Retirement Watch Weekly
Avoid This #1 Retirement Mistake
What’s the biggest mistake in retirement plans? From what I see, it is failing fully to factor inflation into their planning. Retirement these days often lasts 20 years or more. To be safe, you should plan on living to age 90. Over that time inflation can make a safe, comfortable stream of income uncomfortably tight, […]
Cutting Your Taxes By 30% Or More
Despite repeated IRS attacks, the family limited partnership still provides substantial tax savings. The IRS hates FLPs because you retain a lot of control over the assets. But the IRS has trouble winning court cases. Numerous court cases now give fairly clear rules for using this flexible tool to greatly increase the after-tax wealth left […]
Increase Income: Annuities versus Bonds
There is a plan that might boost your current after-tax investment income and increase the estate left to your heirs. Especially if you own bonds to generate income, including tax-free bonds, consider this strategy as part of both your investment planning and estate planning. A problem with bonds, even tax-free bonds, is that estate taxes […]
Top Ten Funds
A market decline is a good time to clean out your portfolio. Get rid of the mediocre performers that disappointed in the last market rise and are likely to continue disappointing. Now is the time to set your portfolio to perform better when the market recovers. To help you, let’s review some funds I recommended […]
Little-Known Tax Write-Offs – Give It Away, Write It Off, And Still Enjoy It
There might be a pile of untapped tax write offs lurking in your home or personal inventory. Most people don’t have a hint of this, because the IRS doesn’t advertise some creative tax strategies it has approved for years. If you know about this strategy, you can give property away, take a deduction for it, […]
Tax Gains From Market Losses
The first bear market in a long time offers an opportunity to dust off an effective tax reduction strategy. Use this strategy now and you could significantly increase this year’s after-tax returns. The strategy is called a tax swap or mutual fund swap. It works with stocks, bonds, or mutual funds Suppose you bought some […]
The Best Way to Structure IRA Gifts
An IRA often is one of the largest assets in an estate. Tax laws make it one of the most complicated. That’s why IRA planning is a critical element of many estate plans. If you have a large IRA are considering charitable gifts as part of your estate plan, review carefully the alternatives to find […]
Strategies for Passing Wealth to Grandchildren
The government doesn’t want you to give or leave wealth to your grandchildren. A penalty tax is imposed on those who try. But there are numerous ways to avoid the penalty and leave substantial wealth to the third generation. Most of these strategies are very simple. The penalty tax is the generation-skipping tax, which I […]
