5 Retirement Strategies for 2015

Posted On December 1, 2014 By Admin In Retirement Planning /  

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For 2015, the IRS has announced that contribution limits will increase for a number of retirement plan types.  For 401(k) and 403(b) plans, the annual contribution limit has been increased from $17,500 to $18,000.  The catch-up amount for investors over age 50 has increased from $5,500 to $6,000, so the new effective limit for participants over 50 is now $24,000. Be sure to contact your HR department to increase your withholding in January, if you are able to afford the higher amount.

Traditional and Roth IRA contribution limits will remain at $5,500, or $6,500 if over age 50.  SIMPLE IRA participants will see a bump from $12,000 to $12,500, and SEP IRA contribution limits are increased from $52,000 to $53,000 for 2015.

If you’re not sure where to start, here are my five recommendations, in order, for funding retirement accounts.

1) Choose the Traditional Plan 

More and more employers offer Roth options in their 401(k) plans, but I believe the most investors are better off in the traditional, pre-tax plan.  The only way the Roth is preferable is if your marginal tax rate is higher in retirement than it is today. The reality is that your income will probably be lower in retirement than when you are working.  Even if your income remains the same 20 years from now, it is likely that tax-brackets will have shifted up for inflation and you may be in a lower tax rate.  Lastly, there has been continued talk of tax simplification, which would reduce tax breaks and potentially lower marginal tax rates, which would also be negative for Roth holders. So, my advice is to take the tax break today and stick with the pre-tax, regular 401(k).

 2) Maximize Employer Plan Contributions

Your first course of action will always be to maximize your contributions to your employer plan.  Many individuals do this, but I’m surprised that with many couples, the lower paid spouse often does not.  If you’re being taxed jointly, every dollar contributed reduces your taxes at your marginal rate. And don’t forget that since 2013, on income over $250,000, couples are subject to an additional 0.9% tax on Earned Income and an additional 3.8% on Investment Income to provide additional revenue to Medicare.  Add the 3.8% Medicare Tax to the top rate of 39.6%, and you could be paying as much as 43.4% tax on your investment income.  That’s a big incentive to maximize your pre-tax contributions as much as you can.

 3) Traditional IRA, if deductible

If you maximize your employer contributions for 2015, and are able to do more, here is your next step: If your modified adjusted gross income is under $61,000 single ($98,000 married), then you can also contribute to a Traditional IRA and deduct your contribution.  If your spouse is covered by an employer plan but you are not, the income limit is $183,000. This opportunity is frequently missed by couples, especially when one spouse does not work outside the home.

And of course, if neither spouse is covered by an employer retirement plan, both can contribute to a deductible Traditional IRA, without any income restrictions.

 4) Roth IRA

If you make above the amounts in step 2, but under $116,000 single, or $183,000 joint, you are eligible to contribute to a Roth IRA.  If your income is above these amounts, you would not be eligible to directly contribute to a Roth IRA.  However, if either spouse does not have a Traditional IRA (including SEP or SIMPLE), he or she would be able to fund a “Back-Door Roth IRA”.  This is done by contributing to a non-deductible IRA and then immediately converting to a Roth.  Since there are no gains on the conversion, the event creates no tax.

 5) Self Employment 

If you have any 1099 income, are self-employed, or work as an independent contractor, you would also be able to contribute to a SEP IRA in addition to funding a 401(k).  You can contribute to both accounts, subject to a combined limit of $53,000, if you have both W-2 and 1099 Income.

One option I’ve not seen discussed often is that someone who is self-employed could also fund a SEP and convert it to a Roth.  If you don’t have any other Traditional IRAs, this could, in theory, be used to fund a Roth with up to $53,000 a year. The conversion would be a taxable event, but it would be cancelled out by the deduction for the SEP contribution.

There are quite a few variations and details in terms of eligibility for each family.  Want to make sure you’re taking advantage of every opportunity you can?  Give me a call to schedule your free planning meeting.

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How Some Investors Saved 50% More

Posted On November 18, 2014 By Admin In Financial Planning /  

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While some people view risk as synonymous with opportunity, the majority of us don’t enjoy the roller coaster ride of investing.  Our natural proclivity for risk-avoidance can, unfortunately, become a deterrent in deciding how much we save. Without having specific goals, investors often default to a relatively low contribution rate to retirement accounts and other investment vehicles.  They commit only how much they feel comfortable investing, rather than looking at how much they actually need to be saving in order to fund their retirement or other financial goals.

In the November issue of the Journal of Financial Planning, Professors Michael Finke and Terrence Martin published a study of 7616 people born between 1957 and 1965, looking at whether working with a financial planner produced improved outcomes for accumulated retirement wealth.  Here are their conclusions:

Results indicate consistent evidence that a retirement planning strategy and the use of a financial planner can have a sizeable impact on retirement savings.  Those who had calculated  retirement needs and used a financial planner… generated more than 50% greater savings than those who estimated retirement needs on their own without a planner. 

When I read the executive summary of their article, I wondered if perhaps the results reflected that higher income people were simply more likely to use a financial planner.  However, the authors took this into consideration.  They controlled for differences in household characteristics such as income, education, and home ownership… Even after controlling for socioeconomic status, households that used a financial planner and calculated retirement needs had significantly higher retirement wealth accumulation across all quantiles relative to households with no plan. 

Interestingly, the authors noted that this result of 50% higher wealth was not due to investment performance.  When they looked at individuals who used a financial advisor who was not doing a comprehensive plan (such as a stock broker), they noted that using a planner without estimating retirement needs had little impact on accumulation compared to having no retirement strategy at all.  

And that’s why we put planning first at Good Life Wealth Management.  Goals dictate actions.  Only when we have a clear picture of what you want to accomplish will we will know if you are on track or behind schedule.  We’re more willing to save when we are working towards a finish line, as opposed to worrying about what the market is going to do next.  If you’re looking for a comprehensive advisor to bring clarity to your goals and to carry out your game plan, I hope you’ll give me a call.

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Catching Up for Retirement

Posted On July 28, 2014 By Admin In Retirement Planning /  

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A common rule of thumb is to save 10% of your income each year for retirement. If you started in your 20’s and invested for 30-40 years, this may well be adequate. But if you currently aren’t saving at this level, 10% can seem like a daunting amount. And if you got a late start or had some financial set-backs along the way, you may need to save even more.

What can a late starter do to get caught up on their retirement goals? Here are 5 ideas to help you take positive steps forward.

1) Save half your raise. When you get a raise, before you receive your next paycheck, increase your 401(k) contribution by 50% of the raise. You’ll still see an increase in your paycheck, but have a better chance of keeping the money which is automatically withheld, rather than taking the cash and hoping to have some left over to invest at the end of the year. This strategy works well for careers which have predictable, steady raises.

2) Downsize. If your kids are out of the house, you may not be needing all the space in your current home. By downsizing to a smaller home, you may be able to free up some home equity and invest those proceeds into investments with a potentially higher return. Additionally, a smaller home will have much lower expenses, including utilities, insurance, and property taxes.

If you really want to make a big impact on your finances, you have to look at the big expenses. For someone in their 50’s or 60’s, cutting out a daily latte just isn’t going to make enough of a difference. Many people have an emotional attachment to their home, which is completely understandable. However, if downsizing makes sense for you, you should try to make that change as soon as possible. Your home is one of your largest expenses and you want to make sure that it isn’t holding you back from achieving other important goals.

3) Spousal IRAs. Most people are aware of the catch-up provisions available after age 50 in their 401(k) or 403(b) plans at work, but many couples aren’t aware of their eligibility to fund an IRA for a spouse who doesn’t work or who doesn’t have a retirement plan. For 2014, the IRA contribution limits are $5,500 or $6,500 if over age 50. Here are the rules for some common scenarios:

– If neither spouse is covered by an employer plan at work, then both can contribute to a Traditional IRA and deduct the contribution, with no income restrictions. Both can contribute to an IRA, even if only one spouse works.
– If only one spouse is covered by an employer retirement plan, then the other spouse can contribute to a deductible Traditional IRA, if their joint MAGI is below $181,000 (2014).
– My personal favorite: if either spouse does not have any IRAs, that spouse can contribute to a Back-Door Roth IRA. There are no income restrictions to this strategy.

4) Social Security for divorcees. A common reason why individuals are behind in their retirement saving is divorce. If you were married for at least 10 years, you are eligible for a Social Security benefit based on your ex-spouse’s earnings. Many divorcees are not aware of this because spousal benefits are never listed on your Social Security statement.

The spousal benefit does not impact your ex-spouse in any way and they will not know you are receiving a spousal benefit. You do not have to wait for (or even know if) your ex-spouse has started to receive their benefits. We’ve often found that someone who was out of the workforce to raise a family or had a limited earnings history will have a very small Social Security benefit based on their own earnings and isn’t aware they are eligible for a benefit from a high-earning ex-spouse.

Details: you must be at least 62, unmarried, and the spousal benefit will only apply if greater than your own benefit. To apply, you will need your ex-spouse’s name, date of birth, social security number, beginning/ending dates of marriage, and place of marriage.
See: http://www.ssa.gov/retire2/divspouse.htm

5) Don’t get aggressive. For many investors, the temptation is to try to eke out extra return from their investment portfolio to make up for the fact that they are behind. They take a very aggressive approach or try to day trade. This is very risky and the results can be devastating. Invest appropriately for your risk tolerance, objectives, and time horizon, but stay diversified and don’t gamble your nest egg.

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Who’s Going to Pay for Your Retirement, Freelancer?

Posted On June 26, 2014 By Admin In Retirement Planning /  

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A regular employee has a steady paycheck which makes planning and budgeting easy.  For a freelancer, your income may fluctuate greatly from month to month and be very difficult to predict from year to year.  You may not know what work you will be doing six months from now and that’s likely to be a more immediate concern than retirement which could be 20 or 30 years away. 

It’s often impractical for a freelancer to save up a large lump sum investment each year.  What does work for freelancers is to “pay yourself first” by setting up a monthly automatic investment program into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA).  This forces you to budget for retirement savings just as you would do for any other bill, such as your car payment or rent. It is easier to plan for smaller monthly contributions and this creates the same regular investment plan as an employee who is participating in a 401(k).

The maximum annual contribution for an IRA in 2014 is $5,500, which works out to $458 per month.  If you aren’t able to contribute the maximum, that’s okay, there are mutual funds that will let you invest with as little as $100 a month.  The most important thing is to get started and not put it off for another year.  You can always increase your contributions in the future as you are able.  If you are over the age of 50, you can contribute an additional $1,000 a year into an IRA, a total of $6,500 a year, or $541 per month. 

If you can use a tax deduction, open a Traditional IRA.  If you don’t need the tax deduction, and meet the income limitations, select a Roth IRA.  Additionally, there is another reason the Roth IRA is very popular with freelancers.  Many freelancers worry about hitting a slow patch in their business and needing to tap into their savings.  A nice benefit of the Roth IRA – which may help you sleep well at night – is that you can access your principal without tax or penalty at any time.  So if you do have an emergency in the future, you would be able to withdraw funds from your Roth IRA.  (Principal is the amount you contributed; if you withdraw your earnings (the gains), the earnings portion would be subject to income tax and a 10% penalty if you are under age 59 1/2.)  

If you are able to contribute more than $5,500 (or $6,500 if over age 50), the SEP-IRA is your best choice.  You could contribute as much as $52,000 into a SEP this year, if your net income is over $260,000.  The contribution for a SEP is roughly 20% of your net profit each year, so it works great for freelancers who want to save as much as possible.  Why not just recommend a SEP for all freelancers?  The challenge with a SEP is that it is impossible to know the exact dollar amount you can contribute until you actually prepare your tax return each year.  That’s why most SEP contributions are not made until March or April of the following year.  For freelancers who are getting started with saving for retirement, your best bet is to first maximize your contributions to a Traditional or Roth IRA through automatic monthly deposits.  Then if you want to make an additional investment, you can also fund a SEP at tax time.  A lot of investors assume that you cannot do a SEP if you do a Roth or Traditional IRA, but that is not the case, you can do both. 

Being a freelancer can be very rewarding and fulfilling, but it does carry some additional financial responsibilities.  You don’t have an employer to pay half of your social security taxes or to provide any retirement or insurance benefits.  Unlike traditional employees, however, many freelancers don’t go from working full-time one day to completely retired the next day.  What I often see is that many freelancers choose to keep working but reduce their schedule and select only the projects which really interest them.  In this manner, they are never fully retired, but still stay active and have multiple sources of income.  Regardless of your plans or intentions for retirement, my job is to help you become financially independent, so you work because you want to and not because you have to.

 

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