Paying off the mortgage used to be part of the American dream and a prerequisite to retirement. Then, times changed. Debt management and the use of leverage spread from businesses to personal finance. It was not unusual for people to enter retirement with mortgages and other debt with no plans to become...
Last week we discussed how today’s economic distress creates estate planning opportunities. Because of today’s reduced asset values, estate owners can shift assets out of their estates tax at much lower tax cost than they could have a year or two ago. We went over basic strategies for taking...
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Retirement Watch
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Bob Carlson
on
02-20-2009
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Filed under: Bob Carson, Estate Planning, estates, Estate tax, tax-free gifts, taxable gifts, gifts, Carlson, Bob Carlson, wills, income taxes, trusts, homes, estate taxes, grandkids, annual exclusion, grandchildren, financial crisis, investments, portfolios
Converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA has been a valuable tool to consider since the Roth was created in 1997. There are two reasons why a conversion is worth far more consideration now than in the past . First, a brief review of the basics. A Roth IRA has "back-ended tax benefits." There...
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Retirement Watch
by
Bob Carlson
on
01-09-2009
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Filed under: Bob Carson, Estate Planning, IRA Benefits, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, estates, Carlson, Bob Carlson, income taxes, iras, ira distributions, retirement plan, retirement, financial crisis, retirement plans, stocks, portfolios
Update Dec. 19: On Dec. 11 Congress passed legislation that suspended the required minimum distribution requirement for 2009. But it did not change the requirement for 2008. the IRS was asked by members of Congress to suspend the requirement for 2008. But on Dec. 17 it sent a letter to key members of...
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Retirement Watch
by
Bob Carlson
on
12-05-2008
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Filed under: Bob Carson, Estate Planning, IRA Benefits, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, Carlson, Bob Carlson, income taxes, iras, ira distributions, retirement plan, retirement, financial crisis, retirement plans, stock, stocks, stock market, investments, portfolios, market timing
Come January, Democrats will be in charge all over Washington. They campaigned on a theme of change, and we should expect major changes. The questions are which changes and how will they affect your retirement finances? I will focus on the changes I think are most likely to occur. When evaluating the...
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Retirement Watch
by
Bob Carlson
on
11-07-2008
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Filed under: Bob Carson, Estate Planning, IRA Benefits, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, estates, Estate tax, taxable gifts, gifts, Carlson, Bob Carlson, wills, income taxes, iras, ira distributions, estate taxes, retirement plan, retirement, financial crisis, retirement plans, stock, stocks, stock market, investments, portfolios, market timing, market indicators
Market volatility and uncertainty spur the search for investment alternatives. Index fund investors broke even or lost money the last 10 years, depending on what the markets did in the latest volatile week. The index fund investors did worse than simply owning treasury bills or a money market fund. Investors...
Posted to
Retirement Watch
by
Bob Carlson
on
10-07-2008
Filed under:
Filed under: Bob Carson, Carlson, Bob Carlson, income taxes, financial crisis, insurance, annuities, stock, stocks, equity indexed annuities, stock market