STEPS FOR FINANCIAL HEALTH & WELLNESS

It is important to balance how to "Plan For The Future & Live For The Moment"!  This advice comes from our Financial EXPERT with over 29 years experience as a Wealth Manager, helping Educate, providing Financial Advice, Building & Managing Custom Investment Portfolios, helping Americans Into & through Retirement.

Most of us know people who have died way too young, and people who have outlived their Savings.  Financial Planning is not about living a boring Debt Free Life, and putting away all your money for a Rainy Day or Retirement.  

Living in Retirement and the Golden Years are not guaranteed for any of us.  The trick is finding the balance between Planning For The Future and Living For The Moment.

Our Financial EXPERT has provided a Step by Step list to help get your finances under control, and making sure you keep them  in control.

If you would like to contact our Financial EXPERT directly, please click below.

It is important to understand there is Good Debt & Bad Debt.  

Examples of Good Debt; 3%-5% Mortgage Rates, 4% Student Loan, 5% Car Loan, Examples of Bad Debt; Several Department Store Credit Cards with Interest Rates around 28%, Car Loan 18% or Personal Loan 12%.  

If you have Extra money at the end of the month, focus on paying down Bad Debt, Not Good Debt.  Don't pay over the Required Monthly Mortgage Payment, while paying the Minimum Monthly Payment on your Credit Card Debt, as it's the Highest Debt Interest Rate you have, and your Mortgage Rate is your Lowest Interest Rate.

Understanding how your Credit Score is calculated and knowing how to Dispute Negative Marks on your Credit Score is Very Important.

Whether you are trying to get Approved for a New Apartment, Car Insurance, New Job, Car Loan, Home Loan or a Credit Card, your Credit Score will determine IF your get Approved and what Interest Rate you will qualify for.  

Having a Low Credit Score will cost you Thousands of Dollars throughout your life, and may Disqualify you from important items in your life.

It is important to establish a Monthly Budget to determine how much excess Cash you have left over when calculating your Monthly Income - Monthly Expenses = Potential Savings.

Monthly Budgets rarely work because most people don't properly establish Monthly Expenses, and Surprise Expenses pop up which can dramatically impact the Potential Savings each month.  However, just because they don't always work, it is important to attempt to establish them because of what we said earlier, Plan For The Future & Live For The Moment.

When trying to pay down Bad Debt, Invest in Your 401k at work, Save Money for that Rainy Day, Monthly Budgets can play an important role in determining what you can afford to Save For Your Future & still Live For The Moment.

Don't skip Saving through your 401k at work, your company may contribute to your account based on what you are Saving, which is like Free money, and making Pre-Tax Contributions to your 401k Reduces Your Taxable Income, and that could be 20% Savings Right There.

At a minimum use a Financial Calculator to determine growth of current Savings, Annual Contributions to Investment Accounts, When you will Need the money for Retirement, and Anticipated Retirement Expenses in today's dollars, based on your needs, you will Learn if You are Contributing Enough Annually, and What Annual Return Pre & Post Retirement You Need from Investments to meet Your Retirement Goals. 

Without a Plan and understanding your proper Investment Allocation, your Annual Investment Return will look Good in Up Markets & will Terrible in Down Markets.  Avoid this guess work.

Our Financial EXPERT offers ALL our supporters a FREE Financial Plan.  Please click below for Free Plan Offer:

Don't skip Saving through your 401k at work, your company may contribute to your account based on what you are Saving, which is like Free money, and making Pre-Tax Contributions to your 401k Reduces Your Taxable Income, and that could be 20% Savings Right There.

Your 401k can also have a Loan feature to it, therefore, if you have an Emergency in your life you can access the money in your 401k for a Reasonable Interest Rate, not a Low Interest Rate.  Do NOT look at this as free access to money, it is a Loan, and it is for Your Future, not for a New Car or Trip to Paris.  

If you Withdrawal Money from your 401k, you will pay heavy taxes and penalties.  Again, if you need it for something important, look for the aLoan not the Withdrawal.

If you leave your company, Roll Your old 401k to an IRA account so you can go from 15-20 Investment Options to THOUSANDS of Investment Options.

If you need help with that, contact our Financial EXPERT.

If you have made the decision you need professional advice with your investments, you have a few options. to consider.  Some financial firms have investment account size limits that may not allow you to use their services.  Below are other options:

-Hire a Professional from your Local Bank, Fidelity, Schwab, Insurance Agent -  

Pro - they are accessible and can answer your questions - 

Con - they are generally Not Proactive in providing you actionable advice, like reducing exposure to markets before an anticipated decline, they can be responsible for hundreds of other clients, and don't personalize their services the way you would like.

-Independent Advisor Professionals - these advisors work for a firm that has more flexibility to charge fees, whether hourly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually, have no conflict with recommending Mutual Fund choices, as they do not manage those funds in house and make money on internal expenses, on top of charging you a Fee based on the assets you give them to manage. 

Pro - conflict of interests are minimized, choice of investment options can be higher, no management pressure to push certain investment products, can truly represent advice in your best interest and not the firm they work for, 

Con - some people don't understand what Independence means, even though client assets are held with Custodians like Schwab, Fidelity, or Pershing, which means clients access their money on Schwab.com and Fidelity.com, yet they get personalized services from Independent Advisors rather than employees of those firms with hundreds of other clients they are responsible for.  Schwab and Fidelity have referral networks that refer their larger clients to Independent firms who can better handle larger client assets.

If you have additional questions on these relationship options, please email us:

Imagine getting married, naming your spouse as your Beneficiary, then Divorcing, getting Re-Married and forgetting to update your IRA Beneficiary, then you pass away, and your Ex still gets their money because you never updated the IRA Beneficiary Form!  

Sounds terrible right?  It is, but it's done Thousands of times every year because Financial Advisors forget to tell you to update the form or You Don't update the form.  If you pass away, who's name is on your Beneficiary Forms is who WILL get the money, nothing else matters.  If you are reading this and it impacts your life, do it Immediately, and You Are Welcome!!

If you establish a Will in one state, however, you retire and pass away in another state, there can be language your current state does not recognize from your old Will.  When you retire in a new state, make sure all of your Will & Estate Plan documents are updated to that state.

Contact us if you have questions regarding this topic.  This is not meant to replace Legal advice.

Most people don't even know what Long-Term Care Insurance is, or what it covers, however, our Financial EXPERT tells us it may be one of the most important coverages people should be investing in, and for many people, it's more important than investing additional money in their 401k, IRA or Roth IRA at their current age.

One way to recognize the value of this type of insurance is to complete a Financial Plan using $50,000 expected retirement expenses, in today's dollars.  

Based on those results, now go back and add another $75,000 per year, if you Don't have LTC, to cover your inability to complete 2 of 6 Daily Functions, and you need help on a Daily Basis.  This inability to complete 2 of 6 Daily Functions is what triggers the LTC to kick in.  

Once you Re-Run the Financial Plan, and use this increase in Retirement Expenses due to your health, you will quickly realize how LTC coverage, which may cost a few thousand a year in premiums for $60,000-75,000 per year coverage, may be a better investment for your Retirement Success than adding more to your 401k, IRA or Roth IRA.

To learn more about LTC, email us and we will provide more information to you and Free LTC Quotes if you request it.