Investments

Traditional and Roth. These are the two main types of IRAs that you can open or facilitate via rollovers and transfers. Let’s take a look at what they do and which might be the best choice for you. Individual Retirement Accounts are an outgrowth of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974. As…

You regularly give to your church and when a hurricane or other natural disaster relief is needed, you step up. You have a few local charities you give to every year. And up until a few years ago, you could also deduct most of your charitable giving from your gross income at tax time. Most…

In our business, like any other, there are lots of industry-specific words and jargon. So part of our job is to help explain this kind of insider lingo. Two such terms that pertain to IRAs and other retirement accounts are Transfer and Rollover. The difference between the two is a big deal. So, let’s examine…

Over the past few weeks, we’ve had several conversations that made us realize something – retirement and identity are inextricably linked. What we do is so much a part of who we are, so retirement is a big deal. It is a big shift in identity. In our conversations these past few weeks, we talked…

How do you think about taxes? I know – you try not to, right? Well, when it comes to where we park our money, it’s good to consider the tax ramifications. It turns out, people in retirement think about taxes differently than people who are active in the workforce. Why? Because retirement is when a…

We meet with a lot of people and out of the 500-600 people we’ve met with over the past 7 years, we can count on one hand the few who didn’t want to leave anything behind financially for their loved ones. It’s natural and biblical to want to leave something behind. We want to leave…

RMDs are Required Minimum Distributions. These are required distributions from annuities like IRAs, 401(k), 403(b), or a 537. Do you remember the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? There is a scene where Indy is fighting the bad guy while positioned on a tank as it drives towards and eventually over a cliff. Think…

Previously, we explored the risks inherent in carrying a pension plan, and some of your payout options. Now, we’re going to explore, in more detail, some specific payout strategies we’ve helped clients with. Pension Max is one strategy worth considering. Pension Max consists of taking the Single Life payout, let’s say $2,000 a month, vs…

Most people go decades waiting for the moment when they get to blow out the candles on their retirement cake, turn their pension on and ride off into the sunset. But hold your horses there, cowboy! There are some things you should be aware of before you sign up for that company pension. Understanding Pension…

We often joke to people that we would be able to work in a corporate environment for a while, but that employment would quickly come to an end when we got our annual reviews. Needless to say, we’re not big fans of the corporate annual review. Here is why we loathe them. First, they aren’t…

We came across this parable recently that illustrated the mindset necessary if you want to go down the Uncommon Path that leads to an Uncommon Life. There are three bricklayers on a job site. A man walks up to the first bricklayer and asks him, “What are you doing?” The first bricklayer replied, “What does…

It’s all about timing. Investment involves risk. One category that does not get talked about often is what is called the sequence of return risk. The nutshell version is this: the risk of receiving lower or negative returns early in a period when withdrawals are made from an investment portfolio is known as sequence of…