Military veterans take risks and suffer hardships, so embarking on a military career is certainly not an easy road to take. However, people who serve are often fueled by the motivation to serve their country and this can be a reward in and of itself. At the same time, their contributions do not go unnoticed and there are some very useful rewards that go along with military service. These benefits can play a significant role in your long-term planning efforts. The cost of long-term care is … [Read more...]
LLC Can Protect Assets
If it is viewed in its proper context, legacy planning is a long-term process. There are individuals who go through life strictly and exclusively concerned with their own ability to meet their expenses up until the time they pass away. These people are not concerned with what they are going to be leaving to their loved ones if anything. Others take a different approach and set very specific legacy goals. To meet these objectives they have to adhere to a holistic plan that impacts their ongoing … [Read more...]
Make Debt Reduction Part Of Your Retirement Plan
Retirement can conjure a lot of images in the mind's eye. You may picture yourself lounging on a tropical beach with a cocktail in hand watching the waves gently lick the alabaster sands, or simply imagine an everyday lifestyle of arising whenever you choose to with an open-ended itinerary in front of you. Life is for living, and there is certainly nothing wrong with looking forward to your golden years with very positive expectations. However, in the end "retirement" is not a state of … [Read more...]
Retirement Planning For Veterans
Far too many people find themselves unprepared for retirement, and if you don't want to be one of them you would do well to devise an intelligent plan and stick to it. Depending on your resources and the nature of your career path exactly how to go about this is going to vary. A lot of people who look toward the future at a young age decide to join the military with an eye on retirement. After 20 years of active duty veterans qualify for a retirement pension. They receive this pension for life, … [Read more...]
Retirement Age Is A Goal, Not A Given
A significant percentage of people go through life expecting that they will retire when they reach their mid-to-late 60s without making any particular plans to make this possible. This is a mistake, and it is one of those mistakes that you don't just learn from and then dust yourself off and walk away all the wiser. If you wind up unprepared for retirement financially, you are not going to have the opportunity to recover and you may well have to work until you become physically and/or mentally … [Read more...]
Estate Planning, Retirement Planning, and Goal Setting
Estate planning can be done in a very surface manner and viewed as nothing more than deciding on a way to transfer whatever you happen to have left after you pass away to your family members. However, some people take their legacies a lot more seriously, and they have specific things in mind that they would like to be able to do for their loved ones. When you are considering your own mortality you may also feel the need to give something back to those less fortunate than you, and many choose to … [Read more...]
Retirement Planning Strategies For Military Veterans
When you are considering the future it is important to face all of the facts head on. If you have your head in the sand with regard to retirement you may never be able to retire, because it takes planning for most people to have the resources that they need to stop working to earn a paycheck. There are those who think that Social Security will pay for their living expenses and that Medicare will handle all of their medical expenses. This misconception can lead you in the wrong direction because … [Read more...]
401(k) Accounts & Retirement Planning
They say that experience is the best teacher, but unfortunately it is something that you often get just after you need it. It is true that we learn from our mistakes, and in many cases these errors are blessings in disguise because the lessons that you do in fact learn serve you in good stead throughout the rest of your life. However, there are some mistakes that you make that you can never fully recover from, and this is why it is so important to take retirement planning seriously. If you … [Read more...]
Prepare For 2011 Estate Tax
Back in 2001 there was a sweeping tax act passed, and one of the provisions was a repeal of the federal estate tax in 2010. However, the estate tax will be back in effect in 2011 and the change in the exclusion amount from the levels that we saw in 2009 should be of profound interest to anyone who is planning their estate or monitoring their existing plan on an ongoing basis. In 2009 the estate tax exemption stood at $3.5 million, and the top rate of taxation was 45%. To look at a broader … [Read more...]
Estate Plan Reviews
When you decide that it is time to sit down with an estate planning attorney and make some decisions about the future there is a lot to consider. You must evaluate where you are financially, assess the needs of your family, consider the tax ramifications of your actions, and address the matter of medical preferences. This is all part of wise and prudent long term planning, and when all of your intentions coalesce into a solid plan you feel a particular sense of closure and the peace of mind that … [Read more...]
