Nancy Hecht discusses fraud alert on Channel 6

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I will be on at 6pm. I did a piece with Mike Holfeld on scams.

You will be in a lower tax bracket when you retire?

You may very well lose deductions and/or exemptions when you retire, and state and federal taxes may climb. This combination is not one that equals lower taxes in retirement. Even if the federal tax does not increase, you may still pay a higher percentage of your income to taxes after retirement vs. before. Do not under estimate the power of a deduction, it’s lose bumped up against you having to take Required Minimum Deductions may be all it takes to push you up into the next tax bracket.

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This Saturday hear
Nancy Hecht CFP® and
Denise Kovach CFP®
co-host our program
“On The Money”!

They’ll be discussing . . .
• Have you planned too optimistically?
A few retirement questions to ponder.
• I take Issue with an MSN Money article about 401k accounts.

• THIS WEEK’S “On the Money 101”:
What is “fee Income?”

Call or eMail
Your Questions:
407-290-0058 OR
1-800-328-5858

Nancy@FinancialGroup.com
Denise@FinancialGroup.com

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Last week MSN Money ran an article titled “5 reasons not to contribute to your 401k”. Point number 2 is: Your employer doesn’t match contributions. This is, in my opinion, a stupid reason not to contribute for your own retirement. A 401k account is one of the easiest ways to save for your retirement. All of the money you save for yourself is contributed in whole, pre-tax dollars. Saving pre-tax dollars will not reduce your spendable income by the same amount; it will be a lesser amount. Saving after-tax dollars simply takes more out of pocket to equal the same as pre-tax dollars.

You should look at an employer match as nothing more than icing on the cake, free money, or any other euphemism you so choose.. Do not use this as an excuse to stop saving for your own retirement.

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The family is all gathered together for the holidays. Everyone is happy and healthy. Now is the time to bring up those sticky topics no one likes to think about. Because when no one is ill, it is exactly the time to have this talk. There are no impending circumstances or decisions to be made, no stress, and no worry.

Ask everyone what their health care wishes are. If needed, where do they want to live? How far should care go in an end-of-life situation? Who do you want making these decisions for you?

Where are all of your important papers and who has access to them? Do you have a current will, living will, durable power of attorney? These are the basic legal documents that allow others to act on your behalf.

Have you made final arrangements? Not everyone in your family may have the same idea as to final resting places or procedures.

My Father passed away at the age of 50 of a sudden heart attack. My family was not prepared. We did have this very discussion a number of years later when we were all gathered for my Daughter’s Bat Mitzvah. It is a tough, but necessary conversation.

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The simple answer is no. The contribution limits for 2014 have not been increased. You can still contribute $17,500 to your 401(k), 403(b), or 457 plans. If you are over age 50, you can add an additional $5,500. The contribution limit for a Traditional or Roth IRA also remains at $5,500 plus $1000 if you are over 50.

What has changed are the income limits that determine if you can contribute to a Roth IRA. In 2014 if you are single with adjusted gross income less than $129,000 or $191,000 if married, you can make a full Roth deposit.

Whatever the limits, you should contribute as much as you comfortably can for yourself through the options available to you at work.

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