Welcome to the first installment of our Social Security series: An Introduction to Social Security. This article, and the others within our Social Security series, will focus on the particulars related to retirement and survivorship benefits.
Searching online about how to retire and use your savings to live on in retirement turns up tons of information. There are articles about the percentage to take out, the taxes to be aware of, and the rules and regulations. The type of article that you probably won’t find is the one that puts these academic facts together with a person’s life considerations to try and offer a real plan of action for withdrawals. This Retirement Income Series of blog topics will seek to do that.
Welcome back to our Retirement Income Series! Are you looking to retire and figure out what the retirement nest egg you’ve been building for all those years can do for you? In this article we’ll dive into the first step in the 4-step planning process that’s key to a retiree determining their own retirement income and withdrawal plan.
With your nest egg goal clearly defined, you are ready to move on to Step 2: figuring out how much money to take out and deciding what method is best suited. To determine which method is appropriate, we first need to know what methods are available. As it turns out, there are three methods that we will be covering among a number of withdrawal strategies that are available: 1) Budget Shortfall, 2) Portfolio Income and Gains, and 3) "Safe" Withdrawal Rate. Let's take a closer look at each of these methods so that you can understand how to apply them to your overall retirement income goal.
To effectively perform multi-year tax planning strategies, you need to start by looking at your overall income picture over your lifetime. Every single year is accounted for. Doing it this way creates a timeline that allows you to evaluate the bigger picture and identify where specific planning strategies along that timeline may help reduce your overall tax burden. Through this process, the goal is to determine which accounts to withdraw from and when based on your income and expense situation during various segments of time.
This article is entry #5 in our Retirement Income Series and is step #4 of a 4-step planning process that we employ, called “Getting to Know YOUR Retirement Building Blocks and When and How to Use Them for Maximum Effect."
Mechanics of Making Withdrawals is entry #6 in our Retirement Income Series. This article will focus on how to get money out of your nest egg. In addition, we will provide you with the knowledge you need to properly plan, organize, and structure your withdrawals so that you have an easy process to follow.
This article aims to provide the framework needed to understand how to take control of your RMDs throughout your retirement by teaching you what they are and how to calculate them. To tie everything together, we will illustrate why anticipating your RMDs can help you avoid the costliest mistakes, and then we will demonstrate how you can optimize your taxes with a little-known technique.
Suppose you have a detailed financial plan and a strong projection that you will have a significant amount of money left after you depart this realm of existence. In that case, you may think of the best ways to use that wealth now and even after your departure. In this article, we will explore ideas and methods to use your wealth that you may not need after all.
This article marks the conclusion of our Retirement Income Series and is entry #8. To learn about the entire retirement income process from A-Z, we suggest going to our main resource page and starting from the beginning.
A key component within the overall estate planning process is estate administration. Estate administration is the procedure by which a person’s financial dealings are managed and distributed to their heirs after they die. In other words, when a person with assets and property dies is when the estate administration process begins for the executor of the estate.
