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Leveraging Gift Rules During Retirement
Leveraging Gift Rules During Retirement Wish to transfer some of your assets to your children or grandchildren tax-free? Understanding the annual gift limits is a good place to start Leveraging Gift Rules During Retirement As you or family members approach retirement years, it is important to have a basic understanding of the IRS gift giving rules. With this understanding, there are opportunities to leverage this tax law without creating a tax problem. The rule You may give up to $14,000 to any individual (donee) in 2016 and avoid any gift tax filing requirements. If married you and your spouse may
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Retirement Basics: Understanding Tax Efficiency
Retirement Basics: Understanding Tax Efficiency Managing your taxable income during retirement can be complicated. Social Security Retirement benefits, retirement plan distributions and supplemental income can quickly impact the amount of tax you must pay. Here is something to consider. One of the basics in retirement is to be as tax efficient with your income as possible. In 2016, income tax rates range from 0 – 39.6% plus a potential 3.8% net investment tax. Understanding how these progressive tax rates apply to ordinary income creates a tremendous retirement planning opportunity. Many retirees can control their taxable income each year by the
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Avoid These Five Retirement Planning Mistakes
Avoid These Five Retirement Planning Mistakes Retirement planning and tax planning go hand in hand. Here are five common retirement planning mistakes and ideas on how to ensure they do not happen to you. Here are five common retirement planning mistakes and steps you can take to avoid them. 1. Not having a plan Surprisingly most of us do not know how much money is needed for our retirement years. A retirement plan should consider how long you expect to live, create an estimate of the amount of money you will need, and consider your desired lifestyle during retirement. Your
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Supplement Your Retirement Outside Retirement Savings Accounts – Five great ideas
Supplement Your Retirement Outside Retirement Savings Accounts – Five great ideas In addition to Social Security, retirement accounts are a primary resourse for income when you retire. But these aren’t the only tax advantaged tools available to you. Here are five other great ideas to supplement your retirement income. The tax code is very specific in helping you save for retirement through use of IRA’s, 401(k)’s, 403(b)’s, and benefit accounts. However, there are other tax savings to be had if you know where to look. Here are some tax-advantaged ways to earn more during your retirement. Rent your home. You
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Plan Your 2014 Retirement Contributions
With the setting of contribution limits to qualified retirement plans for 2014, now is a good time to plan for your 2014 retirement contributions. As part of your planning for next year, now is the time to review funding your retirement accounts. By establishing your contribution amounts at the beginning of each year, the financial impact of saving for your future should be more manageable. Here are annual contribution limits for the more popular programs: Retirement Program 2014 2013 Change Age 50 or over to catch up IRA: Traditional $5,500 $5,500 none add: $1,000 IRA: Roth $5,500 $5,500 none add:
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2014 Social Security Benefits Announced
Social Security recently announced planned benefit increases for 2014. Now is the time to plan for these changes. The Social Security Administration recently announced monthly social security and supplemental security income benefits (SSI) will increase in 2014 by 1.5%. This increase is based upon the Consumer Price Index over the past 12 months ending in September 2013. In addition, other figures based on the national average wage index will also be changed. A recap of the key amounts is outlined here: 2014 Key Social Security Benefits What does it mean for you? Up to $117,000 in wages will be subject
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Fund Your Retirement or Your Child's College?
With rapidly increasing costs in both health care and in college tuition, deciding which is more important can be a real dilemma. Here are some thoughts. As our students prepare to head back to school, many families face the difficult decision to save for retirement or use those funds to pay for their children’s college education. The dilemma With student loan amounts in the trillions of dollars, our kids are exiting college with debt the size of small home mortgages. Given that both education and health care costs continue rising dramatically from year to year, it is hard for you
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Are You Maximizing Your Retirement Account Tax Benefit? – 2013 contribution limits
If you have not already done so, consider adjusting your retirment account contributions to match the expanded annual limits that have increased for 2013. Here are the new limits. 2013 marks a watershed year for contribution limit increases in many of the core retirement savings programs. Many of these contribution limit increases are established using a federal formula. While most annual limits stayed the same from 2011 to 2012, this is not the case for 2013. Here are current annual contribution limits for the more popular programs: Retirement Program Current Year 2013 Last Year 2012 Change Age 50 or over
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Still Time to Make IRA Contributions for 2012
Remember you have until April 15th to fund last year’s IRA contributions. Here is what you need to know. Remember you have until you file your tax return to make a contribution to a Traditional IRA or Roth IRA for the 2012 tax year. The annual contribution limit is $5,000 or $6,000 (if you are age 50 or over). Prior to making the contribution, if you (or your spouse) are an active participant in an employer’s qualified retirement plan, you will want to make sure your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) does not exceed certain income thresholds. There are also
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Tax Surprises for Newly Retired – 5 surprises to know about
Rebalancing your portfolio when you get older makes sense. So does anticipating for these possible tax surprises during your retirement years. You’ve got it all planned out. Your retirement savings plans are full, you have started receiving Social Security benefits, and your Pension is ready to go. Everything is planned, what could go wrong? Here are five surprises that can turn your plan on a dime. 1. Health emergency and Long-term Care. When a simple procedure could cost thousands, health care costs can put a huge dent in your plan. Long-term care can cost thousands per month. Have you planned
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