One of the first things we establish for any financial or retirement plan is a net worth statement, or your assets and liabilities. This gives us a great picture of what you have to work with now to obtain your goals. It's especially important for those close to retirement because pretty soon you'll more than likely be "subtracting" from what you have to generate income, rather than adding to it through your work earnings. Logically, the more you have on the liabilities side of the balance sheet, the less actual net worth you have to pull from....
Did you Fund Your IRA for 2015?
If you’re someone who does their own taxes through a program like Turbo Tax, you’ve probably run into this scenario: as you finish up the review portion, the program will remind you that there may be a way for you to lower your tax burden even more if you make a deductible contribution to an IRA account. They even have a helpful calculator you can use to see what impact certain contribution amounts would make on the taxes you owe....
Social Security and Income Taxes – will you have to pay them?
Social Security still makes up a large chunk of the retirement income pie (about 35% for the average American). It may come as a surprise to some that up to 85% of a person’s benefit could indeed be added to your taxable income. In fact, about 40% of Americans pay taxes on their Social Security benefit. So how do you determine if your Social Security payments are taxable?...
Social Security – Changes to File-and-Suspend and Restricted Applications Clarified
The Social Security Administration issued an emergency message late Friday to its field offices explaining how to implement changes that will ban future retirees from claiming only spousal benefits at full retirement age. Also of note, the Administration clarified that the official deadline to submit a request to file and suspend benefits (one of the strategies affected by the changes) and be grandfathered into the old rules is April 29, one day earlier than previously reported....