Life insurance may not be a happy topic, but it is an important one. Too many
of us put off buying life insurance that could ease the lives
of our family members and business partners after our death.
As the insurance professional in this video explains, the three major questions to
ask yourself about life insurance are:
- Do I need life insurance?
- How much do I need?
- What kind should I buy?
For help answering these questions, talk to an insurance professional or financial
planner. Plan & Act can help you get a handle on your
financial future and plan for your family’s prosperity. To start growing
your money to pay for retirement or to speak to one of our financial advisors,
call us at (720) 897-7966,
or for a free financial assessment, Like Us on Facebook.
Well established now in your career or business with a family and home that are happy and comfortable, you can’t jeopardize any of this by not planning your finances. Financial security in the future requires careful thought and meticulous implementation now, so that your family and you are free from financial burden in the years to come.
At Plan & Act, our easy-to-use online financial planning system follows a tried and tested approach that has delivered great results for people just like you. Here’s a brief summary of just some of the ways that we can help:
· Value Based Life Planning - We’ll work with you to help create a context for your financial plan; we’ll get you started by listing your most important personal goals.
· Your Current Financial Status & Plan Summary - This involves implementing the core strategy of wealth conservation. We also recommend that over the next five years or so from the time you implement your financial plan, you must use the Net Worth, Income, Portfolio, Real Estate, and Amortization benchmarks to measure progress on your Wealth Conservation Plan.
· Cash Flows / Budgeting - We can brainstorm with you some realistic ways to reduce spending and increase saving so that you can ensure at least 10% of your gross income is saved for your future.
· Tax Planning - We can devise effective tax planning strategies to create opportunities for Roth Conversions. Our recommendation is to repeat the strategy that works for you until you have as much money as possible growing tax free and perhaps protected from creditors in Roth IRAs. If you do have any investments on which you are facing or have incurred capital losses, we’ll show you ways to liquidate them. In order to avoid the capital gains tax without using your harvested tax losses, we may advise that you strategically gift highly appreciated securities to charity or a to a family member who falls into a lower tax bracket.
· Functional Asset Allocation (FAA) - We’ll talk to you about your projected retirement income and help come up with a figure for how much you should maintain in your checking or savings accounts as cash reserves. You also need to account for an emergency fund. If there is a benefit in pulling some equity out of your home with a longer period fixed rate mortgage, we may help you work that out.
· Traditional Asset Allocation - How do you liquidate individual stocks in a tax efficient manner? We can show you. Also, think about building a bond ladder to fund any living expenses not covered by Social Security or other non-portfolio sources of income. Plan wisely for investing the equity allocation of your portfolio and buy interest-earning assets such as bonds and bond mutual funds inside your tax sheltered accounts where the gain will be tax deferred. Most of our customers in this wealth accumulation stage of life stand to gain from buying capital gain assets with the highest potential return, such as equities and equity mutual funds inside their Roth IRA accounts where the gains continue to grow tax-free. Of course, once you’ve maximized the capacity of Roth IRAs, you can buy capital gain assets in taxable brokerage accounts where they will be subject to lower capital gains rates and you will be able to control taxable events.
With all of this advice and professional financial planning assistance you should be in a very good position to visualize how your functional asset allocation and security selection will look when complete.
Take the first step towards your objective financial plan and investment advice—Like Us on Facebook and get your FREE Financial Assessment by the experts at Plan & Act. Our online financial planning tool is available to you for a low $199 only. If you are not completely satisfied with your personalized financial plan, your cost will be refunded in full.
* Plan & Act is a registered Fiduciary Financial Advisor. This ensures the financial advice you receive from us is objective, unbiased, and protects your financial interests.
Transitioning on from the early years that we discussed in a recent post, most of us get to that stage where wealth accumulation becomes important. There comes a time in our lives when financial planning takes on a whole new meaning of responsibility, commitment, priorities and goals. From what used to be an individual’s need for financial independence you find yourself becoming the integral and pivotal source of funds for your dependent loved ones. With the growing financial obligations comes, no doubt, a feeling of satisfaction in being able to fulfil these demands. With some thought about sound investment options and a proven financial planning system, you can achieve a healthy financial balance and be stress free.
Take advantage of Plan & Act’s online financial planning tool—for a low $199 only, you can get your own personalized financial plan. If you are not completely satisfied, your cost will be refunded in full.
Take the first step towards your objective financial plan and investment advice—Like Us on Facebook and get your FREE Financial Assessment by the experts at Plan & Act.
What are some common financial requirements of individuals and families in this stage of life?
- A good home - so think: financing required for a down payment, mortgage, homeowner’s insurance, property taxes, and the ongoing maintenance and upkeep of your home and surroundings
- Children and family - aside from daily and basic necessities you have other expenses to think of such as daycare costs, education (especially putting aside funds for college / university fees), family vacations, etc.
- Travel - daily commutes to work and school are not getting any cheaper with the rising gas prices. In addition, you want to be able to travel as a family every few months to get away from the rigors of routine life
- Insurance - for your car, home, property and life—no matter how inflated the premiums seem to get every year, you know that failing to protect your assets and your life with adequate insurance coverage means risking your peace of mind
- Emergencies - you need to always be prepared to handle the financial pressures of a medical, personal, natural disaster, or any other kind of emergency you are faced with
In spite of all these financial obligations you want to also make sure you have a certain desirable and satisfying lifestyle where comfort does not have to take a back seat. Over the years you have made some investments; some wise choices and perhaps some not so wise. Nevertheless, now is the stage when you want to ensure that your assets grow and your investments are optimized for the best pay off when they mature or when you need them to fund important events in the future.
So how can you do this? There are a few fundamental criteria you can aim to fulfil in this wealth accumulation phase of life:
- Try to ensure that your net worth exceeds 3 times your annual income
- Upon the solid financial foundation that you created in the early years, start diversifying your investment and asset management strategy by looking at bonds and equities
- Acknowledge that as your wealth grows, so does your risk bearing capacity and it is possible to get a little more aggressive in your asset allocation
- You may start seeing that your interest earnings are slowly getting to be on-par or equal to your equities; so start saving more
So what are you waiting for? Get started today with no cost or obligation a FREE Financial Assessment from Plan & Act. Then, when you’re ready, we can work with you to create a personalized (and affordable) financial plan that maximizes your investments and assets in the wealth accumulation stage so you have a financially secure future and a comfortable, stress-free retirement.
* Plan & Act is a registered Fiduciary Financial Advisor. This ensures the financial advice you receive from us is objective, unbiased, and protects your financial interests.