Financial News and Updates

indexed investment

How You Make Money With an Annuity

A fixed indexed annuity is a type of annuity contract between you and an insurance company. It generally promises to provide returns that are based on a link to the performance of a market index. You usually make one initial lump sum payment to the insurance company. That payment is

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Retirement

Guiding You Through 

We continue to read articles confirming that, while it certainly is an arduous task to work for decades and plan ahead to afford a comfortable retirement, what continues to unsettle many is the actual transition into a life post-workforce. For example, concerns about losing one’s routine, the fading away of

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Enough

How Much is Really Enough to Retire?

How much would you consider to be “enough money to retire?” Yes, you want to have enough money to ensure that you don’t go broke, and can afford basic expenses like food, housing, and medical care, but is that really “enough?” What goals do you want to reach in retirement,

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money

Did You Know Money is Only Half the Story?

Retirement planning seems to always be all about numbers. Your strategy centers around one question: Do your financial assets provide enough income to fund your desired retirement lifestyle? But, to quote a recent article from Kiplinger, “Ask any retiree, and they will likely tell you that it is only half

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retirement savings

How do You Compare?

Curious about how you compare to others? The “How America Saves 2022” report referenced recently by CNBC might give you that information.  The report states the average retirement savings account balances by age: For those within the 55 to 64 age bracket, the average savings account balance is $256,200. For

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Recession

What exactly does that mean?

There has been a lot of talk recently about a recession: whether or not one will come, what it would mean, and how it would affect each of us. A recession is defined by the National Bureau of Economic Research as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread

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Social security retirement benefits

How Much Can You Earn and Still Get Your SS Benefits?

Let’s start by explaining that when you begin receiving Social Security retirement benefits, you are considered officially “retired” by the Social Security Administration (SSA). You can receive Social Security checks and still work at the same time. However, since you are now “retired” there is a limit to how much

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Roth IRA

Converting your IRA

With the downturn in the market these past few months, there is increasing talk about the pros and cons of converting an existing diminished IRA account into a Roth IRA.  Both types of IRAs are designed to help you save for retirement while providing a tax advantage, but they do

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challenges of retirement

The Biggest Challenges of Retirement

We often think of retirement in terms of ‘having enough money.’ However, there are other considerations. This article dives into these other considerations and divides them into three categories: Regret, Health, and Identity. Interestingly, the author tells us that financial worries weren’t among the top three considerations. Over 15,000 retirees,

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de-risking

De-Risking

“De-Risking.” This is a phrase you may hear more frequently as the market dips lower and lower.  It is a term often used when discussing how those who are near retirement can prepare when they know their future years of employment and wages are coming to an end, and their

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Review the basics

Refresher

We try to educate our clients on annuities. Sometimes, it’s a good idea to review the basics. Click here to visit our annuities page. We’ve outlined information such as the different types of annuities, the nature of the underlying investment, the primary purpose of an annuity, the nature of the

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Pension

Adjustments

While inflation has certainly been in the news a lot lately, one topic that hasn’t been discussed all that often is private pensions. Unlike Social Security payments, they typically don’t offer cost-of-living adjustments that keep up with inflation rates. State and local government pensions do typically offer cost of living

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Food for Thought

Food for Thought

There was a great article in the Wall Street Journal this past week that discussed some interesting ideas. The current tight labor market, coupled with the remote and flexible opportunities in the job market, may make retirees think about going back to work in one form or another. Especially when

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Change

Some Things Have Changed

“On the surface, retirement planning hasn’t changed all that much over the years. You work, you save and then you retire. But while the mechanics may be the same, today’s savers are facing some challenges that previous generations didn’t have to worry about,” says a recent CNBC article. We’ve touched

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Tax rules

Tax Rules on Retirement Accounts

Tax-advantaged accounts, or qualified accounts, allow your portfolio to grow without the impact of taxes. This is a major benefit when it comes to saving for your goals. There are multiple retirement account options to choose from, and tax rules vary for each of them. Where you end up focusing

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2 FAQs

Two Frequently Asked Questions

Two of the most frequently asked questions when considering life insurance: What financial benefits will be available to survivors after your death What will their needs be?  These are the most common types of benefits: Social security and other retirement-related survivor benefits; life insurance; and other assets and resources.  Having

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Slow and steady wins the race

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

“Slow and steady wins the race” is an idiom we’ve all heard. But you probably haven’t thought to apply it to planning for retirement. Taking a slower, more consistent approach often leads to a better outcome. It’s easy to forget this, and to take risks in an attempt to catch

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