Savvy US individuals purchased over $17 Billion in 2013. What do they Know, that you don't?

Savvy individuals and investors purchased $17 B of one type of product this year. That represents almost 7% increase over last year. The investors did it to control risk, earn a decent rate of return and in many cases to guarantee lifetime income or at least guarantee income for a fixed period of time. How does that sound to you?  How about Zero market risk! Is that important to you?

These products are offered by some of the strongest financial companies in the world. The companies I recommend did not lose money in 2001, 2008 or 2009. They did not require any government bailout!  They actually made money in 2008-9. They are well positioned to weather the next market downturn which we all know  will happen! We just can  not say when.

These products work with both qualified and non qualified money. They work in  ROTH and Traditional IRA accounts, SIMPLE Plans, SEP Plans or even within ROTH or Traditional 401K Plans that I run for my clients. They can be used in Trusts, can fund charitable contributions or work within estate plans.

PBS Television Ed Slott 2013 Retirement Rescue Show

Sat  March 2 2013, and Sat march 9th WOSU PBS television station in Ohio is broadcasting a great  financial show.  Unlike Suze Orman and  Dave Ramsey who have no professional training in Finance or Taxation or Retirement Planning. Ed Slott is a professional Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a retirement expert. His Special is  running on Public Television which does not accept commercial advertising. He  does not sell  Financial products, Stocks, Bonds or Mutual Funds, Insurance or Annuity products. Because the show  airs on Public TV there are no advertisers like TD Ameritrade or other Securities Brokerage firms  as show sponsors, or advertisers and potential content influencers.  Just look at the  advertisers or show sponsors for the  Suze Ormon or Dave Ramsey shows.

Don't get me wrong, I like Suze  and  Dave. They do give a lot of good advice.  However I know that some of their messages are biased, probably unintentionally,  by their  Lack of Accounting, Financial Training or their commercial sponsorship relationships. They believe that the only life insurance anyone ever needs is  term life insurance. They are flat out wrong! Although some clients may never need any other form of insurance many clients need a combination of both and some clients may be better  served by purchasing a cash value product

Ed Slott  has no comericial sponsorship bias and  does not sell  Securities, Bonds, Mutual Funds, Insurance or Annuities. Ed recognizes and speaks favorably about the unique advantages found only  with Fixed Annuity products and Universal Life Insurance. He Loves Tax Free retirement  strategies.  He says "Move your money from Forever Taxed to accounts that are  Never Taxed." ROTH IRA's are one way to  accomplish this goal. 401 K Plan rollovers are a useful tool where you can pay some tax now to avoid much higher taxes later.

I  agree  with  his  strategies  and  can  help implement them for clients looking  to protect some or even most of  their assets  from taxation now and into  the  future. Another quote I loved  was " The only thing better than guaranteed income for life is guaranteed Tax Free income for life." Contact me if you  want help with the strategies needed to accomplish either or both of these strategies.

Savings Needed For Retirement Rule Of Thumb

An article recently appeared in  the  Columbus Dispatch  and  the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel. The original article  was  written by Donna Gehrkee-White. The primary point of  the article  was  to  give savers a rule of  thumb to  help  determine how much money they need to  have saved prior to  retirement.  Whats nice  about  the approach is it doesnt assume  that everyone has  the  same  number. Of course everyones stlye of living and  retiring is differen, therefore their personal savinggs need is also going to  be  different. The  suggested  rule of  thumb is this.  You  should have 8 Years worth of income saved in order to plan on a comfortable retirement. In other  words if your last years income was 40,000  then 8 x 40,000  = $320,000 and if  your inccome was $150,000 then  you  should  have $1,200,000 in savings.  This  serves as a starting point. If a retiree has a large pension lifetime income stream  they may be able to  reduce the saving $ needed to  secure a safe  retirement. If  they dont they may  want  to  increase the amount they  save  before they retire. 

You  can  also work a  few extra  years to  increase  saving and  decrease  the  amount of  savings needed. Remember  this also increases their  Social Security income for life. We have  available a Social Security Calculator that  lets a client determine the optimum age to begin their Social Security Income benefit and if they are married helps to strategize how and when to begin taking SS income. This is just one of the services we offer to our retirement clients.  We also  help to increase their retirement income WITHOUT MARKET RISK.

Polaris Financial Services
614-264-3864

Are Your Retirement Savings Adequate?

Many people Today are very concerned that they have not saved enough money for their retirement. Unfortunately most of them are right! They have not yet saved enough for a comfortable retirement. A lucky minority have already saved enough for retirement. We can still help this group by protecting their assets from market risk or market loss.

If you have not saved enough for your retirement that means one of two things will happen. Both alternatives are very bad. First, you can run out of money while you are still alive. Many people fear this even more than death! Second you will have to significantly cut back on you cost of living which will make retirement a very unpleasant experience, at best. This group REALLY needs professional help. There are financial products that help accomplish two critical goals. They protect you from all market risk. They can guarantee you an income stream that you can not outlive. Sounds nice doesn't it!

To find out which category you fall in we have found a very nice Retirement Calculator. By the way its FREE! Its on the MSN Money website and I am giving you the link. Check it out!

http://money.msn.com/retirement/retirement-calculator.aspx?GT1=33013

After you have checked it out if you would like some help protecting you assets or increasing your saving for retirement let us know if we can help.

Pick a Retirement Plan

Money Magazine in the Octber issuehad a short article by Mina Kimes. She talks about the diferent options for small business retirement plans. She ranked them from the simplest and least expensive to the most complicasted and most expensive plans. Her ranking starting from the simplest first. 1 SEP-IRA Simplified Employee Pension, 2 SIMPLE IRA Saving Incentive Match Plan, 3 Solo 401K Plan, 4 Traditional 401K Plan, 5 Defined benefit Plan. She also left of two more versions The ROTH Solo 401 K Plan option and the ROTH 401K Plan for multi-employee companies. All seven of these options have their own individual advantages for a business owner. For example the largest ammount you can set aside is with a defined benefit plan and the least expeensive plan to set up is the SEP-IRA.They also have their own downsides. SIMPLE plans are the most limited in the amount you can shelter, and the 401 K Plans, and defined Benefit plans are the most expensive to run administratively.

Polaris Financial has Saving vehicles that work with each of these plan options and has plan administrators set up to do the federal paperwork for your business. We also offer very cost effectiive administration of your plans. In addition we work with you to determine which plan is the best for your particular situation.

How can we help you?

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com

401 K Cartoon

Stahler is a great cartoonist who draws on life events for the Columbus Dispatch. This one appeard on July 29th 2008. Like the Doonsbury cartoon strip and the Dilbert cartoon strip they all draw on the corporate quirks, and political mismanagement in wonderful satire. I keep particularly pointed cartoons to remember painful or very funny life lessons. This is a painful life lesson! Painful lessons repeat themselves until you learn from them and CHANGE something. Id like to share this one.

First lets set the stage. Scene one Cinderella was riding to the
ball with her glass slippers beautiful retirement ball gown, riding in a golden horse drawn carraige. You all get the picture. It was not that long ago.
Now to the present!
The retirement is a mess the clothes are in tatters, Cinderella is dizzy and has lost her shoes . The golden carriage has turned into a very small pumpkin called 401K. If that is your Cinderella story we should talk!!

Business and individual plan help is available. Growth without risk is a possible option. How can we help you???

www.columbusfinancialplanningpros.com