“Deciding when to take Social Security benefits is critically important to maximizing long-term benefits. Benefits may be claimed as early as age 62, or as late as 70.”
Modeling investment returns seeks to find an equation to predict your expected returns as much as possible. The simplest equation for the markets would be “Return equals 11.71%.” This has been the average return from 1927 through 2010, the zero factor model.
“Economics in One Lesson” by Henry Hazlitt is one of the classics which should be required reading before voting. It is interesting to see that he knew more in 1946 than the politicians of our age.
Financial troubles and marital troubles go together. Does financial largess therefore also go with marital harmony? Do something romantic together: Engage a fee-only financial planner.
David John Marotta and Matthew Illian discuss how to get more from Social Security by filing at the right time and taking benefits at the right time.
“Unlike the government economic advisor, these entrepreneurial castaways are not making, i.e. printing, money. Instead, they’re creating new wealth by producing things that others find valuable.”
Social Security benefits can represent a big stack of cash. A typical monthly benefit of $2,200 has a present value well over $500,000. Consider all your Social Security options carefully to avoid making a costly mistake.
If you had the services of a financial advisor working for you, what would you want them to work on?
“How can you respond if these new taxes are enacted? One option is to do a Roth conversion so that you can pay taxes now for those retirement funds.”
Nearly everyone is an excellent candidate for a Roth conversion this year. You can always undo part or all of a Roth conversion with what’s called a recharacterization, so you can’t convert too much.
Who would have thought that someone earning $10,700 might want to purposefully push their taxable income up to $217,450 this year in order to pay $47,595 more in taxes at these lower 2012 tax rates?
Who would have thought that someone in the 33% tax bracket now who will be in a lower 28% tax bracket in the future might want to do a Roth conversion at his higher rates now?
Who would have thought that someone earning $400,000 might want to purposefully push their taxable income up to $1.2M this year in order to pay $280,000 more in taxes at these lower 2012 tax rates?
Who would have thought that someone earning $75,000 might want to purposefully push their taxable income up to $275,000 this year in order to pay as much as possible at these lower 2012 tax rates!
Nearly everyone is an excellent candidate for executing a Roth conversion this year. But it is helpful to have a target amount in mind before you begin.
Women are more afraid of becoming “bag ladies” than men, and it makes them approach investing and saving for retirement differently, assuming they have managed to tackle either of those chores.
It is better that you stop saving and use that money to do some of the things you’ve been longing to do, than it is to quit your job and retire early because you think that is the only way you can achieve your goals.
You may be a good candidate for a Roth conversion in 2012 if you can answer “yes” to any of these statements.
Do you think of being financially organized as a way to love your spouse? David and Krisan Marotta explain why you should.
Client resistance is an inevitable part of the financial planning process. It’s a sign the advisor is doing his or her job.
Marotta On Money is a weekly financial column and daily financial blog about the comprehensive wealth management small changes that have a large effect over time.
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A tax tsunami is coming at the end of this year. This will be your last opportunity to safeguard your assets in a lifeboat and avoid getting swamped with taxes.
Freedom scores ranged from #1 in freedom Hong Kong at 89.9 to #92 ranked mostly unfree Italy at 58.8.
Over the past five years, countries with the most economic freedom averaged annual returns just below emerging markets.
Sovereign debt and deficit weigh most heavily on a country’s level of government spending, one of the ten components of freedom in the Heritage Foundation economic freedom study
We believe this is one of the times when your asset allocation should tilt foreign and overweight the handful of countries with high economic freedom.
New Zealand, the fourth highest country in economic freedom, joined the United States with positive returns for 2011.
The equation of the trend line shows that every point on the freedom index was worth 0.36% annual return over the past year.
Now at year end, I will review how freedom investing fared in 2011 and in the decade since 2002.
I had a dream in which I saw a map similar to the one above and I heard myself explaining why 2011 was not a financial mulligan
If money is among the most common causes of domestic spats, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that almost one in four Americans would try to hide money troubles from their spouses.
We compute an asset allocation deviation or “out of balance” number for each household’s primary retirement assets and rebalance to lower this number.
Lots of articles steer you to the best credit card by categories–one if you want airline miles, another if you need to transfer a balance. This is not one of those articles. The millionaire mindset does not want airline miles and doesn’t carry a balance.
Comprehensive wealth management is based on the idea that small changes in our finances can have large effects over long periods of time. These changes can make the difference in achieving our life goals.
“Successful active management is a fantasy stoked by the financial services industry.”
“Many investors think active managers can shift out of stocks in time to stem losses in bear markets. Not true.”
Listen to David John Marotta’s interview on growing rich slowly: the four secrets of an automatic millionaire
The world markets groaned as the burden of the rising American debt and the European deficit weighed down more productive countries.
Learn about the index preferred by the person who invented index funds with the Vanguard S&P 500. And no, it isn’t the S&P 500.
“A blindfolded chimpanzee throwing darts at The Wall Street Journal can select a portfolio that can do just as well as the experts.”
“There exists a timeless and flexible process for successful investment management decision making that is specifically tailored for Investment Stewards.”
Kiplinger is teaming up with the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) to bring you FREE, personalized financial advice.
For a small business, marketing and advertising seeks an answer to the question “How will prospective customers find me?” Most small businesses would benefit from enhancing their website presence by blogging and social media connections.
Most investors invest in only one and a half of the six asset classes. Learn where to invest in all six and how to tilt in each to over-emphasize appropriate categories.
Kiplinger teamed up with the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) to bring you FREE, personalized financial advice as part of Kiplinger’s 11th annual Jump-Start Your Retirement Plan Days.
“One of an advisor’s greatest challenges? Directing client expectations – and meeting them with portfolio performance.”
Computing your net worth annually is like taking a sextant reading to chart your course toward financial security. Net worth gives you a snapshot of how much money would be left if you converted everything you owned into cash and paid off all your debts.
There are three IRA tax requirements and saving techniques which collided recently for a client. I found a solution.
“Let every man divide his money into three parts, and invest a third in land, a third in business and a third let him keep by him in reserve.”
Most investors do not have a balanced portfolio. And by chasing investment returns they miss the easy money they could make from having a good asset allocation in the first place and rebalancing it periodically.