on individual taxpayers
and investors, the new Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation
Act of 2003 provides several direct and indirect benefits
for the small business-owner.
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Do
You Know Where Your
Universal Life Premiums
Are
Do you know how your universal life premiums are doing?
Consumers are feeling the impact of the bear market
and low interest rates in many ways, but one way they
may not yet be aware of is the impact on their insurance
policies.
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Should
You Buy or Lease a
Vehicle
Americans love their
cars, and automobiles
typically rank as
one of the highest
expenses in a family’s
budget. Should you
lease or own?
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Planning
for a Retirement Paycheck
While most workers
live on their paycheck
during their working
years, few plan for
a “paycheck” that
will provide a dependable
stream of monthly
income during their
retirement.
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College
Savings Strategies
for Retirees
Saving for college isn’t just for kids anymore.
Or grandkids, for that matter. It’s also for
retirees. While most people don’t move when they
retire, some move to retirement communities and an
increasing number are retiring in college towns. And
they won’t be just moving to college towns, they’ll
be attending classes – in some cases, earning
degrees. That means that just as they saved money for
college for their children, they’ll need to save
money for their own education.
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Are
You Psychologically
Ready to Retire Early
The thought of early
retirement probably
sounds wonderful,
doesn’t it?
But early retirement
may be not all that
it’s cracked
up to be. It’s
not just the money:
it’s the whole
psychology of early
retirement.
MOST RECENT
ARTICLE
Are We Turning the Corner Yet?
We have finally seen some positive news on the financial front, and many optimists think the stock market has hit the bottom and bounced off its low point. It's pleasant to be able to take a breather from the brutal onslaught of bad news over the past year.
Many ACA advisors have been citing the dangers of being out of the market, even when it is falling. Although it has been stressful psychologically to maintain equity positions over the past year, recent market activity shows the folly once again of trying to time the market.
For the eight bear markets that occurred in the last 50 years, the average gain for the S&P 500 in the year following the stock market low is 36.5%. We're currently in the ninth bear market of the last half century. The S&P 500's close-of-trading low point of this bear market (so far) was 677 on March 9, 2009. Through the end of April, the S&P 500 gained 29% (not counting the impact of reinvested dividends).
As our clients, you pay us to "watch your backs." So without being an outright pessimist, I think we are still in a perilous financial situation. The future of the auto industry is teetering, and the economic reality goes even deeper than that. We are restructuring our national economy to be capable of truly participating in a global economy.
Our prosperity over the past 15 years was based on a worldwide spending spree, fueled by cheap credit and over-leveraged real estate. The current governmental nostrums are designed to spur more spending, but no meaningful programs have yet addressed the banking crisis and the collapse of the real estate market. We see the impact of these issues every day in the "For Sale" and "For Lease" signs in almost every neighborhood and commercial area.
Each of you has a unique situation, so as usual the approach best suited to you depends more on what is going on in your own life. If the breadwinner in your family is out of work, or you have kids in college, or you are faced with disability or are retired (or hope to be soon), these circumstances--not the state of the economy--are the key factors in selecting your investment allocation. Although the stock market may look great, don't kick yourself for having missed out on the recent steep increase.
It is also foolhardy to conclude, based on a recent upturn in the markets, that you should now jump in with both feet. We may not hit bottom until 2010, and then it may take a couple of years to fully recover. Market timing is a futile waste of energy. But there may be other wise financial moves available to you.
For those of you in transitional or distressed situations, we typically advise you to maintain an extra cash cushion. If your life situation is stable and your future income stream is on track (such as through a bond ladder), dollar cost averaging into the stock market is very beneficial. If you haven't done so recently, it's probably time to review your portfolio and make adjustments as appropriate.
It may be advantageous to refinance your home mortgage at a lower rate (unless you owe more on your house than it's worth). However, jumbo mortgages (more than $417,000) still carry very high rates, and it is seldom worthwhile to refinance those.
This experience of living through the worst economic period since the Great Depression of 80 years ago will have a lasting and positive impact on most of us. The losses will ultimately be recouped, and many people--probably more than have realized it --will be able to outlast even a continuing downturn. More importantly, it has made many of us aware that we had been frittering away money on things we didn't really value. I believe this lesson has to be relearned by each generation as we discover that our investment statements aren't the scorecard for our real wealth.
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This column was written by Bert Whitehead, MBA, JD and is provided by Patricia A. Konetzny.
Wondering
what unique
blend of professional
and personal experience Patricia
Konetzny brings to her
clients?
Learn
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background and personal
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