Most of us know that at age 70.5 you have to start taking mandatory withdrawals from your qualified retirement accounts. But, what if you still want to make a Traditional IRA contribution in the year you turn 70.5? Can you still do this? Perhaps. Let me explain.
If you turn 70.5 on or after July 1st, you cannot make a Traditional IRA contribution. If your birthday is before that date, you can. Even if your birthday is after July 1st, you can still fund your 2015 Traditional IRA if you have not as of yet. If you still want to be able to save for your retirement and your birthday is after July 1st, you can still make a Roth IRA contribution.

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Opposites often attract but when it comes to saving money for the future, this may not be a good thing. Here are three things to look at to help you get on the same page.
Try to understand why he is not committed to saving.
How did your husband’s parents handle money? Bad modeling with saving and spending may have been passed down. Does your husband feel he is entitled because he works so hard? Is there an underlying problem such as illness or drugs? If you can get to the root of the problem in a constructive, nonjudgemental way, you can move past it.
Have shared savings goals.
Talk about what you would like to accomplish together. Once you have outlined some shared goals and dreams, you can work on a budget and savings plan together.
Make it automatic.
Any time you can take advantage of direct deposit or systematic deposits – do it. We take advantage of automatic withdrawal to your retirement plans; we can set up the same program into your savings account to accomplish your shared goals.

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Have you noticed more people at your gym this month? Many New Year’s resolutions include diet and exercise. Gyms love this because a lot of people take out memberships, then a few months in, stop showing up. This is a nice gain for the gym, not so much for the members. Resolutions are often about stopping a bad habit or making a change. I would like to challenge you to make a financial change.
I am going to give to two money resolutions for the New Year.
First, put yourself on a “money diet”. This term first became popular in the 1980’s. Here is how it works:
For one week each month, you do not spend money on something that is not an essential. Buy your groceries, gas, medicine, pay your normal bills, but that is it. The idea here is to gain – not lose.
Second, don’t spend your singles.
Every time you buy something with cash, then receive singles as change, your bank those singles. Here’s an example; you stop at the local coffee house and buy a drink. Your drink cost $3.50; you only have a $5 in your wallet. Of the $1.50 change, you can now spend only the .50. You will be surprised how fast the savings add up when you can’t spend your singles.

Resolve to save more this year – put yourself on a money diet.

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We hate dealing with taxes – there is no other word to use. If you want to avoid some problems, pay attention to these important tax dates.
January 19th: The IRS will begin accepting individual returns filed electronically.
February 1st: Companies have until 2/1/16 to get your 1099’s and W-2 forms in the mail. This date also applies to banks, investment firms, and any place providing non-employee compensation.
February 16th: Financial firms must mail out 1099-B, 1099-S, and 1099-Misc forms to investors.
April 18th: This is the tax submission deadline for your 2015 individual return, or if you need an extension, the date this must be submitted. Remember, if you are filing for an extension but owe tax, your must pay it by April 18, 2016.
October 17th: That absolute last day to file your 2015 return. You’ve had an extra 6 months, the time to file is now.

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  Federal rate hike presents new obstacles for some Central Florida residents  

Please tab past the video for my contribution to this article.

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We grew up learning the basic three R’s to get us started in life. Here are three R’s to pay attention to as you wind things down.
Get Real about your retirement.
Have you figured out how much income you will need and where it will come from? Is your retirement age realistic? How long might you live in retirement? You have to be able to answer these questions before you retire.
Resist the desire to dump all of your stocks. We have just had the worst start of a year, financially speaking, since 2008. Panic might lead a number of investors to think they have to get out of the stock market fast. Step back and don’t sell so fast. Over the long term, stocks have outperformed other types of investments. Stocks generally keep investors ahead of inflation. These two factors are very important in retirement.
Re-evaluate your life insurance. Did you base your original life insurance purchases on providing for your family? Paying off your mortgage? Covering final expenses? As we reach retirement, we do not have the obligations we had. Hopefully, your kids are supporting themselves, and most retirees have paid off their mortgages. Lack of these two expenses may mean that you don’t need as much coverage as you once did. Look at lowering the face value of your coverage or converting your policy to a paid-up life insurance policy.

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Yes, it is that time of year again – tax time. You hate it; I know you do, as do I. But it is a necessary evil that you would like to get done, once, the right way. I will give you some common areas to be careful with, as most taxpayers make mistakes in these areas.
Please get your social security number correct! Simple right, but not for many filers. Some of us have a tendency to transpose numbers or write our spouse’s social security by our own name in error.
Check your math, and then check it again. If you use one of the tax filing programs, this becomes much less of an error. I know many of you still fill in your return by hand. Do your math, put the form down, go back and do your math again. It wouldn’t hurt to double check your inputs again also. Some digits get dropped or transposed.
Did you change your name? There are many reasons for someone to change their name. Make sure your have updated this with the Social Security Administration, then enter and spell correctly your name on your return.

Take your time, be careful, then you can forget about this for another year.

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Over the weekend of Christmas, my neighbor got married at home. It was so heart warming to see everything so pretty and everyone so happy. As newlyweds, there are a few things my neighbors now need to keep in mind as follows:
1. They no longer can file single but need to pick which married designation they want to file under. There are two choices: Married Filing Joint or Married Filing Separate. You will now be responsible for your spouse’s old tax debt (if there is one), but there are benefits to filing joint also- your standard deduction and personal exemptions will change.
2. Are you going to change your name? You will have to go to a government office to do so. If you do not, the Social Security Administration will notify the IRS of your name change; this has to be done prior to filing.
3. Are you a same-sex couple that married prior to 2013? If so, you may want to look at your old returns to see if there are any refunds you might be due to the law changes.

As someone who has been married for 29 years, I say congratulations & happy filing!

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