Your Money Matters More

Retirement is Personal

Retirement is personal:  it can be an elusive goal or it can be a well -planned gift to yourself after a long career.  There are key milestones in this process. To avoid tax penalty waiting until you reach the age of fifty-nine and a half to take distributions from your qualified plan maximize your benefit. Contribute the maximum matched dollar value—the more the better—and keep it invested.  When you do reach fifty-nine and a half you have more options. Remember though, fifty-mine and a half is a number; retirement is a goal.

 

To avoid any penalty from a qualified plan your birthdays count. Once you are fifty-nine and a half, there is no longer a penalty to remove your money, but your money can still work for you if you leave it.  The penalty is considerable: it not only becomes taxable income, but there is an additional ten percent tax on the amount of the withdrawal. Conversely, if your money is not in a qualified plan these restrictions do not apply…you will have already paid tax each year as it accrued but you will have less to invest and you will have less accumulating tax defered. As always, talk to a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) before making any move.

Putting away the maximum dollar amount matched by your employer makes you less dependent on the rate of return as your investment accumulates funds. If you can add other moneys to this amount they too can grow tax deferred. The tax deferral allows you to accumulate money faster. For example if your 401(k) is being invested at the rate of $3,000 a year, you are not only saving the whole $3,000, but you are also compounding interest on that investment tax defered. If you are able to leave it until you are fifty-nine and a half, you will not pay tax until it is distributed.

Waiting until you are at the optimal age, you can take the entire amount or you can take any amount you need to live on and let the balance ride.  Determine with your CFP what supports your lifestyle. You can control your taxable income by controlling your distributions. The ability to combine your defined contribution plans gives you better economy of scale when it comes to selecting your investments, also.  

Although fifth-nine and a half is the point where penalties no longer occur, retiring later can have even greater benefit.  Your CFP can walk you through these options based on your personal financial standing. Begin planning as soon as possible to allow for the optimal benefit when using a defined contribution plan.  When the time is right—enjoy! 

Children are Expensive

 Children are expensive. That is a given: but the cost of higher education is growing at an unprecedented rate. A 529 Plan, a type of college savings fund, is a tax free way to accumulate money for college expenses. After the birth of a child, begin to put money away for college. The owner of the account can contribute for a named beneficiary. If for some reason the beneficiary chooses not to use it the owner can transfer it later to a different student. 

There are a wide selection of plans available. Each State has its own plan with some offering more than one, and an investor can choose from any of these. Each state provides its own residents additional incentives, but these tax incentives should be subordinate to the underlying returns of the investments of the plan. Always seek the advice of a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) when selecting a plan. 

Recent graduates have left college with a crushing debt load. An alternative to this is paying out of pocket. Making wise investments early allows compounding of returns to work for you. This is just one of the tools that your CFP has in their arsenal.  

Portfolio Construction

When developing a portfolio for the average investor the key points you need to consider are: time horizon, taxability, liquidity, risk and diversification. 

 

• The first thing you have to figure out is what time frame you are going to need the money.  The longer time you have before you need the money the more aggressive you can be.  Due to the time you have to ride out cycles of the stock market.  Saving for retirement is different than saving for the down payment for the purchase of a house.  You can invest for the long term if you have a number of yours until you need the funds.  By increasing the amounts of risk you are taking you can statistically increase your returns.

 

• The second thing to take into account is how the money is going to be taxed.  Investments that are in a tax-free environment can stand more ordinary income. With taxable income you can write-off losses that you incur.  Also capital gains are preferable to ordinary income in a taxable environment.

 

• The next area that you need to worry about is the amount of liquidity available with your portfolio.  The longer you have to invest the more able you are to use illiquid assets like real estate.  Real estate functions on a longer cycle than stocks.

 

• You can’t expect return without taking a little risk.  Risk translates volatility. The level of risk that you take is what you personally can tolerate.  Risk is measured in different ways including standard deviation and/or beta.  They are measured relative to the standard deviation and/or beta respectively of the market as a whole.

 

• Last but not least to be sure that your portfolio is diversified by having enough holding, by industry and by type of investment.  Income oriented investments tend to have different characteristics than appreciation driven investments.  International funds add an extra level of risk in the fact that there is an exchange rate in play in addition to the underlying stock making then inherently more volatile. 

You needn’t go it alone; contact a financial planning professional.