Take Control of Your Financial Life
From time to time I get a question about whether an elderly parent should transfer their home or investment accounts to their children while they are still living. Usually the reasoning is that if they need to go into a nursing home for any length of time, the expenses will drain their assets and there will be very little money, if any, to pass down to their heirs. [Read more…] about Gifting Assets as Part of Long-Term Care Planning
If you are in a High Deductible Health Insurance Plan (HDHP), you have access to one of the best retirement savings vehicles available today, the Health Savings Account. Yes, you read that correctly, in my opinion, your Health Savings Account, or HSA, is best thought of as a retirement account. [Read more…] about The HSA as a Retirement Account
One of the most valuable assets retirees have are their Social Security benefits. Depending on an individual’s longevity and income over their career, Social Security payments could ultimately total upwards of $1,000,000. Unfortunately, based on my experience, many people haven’t given much thought as to how they can maximize this benefit. And because of how Social Security is coordinated for a married couple, poor planning can potentially result in several hundred thousand dollars of lost benefits over a lifetime.
[Read more…] about Social Security Strategies for Married Couples
One of the big tax law changes for 2018 is the doubling of the standard deduction. If you find yourself among the millions of Americans that who have itemized deductions in the past but will no longer need to, think about pulling some of your normally deductible activities forward into 2017. This way you may be able to one last time get the tax benefits you would otherwise lose. A couple of end of year tax ideas: [Read more…] about Miscellaneous End of Year Tax Stuff (short)
Many investors and financial advisors now employ a tax management strategy known as tax-loss selling or harvesting losses. Alternatively, some investors could also take advantage of harvesting gains but many of them don’t. I find this is usually because they don’t know about it or think they wouldn’t qualify for a 0% capital gains tax. [Read more…] about Harvesting Investment Gains