Making Cents: Beneficiary Choices Need to be Reviewed
With certain assets, it doesn’t matter what your will says. Upon your passing, these assets will flow to whomever you elect as the beneficiary of each individual account. Beneficiary elections are made for retirement accounts and insurance contracts. Typically, these beneficiary elections are made when you establish the account. For certain retirement accounts, these elections may be…
Making Cents: Downsizing Doesn’t Always Mean Down Costing
If you are amongst the millions who have an extra bedroom or two, the thought of downsizing the home seems to be “the” topic at backyard barbeques. Now that the kids are grown and gone, or almost gone, you may be asking why you should continue to pay the property taxes, heat and other costs…
Making Cents: Planning Your Rewarding Retirement
Perhaps this is your year – the year you finally get to spend your time exactly how you want, and maybe slow down or call it quits from work. Whether now or later, these are some of the matters that you may want consider now. Not working will free up a lot of time, and you…
Making Cents: Knowing Your Level of Financial Independence
Many trod through life because that is what they do. They go to work, they save and spend, and they keep in that motion until they either must stop working or decide that doing something else would be nice. Some are so good at what they do, that they couldn’t fathom how they would spend…
Making Cents: Starting A Small Business In Retirement
Everyone’s vision of retirement is different. Certainly the idea of retirement in 2023 is different than it was in 1950. Today’s retiree is more active, with many to-dos on the bucket list and the time and resources to pursue their vision. To some that means starting a small business. Maybe it’s your hobby that you’ve…
Making Cents: 401K Trustees Need To Pay Attention
If you own a business, you may have been named as the trustee of the retirement plan when it was established. The trustee of a retirement plan is responsible, in short, for just about everything. In the 401K sense, that trustee is not responsible for selecting the investments for each and every participant. But that…
Making Cents: Spending Your Retirement Wisely
In today’s world of people living and working longer, the old vision of retiring and sitting on the front porch with a glass of lemonade just doesn’t cut it. Some people may continue to work because they have to, but for others it is often because they really don’t know what else they’d do with their…
Making Cents: Financial Guidance for Elders
One of the signs that someone is aging is that they simply can’t do some of the things that they used to do. When that comes to their financial decisions, it may manifest itself in their investment choices, bill paying or some sort of financial deal or scam that may not have been in their…
MAKING CENTS: Roth IRAs – A Gift to Last a Lifetime
With holiday shopping nearing its peak, maybe you can skip the lines and set your sights on a gift that will last a lifetime. Of course, I’m talking financial gifts that go beyond an envelope with a little hole in it to show the face of one of our past presidents. A gift to a child…
Making Cents: Using a Roth IRA In Your Estate Plan
The Roth IRA is a powerful financial tool. Roth IRAs are a retirement account that allow for the potential growth without taxes, have no required minimum distribution and distributions are tax free if over the age of 59 ½ and the account has been open for a minimum of 5 years. The downside to a…